Tag: <span>blue cheese</span>

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 21

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I got really behind on getting posts up during busy November and December, but, better late than never (I seem to be really good at the late).  Husband prepared this one as sourced from the market at the Mill at Anselma.  The ribeye was cooked on the grill and topped with blue cheese, carrots cooked with some maple syrup, and the soup simmered all day.  It was absolutely incredible and very filling, finished off with a glass of cold cider.

Ribeye with Salad and Potato Leek Soup:
Ribeye – Bendy Brook Farm
Carrots – Maysie’s Farm
Salad greens – Maysie’s Farm
Maple Syrup – Miller’s Maple
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Potatoes – Maysie’s Farm
Leeks – North Star Orchard
Celery – Maysie’s Farm
Cider – North Star Orchard
Non Local – salt, pepper, salad dressing

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 9

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Husband is back on cooking duty with this one.  Meat and potatoes, couldn’t you tell?!  We had missed out on getting the pork butt at the farmer’s market for a few weeks since the pork vendor was sold out, but we managed to score one this week.  Husband rubbed the butt (HURRR) with his own blend of paprika, maple sugar, toasted onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  The rub isn’t all local, but it’s the smallest part of the meal, so we’ll allow it.  The pork butt went into the smoker for six hours at which point, we deemed it done.  On the back of the plate is a summer favorite around here, a grilled peach with blue cheese, then potatoes, and red cabbage cooked in balsamic vinegar (on the grill in tin foil).  Pretty easy, and all cooked outside, keeping the house cool!

Pork Butt with Vegetables:
Pork Butt – Countrytime Farm
Cabbage – North Star Orchards
Potatoes – North Star Orchards
Peaches – North Star Orchards
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Non local – balsamic vinegar, pork rub, salt, pepper, olive oil

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 11

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Sometimes, I impress myself.  I’m not one to really enjoy cooking, which is partly what this whole thing has been about.  I force myself to do this personal challenge of cooking locally all summer long, and it makes me actually cook.  Every once in a while, I really enjoy making the meal because it’s something new and different, and that’s what I’ve got here.  The garden has been giving me ZUCCHINI (all caps, on purpose, because they seem to think they’re watermelons and not zucchini).  Anyone who has grown them before knows that if you neglect the plant for two hours, you end up with baseball bats and that I’m really not exaggerating.  Ours, instead of growing in length, grew in width, spectacularly, and seemingly overnight.  For scale’s sake, that’s a 9″ plate.  The zucchini were really seedy inside, but I sliced them up anyway and once I pulled the seeds out, I had enormous zucchini rings.  Then inspiration hit.  Take zucchini rings, grill, add freshly made polenta (1 cup cornmeal, 3 cup water, boil while stirring until it pulls away from the pan) to the center, bake, flip, top as a pizza and bake until the cheese melts.  And that’s exactly what’s on my plate above – I used blue cheese and caramelized onions for the topping, and the sauce was even made from local tomatoes, courtesy of Jack’s Farm who was selling a big big bag of tomatoes for $6 (there’s another whole pint of sauce in the freezer too!).  I really don’t have a recipe to give you for this, because it’s the kind of thing that is very basic and I’d rather give you the idea and let you go create.

Zucchini Polenta Pizza:
Monster Overgrown Zucchini – My garden
Onion – Brogue Hydroponics
Cornmeal – Mill at Anselma
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Tomato Sauce – via tomatoes from Jack’s Farm
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 6

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Zucchini are finally coming into season and we’re indulging in ALL THE ZUCCHINI!  Husband took the lead on this meal again, cooked on the grill, and we dined al fresco.  It’s been so nice that the weather has been compliant for outdoor cooking and eating – we’ve had a relatively nice spring/summer so far.  On that plate is a Maple Apple sausage which really was something incredible.  The outside was glazed in maple syrup and just perfectly sweet while the inside was savory.  Really just the perfect combination.  The grilled vegetables at the bottom of the plate are Zucchini, Broccoli, and Turnips, and the salad at the top is Lettuce, Turnips, Garlic Scapes, Spring Onion, and Blue Cheese, tossed with non local Balsamic Vinegar.  There is a glass of wine along with the meal as well, a Gewurztraminer from the Mount Hope winery.  And, if you notice there, the vegetables take up over half the plate and were oh so delicious.  We have a pan for the grill that looks like someone took a hole puncher to a sheet of aluminum and went wild, and it works great for grilling vegetables – everything mixes together and comes out just right.  This could also be attributed to husband’s chefly abilities.  We did inadvertently agitate the Robin who is nesting under our deck and sitting on some eggs, but apologized profusely to her and allowed her to nest undisturbed for the rest of the evening.

Sausage, Vegetables and Salad:
Maple Apple Sausage: Mt View Organics
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Turnips – Jack’s Farm
Garlic Scapes – Jack’s Farm
Spring Onion – Jack’s Farm
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Broccoli – Charlestown Farm
Romaine Lettuce – Charlestown Farm
Gewurztraminer – Mount Hope Winery
Non Local –  Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Balsamic Vinegar

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 5

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The husband is home again and took over full responsibility for this meal.  He went to the farmer’s market and picked everything out and even cooked it too!  The chicken is stuffed with spring onions, mushrooms, and blue cheese, served with grilled vegetables.  Again, all cooked out on the grill, and served with a local wine, Paradocx’s barn red.

Stuffed Chicken:
Chicken – Mt View Organics
Spring Onion – Jack’s Farm
Mushrooms – Oley Valey Mushrooms
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills Farm
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Jack’s Farm
Wine – Paradocx, Barn Red
Non Local – Salt, pepper, olive oil

One Local Summer 2011 – Week 11

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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

One Local Summer 2011 – Week 5

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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

One Local Summer 2011 – Week 3

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Husband was in charge yet again of this one.  We’d had a fancy blue cheese wedge salad at a restaurant and thought, hey, we could do this locally.  So, a big chunk of lettuce covered in blue cheese, blue cheese dressing, and most importantly bacon, add a slice of bread, and we have a meal.  The dressing came out REALLY well even though we didn’t have buttermilk and sour cream, but the yogurt is pretty tangy to begin with, so it worked out.

Wedge Salad
Lettuce – Jack’s Farm
Spring Garlic – Jack’s Farm
Bacon – Countrytime Farm
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills Farm
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow
Smoked Sea Salt – Pureblend Tea
Sesame French Bread – Sweetwater Baking
Riesling – Mount Hope Winery
Non Local –  pepper, worchestershire sauce