Artist's Cookbook: Summertime Salad Rolls by Adam Hill

Adam Hill is an independent folk roots artist from Vancouver who is releasing a new album this summer Two Hands, Tulips. In his own words (20 or less) Adam says Two Hands, Tulips is “newtimey folk music that combines elements of traditional roots with contemporary electronics and found sounds with surefire songwriting.”

While the album is best listened to as a whole, I found myself gravitating away from the rootsy tracks (such as “He Calls That Religion” or “Train That Carried”). My interest was the pop side of things. “These Vignettes” has an almost religious like quality to it. It includes a hymnal type chorus evoking religious imagery when it talks about “walking towards the cross” which the characters fail to arrive at. There is a pop laden pre-chorus and folky verses with lots of food and summer images. The track is subtle, it took a number of listens before I realized how good it was.

Even harder to get into at first was “French Films” which starts with sounds of a film strip running between metal canisters. The music begins and it immediately makes you think of the dark moment in a film when the bad guy hits the screen. This seems almost at odds with the words which are giving reference to different types of flowers. Eventually the two move towards each other as the music brightens and the lyrics darken. “French Films” is the story of missing someone so much
that you aren’t able to sleep or take pleasure in the simple things that you used to. It is when you can’t sleep, when owls are your only friends and French Films litter your television screen. It is where pop music and heartbreak share the same pulse.

Since Two Hands, Tulips is a summer release and the heat so far this summer has been record breaking, Adam decided to pair his album with a cold supper. He realizes the paradox in a white guy born in Ohio making salad rolls but he attributes that to the paradox that is also present in his music. Get the exact recipe, the first one Adam has actually written out in his entire life, here. To be especially paradoxical, serve it with a healthy amount of bourbon.

Four for the Fourth: Lime Chocolate Drizzled Sugar Cookies

My plan is to leave in just a few minutes for some nice, early morning hiking through Alafia State Park. My fuel of choice…sugar and citrus and chocolate. As in these Lime and Chocolate Swirled Sugar Cookies. These may not be the breakfast of champions, but they are pretty darn close. I know it is irresponsible of me to suggest these as a breakfast, but it is a birthday celebration, everyone is entitled to shenanigans when it comes to birthdays (whether it is your birthday or America's birthday).





Lime-Chocolate Drizzled Sugar Cookies
(printable version)

For the cookies:
-1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened at room temperature
-1/2 cup powdered sugar
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-1/2 cup vegetable oil
-1 egg
-1 tsp. vanilla
-2 1/2 cups flour
-1/2 tsp. baking soda
-1/4 tsp. salt
-2 tsp. lime zest

For the glaze:
-remaining lime zest (use 1 lime for both the 2 tsp. and this glaze)
-juice of 1 lime
-1/2 cup powdered sugar
-Dark chocolate chips (60% Cacao)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Beat the butter and sugars until smooth. Slowly add the vegetable oil.

3. Add the egg, lime zest and vanilla. Mix until everything is combined.

4. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt). Stir well.

5. Slowly add the wet to the dry.

6. Place small handfuls of dough on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Flatten the dough if you like. Bake for 12 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Continue until all the dough has been used.

7. Using a double broiler, melt the chocolate chips. Drizzle some over the finished cookies.

8. Squeeze the juice from a lime. Zest it. Add the powdered sugar. Stir until there is a nice glaze. Drizzle the glaze over top the chocolate. Enjoy between meals. Or better yet, make it a meal. I don’t care. It’s a birthday.

This year’s four for the fourth features the sun, daydreams, Berlin and a half wolf/half god creature.

The Sun Parade-"Need You By My Side"



Ramesh-"Berlin Without Return"



Daydream Vacation-"Dare Seize the Fire"



Godwolf-"Move"

Simon Spire Food Manifesto and Coconut Collard Greens

If I learned anything from Ted Kaczynski it is that people love manifestos. This just served to reinforce it. People also love extremes. So last time it was the meat eating, Swedish “shoegaze electronic” innovators Fort Fairfield who “invited” you to the table in their Lonneberga cabin. This time it is Simon Spire, a vegan macrobiotic foodie who writes catchy alternative rock music while discovering the best of New York’s vegan, organic and raw food scene.

Spire is kicking of 2012 with his first US EP release (on January 31st). No Solid Ground is a stunning piece of work that continues Spire’s tradition of meshing together feelgood anthems with “indelible hooks” and lyrics that are both “personal and confessional.” He has drawn comparisons to the likes of Sufjan Stevens, John Mayer and Ryan Adams. Nirvana, Leonard Cohen, Neil Diamond and Alanis Morrissette have all served as inspiration at one point or another during his life. It is all paying off as recently Spire won first prize in the Rock/Alternative category in the 2011 USA songwriting competition for his song “A Four Letter Word.” It was here, as Spire walked forward to grab his award, that I noticed the big bundle of paper stuffed into his bag. Making sure no one was looking I reached in and was elated to find this:

Simon Spire’s Food Manifesto

I’ve been called weird and I’ve been called boring. It’s sometimes hard for people to fathom that my culinary preferences really are that—my preferred fare. I have to admit that there was a time when I would have responded with similar bafflement. The truth is that, after a number of years of exploring the world of natural, unadorned, whole foods (the category of food, not the supermarket), any minor lapse in adherence to this approach only reminds me why I started eating like this in the first place. 

I have no creed or membership to any particular movement, but at some point it just made sense to me to forgo the often lifeless yet over-flavored food I had become accustomed to in favor of “natural” food. Easier said than done. Paradoxically, truly natural food can be hard to come by; it’s much easier to find complicated, refined, and manipulated ingredients. Chalk it up to the momentum of collective habit and the premium placed on convenience. What should be so easy—finding ingredients in their natural state —is difficult when the vast majority of normal food is processed in some way. Once you get into the swing of it, however, it’s possible that you might find yourself appreciating the subtleties of nature’s unadorned ingredients. The vibrancy, wholesomeness, and freshness of simpler foods may become more appealing both as a culinary experience and as a pillar of an energized body and clear mind.
Whatever the case, try out some of the following simplifying ideas. If anything strikes you as “bland,” think “minimalist” instead; if an item is more expensive than its conventional counterpart, remind yourself that it’s more nutritious and probably sustainable too, whereas many conventional foods are not. Let’s make natural the new norm! 

*Eat your veggies—local and organic if possible. Squashes, root vegetables, greens (kale, collard greens, spinach, bok choy, mizuna, mustard greens): they’re about as natural and life-giving as it gets—straight from the earth to your plate, the only processing being that which you do in your own kitchen. Kale is my staple. Robust and vibrant, it’s often available year-round without having to be transported too far and comes in a number of varieties, Red Russian being my favorite. Last week, while visiting New Zealand for the holidays, I was pleasantly surprised to learn the kale I was purchasing (nero/lacinato) had been picked the previous day from a local organic farm. Not always possible, of course, but not all that unheard of, either; farmers’ markets are my favorite location for produce when stateside. It’s usually organic or minimally-treated produce and, importantly, local which means that it hasn’t endured too many miles and days of transport and preservation. 

*Whole grains and legumes are, again, going straight to the source. The only processing these babies have undergone is that they’ve been dried. Soak the legumes (especially beans) overnight and then drain them to aid in digestion and to remove toxins. What was previously known as “rice” now becomes a whole new world where one encounters short-grain brown rice, long-grain brown rice, sweet brown rice, brown jasmine, and brown basmati. Try barley, millet, and quinoa. Your lentils can be red, brown, or green; your beans black, red, or fava, or try my favorites, mung beans and adzuki beans. And yes, flavor matters just as much as color. Luckily, whole grains and beans have been a mainstay of international cuisine for so many generations, that the methods of preparation are endless (to get started, think Indian dahl, Cuban black bean soup, Jamaican rice and peas, or Greek gigantes). 

*Ditch the table salt. I basically question all processed foods, and table salt undergoes a serious amount of treatment to transform it from its natural state into what we eat, rendering it unrecognizable to the body in some cases. Sea salt, however, is natural, health-supporting, and has a much milder flavor; table salt starts to taste harsh and bitter by comparison. I opt for Redmond RealSalt—the fine crystals make for easy use and a simple substitute for table salt. I also avoid the following: packaged convenience foods (including nuts and seeds, which are so much better when raw and unsalted), refined sugar (opt for agave, maple syrup or, if necessary, organic evaporated cane sugar in its place), and anything with artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. You could say that avoiding all of these processed foods doesn’t leave much to choose from. I say, it leaves everything that nature has to offer. 

*When in New York, splash out at these tasty and natural restaurants:
Candle 79 or Candle Café Souen (all three locations)
Applewood Pure Food and Wine or One Lucky Duck  

Celebrate the availability of nature’s brilliance with this Coconut Collard Greens Recipe. Slice those greens to the rhythm of my new single, “Knocking on an Open Door,” a song about searching, and searching, and searching, only to find that what was searched for was waiting here all along. Naturally.

I sat back in amazement, it was like this bundle was meant for me.