Drew Cooks! has a 2-page article in Home Makeover Magazine’s annual sustainability issue this month! You’ll find reviews of green kitchen products, simple tips on being more eco-friendly in your day-to-day kitchen routine, and one of our Spring recipes we’ve posted on the blog in the past.

Click here to view the pdf:

The website for Home Makeover Magazine can be found here.

As we approach the magic of Christmas, we’re all much more likely to purchase an expensive cut of meat for a party or gathering, and the last thing we want to do is screw it up.

Thankfully, there are few things harder to screw up than a standing beef rib roast, our old familiar friend prime rib. Now, a cut of meat that delicious and foolproof usually means it’s expensive, and this is no exception. However, there are steps you can take to make this cut of meat even more over the top delicious.

Dry aging beef is a technique that’s been around for a long time. By allowing some of the moisture in the meat to disappear, a more concentrated and richer flavor is developed. For a long time this has been something thought to be only possible in a butcher shop or dry aging facility. Not true. With certain steps, you can do this right in your own home fridge, and take that expensive rib roast to the next level.

You’ll need:

1. A standing rib roast, at least 4 or 5lbs, however the larger the better.
2. A fridge
3. A baking sheet with a wire rack
4. Clean kitchen towels
5. A sharp knife

For starters, remove any paper or plastic wrapping on your roast and dry it thoroughly. Place the roast on the wire rack, and wrap it in a clean kitchen towel. Place the rack in the dryest and coldest part of your fridge, normally near the back corner close to the fan.

Change the towel every day for 5-6 days. By this time you should notice the exterior of the meat has dried out significantly, giving a dark colour to the exterior of the meat. You may notice a slight funky odor as well, but this is what you want! The smell of success! This can be easily remedied by placing a box of baking soda near the roast.

Your roast at this point should looking something like this:

Now, take a sharp knife, and carefully trim the dark and dried eges of the meat, revealing a beautifully aged piece of meat underneath. You’ll notice the meat has darkened slightly to almost a maroon color from the bright red you saw originally. Again, this is what you want! Something like this:

Now you’re all set, cook that bad boy, or slice it into amazingly flavorful rib eye steaks. I guarantee you’ll notice a difference, and so will your guests!

Over the last 7 days, Drew Cooks! has been providing lunch catering to the numerous staff and volunteers from Medecins sans Frontieres/Doctors without Borders and their exhibit set up in front of the Vancouver Public Library.

The exhibit was entitled “Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City”, and is in the process of traveling to major cities across North America. Here is some information from their website about the exhibit itself:

Guided by MSF aid workers, visitors are asked to imagine that they are among the millions of people fleeing violence and persecution in, for example, Somalia, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Sudan.

The exhibit is made up of materials used by MSF in its emergency medical work around the world, including emergency refugee housing, a food distribution tent, water pump, health clinic, vaccination tent, therapeutic feeding center, and a cholera treatment center. It addresses questions such as:

• Will I be safe?
• What will I eat?
• How do I find water?
• Can I get medical care?
• Where will I live?

Today, 42 million people around the world have fled armed conflicts and are searching for safety (see Refugee/IDP Snapshots). They are children, women, and men living in temporary shelters, camps, or shanty towns, struggling to survive in new and often hostile environments. Those who have sought refuge in another country are refugees, a status which entitles them to certain rights under international law.

Those who are seeking refuge within their own countries are officially called internally displaced persons (IDPs). They have fewer rights than refugees, yet make up almost two-thirds of the people around the world today who are seeking safety from armed conflict and violence.

It was a pleasure cooking for the hard-working staff and volunteers each day, who braved the Vancouver rainfall and October chill to give tours to hundreds and hundreds of visitors over the week.

Here are a few pictures of both the event and the staff involved in putting this together:

Thank you to all at MSF/Doctor’s without Borders for your hard work in bringing this display to Vancouver!

Photos courtesy of Kevin Hooi