Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat We All Eat – Why Not Eat Well?

I bought this wonderful, cheesy, overpriced toy at Seattle’s legendary Archie McPhee.  I’ve decided to make it my blog’s mascot. I’m rooting for broccoli (easy for me – I’ve always thought corn dogs were pretty  gross), but it’s still early in the race. And the race is complicated. Corndogs may not be hard for me to pass up but I’ve got a long list of my own favorites that are far from sustainable; mostly things that travel thousands of miles to reach my doorstep.

I don’t expect, or plan to give up every type of food that isn’t grown in the Northwest. But I think it would show real progress if there comes a day when I recognize these items for luxuries they really are.

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What’s different about the chicken cobbler I made last night? It’s definitely, and deliberately a dish where the meat is a flavoring, not a main ingredient. Really, it is a vegetable cobbler, with sunchokes, onions, carrots and potatoes. It’s a creation made from leftovers – it started out as a traditional roast chicken with vegetables; all of the ingredients came from the Ballard farmers market last week.

But I have to confess, it was flavored with a store-bought peanut sauce (can you say, high fructose corn syrup) and a prepared chili sauce which contained a lot of preservatives. I’ve got a long way to go.

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