One Local Summer - Week 4

This week I learned that I am terrible at cooking steak. I understand the theory and all (I've read my McGee and watched Top Chef contenders cook steaks in a variety of ways) but I have this deep-seated fear that it (all meat, really) will be underdone, so I tend to overcook it. Too many years as a vegetarian, perhaps. As this was my first attempt at cooking steak I should probably cut myself a little slack. It wasn't too bad, just a little tough.

I seared the steak and finished it in a pan with lots of butter. It is topped with sautéed oyster mushrooms and garlic scapes (cooked in the same pan as the steak so there were plenty of butter and fond) and the sides were English peas (briefly boiled and buttered) and mashed redskin potatoes (with butter and milk.) Dessert was mango lassi frozen yogurt from local artisan ice creamiere Jeni's.

Non-local ingredients were salt and pepper.

Steak from Long Meadows Grass-Fed Beef in Utica, Ohio (44 miles)
(Here's an article about Ed and Nancy and their beef.)
Mushrooms from Toby Run in Bellville, Ohio (~50 miles)
Garlic scapes from Just This Farm in Galloway, Ohio (~24 miles)
Potatoes from H-W Organic Farm in Sullivan, Ohio (~85 miles)
Milk and butter from Hartzler's Dairy in Wooster, Ohio (~88 miles)
Ice cream from Jeni's at the North Market (ingredients weren't local, but Jeni is our local ice cream star (small batch artisanal ice creams, sorbets and frozen yogurts) so we feel no qualms about including all of her works in our local diet. My waistline owes at least an inch to her!)

One Local Summer - Week 3

It's that time again! No picture this week, as I was hungry and dinner was a little less than lovely. Tonight's OLS meal was a stir-fry of veggies and mushrooms with one breast of chicken (shared between two people.) One of my goals is to reduce our meat consumption, which has gone up a little since we discovered humanely-raised local meat. Being able to stretch one small chicken breast (really a half-breast) into one meal is a good thing (I have managed to make one feed four before, in a stew or curry with plenty of veggies. Grandma would admire my thrift!

Anway, on to the dinner! The stir-fry included snow peas, garlic scapes, early carrots (SO good!), rainbow chard, asparagus tips, green pepper, mushrooms (shitake and yellow oyster) plus the chicken. Only the seasonings were non-local (soy sauce, black bean paste, ginger, sesame oil.) I meant to serve it over (local) soft wheat berries, but it was so hot I couldn't bring myself to boil water. Dessert was a strawberry granita (local strawberries and non-local sugar) which is a wonderful thing on a hot day!

The first strawberry of summer!

I took photos of this strawberry. I tried to make them nice photos. I used different lighting. I took great pains to avoid getting the clutter of my house in the background. And now my computer (the one with the photo software) won't boot. Grrrr.



Instead I present you with a crappy cell phone photo of the event. In the interest of full disclosure, it wasn't really the first strawberry of summer. It was more like the fifth or sixth. But you get the idea. The furry individual is Mr. Grey, whose beatific image has graced this blog before.



Don't worry, I rescued the strawberry (and ate it) before Grey could tear it apart with his razor-sharp-claws-that-need-a-trim. Silly cat, you're a carnivore!

I went to the Westerville Farmer's Market this afternoon, and Bird's Haven Farm provided me with strawberries and a couple of cucumbers. I also picked up few bunches of radishes and a whole chicken (a small and leggy Rhode Island Red) from my friends at Frijolito Farm. The radishes will soon meet some butter and salt and bread (if you've never tried this I recommend that you eat some RIGHT NOW; it is an amazing flavor combination, no matter how weird it sounds) and the chicken will become coq au vin, or rather poule au vin, since I think it was a hen.

Yesterday I expanded my cooking repertoire by making chicken cordon bleu (chicken from Speckled Hen, ham from Blues Creek, garlic-herb cheese from Meadow Maid) with scalloped potatoes, steamed asparagus, and velouté sauce. My chicken pounding and rolling skills are a little lacking, but it was still quite tasty (although a fair bit of the cheese escaped during cooking. Bad cheese!) Monday I spent the day making chicken stock, 8-10 quarts of it. I was out of onions (gasp!) but I tried to make up for it with chives and leek tops. It's pretty tasty, though not as amazing as the stuff from North Market Poultry.

Now I must go eat some more strawberries. Looks like berries, granola and yogurt season has officially started! (Now only if I had bought granola today, and supplies for making yogurt! Ah well, that will be on the agenda for next week.)

One Local Summer - now with button!

(I just learned how to put the link into the button. The real trick will be doing it twice!)