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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 23

Posted on 17 November 2011
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We had to quick throw together a meal before another trip (short one to Fort Lauderdale, FL for husband’s work), so I found all the vegetables in the fridge, and threw in a whole bunch of stuff.  Beets, goat cheese, onions, bison bacon, and fennel all went inside the easy crust (2 cup flour, 2/3 cup yogurt) and VOILA!  Dinner.  There are still leftovers in the fridge, and I love how the beets turned everything insdie a pretty shade of red.

Bacon and Beet Galette:
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Beets – Jack’s Farm
Onion – Hoagland Farm
Fennel – Charlestown Cooperative Farm 
Bison Bacon – Backyard Bison
Non Local – Olive Oil, salt

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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 22

Posted on 3 November 2011
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This is one of my favorite meals that the husband makes. We weren’t sure if it could be done locally, but once we sat down and figured it out, it was SUPER easy to find (almost) all the ingredients. This is a Steak and Ale pie, a traditional British meal that’s a great way to warm up on a chilly day. It’s basically a chicken pot pie, but with beef and beer and mushrooms instead of the chicken and vegetables. The beer we used was a homebrew made with a pound of Pennsylvania Maple Syrup from Miller’s maple, so even though the grain used in the beer is not local, it’s at least more local than other beers we could’ve used. The only other exception is the pepper and a little bit of oil. The leftovers are already gone, that’s just how good it is.  We’re not sure at this point where the original recipe came from since ours has been heavily modified (bison instead of beef, etc), but this recipe is pretty close.  We made the ‘beef’ broth this time using a stew bone from the bison vendor with a few vegetables thrown in the pot for flavor – worked out PERFECTLY and was super delicious, not to mention very low in sodium.

Steak and Ale Pie
Bison Sirloin – Backyard Bison
Crimini Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Eggs – Mountain View Organics
Flour – Mill at Anselma
Onion – Hoagland Farms
Garlic – Jack’s Farm
Sage – Jack’s Farm
Milk – Camphill Village – Kimberton Hills Dairy
Smoked Sea Salt – Pureblend Teas
Non Local – Pepper, Olive Oil, Maple Porter Beer

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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 11

Posted on 19 July 2011
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This is absurd.. is it really week 11 already?  Anyway, husband took the lead on this one and combined Bison, Bacon, and Blue Cheese into a hamburger.  Pretty sure that guy is a keeper.  He mixed everything together and then hand formed the burgers and gently grilled them up to absolute perfection.  Topped off with a little blue cheese and served on a locally baked roll, with a few french fries on the side, it’s your classic but classy (bacon makes everything better) burger and fries.  All done locally too!

Bacon, Bison, and Blue Burger:
Ground Bison – Backyard Bison
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Onion – Hoagland Farm
Bacon – Countrytime Farm
Potatoes – North Star Orchards
Tomato – Charlestown Farm
Roll – St. Peter’s Bakery
Non Local – Oil, salt, pepper

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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 9

Posted on 9 July 2011
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The bison vendor at the Phoenixville Farmers Market caught my husband’s eye this past Saturday. We decided on brisket for this week’s meal, and brisket it was.  He decided to cook it in the smoker (the temperature is around 200-250 constantly) and lay on the smoke (applewood and hickory) pretty thick in the beginning.  It was also coated with a dry rub of a whole bunch of spices/seasonings (some non local, but I think that’s okay).  I think it worked out really well – the smoky flavor came out, but the meat was still tender and juicy.  The veggies were steamed quickly and tossed with some olive oil.

Bison Brisket:
Bison – Backyard Bison
Sugar Snap Peas – North Star Orchard
Carrots – Charlestown Farm
Cheese – Birchrun Hills (Fat Cat & Matilda’s Summer Tomme)
Sesame Semolina Bread – St. Peter’s Bakery
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Non Local – olive oil, paprika, pepper, garlic powder, salt

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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 5

Posted on 10 June 2011
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We had an unexpected trip away from home, but still managed to hit the Anselma Farmer’s Market, and with some help from our freezer, got a meal together for One Local Summer.  It’s pretty basic, but was nonetheless delicious.  The husband cooked the steak to perfection (read: brown and fully cooked the whole way through – I like my steaks WELL WELL done) and topped it with some delicious goat cheese, threw together a salad, and found some sugar snap peas to add as a vegetable.  It was all last minute, but we made it!

Bison Delmonico Steak w/ Salad:
Bison Delmonico Steak – Backyard Bison
Sugar Snap Peas – Brogue Hydroponics
Mesclun mix – Maysie’s Farm
Strawberries – Brogue Hydroponics
Cucumbers – Brogue Hydroponics
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills Farm
Italian Herb Goat Cheese – Yellow Springs Farm
Smoked Sea Salt – Pureblend Teas
Wine – Chaddsford Pinot Noir
Non Local – Olive oil, Pepper, Salad Dressing

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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 2

Posted on 17 May 2011
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We had picked up chip steak from Backyard Bison last week, knowing full well that we were going to do Philly Cheesesteaks, Local Summer style this week.  So, all we needed were mushrooms, something resembling an onion, cheese, and some bread to finish the meal.  Husband took the reins on this one and had everything ready to go for lunch when I got home.  Perfect!  The bread was supposed to be St. Peter’s Bakery’s rustic white, but somehow we ended up with an olive loaf instead (honest mistake) which worked out alright anyway!

Philly Cheesesteak
Bison Chip Steak – Backyard Bison
Crimini Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Experimental Cheese – Birchrun Hills Farm
Spring Garlic – Jack’s Farm
Bread – St. Peter’s Bakery
Smoked Sea Salt – Pureblend Teas
Non Local – olive oil, pepper

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One Local Summer – Week 22

Posted on 11 October 2010
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The husband decided that we ought to use up some ground bison and make his own special on-the-fly version of Italian Wedding Soup. This was a collaborative effort, and what we came up with is absolutely incredible. It’s far from traditional, but it was incredibly delicious and definitely something that will be made again. We had made chicken wings the night prior (boil wings, then throw on grill to crisp) so we had the chicken stock on hand already. Other than that, the recipe is below, feel free to print, use, and enjoy!

Italian Wedding Soup:
Bison – Backyard Bison
Red Onions – Maysie’s Farm
Garlic – Maysie’s Farm
Egg – Mt View Organics
Bread – LeBoon’s Homemade
Cilantro, Sage, Basil – My Garden
Carrots – Maysie’s Farm
Potatoes – Smith’s Produce
Chicken Broth – Boiled down from Mt View Organics wings (Tuesday Night’s dinner!)
Non-Local – Salt

Italian Wedding Soup Print Print
Ingredients – Meatballs Ingredients – Soup
1 lb ground bison 10 cups Chicken Broth (from 2lbs chicken, boiled)
2 cloves garlic, minced 2 Small Red Onions, Diced
1 egg 2 Carrots, sliced
1 slice Italian Bread, crumbled 8 Small Potatoes, cubed
Cilantro, Sage, Basil to taste 1 tsp Salt
12 large leaves of Spinach, chopped
Instructions:
  • Preheat oven to 350F.  Break egg into bowl, add bison, garlic, crumbled bread, and spices, mix together well with hands.
  • Roll into 1″ round meatballs, place on greased cookie tray and bake in oven for 20 minutes.
  • Heat broth on medium-high in large stock pot.
  • add onions, carrots, potatoes, and salt and simmer while meatballs are cooking.
  • Add meatballs to pot and simmer for 15 minutes.
  • Add spinach and simmer until wilted.
  • Top with your favorite grated cheese and enjoy!
  • Makes approximately 14 1-cup servings
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    One Local Summer – Week 21

    Posted on 6 October 2010
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    The husband has returned home and planted himself in the kitchen. I can’t say I mind, when the result is an amazing crock pot meal. He took a Bison chuck roast out of the freezer and threw in all manner of vegetables and fruit that I had from the farmer’s markets and came up with something AMAZING. The bison was SO tender after cooking for five hours and the way the flavors blended together was really a work of art. I think I’m still in a food coma over this one!  It was all served over some home made noodles using Whole Wheat Pastry flour and Buckwheat flour from the Mill at Anselma.

    Crock Pot Bison Roast:
    Bison Chuck Roast – Backyard Bison
    Onion – North Star Orchard
    Purple Potatoes – Unknown Vendor at Anselma
    Apples – North Star Orchard
    Noodles – Egg from Mt View Organics, Flour from the Mill at Anselma, Buckwheat flour from the Mill at Anselma
    Peppers – My Garden
    Wine – Paradocx
    Beer – Homebrew Imperial Blonde
    Sage – My Garden
    Cilantro – My Garden
    Basil – My Garden
    Non-Local – Spices

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    One Local Summer – Week 20

    Posted on 21 September 2010
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    Pumpkin, again. Yeah when I get on a kick, I get on a kick, but at least here there are plenty of other ingredients involved. The recipe took a lot of searching – I wanted to use both bison and this little Long Island Cheese Pumpkin I brought home last week. Finally, I came across a recipe for Potato Topped Beef and Pumpkin Casserole which ended up being the perfect recipe to use for my new little casserole dish. Naturally, there were a few modifications. I didn’t have any carrots, so I used turnips instead. Left out the beef stock cube, and used three types of potatoes. The pumpkin makes for a great base, but the sweet pumpkiny flavor is mostly lost in the recipe – I suppose this works out okay, since the flavors all run together well, but I was expecting more smack-you-in-the-face pumpkin. Still, it’s delicious, and VERY much edible.

    Oh and if you’re curious, the dish comes from Karin Lorenc on etsy.

    Potato Topped Beef and Pumpkin Casserole:
    Bison – Backyard Bison. Sirloin
    Flour – Mill at Anselma. Bread Flour
    Onion – North Star Orchard
    Turnip – Maysie’s Farm
    Long Island Cheese Pumpkin – Smith’s Produce
    Red Wine – Paradocx. Barn Red
    Sweet Potatoes – Brogue Hydroponics
    Purple Potatoes – Unknown Vendor at Anselma
    White Potatoes – Brogue Hydroponics
    Non-local – Olive Oil, spices

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    One Local Summer – Week 2

    Posted on 17 May 2010
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    And we’re onto Week 2. So far, there’s not a lot of produce to pick from at the market given that our growing season REALLY gets moving at the end of May into early June. Oley Valley Mushrooms always comes through with fantastic mushrooms – these Crimini ‘shrooms were seriously the best mushrooms I have ever eaten. There may have been one or two that didn’t make it into the pan.  The recipe we used was the Beef Stroganoff recipe from SimplyRecipes.com with a couple of local substitutions made.  We used bison in place of beef, goat’s milk yogurt instead of sour cream, and since we couldn’t find onions at the market just yet, we ended up replacing those with a few leeks and it worked out just fine.  So, let’s start in the back with the bread and run around, clockwise.

    Bread:
    Bread – Saint Peter’s Bakery.  This was their rustic white bread, which was sweet and super soft.

    Beef Stroganoff:
    Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms.  Crimini mushrooms with this incredible earthy flavor.
    Bison – Backyard Bison.  We used a sirloin that we happened to have in the freezer from a few markets ago.
    Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow Farm.  The yogurt is tangy and actually made a perfect substitute for sour cream.
    Leeks – Hoagland Farm.  It’s a little bit of an odd substitution for shallots, but it worked out well.
    Noodles – Mill at Anselma.  The base for the noodles was whole wheat pastry flour from the mill made with wheat grown in Pennsylvania.  This is one find that I’m SUPER proud of and just love that it’s a local ingredient.  I also used an egg from Mountain View Organics and a touch of olive oil.  Then the pasta roller/cutter and KitchenAid mixer did the rest of the work.  These noodles really came out fantastic, arguably my best attempt at pasta yet.
    Non-local – Olive oil, spices.

    Honey Rhubarb Muffin:
    Okay, maybe this wasn’t 100% local, but we’ll call it a bonus localish item on the plate.  The recipe came from here and I tried to keep it as local as possible, but with bakery items, it’s just not possible to use pastry flour and get just the right consistency.  A blend of flours (all-purpose and pastry) seems to work out best, and I figure it’s better to stick with that than force the locality issue and get something that’s more like hardtack than a muffin.  We left out the chopped nuts.
    Flour – Mill at Anselma.  Split 50/50 with generic all-purpose flour.
    Rhubarb – Hoagland Farm.  I remember not liking rhubarb as a kid, but now?  I cannot get enough.  There is chopped rhubarb in the muffin as well as a sort of honey rhubarb reduction jelly sort of spread on top.
    Egg – Mountain View Organics.
    Sour Cream –  Shellbark Hollow Farm.  Substituted goat’s milk yogurt here again, and it worked fine.
    Honey – Baues Busy Bees.
    Non-local – Sugar, Canola Oil, Salt, Baking Soda, Vanilla

    Wine:
    Penns Woods Chambourcin Reserve (2006).  It’s a local winery that we hadn’t had the chance to try before and decided to go for it since they were at the farmer’s market running tastings.  We were not disappointed.

    This might just be the best one local summer meal we’ve ever made.  I’m pretty sure it will be going into regular dinner rotation in the future!  Now I want to hear about some other recipe sites that you enjoy using for dinner ideas.  I’m slowly picking through Elise’s Simply Recipes site and am just plain running out of meal ideas.  So, please share your favorites!

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