Viva la Hotdish!

Chowgirls is honored to be represented on the judging panel for this culinary competition. You’re invited!

Hotdish Revolution!

Sunday, April 26, 2009
4:00 – 8:00 pm
Grain Belt Bottling House Studios
77 13th Avenue NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413

The culinary pride of NE Minneapolis is back again this year with the Holland Neighborhood Improvement Association’s (HNIA) signature annual event, the Hotdish Revolution! If you think you make the best hotdish quit bragging and bring it on-the fifth annual clash of the NE kitchen titans is issuing a “neighborhood challenge,” encouraging neighborhood associations to organize their best chefs to take on the champs, the residents of Holland neighborhood.

Dishes will be entered into one of the following categories:

▪ “Spicy” (in quotes as to not exclude those who firmly believe salt and pepper are spicy)
▪ Vegetarian
▪ Tater tot excellence
▪ “I made it” – kids under 16
▪ Darn Good! (if your dish doesn’t fit in another category)
▪ People’s Choice

Each year’s event seems to outgrow the previous one, and the 5th Annual Hotdish Revolution! is expected to be no less different. Finding a large enough space in NE seemed to be daunting, but HNIA has settled at the old Grain Belt Bottling House, now studios, that can hold up to 500 people. Also new this year is the “Art Goulash,” a showcase of numerous local artists that will be exhibited in the space.

Doors open: 4pm for entries (only accepted until 4:30pm).
Judging (by “celebrity” judges): 4:30-5pm
Dining: 5:15pm

$15 for adults (dinner and beer included)
Only $5 if you enter a hotdish or jello
$5 kids (5-15)
Under age 5 are free

*All proceeds to benefit the Holland Neighborhood Improvement Association*

Chowgirls Get Kitschy at Retrorama

RETRORAMA
Thursday, May 21, 7-11 pm
Minnesota History Center in St. Paul

You’re invited to celebrate American popular culture with Chowgirls at Retrorama, featuring:

• Fashion show by Anna Lee of MN Fashion

• Vintage boutique by Via’s Vintage Wear & Swank Retro

• 20th century trivia with Trivia Mafia

• Dancing to A Night in the Box

• Mixology tips and martini sampling from Bradstreet Craftshouse

• Hors d’oeuvres demos by yours truly! We’ll show you how to cook up fabulous ’50s cocktail party appetizers — Pigs in a Blanket and Rumaki — with a Chowgirls twist.

Come sample our food and enjoy a family-friendly evening of old-school entertainment. Tickets are available from the Minnesota History Center web site.

Happy Earth Day from Chowgirls

A important message to our Downtown Minneapolis friends: Stop by the Chowgirls booth for some free samples during the lunch hour on Wednesday, April 22. We’ll be stationed in the Fifth Street Towers skyway for an Earth Day celebration.

GOOD COMPOSTING NEWS
Chowgirls is part of a commercial compost program through Eureka Recycling that allows us to compost the majority of our kitchen waste. 70% of our kitchen waste goes into a compost dumpster, 15% is recycled, and only 10% of our waste ends up in a landfill!

As of the end of March, all the restaurants, co-ops, and Chowgirls in this program have composted 208.12 tons of food waste and non-recyclable paper, and recycled 113.47 tons of bottles, can, and papers. Collectively, we are diverting an average of 91% of our discards away from the trash and into new products!

The environmental impacts of this effort are huge! Using the EPA WARM calculator, Eureka converted these numbers into some interesting equivalents. Composting and recycling this much has the same impact as taking 70.5 cars off the road for a year, or providing electricity for 53.4 homes for a year! It would take 9,333 trees ten years to sequester this much carbon!

For more information about the environmental benefits of composting and recycling, see Eureka’s full report.

Trader Joe’s on Lyndale! Hooray? No way!

There is currently a movement underway to stop Trader Joe’s from moving into 2309 Lyndale Avenue, a half block south of the Wedge Co-op. Trader Joe’s is looking to  anchor the “Le Parisien” apartment building, which has been under construction for years. Traffic and liquor licensing are the biggest issues raising ire among locals.

Traffic is already terrible in that area due to the popularity of the Wedge. Trader Joe’s would be a mainstream destination that would bring in loads more traffic. Have you ever tried to park at the Trader Joe’s in St. Louis Park? Aye yai yai!

Furthermore, in order to open this store, Trader Joe’s is seeking a variance in the state liquor licensing law that would allow them to sell beer and wine. There is no pursuit to change the current licensing laws, only to make exception for Trader Joe’s.

Certainly the Wedge can hold its own against Trader Joe’s as far as food goes. Sure some people will love Joe’s plastic-wrapped produce, but chances are they aren’t going to spend their money at the Wedge anyhow. If this national chain is allowed to sell beer and wine and the Wedge isn’t, that is truly an unfair advantage. Hum’s will surely loose a great deal of business to Three-Buck Chuck, too.

The Wedge is asking for our help. They recommend we contact our City Council representatives with the message that “It’s unfair that Trader Joe’s could be issued a state liquor license variance, when local groceries are banned from selling beer andwine. Please do not support issuing a variance to Trader Joe’s.”

You could also make some of the following points:

• Changing the rules to favor Trader Joe’s, an international company, makes me question the city’s dedication to independent and local businesses.
• A store of Trader Joe’s size will have a huge impact on south Minneapolis. Local liquor stores, local grocery chains, and independent stores like the Wedge Co-op will all take a hit from allowing Trade Joe’s to sell wine and beer.
• Please show your support for local businesses over giant, international companies. Trader Joe’s is owned by the same German company that owns and operates Aldi’s, the “German Wal-Mart.”
• Trader Joe’s will permanently change the local flavor of this area. The Wedge and Whittier neighborhoods are largely free of big chains and this will open the door for more chains to come in.
• A store this size will compound the already terrible traffic issues here. People won’t even want to come to the Lyndale/Franklin area because of the added congestion. Biking will become even more difficult than it already is.

Call or email your City Council rep as soon as possible. Their contact info is listed below.

Paul Ostrow – Ward 1
(612) 673-2201
Paul.Ostrow@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Cam Gordon – Ward 2
(612) 673-2202
Cam.Gordon@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Diane Hofstede – Ward 3
(612) 673-2203
Diane.Hofstede@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Barbara Johnson – Ward 4
Council President
(612) 673-2204
Barbara.Johnson@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Don Samuels – Ward 5
(612) 673-2205
Don.Samuels@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Robert Lilligren – Ward 6
Council Vice President
(612) 673-2206
Robert.Lilligren@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Lisa Goodman – Ward 7
(612) 673-2207
Lisa.Goodman@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Elizabeth Glidden – Ward 8
(612) 673-2208
Elizabeth.Glidden@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Gary Schiff – Ward 9
(612) 673-2209
gary.schiff@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Ralph Remington – Ward 10
(612) 673-2210
Ralph.Remington@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Scott Benson – Ward 11
(612) 673-2211
scott.benson@ci.minneapolis.mn.us

Sandy Colvin Roy – Ward 12
(612) 673-2212

Betsy Hodges – Ward 13
(612) 673-2213

If you don’t know who your representative is, you can find out here:
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/council/

Chowgirls Heart Bikers

The majority of Chowgirls kitchen staff rely on their bikes for transportation, even in the most brutal weather. In their honor, Chowgirls is proud to co-sponsor ARTCRANK, a showcase of affordable bicycle-inspired poster art created by some of the Twin Cities’ hottest artists and designers.

Check out the scene, buy a poster or ten, and chow down on some of our delectable edibles on opening night.

ARTCRANK OPENING NIGHT PARTY
Saturday, April 4th @ 7pm
One On One Bikes + Coffee + Stuff
117 Washington Ave N, Mpls. MN

ARTCRANK is also sponsored by METRO Magazine, Bastian + Skoog, and a host of other cool indie businesses.

Minnesota’s Love Affair with Chowgirls

Minnesota Women’s Press readers voted Chowgirls as their “Favorite Green Caterer” for 2009! “With a menu that stresses natural, seasonal foods, and a cooking philosophy that stresses the pleasures of eating, it’s hard to go wrong with Chowgirls,” the ladies say. Thanks for the honor!

We were also named “Best Up-and-Coming Caterer 2008″ from Minnesota Meetings + Events Readers’ Poll.

Chowgirls is 5 years old!

Chowgirls reached a small business milestone on March 12, 2009 — we turned 5! In the five years we’ve been in business, we’ve gone from
- 2 kitchen employees (Heidi & Amy) to 20
- 2 lovely servers from the Czech Republic (Jana & Andrea) to 20 lovely servers from all over the world
- 3 oven racks to 24
- 6-foot hood to 18-foot hood
- 0 walk-in coolers to 1 walk-in cooler
- 1 event a month to 7 weddings in one day

Thanks to everyone who has helped make this happen, especially our husbands Eric and Chank (who were our first grill guys) and dedicated staff. Our managers Truman and Maari have helped us through many growing pains. Our kitchen staff, particularly Annie, Marvel, Liz, Ranon, Scotty, Devin, Robbie, and Booty, are incredibly dedicated and have all contributed in their own unique ways.

Our office manager Melissa has increased our professionalism immensely and she is a delight to work with. Marc’s bar experience has been invaluable as have Laurie’s scheduling and site management abilities. All of our site managers, including Joanne, Casey, and Danielle, are stellar performers. And we love all the fun and interesting individuals who have contributed as servers.

Thanks to all the friends and business partners who have supported our business and helped it grow: Lynn Olson and Frank Stone of the Frank Stone Gallery have had faith in us from the beginning, as friends lending their gallery for their launch party and then as landlords assisting us with a kitchen build-out. Our investors whom shall remain nameless also made it possible to build the new place. Dean Davidson and Elizabeth Gunn of East Bank have renewed our faith in banking locally. The Chank Company housed our first office for a year. Greg & John Pillsbury were immensely helpful and patient in turning over their old Burrito Loco for our first full-time kitchen. And our friends at Uncle Franky’s were kind enough to purchase our used equipment from that same space a couple years later. Dan from The Times generously rented the Jitters kitchen to us to help us get our license and have an official place to cook. John Kremer & Jennifer Young, Jenny & Elwin Loomis, and Debbie Woodward have all offered support and advice at just the right times. Carolyn Payne of Olive Salon continues to refer tons of business our way. And Chuck Hermes, Nancy Lyons, and Michael & Kurt Koppelman of Clockwork have been great systems advisors as well as tremendous clients

A big part of Chowgirls is our brand identity. Thanks to Amy’s brother Nathan Brown for taking Amy’s initial logo concept and creating an unforgettable logo and web site. Thanks to my husband Chank Diesel for the original and custom fonts that are essential to our identity. Thanks to Jeff Johnson of Spunk for designing awesome signage and Sarah Nelson Forss for creating the best brochure ever. All of you have set high standards that we measure all other designers against.

I’m sure after I post this I’ll think of more people I should have noted. And I’m certain Amy will have more thanks and more people in mind, but she’s on maternity leave without internet. So out this goes into the ether with my biggest heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you, including those I may have not noted. You’ve all got some good karma headed your way!

Best,
Heidi

Show Your Love for Chowgirls

As Chowgirls turns 5 this year, we would love to celebrate with an award from Minnesota Bride magazine. Last year we were nominated for the Best Small Wedding Caterer category and we won an editor’s pick for Best “Green” Caterer. It was an honor and we hope to receive such esteemed recognition again.

If you’re a fan of our naturally good fare, please take a moment to vote for Chowgirls. It’s quick and easy:

1. Go to www.mnbride.com
2. Click on “Vote for the Best of 2009″ and this will direct you to the voting form.
3. Vote for a minimum of six catergories.

Please vote for us in one or all of the following categories:

Best Overall Vendor
>100 caterer
<100 caterer

Thanks for your support!

Heidi & Amy

Other vendors and friends you could vote for:

Photography
Olivia Wagner
Tiffany Bolk

Outdoor Venue
Camrose Flower Farm
Blue Horse Farm

Rehearsal Dinner Venue
Frank Stone Gallery

Event Planner
Mimi
Give My Regards To

Floral
Bastian + Skoog
Florabella

Rally for a Greener USDA

Food Democracy Now! is a grassroots movement initiated by farmers, writers, chefs, eaters and policy advocates who recognize the profound sense of urgency in creating a new food system that is capable of meeting the changing needs of American society as it relates to food, health, animal welfare and the environment.

They are seeking signatures of people who want Obama to appoint friends of sustainable, healthy food to the USDA. The organizers of the petition (which includes big names like Michael Pollan and Alice Waters) are in talks with the Obama team and they feel that 100,000 signatures is crucial in getting what they’re asking for.

At the time of this posting, there are 60,583 signatures. Time is short and we need to reach 100,000. Please take a moment to sign the petition at Food Democracy Now.

Tis the Season for Slow Cooking

I’ve enjoyed spending this Christmas season in the kitchen. Instead of rushing around visiting friends and relatives, I lounged in my pajamas while slow cooking. My husband was impressed that I served my Christmas Day pot roast, made with grass-fed beef from Thousand Hills Cattle Company, with a butter knife. He also enjoyed a whole roasted chicken that fell off the bone. Both were accompanied by organic parsnips, celery and carrots that  were caramelized sweet from meat drippings and melt-in-your-mouth tender from the slow cooking.

I tried my sister-in-law’s recipe for Black Molasses Sticky Buns with great success. And today I worked on refining my grandmother’s Stuffed Cabbage recipe. I’m posting that recipe here for your enjoyment. Hey, if you use this recipe, let me know how it turns out and if you have any suggestions on the instructions. Thanks!

Happy holidays from Heidi Ho

Polish Stuffed Cabbage