Stir-fry blog
Natural relief from sinus pain
September 17, 2009 at 10:20 AM — foodetteI hope your family and friends aren't suffering as much as mine. These past few weeks it seems every other person I run into is dealing with some sort of sinus pain (myself included). Maybe it's the changing seasons, or the changing pollen count. In search of some relief, I chatted with Kibby, one of our health and beauty care merchandising specialists (click here to learn more about our standards for what we stock in this department). Here are some of her suggestions:
- Try nasal irrigation (fun name, ancient tradition). Kibby says she know it sounds gross, but also that it really works. Rinsing the nasal passages with warm, salty water via a neti pot (that's one above) or other delivery system supports the natural cleansing function of the mucous membranes and helps clears nasal congestion and particulate matter (pollen and such) from the nose. Still nervous? Even Oprah has featured neti pots on her show.
- PCC carries a wide range of herbs and herbal supplements called for in natural remedies long-reccomended for sinus pain. Sometimes, something as simple as a steaming cup of peppermint tea can help matters. Click here, here and here for more labor-intensive remedies.
And, here's a handy list of natural nasal sprays and sinus-pain relief you'll find at PCC:
Hope this helps! I'm off to try some of these for myself.
Happy anniversary West Seattle PCC!
September 15, 2009 at 02:56 PM — foodetteSo nice to see so many of you at West Seattle's anniversary party last weekend! The turnout was even bigger than we expected and we were thrilled so many of you got to enjoy barbecue, cake and lemonade as our little thank you for shopping with us!
Kathy from Edmonds preps free burgers for a crowd (photos by our own Janice Parker)
Hungry shoppers!
PCC Board members Maggie Lucas (left) and Stacey Donahue serve up anniversary cake
PCC Cooks instructor Birgitte Antonson demonstrates how to cook Falafel with Tahini Dressing and Israeli Salad
Anyone have any West Seattle memories to share? Please leave a comment!
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This week at PCC: Celebrate 20 years in West Seattle with cake and BBQ!
September 11, 2009 at 07:59 AM — foodetteIt looks to be a warm, gorgeous weekend. If you're anywhere near West Seattle PCC on Sunday, come celebrate our store's 20th anniversary! We'll be out there from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 13 with a free barbecue, cake, PCC Cooks mini classes and product samples. Click this Web page for more details, and hope to see you there!
Early shot of West Seattle PCC, our sixth store, which opened in 1989. Remember 1989? That was when Ken Griffey, Jr. started playing for the Mariners the *first* time, the Kingdome still stood, Washington celebrated 100 years of statehood and Seattle became one of the first cities to start curbside pickup of newspaper, cardboard, aluminum cans, glass bottles and office paper.
CELEBRATE with Seattle Tilth at the nonprofit's annual Harvest Fair, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 at Meridian Park, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N. in Seattle. What you'll find: tasty treats, urban livestock, workshops on growing and preserving food and live music, along with the Kid Picks Mobile, the PCC Farmland Trust and PCC Cooks. Visit seattletilth.org/events for details.
BRAG that you helped raise more than $11,000 for local nonprofits by taking part in our Grillin' & Chillin' community barbeques at PCC Edmonds and Redmond over the summer! Click here to see where it all went.
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Daniel, modeling a tasty meal
LEARN new twists on back-to-school recipes from PCC Cooks Chef Lynne Vea on KING 5 TV's “Gardening With Ciscoe” show Saturdays at 10 a.m. And check out our new PCC video library for additional cooking inspiration. This week: Zucchini Parmigiana.
CONGRATULATE our latest customer service star, Roxanne Green of PCC Redmond. Roxanne is Health and Beauty Aids Coordinator with vast knowledge to share and an unbeatable smile!
SAMPLE new products on your next shopping trip. Visit our store demos page to learn what's happening at a PCC near you this weekend.
Guess how much you raised for your community by Grillin' & Chillin'?
September 10, 2009 at 11:51 AM — foodetteFor all those who feel powerless to make a difference in the community, just look at how much you helped by choosing to eat dinner at PCC over the summer. The $3 we donated from each meal purchased at our Grillin' & Chillin' community barbecues (plus any additional donations you shared) have added up to more than $11,000!
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That's $11,000 that will go to help six nonprofit community organizations in or near Edmonds and Redmond toprovide therapy, house those in transition, celebrate the arts and community, help young people and feed the hungry:
- $2,022 for An Edmonds Kind of 4th
- $1,890 for YWCA Trinity Place Aparrtments
- $2,116 for The Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation
- $1,824 for Hopelink Redmond Food Bank
- $1,790 for Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center
- $1,449 for Friends of Youth
Thank you so much for your support!
PCC Profile: West Seattle produce lead bakes up decadent wheat/dairy/egg-free cookies
September 08, 2009 at 07:00 AM — foodetteUPDATE: Chew-E-Core cookies now are available at all PCC locations!
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It was holiday season 2006 (that super windy winter) and Jon-Paul Pachenker decided to make some candy for his friends. But the ingredients he combined to create a roca-like sweet (coconut, cranberries, walnuts, chocolate and honey) turned out more like a cookie than anything else. And a good cookie at that.
His friends liked the chewy texture, the sweet-yet-not-too-sweet flavor, the dip of chocolate. Over time he realized that, beyond tasting good, his creation happened to be wheat, dairy and egg free. A friend talked to her boss at Seattle's Caffe Vita, which agreed earlier this year to sell them. And so began Chew-E-Core, his cookie venture. He calls it "the holiday every day cookie" -- why enjoy something so satisfying only during the holidays? .jpg)
That's Jon-Paul below with a cookie jar left empty by Chew-E-Core fans at Seward Park's Caffe Vita. The produce lead at West Seattle PCC bakes each batch of cookies at Full Tilt Ice Cream in White Center, where another friend arranged with the owner to give him commercial oven access (see the benefits of being friendly?). Full Tilt has even made a Chew-E-Core ice cream on occasion, he says.
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Where can you find Chew-E-Core? At all four Seattle Caffe Vita locations (including Seward Park, just across the street from Seward Park PCC, at Full Tilt and at Red Cup Espresso in West Seattle. Sadly, Jon-Paul's small batches (roughly 150 per week) are too small to fully supply PCC quite yet. But hopefully in the future.
Jon-Paul was born in New York but grew up in south Seattle. He's worked for PCC more than seven years now, first at Seward Park and now in West Seattle. "I like the people that work there," he says. "PCC is the kind of place where artists and musicians and free-thinkers would rather work."
Like so many fellow PCC employees, he plays in a band: He's the drummer for the Blank Its, a local punk-rock group. How he also manages to find time to bake between work and band amazes me, but it's nice hearing of all the support and encouragement he's received at work from co-workers and bosses. Of course, it's always smart to praise a baker: Maybe they'll share the cookies ;)
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Another good thing coming in the future, Jon-Paul says: A peanut butter/banana version of Chew-E-Core!
This week at PCC: Back-to-school ideas, parties and anniversaries aplenty
September 04, 2009 at 08:35 AM — foodetteHope you enjoy this last spurt of summer. Look for plenty more local, organic bounty in produce when you return :)
CELEBRATE with Seattle Tilth at the nonprofit's annual Harvest Fair, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 at Meridian Park, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N. in Seattle. What you'll find: tasty treats, urban livestock, workshops on growing and preserving food and live music, along with the Kid Picks Mobile, the PCC Farmland Trust and PCC Cooks. Visit seattletilth.org/events for details.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY WEST SEATTLE PCC! Celebrate 20 years from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13 with a free barbecue, cake, PCC Cooks mini classes and product sampling. For more info visit our Web page.
LEARN new twists on back-to-school recipes from PCC Cooks Chef Lynne Vea on KING 5 TV's “Gardening With Ciscoe” show Saturdays at 10 a.m. And check out our new PCC video library for additional cooking inspiration. This week: Organic Tomato, Cucumber, Spinach and Turkey Pinwheel Sandwiches and Nectarine and Grape Salad with Honey-Lemon Dressing.
LISTEN to nutrition education manager Goldie Caughlan discuss how to shop for organics without breaking the bank in the first podcast of our new PCC Podcast series on Stir-fry!
SAMPLE new products on your next shopping trip. Visit our store demos page to learn what's happening at a PCC near you this weekend.
A peek inside the Kid Picks Mobile!
September 03, 2009 at 01:11 PM — foodetteIf you shop PCC, no doubt you've come across our merry, green-and-purple RV that enables us to travel from festival to school to store with scores of food samples to be taste tested by Puget Sound kids for our Kid Picks program. It's the one, the only, the Kid Picks Mobile!
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Lo and behold, there it stood at last month's Healthy Living Fair at PCC Edmonds. I decided to take a peek inside. Don't tell me you haven't been curious!
Inside is cheery and bright, with a place for everything.
Here are the cards indicating how everyone voted (smiley face or frowny face)
Kim, decked out in Kid Picks attire
Little cubbies and drawers for every little item!
Thom encouraging visitors to have a taste
Vanilla pudding! Not a hard sell.
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And what could be more American than voting your preference? Check our Kid Picks database for a full list of kid-tested-and-approved foods. Click here to learn more about bringing the Kid Picks Mobile to your school or event!
PCC Podcasts: How to shop for organics without breaking the bank
September 02, 2009 at 08:16 AM — foodetteWe're introducing a new feature to Stir-fry today: podcasts! Look for them the first Wednesday of each month as we introduce to you (or reveal more about) interesting people within our PCC community, from the diverse team of chefs within our PCC Cooks team to the men and women who grow, raise and produce your favorite products in our stores.
We're kicking off the series with Goldie Caughlan. She writes the Insights by Goldie column in each month's "Sound Consumer" newsletter, founded our award-winning PCC Cooks cooking school program and manages our nutrition education program. You may have seen her in our stores answering questions about this or that. She's a font of knowledge about all things food and nutrition related, and we're lucky to have her. In honor of National Organic Harvest Month, we ask Goldie an age-old question: How do we shop for organics without breaking the bank?
Flash Player 9 or higher is required. Download it now.
Hope you enjoy it! Look next month for an interview with one of your favorite PCC Cooks instructors :)
What makes us No. 1 in sustainable seafood, nationwide
September 01, 2009 at 11:54 AM — foodetteWe're still smiling about this news: Greenpeace USA has named PCC Natural Markets the #1 retailer in the United States for our sustainable seafood policies and initiatives! We received a higher rating than any other grocer in the country. How cool is that?
Wild Alaskan salmon. Mmm...
I've learned a few of the reasons why we're tops:
- We were the first official retail parter of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Program back in 2004 (they're folks behind that handy dandy folding chart you'll find at our seafood departments that categorizes ocean creatures so that we know which are plentiful enough (and safe) for us to continue eating).
- We only work with local fish suppliers who also follow Seafood Watch guidelines
- Our canned seafood, from salmon to clams, follows the same high standards as our fresh seafood
- We carry only sustainable canned tuna, including Sweet Creek, Pelican's Choice Tuna Guys and Wild Planet
- Our sushi also complies with the Seafood Watch program. We've worked closely with Southern Tsunami/AFC Sushi to source wild Alaskan salmon, real (Jonah" crab, cuttlefish, handline-caught Yellowfin tuna and capelin roe (Masago) which all are "best choices" or "good alternatives" under Seafood Watch standards. We discontinued sushi made with sea eel (wild caught in China), octopus, farmed Yellowtail tuna and shrimp not from the United States or Canada because they're not considered sustainable.
Why does this all matter? We want to enjoy the ocean's bounty while leaving some for future generations. We hope we've made it easier for you to find seafood that's not only flavorful, fresh and nutritious, but sustainable.
This week at PCC: Last weekend to Grill and Chill at Edmonds and Redmond!
August 28, 2009 at 08:15 AM — foodetteCome on over to PCC Edmonds or Redmond this weekend for the grand finale of our Grillin' & Chillin' community barbecues! Hard to believe it's almost September. Thankfully, no one seems to have told the weather :)
Thanks so much again for coming out to our Healthy Living Fair at PCC Edmonds over the weekend! Good times. Click here for a recap of some of our favorite new things, and feel free to add your own discoveries.
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The crowd at Healthy Living Fair, sampling hundreds of delights
LEAVE THE GRILLING TO US and come on down to PCC Redmond and Edmonds for Grillin' & Chillin' community barbecues on weekends this summer (all meals include a vegetarian option). This month's proceeds benefit The Edmonds Art Festival Foundation and Friends of Youth on the Eastside. Enjoy grilled sockeye salmon or portobello mushroom with a variety of tasty sides, all for $7, with $3 going to local charities.
WATCH Chef Lynne Vea cook up seasonal delights on KING 5 TV’s “Gardening With Ciscoe” show Saturdays at 10 a.m. And check out our new PCC video library for additional cooking inspiration.
SIP FINE WINE AND FUN BEER at various PCC stores this week. Thursday, Sept. 3 try a selection of our wine department's favorite organically and biodynamically grown wines at PCC Fremont and Redmond from 6:30 to 8 p.m. At Edmonds the same night and time, try wines that are easy to drink and easy to buy. Cost is $5 per person, paid at the door, and includes 1-ounce pours of each wine offered. RSVP by calling the reservation line at 206-547-1222, ext. 191, or e-mail winetastings@pccsea.com. Twenty-one and over only, please. View all tasting events.
SAMPLE new products on your next shopping trip. Visit our store demos page to learn what's happening at a PCC near you this weekend.