The Cookies of New England

http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2014/10/share-your-cookie-tips-and-tricks/

It may be after the holidays, but baking season is still in full force as I look out my icy winter windows. Now that so many of us have relaxed on our New Years resolutions a teensy bit, let's talk baking. There is almost nothing better than standing by a warm oven on a cold January Day, and doing so in a cloud of sweet-smells wafting from anticipated warm cookies, to boot! 

Taken from a recent Bobs Red Mill blog, here are some incredible New England cookie recipes, by the state. Though my family's goal has been getting to all six New England states this year, I think I may just have to add trying a cookie from each!

Connecticut: Nutmeg Log Cookies

Maine: Lemon Blueberry Cream Cookies

Massachusetts: Boston Cream Pie Cookies

New Hampshire: Molasses Cookies

Rhode Island: Cranberry-Walnut Stuffed Shortbread

New-York-the-Adopted-New-England-State: Apple-Pie-Stuffed Snickerdoodles

Vermont: Maple Frosted Sugar Cookies

Not-So-Local-Local African Chicken Salad

If you've never tasted Zimbabwe, here is your chance.

Wait, what?

"Isn't this a blog about New England?!" you say.

Definitely. I love to take a recipe from a distant time or place and bring back a little nostalgia with one bite.  Food is truly a way to immediately relive a certain magical something we remember, in this case something far from the Northeastern mountains and shore sitting outside my window. Though the recipe I'd like to share today is from my honorary homeland of Africa, it can be made using entirely local New England products.  As the farmers markets of our region pop up in town greens all over the Northeast, fresh green things continue to be on the menu!

Try it right away.  For me, it's like biting into my Zimbabwean garden all over again. Mm mmm...

New-England-African Chicken Salad

1 chicken, deboned / or 2-3 cups of cooked and cubed chicken
3/4 cup dried apricots or other dried fruit, preferably diced (a great opportunity to use local, Massachusetts-grown craisins!)
1/2 cup salted pistachios, no shells
1 bunch of cilantro, washed and coarsely chopped
2-3 tablespoons olive oil

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, salt and pepper to taste. Easy-peasy!

Saah-weet Sweetgreen

Fast food can be tricky.

Actually, no. I'm being too nice. 

Fast food can be disgusting. 

Sorry. I said it.  So often I have to ask where does the food come from? How removed is it from real ingredients? Should one bitty food really have over fifty ingredients? And two thousand calories?  And how is the chain sourcing enough food for the billions it's serving?

And yet, I absolutely do not judge anyone who eats fast food. In fact, I am jealous of people in my life who eat fast food.  After a little stomach ailment that left me unable to eat any processed food whatsoever for over three years, if there is one thing I know it is how LONG it can sometimes take to plan, shop for, cook, and clean up after a healthy meal at home.  My over-three-years of continuous cooking for myself, as so many people with digestive ailments, has left me exhausted and killing for a quick and easy option at the end of a long day.  Let me introduce you to a great one that is A) fast, B) healthily responsive about ingredients you cannot put in your body, and C) local, local, local!

Sweetgreen (found in a number of metropolitan areas, but specifically for this blog, in Back Bay, Chestnut Hill, Fort Point, Prudential Center, Lynnfield, Downtown Crossing, Fenway, and Harvard Square, all in the Boston area) has got the goods.

Can I just tell you?  I love to walk into a place and see a local farmer supported. Combining FAST food with truly whole, healthy -not McTwisted concepts of healthy- foods is what a quick restaurant pit-stop should be all about!  Getting a little Sweetgreen as we speak... Look at me; I'm eating fast food!

Circling In On Local Furniture

   

Shhh.  I will let you in on an awesome secret...

Think it's hard to resource locally made furniture?  It couldn't be easier.  I have the answer for you....

I used to think that locally resourced furniture from New England must mean wooden furniture only.  With so many hardwood forests in the Northeast, it was easy to believe that wood products could be resourced locally, but upholstered goods?  No way.

Thank goodness Circle Furniture has rebuked that notion.  At almost sixty years old, a reputation for local craftsman furniture has beckoned customers through the doors of Circle Furniture and kept them coming back for generations.  Notorious for its Harvard-student following --causing many a young adult to trek across Massachusetts for its stylish, custom, and lasting products-- this successful business has grown from one location to six.  Though I sometimes cringe at growing corporate entities, as it has grown Circle Furniture has maintained its service to the community, environment, and employees.  Though the company has expanded from selling furniture made by Massachusetts artisans to those also located throughout the Northeast, it truly adheres to the concepts of supporting a regional economy.

Circle Furniture believes a healthy home starts with a healthy environment. While offering customers products that come from forests managed according to strict environmental, social, and economic standards, the concepts of preservation and conservation are important to it. Circle Furniture offers upholstery with soy-based cushions and frames that are made from responsibly harvested hardwoods certified sustainable.  The fill for seat, back, and throw pillows is inserted into a 100% woven cotton ticking. Seat cushions are wrapped and back cushions and throw pillows are filled with post-consumer regenerated fibers, keeping drink bottles out of landfills! Their fabrics can also be ordered without flame-retardant chemicals, great for the chemically-sensitive and environmentally conscious.

Though I love all these details, my one complaint is that a number of the fabrics used by the company are not locally, or even nationally, made.  So if you use this company, take the time to choose your fabrics carefully and ask questions.  Though it is virtually impossible to locally resource any fabric other than wool in New England, it's still nice to give yourself a pat on the back for using cotton grown just a few states away!

I could go on all day about some of my favorite products (Cute lil' Roma slipper chair? Yes please!), but will instead just say that I love to use this company in a variety of ways in my local designs; their products come in a number of styles that appeal to a variety of client tastes. I invite you to check them out for yourself!  Explore the Website below for this quietly awesome New England secret that needs to be shouted from rooftops!

Eeek! Can't. Stop. My. Self...

Must. Post. More. Pretty. Pictures....

 I could just eat this coffee table...

   

Find them on the Web: http://www.circlefurniture.com/

Made in Massachusetts?!

Who knew a sneaker gem was so close to home?!  As my recent search for tennis shoes made me reflect on where exactly most shoes seem to come from, I found myself grasping at straws to come up with a locally-made option.  Then I found New Balance.

"Really?!  Made in Massachusetts?!"  Kudos go to New Balance, who surprised this shoe-skeptic!  With five domestic factories, two of which sit just miles from me in Massachusetts, it turns out that New Balance is the only major running-shoe company to produce a number of their products domestically.

Traditionally running shoes have been a labor-intensive product to create, requiring a number of assembly steps and a great deal of sewing.  For this reason, most of the large shoe-producing companies have their shoes made in foreign markets, where labor is cheaper. New Balance, though, has re-engineered many of their US-made shoes to require fewer labor inputs.  This is a notable achievement, accomplished for the sake of keeping their products more locally produced!

New Balance shoes only came onto my radar near the age of twenty, but the Boston-headquartered company has actually been in existence for over 100 years.  With a company value-list that includes three major tenets- moving the environment forward, social responsibility initiatives, and local community philanthropy- this is a company I feel good about supporting. Do your research and you will find a company taking care of its neighbors, donating over 6 million dollars per year to charities, and doing so with a concern for its local environment and employees. Please do check out New Balance's "Made in America" products ...made in our very own backyard!

http://www.newbalance.com/