FIXIN’ TO COOK
During winter 2022 we collaborated with the Montavilla Farmers Market and in 2021 with Portland Farmers Market, to participate in the City of Portland Fix-It Fair to bring free, live video demonstrations into your home kitchens. From February through April we hosted these monthly Q&A sessions demonstrating recipes and sharing information about the Double Up Food Bucks program, which provides a SNAP match at the farmers markets. (See video below.)
Fixin’ to Cook with Winter Vegetables is a cooking demonstration series highlighting winter vegetables root to leaf. Each demonstration includes recipes, techniques, and resources to make it easier to get more locally grown produce on the table.
Special thanks to Cookshop for the use of their beautiful kitchen for filming the video demos!
April 7, 2022 - Fixin’ to Cook early SPRING GREENS
Let us count the ways we love early spring greens arriving in our farmers markets in April!
The Pacific Northwest’s long, cool, and wet spring favors green leafy crops like cress, sorrel, nettles, rabes, purslane, kale, arugula, and many more. They catch your eye in the market, but how do you get them to your table? We’ve enlisted Natasha Dison & Nathan Preston of Canby Farm and Kitchen, and Nikki Guerrero of Hot Mama Salsa, to inspire you for many springs to come. You’ll learn about choosing and prepping greens and how to utilize them in a variety of ways. Getting these nutritional powerhouses into more of what you eat will pay off with immune boosting vitamins, bone-strengthening minerals, and lots of antioxidants and fiber. It’s easy being green when you’re in the kitchen with us!
Nikki Guerrero grew up in Arizona, making salsa and tortillas with her grandmother. Hot Mama Salsa began in 1999 out of a craving for the flavors of home when she moved from the dry desert to the rich soils of the Pacific Northwest. Out of a small production kitchen in North Portland, Hot Mama Salsa hand produces fresh salsas, hot sauces, and chili oils using traditional ethnic cooking methods and fresh local ingredients that she grows in partnership with Oregon farmers. You can find her products at area farmers markets and local grocers.
Natasha Dison and Nathan Preston are owners and operators of Canby Farm and Kitchen, under the guidance of Sheldon Marcuvitz and Carole Laity, who recently gave them the opportunity to take over their 11 acre produce farm and graciously offer their knowledge as mentors and consultants. They grow well over 100 varieties of specialty and heirloom produce: each plant is planted and harvested by hand at its peak freshness and ripeness only days before being sold. They believe that the quality and flavor of a vegetable grown during its proper season is unbeatable and we agree! You can find them at the Montavilla Farmers Market and sign up for their CSA.
February 24, 2022 - Fixin’ to Cook Soup
First up for 2022 is Elsy Dinvil, proprietor and creator of Creole Me Up, which specializes in producing organic, allergen-free, and overall healthy Haitian food products, cooking classes, and catering. Dinvil will show us how to make Soup Joumou or Freedom Soup, a dish so important in Haitian culture it was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
March 3, 2022 - Fixin’ to Cook Soup, part 2
Join us to learn two quick and delicious winter soup recipes, Slow Cooker Minestrone and Rustic Lentil, both featuring fresh seasonal veggies.
Cook First member Heather Morrill shares her recipe for a hearty and seasonally-versatile slow cooker soup that can serve as a full meal. Minestrone, which means “Big Soup” in Italian, is a classic hearty and wholesome dish with the added goodness of beans. It's a kitchen staple that doesn't have many rules, is great for using up what you've got on hand, and easily adapts to the season, just like Portlanders! If you don’t have a slow cooker a saucepan with a lid on a low burner, or in the oven will work just as well.
Montavilla Farmers Market assistant manager, Alli Neri, shares her family's Rustic Lentil Soup recipe. Incorporating a variety of winter vegetables and seasonings. This adaptable recipe also has a secret, umami-imparting ingredient that Neri will share with you in her demonstration. Lentils are a legume grown in semi-arid regions of the S.W.A.N.A. for centuries; they outperform all other legumes in dry and cold climates, making it suitable for growing in eastern Oregon, Washington, and the Idaho panhandle. Lentils are high in protein, low in fat, and are packed with folate, iron, phosphorous, potassium and fiber, making them an affordable and healthy substitute for meat.
March 10, 2022 - Fixin’ to Cook Sauces
Join us Thursday, March 10th, for a flavor-packed class all about SAUCES!
Easy to assemble, sauces are a great quick-cooking skill to possess when you want to jazz up your routine. Many sauces also provide a nutritional boost with healthy fats, herbs, and spices, like the ones we’ll be sharing with you.
Nico Vera is in his Portland kitchen showing us how to prepare two sauces from the Indigenous Quechua people of Peru's Andes Mountains. Vera adapted these traditional recipes to be vegan and sourced from local ingredients easily found in our farmers markets and grocery stores. While many sauces are based in animal fats and flour (the roux) his are great for a crowd as they adapt to so many dietary considerations. Vera’s sauces are bursting with freshness—and history—which he will share with us in this presentation.
Nikki Guerrero of Hot Mama Salsa is in the Cookshop kitchen preparing a versatile sauce that’s an easy riff on Caesar-style dressing. It’s rich and creamy without dairy and you’ll want to drizzle it on just about everything, including salad, seafood, and chicken.
These sauces elevate roast vegetables, and Heather Morrill is going to show you how to make a simple sheet pan roast with cabbage plus a variety of root vegetables that are all in the market right now. This episode is all about ease, flavor, and trying new things while making a super-nutritious dish the centerpiece of your meal.
2021
March 2, 2021 - Fixin’ to cook Cabbage
Liz Crain celebrates cabbage and takes us through the steps, in her North Portland kitchen, for one of her favorite and easiest ferments: sauerkraut! All you need is a head of cabbage, some salt, a knife and a jar to make 1-quart of kraut at home. Easy peasy! The countertop fermentation time will most likely be between 1-2 weeks.
Liz is a local food writer and cookbook author, her latest cookbook is Dumplings Equal Love: Delicious Recipes from Around the World. She's also co-founder and co-organizer of the annual Portland Fermentation Festival and maker of all sorts of home ferments including miso, soy sauce, fruit wines, vinegars and more. You can learn more about Liz and her food and drink adventures by visiting lizcrain.com, following her on Instagram and Twitter and checking out some of her other DIY food/drink videos on YouTube.
March 2, 2021 - Fixin’ to cook Hazelnuts
We’re going nuts! Join us to explore how to use Oregon hazelnuts all day long, from breakfast to dessert we’ve got you covered with granola, a hearty winter salad and sublime rye + hazelnut sablé cookies. Special thanks to baker Katie Gourley for dropping so much knowledge on us! Get all the recipes here.
feb 23, 2021 - FIxin’ to cook beets + apples
And the beets played on (and on)! Join us to exlpore how to make quick pickled beets and apples (thanks Hawnuh Lee from Closed Loop Cooking for the recipe ), and learn how to braise beet greens in under five minutes. Get the recipes here.
Feb 9, 2021 - Fixin’ to cook mushrooms
Roasted, sauteed, and starring in a one-pot meal made in the rice cooker! Join us to explore mushroom farming with Riley from Mindful Mushrooms, and learn how to prepare mushrooms three delicious and quick ways. Special thanks to Mandy King, chef-owner of Money Bowl PDX, for sharing her one-pot rice cooker meal with us! Get all the recipes here.
Jan 26, 2021 – Fixin’ to Cook Winter Squash
Roasted half moons, stuffed & roasted, and microwaved! Join us to explore delicata & winter squash prepared three delicious and quick ways. Get the recipes here.
Jan 12, 2021 – Fixin’ to Cook Brussels Sprouts
Sautéed, roasted, and in a salad, oh my! Join us to explore Brussels Sprouts prepared three delicious and quick ways. Get the recipes here.