About Anastasia King Jaress

Anastasia is a former media producer who hit the road to sustainability in April 2013 with her husband JC and Mattie, the dog. She writes about food, community, sustainability, travel, family and the myriad questions that boggle them.

Author Archive | Anastasia King Jaress

Please Welcome Our New Addition! [PHOTOS]

We’ve finally figured out how to post a photo gallery to the site! Please visit our new addition at: IMAGES. This page holds albums that contain many of the photos from our trip. If you’ve visited our Facebook page, you’ve probably already seen most of these, but take a visit anyway substitution where possible (dose […]

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Recipe: Lei-Lani’s WIP Chick Pea Salad

Forgive the lengthy preamble, but I must set the stage… Yesterday, the lovely Anne Sutton, mother of our dear friend Emily James, wondered what we missed most after being on the road for 11 weeks. “Our friends” was our first answer. “Cooking” ran a distant second. I don’t want to wax long and sappily about […]

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How To: Potato Towers of Power

Last week, we had the pleasure of working at Lady Liberty Farm in upstate New York. It’s a gorgeous property spanning 120 acres and the main house sits above a picture perfect lake. Much like the retreat center that JC and I envision, the farm is a central part of the Garden at Thunder Hill Retreat Center. […]

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Recipe: Stasia’s Famous Herb Shallot Vinaigrette

This is my goto vinaigrette dressing. It’s super simple and basic, but everyone seems to go crazy over it. Especially the vegetarians. I don’t know why. Perhaps someday I will conduct a study. This dressing is terrific with an additional squeeze of citrus – lemon and grapefruit especially – and loads of fresh ground pepper. […]

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Getting Intimate With Animals

Butchery: The Watershed I think it’s time that JC and I shared a pact that we’ve made concerning our relationship with animals. We’ve agreed that if we can’t stomach the process of killing and “processing” them, then we shouldn’t be eating its meat. For those of you who have been to parties at Pine St, […]

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Our First Organic Farm!

Needless to say, with all the traveling, fun and mishaps, our blog has been getting short shrift. Now that we have started the farming portion of our journey, we felt it might be best to let the photo albums we are posting tell the story of our travels. Hopefully, we can get back and share some of our adventures […]

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Recipe: Tuscan Liver Crostini

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living. INGREDIENTS 1 pound chicken livers* Fine sea salt Freshly ground pepper 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling 1/2 cup chopped red onion 6 anchovy fillets, chopped 2-3 tablespoons chopped fresh sage 2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed, drained, and placed in vinegar to cover […]

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Recipe: Momofuku Pork Buns

This recipe is courtesy of chef David Chang, the amazing chef at the helm of Momofuku and Milk and among others and reprinted from Martha Stewart Living. Don’t let the work dissuade you. These are AMAZING! Making the Buns Makes 30 Ingredients 2 teaspoons active dry yeast 1 1/2 cups warm water 2 1/2 tablespoons pork fat or […]

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Lessons From the Road: Arizona

We enjoyed several long-overdue visits with friends and family in Phoenix and Tucson.  Cousins Aaron and D’Bora, my aunt and uncle Blake & Elliott, friends Greg, Melody and Lori, JC’s dad, Michael, and his wife, Teri, and my uncle John and his wife Marilyn. We would have liked to have stayed a couple extra days […]

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Hella Real

It’s been awhile since our last post – we’ve been slammed.  The sale of the house is moving swiftly but the pressure is still intense. After losing more than two weeks to the home sale process we motored through a massive garage sale/furniture sell off. Now we’re trying to squeeze five weeks of packing/departure prep […]

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