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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 14

Posted on 16 August 2010
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My little garden in the backyard has finally started producing something! After a REALLY disappointing zucchini season – read: Lack Thereof – the garden has made up for things by giving me a ton of cucumbers. I planted lemon cucumbers, regular old green cucumbers, and miniature white cucumbers.  I’ve foisted some off on the neighbors, and have been eating a lot of them fresh out of the garden, but there are still too many.  So, I found a wonderful recipe for cucumber soup.  I doubled the recipe, using three green cukes, two lemon cukes, and two of the over-ripe white cukes that turned bright yellow.  Used cilantro, oregano, basil, and sage from the deck herb planters, plain old water instead of broth, and left out the avocado.  My soup isn’t bright green like the picture in the recipe, but I let the onion get a good carmelization going which contributed to the brownish tinge to the soup.  It’s great both hot and cold, with or without the dollop of yogurt.

Cucumber Soup:
Cucumbers – My Garden
Herbs – My Garden
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Garlic – North Star Orchard
Non-local – pepper, olive oil, lime juice, salt, cayenne pepper

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One Local Summer – Week 13

Posted on 9 August 2010
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Week 13?! At this rate, I’m almost sure I could do this all year. The folks at Hoagland Farm really inspired this week and egged me on into trying this recipe. They had cabbage and pork roast, and I ended up coming home with both ingredients and intentions on this being an easy crock pot recipe. It was just that, and I never could’ve imagined the delightful flavors that came about as a result of combining the two. I’m SO glad we have leftovers on this one! We sort of followed a recipe here, making a few changes to make it more local.

Pork Roast with Cabbage:
Green Cabbage – Hoagland Farm
Pork Roast – Hoagland Farm
Onion – North Star Orchard
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Wine – Mount Hope. Gewurztraminer.
Non-local – Vinegar, spices

One little bonus localish item that didn’t make it into the dinner photo – cupcakes!  These were so good, and I’m still blown away by how amazing these cupcakes are. I picked up a 6 pack of cupcakes from Iced by Betsy this past week and WOW WOW WOW. If you go to the Phoenixville Farmer’s Market and haven’t yet given in to temptation, you really ought to. Trust me.
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One Local Summer – Week 12

Posted on 2 August 2010
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I came home from the Market at the Anselma Mill with a Spaghetti Squash. I’d never had spaghetti squash and I’ve been trying to broaden my vegetable horizons and try new things. Searching online, I found this recipe for spaghetti squash pancakes. Interesting, different, and easy! I didn’t quite follow the recipe as written. I baked the squash in the oven for an hour as the site instructs, let it cool and then scraped the contents into a bowl. Instead of adding all the ingredients, I just sprinkled flour in until I got a consistency that would stick together, slapped the little pancakes down on a pan with a little olive oil and put some toppings on. Clockwise, the front is just topped with cheese, next is tomato, cheese, and basil, then we have a cucumber, and finally the bacon, lettuce, and tomato spaghetti squash pancake. Bacon always makes things better and this was absolutely no exception. Ingredients list below, and this was a fantastic light lunch with PLENTY of leftovers!

Spaghetti Squash Pancakes:
Spaghetti Squash – Smith’s Produce
Tomato – Smith’s Produce
Bacon – Countrytime Farm
Basil – My own deck planters
Flour – Mill at Anselma
Lettuce – Brogue Hydroponics
Cheese – Farmstead Fresh. This is their cheddar cheese.

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One Local Summer – Week 11

Posted on 31 July 2010
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I’m a little behind on blog posts, but better late than never! This week I fired up the grill and stuffed some chicken breasts. Lettuce, in July, you say? YES! Brogue Hydroponics grows it all year round, and by now, I think the One Local Summer readers know that I love my greens.  So, clockwise, starting on the left, we have grilled squash, in the back is a salad with lettuce, mushrooms, and my first cucumbers from the garden, and in the front chicken stuffed with chevre, mushrooms, and peppers and grilled with a peach slice on top.  Detail of the ingredients follows and this was certainly a delicious and filling meal!

Squash:
Zucchini – Smith’s Produce
Yellow Squash – Smith’s Produce

Salad:
Lettuce – Brogue Hydroponics
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms, Crimini variety
Cucumbers – My garden! White Ghost variety
Non-Local – Salad dressing

Chicken:
Chicken breast – Mountain View Organics
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms, Crimini variety
Peppers – That same producer at Anselma Mill that I can’t remember the name (still!)
Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm. This is their Sharp II Chevre.
Peach – Northstar Orchard

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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 9

Posted on 13 July 2010
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Rotisserie chicken and grilled vegetables was on the menu for this week. I picked up a whole chicken and a bunch of different vegetables for the grill wok. The chicken was basted with some non-local jelly and olive oil, but otherwise, everything else is local!

Chicken:
Whole Chicken – Why Not Farm

Vegetables:
Onion – Smith’s Produce
Tomatoes – Brogue Hydroponics
Flying Saucer Squash – I can’t remember which stand this one came from, but it was delicious!
Portabella Mushrooms – Marsh Creek Farm

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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 7

Posted on 30 June 2010
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Another week is on the books. Or Blog.  I’ve always been a big fan of Greek food and gyros in particular. So, this week, with dill running amok in the planter on the deck, I decided to prune it back a little, make some tzatziki and work up some chicken gyros.  This was also the first meal we had on our brand new patio, and what a way to start many summers of relaxing dinners!  MANY thanks to Ryan Steckel of Steckel Building for his amazing work on the patio.  We’re positively thrilled with the results.  Onto the ingredients!

Chicken Gyro:
Pretty basic, when you get down to it. Pitas were homemade using this recipe and really were more time consuming to make than difficult – I did substitute one cup of flour for whole wheat pastry flour and used plain old bread flour for the other two.  I decided to throw them on the super-hot pizza stone on the grill since it was just so incredibly hot this past week and I wasn’t going to heat up the house with any baking.  Turns out,  it worked out perfectly, once I got the hang of it.  The thinner the dough is and the hotter the stone is, the better the pitas puff up and shrink back down.  The chicken was marinated, skewered, and grilled while the pitas cooled a little, and the vegetables were in the grill wok on the next burner.
Bread Flour – Anselma Mill
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Anselma Mill
Chicken – Mountain View Organics
Oregano – Back deck planters (used in marinade for chicken with Olive Oil, Vinegar, and Lemon Juice)
Tomatoes – Brogue Hydroponics
Onions – Smith’s Produce
Sharp II Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow Farm.  Used this as the base for the Tzatziki
Cucumbers – Smith’s Produce
Dill – Back deck planters
Non-Local: Salt, Sugar, Olive Oil, Yeast, Pepper, Lemon Juice

Vegetables:
These cooked up and were so tasty.  The first zucchini of the year are always my favorite.
Zucchini – Smith’s Produce
Yellow Squash – Smith’s Produce
Carrots - Jack’s Farm
Non-Local – Salad Dressing as a marinade

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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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