Homegrown Happy Valley

Some comfort food—soup, breakfast for dinner, and spaghetti and meatballs—as we yearn for the sun to come back on a regular basis. What did you do with your local food for the Eat Local Challenge this week? Leave a reply and let us know!

HOT ITEMS OF THE WEEK:

• asparagus
• strawberries
• zucchini makes its first appearance

ON THE MENU:

Day 1

Ten Minute Asparagus and Brown Rice Recipe

• I make a double batch for lunches for several days - this is one of my family’s favorite ways to eat asparagus. The recipe calls for frozen brown rice from Whole Foods. Since we don’t have a WF here, I usually make extra rice for other dishes and freeze it for quick meals like this. I’ve done this recipe with sunflower seeds as well - very tasty!
• The asparagus and garlic scapes are from Village Acres and I substituted green onions from the farmers market for regular onions.

Day 2

Burgers, kale chips, pasta salad, and salad

• Blue Rooster ground beef for the burgers with New York horseradish cheese from Meyer Dairy
• Homemade burger buns
• Anne Quinn Corr’s Spring Pasta Salad with Asparagus - I didn’t have morels, but I added walnuts
• Kale chips
• Tait greens

Day 3

White Bean and Swiss Chard Soup (adapted from The Whole Foods Market Cookbook)

• 1 T olive oil
• 3 green onions from Village Acres (white parts only, reserve the green to top), chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 zucchini, chopped (zucchini from the Boalsburg Market)
• Around 28 oz. crushed tomatoes (leftover from last year - but you could used canned)
• 7 cups water or stock (I used stock that I had from a Village Acres chicken)
• 1/8 cup dried italian herbs
• 3/4 cup dried great northern beans, rinsed
• 1/3 cup brown rice
• 3 cups washed and chopped Village Acres Swiss chard leaves and beet greens, heavy stems removed

In a large pot heat olive oil. Saute onions and garlic. Add tomatoes and water/stock, dried herbs, and dried beans. Bring soup to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Simmer the soup for about 1 hour or until beans are tender. Stir in rice and Swiss chard, other greens. Continue simmering soup for about 15 minutes until rice is cooked. Add salt & pepper to taste. Shred parm cheese on top.

Day 4

French toast, strawberry/rhubarb/applesauce, whipped cream

• Cut large slices of Gemelli’s challah bread and dip in egg and milk mixture (eggs from Village Acres, milk from Meyer)
• Cook in a cast iron skillet (for better flavor)
• Top with Cuizoo applesauce and whipped cream from Meyer Dairy

Day 5

Spaghetti and meatballs

• 1 pound Blue Rooster Farm ground beef, mixed with Villag Acres chopped basil, scallions, rosemary and one egg
• Roll into one inch meatballs and cook in heavy pan over medium heat, turning to brown the outside (about 10 minutes)
• Add meatballs to tomato sauce (Katie used frozen sauce she’d made from CSA tomatoes last year) and simmer over low heat for 45 minutes
• Mix with whole grain spaghetti
• As a side, mixed greens with radishes and strawberries

Day 6

Tamale Pie - Katie’s variation of Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites recipe (Moosewood is a restaurant co-op in downtown Ithaca, NY, known for its innovative vegetarian cooking.)

• Warm olive oil in saucepan and add onions (scallions), chard and spinach. Cover and let cook until greens are wilted.  Add cumin, coriander and two tablespoons of water, stir in 2 cups crushed tomatoes and green chiles (Rotell) and one can garbanzo beans, simmer for 10 minutes and remove from heat.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Place veggie mixture in a 2 quart casserole dish lightly coated with cooking spray.
• Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups Three Belle’s Cheese (Monterey Jack goat cheese) over mixture
• Topping: combine 3/4 cup cornmeal, 1 tablespoon flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda in a bowl.  In a separate bowl mix 2 beaten egg whites, 1/2 cup buttermilk and 2 teaspoons oil.  Fold dry and wet ingredients together and pour over veggie mixture.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until top is golden brown.

Day 7

Over the Moon Roasted chicken, roasted potatoes from the Boalsburg Farmers Market in olive oil, Rhubarb Apple Sauce and Tait field greens

SNACK OF THE WEEK:

Way Farm strawberries (picked from the field) and locally made apple dumpling from their farm store

DESSERT OF THE WEEK:

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream made with Village Acres berries and Meyer’s milk

TIP OF THE WEEK:

Keeping Greens Fresh

I have two salad spinners that are in constant use in my refrigerator. The smaller spinner is for leafy greens like spinach, arugula, etc. But the large spinner always houses salad greens. As soon as I get home from the market, I chop (if needed) my salad greens and put them in the spinner, rinse/spin (the spinning part is fun for my almost five year old), dump the water, and then store them in the spinner for the week. They stay fresher, longer in there—and it’s easy to grab salad throughout the week because it’s already cleaned and ready to go.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 8:25 am and is filed under Eat Local Challenge, Farm, Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.