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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 6

Posted on 15 June 2011
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My, my, how time is flying already.  It’s over a month of One Local Summer meals.  For those of you late to the party, the One Local Summer challenge involves spending the summer (or at least here, our summer farmers market season) cooking one meal a week using only local ingredients with a few allowable exceptions (salt, olive oil, seasonings, etc).  This is my third year of doing the One Local Summer challenge, and I’ve learned so much about my own cooking skills (or lack thereof sometimes), different foods, and new vegetables.  The benefits are many, probably too many to list here, but for me, the big deal is that we can get soo much food locally, without hauling food across the country or even halfway around the world.  I’d love to hear your take on eating locally and what’s important to you, and if you’re interested in participating too!

This week is an amazing Asian Pork Cutlet meal complete with Bok Choy and a little veggie side of spinach, mushrooms, and garlic scapes.  I was SO excited to see garlic scapes this past weekend at our Phoenixville Farmers Market, that I couldn’t help but add them to the plate.  The real big non local item this week was teriyaki sauce, but it was only used in the marinade, so I’m calling that a spice/seasoning and giving it a pass.  The scapes and mushrooms were sauteed with a little butter, and then the heat was turned off, spinach added overtop, and then covered to allow the spinach to wilt.  Meanwhile, just as the pork was nearing perfection on the grill, I dabbed the bok choy with a little olive oil and threw that on the grill as well.  Everything came out so perfectly (or am I just that hungry?), I believe we have a HUGE win for today.  No real recipe with this one, just your basic grilled pork and vegetables.

Asian Pork Cutlet w/ Vegetables:
Bok Choy – North Star Orchards
Garlic Scapes – North Star Orchards
Spinach – Maysie’s Farm
Portabella Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Pork Cutlets – Countrytime Farm
Non Local – Olive Oil, Butter, Soy sauce

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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 4

Posted on 1 June 2011
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Some of my favorite spring vegetables are finally ready to harvest and I’m just thrilled!  This meal features items from vendors at both the Phoenixville Farmer’s Market and the Mill at Anselma Market.  This one was all me this week and I found a bunch of fresh vegetables to toss in a creamy, white wine sauce along with a crust of Focaccia and some chicken.  The pasta is the same old recipe I use every time I make pasta (1 cup whole wheat pastry flour, one tbsp olive oil, and 4 tbsp water [or one egg if you want egg pasta], add extra water to acheive the right consistency).  With the power of our Kitchen Aid Mixer and the pasta roller/cutter attachment, this is really an easy process, and nothing beats making your own pasta.  Sometime this summer, I have to figure out how to make flavored pastas by using vegetable puree in place of water.  For the wine, I uncorked a bottle of Riesling we brewed up at home.  It’s not entirely local, but it was made in our own kitchen, so that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.  The sauce didn’t quite thicken and become creamy like I had hoped, but it’s still delicious, and infused itself into the vegetables.  YUM.  The chicken was marinated in wine and oil and cooked on the grill to perfection.  All in all, the meal was REALLY delicious and I’m happy there are leftovers.

Spring Vegetable Pasta
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Chicken – Mt. View Organics
Focaccia – St. Peter’s Bakery
Sun Dried Tomato Cheese Spread – Birchrun Hills
Spinach – Maysie’s Farm
Crimini Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Asparagus – Hoagland Farm
Broccoli – Smith’s Produce
Spring Garlic – Brogue Hydroponics
Non Local – Olive Oil, Riesling (homebrewed!), 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 6

    Posted on 19 June 2010
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    I finally made it out to the Anselma Mill Farmer’s market this past week to get flour and a few other things.   I don’t think all the flour is grown locally, but it’s definitely ground at the mill using the centuries old equipment. It’s really pretty awesome to think that this mill has been around for so long and is still useful today.   Here’s a link with more information about the flour, if you’re interested.  I also met the woman who runs Pure Blend Tea and came home with the Fruit Boost tea which made one heck of a batch of iced tea.  Anyway, onto the ingredients in the meal, starting in the back.

    Salad:
    Lettuce – Charlestown Farm.  Nice and crispy!
    Cucumber – Smith’s Produce.  I was so psyched to see cucumbers already, I had to bring some home.
    Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow Farm.  It actually made a really great dressing for a simple salad.

    Ravioli:
    For the ravioi pasta, I used a basic recipe I had found ages ago on the web and have modified a bit. It’s one cup flour (here, there’s 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1/4 cup buckwheat flour), one egg, one teaspoon olive oil, and water to make consistency. I roll it out using the good old KitchenAid pasta roller set which makes the process SO much easier.  To form the individual ravioli, I found a form that pasta sheets are laid over, filled, then sealed with a rolling pin.  First batch using this was a little off, but the second batch came out perfectly.
    Hot Bison Sausage – Backyard Bison.  Just the right amount of spice!
    Cheese – Birchrun Hills.  Used the Equinox cheese inside the ravioli with the sausage.
    Flour – Anselma Mill.  Used Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
    Buckwheat Flour – Anselma Mill.  They said this was a new one for them and I heard that adding buckwheat flour into the pasta dough mixture made it different, and it did, in a very good way.
    Egg – Mountain View Organics.
    Sauce – Homemade.  We found a few bags in the freezer left over from our 2008 amazing tomato year.
    Spinach – Charlestown Farm.  Put a bunch of leaves in the steamer for just a minute.
    Non-Local – Spices, Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil.

    As a bonus this week, there was also Jam!  Two types.

    Jammed Yellow Cherry Jam
    A friend and I went to Walnut Springs Farm to pick cherries.  I LOVE yellow cherries and when the folks running the booth let me know there were two types available to pick, my eyes must have lit up like I had won the lottery.  I immediately knew that they were destined for a batch of jam, and sure enough, three pounds turned into 5 jars of sunny yellow jam.  I sort of want to go pick some more, add in a few blueberries, and see if I can make green slime jam because that sounds like fun.
    DSC_2101 Black Forest Preserves
    I did actually pick some red cherries too.  Three pounds of those (I came home with about 10 lbs, but did a lot of taste testing while we were there too) became Black Forest Preserves.  It’s a recipe out of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and involves cherries and cocoa powder.  I have to admit that the chocolate doesn’t really come out in the recipe – the jam just tastes RICH – but it’s destined to be a part of thumbprint cookies when cookie baking season kicks into full gear.
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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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