Whenever someone pipes up asking what’s for lunch, this salad invariably is the first mention. Unfortunately, everyone else in the neighborhood apparently has the same instinct. As a result, the lines at the cafe can get absurdly long. To make matters worse, as we discovered one lunchtime, they don’t allow individuals to order more than four things at a time. We’ve had to send backup.

Competition for the salad was too strong, but we couldn’t live without it, so we decided to take an evolutionary approach: We adapted. Or, rather, we adapted their salad. And now we get to enjoy it in just a few minutes, rather than standing in line for more than half an hour (not joking), and for pennies on the dollar. It’s become a fixture in the Foodzie kitchen.

Foodzie’s Favorite Kale Salad
Massaging the greens helps to tenderize the kale, which otherwise can be a little tough; it also allows the dressing to penetrate into the greens.

2 bunches of dino (lacinato) kale
1 small head radicchio
1/2 c. shaved manchego
3 – 1/4″ slices of pancetta, cut into 1/4″ cubes
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp of olive oil
1 Tbsp Balsamic Glaze (see below)
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse, dry and slice kale and radicchio into approximately 1″ squares. Fry the pancetta until crispy; remove from heat and remove pancetta cubes to a paper towel to cool. Add pancetta and rendered fat to greens. Add cheese, olive oil, balsamic, and lemon. Massage for two minutes, using your hands to gently crush the greens. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Balsamic Glaze
We have a bottle of balsamic glaze in the Foodzie kitchen. (Actually, we have a bottle of EVERYTHING in the Foodzie kitchen.) But you can easily make this with inexpensive, store-bought balsamic vinegar. Just pour some balsamic in a small saucepan, put over medium heat, bring to a simmer and reduce to about half. Allow to cool, and use to flavor salad dressings, or drizzle over roasted meats, hard cheeses or even macerated strawberries.

How it Works with Choice:

1. At the beginning of each month, we’ll give subscribers like you a selection of Foodzie-curated options to choose from: The Signature Tasting Box, plus other special selections.

2. If you’re happy receiving the Signature Tasting Box, do nothing and enjoy; if you like one of our special selections, you’ll receive an email to make your pick and you’ll need to do so before the 6th.

3. Tasting Boxes ship by the 9th and arrive shortly thereafter. Dig in and enjoy!

4. Order more of what you liked.  The way our new limited selection marketplace will work is you’ll see the current month’s Tasting Box items for 30 days. Then after the 30 days, we’ll carry the best-selling items from past Tasting Boxes ongoing in our marketplace.

Here are some additional perks for our subscribers:

• First Access: Between the 1st and 5th, we reveal the new boxes for you to select from. The Signature Tasting Box plus other special selections. The special selections are more limited in quantity, so they might sell out during the selection process and never make it to the site for non-Tasting Club Members to purchase.
• Free Ground Shipping (on everything): As a Tasting Club member, your Tasting Box always comes with Free Ground Shipping and so do the Tasting Box items you want to replenish, plus anything else in the marketplace.

More Tasting Boxes for Everyone
You probably noticed that for the first time we allowed you the chance to purchase one-off Tasting Boxes. Many of you had requested this to give one as a gift or to hit the repeat button on the box you received that month. We listened; thanks for speaking up.

What’s in The Box
The biggest change from the old price point is that products are generally larger or, if a box has smaller-sized items, you’ll typically find more things to taste in that box. You’ll always get $29.95 (or more) in retail value of product plus Free Shipping. On the Tasting Box selection page, we’ll note the number of items you get in that box, so you’ll know exactly what you can look forward to.

So, depending on the month’s theme and the number and size of the products, this might mean they still fit in a smaller box – as was the case in December.  We apologize for the confusion based on November’s box.

The Way it Works with the Foodmakers We Feature
Some subscription businesses rely on free samples to make their models work and some of you have asked if this is how our model works. We pay a fair price for the things we include in our tasting experiences. This allows us to do two very important things.

• Ensure You Get the Best: Purchasing the products gives us editorial control to always make sure we get the products that are the best.
• Meaningful Business for our Producers: It supports our mission in helping small artisan foodmakers grow their businesses. For the small businesses we work with, the Tasting Box purchases we make are incredibly impactful to their business, and that’s even before you come back and buy more of your favorites. One of the foodmakers featured in the Stocking Stuffers Box, p.o.p. candy, told us participating in the Tasting Box was nearly their entire holiday season in one order. That’s pretty awesome.

If you have any other questions about the way it works, feel free to hit up our rockin’ support team at support@foodzie.com.

PS – We are real people! And we’ve been on this journey building Foodzie since 2008, get a glimpse into our passion for this business and how we got here.

Created in 1966 by Ron Karenga, Kwanzaa was conceived as a way to bring Black Americans together in a spirit of solidarity anchored by seven defining principles: Umoja, which honors unity; Kujichagulia, self determination to create for ourselves; and Ujima, the principle of collective work and responsibility. Then there is Ujamaa, meaning cooperative economics and supporting local business, and Kuumba, that calls upon the people to leave the community always in better shape than they found it.

Photo credit by soulchristmas, on Flickr

The coming together of family and community at this time serves to deepen the sense of Nia, the principle of developing a sense of purpose and allows for celebrations that involve music, dance, food and spirit, leaving room for Imani, the principle of faith that together we can make the world a better place.

Celebrated from December 26th through January 1st, Kwanzaa has its roots in the first fruits celebrations, in which African societies celebrated the first harvests of the season. It is a special time for Black Americans to celebrate their ancestors and honor their origins, as well as to gather together and be thankful for the many blessings of the year. Surprisingly, despite the fact that it started out as a strictly American holiday, today people can also be found celebrating Kwanzaa in Canada, the Caribbean, and South America.

The colors of the holiday — black, green and red — date back only to 1920, when they were designated the colors of the African race by the Universal Negro Improvement Association, taken from the colors of various African flags. The colors are used to adorn the home for the holiday using tablecloths, woven mats & baskets and Kwanzaa art, which some groups choose to make by hand. The colors may also be worn in decorative clothes such as traditional African dashiki and vibrant head wraps.

Foods that are often featured at Kwanzaa celebrations are sweet potatoes, collard greens, black eyed peas, sesame seeds and peanuts. Though the original idea was to celebrate with traditional African dishes, when Kwanzaa became mainstream the celebrants began making foods that were a more familiar part of their daily culture. The best part of this shift is that no matter what foods you long for at the holiday, you can easily adapt them to combine the time-honored flavors of the holiday with your own inspired touch whether it be black eyed peas in your posole or some curried goat with rice and peas.

In creating my own recipe to celebrate I decided on lentils, a play on South African stews. For some warming holiday goodness, this spicy lentil dish will go with any of the more traditional foods or leaves you room to start your own! You’ll need:

Spiced Lentils
1-½ c. black lentils
1-½ c. green lentils
1 tsp salt
1 tsp grated ginger
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small red bell pepper, cleaned and chopped
Fresh marjoram

Place lentils, 3 cups of water and 1 tsp of salt into a medium saucepan and cook about 30 minutes. While this is cooking, sauté onions, adding garlic and red bell pepper at the end so they still have a bit of crunch. Drain some of the water from the lentils, add the ginger, marjoram, and sautéed vegetables. Serve immediately.

Photo credit by timsackton, on Flickr

File this one squarely under the “looking forward” portion of the program. Greens are a metaphor for paper money — even in countries whose bills aren’t green like ours — so eating them is meant to bring prosperity in the new year.

In Germany, sauerkraut is the order of the day. This is a tradition we can definitely get behind. Heck, hardly a day passes that we don’t crack into a new jar of kraut here at the Foodzie kitchen, so New Years Day it will be just par for the course.

The Danes make grønlangkall, a dish of stewed kale in a cream sauce that they sweeten specially with sugar and cinnamon on New Years Day, and in Croatia and Slovakia, ground meat is wrapped in cabbage leaves. But here in the U.S., the most common tradition stems from the South, where collard greens are the order of the day. They’re usually stewed down with ham hocks (à la doyenne of Southern food herself, Paula Deen) until soupy if not swampy. We, on the other hand, like them to have a little tooth still, so we prefer to have them lightly sauteed with garlic and lemon.

The origins of this tradition are lost to the sands of time, but a few things seem consistent. Keeping with Catholic tradition of abstaining from meat and dairy on holy days, it’s an entirely seafood-driven meal, and generally cooked with olive oil (as opposed to butter, which is not widely used in the south). And while there are variations that call for cooking up to as many as 13 fishes, at a minimum you’re meant to cook seven discrete fish dishes.

In our family, a few things were ever present: Baccalà, reconstituted salt cod baked with tomatoes and capers; a huge bowl of cooked shrimp; and and even huger bowl of spaghetti aglio e olio con alici — spaghetti with olive oil, garlic and anchovies. Others include fried calamari, clams oregonato, marinated eel — basically it’s fair game if so long as it comes from the sea.

Photo credit by Kelly Sue, on Flickr

In these modern times, though, we’re not above taking a shortcut. Cioppino, the San Franciscan seafood stew, can kill several birds, er, fish, with one dish. In fact, it classically contains crab, squid, scallops, clams, mussels, shrimp and whitefish — that’s seven, if you’re counting. This fishmonger’s stew is another good catch-all option.

If, however, you’re interested in undertaking the full fishy feast, let us offer up some ideas from the pros:

• Mario Batali serves up dishes straight from the Amalfi Coast.
• La Cucina Italiana celebrates the Feast of the Seven Fishes with dishes from seven chefs.
• Saveur’s got a menu straight outta Brooklyn.
• The Huffington Post has over 20 recipes to choose from.
• With a name like Italian Food Forever, you can be sure they’ve got ideas.

Using this recipe from The Kitchn, we set about covering our matzo with a brittle layer of caramel and rich, dark chocolate (we used Olive & Sinclair baking chocolate, featured in our December Cooking Box). Then, we threw on some freshly chopped roasted almonds and just a dash of smoked sea salt. That did the trick.

As we were making this, we threw up a teaser photo on Facebook and Twitter, and one fan gave us some interesting insights into its history. Although she found no reference to it prior to the early ’90s, in Marcy Goldman’s A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking, surfacing it as a kosher adaptation to a classic treat made with either graham crackers or saltines.

Matzo, of course, is most commonly consumed at Passover, but we figured that there was no time of year that a treat like this wouldn’t be welcome.

Needless to say, this had a negative effect on the commerce of the neighborhood. On the corner was a grim little restaurant called Real Good Karma that served cheerless bowls of brown rice and tofu. At the opposite end of the block was a produce market where fruit lay molding on the shelves. In between stood another storefront, a corner market called Bi-Rite, which we’d hit up for the occasional can or box, but otherwise its offerings were meager.

So it was until 1997, when Sam and Raph Mogannam, the nephews of Bi-Rite’s owners, took the place over. By this time the dot-com boom had brought young money into the Mission, and the neighborhood was ripe for gentrification. Sam shuttered the market for a remodel, and when the paper came off the windows, the neighbors came out in droves. At last, a real market! Look, gourmet cheeses! Ohmigod, a deli case! Hey, fruit that isn’t rotting!

Before long, we were spending a sizable portion of our take-home pay at this new food shrine, routinely making dinner from ready-made salads and entrees from their case, or cobbling together fancy cheeses and charcuterie to go along with some of their (very reasonably priced) wines. And in the early days, one of the things we bought most often was a pear skillet cake made by Sam’s mom, a spice cake with pears and a sticky caramel edge. It was pure crack, and regularly stood in as both dessert and breakfast.

Photo credit: France Ruffenach ©2011

Bi-Rite Market has since become the anchor tenant of one of the foodiest blocks in the city. Real Good Karma blossomed into Dolores Park Cafe. The sad produce market is a newly opened Japanese izakaya restaurant; across the street is famed Tartine Bakery and the much-beloved Delfina Restaurant and Delfina Pizzeria, which helped pioneer the Neapolitan pizza movement in San Francisco. Bi-Rite itself has expanded to include Bi-Rite Creamery, where they make their own super rich ice cream, and 18 Reasons, a non-profit that explores the intersection of food, art and culture. All this on one short block.

Now, Sam and co-author Dabney Gough have written a book, “Bi-Rite Market’s Eat Good Food.” In it, he outlines his and the market’s story, but the thrust of this book is Sam breaking down all manner of products and produce, from almonds to zucchini, and tells you what to look for when buying it, and how to use it. Peaches, for example, may have a brown spot that is commonly mistaken for a bruise, but is actually an area of concentrated sugar — the sweetest spot on the fruit. It’s my kind of food geekery.

Of course there are recipes, and the second we got our hands on the book, we flipped right to the index to look for one in particular. Sure enough, there was Mom’s Pear Skillet Cake. They say it serves eight, but that’s only if the other seven pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

Even before some of us had had breakfast, Kaye dove right in and made up a batch of oatmeal, cranberry and chocolate chip cookies. Dried cranberries made for a nice alternative to the usual raisins, adding a tart note. She used Willows Cranberries, which we featured in our November Tasting Box.

Next up, Christina broke out the Justin’s Peanut Butter and Chocolate Hazelnut Butter, which we included in our August Tasting Box, and used the recipe we included with it:

I made my cookies last night, a batch of pizzelle, the traditional Italian cookies that look like rose windows, using this recipe. Unfortunately, fragile as they are, I had a few break on the way to the office:

But even broken pizzelle are better than no pizzelle.

It was an incredible operation. From their attention to composting to creating their own charcoal (from lamb bones and corn cobs), it was obvious sustainability is core to the way they run the farm and the restaurant, which although separate entities are intertwined. During the summer months, 30% of the ingredients on the menu come straight farm onto the plate. Well, after chef Dan Barber works his magic on them.

Blue Hill co-owner Laureen Barber, David’s wife, thoughtfully curated the dishes, vases, candles and cutting boards used in the restaurant, working directly with talented artisans. I wasn’t the only one who found them charming. So many customers expressed interest in these items they used in the restaurant, they’re now offering them for sale under the name Blue Hill Farm. I’m really excited to share these items in their Weekend Market.

I’m doubly excited to be able to offer you a bonus: Purchase any item from this Weekend Market, and you’ll receive a free gift, exclusively on Foodzie. Make a purchase or share the Weekend Market with friends and you’ll also be entered to win a dinner for two with wine pairings at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, plus a VIP tour of the farm – a $900 value. I’m sure you’ll find it as life-changing as Rob and I did.

Image credit: Joanna Goddard

First, and most important: Stay out of the supermarket. Take the time and effort to find a quality cheesemonger and have them help you. These people know more about cheese than you’ll ever learn in a lifetime, so tap that brain trust. Ask questions. Taste samples. Buy judiciously.

Depending on how many people you’re intending to serve, you should buy between one and two ounces of each cheese. Variety is the spice of life, so plan to have no fewer than three cheeses; five is better.

Speaking of variety, make sure your selection offers a diverse set of experiences. Certainly choose one good, rich, creamy cow’s-milk cheese like a camembert or brie. A fresh chèvre offers another creamy option but with a slightly more pungent kick from goat’s milk. Don’t forget a nice, sharp cheddar — emphasis on the sharp. Aged sheep’s milk Manchego takes the plate in a different direction, with a granular texture and a salty crunch. And be sure to have at least one blue cheese; we favor gorgonzola dolce for its mild funk and underlying sweetness.

Don’t get crazy with the crackers. You want the cheese to be the star here. Simple, plain water crackers or slices of baguette will do.

As with life, it’s all about the accessories. Place complementary and contrasting tastes on the plate to keep it from turning into a big, cheesy wash. Consider slices of crisp, tart apple, some roasted almonds, vinegary pickled cornichons and a small ramekin of honey. And if you bought that Manchego, be sure to grab a slab of membrillo, a paste made from quince. It’s the classic sidekick, and a match made in heaven.

Lastly, assemble your plate beautifully, and well enough ahead that your cheeses are not stone cold when it’s time to tuck in. Like wine, cheese needs time to open up and reveal its gorgeous perfume. The French say that a good cheese smells like the feet of angels. Embrace the funk.