Earth Day dinners

-Celebrate the land with organic food, family, friends and good conversation-

It's been about five months since Thanksgiving and four months since Christmas. And hopefully all that leftover Easter ham is long gone, but if you're hungry to cook another festive holiday meal for family and friends, how about next Tuesday on Earth Day, April 22?

It's been a dream of Theresa Marquez, chief marketing executive for the 1,200-member Organic Valley Family of Farms cooperative, that one day thousands of families would be sitting down to a traditional Earth Day dinner every year.

A radical idea? Maybe, she said with a laugh, but enjoying a good meal and good conversation on a day when we honor Mother Earth isn't so far-fetched.

"An Earth Day dinner makes real sense, " she said in a phone interview from her home in LaFarge, Wis., on the Kickapoo River. "The whole heart and soul of an Earth Dinner is for people to stay connected with their food even if they don't grow it.

"If people can get more connected with food, we can make intelligent decisions about using the land." The first Earth Day, which took place on April 22, 1970, itself borrowed from a rather radical concept. Its founder, Gaylord Nelson, an U.S. Senator from Wisconsin and environmentalist, encouraged a grassroots protest against what was happening to the environment. Twenty million Americans responded that day. Marquez' dream started in 2002, she explained, when she and a few colleagues were in New York City

attending an Earth Day event and they all noted how there was no food involved. Imagine, a holiday without eating. Sure, on Earth Day people may plant a tree or pick up trash, but no one, surprisingly, thought about food. Then four years ago, she and her staff started the tradition among themselves and vowed to keep it going, hoping others would pick up on the idea. There are no hard and fast rules about what to serve at an Earth Day dinner, but Marquez emphasizes two important aspects: cook from scratch and have a conversation.

"We want to identify everything we're eating and where it comes from; that's more important than eating all organic or all local" or only vegetables, she said, laughing that she's eaten a ton of turnip soup at different celebrations. She suggests that guests can bring a food that they have special connection with to talk about. The idea of telling stories at the dinner table is getting lost, she said, woefully.

At one dinner she gave, a Greek family brought traditional food from their homeland and talked about how they watched feta cheese being made, she said. At the Web site, www.earthdinner.org, there are meal-planning tips, recipes and downloadable cards with healthy eating tips and conversation starters.

Two local restaurants — The Dressing Room in Westport with chef Michel Nischan and Claire's Corner Copia in New Haven — that feature locally grown, sustainable, organic food year 'round are observing the day.

Nischan, said Marquez, is a member of the Chefs Collaborative, which partnered with Organic Valley for the Earth Day dinner initiative.

Claire's vegetarian restaurant has been a New Haven fixture for more than 30 years, and owner Claire Criscuolo said she served her first Earth Day special about 18 years ago. Known for wonderful desserts as well as soups, sandwiches and salads, she recalled creating huge sheet cakes and letting kids decorate them with icing colored with natural food dyes.

"The Yale marching band was there and a high school football team and they carried [the sheet cakes] to the Green," Criscuolo said, laughing. "It was the most wonderful thing.

"This year, as we do every year, we'll have little ideas on how people can be more energy conscious," such as buying glass containers, a renewable resource, instead of plastic to store leftovers, she said. "We try to get customers involved, but they're pretty much on board already."

Each table will have a set of conversation cards for customers to use, too, said Criscuolo. Marquez estimates that about 20 to 30 restaurants nationwide will host an Earth Day dinner. While there are no numbers on how many people will have their own celebrations at home, in her travels she's

heard lots of stories from people who've had them, she said.

"We feel we're touching a lot of people," she said. "It's a new door to open. It's about connection, storytelling and the notion of sustainability.

"And how every time we eat we make big, big decisions about the earth." Claire's Corner Copia, 1000 Chapel St., New Haven, can be reached at 562-3888.

The Dressing Room, 27 Powers Court, Westport, requires reservations. Call 226-1114. Visit www.dressingroomhomegrown.com.

STUFFED CABBAGE ROLLS

1 pound organic lean ground beef cup long grain white rice (uncooked)

1 medium onion, minced

Salt and pepper

1 medium-large head green cabbage

1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes or 1 quart home-canned whole tomatoes, with juices

Bottled tomato juice, if needed

Add water to a large pot or deep pan, to a depth of two of more inches and bring to boil. Meanwhile, mix beef, rice, onions, and salt and pepper to taste. Form the mixture into rounded shapes that are about the size of a kiwi, 15-20 total. Set aside.

Use a sturdy, small knife to cut out the center core of the cabbage. Place whole cabbage core side down in the boiling water. Turn it occasionally in the boiling water to allow the leaves to soften. Using tongs or your fingers, carefully peel softened leaves off the cabbage (you can transfer the head to a colander and run water over it to cool it a bit first, if desired). After the outer leaves have been peeled off, return cabbage head to the pan to continue softening the inner leaves. Peel off as many leaves of the cabbage as you have meat balls. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or oil a deep 9-by-13-inch glass or ceramic baking dish, or a large roasting pan. Use a sharp knife to trim off part of the thicker, rounded portion of the rib on each cabbage leave — this will help them fold up better. For each roll, place a meatball on the inside of the leaf, fold the bottom of the leaf over the meat, fold the sides over that, and then roll the whole thing up. Place the rolls in the baking dish or pan in a single layer, seam side down.

Cut the remaining cabbage into chunks about the same size as the meatballs, and place them over and around the rolls. Arrange the tomatoes (you can cut them in half if they're large), over the rolls and pour the tomato liquid over all. The liquid should come about one-quarter way up the sides of the rolls; if not, add tomato juice as needed. If you've used unsalted tomatoes and juice, add salt and pepper to taste at this point.

Cover the dish tightly with aluminum foil or a lid and bake until rice in the meatballs is fully cooked, one to two hours. You can check for doneness by slicing into one of the rolls. Serve hot from the oven. Serves eight.

— www.earthdinner.org