Dija Know… Joe’s Restaurant Newsletter -80 November 2012

Thanksgiving is upon us

reminding us   individually and as a nation, to give thanks for all things great and small. And it’s Joe’s pleasure to make Thanksgiving Day festivities simpler for you to enjoy.  “Let Joe do it”, and you can take the credit! We are again offering our Thanksgiving take home menu. The dishes are par-cooked in oven-ready containers. Just heat and serve. Ask for the order form and choose à la carte items or the entire meal from soup to dessert. This year we are offering local organic Embudo turkey (really good!) or Diestel naturally raised.  First come first served on the Embudo turkey.  If you are considering it, we urge you not to delay.  The last four years we have sold out and it is heart breaking to have nothing left for “last minute” customers.  And while on the subject, Roland and Sheila wish to express our deep gratitude for you our guests, especially our regulars who stand by us through good days (and the other days!) who give us the chance to do what we do, and to each of our dear staff members who work cheerfully day after day; and to God/Spirit/Divine Love guiding and protecting all.

click here to go to  Thanksgiving take home menu

 

As the daughter of a WW II soldier, I give a simple salute and gratitude to Tyrone Woods and the other two Navy Seals who ignored orders to stand down and gave their lives in the attempt to protect our Ambassador in Libya on Sept 11.  We hope and pray for a day when military protection will not be necessary, but for now I am grateful for their courage and dedication.

Bill Todino is the current local artist whose impeccable works you see in the main dining room. His photographic representations have a pure quality, devoid of maudlin or saccharine sentiment, but representative of the deep roots of Faith here — eminently New Mexican. Reasonably priced in time for holiday giving!
Breakfast at Joe’s is a great and nourishing way to start a chilly morning.  We start serving at 7:30 every day.  Organize your power breakfast meetings in the Red Room! Discounts for 12 or more when each guest orders breakfast.

 

There is almost no issue common to all of us more important than the control of our food supply. Every aspect of our food is being compromised — it’s quality, its purity and its nutritional content are compromised, sometimes critically/fatally, by such things as chemical preservation, genetic modification, irradiation, long-distance distribution — all deemed necessary because we are now inextricably bound to a system of mass food production.
We are fortunate however to have strong voices bringing us back to earth so to speak, reminding us that it has not always been so and that sound food production methods can be revived and restored. We highly recommend you read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Folks This Ain’t Normal by Joel Salatin (a display copy of which you can peruse at our red counter).  They will change forever how you view what you eat.
Also I am proud and pleased to say that in our industry chefs all over the world are now inspired by local foods and are designing their menus around such foods.  It’s not just leaders and visionaries anymore who are on that bandwagon.

 

Can you believe California Prop 37 (simply mandating the labeling of genetically modified foods) did NOT pass?!  Either Californians are outright stupid (apologies to those of you reading this) or there was some “funny business” at the polls.  I suspect the latter as Monsanto has a huge and super funded lobby.
Gluten free foods are improving. We now have some pretty darned good pastas and an improved pizza crust.  I don’t think anything can replicate the nutty rich flavor of high gluten wheat flour.  That said, in some cases you would not be aware that some of these new products are gluten free! We currently have a GF chocolate cake undergoing various tests.  It’s moist, rich and delicious.  Our “normal” baking flour for our pastries, breads, sauces, pizza is New Mexico grown organic wheat flour.

Gift ideas – Ask your waiter for details and choose from – latte cups, wine and beer glasses, truffles, tee shirts, gift cards (pay cash for a $100 card and get a free $10 card!).  Lower increments are of course available.

Joe’s Meet Your Farmer program, started May 2011, continues.  Every Saturday after Market (sometime after 1:30) we invite any and all of our local growers to come by Joe’s to relax over a meal and a beer. (We bribe them with a “good deal”).  You are invited to sit with them, chat with them, ask them questions about their growing practices.  And get up-close and personal with Who Grows Your Food.

DiJa Know — that cattle and sheep because they are herd animals are far less likely to panic when taken to “processing” in small family groups.  This is more humane and additionally benefits consumers as the meat does not become infused with adrenaline. Our local ranchers like Anthony Manzanares of Shepherd’s Lamb, transport their animals in just this way.

 

DiJa Know — Bayer’s highly profitable product, neonic pesticides, which now coat upwards of 90 percent of US corn seeds and seeds of wheat, soy, cotton and peanuts are now accepted to be the likely trigger for bee colony die-off.  There is enough pesticide on just one kernel of corn to kill hundreds of thousands of honeybees.  And kill it does. Since 2006 bee populations are down about 30%.  Honey bees (and bumble bees) are as essential to food production as water and sunlight.   Bayer and Monsanto (Monsanto being responsible for most of the modified seed traits) have super-funded Washington lobbies, rivaled only by the tobacco lobby Altria, formerly known as Phillip Morris.  Because of the market dominance of agrichemicals, farmers have just 2 choices: either pay up for Bayer’s poison, or exit the corn-growing business.

Fat foods that make you thin, Part 1 of 5 –  Grass-fed-and-finished beef. There are so many nutritional elements in pasture grass that can get to us only by ingesting the dear animals that feeds on that grass – beef cattle for one.  Omega 3 fatty acids, the good fats, are abundant in grasses.  Compare the caloric value of a grass fed steak 234 calories in 7 ounces as opposed to a grain fed 7 ounce steak at 386 calories.

Book the Red Room for your Christmas or festive event.  Also a great space for breakfast meetings.  Ask Roland about discount

Why is locally grown food so very important to Joe’s?  Why do we keep hammering on this “buy local” theme? There are many factors that are out of our hands when it comes to our food supply.  Most of what ends up on the American dinner table derives from a shockingly few giant agribusinesses.  Their influence reaches from designing the (GMO) seeds to planting, harvesting, processing and shipping.  We as consumers cannot with confidence hand over the entirestewardship of our food to these few multinationals. Our passion here at Joe’s is for a local sustainable food supply – food produced by growers who are accountable for what they grow.  KYG – Know Your Grower.  We are able to look our local farmer in the eye and ask him about his growing practices or even visit his operation. This gives us the confidence that we are eating food that is healthy,

wholesome, non-genetically engineered, often better than organic, humanely treated and minimally processed.  It is grown with a smaller energy-use footprint and

transported short distances. We cannot divorce human health, the economy, ecology, personal (perhaps spiritual) satisfaction or honorable work from FOOD.  Food is fundamental. What we eat, where it comes from, the stewardship of food animals, the nurturing and building of soils – all these factors affect us at a cellular and visceral level … whether we slow down enough to be aware of it or not. We are fortunate in Santa Fe to have a dedicated farm base producing a wonderful array of goods.  Here at Joe’s we do our best to offer this bounty to you, keeping dollars in the community. In the interest of transparency, in 2008 Joe’s spent $30,000 on local foods.  In 2009 that increased to $60,000.  And for 2012 we expect it to exceed $100,000 representing about 50% of our food budget.
Tuesday is Spaghetti and Chianti Night at Joe’s$29.95 for two will get you Caesar Salad, Spaghetti Bolognese (made with our grass-finished local beef) and a great ½ liter of Chianti.  Wadda deal!

♥ Joe’s hand-made French chocolate truffles.  They are close to divine.  Who do you know who would love a little red bag of truffles?    $1.99 @ or 5 for $8.99
u Tired of still paying for BB’s (big banks) bailouts? Tired of lining the pockets of the uber-rich Wall Street bankers? subsidizing their megabonuses, greens fees etc? Every time we use a credit card part of that 3%-5% fee contributes to the above.  Now let’s be real –  in today’s world no one can function without a cc, but there are still (legal) alternatives that can save us all money and reduce our subsidies to the BB’s.  We have a couple of suggestions: (1.) Are you on Joe’s Check List?  If you are a “regular” and wish to pay by check, please ask your waiter to get you on the list.  Very easy.  (2.) Joe’s “frequent diner” or gift card – when you purchase $100 gift card with cash or check, get a $10 card free!  (3.) And we are working on something else. . .

Chuckles from women in politics:

 

I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue:  ‘No good in a bed, but fine against a wall.’

– Eleanor Roosevelt

Every time I look at my children, I say to myself, ‘Lillian, you should have remained a virgin.’
– Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy Carter)

 

Joe’s
2801 Rodeo Rd (at Zia Rd) Santa Fe, NM   87507
505-471-3800       www.JoesDining.com