Homegrown Happy Valley

Growing up, July 4th meant celebrating my sister’s birthday by eating breakfast at our local swim club. Friends and family members fired up the griddles in the picnic grove and filled them with their breakfast items of choice. My mother always made sourdough pancakes and blueberry buckle, my personal favorite. I couldn’t find my mom’s recipe, but this one worked out quite well.

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:

• tomatoes
• blueberries!
• zucchini

ON THE MENU:

Day 1

Cuizoo’s Curried Chick Pea and Red Potato Hash. So easy, so good.

Day 2

Steak Salad served with roasted beets with dill.

Using a sirloin steak from Blue Rooster Farm and a mix of salad greens from Village Acres and the Boalsburg and State College markets, I combined these two recipes (marinade and dressing).

Day 3

Ziti with spinach and grilled Cow-a-Hen Italian sausage, served with salad.

Day 4

Local trout (Elk Creek Fish Hatchery), couscous and fresh vegetables (usually what’s left from my CSA box).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and tear off 12 inch pieces of parchment paper (one for each serving).  Pour 1/2 cup couscous on each piece of paper and top with vegetables (I used snow peas, summer squash and scallions all from Village Acres).  Place fish cut into one inch pieces on top of the couscous and veggie mix and sprinkle with kosher salt, pepper, lemon and dill.  Add one pat of butter to each serving and drizzle with two tablespoons of water. Bring two ends of the parchment paper together and fold over tightly.  Take the open ends and twist each tightly so that the parchment paper forms a pocket holding the meal.  Cook for 20 to 25 minutes on a cookie sheet.  Open parchment paper packets to cool and serve.  Delicious and easy clean up!   

Day 5

Quesadillas with Tait spinach and local Pennsylvania Jack cheese

Mix sauteed spinach with black beans. Layer along with melted cheese between two tortillas. Serve with sliced avocado, sour cream, and salsa.

Day 6

Over the Moon burgers topped with SimplyRecipe’s Black Bean Salad, served with a side salad. (gluten-free!)

Day 7

Margherita Pizza (scallions, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil) made with homemade dough, served with salad greens, sungold tomatoes and cucumbers.

SIDE DISH OF THE WEEK:

SimplyRecipe’s Baby Bok Choy with Cashews. Michele used garlic scapes and regular sesame oil, and served with brown rice. Delicious!

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 8:58 pm and is filed under Eat Local Challenge, 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.