Tag: <span>cucumbers</span>

Tag: cucumbers

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 11b

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Another catch-up post, and I’m a week behind on posts!  Getting caught up (again) though – it’s crazy how summer can just fly by like this.  Husband is away and I decided to try out a few new things.  I know he’s not a big fan of fennel or farro (really, wheat berries in this case), so I decided to go crazy and combine the two!  I found this recipe (Roasted Fennel  & Farro Salad) and went for it.  The wheat berries came from North Star Orchard and we’ve had them hanging around in the freezer for a while.  They do take a while to cook, but the results are absolutely worth it.  Combined with the fennel and peppers, it made for a dish that was great warm or cold.  The simple cucumber and tomato salad was a recurring theme for the rest of the week too.  Drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar, it made for a great afternoon snack, and there’s just something about fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.  The cucumber is an Armenian cucumber and something I’ve never had before.  It has a soft fuzz on the outside that I scrubbed off with a vegetable scrubber brush, and I found it a little more crisp and less acidic than a regular cucumber.

Also on the plate are peaches with blue cheese, another summer favorite, and beet chips which didn’t come out all that well.  My slices weren’t uniform, so they were too crisp on one half and just barely baked on the other.  That didn’t stop me from eating the whole beet though, and I really like how they taste when roasted.  One final piece of the plate was another new recipe I tried called  gougères – it’s a fancy french savory puff pastry made mostly with flour, butter, eggs, and cheese.  The recipe was part of the Birchrun Hills Kickstarter campaign rewards and I was really psyched to try something new.  It was easier than I thought and I sort of felt like a super hero having produced results that tasty and perfect on the first try!

Altogether a delightful dinner and really rather filling!

Ingredients:
Peaches – North Star Orchard
Cheese – Birchrun Hills, Blue and Equinox
Beets – Jack’s Farm
Wheat Berries – North Star Orchard
Fennel – Jack’s Farm
Eggs –  Canter Hill Farm
Peppers – Clover Hill Farm
Cucumber – Full Circle CSA
Tomatoes – Full Circle CSA
Butter – Handmade by Abby
Honey – Baues’ Busy Bees
Flour – Mill at Anslema, Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
Non Local – Balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 10b

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Still another catchup post, but I think as of next week I’ll be back on track.  This week, even though the husband was home, I contributed a good bit!  We have a basil plant that’s gone wild and before it bolted, I thought I’d gather up the basil and put it to good use as basil pasta and pesto.  I blenderized the basil with some whey leftover from a batch of cheese the husband made earlier that week, olive oil, and a small amount of non-local pine nuts, then combined that mixture with flour to make the pasta (1 cup flour to 1/4 cup liquid).  The meatballs were part veal, part pork with onions, chives, basil, and some salt and pepper, baked in the oven.  Then grilled zucchini and a cucumber salad finish the meal along with a glass of mead (technically a pyment) from the Sap House Meadery in New Hampshire.  Okay, that’s not entirely local, but it did follow us home from vacation and didn’t take a special trip to get here, so I’ll allow it!

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For something special this dinner, we made dessert with leftover milk from the waffles last meal, honey, and raspberries from the bush in the yard.  Paired it with a raspberry mead from Moonlight Meadery (another followed-us-home mead from New Hampshire).  It was the perfect end to a lovely evening!

Ingredients:
Zucchini – Clover Hill Farm
Basil – My Garden
Cheese – Birchrun Hills, Equinox
Ground Veal – Birchrun Hills
Ground Pork – Countrytime Farm
Cucumbers – Clover Hill Farm
Onion – Clover Hill Farm
Flour – Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, Mill at Anselma
Milk Camphill Kimberton
Honey Baues’ Busy Bees
Raspberries – Our Yard
Raspberry Mead –  Moonlight Meadery
Pyment  –  Sap House Meadery
Non Local – Pine nuts, salt, pepper, olive oil, homemade vinegar

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 9b

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Another installment in the catch-up posts for One Local Summer.  Husband had originally planned to do these pork chops on the grill, but the sky got dark and opened up so quickly that he ended up pan searing with the cast iron skillet and finishing it up in the oven.  Apparently, this is my new favorite way to cook pork chops because I have never had a pork chop quite so perfectly juicy before.  Pork can go from juicy and moist to shoe leather in a split second it seems, but man, skillet in the oven is IT.  Even though it was delicious, I only managed to finish off half of that pork chop because of the ridiculous amount of veggies.  Steamed green beans and carrots, that huge salad as usual, and then potatoes with olive oil, chives, and onions.  Top that all off with a glass of Spring Wine from Chaddsford Winery and we have a great rainy day dinner.

Ingredients:
Radishes  Full Circle CSA
Turnips  Full Circle CSA
Mushrooms  Oley Valley Mushrooms
Lettuce Full Circle CSA
Carrots – Full Circle CSA
Cucumber Clover Hill Farm
Tomatoes Clover Hill Farm
Potatoes – Jack’s Farm
Pork Chops –  M&M Creek Valley Farm
Chives – My Garden
Onions – Clover Hill Farm
Green Beans – Jack’s Farm
Wine – Chaddsford Winery, Spring Wine
Non Local – Olive oil, salt, pepper.

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 9a

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We’ve gotten rather ahead of ourselves with One Local Summer, so I’m going to double up this week with two posts to get back on track. Sometimes we just cook local meals by default and then I forget what week we’re on and things all go crazy. I figure doing extra local meals isn’t a bad thing and since we made them, I might as well share them! So, here’s a catchup post and in two weeks I’ll be all caught up, I hope.

We dug into the freezer for this one and found a Bison roast. Husband rubbed it down with freshly ground pepper and salt and put it on the rotisserie on the grill. While I realize it may be blasphemous to red meat eaters, the end chunk was cooked nicely well done (brown the whole way through) but was still tender and DELICIOUS. Also cooked on the grill were those skewers with zucchini and tomatoes, covered in olive oil, salt, and pepper, then there’s a cucumber salad with red wine and vinegar, and finally the salad bowl just like every week, with the same mix of greens and vegetables. It all came out great, and we found a local Cabernet Sauvignon to pair with the dinner.

Ingredients:
Radishes –  Full Circle CSA
Turnips –  Full Circle CSA
Mushrooms –  Oley Valley Mushrooms
Lettuce Full Circle CSA
Cucumber – Clover Hill Farm
Tomatoes – Clover Hill Farm
Bison – Backyard Bison
Zucchini – Clover Hill Farm
Wine – Sand Castle Winery, Cabernet Sauvignon
Non Local – Salt, pepper, olive oil, homemade vinegar

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 8

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MORE PORK!  Yes, we’re big fans of the pig meat, but this meal was so filling that I only managed to make it through about half of that chunk of meat on the plate.  It’s probably the fault of the overflowing salad bowl, but that’s the way I like it!  I’m always doing  salad prep while husband is out running the grill, so sometimes I get a little overzealous, today being no exception.  In the salad bowl is lettuce, turnips, radishes, mushrooms, cucumbers, and carrots along with the same not-local-but-homemade dressing we’ve been using.  It’s just olive oil, homemade vinegar, and a little bit of red wine, but it works great and is simple enough to not overpower the awesome vegetables in the bowl.  Going around the plate we have a Ham Steak which was really really great – cooked up nicely on the grill, rubbed with pepper, salt, and a little maple sugar.  Then there are steamed green beens with sea salt, and a cucumber salad made by soaking the cucumbers in vinegar, red wine, and a little crushed pepper.  We cracked open a bottle of our homebrewed PA Maple Reserve which is actually all local except for the yeast – local cider, local maple syrup, all fermented into a really delicious wine.

Ingredients:
String Beans – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Jack’s Farm
Radishes – Full Circle CSA
Turnips – Full Circle CSA
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Lettuce – Full Circle CSA
Cucumber – Clover Hill Farm
Ham Steak –  M&M Creek Valley Farm
Maple Sugar –  Miller’s Maple
Wine – Homebrewed PA Maple Reserve with Maple syrup from Miller’s Maple and cider from Linvilla Orchards
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil, homemade vinegar

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 6

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Well I really have no reason to cook since the husband enjoys it so much and I find it such a chore.  That said, I did help out this week by making the spaetzle!  We had bought a spaetzle maker (basically a slotted metal plate like a cheese grater with an open-bottomed container that slides across the plate) but hadn’t tried it out yet, and this week seemed like a great opportunity to use it and fill in some space on the plate!  We followed the recipe on the spaetzle maker package which gave us a really thin batter, but I’ve tried it once now and know what sort of consistency to shoot for.  Also on the plate is a pork rib roast, cooked on the rotisserie on the grill, covered in maple sugar, salt, and crushed pepper and brushed with homebrew amber ale, vinegar, salt, and pepper while on the rotisserie.  Then we have bacon wrapped asparagus, a bowl of cucumbers with salt and pepper and vinegar, and a nice glass of Blaufrankich from Chaddsford Winery.  Everything came out AMAZING and made for a really nice dinner.

Ingredients:
Pork Rib Roast – M&M Creek Valley Farm
Asparagus – Clover Hill Farm
Spaetzle – Whole Wheat Pastry Flour from the Mill at Anselma and butter from Handmade by Abby
Bacon – Countrytime Farm
Cucumber – Clover Hill Farm
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Wine – Chaddsford Winery
Non Local – homemade vinegar, salt, pepper, homebrew amber beer

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 4

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Another wonderful week of local food!  We’re getting some awesome vegetables ripening, and strawberries are ready for picking.  We’re probably a week ahead, even after the very long, late winter, mostly thanks to a TON of rain in April and then three weeks of full sun.  We could use the rain now though, but it isn’t stopping our local providers from having some great food for us to enjoy.  Husband and I worked together on this one – he did the main plate and I worked up the salad.  We have a pork butt steak cooked on the grill, rubbed with maple sugar, salt, and pepper and marinated in malt vinegar.  Then there are carrots with a touch of maple syrup, another chunk of homemade gouda with milk from a local farm, and cucumbers in vinegar with salt and pepper.  In the salad, we have DELICIOUS strawberries over a bowl of mixed greens and snap peas, dressed with an olive oil, wine, and homemade vinegar dressing.  To finish things off, there’s a glass of homebrewed peach ice wine.

Ingredients:
Port Butt Steak – Countrytime Farm
Cucumbers – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Jack’s Farm
Cheese – Milk from Birchrun Hills
Strawberries – Charlestown Farm
Mixed Greens – Jack’s Farm  and Charlestown Farm
Snap Peas – Jack’s Farm
Maple Syrup – Miller’s Maple
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Wine – Paradocx Barn Red
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, Homemade vinegar, Homebrewed peach ice wine, olive oil

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2014 – Meal 6

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Another meal cooked by the husband.  How can you tell he’s cooking?  There’s beef on the plate.  It’s just not my thing, but it is husband’s thing, and he’s learned to cook beef just the way I like it (VERY VERY well done) so I’ll eat it when he’s around to cook.  This week, he found a neat coffee chocolate spice rub at the market which really changed the flavor.  I do find a HUGE difference between grass-fed from the market and non-specific beef from the grocery store, so that makes it a little more palatable.  I’d still prefer chicken or turkey or pork over beef any day!  Anyway, getting on with things, we have corn fritters again, made with the same pickled peppers that I had canned summers prior.  They’re really becoming a house favorite, and we’ve even been putting them on the grill for an extra crisp crust on the outside.  In the back, there’s canteloupe, then a slice of Soltane bread topped with Tomme Mole.  The bread isn’t locally sourced, but it is locally made, so we’ll allow a little leeway here since it’s SO good.  The bowl in the back has cucumbers and tomatoes with some onions, oil, and vinegar.  I could easily eat the whole container we made of that, they were so good.  To drink, there’s a beer from Armstrong Ales, a  local brewery.  So, everything (even the not-completely-local items) was sourced very locally and made for a great meal in some great weather outside!

Ingredients:
Porterhouse Steak – Bendy Brook Farm
Corn – Hoagland Farm
Flour – Mill at Anselma
Onion – Brogue Hydroponics
Tomatoes – Brogue Hydroponics
Cucumber –  Brogue Hydroponics
Canteloupe –  Brogue Hydroponics
Bread – Soltane
Cheese (Tomme Mole) – Birchrun Hills
Peppers – Our Garden
Non Local – Salt, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, java rub, beer