day 1 did not end well. after caving in, starving, to a cider donut (the cider was local and the donut was made locally), we ordered pizza for dinner (again, a local joint, not dominos). like how i'm justifying all this? i'm not trying to do that, really. it's just much harder than i imagined.
i didn't prepare well enough this weekend. i'm hoping the rest of the week goes better. i had an all local breakfast. snacks were all local. lunch was leftover potato salad with potatoes from my csa and homegrown herbs--tossed with not-at-all-local mayo... but it was leftover and it needed to be eaten and i was in a hurry this morning.
also throwing me off is that i work at a food magazine and we're testing recipes for our next issue. i can't not taste them, they're new recipes, so i knew this was never going to be perfect. but alas. tonight is local chicken (which will help with lunches and meals the rest of the week) with some local roots. should be delicious and get us on track for the rest of the week.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Day 1 of the Eat Local Challenge
So, yesterday was supposed to be Day 1 of the Eat Local Challenge. But Saturday, a behemoth zucchini called to me so I made a batch of Chocolate-Zucchini Muffins. I work up yesterday and ate one. Most of the ingredients weren't local, and quite honestly, I wasn't mentally prepared for the Challenge yet, so I decided I'd start today.
Let me start off my saying that almost all the produce I eat is local (at this time of year at least). Most of the meat is. I exclusively buy local eggs. But I wanted to see if I could go the extra mile and only eat locally for the week. The group that organizes this effort locally plays by "Marco Polo rules"—i.e. anything MP carried on his journey, like spices, were fine. They also allow up to 5 wild cards per person. Well obviously coffee was one of mine!
The local localvores also had a kit you could buy with some basics. I picked mine up yesterday. It was packaged really nicely and had dried cranberries, Maine sea salt, sunflower oil, apple cider vinegar, wheat berries, black beans, oats and flour, all in a nice canvas bag. I defrosted a chicken I thought we'd roast for meat throughout the week and cooked up some wheat berries and black beans. I skipped my regular favorite bread for a whiter version from the same bakery that was all-local, bought a 1/2 peck of apples from a local orchard plus a pint of Italian (but locally-grown) plums.
I thought it would be easy but honestly it's just like dieting. You want what you can't have and you have to spend time to prepare. The chocolate zucchini muffins were on the counter this morning and I wanted one (but didn't have one). I made a wheat berry & black bean salad with leftover grilled veggies (from my CSA) this morning for Dan & I for lunch.
I have no idea what we're having for dinner--I'll most likely be at work too late to roast the chicken and Dan won't be home until 6:30 either. I used almost all our summer vegetables for dinner last night. My CSA pickup isn't until tomorrow and all I have for veggies are root vegetables, which I'm not really in the mood for. I'll scare something up.
Let me start off my saying that almost all the produce I eat is local (at this time of year at least). Most of the meat is. I exclusively buy local eggs. But I wanted to see if I could go the extra mile and only eat locally for the week. The group that organizes this effort locally plays by "Marco Polo rules"—i.e. anything MP carried on his journey, like spices, were fine. They also allow up to 5 wild cards per person. Well obviously coffee was one of mine!
The local localvores also had a kit you could buy with some basics. I picked mine up yesterday. It was packaged really nicely and had dried cranberries, Maine sea salt, sunflower oil, apple cider vinegar, wheat berries, black beans, oats and flour, all in a nice canvas bag. I defrosted a chicken I thought we'd roast for meat throughout the week and cooked up some wheat berries and black beans. I skipped my regular favorite bread for a whiter version from the same bakery that was all-local, bought a 1/2 peck of apples from a local orchard plus a pint of Italian (but locally-grown) plums.
I thought it would be easy but honestly it's just like dieting. You want what you can't have and you have to spend time to prepare. The chocolate zucchini muffins were on the counter this morning and I wanted one (but didn't have one). I made a wheat berry & black bean salad with leftover grilled veggies (from my CSA) this morning for Dan & I for lunch.
I have no idea what we're having for dinner--I'll most likely be at work too late to roast the chicken and Dan won't be home until 6:30 either. I used almost all our summer vegetables for dinner last night. My CSA pickup isn't until tomorrow and all I have for veggies are root vegetables, which I'm not really in the mood for. I'll scare something up.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Wednesday's Dinner
Last night was all about keeping it simple--but it was so stunning and colorful. At the cabin last weekend, I pulled up some basil and made pesto. I grilled a couple summer squash and chopped tomatoes from the CSA, supplementing with some from our own pots. I tossed all that with ravioli and served it with grilled Mad River Grain bread (the.best.bread.ever). The yellow squash, green pesto and red tomatoes was picture-perfect (of course I didn't take a picture...)
Frost threatened last night but I was hopeful we wouldn't get any. I did harvest any close-to-ripe tomatoes and tomatillos and pulled up the basil from the tomato pots. We were able to bring our herb pots inside, but wanted to protect the spinach, chard and kale seedlings (we just replanted our boxes a few weeks ago). On our porch was an egg crate mattress topper I had posted on Freecycle. The guy had missed 3 pick-up times and Dan and I looked at each other and knew that it would provide awesome insulation. Dan cut it in half and we covered the 2 larger boxes with the pieces, strapping it to the boxes with our canoe straps (my, aren't we handy?) A recycling bin went over another box and a fleece blanket over another.
But the tomatoes--we have like 8 or 10 tomato and tomatillo plants in pots and there was no way we were covering them, let alone hauling them in the house at their present height. Super pysched that the frost skipped our town last night, thanks frost!
Frost threatened last night but I was hopeful we wouldn't get any. I did harvest any close-to-ripe tomatoes and tomatillos and pulled up the basil from the tomato pots. We were able to bring our herb pots inside, but wanted to protect the spinach, chard and kale seedlings (we just replanted our boxes a few weeks ago). On our porch was an egg crate mattress topper I had posted on Freecycle. The guy had missed 3 pick-up times and Dan and I looked at each other and knew that it would provide awesome insulation. Dan cut it in half and we covered the 2 larger boxes with the pieces, strapping it to the boxes with our canoe straps (my, aren't we handy?) A recycling bin went over another box and a fleece blanket over another.
But the tomatoes--we have like 8 or 10 tomato and tomatillo plants in pots and there was no way we were covering them, let alone hauling them in the house at their present height. Super pysched that the frost skipped our town last night, thanks frost!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
This Week's CSA Pick-Up
I've been writing Facebook notes about my CSA and decided to do something a little more formal. Here it goes!
this week's pickup was stellar again. i scored:
a bunch of cilantro
2 pounds of heirloom tomatoes--i got some that look like the red version of green zebra plus some larger red ones
1/3 pound salad greens
3/4# tomatillos
a rutabaga (!)
2 pounds potatoes
a cantaloupe
2 summer squash
6 ears of corn
a head of cauliflower
a green pepper
3 amazing red Italian frying peppers
1 cuke
those frying peppers were incredible. i actually kept the seeds to try saving them for next year. they look similar to cubanelles but are intensely sweet. i used them tonight--i caramelized an onion from last week's pickup, adding the red pepper at the end along with a slivered huge clove of garlic i picked up at the farmer's market. i made a pizza on the grill, which i think i've not mastered to my liking (see more below) with sliced tomatoes, grilled chicken sausage, the sauteed peppers/onion and some fresh local mozzarella. we also had a salad with a cuke and more tomatoes.
the corn has been stellar--i actually had some friends over last weekend for dinner and had some of the csa corn and some other corn from a farm near work and kate traded her farm-near-work ear for a csa-ear! and we've been getting 6 ears a week for several weeks--we've been really lucky.
so my new pizza technique: i've been making the Easy Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough, which is SO EASY to roll out. I use half the dough for a pizza. I grill one side directly on the grate, then flip and top. I've been cooking the heck out of it on the second side, which makes it really nice and crispy and mottled. DELICIOUS!
this week's pickup was stellar again. i scored:
a bunch of cilantro
2 pounds of heirloom tomatoes--i got some that look like the red version of green zebra plus some larger red ones
1/3 pound salad greens
3/4# tomatillos
a rutabaga (!)
2 pounds potatoes
a cantaloupe
2 summer squash
6 ears of corn
a head of cauliflower
a green pepper
3 amazing red Italian frying peppers
1 cuke
those frying peppers were incredible. i actually kept the seeds to try saving them for next year. they look similar to cubanelles but are intensely sweet. i used them tonight--i caramelized an onion from last week's pickup, adding the red pepper at the end along with a slivered huge clove of garlic i picked up at the farmer's market. i made a pizza on the grill, which i think i've not mastered to my liking (see more below) with sliced tomatoes, grilled chicken sausage, the sauteed peppers/onion and some fresh local mozzarella. we also had a salad with a cuke and more tomatoes.
the corn has been stellar--i actually had some friends over last weekend for dinner and had some of the csa corn and some other corn from a farm near work and kate traded her farm-near-work ear for a csa-ear! and we've been getting 6 ears a week for several weeks--we've been really lucky.
so my new pizza technique: i've been making the Easy Whole-Wheat Pizza Dough, which is SO EASY to roll out. I use half the dough for a pizza. I grill one side directly on the grate, then flip and top. I've been cooking the heck out of it on the second side, which makes it really nice and crispy and mottled. DELICIOUS!
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