Bloom with Barb Scala Podcast: “Smarter Food”
Aired 7/15/10

Barb’s “Bloomin’ in the Kitchen” features Terry in a discussion of how we can make better choices in the foods we eat without forgoing the yum factor! Highlights include White Bean Salad with Roasted Tomatoes and Arugula from CLEAN FOOD along with the debut of a recipe from Terry’s new book CLEAN START… Blueberry Tart!

HUSK, New American Tacos is opening in the Center of Collinsville, Connecticut, this coming Monday, August 23rd, and you’ll not want to miss out. Collinsville is already a popular destination, and there’s no doubt that Husk will bring great vibes and delicious food to Main Street.

Jordan’s menu is full of fresh ingredients (he doesn’t even have a freezer!), with an emphasis on locally grown produce and sustainable practices like recycled plates made from palm. There’s something for everyone and everything is priced for this economy.

Husk will offer counter service, take out, a few tables for those who prefer to sit and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere, and hours that will allow you to fill all your taco needs – from dinner for the family to late night munchies!

It doesn’t take much to get me excited about good clean food, and Jordan’s passion for simple, authentic, delicious food was enough to sell me instantly. I’m thinking that Husk is about to become a regular haunt for me! After all, his kitchen is CLEAN green!

Grab your keys and come on down for a taco sensation on Monday, 8/23. I’ll see you there!

Almost tripped over this image on the front stoop on my way out the front door!

Eat Clean, Live Well!

While you saw much love and held many special occasions and memories, you will not be missed…at all.

Don’t worry…this is not the end of Terry’s Kitchen cooking classes and events. Rather, this is the end of Terry’s actual kitchen. In the short term, the only demos coordinated from my kitchen will be demolition! In effort to pay my due respects, this post is dedicated to my former kitchen. Great thanks to all who have filled it with their wonderful energy.

Twelve years of birthdays and holidays…

Lots of hard work…

(I think this is when we lost the finish on the flooring)

…homework, fashion shows, successes, failures, cooking classes, meals, celebrations, hugs, kisses and much, much love. The days of the smoke alarm going off when we pan-sear are over (there was no hood or ventilation!), as are the casseroles that burned on one side and were raw on the other.

The day of reckoning has arrived and, while I owe much thanks to my original kitchen with its electric range and the faux-brick linoleum floors, I admit that I am just the slightest bit sad to see it go. Could someone please pass the sledge-hammer?

Eat Clean Live Well!

One of the six greenhouses that makes this farm so incredible (that's a fig tree in the background)!

This spring, I added a new activity to my list of farm work – Dinner at the Farm. What a great evening we had touring the farm, learning its history from farmer Mike, preparing recipes featuring freshly picked produce from the farm, and sharing a meal and evening together.

The table set for our delicious clean food dinner.

Freshly picked spring greens with edible chrysanthemums and garlic scape vinaigrette.

From left to right: Meaghan, Mike, Lisa and Heather (not pictured: Marcus and Terry)

Special thanks to Mike and Urban Oaks Organic Farm for nourishing us, the land and the community with your organic fresh produce.

Eat Clean Live Well!

A recent trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, opened my eyes to two organizations working hard to make an difference and improve our health and the health of the environment – one guest and one student at a time. I participated in the 18th Annual Vancouver Wellness Show – a three day event featuring all the resources needed to help you find balance in your life. From exercise and meditation to therapeutic touch and, of course, a CLEAN FOOD cooking demo and tasting. Founder and organizer Coco Jeangrand has done a great job making local resources and education accessible, and making change and good health even more desirable and exciting.

Here I am with Kate Gajdosik and Keri Adams (from CTV) – my hosts on the celebrity stage. The show was packed all weekend long – everyone looking to improve their lives one healthy choice at a time. If you live in the Vancouver area, be sure to put the 2011 Wellness Show on your calendar!

While the Wellness Show is what brought me to Vancouver, it was not the only highlight from my trip. During my time there, I was fortunate to learn about the incredible local effort being made by the Terra Nova Schoolyard Society. This amazing organization was created by a local chef who, starting with one garden and thirty students, set out to teach children about all aspects of creating healthy communities – from planting and harvesting, to cooking and nutrition. Today, the Terra Nova Schoolyard Society serves more than 500 children and multiple schools in the greater Vancouver area. Thank you Terra Nova for introducing me to your inspiring story, your important work, and your wonderful guiding equation. Thank you to Sterling Publishing, for generously donating the proceeds from the sale of CLEAN FOOD at the expo to support this amazing group. And thank you Arlene Kroeker for your gracious and inspiring article about me, CLEAN FOOD and Terra Nova in the Richmond Review.

Kids + gardens + healthy food = healthier communities

Eat Clean Live Well!

It was non-stop on our second day with constant set-checks from one side of the studio to the other, two recipes at a time, and many decisions about angles, props, colors, texture…. The results brought tears to my eyes, but you’ll have to wait to see for yourself! In the meantime, I’d like to introduce you to just a handful of the people who are making this week so incredible and unforgettable.

Our photographers – Andrea Gentl and Marty Hyers. Andrea is pictured here contemplating a shot with food stylist Heidi Johannsen Stewart and with Marty below. These are the masters whose talent and vision are capturing the very essence of clean food – simple, easy and delicious. Their calm, warmth and creativity have set the tone for this entire week, and it is truly a pleasure and an honor to work with them all. Wow.

Along with Heidi, there are more cooks in the kitchen – Molly and Emma – and together they are juggling recipe after recipe with just two tables, a small electric range, a small sink and two jam-packed refrigerators. I swear, somewhere in this picture is a square foot of workspace! They make it look so easy, and there are multiple recipes and platings in the make in this picture!

There’s Meredith who is a wiz on the computer, captures everything in perfect focus, and jumps back and forth from shot to shot, from close-up to multiple pages of spreads and more.

There’s Helen Crowther who has furnished us with endless tables of pottery and props, linens and surfaces to make each picture perfect. Kacy and Rob, Alpha and even Will who stopped by and saved the day when the computer needed his magic touch.

And the creative team behind both CLEAN FOOD and CLEAN START – my dear friends and partners, Andrew Brown and Kurt MacKenzie of MacKenzie Brown Design. I couldn’t ask for a better design team or friends. Thank you Andy and Kurt for making the process as enjoyable and rewarding as the outcome.

The day also saw a host of visitors including friends and family (from both my personal and publishing family). And of course, a delectable lunch at Otto where Mario Batali stopped by to say hello and in an uncharacteristic moment I became speechless and unable to ask for a picture. Darn!

That’s all for now. Lots of photography yet to shoot, so back to the cameras…

Smile pretty!

Eat Clean Live Well!

Welcome to Pure Space – our home for the next four days. Pure. simple, naturally lit and clean!

Within minutes, it’s transformed with cameras…

computers…

props…

and of course, the food…

For the results, you’ll just have to wait and see!

Off to check out the French Lentils with Roasted Roots with Caramelized Onions and Thyme!

More later…

Eat Clean Live Well!

First, there are the endless copies of paper.

These are constantly getting mixed up, split up, torn up, and sometimes even lit up! I try to do most of my work on the computer, but with little counter space available and lots of counter space needed, I quickly learned that the small counter next to the stove and vent for the oven wasn’t the best place for my laptop. And, as long as we’re talking about the stove, I assure you that this is another thing Ina and I do not have in common. To be honest, I don’t recall what exactly she was cooking on, but I know it wasn’t this:

As for the relaxed sharing of a meal with friends and family, the family meals have been few and far between these last few weeks, but the fun is never-ending. There have been swim meets, gymnastics meets, birthdays, school vacation,  a visit to play lacrosse with the girls at school that left me nearly unable to move the next day, and of course, there was our sleepover guest – Stella – the three week old goat.

See? It’s really all quite normal here!  With three more recipes left to test for my next cookbook, the one thing I believe I do have in common with Ina is that I have been barefoot in my kitchen for weeks! That is why they call her that, isn’t it? (You mean that wasn’t Ina playing opposite Humphrey Bogart?)

As CLEAN FOOD grew organically out of years developing recipes for my cooking classes, it represents recipes from much of my life that were compiled over the years, came together with design thanks to my dear friends Andy and Kurt, and were first self-published as a way of thanking and giving back to the people who had filled my life and my kitchen with their inspiring energy and quests for healthy food and a vibrant life.

This next cookbook (due out this fall!) has come together quite differently! The recipes were written in the dead of winter when fresh produce was scarce and only faint memories were around to inspire. Now the recipes are being “tested” – a term I use lightly since they are more ideas than recipes and require working, reworking and reworking some more. Layout has begun, and photography will soon follow (see, your requests were heard!). So definitely stay tuned for the continuing saga of “The Making of a Cookbook.” I promise, the fun has just begun, and the punch-line is delicious!

EAT CLEAN LIVE WELL!

Terry and Andrew having a moment, captured for eternity by Paul Elledge!

For all of you who follow Terry, who enjoy her recipes and make eating clean a part of your lives, and have become loyal and enthusiastic fans, all I can say is… you couldn’t have a more passionate and dedicated supporter.

So, as Terry signs off to all of YOU, join me as I turn the tables on HER and say:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TERRY! May YOU always EAT CLEAN LIVE WELL!

Andrew

(Now back to your regularly scheduled program… or as soon as Terry is finished testing those spring and summer recipes for her new book!)

FRESH ARTICHOKES ARE A TREAT, but also a lot of work. Canned artichoke hearts, available in most grocery stores, allow you to enjoy the delicious taste of artichokes anytime without the fuss. I like to serve this dip with rice crackers or Pita Chips (page 261).

CLEAN FOOD | Spring | Page 43