Tag Archives: eat local

Friday free-for-all

Posted on April 19, 2013 | 3 Comments

All things go in cycles — for quite awhile there, my writing was very food-centric, almost to the exclusion of anything else.  My concerted effort to post more on the bicycling-side of things perhaps worked too well, as my food-related posting feels a bit sparse of late.

I blame this in part on my slightly blah feelings on cooking in general, as I’ve been feeling unmotivated and [finally] a bit tired of eating primarily from our frozen and root-cellared stores.  After a number of months, it began to feel like the same food all. the. time.

Fortunately, spring is here (today’s blustery weather notwithstanding), and abundant fresh, local produce is just around the corner.  We’ve already had a few small spinach harvests (from the plants that grew under the low tunnels all winter), and I can’t wait for more.

In the meantime, I finally caved and bought a head of broccoli at the grocery store.  That broccoli is the first non-garden, non-local produce (other than onions, garlic, and frozen corn and peas) that I have bought in I don’t know how long.  It’s easy to focus on the [still many] foods that we don’t grow ourselves or buy local, but in reality we’ve taken some pretty big steps to lighten our food footprint.

Back on the biking side of things, after debating whether it was worth thirty minutes in the car to meet a Craigslist seller (to buy a life jacket for Sir’s upcoming beach trip), I contacted the seller to set things in motion.  Rather then me going to her (over six miles away), she suggested a meeting point conveniently located about two miles from us.

I happily ditched the car for a lovely (though windy and chilly) bike ride and returned home with a worn-once (looks brand new) life vest.  Sir approved the purchase and happily wore the vest for the rest of the morning (you never know, our second story apartment could flood — better safe than sorry!).

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He’s carrying the pump for my exercise ball, which he pretends is a vacuum cleaner (complete with cute sound effects).  Something about the life vest and pump-vacuum combination makes me think of Ghostbusters, though I can’t say quite what, having only watched the movie once, a long time ago.  For those of you more familiar with the movie, does my association make any sense?

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Posted in Biking, Food

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Risotto gets a makeover: Easy and healthy

Posted on March 14, 2013 | 5 Comments

In my recent post on lunches, I mentioned risotto, with the promise for a recipe soon.  I had to look back through my archives to make sure I hadn’t already shared the recipe here.

Turns out, this was NOT the first time I mentioned my risotto method — the previous instance occurred over two years ago, in December 2010.  At that time, I also said I would post the recipe, yet a search of my archives shows zero risotto recipes.  Let’s call it pregnancy brain, shall we?

If you’ve been waiting over two years for my top-secret-easy-and-healthy risotto recipe, I do apologize.  If you’ve only been waiting since last week, think how good you have it!

The secret to my risotto is using oat groats instead of the traditional arborio rice.  Though they sound like something a horse (or a goat?) might eat, oat groats are simply the whole oat grain — what they steam and flatten to make rolled oats.  It looks like a wheat berry.

So, why use oat groats?  Well, nutritionally, you get the health benefits of whole grain oats, with a good serving of heart-healthy fiber.  While this is not a fat-free, or even necessarily a low-fat recipe, the natural creaminess of the starch in oats produces an effect similar to arborio rice, and you can have a very rich tasting dish without having to add too much fat.

While oat groats take just as long, if not longer, to cook than arborio rice, they require less babying.  Traditional risotto has you standing at the stove stirring the whole time, gradually adding small amounts of hot broth every now and then.  With oat groats, after toasting the grain for a few minutes, you can toss in the broth, bring it to a simmer, cover it, and walk away.  Sure, you’ll have to come back every now and then to give it a stir, but it’s not a big deal.

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Butternut squash and asparagus risotto

Recipe by Melissa

Ingredients*
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced leeks (or sub. diced onions)
2 T. butter
2 T. olive oil
1 1/2 cups oat groats
5 c. vegetable broth
8-12 saffron threads
1-2 c. cooked butternut squash
2 c. asparagus pieces
1 c. frozen peas (optional)
salt (to taste — amount will depend heavily on how salty your broth is)
1/3 c. nutritional yeast
1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesean cheese

Directions
Melt butter over low heat in large sauce pan.  Add leeks, and cook gently until softened, 10-15 minutes.  Add olive oil and 1/2 t. sea salt.  Add oat groats, increase heat to medium, and cook for 5 minutes to lightly toast the grain.

Add 3c. broth and the saffron — broth can be hot or cold, but if you start from hot, it will speed things up a bit.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer while covered (the oat groats will need to simmer for a total of 60-90 minutes).

After 20 minutes, add the butternut squash.  You want it to dissolve into the risotto, adding to the depth and richness of the dish.

At this point, the risotto should be thickening nicely.  You may need to stir it a bit more frequently now.  Add the nutritional yeast, and more broth if necessary.

After 60 minutes of simmering, check tenderness of the grain, it should be chewy, but tender.  If it’s close to ready, add the asparagus and peas.  Maintain a gentle simmer for 10-15 more minutes.  When vegetables are tender and cooked through, remove from heat and stir in the grated Parmesean cheese.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

*Ingredient variations are pretty much endless. The picture above is actually a sun-dried tomato and leek [oat groat] risotto, originally mentioned here.

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Lunches for the week

Posted on March 7, 2013 | 1 Comment

As I put away our leftover honey beans on Monday night, I happily realized that the fridge held enough leftovers to provide lunches for the rest of the week.  That knowledge removes the pressure to continue making big, leftover-yielding dinners, buying me an easy night or two of sandwiches, pasta, or leftovers for dinner instead of just for lunch.

In order to keep track of all the leftover goodness and avoid food waste, I grabbed a piece of scratch paper and sketched out our lunches for the week.

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The full lunch menu — most of the veggies in the dishes are locally grown:

Monday: Kale quinoa quiche with a side of squash
Tuesday: Black bean soup w/avocado and tortilla chips; side of collard greens
Wednesday: Rotini w/red sauce and sauteed eggplant, ‘shrooms, and squash
Thursday: Polenta topped with black-eyed peas, collards, and sundried tomatoes w/a side of roasted sweet potatoes
Friday: Honey beans, whole wheat bread w/olive oil, sides of squash and kale

On the top half of the page, I brainstormed dinner ideas based on what we had to use and what types of food (i.e., rice, lentils, tofu) we haven’t eaten in awhile.

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Our fridge full of leftover goodness (and a huge hunk of rising Danish pastry dough, second shelf from top, on the right).  A bit crazy, but I have a pretty good mental map of what is where, and this is nothing compared to high gardening season when we’re truly overflowing with fresh produce.

In case you were wondering, I have yet to use my “coasting” dinner (many weeks I don’t — it’s just nice knowing I have a cushion, if necessary).  Tuesday night I made risotto (recipe coming soon) and Wednesday night I made a variation of my Persian stew, with lentils instead of chickpeas and [garden!] cabbage instead of cauliflower.

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Foodie Friday: Eating local in late winter

Posted on March 1, 2013 | 3 Comments

‘Tis the season for the annual, “What does a locavore eat in the winter?” post.  Quite a long list of things, actually.

We have our root cellared veggies: squash, sweet potatoes, and potatoes.  Then we have our canned tomatoes and tomato sauces, along with a small quantity of canned green beans.  Frozen garden goods include carrots, summer squash, eggplant, sweet (and hot!) peppers, beets, Swiss chard, kale, and sun dried tomatoes.  Oh, and let’s not forget the fresh carrots (from the low tunnels) and leeks (just out in the open) that we’re still harvesting!

We’ve supplemented our fresh and preserved produce with cruciferous veggies from farmers’ market: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and some delicious Brussels’ sprouts.  Those items are on their way out though, so pickings will be a bit slim until spring.

We supplement the local food with onions and some store-bought frozen veggies, including peas and corn.

So, those are the raw ingredients in my kitchen.  Here are some recent creations:

  • Vegetable upside-down cake with our carrots, peppers, herbs, and garlic; local cauliflower; and frozen peas and corn
  • Farinata with carmelized onions and a side of roasted winter squash
  • Black bean soup with our sweet potatoes and peppers
  • Baked potatoes with tempeh and sides of canned green beans and roasted beets
  • Split pea soup with our carrots and potatoes
  • Masaman curry with local cauliflower, our carrots and potatoes, and frozen peas
Sautéing veggies for black bean soup

Sauteing veggies for black bean soup

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be attending a vegetarian potluck tonight.  The theme is “colors of the rainbow.”  I’ll be making a winter squash dish or a roasted sweet potato dish — or perhaps both.  Any way you slice it, my color will be orange!

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Posted in Food, Garden, Green Ideas

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Browns’ Green Garden delivery service

Posted on February 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

Matthew has continued selling limited quantities of winter squash to Five Bistro throughout the winter.  For previous deliveries, he dropped by on his way home from the garden in the car.

For last week’s mid-week delivery, I loaded up the bike trailer, since we already had the produce at our place: fifteen pounds of squash and fifteen pounds of sweet potatoes.

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A flatbed trailer would be much better suited to hauling cargo than the child trailer, but I manged to fit the produce AND a passenger.

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With a squash on either side of him and sweet potatoes under his feet, Sir was a bit cozy on the way there (about 3 miles, I think), but he didn’t complain.  The delivery went smoothly and we visited a new park before heading home.

Here’s a recent menu item with our squash (in bold):

Benne‘sFarm half chicken,
Brown’s [Green] Garden buttercup pumpkin,
Ozark Forest oyster mushrooms,
Rissi Farm potato, braised napa cabbage,
bacon, grain mustard & pan jus

Fun to see our name on the menu (even if that’s not exactly the squash variety — I’m guessing they chose a simpler, more self-explanatory name for diners?)!

Amazingly enough, I’ve posted every. single. day. this week — pretty much a miracle.  The timing of this post is also amusing, given the inches of snow and ice currently covering our streets — I would not be attempting this delivery today unless I could get there on foot!

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Posted in Biking, Garden

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