Monthly Archives: February 2014

Really Great Customer Service …

Posted on February 12, 2014 by AnnieRie

… begins and ends with communication. And, accommodation. And, great products.

With crazy weather approaching, we wondered “How will Friends and Farms get our weekly items to us?”

We shouldn’t have worried. We got emails this morning, linking us to the updated page about inclement weather. Followed a few hours later with more information.

Do you want to come in tonight to pick up? Extended warehouse hours. Facebook pictures of staff filling extra baskets for those of us who pick up tomorrow.

We got there at 4:15. Lots of people there. Efficient drop off of bags and name taking. Extra staff shuttling baskets out from the warehouse.

Communication that bread wasn’t available as The Breadery delivers the morning of pick up. Do you would to come in over the weekend, or get two loaves next week?

I got home and noticed, in the insulated bag, my quick frozen green beans were missing. Popped off an email.

Got a response back in ten minutes from Tim, one of the founders. Apologies and choices. Did I want to pick up this weekend with the bread, or have it held until next week?

Since I want the bread for Sunday breakfast and for the egg salad I want to make for the weekend, I am popping over to pick up.

What did we get though? A winter “CSA style” basket is definitely regional, and definitely seasonal.

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Hydroponic Bibb lettuce. Grown in high tunnels in the winter. Hamlin oranges from Florida. These juicy oranges are perfect for making salads. Like my fennel and orange salad. One humongous cabbage. There will be “blind pigeons” next week. My MIL’s recipe, using some sausage and ground beef mixed, with rice and some of that really flavorful tomato puree we got.

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We also got two large red onions. Again, my go-to onion for salads. These are firm and fresh. So much nicer than what I find in the grocery stores.

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Grape tomatoes to make a Bibb and tomato salad. Eggs (which I now get weekly instead of milk). My favorite Amish yogurt, which I now get biweekly (substituted this instead of the biweekly eggs others get).

I love the customization flexibility. I really enjoy the variety of the meats.

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This week there was a “breakfast” meat. Fresh turkey sausage. The main source for beef, pork, and lamb we have been getting is Wayne Nell and Sons near York PA. We also got two rib eye steaks, perfect for a Valentine Dinner. And, chicken.

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This week, boneless/skinless chicken thighs. I am thinking of all sorts of things to make with this chicken. Freebird is just awesome. You can enter your package code and “meat” the farmer who raised this chicken.

Really happy with Friends and Farms, enough to write about them often. We just renewed our subscription for 13 weeks.

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Tuesday Night in Turf Valley Towne Square

Posted on February 11, 2014 by AnnieRie

Before the snowmageddon being forecast. We went out to meet friends for dinner.

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Facci has lots of company now along the main street in the newly developed “Towne Square”. Last spring I blogged about the anticipated center, built between Marriottsville Road and the Turf Valley resort properties.

With Facci there closer than Maple Lawn. Grille 620 closer than Stanford Grill for steaks. Xitomate now open for good Mexican. Red Parrot for Asian.

And, of course, Harris Teeter, for getting all those supplies before the snow hits.

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We heard some news from Gino, who was bussing tables and visiting, that Pisco, his Peruvian restaurant, will open sometime in April.

That should be a welcome new ethnic restaurant over by Trader Joe’s and Costco.

We also heard that Facci will be adding a roll back roof on the outdoor seating and a few new surprises in design.

It just keeps getting better for dining out options, out here.

By the way, Tuesday night is half price selected wine bottle night there. And, happy hour daily from 3-6 includes half price appetizers.

The highlights of tonight’s dinner included very nicely made calamari. Hand made pasta, a pappardelle with a Bolognese sauce. Dessert, hazelnut gelato with espresso and whipped cream, shared.

After dinner, we hit Petite Cellars to grab a box of Italian pinot grigio, and off to Harris Teeter for some rolls for sandwiches, coffee for the Keurig, and some cream of coconut for some baking I want to do. No toilet paper or milk or loaves of bread.

They were doing a brisk business tonight with people getting ready for the snow. Will this be another bust, or will we really get snow?

Glad to see crowded parking lots and many people enjoying the new center.

hocofood@@@

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Heading Back Out There

Posted on February 9, 2014 by AnnieRie

Putting together my spring calendar, in hopes of the weather changing. As usual, the Howard County Conservancy and my volunteer work will keep me busy for the next few months.

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How?

A hike and lecture this Tuesday. For naturalists and potential new volunteers and our friends.

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A lecture on the history of Belmont. The site over in Elkridge that the Conservancy will be managing. Where there will be events and summer camp and future field trips.

Saturday the 15th, we are celebrating the lunar New Year with a free event highlighting Chinese and Korean traditions to celebrate. 10 am.

Naturalist training begins in a few weeks. Field trips in April and May. I can’t wait to get outdoors and look for emerging signs of spring.

That’s because I am so tired of winter.

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The Peanut-iest

Posted on February 8, 2014 by AnnieRie

Sometimes it’s those little local items that bring fun into cooking. Like those Virginia raw peanuts we got in this week’s basket from Friends and Farms.

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Raw peanuts. This isn’t the first time I have used raw peanuts in cooking. A few years ago I got peanuts out at the Common Market in Frederick and made peanut brittle.

This time, I decided to use the peanuts to make spiced nuts. I roasted them. Spread them out on a pan and added molasses, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and Old Bay.

I didn’t take pictures this time. But, they taste great, even if they are a little messy looking.

Great snack while watching the Olympics.

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Just A Small Basket

Posted on February 6, 2014 by AnnieRie

That’s all it is supposed to be. But, it is filled with large flavor. And some really fun surprises.

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There are the usual winter veggies and fruit. Like potatoes, apples, Swiss chard. There is an interesting cheese, a Weissa Kase, from an Amish farm.

Breadery Bread. This week we chose Montana white.

This wasn’t an egg week, but I just modified my basket to make eggs an item instead of milk. The biweekly eggs will become that luscious rich yogurt. I love the flexibility to customize what we get.

Protein this week. A sirloin steak and a couple of beautiful tuna filets.

I already made them for dinner tonight, along with some of the green beans from a few weeks back.

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It was pretty simple. Pan fry the steaks with some sesame seeds and salt and pepper, in olive oil. Steam the green beans. Add a few sauces.

My favorites this week, though, are the edamame. And, the peanuts.

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The Virginia raw peanuts. Ready to be roasted. I am torn between making peanut butter, saving them for making granola, and being really bad and making “Peanut-tella” aka a Smitten Kitchen recipe. Using cocoa and powdered sugar. The only other thing I need to make this is peanut oil, which I can easily find.

Who knows what I will do with the peanuts?

We also got egg noodles, and some frozen corn. Not a bad haul for the middle of winter.

Meal planning is dynamic and fun, thanks to Friends and Farms.

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Ice Isn’t Nice

Posted on February 5, 2014 by AnnieRie

In the ongoing saga known as the winter of 2014. Now, we get ice.

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It was close to half an inch on every surface around our house. Now, as I write this, the wind is howling. I hope not to hear the CRACK, THUD we heard all day today.

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Only a fraction of the evergreen damage. Our property is surrounded by mature pines, spruce and fir trees. 20-30 year old trees. These by the driveway were many of the Christmas trees bought with the root ball and planted after the holidays by the original owners of this house.

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The tops still looked fragile, and the warming temps made us feel a little better. We have cleaned up huge amounts of branches over the nine years we have been here. It was nine years ago today that we moved our first things here and spent our first night out here.

Back then, we learned about the wind across the fields. How it blasts through these wide open spaces. How it is colder here than in Columbia. Whenever I venture into town, the temps in my car will rise 3-4 degrees sometimes.

Thankfully, my favorite tree, the lace leaf Japanese maple, is doing OK. Just don’t go near it, or the branches will crack.

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If it ever does stop raining, snowing, sleeting or freezing, we will have our hands full doing clean up.

Just another crazy winter week in the west parts of Howard County.

And, a lead in to reminding people to sign up for a very interesting program this Saturday night at the Howard County Conservancy. “Seeing Trees” — appropriate for what we are doing here. All of us “tree huggers”, and nature lovers.

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Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Posted on February 4, 2014 by AnnieRie

Ordinarily I am not a big fan of chicken breast. Usually too dry and without the taste that legs, thighs and wings have (at least to my taste preferences).

I tried a new technique for me, and made a very satisfying dinner tonight. Half the chicken in dinner, and the rest will become a chicken corn chowder base in a day or two.

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Made in a stir fry pan. Here is what I did.

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I had a pound of boneless chicken breast from our first Friends and Farms basket. I wanted chicken pieces that were moist. So, I started out with the chicken fat that had been skimmed off the stock I made with a whole chicken last week. I heated it up in the pan and added the chicken in strips and cubes. Let it cook slowly in the “schmaltz”. Pulled out the chicken and removed all the fat from the pan.

Put in my base.

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Remember that jam jar dressing recipe from last week? Made with maple yogurt and Dijon mustard. Well, over the weekend I made another batch right in the mustard container, using equal amounts of mustard and yogurt and adding the cider vinegar and oil in the appropriate ratio. I put some coconut milk in the pan, about six ounces, added two teaspoons of flour, salt, pepper, and a healthy squirt of the mustard dressing. Made a white sauce. Added about four ounces of my oven roasted cherry tomatoes, taken from my freezer. Put the chicken back after adding another couple of ounces of milk to get the consistency I wanted.

A little sprinkle of tarragon, and of paprika. Kept on a low simmer while I made some of the Pappardelle’s pasta from Secolari.

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I used about four ounces of the pasta that made two servings of pasta. Added about half the chicken mixture. That leaves me with half a pound of chicken to make the soup later this week.

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The finished dish. I was considering adding cheese, but it was fine all by itself.

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Served with a Maryland Chardonnay from Big Cork. The 2012 vintage. Perfect match to the creaminess of the sauce, this big chardonnay balanced the meal. The salad. Made with the Bibb lettuce from last week’s basket.

I have to admit. It is easy around here to eat locally, even in the dead of winter. The chicken. The tomatoes from the freezer. The schmaltz from a local roasting chicken bought last fall. The yogurt in the dressing. The lettuce. The wine.

I am glad we signed up with Friends and Farms for the winter. Gets me into making new dishes, and expanding my recipe collection.

Now I need to pull the frozen corn from the freezer and make that soup soon.

hocofood@@@

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Decisions. Decisions.

Posted on February 3, 2014 by AnnieRie

CSA decisions, that is. Community Supported Agriculture. Something I believe in and preach to all who will listen.

There are so many excellent choices for fresh produce here in Howard County. Finding the best fit, and using it wisely, is the challenge.

We first joined a CSA, with Sandy Spring, when they offered pick up where we volunteered. They used an Amish cooperative. We loved them. Organic. Veggies mostly. Reasonably priced. Convenient.

They didn’t get enough people to continue beyond the first year. We switched to a Columbia pickup.

I have tried and liked two other CSAs in the area. But, I love Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, because I love the challenge. The really exotic veggies. Veggies outside that narrow box we used to work in.

When life gives you bitter melon, you learn. Celeriac. Chayote. Salsify. Jerusalem artichokes. Kohlrabi.

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I stay with them because I like that challenge.

This spring and summer I will be doing a bit different mix. A half share from Lancaster Farm Fresh.

Plus, an individual basket from Friends and Farms. Because I like their meat, eggs, dairy, bread and staple items mixed in the basket. A rotation of items that works for a couple.

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Who needs grocery stores if you can get fresh seasonal items from regional farmers, fishermen, butchers, and entrepreneurs.

How things have changed for us. Buying from local farms and using these locally based suppliers for the freshest, natural, seasonal foods.

hocofood@@@

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A Super Weekend

Posted on February 2, 2014 by AnnieRie

And it had nothing to do with a very boring football game.

I did make spicy wings to eat during the game. We actually ate in the dining room since only one team seemed to have shown up to play today.

The rest of the weekend, though, was really quite nice. Good to see warmer weather before our next round of snow and ice and whatever.

We got to England Acres to pick up filets for Valentine’s Day, and some goodies for dessert (plus one to take to an upcoming Conservancy planning meeting).

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Today we had our library wine tasting down at Linden. Postponed from that icy Sunday in early December, we got to savor some really lovely old wines as a treat for hanging in there with a two month delay.

Who would have thought that a 1993 Virginia Chardonnay could still be good? Not just good, but having “fruit” left and structure. We tasted four Chardonnays, and four Hardscrabble Reds.

The Chardonnays show us that you can make wines that age well here on the East Coast of the US. We tasted the 1993, 2002, 2009 and 2012. All from the Hardscrabble vineyard. We them moved to the reds. The 1992, 1998, 2006 and 2010 Hardscrabbles. Last, a comparison of the 1997 and 2004 Late Harvest Vidal Blancs.

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Ninety minutes, where we conversed, tasted, asked questions and learned quite a few new things from Jim Law, the owner/winemaker at Linden.

My favorite. The 2009 Hardscrabble Chardonnay. One immensely intense yet elegant example of poetry in a bottle.

My other favorite today. The 2004 Hardscrabble being poured in the winery by the glass. Paired with some surryanna ham, and black and blue goat cheese.

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Jim tells us he will be having more of these small events. No release party this year. The 2011 vintage, damaged by the late weather events (who can forget Irene and Lee?), meant no single vineyard reds that year.

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We also found out about the building of the new “man cave”. A joking reference to the structure being erected just behind the winery. A heated space to work on equipment, from the winery and for vineyard maintenance.

We picked up a few bottles of the last of the Seyval. It was ripped out this year, to make space for more cabernet planting. The terroir there is better suited for Cabernet. Interesting to hear the changes coming in the future.

On our way home, we stopped in at Delaplane Cellars, near Sky Meadows State Park. Let’s just say, I want to live with this view.

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Oh, and the wines are very nice, too. Impressed with their “cinq trois”.

Now, time to get ready for the snow.

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