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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 13

Posted on 5 August 2011
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This one is pretty basic, but sometimes something simple is all you need.  Plus, I’d gathered about 8 green peppers from our two plants in the garden and this seemed like the best idea, especially after I found the FrankenOnion at the farmer’s market.  Seriously, the biggest onion I’ve ever, ever seen.  Add in some yummy bison sausage, and folks, we have a meal.  Minimal cooking and prep time, and it was just perfect.

 

Sausage and Peppers:
Bison Sausage – Backyard Bison
Green Peppers – My Garden
FrankenOnion – North Star Orchards
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills Farm
Bread – Sweetwater Baking
Non Local – Olive 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 3

Posted on 23 May 2011
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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

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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 19

    Posted on 17 September 2010
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    Well it’s feeling more like fall and there were some GREAT squash and pumpkin choices available at the Anselma Market this week. I stopped by the Smith’s Produce booth and found a funny green pumpkin that I was told was a Kabocha pumpkin. The producers even had a recipe ready for Kabocha pumpkin soup, so the inspiration belongs to them! Going back to one of my favorite food blogs, I found a recipe for Pumpkin Soup with Smoked Paprika. Sadly we didn’t have smoked paprika on hand, but we did have the regular kind. I’m sure the smoked variety would’ve added an extra kick, but this turned out just fine. I left out the cream since I couldn’t find any locally, but the one cup of goat’s milk created the texture I was looking for. Also, I’d be LOST without our immersion blender – it got a solid work-out with this recipe and did a fine job. I added on some grilled cheese to make this dinner and sprinkled some chevre and the toasted seeds from the pumpkin on top of the soup.

    Pumpkin Soup with Grilled Cheese:
    Kabocha Pumpkin – Smith’s Produce
    Onion – North Star Orchard
    Garlic – North Star Orchard
    Apple – Unknown Vendor at Anselma (forgot to grab the name!)
    Goat’s Milk – Shellbark Hollow Farm
    Sage – My Garden
    Bread – Saint Peter’s Bakery. Whole Wheat
    Yogurt Cheese – Farmstead Fresh
    Non-local – Butter, Paprika, Cumin, Salt

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    One Local Summer – Week 10

    Posted on 18 July 2010
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    I really cannot believe it’s week ten already. I just didn’t feel like getting everything together and seriously cooking this week, but I did manage a meal. This week, I bring you a veggie panini!

    Vegetable Panini:
    Bread – Saint Peter’s Bakery. This is their wheat bread.
    Yellow Squash – Arrgh I can never remember the name of this producer at the Anselma Market
    Zucchini – Smith’s Produce
    Onion – North Star Orchard
    Cherry Tomatoes – Jack’s Farm
    Eggplant – Smith’s Produce
    Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms. Crimini Mushrooms.
    Colby Dill Cheese – Conabella Farms.  This cheese is absolutely amazing.

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    One Local Summer – Week 8

    Posted on 9 July 2010
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    Only the finest in outdoor cooking!  This was last week during some of that AMAZING and beautiful weather we had.   We busted out the new electric fondue pot and went to town with some beef broth fondue.   There’s no real plate photo today because cooking meat and veggies in the broth gives you little bites here and there, a lot of conversation, and a relaxing and long dinner – perfect for a gathering of friends.   Dear friend Debbie and her 4 month old son joined us for this meal and it was a really enjoyable evening.  The ingredients list looks much shorter than usual, but it really was a filling meal and we certainly were not left hungry when the meat and veggies were gone.

    Fondue:
    Turkey – Mountain View Organics
    Top Round Beef – Bethany Farm
    Zucchini – Smith’s Produce
    Potatoes – Smith’s Produce
    Onions – Smith’s Produce
    Baguette – Saint Peter’s Bakery
    Non-Local – Beef Broth

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    One Local Summer – Week 5

    Posted on 16 June 2010
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    Dear friend Abbie was over for a long weekend so I subjected her not only to the farmer’s market, but also to cooking a One Local Summer dinner with me. Reflecting back on the food coma we were in afterwards, I dare say that she didn’t mind the experience one bit.  Dinner consisted of a bison burger stuffed with mushrooms and blue cheese on some thick slices of wheat bread.  There’s a little bit of salad at the back too (yep, salad, again).  We probably made the burgers a bit too thick, but it didn’t seem to matter much since they both disappeared.

    Burger:
    Bison – Backyard Bison. Just your plain old ground bison.
    Egg – Mountain View Organics. Just one, to help bind the burger together.
    Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills. Not only was it inside the burger, but we melted some on top too.
    Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms. We decided on Shiitake for the burger, and put a few on top too.
    Spinach – Charlestown Farm. Just for a little crispy crunch in between the burger and bread.
    Garlic Scapes – Charlestown Farm.  Chopped these and sauteed them with the mushrooms.
    Bread – Saint Peter’s Bakery. Wheat bread cut into thick slices
    Zucchini Pickles – from my garden.  Canned these last year and they’re still incredible.
    Non-Local – Salt, pepper, olive oil.

    Salad:
    Lettuce – Jack’s Farm. Looseleaf lettuce, delightful. We topped this with some more blue cheese
    Non-Local – Salad Dressing

    Wine:
    Gewurztraminer – J Maki Winery.  I don’t know what he does to this grape to make such a unique Gewurztraminer, but boy is it ever delightful.

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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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    One Local Summer – Week 1

    Posted on 10 May 2010
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    I don’t think farmtophilly.com is doing the One Local Summer challenge again, so I figured I’d just do it on my own for the duration of the summer Phoenixville Farmer’s Market.  This past weekend was the first market for the regular season and wow was it incredible.  There were so many great vendors, and the market was PACKED!  So nice to see.  So, the meal!

    Clockwise, starting with the pile of mushrooms..

    Salad:
    Portabella mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms.  Always delicious.
    Mixed Greens – Jack’s Farm.  Crisp and clean.  Perfect.
    Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills.   This blue cheese is incredible and a household favorite.

    Bread:
    Bread – Sweetwater Bakery.   The ingredients may not be entirely local, but the baking sure is.  This is the first time we’ve tried their bread and we were definitely not disappointed.

    Chicken Roulade:
    Chicken – Mountain View Organics.  Pounded out thin
    Bacon – Countrytime Farm.  Nitrate free, and if you’ve never had nitrate free bacon?  This stuff is amazing.
    Mushrooms –  Oley Valley Mushrooms.  Same Portabella’s as the salad, and they cooked up perfectly.
    Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills.  Same as in the Salad.

    Non-Local:
    We marinated the chicken in  homebrewed beer, garlic, and spices, then added some BBQ sauce (mixed with Tangerine juice, maple syrup, and Good Ole Jack) and some other spices on the outside (paprika, Montreal Chicken Seasoning) while it was cooking up in the smoker.

    This was a pretty easy one.  The bacon stayed soft inside the roulade and the fat also kept the chicken moist, not to mention the slow-cooking in the smoker aided as well.  The Husband decided to not use mushrooms in his (blasphemy, I know), but did come up with an excellent BBQ sauce and spiced the outside just right.

    I’m so excited for another Local Summer to get started, I’m already planning a whole bunch of meals in my head for the next few weeks until my backyard vegetable garden gets growing!

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