Tag: <span>asian pears</span>

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 19

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The weather turned crisp and cool over the past week, and I decided it was time for chili!  Usually husband is the chili master, but the pork shoulder was on special sale at the farmer’s market, so I went for pulled pork chili done up in the crock pot.  I used the remainder of the leftover tomato sauce, added some spices, onions, and peppers and let the whole thing simmer for hours until the pork fell apart.  I added some beans towards the end, and topped the whole thing off with blue cheese and a biscuit from that biscuits and gravy breakfast.  A juicy asian pear on the side and a glass of homebrewed cider, and we have a meal!  It was just the thing for a cool evening.

Ingredients:
Buttermilk Maplehofe Dairy
Pork Shoulder    M&M Creek Valley Farm
Lard  M&M Creek Valley Farm
Flour  Mill at Anslema, Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
Asian Pear – North Star Orchard
Beans –  North Star Orchard
Onion –  Jack’s Farm
Peppers – Clover Hill Farm
Cider – Homebrewed from apples picked at the grandparents’ house
Cheese –  Birchrun Hills, smoked blue
Non Local – Spices, salt

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 18b

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The husband isn’t terribly fond of mushrooms, so what do I do when he’s gone?  Put mushrooms in ALL THE THINGS!  There are only a few foods that he’s not particularly fond of including mushrooms and fennel most notably, which happen to be two of my favorite things.  If fennel happened to be in season, it would be in this meal, but I had to settle for making a galette with mushrooms, onions, chorizo, and blue cheese.  I added a half an asian pear to the side, a salad with blue cheese dressing, and a glass of homemade cider.  We actually pressed and brewed that cider ourselves using apples from the house where my grandparents lived.  We have no idea what variety the apples were, but the trees gave up an incredible harvest last year and made for a tart, dry cider that’s exactly how I enjoy them most.  For the galette crust, I used a recipe from here that uses yogurt, substituting honey for the sugar.  I also added a tablespoon of lard instead of milk to help lighten the crust since goat’s milk yogurt is rather low in fat in comparison to a cow’s milk version.  It came out not quite flaky enough, which means more lard next time!  All in all though, the spice from the chorizo, paired with the onions and mushrooms came out incredible and I’m super happy with this one!

Ingredients:
Mushrooms  Oley Valley Mushrooms
Cheese  Birchrun Hills, Smoked Blue Cheese
Dressing –  Birchrun Hills
Onions –  Jack’s Farm
Tomatoes Full Circle CSA
Lettuce –  North Star Orchard  and  Charlestown Farm
Cucumbers – Our Garden
Asian Pear –  North Star Orchard
Chorizo –  Countrytime Farm
Lard –  M&M Creek Valley Farm
Goat’s Milk Yogurt –  Shellbark Hollow
Flour –  Mill at Anslema, Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
Honey –  M&M Creek Valley Farm
Non Local – Salt, Pepper

One Local Summer 2014 – Meal 19

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Still chugging along into October.  We should be winding down in the next month or so since the availability of fresh vegetables tends to fall off after the first hard frost.  Fortunately, our mushroom guy grows indoors in a climate controlled environment and still has PLENTY of fresh mushrooms every week.  I used a recipe this week, kinda.  As usual, I used the recipe as an idea and then modified it to suit the local ingredients available, putting the whole thing into one large casserole dish instead of individual ramekins to save on cleanup time.  What I should’ve done is made mashed sweet potatoes and made a sort of mushroom shepherd’s pie, adding in other root vegetables, but this still came out really great and surprisingly filling.  I used three types of mushrooms – Shiitake, Crimini, and Chicken of the Woods.  I’d never had Chicken of the Woods before, so that was a new mushroom to me.  It cooked up a lot like chicken with a thicker, more solid texture that was a little reminiscent of  extra-firm tofu.  The beer used was our “house” beer, the Flying Pig Stout named for a hilarious incident involving a pig shaped dog toy on a rope and a pot of boiling wort.  We pretty much keep a keg of that on tap throughout the year since stouts are a big favorite in the house.  It’s not really local, but it is brewed and poured in about a 50 foot radius which is far fewer food miles than trucking in beer from California.  What’s best about this is it’s all for me!  Husband would never touch a meal made nearly entirely from mushrooms, so the leftovers are safe.  Add some butternut squash ‘fries’ and a couple of slices of asian pear on the side and it’s a full plate!

On a side note, my annual saffron harvest is now over and I need a recipe that uses saffron and local ingredients.  I’m open to suggestions!  Keep in mind that I don’t/can’t eat anything that once lived in water, but will eat every vegetable available!  In past years, I’ve made saffron pasta and saffron polenta, so something new would be fun.  Maybe blue potato saffron gnocchi?

Ingredients:
Onions – Jack’s Farm
Leeks – North Star Orchard
Garlic – Jack’s Farm
Butternut Squash – Jack’s Farm
Asian Pear – North Star Orchard
Tomato – Our Garden
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Sweet Potatoes – Jack’s Farm
Flour – Mill at Anselma
Non Local – Beer, salt, pepper, oil, thyme

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 22

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CHILI! My favorite, and the first time we’ve been able to pull this off as a one local summer meal.  Our local orchard, North Star, had been experimenting with growing beans and drying them, so we finally got a harvest and my FIRST thought upon seeing them at the market was CHILI!  Husband again took the lead on this since he’s the chili master and had this amazing stuff simmering in the crock pot all day.  I can honestly tell you that the only thing holding us back from the chili was the beans, and we had been pretty much doing this locally anyway, using bison instead of cow beef since it makes the resulting chili way less greasy.  The whole meal together on the table was incredible – the asian pears were heated up a bit and drizzled with maple syrup.  We managed to get enough tomatoes from the volunteer tomato plants to put in salads, so that worked out great.  Really can’t wait to do this again!

Chili with Cornbread and Salad:
Bison – Backyard Bison
Hot Bison Sausage – Backyard Bison
Beans – North Star Orchard
Celery – North Star Orchard
Peppers – Jack’s Farm
Jalapenos – Charlestown Farm
Onions – Jack’s Farm
Tomato sauce – Homemade, frozen from prior harvest
Tomatoes – Our Garden
Asian Pears – North Star Orchard
Cornmeal – Mill at Anselma
Flour – Mill at Anselma
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Salad Greens – Jack’s Farm
Non Local – cocoa powder, salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 19

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Husband is back at cooking and made this simple but delicious meal in no time flat.  We’d had the chorizo in the freezer, so after that defrosted, he browned the chroizo, stuffed it into big red peppers, sliced some cheese on top, and set it in the oven until the peppers were soft and the cheese was bubbly.  I REALLY love this cheese (Equinox) for topping food that goes in the oven – it crisps up really nicely and doesn’t melt too far all over the place.  On the side, for desert, is a bowl of sliced asian pears drizzled with maple syrup and warmed up just a bit.  WOW was that a winning combination.  Plus, this week, only local ingredients!

Chorizo Stuffed Peppers:
Chorizo – Countrytime Farm
Peppers – North Star Orchard
Asian Pears – North Star Orchard
Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Maple Syrup – Miller’s Maple

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 17

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So, this one might not look as impressive, but so far, it’s been my favorite meal all year (well okay, maybe tied with the bacon wrapped filet).  Yoinked straight from Pinterest, but with a few changes.  The original post I pinned is here, in case you’re curious.  I took the idea, but instead of using apples, I substituted with asian pears.  The asian pear season is in FULL swing and our local orchard is churning them out  almost   as fast as the local population consumes them.  They’re hugely popular around here, and you best get to the market early if you want a couple!  Anyway, I cut slices in the pork loin, stuffed in slices of apples, and put it in the crock pot.  I covered the loin with a dusting of cinnamon and honey, added some asian pear cider in the bottom and onions on top.  WOW.  It came out so tender and just plain amazing.  I may have to do this one again and try using other fruits.  Add in some roasted potatoes instead of mashed, and we have a full meal on the plate.

Asian Pear Stuffed Pork Loin:
Pork Loin – Countrytime Farm
Asian Pears – North Star Orchard
Asian Pear Cider – North Star Orchard
Onion – Jack’s Farm
Potatoes – Jack’s Farm
Honey – Baues’ Busy Bees
Non Local – olive oil, salt, pepper, cinnamon

One Local Summer – Week 18

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Pizza.. AGAIN?! Oh yes, pizza again. It never gets old with the wide variety of toppings and ways to make the crust. This week we have a flatbread grilled pizza topped with Chevre, Red Onion, Asian Pears, and bacon. Bacon always makes everything better and again, no exception to that rule here. Asian Pears are FINALLY in season and I’ve been gathering them up from the market like the world is going to end, so they’ve ended up in everything I’ve made recently. Gotta love a pear you can eat like an apple. I’ll admit that the pizza was an experiment in combining flavors, but I liked how it came out – a little sweet, bacony, savory, pizza. The recipe is Bobby Flay’s for the flatbread and I’ve used this one a number of times, mixing half whole wheat pastry flour and half bread flour for the dough. Just make sure you’ve got the dough coated VERY WELL with olive oil before throwing it on the grill and it’ll work perfectly.

Grilled Flatbread Pizza:
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Bread Flour – Mill at Anslema
Asian Pear – North Star Orchard
Onion – North Star Orchard
Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Bacon – Countrytime Farm
Non-local – Yeast, salt, olive oil.