Vegan Demi-Glace

An unctuous, flavor-packed demi-glace that’s wheat free, gluten free, and vegetarian. Did we say vegetarian? We should probably mention that it’s in fact vegan—with no dairy at all. And yet, you won’t believe its rich, satisfying taste and texture. Oh, and hey, you can make this stuff in less than two hours!

Click below for recipe and instructional video..

Umami-Bomb Vegetarian Demi-Glace | Recipe

Lobster Mac and Cheese with Fresh Chives, Pimente d’Espelette

North Atlantic lobster meat, organic, whole wheat macaroni, aged Vermont white and cloth-bound cheddar, fresh cream, chives and pimente d’Espelette..

Lobster Mac and Cheese

1/2 pound organic, whole wheat macaroni
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup shell stock
blond roux as needed
1-1/2 tablespoons good sherry (not cooking sherry!)
1/2 pound aged white cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 pound extra-sharp Cheddar, grated
1/4 teaspoon freshly-grated nutmeg
1-1/2 tablespoons pimente d’Espelette
3 tablespoons fresh chives or slivered green onion tops
3/4 pound lobster meat, poached
1/2 cup organic panko
sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper

Prepare macaroni according to package instructions, but reduce cooking time by 2 minutes.  Drain pasta (don’t rinse) and set aside.

Lightly poach lobster meat until a little underdone in simmering water with a little fresh lemon juice,a tablespoon of butter and some fresh parsley.  Remove from heat, drain and transfer the lobster meat to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.  Set aside.

Add cream, stock, sherry and nutmeg together in a heavy saucepan. Heat just until tiny bubbles come to the surface, but do not let it boil.  Whisk in just enough roux so that the sauce coats and clings to the back of a wood spoon.  Remove from heat.

Fold in cheeses, chives, pasta, pimente d’Espelette and lobster. Adjust seasoning with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper.

Turn mixture out into a small skillet or individual gratin dishes. Sprinkle lightly with panko and place into a 375 degree oven until bubbly and cooked through, about 20-25 minutes.

Sprinkle lightly with additional chives/green onions and chopped parsley and serve immediately.

Unbroken Ground—Revolutions Start From the Bottom

Our food choices are deeply connected to climate change. Food will play a critical role in the next frontier of our efforts to solve the environmental crisis.

Unbroken Ground, a compelling new film by Chris Malloy that explores four areas of agriculture that aim to change our relationship to the land and oceans.

Alzheimer’s Disease is Type 3 Diabetes

Alzheimer’s Disease is Type 3 Diabetes (Source: Suzi Smith)

The major hallmarks of Alzheimer’s Disease—neurofibrillary tangles, amyloid plaques, and brain cell atrophy—can all be explained by insulin resistance. A staggering 80% of people with Alzheimer’s Disease have insulin resistance or full-blown type 2 diabetes. The connection between insulin resistance and Alzheimer’s Disease is now so firmly established that scientists have started referring to Alzheimer’s Disease as “Type 3 Diabetes.”

This does not mean that diabetes causes Alzheimer’s Disease—dementia can strike even if you don’t have diabetes. It’s more accurate to think of it this way: Insulin resistance of the body is type 2 diabetes; insulin resistance of the brain is type 3 diabetes. They are two separate diseases caused by the same underlying problem: insulin resistance.

Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease Is Easier Than You Think

Bad Eggs

Bad EggYou buy organic eggs for any number of reasons, probably related to not wanting to support factory farms that mistreat chickens, pollute the environment and produce eggs that are nutritionally inferior.

Unfortunately, not all organic eggs are created equal. You may be surprised to learn that most of the retail grocery chain store-brand “organic” eggs actually come from huge factory farm-type operations that routinely violate USDA National Organic Program (NOP) rules.

We’re talking about brands like Whole Foods 365 Organic; Trader Joe’s; Aldi’s Simply Nature; Sprouts Market; Wegmans; Target’s Simply Balanced—brands that stores claim as their “own” even though they don’t actually produce them

In our alert this week, we target some of the retail grocery “organic” private-label store brands that are produced for stores by one of the three worst industrial-scale “organic” producers (and violators of USDA organic standards) in the country: Cal-Maine Foods, Rose Acre Farms and Herbruck’s.

How do these companies get away with running fake “organic” egg operations?

In theory, USDA standards for organic eggs dictate that hens should have access to the outdoors. But as this 2015 report by the Cornucopia Institute explains, those standards are unclear and thus open to interpretation. The standards are also largely unenforced. According to the report (p. 39):

Not a single industrial-scale egg producer has come under investigation by the USDA for violating the standards; on the contrary, industrial-scale producers apparently felt shielded from legal action soon after the organic standards went into effect in 2002.

We would ask you to hound the Big Three fake organic egg producers—but we know they won’t care what you think, as long as stores like Kroger and Target and Safeway and others keep buying up the eggs and slapping their own labels on them.

The only way to make the organic egg industry honest is to get retailers, including the big retail grocery chains like Publix and Giant Eagle and Costco, to stop sourcing their eggs from industrial-scale producers like Cal-Maine Foods, Rose Acre Farms and Herbruck’s. And the only way to do that, is to stop buying the store brands until they switch.

TAKE ACTION: Tell These Retailers: Stop Selling ‘Organic’ Eggs that Actually Come from Factory Farms!

Read the Cornucopia Institute report on the egg industry

Good eggs and bad eggs—check out the Cornucopia organic egg scorecard