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Gifts for Cooks (And non-Cooks!)

11/27/2016

Thanksgiving is over, which means that it's officially gift-giving season! Since the way to my heart is through my stomach, I’ve compiled a list of my top holiday gifts to give to cooks and non-cooks alike. Happy gifting!

Gifts for Cooks:

A nice wooden cutting board. I love John Boos brand.
Y-Peelers, specifically Kuhn Rikon brand. Every professional knows this is the best peeler, and since they do wear out from time to time, it’s great to receive new ones!
An immersion blender. I find this tool indispensable for making healthy soups and sauces. While many folks won’t like to spend the extra money on themselves for a tool that can technically be replaced by your blender, it truly is a life-saver when you need one. Less mess and clean-up than a blender - can’t beat that!
Quality cooking utensils. High-quality silicone utensils (spatulas, spoons) make life so much easier and won’t leach chemicals into your food or destroy your pans. The same is true for wooden utensils. The good ones can cost a little extra, which is why they make an excellent gift.
Mesh strainers. Just like peelers, these simply wear out over time, and it’s great to have a few back-ups. I love having an assortment of sizes available for various tasks.
Enameled cast iron cookware. Beautiful and functional! Le Creuset is the top of the line brand, but Martha Stewart makes some beautiful cookware and bakeware, also. These pieces come in various shapes/sizes/colors, and for someone who loves cooking and entertaining, they make a beautiful gift. (I feel like I could never have enough!)
A digital meat thermometer. There are simple thermometers for $10 or less that do the job, but I love the accuracy and ease of my digital probe thermometer. Many home cooks won’t splurge on this for themselves, which is why it makes a great gift!
For the bread baker in your life: A digital scale, bread proofer, quality baguette pans, or proofing baskets would make the perfect gift!
For the person who has every gadget: KitchenAid stand mixer attachments offer a variety of fun new ways to play with food - my favorite is the pasta roller attachment! (Just make sure the person you’re giving it to has a KitchenAid stand mixer!!)

For the Non-Cook:

Wildflower Chef Gift Certificate - treat them to home-cooked meals, prepared to their tastes and specifications. Buy here. (We serve Chester County, including Malvern, West Chester, Downingtown, and more!)
A gift certificate to their favorite restaurant or a place they’ve been meaning to try.
A homespun gift certificate from you! If you’re an excellent cook yourself, offer to make a few nights’ worth of meals for someone. They will seriously appreciate your generosity.
Foodie subscriptions. Some of the more interesting ones I’ve heard of include Cocoa Runners, Carnivore Club, and Farm to People.
For the non-cook who would like to learn to cook: Wildflower Chef Gift Certificate for one-on-one or group cooking lessons. Email Chef Emily for pricing and to purchase. (emily@thewildflowerchef.com)

For Kids:

A colorful cookbook (meant for children, or not) - along with the promise that you’ll help them prepare whatever they like from the book.
A culinary field trip. How about an educational and yummy trip to a local produce farm, dairy, or factory?
“My size” cookware. Why are things so much more fun when they’re small? I don’t know, but you can purchase small mixing bowls, spatulas, pans, and everything else so that your mini-me can cook alongside you with ease.
Cookie cutters in fun shapes and sizes. Use them to cut out cookie dough - but also vegetables, bread, etc.
Wildflower Chef Gift Certificate for a children’s cooking class, perfect for siblings! Contact Chef Emily to order.

What was the best cooking or food-related gift you ever received? Let me know in the comments!

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Gratitude Through Food

11/20/2016

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Thanksgiving is here, and like everyone else, I think it’s important to pause and reflect upon all the things that I’m grateful for. After my family, health, and safety, the biggest thing I am grateful for is, of course, good food!

This got me thinking: In what ways can we show gratitude through food?

Prepare a meal for someone you love.
Purchase organic food. Voting with your dollars matters: if you want to show gratitude for this beautiful earth that we are fortunate to inhabit, then spend your dollars on food that comes from responsible farmers and producers, and will promote the health of our planet and all creatures on it.
Quietly enjoy a meal alone, undistracted. Enjoy the flavors and textures and appreciate the sensations and emotions that food can evoke.
Don’t make food the enemy: For many who are dieting, it’s easy to have an unhealthy relationship with food. It is a great privilege to not worry where your next meal is coming from - food is not your adversary.
Donate to an organization that is fighting hunger in your community. Be grateful that hunger is not a challenge you face daily.
Honor food as (preventative) medicine. Appreciate how miraculous our bodies are at keeping us healthy and fit, if only we give them the fuel they need.
Try something new. Enjoy this abundant time period and geographic area that we live in: We can waltz into a grocery store and find foods from all over the world. So many people don’t have this luxury, even today. Revel in it! Try something new and get creative.
Honor a family member, past or present, by preparing one of their recipes. Reflect on this person and what they meant to you. Pass along the recipe to continue the tradition.
Learn about your culture or another culture through its food: Find a great cookbook and try recipes that are new to you. Reflect on the people who enjoyed these meals over the centuries, and their rich lives and stories.
Take a cue from other cultures and truly respect animal products, if and when you consume them. Recognize that meat is not just a product at the store, but was once a living being. Honoring and respecting this doesn't make you overly sensitive - it makes you human!

What are the ways that you show gratitude through food? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am also beyond grateful to work with people who value food and who bring integrity and good work ethic to our kitchen every day: a big shout out to John Adams and Ruby Telthorster, who make The Wildflower Chef possible.

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The Women Who Inspire Me

11/11/2016

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This year, Americans nearly saw their first female president take office. In light of that huge accomplishment, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the female chefs who have inspired me over the years. When I worked as a line cook in restaurants, I experienced just how male-dominated this industry can be. Yet, it is the women in the food business who have truly touched me through their approach to food, and who have inspired me with their creative and varied career paths with their culinary education.

Here are some of the women who inspire me:

Amy Chaplin
Amy Chaplin is the former executive chef of New York’s renowned vegan restaurant Angelica Kitchen, a recipe developer, teacher, and private chef. It was just this year that I discovered her amazing cookbook “At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen”, which has now become like a bible to me. Amy focuses on vegan and vegetarian cuisine, with a huge focus on local and organic produce. She encourages people to cook their own meals at home, and to understand the quality and nutrition of the ingredients they use. Amy’s book is a testament to how nourishing and delicious simple, real food can be, and her mentality about food embodies everything I hope to share with my clients in my own business.

Nigella Lawson
Nigella Lawson has been one of my longest-standing culinary role models for the past decade. (Rivaled only by Rachael Ray, who didn’t make it on this list but who was my first guide into the world of cooking!) Nigella, as you probably know, is a world-famous cooking show host and cookbook author. You might wonder why this particular woman, who adores goose fat and heavy cream, might be one of my role models… I’ll tell you. It all started with her book “How to Eat”. This book reads like a novel. In it, Nigella guides the reader through each recipe as if she is having a casual conversation with them. She refers to desserts as “celestial” and instructs one to add a “nut of butter” at the end of cooking a sauce. She speaks of sauces that are “toffee-ish” and vegetables that are “sharp-edged-tasting”. It’s like she creates her own language in her enthusiasm to spin a dramatic tale of food and merriment: I don’t know if anyone has ever loved food as much as Nigella does! This book both transfixes me and makes me laugh out loud at her unconventional phrasing - it is such a delight. My favorite recipe from this book is her clementine cake, in which you boil down whole clementines, peel and all, and then blend them into a rich and decadent cake. I just love it… and her! She reminds me to step back and truly appreciate the colors, textures, and flavors of food, and to be passionate about sharing my gift with the world: food is an expression of love.

Laura Wright
Laura Wright is a professionally trained chef who publishes one of the most simultaneously beautiful and intimidating blogs I have ever had the pleasure of reading: The First Mess. Not only is her photography outrageously stunning, but her recipes never fail to challenge me and make me think about food differently. Just when I start to think I’ve got all the cool tricks up my sleeve, she comes up with something like “vegan butternut queso”. (I still haven’t tried this one yet… it’s on my list!) Her deep respect and appreciation for food resonates with me, and her devotion to wholesome, healthy, plant-based foods is a great inspiration for us all.

There are countless others that I could list. Cheers to the female chefs across the world making a difference every day through food!

Who are the women that inspire you? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

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a healthy approach to thanksgiving

11/4/2016

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November marks the start of my favorite season: the season of food! We’re just about 3 weeks away from Thanksgiving, which means that home cooks across America are gathering up recipes for turkey, potatoes, green beans, and more.

In the coming weeks, we’ll see countless articles pop up describing how we can stay fit and healthy during this holiday season. My single piece of advice? Eat real food. All the early-morning workouts and glasses of water won’t cure a belly filled with non-foods like preservatives, stabilizers, and flavorings found in most store-bought pre-made foods. Read your labels, or better yet, don't buy food with labels at all - buy whole fresh ingredients.

Can you indulge in your mom’s famous homemade cookies? Sure, enjoy a few. Store-bought cookies that someone brought into the office? Skip. Classic mashed potatoes, prepared with organic potatoes and organic grass-fed cream? Go for it. Mystery-ingredient casserole that contains canned soup and something that once resembled an onion? Pass.

At The Wildflower Chef, we’re not about depriving ourselves, especially not on a holiday centered around food. Just make the best ingredient choices that you can, no excuses. Your body knows how to handle real food and a few indulgent meals won’t tip the scale for you.

If you’re making classic apple pie, use organic flour, butter, and sugar - for bonus points, try and use only locally grown apples. If you’re preparing turkey, buy it from a responsible source such as Kimberton Whole Foods or Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative. If you don’t have time to prepare every part of your meal, outsource some of the work to us! We’re offering ready-to-eat sides to compliment your Thanksgiving meal. As always, it is our promise to deliver wholesome food, made from scratch with organic ingredients. (We can accommodate special dietary needs, like gluten-free, dairy-free, and low-sodium, too!) Email Chef Emily to preorder.

Here are a few healthy recipes to get you into the Thanksgiving spirit that are quick enough to prepare on a busy weeknight:

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Rosemary
Serves 6

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

Salt and pepper, to taste
3 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in 1-inch cubes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix the olive oil, honey, rosemary, salt, and black pepper with the sweet potato in a large bowl. Transfer potatoes in a single layer onto the prepared baking sheet.
Bake until tender, about 45-60 minutes.

Whipped Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
Follow your favorite mashed potato recipe, but replace half of the potatoes with cauliflower to lighten up this dish. (You may need to adjust the amount of liquid in the recipe to account for the added moisture from the cauliflower.) Try serving these with the Vegan Mushroom Gravy, below.

Vegan Mushroom Gravy:
Recipe from Whole Foods Market

2 1/4 cup low-sodium vegetable broth, divided
1 cup chopped white onion
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, such as porcini, cremini or shiitake, trimmed and chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh thyme
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 cup Merlot or other spicy red wine
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium tamari
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add onion and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until translucent. Add 1/4 cup of the broth to the pan to prevent onion from burning. Add mushrooms and cook for 10 to 12 minutes or until they release their liquid and become tender. Stir in garlic, rosemary and thyme and continue to cook for 1 minute until fragrant. Add wine and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in remaining 2 cups broth and bring to a simmer.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together tamari, yeast and cornstarch to form a thick paste. Add mixture to the skillet, whisking constantly to make sure paste dissolves. Bring mixture to a boil and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add pepper and serve gravy hot.

How do you stay healthy during the season of food? We'd love to hear from you in the comments below.

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Gifts for Cooks (And non-Cooks!)

Gratitude Through Food

The Women Who Inspire Me

a healthy approach to thanksgiving

Chef Scott

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