Stir-fry blog

2012 in review: Your favorite recipes

Each year we post the 10 most popular recipes from our online collection. There are perennial favorites (like our PCC Emerald City Salad). But it's most fun to see which newcomers pop up.

Is your favorite on this list? I am partial to No. 5.

1. Kale and Quinoa Salad with Lemon-Garlic Dressing
2. PCC Emerald City Salad
3. PCC Perfect Protein Salad
4. Steph’s Tofu
5. PCC Sesame Quinoa with Edamame
6. Kale Chips
7. Black Bean and Yam Quesadilla
8. Soba Noodle Stir-fry
9. PCC Quinoa Tabouli
10. Spice Scented Butternut Squash and Apple Bisque

Here's a look at your favorites in 2011.

And, in 2010.

Happy cooking, and a very happy new year!

How to eat chia seeds

I first heard of chia seeds as something to eat from my running friends. Back in 2010 they raved about a book, "Born to Run," that hails these tiny powerhouses of nutrition as a mighty energy source. 

Get your chia! Find it in the bulk section at PCC.

• Just 2 tablespoons of the tiny chia seed delivers 6 grams of soluble fiber and 4 grams of protein. Learn more about chia and other power super seeds (including hemp and flax) in this Ask the Nutritionist column by PCC Nutrition Educator Nick Rose.
• Chia seeds are a rich source of omega-3 essential fatty acids.
• They're easy to eat. Sprinkle atop your yogurt or oatmeal, add them to smoothies, slip into your breads and muffins, or add them to citrusy water (or watermelon or strawberry juice) for Chia Fresca. Or, try this recipe for granola with chia from PCC Chef Lynne Vea.
• PCC also carries Mamma Chia beverages -- chia fresca without the work.
• There's also this recipe from our PCC Community and a recipe for Chia Pudding from our Sound Consumer newsletter.

No, that's not pepper: it's chia seeds with my morning yogurt!

One tip: just like poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and other favorite seeds, chia seeds have a tendency to get stuck between your teeth. Tuck a spool of dental floss in your bag and you'll be good to go.

More about: bulk, chia seeds, omega-3, seeds

A Beaujolais Kind of Day...

Funny how some of the most wonderful flavors in the world are often also the most misunderstood. Flavors with character, the distinct accent of their particular home terre – and more soul than the waiting room in purgatory – flavors that have been unjustly tarred with bad press in the forum of conventional wisdom and that bear the ignominy of the of pseudo-sophisticate’s scorn. 

I’ve had Beaujolais on my mind these days. New releases from some of the region’s best producers have been showing up in town almost weekly, and as our thirsts have been whetted, La Copine and I have had the opportunity to open a bottle or two. It’s been a treat, as always – one of those little pleasures that don’t cost a heckuva lot, but that provide a unique kind of loveliness that is beyond quantifying with any price tag.  

Think ripe fruit. Not bursting with sugar ripe, but the almost tangy, vibrant flavor of berries or cherries when they’re at that solstice – like instant when sweet fruit, the earth it grew in and the sun that nourished it all seem to come together in a harmony so delicious that it’s best enjoyed at mezzo piano. Just enough volume to hear, the intrigue and allure of the flavors prompting you to open your senses and “listen” more intently. 

Meanwhile, Beaujolais Nouveau is days away from making an appearance. Traditionally, this is the first red wine of the just completed vintage – and an opportunity to taste what a season in the vineyard has bestowed upon the region’s growers. Nouveaux or “primeur’ wines from honest, scrupulous growers can be lovely,  youthfully bright expressions of the vintage that give a good idea of what the growers more “serious” wines will be like(although Nouveau from many of the region’s best growers are plenty “serious” in their own right).  

Sadly, however, the good name of  Beaujolais Nouveau – and the region in general -- has been trashed by the exploitation and marketing wizardry of Georges DuBoeuf, whose ersatz, factory-made, manipulated, wine-like product has come to virtually define the region by dint of its ubiquity. (If I were a Beaujolais grower, I’d lobby for M. DuBoeuf to be exiled for treason. Stripped of his French citizenship and given the boot. Adieu, pour toujours.)  

But enough trash – talking. We’re here to talk about real wine. The nouveaux arrive today, and will vanish into waiting glasses before the year is done – but there’s plenty of gorgeous Beaujolais to be had year-round. And while great Beaujolais is delicious in any season, the contrast of its bright sunny fruit, with the smell of fallen leaves and the early dark and chill of an early evening is soul-warming. We’re thirsty now – and   counting the minutes ‘til the day’s work is done… 

Enjoy. Life is short – make every glass count!

More about: Beaujolais, French wine

Help PCC gather 50K signatures to require labeling of GMOs in food

We know it's an uphill battle to collect more than 240,000 valid signatures by year's end to put I-522, the GMO foods labeling initiative, on Washington's November 2013 ballot.

But it's worth it.

I-522 would require producers to tell us whether any food we buy from stores was created via genetic engineering. We already know knowledge is power: think how much better we understand what we eat since 1990, when calorie and nutritional information was required on labels, and since 2002, when country-of-origin labeling was required.

PCC has pledged $100,000 toward the signature-gathering effort and has petitions available to sign at all nine of its stores and at its University District headquarters in Seattle. If you'd like to help gather signatures (and we'd love your help!) email GMOvolunteers <at> pccsea.com

Help us meet our goal: 50,000 signatures by the end of October! We're already 1/5 of the way there. Tell your friends, your Facebook friends, your book club, your workout buddies. We're all in this together.

More about: GM crops, GM foods, labeling, Non-GMO project