Anyone who grew up when processed food was all the rage has most certainly eaten a casserole. They vary from lasagna to macaroni & cheese to tuna casserole, with the main ingredients ranging from some form of carbohydrate plus a meat or dairy component, and some vegetables thrown in. From the French word for saucepan, it’s basically a meal in a pot or pan.

For some, casseroles are comfort food. For others, it’s a reminder of the harried lifestyle they lived, running from school to sports events to theater practice. To me, moms and casseroles go hand-in-hand. So this year for Mother’s Day, I’m featuring one from My Mother’s Recipe Box: Rice and Cheese Casserole.

Warning: This video is graphic. It’s about a halal slaughterhouse in Queens, New York, that sources many of its chickens from small farms and is run by a guy who believes in the humane treatment of the animals he buys for food. And many people in the neighborhood prefer to come here and pay a premium for natural, free-range, organic, or pastured chickens rather than paying cheap prices at the grocery store down the street because of the way the chickens are slaughtered and processed.

“A good kitchen respects its sources and chooses ingredients that are sound, seasonal, and local whenever possible.” That’s why the menu at Potager Restaurant in Denver, Colorado, changes monthly, adapting to the seasons.

Run by Teri Rippeto and her father, Tom, who believe the best tasting food is organically grown, and harvested in ways that are ecologically sound by people who take care of the land, the restaurant’s ingredients are sourced from a network of like-minded suppliers they know personally and trust. I love it when restaurants list their sources on the menu!

In April, Bill and I enjoyed a dinner at Potager with family members and were not disappointed.

Because so many dishes on the menu looked enticing, I ordered several appetizers to appease my curiosity: White Bean and Spring Greens Soup, Oxford Farm Kale Salad, and Home-made Beef and Pork Sausage. (Ordering a variety of small plates seems to be a trend for me lately! I did the same thing at Five Bistro in St. Louis.)

Bill ordered the Triple M Bar Ranch Grass-fed Red Wine and Thyme-Braised Lamb Shanks. Like many high-quality locavore restaurants, they were able to accommodate his wheat allergy by substituting the accompanying couscous with roasted potatoes.

I tried a bite of niece Kristin’s pizza. It was wood-fired and covered in arugula– and so flavorful from the goat cheese. Delish!

At Potager, they believe the meal is “the center of human existence.” And the table is where “we are nourished, put in touch with the source of life, and reconnected to traditions.” It’s simple cooking and simple eating, honoring the season and honoring the people that grow, raise, and harvest the food.

Check it out next time you’re in Denver!

When you head into Dodge City, Kansas, on Route 50 from the east, one of the first things you come to is the overlook. It’s not a scenic overlook, unless the view–and the smell–of a cattle feedlot and processing is appealing to you. I bet it’s scenic to the people who appreciate “the smell of money.” That’s the phrase used by many ranchers and managers of confined animal factory operations (CAFO). Beef processing is a lucrative business. Luckily, on our visit to Dodge City, Bill and I were up wind of the smell at the overlook.

I think Dodge City is proud of its heritage in cattle production. Excel Corporation, one of the world’s largest beef-processing facilities is adjacent to the feedlot and processes about 6,000 head of cattle a day, six days a week. Nearby National Beef, a processing plant cited in a 2011 product recall for E. coli contamination, processes 4,000 head daily. One of the signs at the overlook says, “Combined, annually these two plants annually market enough beef to feed 16 million people for one year. Kansas ranks first in the United States commercial cattle production, processing over 8 million head annually. ” That’s amazing. But it makes me ask, what’s wrong with our country that we have to eat so much beef?

I wanted to see the feedlots first-hand. So on a recent trip to the Plains, Bill and I photographed several, beginning in Dodge City and heading west to Colorado. To me, CAFOs are the smell of inhumanity. Not just the inhumane treatment of cows lying around in their excrement, but also the conditions employees endure in the processing plants.

Here’s a video I took of just one feedlot in southwest Kansas. It’s 1 1/2 minutes long taken from our car going 30 m.p.h. Notice the drainage areas, which can have negative effects on the environment.

And here are more photos from southwest Kansas.

Wouldn’t you rather have beef from a happy cow, like these from Grassfields, raised on grass in open space?

When Bill and I travel, food is a primary focus. So when we planned a road trip to the Plains with a stop in St. Louis, we looked for a farm-to-table restaurant for our dinner. And we hit the gold mine at Five Bistro, where “Chef Devoti and his staff are committed to providing a memorable dining experience that evokes all five of your senses.”

One of my favorite attributes about locavore restaurants is when they cite the sources (i.e., farms) for their food. Another is when they align their menu offering with the season. That’s why the menu changes daily.

After an amuse bouche of arancini (fried risotto ball), we began with the house-made charcuterie, which was excellent and included sausages, rabbit confit, cured meats, pates, pickles, a smoked chicken egg (!), shitake mushrooms, mustard, and cherry jam. It’s flavorful and filling.

That’s why I opted for a soup and salad approach for dinner. There were so many great things to choose from but I didn’t want to over-eat. So I got the potato soup-puree and farm salad with local field greens and lamb pastrami.

Bill got the half chicken (with stinging nettles….yum!).

And for dessert? What could be happier than cheesecake made with goat cheese and topped with a strawberry compote?

Our meal really did appeal to all five senses. We had a wonderful seat at the front window of the restaurant, which is located in The Hill district of St. Louis. The food tasted and smelled delicious, and it felt wonderful in our mouths. The background music provided an ambience without being disruptive.

And, I’d like to add a special thanks to our server, who we appreciated for her knowledge about the menu, the restaurant’s philosophy, and food issues in general. It’s always a great experience when the staff is as involved in the food experience as the chef. Five Bistro is a must-do for locavores in St. Louis.

I skipped a couple of The Perennial Plate episodes (number 79 and 80) in my plan to cover their Real Food Road Trip from Season Two since Daniel Klein and Mirra were on a bit of a hiatus. So here’s Episode 81, which covers two of my favorite topics: growing food and New York City. And, one of my favorite places on the East Coast: Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.

It’s a Farming State of Mind.

Last year, in response to a local hunger challenge, I did a series of blog posts on How to Eat Healthy on $5 a Day. My goal was to demonstrate that $5 a day (close to the allotment provided by the SNAP food stamp program) can go a long way towards healthy food (as opposed to cheap processed food). And that even takes into account Bill’s food allergies and our preference for happy food (local, organic, sustainable, humane). The experiment lasted five days.

I’m one of more than a hundred bloggers donating today’s post to raise awareness about hunger. It’s all in support of an initiative called Food Bloggers Against Hunger, which was created in response to the new documentary A Place at the Table. It’s also in partnership with Share Our Strength‘s efforts in Washington to protect SNAP funding and make anti-hunger legislation a priority.

When the government subsidizes products like soy beans, wheat, and corn instead of fresh produce, the most affordable food is often the unhealthiest. One thing I learned by Day 5 of my experiment last year was that legumes are cheap. And, of course they’re healthy!

So today I’m sharing some of my favorite cheap and easy recipes that could easily take the place of processed and fast food to help keep Americans fed and healthy.

Split-Pea Soup in a Crockpot

Cuban Black Beans and Brown Rice

Nutty Rice Porridge

Use leftover brown rice to make this next recipe for breakfast. Buy apples from the farmers’ market when in season.

Kale Chips

Kale is fairly ubiquitous and seems to be available much of the year. Kale chips are a great alternative to potato chips. Much healthier, and easy to make!

Red Lentil Soup

I recently watched A Place at the Table. And one thing I learned is that hunger in America cannot be eliminated by creating bigger food banks. The only way to stop hunger is by changing policies, so it’s important we make our voices heard. If you’re inspired by the trailer for A Place at the Table, go see it. (You can also watch it on demand through iTunes and Amazon.)

If you’re moved to action, please consider sending a letter to Congress to support anti-hunger legislation.

Let’s obliterate hunger in America!

It’s hard to believe the number of people who go hungry in this country every day. It’s around 50 million. And about 17 million of those people are children. But I think our image of hungry people is distorted. I know mine has been. Hunger to me has always meant malnourished. Skin and bones. Living skeletons. These are examples of extreme hunger that has gone too far. But hunger in America often means the opposite: people who are overweight because the food they’re eating is crap. They don’t get the nutrients they need. And it’s often the root cause for a number of diseases, such as heart failure and diabetes. The cost of hunger and food insecurity to the U.S. economy is $167 billion per year.

It’s not just about the day-to-day hunger due to lack of food, but also the continual stress and wasted energy spent on figuring out how to make ends meet. How frustrating it must be for people who are driven to work but then make too much to qualify for food stamps. Food is the most basic of all human needs. It should be a right.

I recently watched the new documentary, “A Place at the Table” where I learned many of these facts. Like I’ve seen in movies such as “Food, Inc.” and “King Corn,” or read in Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, part of the problem stems from the monoculture we’ve created. Our government actually encourages farmers to grow certain crops such as wheat, soy, and corn, which are then funneled into the food industry in the form of processed food. This so-called food is cheap and accessible to people who live in food deserts—places where it’s difficult to get fresh, healthy food.

Why should a state like Mississippi suffer from food deserts when its climate is prime for farming most of the year? Mississippi is known for its rank as the most obese state, largely due to its poverty rate and lack of access to healthy food.

According to the documentary, one out of two children will require food assistance during their lifetime. And this affects their development–physically, emotionally, and socially. As Harry Truman once said, a country is only as strong as its youth. For the first time ever, this generation of children is poised to live sicker and die younger than its parents’ generation.

Jeff Bridges, founder of Share Our Strength, says, “Charity is a great thing but it’s not the way to end hunger. We don’t fund our Defense Department through charity.” Why not spend the money on fixing hunger, which can do so much more for people’s health in the long run?

The issue isn’t about lack of food. It’s about poverty: offering people a living wage so they can afford food. We need to address this issue in our government. What can be more important than feeding our fellow citizens?