Eat Local Challenge: Week 11
When it comes to souvenirs, the ones I collect from my summer travels disappear quicker than a sand castle on a busy beach. I love searching for “local produce” signs on my trips and collecting whatever is in season. Right now I’m in Virginia on a quick family weekend enjoying local peaches, corn, and tomatoes. Later in the month, I’m traveling to the Pacific Northwest. I’m dreaming of the spectacular landscape, but just as excited to see what the farmers markets will provide for dinner.
HOT ITEMS OF THE WEEK:
- raspberries
- corn
- tomatoes
ON THE MENU:
Day 1
On a recent rainy evening, I craved soup. I had some random ingredients to use up and decided on a lentil soup with vegetables, so I combined recipes from a few different sources. The result was so tasty that my son and I ate several bowls (too bad my husband was away -no leftovers here!)
The base of the recipe came from Red Lentil Soup with Lemon and Summer Squash Soup with Basil and Parmesan (I added carrots, lentils, fresh corn, yellow beans, and used turkey stock) from Annie Wayte’s Keep it Seasonal. I highly recommend this book (given to me by Cuizoo) for its spectacular photography, as well as delicious and simple seasonal recipes.
Day 2
Stir-fried garden beans - These beans are so good, Michele told me that she shamelessly licked the sauce from the bowl.
Day 3
Michele used her own local sun-gold tomatoes from her patio pots to make scrambled local egg wraps with sauteed Tait chard and shredded Three Belle Cheddar. Now, that’s local!
Day 4
Baked eggplant parmesan with pasta from Hill’s Plaza farmer’s market, and eggplant from Village Acres Farm.
Day 5
Mark Bittman’s More Vegetable than Egg Frittata from Week 8. I used potatoes, fennel, kale, onion from Village Acres, corn from Way Fruit Farm, and mixed it with eggs and local Spring Bank Acres cheese. I served this with beet and carrot pancakes.
Day 6
Sunscreen? Check. Boogie boards? Check. Fish tacos with local ingredients? Check. Katie and her family were at the beach last week and made fish tacos with bluefish that she bought at a local fish market caught that day. She bought the cabbage and onions at the State College Friday market before she left for vacation. She paired it with her tomato, mozzarella, onion, and basil salad (all fixings from the State College market).
Day 7
Family vacation in Virginia brings local food from various regions onto the table. For this dish, we had Virginia ham, corn from Springdale Farms in Cherry Hill, NJ, and salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce) brought in from my sister’s garden in New Jersey.
BREAKFAST OF THE WEEK:
The morning after I attended a Dave Matthews Band concert (headed by Farm Aid board member Dave Matthews - my first inspiration for eating local) in Syracuse, NY, I stopped in Ithaca, NY at the Ithaca Bakery for hazlenut coffee and a sunrise sandwich (bagel with farm fresh egg, avocado, red onion, pepper jack cheese). Ithaca Bakery is obsessed with local - they even have a local market at their bakery each Thursday.
SNACK OF THE WEEK:
Baba Ghanouj with eggplant from Village Acres Farm. Serve with fresh pita bread, chips, vegetables, or spread on sandwiches with apples.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 1:32 pm 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.
