Tag: <span>mushrooms</span>

Tag: mushrooms

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 17a

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We got ahead of ourselves this week and had two local meals which is of course, never a problem.  Two years ago, I had made something very similar to this when I was home alone, which is why when husband suggested it as something new, I said OH that old thing, been there, done that, completely forgetting that he hadn’t!  So, here we have Philly Cheesesteak stuffed peppers which turned out great.  On the side are french fries with homemade fruit ketchup using peaches from our tree.  Next is a salad with blue cheese dressing and bacon.  Finally, to round out the dinner, Blackberry  wine.  The whole thing was delicious and disappeared quickly!  It made for great leftovers too, the mark of a really excellent dinner.

Ingredients:
Peppers – Charlestown Farm
Mushrooms –  Oley Valley Mushrooms
Onions –  Charlestown Farm
Blue cheese dressing – Birchrun Hills
Bacon – Countrytime Farm
Lettuce – Charlestown Farm
Tomatoes –  Full Circle CSA in salad, Clover Hill Farm in fruit ketchup
Chip Steak – Backyard Bison
Cheese – Yellow Springs Farm, Goatzerella
Potatoes – Our garden and Charlestown Farm
Non Local – Salt, pepper, olive oil, spices

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 13

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Home alone again, so I decided to try something a little fancier than usual.  Most of the recipes I use are really basic, and for a good reason.  I’ll admit it, I’m a lazy cook.  I like to be finished quickly and be stuffing my face full of delicious food rather than spend two hours creating something that’s gone in under 30 minutes.  I just don’t see the point!  (Some of you do see the point, and cooking is an art form, and that’s wonderful as I do enjoy eating such creations, but dude, the fact that I’m even actually cooking every week is such a big jump from when the microwave was my best friend, that making complicated dinners may never be my thing, and that’s cool too)  Such is the case with this meal.  I got the recipe from here, and it’s one of those ridiculous food blogs with more photos than actual recipe content (20 photos for a recipe that takes up only two pages).  Sadly, I was out of spaghetti squash from the neighbor, so I used the unnamed bumpy yellow generic squash that arrived along with the spaghetti squash the week prior.  Roasted that up in the oven while I prepped the crepes which were actually fairly easy.  Cooked up the mushrooms, combined them with the pureed roasted squash and a little maple syrup while the bechamel sauce cooked down.  BTW, you can halve the recipe for the sauce because it made half a pot full and I needed about maybe a cup’s worth for the amount of crepes the recipe makes.  It’s really absurd, the amount of sauce this made.  Anyway, after the crepes were filled, I crisped them up in the pan, popped them on a plate, drizzled on some of the sauce and called it done.  They were indeed delicious, but  took SO long to make, I’m not sure I’d do this particular recipe again (or, at least, skip the bechamel and just grate some cheese on them and call it done).  Also featured are some cheese, a nice juicy peach and another bowl of tomatoes and cucumbers as is become usual around here!

Ingredients:
Cucumber Full Circle CSA
Tomatoes Full Circle CSA
Flour Mill at Anslema, Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
Milk – Shellbark Hollow
Butter –  Handmade by Abby
Cheese –  Birchrun Hills, Red Cat
Mushrooms –  Oley Valley Mushrooms
Onions Clover Hill Farm
Maple Syrup – Miller’s Maple
Non Local – Olive Oil, salt, pepper

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 5

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Husband took the cooking reins again and grilled up a delicious dinner.  The veal tenderloin was marinaded in red wine, salt, vinegar, and freshly ground pepper and then cooked on the grill.  The spinach was steamed and seasoned with salt and a touch of vinegar.  The last thing on the main plate is a chunk of blue cheese that rounded out the palate of flavors on the plate.  In the salad bowl are mushrooms and snap peas over a bed of mixed greens, dressed with a mix of red wine, vinegar, and olive oil.  The wine is from Seven Mountains Winery and isn’t exactly local since it’s about 2.5 hours away, but it’s on the way out to my grandma’s house, so we consider it local since it’s a trip we would’ve made anyway, not a special trip just to pick up the wine.  It’s absolutely delicious with hints of honey and a nice, crisp dry finish.

Ingredients:
Cheese – Birchrun Hills, Blue
Veal Tenderloin – Birchrun Hills
Spinach – Jack’s Farm
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Snap Peas – Jack’s Farm
Mixed Greens – Jack’s Farm
Wine Marinade – Paradocx, Barn Red
Wine – Seven Mountains, Dry Riesling
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, Homemade Vinegar, Olive Oil,

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 2

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After last week, I knew that I’d be going with asparagus again.  Not wanting to just grill it again, I found a recipe for bacon-wrapped asparagus.  Well, bacon-wrapped anything is delicious, so this seemed like a fantastic plan.  The result is that the plate looks a lot like the one from last week with a few changes.  What can I say, when something works, it works!  Another salad (MMM GREEENNNSS, said like a vegetarian zombie), grilled mushrooms, that bacon-wrapped asparagus, and a chunk of bison sausage.  Finished off with a cool glass of water to end a yucky hot and humid day, and it was a great, easy, meal all cooked on the grill.

Ingredients:
Mixed Greens – Charlestown Farm
Red Leaf Lettuce – Charlestown Farm
Pea Shoots – Jack’s Farm
Bison Country Sausage – Backyard Bison
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Asparagus –  Hill Creek Farm
Bacon – Countrytime Farm
Cheese – Birchrun Hills (honey and sea salt cheese spread)
Non Local – Olive Oil, dressing

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 1

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This is our SEVENTH year of One Local Summer and it’s hard to believe it’s been that long already.  If you’re not familiar with the One Local Summer thing, it was a challenge started locally by Farm to Philly.  The basic rules were make one meal a week using only local ingredients allowing for exceptions like salt, pepper, and oil.  The challenge encouraged participants to visit farmer’s markets, farm stands, and get to know your local producers.  It reduces “food miles” (the amount of resources from gas to man hours spent on getting a product to you) which means less of a tax on the environment to make a meal, thereby reducing your carbon footprint.  I know that sounds a little hippie crunchy granola, but it makes sense.  If you can get amazing locally grown asparagus, why eat asparagus that was trucked in from California?  Plus, it supports your local economy and helps local, hard-working farmers who take pride in what they do and care about the crops/animals they raise.  Over the years we’ve found everything from butter to flour, beef and bison, eggs and an amazing array of vegetables, but there’s always something new to make!  It encourages us to eat healthy (free-range eggs, beef, bison, etc all are far healtheir for you than their commercially-raised quivalents) and be creative in the kitchen.  In fact, during the summer months, it’s fairly likely that all of our meals are 90% or more local at this point!  It’s become more of a way of living for us than just an annual challenge, but it’s still fun to concentrate on that one special meal a week that’s all local.

Explanation out of the way, our local farmer’s market, the Phoenixville Farmers Market, had their opening weekened on May 2nd.  It was SO nice to see our favorite vendors back for the regular season – you really get to know these folks, seeing them every weekend for so many years, and it brightens my week to see familiar smiling faces and have a quick chat with my favorite vendors.  Words can’t really accurately describe the wonderful little community we have in this market and I am truly grateful that it exists and has grown SO much.  I’m rambling on again, aren’t I?  That plate!  Okay, back on track.  Lots of greens!  Earlier on in the season, there are SO many delightful greens available (mustard greens, pea shoots, lettuce, bok choi) and I HAPPILY scoop them up to include in our meals.  Asparagus is another early season favorite, the mushroom guy grows year round in a climate-controlled mushroom house, plus the chicken (grilled with home-grown saffron on top!) which all made for  a really full plate for dinner.  It’s paired with a cool glass of homebrewed mead made with honey from local bees.  The whole thing was enjoyed on a warm evening on the patio, and it was just the perfect end to the day.

Ingredients:
Chicken – Deep Roots Valley Farm
White Trumpet Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Snap Peas – Jack’s Farm
Pea Shoots – Jack’s Farm
Mixed Greens – Charlestown Farm
Asparagus –Hill Creek Farm
Non Local – Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Balsamic Vinegar