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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 18

Posted on 2 October 2011
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This one was pretty simple. We were getting ready for vacation and I had little time to get something together, so I went with what I’d already stashed in the freezer. The pasta was made a while back and frozen, the sausage was frozen as well, and the peppers and tomatoes came from the garden. Pretty simple, but it counts as local, and even super local considering the maybe 100ft walk from the house to the garden.

Pasta with Peppers and Tomatoes:
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Peppers – My Garden
Tomatoes – My Garden
Chicken Sausage – Mountain View Poultry
Non Local – Olive Oil

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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 15

Posted on 19 August 2011
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I managed to miss the farmers markets this week, but I did make it to Kimberton Whole Foods to grab a few things. It’s SO nice to have them nearby since they sell some of my local favorites and a bunch of local produce. I saw golden beets and just had to figure out something to make with them.  I settled upon a modified beet and goat cheese galette.  The crust is 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour and 2/3 cup goat’s milk yogurt.  That’s it!  Then inside are some beets, dehydrated tomatoes, red onion, zucchini and chevre.  I did this one open in a pie plate, but used the other half of the dough to make a classic galette.  All the vegetables have to be cooked before going into the dough, and then cooked together at 400F for about 30 minutes.  It’s really pretty simple – while the dough is chilling in the fridge, the vegetables are being cooked, and then it’s time to roll the dough and throw the whole shebang in the oven.  It turned out DELICIOUS and the beets cooked up perfectly.

Beet & Goat Cheese Galette:
Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Golden Beets – Lancaster Farm Fresh
Red Onion – Lancaster Farm Fresh
Tomatoes – My Garden
Zucchini – My Garden
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Non local – coconut oil

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One Local Summer 2011 – Week 14

Posted on 13 August 2011
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I was having trouble coming up with ideas this week and was feeling pretty uninspired. I had pork in the freezer, but didn’t know where else to go from there. So I googled and found Pork Afritada.  Not bad!  I had all the ingredients on hand except for the carrot, so I went for it.  Really easy to prepare and it’s sort of like a stew with a tomato base.  I did use water instead of broth and sliced tomatoes instead of sauce, but we’ve got plenty of tomatoes, so that was no problem.  Served the whole thing over bread to soak up the liquid and it was delicious (and deliciously simple)!

Pork Afritada:
Pork Cutlets – Countrytime Farm
Potato – North Star Orchard
Tomatoes – My Garden
Pepper – My Garden
Onion – North Star Orchard
Garlic – Charlestown Farm
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, Bay leaves, olive oil

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One Local Summer – Week 17

Posted on 8 September 2010
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Sister-in-law Brenda was in town this week and was flipping through the Cook’s Country compilation book for 2008. The husband had bought the book on super-sale at Amazon.com and we haven’t really made any of the recipes so far. So, when Brenda stumbled upon a recipe for Thin-Crust Skillet Pizza (August/September 2008, pg 18), I was more than happy to pull out the cast iron skillet and get cooking! The recipe calls for beer as the liquid in the dough, and we happened to have a homebrewed Hefeweizen on tap in the kegerator. It proved to be a good choice! The dough came out nice and crispy, and we had plenty of vegetables available for the topping. For me, this was easier and quicker than heating up the pizza stone, we didn’t have to wait for the dough to rise (no yeast – just beer and baking powder), and it was a delicious lunch to enjoy out on the patio.

Thin-Crust Skillet Pizza:
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Bread Flour – Mill at Anselma
Zucchini – Smith’s Produce
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms. Crimini
Tomatoes – My Garden. These are Super Italian Paste Tomatoes
Cheese – Birchrun Hills Farm.  Clipper variety.
Sharp I Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Basil – My Garden
Onion – North Star Orchard
Non-local – Baking powder, sugar, salt, beer, olive oil

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One Local Summer – Week 16

Posted on 6 September 2010
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I got a little backed up with putting in posts, so here’s the catch-up! This week was a Summer Garden Galette. I pretty much threw in any vegetable I could find that would fit in the crust and wow was it good. There’s a decent amount of prep work involved since everything has to be cooked before it goes in the shell, but all that can be done while waiting for the crust to chill in the fridge. I guess it sounds easier than it is, but if you’ve made a pie crust before, it’s really the same process. The bottom layer is sweet potatoes covered by tomatoes and squash, mushrooms and onions, and then topped off with a heavy dose of goat cheese. YUM!
Summer Garden Galette:
Onion – North Star Orchard
Summer Squash – Smith’s Produce
Zucchini – Smith’s Produce
Sharp I Chevre – Shellbark Hollow Farm
Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes – My Garden
Sage – My Garden
Sweet Potatoes – Brogue Hydroponics
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms. Crimini.
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma
Non-local – Butter

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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 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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OLS: Week 11

Posted on 16 August 2009
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And another week down, bringing us to week eleven of the One Local Summer challenge. This week we decided to attack the pulled pork sandwich. I wasn’t able to find locally baked rolls that would work for sandwiches, so we found Vermont Bread Company rolls at Kimberton Whole Foods that worked out well, even if they’re not really that local. It’s probably the biggest non-local item I’ve used, but I really, honestly tried to find local rolls that would work and just couldn’t find any. Oh well! We did go the extra mile with the barbeque sauce and made that from scratch. The dinner was delicious and while the pork butt took all day to cook in the smoker and then crock pot, it was WELL worth it. Non-local ingredients used (other than the rolls) were in the barbeque sauce: pepper, salt, cider vinegar.  The rest of the ingredient run down follows.

Corn: Kimberton Whole Foods (locally grown)
Peaches: North Star Orchards
Feta Cheese: Apple Tree Goat Dairy
Pork Butt: Countrytime Farm
Maple Sugar: Miller’s Maple
Tomatoes: Jack’s Farm
Garlic: Jack’s Farm
Onion: North Star Orchards

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OLS: Week 10

Posted on 9 August 2009
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Week ten of one local summer is cooked and consumed already. The husband is home again and decided to try something different – tacos! I was in charge of the taco shells and toppings while he did the filling. I found a good shell recipe here which used both cornmeal and flour.  I went with whole wheat flour instead of regular old all-purpose flour and it didn’t seem to make a difference.  They were surprisingly easy to make and then form inside of a napkin holder lined with some tin foil.  It looked a little funny, but it worked out well!  The husband improvised a taco spice recipe (sadly, none of those are local, but it tasted great!) which he added to some ground bison and onions. I also found these curious little mexican gherkin cucumbers at the farmer’s market on saturday and just had to bring them home after Jack let me taste one.  They’re sweet, with a little sour and just perfectly bite sized.  It’s really amazing me, week by week, the different things we can make using local ingredients that I never even thought of doing (making taco shells from scratch?!).  This is totally spoiling my ideas of store-bought and semi-homemade that I had been used to cooking (and mostly microwaving), but all in a good way.  I’ve recently been doing some canning and preserving and I should do a post on that too – it’s another new thing this year that I’m trying and is again, surprisingly easy – much easier than I had thought!

There were a few non-local ingredients in this week’s meal which included salt, canola oil, and the taco spices.  Here are the local ingredients:
Ground Bison – Backyard Bison
Onions – North Star Orchard
Tomatoes – Our Backyard Garden
Peppers – Cressley’s Greenhouse
Mexican Gherkins – Jack’s Farm
Fat Cat Cheese – Birchrun Hills Farm
Lettuce – Willow Creek
Corn Meal – Mill at Anselma
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour – Mill at Anselma

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