Ham Sandwich Indicted!

Cleveland is home to a great many awesome things.  Lake Erie. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Great Lakes Brewery's Christmas Ale.  A bunch of fabulous restaurants (Greenhouse Tavern, anything by Michael Symon). The Flats. (Eh, maybe not so much that last one...it's not 1995.).  It's also the hometown of Michael Ruhlman, writer, chef, and general food-lover. Maybe you've heard of Ruhlman because you watch No Reservations with chef/global traveler Anthony Bourdain...they're friends, and Bourdain frequently mentions Ruhlman on his show. Maybe you've seen him as a judge on Iron Chef, or maybe you've actually read a couple of his books. Ruhlman started out writing non-fiction books on a variety of topics ( all-boys high schools , wooden boat building ) but began spending more of his time focusing on food after he did a stint at the Culinary Institute of America, then wrote about it in The Making of a Chef . Fourteen years and several more food-related books...

My friend Dan lives in the country about an hour north of Columbus, and a few of us had dinner there this past weekend. His home is a two-story brick, Federal-style house built around the turn of the century, with a huge backyard, a garden, and a large fire pit. It's a great place to go for a mini-vacation, and escape from the city for a weekend. As evidenced by the above picture above, it's also a great oportunity to run into some nature. We grilled up some locally raised, grass fed hamburgers, made roasted potatoes grown in his wife's garden, and feasted on assorted snacks made from recent forays to the farmer's market at the North Market. Among those snacks were stuffed zucchini blossoms, filled with goat cheese and herbs, then battered and fried. Eaten hot out of the pan, these tasty morsels ooze with warm, melty goat cheese, and carry the slightest floral essence (for lack of a better word) from the blossom itself. Also on the menu were my girlfriend Betsy's (D...

April 1st saw my 31st birthday (Happy Birthday to me!) and my first non-friend/co-worker cupcake order for a central Ohio CSA workshop at Wild Goose Creative . Jaime Moore from Wayward Seed Farms, as well as representatives from Toad Hill Organic Farm , Bridgman Farm , Elizabeth Telling Farm , and 2Silos sat down with local residents to talk about CSA's, what they do, how to get involved, and how important it is to support your local farmer. (In case you're not familiar, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture--basically, you pay a certain amount of money at the beginning of the growing season, and for that money you get fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, etc. on a weekly basis, depending on which type of CSA you sign up with.) With so many great local farms so close to Columbus, it's a great way to support small agriculture AND get super delicious fruits and veggies.* Anyway, thanks to Jaime at Wayward Seed, I had the opportunity to provide cupcakes for the event--S...