One of the most unique food markets around is the New Amsterdam Market, downtown where the old Fulton Fish Market used to be in Lower Manhattan. Besides the history of food markets in this area, this isn’t really your standard farmer’s market (there are only a few produce stands) but more of a local food business market. The market is held every Sunday, and often has a theme for that week. Two weeks ago when I visited, it was Slow Food NYC’s Slow Food Show. This coming Sunday they will have the author of Four Fish, Paul Greenberg signing copies of his book, and a dozen local fish vendors.
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I have two traditions that I keep year after year on Thanksgiving weekend. One is baking a homemade pumpkin pie, and eating it for days after the holiday. And the second is making sure to donate to a hunger-related charity at some point during a holiday weekend in honor of food. I know that many people take a moment to be grateful for what they have, and I think that’s great. But, I think we can all do better than that. There are even people that go the extra mile and volunteer in a soup kitchen, but that’s not feasible for everybody. This is one time that logging on to a website and posting a $25 donation isn’t a lazy form of support. It’s exactly what you should be doing in between online shopping, wish list making, and eating leftovers. There are so many charities to choose from locally and nationally. In NY, I normally donate to Meals-on-Wheels, or the Foodbank of NYC. But if you’re not sure where best to donate, you can always check CharityWatch or Feeding America for suggestions and a rating system on good organizations devoted to hunger issues around the country. 
It’s something small that everyone can do between other less-than-ideal traditions such as, stampeding chain box stores and gorging themselves on food till they fall asleep. Feeling grateful for all that you have shouldn’t end with navel-gazing at how content you are with your own life, but really extend into giving back just a little, because people going hungry in this country does not have to happen.
It’s suddenly feels cold. Real cold. Not, like “Ooh, it’s such a beautiful Fall day” cold, but more like, “It’s too cold to get out of bed” cold. Once all my extremities are freezing, everything I crave is in the form of warm food. That’s why I can finally tell you about this chicken chili. I made it early last Spring. Probably on one of the last cold weekends we had before Summer hit. Then it got hot, and it seemed wrong to write about chili. Now that temperatures have dipped for good, we can talk about drinking insane amounts of hot chocolate, staying indoors and cooking things that take a long time, like chili.
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One morning I was on Twitter when I saw Louisa Shafia mention an event she was doing that afternoon to help support the Brooklyn Public Library. Louisa is the author of Lucid Food, a phenomenal cookbook specializing in local foods and seasonal eating. The recipes are all accessible to cooks of any level. I had known about her cookbook for awhile, but I had never picked up a copy, having borrowed one from the library in an effort to curtail my cookbook buying addiction. After learning that we share a local library (the same one from A Tree Grows In Brooklyn!), and that she’d be doing a demo sharing her knowledge of cooking with farmer’s market ingredients, I was in. Going to the library to talk vegetables was suddenly more exciting than I could have possibly imagined.
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