Category Archives: Food

Planning for Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 9, 2013 by AnnieRie

I know many people make reservations and go out to celebrate Valentine’s Day. To me, the crowded restaurants, rushed service and the push to turn over the table make for a less than pleasant experience. We prefer to stay home and have far better food at a fraction of the cost. From celebrations past, some ideas to have an in house dinner with minimal fuss (unless you want to cook, like I do).

My personal favorite. Chocolate and wine.

Last year we shared a Biale Zinfandel and dark chocolate with chili. This was after a fairly simple dinner. Salad with a fruit based vinaigrette. You can pick all of the ingredients up at Roots or Harris Teeter or Wegmans, including a good cheese, and baby beets. Or, whatever you like. Romantic looking, isn’t it? This was local cheese and butter lettuce from Mock’s. We bought the cheese and the lettuce at the Silver Spring farmer’s market, but you can get something just as nice in the stores mentioned above.

Dinner could be simple, or more complicated. I usually pan sear some sort of steak or lamb. This year I will be doing rack of lamb, picked up at Boarman’s, but you could just get a couple of petit filets and get them done fairly quickly. Here is the plate from our anniversary of lamb shops and potatoes. Fast, not that hard, and so good. Seared in a hot pan, then transferred in the pan to the oven to finish.

Or, pick up a few crab cakes at Boarman’s. And, a few stuffing mushrooms. This recipe is easy to do as well.

Take the stems out of the mushrooms. Spread a little Dijon mustard in them. Use two large mushrooms per crab cake. Drizzle with a neutral oil like canola or grapeseed. Sprinkle Old Bay on top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, until brown.

You can serve these with small potatoes like the ones above in the anniversary dinner picture. Boil them in salted water for 15 minutes, or nuke them (I still occasionally nuke potatoes even though they don’t come out as nice as boiling and finishing in a pan or the oven).

We almost always stay home for major events and anniversaries, and indulge in fancier foods and really nice wines. There are lots of places around here to also pick up good already made foods. Really good sushi, maybe. Or, shrimp steamed to your specifications.

We like putting music on, maybe satellite radio or a CD. Light a few candles. Share a split of sparkling wine, or open an old red wine. Break out the good napkins and just do nothing but cook, relax and enjoy an evening with food, wine and music we chose.

Think about getting something to serve at home, even if it is something already prepared. But, you can make it simple. It is really nice to put together that salad, pop the crab cakes in the oven, and then savor that chocolate with a glass of wine.

hocofood@@@

4 Comments

Posted in Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, holidays, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wegman's, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Downtown

Posted on February 8, 2013 by AnnieRie

Our downtown. Glenelg/Dayton. Not EC, or Columbia. The hub of west county, or at least the circle. A typical Friday afternoon. For us, a few quick errands before the weekend. Stamps. Gas. Money. Liquor. A movie. What else do you need? 😉

The circle at Ten Oaks and Triadelphia is always hopping. Day or night. The pictures are from last spring, when the trees had leaves, I know. Between the Ten Oaks Tavern, the TRI pizza place, Bistro Blanc, the Subway, and the Royal Farms, you can always find food and drink.

You also can get money from the ATM, hit the post office, the pharmacy, the cleaners, Redbox, the Old Tyme liquor store and run into at least one person you know somewhere in your stop there.

Today we hit the post office, Royal Farms for gas and money, and the liquor store to look for a liqueur for my Valentine’s Day dinner. Actually, I am looking for pastis. They had absenthe, but no pastis. I am recreating a meal from Provence for Valentine’s Day and hoped I wouldn’t have to drive to Ellicott City to find Pernod or Ricard.

No luck on the pastis, but we did have a fun encounter with another patron. He saw my purple fleece turtleneck and my black fleece jacket, and asked. Are you a Ravens fan? After all, maybe football season is over, but I still like purple Fridays.

I said yes, and he pulled out his phone and showed me his new pictures. The first one. The Vince Lombardi trophy on a table. A few pics later, our new acquaintance holding the trophy. It seems he was one of the bus drivers who picked up the Ravens at the airport on their way back from the Super Bowl. They all got to hold the trophy and get their pictures taken with it.

I knew Eyre drove the Ravens. You see the buses at the facility occasionally, and you got to see them on TV before the parade Tuesday as they shuttled the team from the stadium to City Hall. Can’t miss the logo. Travel on Eyre. The company sits right behind Ten Oaks Tavern. Another local Howard County business that is doing well.

You never know what you will encounter “downtown” in west county.

Have a great weekend. Spend some time at one of the events or markets around the county. Breezy Willow farm store maybe? Conservancy? Ellicott City Sunday Bakery event?

hocoblogs@@@

Redefining Local

Posted on February 7, 2013 by AnnieRie

For fifteen months now I have been blogging, mostly about being a locavore. I started out during my challenge to eat locally, by considering only locally grown items. I finally decided that this was unrealistic for me.

Locally grown, locally produced, or locally sourced. That’s my priority now. Beyond that, either organic or as natural as possible. Real food. Food made from scratch.

Things not grown here in Maryland, ever, like olives and most citrus, most spices and chocolate, I agree, are part of my cooking and won’t be avoided. I just try and maximize the local ingredients, and I support our local farms and markets. I buy from them, even the things they sell that they brought in from outside the state.

What has that meant? I shop rarely at grocery stores, and then, only for items not available at local markets, shops and farms. I shop organic as much as possible. I make many items from scratch, using fresh ingredients.

I also don’t eat at chain restaurants, or eat fast food, unless we are in the middle of a turnpike with no other options. I can’t believe how differently I approach dining out. And, how I now cook.

My freezer is full of local veggies, fruits and meat. I shop at farms weekly. I pick up staples and organic items at the grocery stores, usually Wegmans or Harris Teeter these days and very little of my food budget goes to them.

For my winter eat local challenge, I find that I don’t actually eat one meal a week that is local, but rather, I cook almost every meal with something local in it. Most of the time, the local items outnumber the others.

I know this isn’t easy to do, unless you have the time to do it. I really appreciate what our moms did, 50 years ago. Cooking from scratch every day. Eating in season. Stretching the food budget.

I see quite a few people doing the same as we are. Going back to basic cooking. Not eating all those overly processed foods from institutional food services. Not a bad way to spend time.

Bake a few brownies from scratch. Put a crock pot meal on the table. Spend time in the kitchen, instead of a restaurant lobby with a pager. Not a bad idea.

Check out that grill. Everything on it locally sourced. Easy as it can be.

Here’s to really good food. Made with love.

hocofood@@@

8 Comments

Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, grilling, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Young at Heart

Posted on February 6, 2013 by AnnieRie

At least that’s how I feel these days. Even though at times the body tells me I am doing too much. I was putting items of interest onto my calendar. Volunteer naturalist training. Habitat restoration. Wonder walks. Program committee meetings. All at the Conservancy.

Add to that the bird club events, programs, and the Great Backyard Bird Count coming up the weekend of the 16th-17th of February.

There’s Greenfest, Earth Day and mixed in with all the rest there are cellar dinners, get togethers, luncheons, and family commitments.

I can’t believe a year has passed since I was getting ready for neck surgery. Thankfully, that is behind me and I am filling our social calendar with possibilities of days out and about. It may be the last month of winter, but things are getting busy. This weekend besides the Ray Bosmans event at the Conservancy Saturday, on Sunday there is the first event at the Little French Market in Ellicott City with River House Pizza selling wood fired pizza.

If you think retirement means days passing time sitting at a senior center playing cards and getting your blood pressure checked, think again. There is so much more out there to do in Howard County. Oh, and I almost forgot. We are having a much anticipated bloggers and friends party at Union Jack’s on February 26th. Check out the link and sign up if you want to meet many of the bloggers on my Blogs I Read page, and from hocoblogs. I may be one of our oldest bloggers out there, but still, I insist that retirement is my second childhood and I will definitely be enjoying myself.

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Birds, Community, Food, Hobbies, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Nature, People, Retirement, Volunteering and tagged birds, community, Food, foodie, hoco loco, hocoblogging, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, nature, real food, retirement, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

My Super Bowl Chili Recipe

Posted on February 4, 2013 by AnnieRie

Yesterday before sitting down to watch the Super Bowl, I put up a quick post without the recipe for my venison chili. This time it had less local items in it than I normally use, but I wanted to try these products out. I also have been trying different spice combinations and different textures for the chili. The first batch of chili I made in December when we got the venison delivered.

This time I put everything but the venison in the crock pot set for eight hours on low. I wanted to brown the venison in a pan on the stove with spices and add it halfway through the cooking. The venison is very finely ground and really almost disappeared in the earlier version. Venison is such a lean meat, I am learning how to treat it to get the best flavors.

I also played around with the ingredients. I used the last of a bag of sweet corn from the freezer as well as using a frozen jalapeno and grated carrot.

I started out with a can of Rotel diced tomatoes with cilantro and lime as a base. Added 12 ounces of tomato sauce from my freezer (made in August from my Amish tomatoes). Added one green pepper, bought at Roots. Added one large onion, diced, one of the last of my CSA sweet yellow onions. Put about six ounces of the sweet corn in, too.

Then, I got to grating, one small frozen carrot and one frozen blanched jalapeno.

The carrot adds that touch of sweetness. The jalapeno, grated, allows you to determine how much heat. A frozen jalapeno can be grated using the zester, and you can avoid all the seeds if you wish.

Use the tip of a knife to scrape all the jalapeno “zest” into the pot. I then added a large can of organic black beans with their liquid. My spices this time omitted cinnamon. I used chili powder, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne and white pepper. Lots of garlic powder this time. I also used cilantro. And, of course, salt to taste.

I let all of this cook for four hours. In order to thicken it up, I took out some liquid and mixed a tablespoon of corn starch in it,then returned it to the pot. This is what the pot looked like before I added the corn starch, and before I added the venison.

The venison went into a large pan to brown. A touch of grapeseed oil to keep it from sticking. Add garlic powder, salt and pepper while it is browning.

I strained it before adding it to limit the amount of fat in the crock pot. The chili when it was almost ready to serve looked like this.

My husband liked this version better than the first version in December. He specifically requested that I don’t use cumin or cinnamon, but keep it on the simpler side of spice.

But, he also suggested that I next time I should try using chipotle. After all, you can always tweak a good chili recipe.

hocofood@@@

3 Comments

Posted in CSA, Food, Locavore, Real Food, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Eating Locally: The Big Game

Posted on February 3, 2013 by AnnieRie

Yep, Super Bowl Sunday. A local grazing meal. For my Eat Local Winter Challenge. Getting ready to watch the game. The venison chili is in the crock pot.

This is just a quick post of what we are serving. Details about the chili tomorrow. Besides the chili being mostly local (yes, the deer lived across the road from us), I am putting out some other local goodies to nosh on.

How about spicy sweet potato chips?

I baked quite a few chips to have sitting out while watching. As for the beer, it has to be Yuengling, from my husband’s home county in PA.

Dessert. Picked up at England Acres market today. Sugar cookies in Ravens colors.

Go Ravens! Off to watch the game.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, West HoCo, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Crab Cakes

Posted on February 2, 2013 by AnnieRie

From Boarman’s. A favorite to bring home. This time I decided to stuff their lovely PA mushrooms with the crab cakes.

Their crab cakes are a bargain at $4 each. We bought a few mushrooms too. And, a container of cherry tomatoes (which was a mistake as they have no taste). At least by putting them in the oven covered in Italian herbs, they were edible.

Simple dinner, except for making risotto. I love risotto. It is my comfort food. I made a simple risotto using some of the filling and the tops (sliced off to make them level in the oven) of the mushrooms. Onions, garlic, arborio, chicken stock and white wine.

Cooking risotto requires attention. Keeping the stock at the right level. Adding the proper amount of salt and pepper. I find it relaxing to make it. I added the mushrooms right at the end.

Served over a bed of arugula. And, accompanied by a lovely crisp 2011 Glen Manor Sauvignon Blanc.

Dinner worth way more than it cost me to make it. Oh yeah, it took time to make that risotto. Less time than I would spend with a beeper at a local restaurant waiting for a table.

hocofood@@@

The Sauce Boss

Posted on January 31, 2013 by AnnieRie

That would be me. Trying to perfect my tomato sauce. I would never have thought ten years ago to make my own sauce. Tomato sauce in a jar or can. Testing Bertolli versus Barillo versus Classico. Yep, that was me circa 1990s.

Now, I make it almost from scratch. I may use some pureed tomatoes from a can or the Pomi box. Depends on what I am doing.

Yesterday I was in the mood for spaghetti. I decided to raid the freezer and cook up some sauce.

Blanched tomatoes from the CSA. I know they will throw off lots of water. These are basic tomatoes. Blanched, peeled, seeded and frozen. To make good sauce from these, you need to thicken it. Yesterday I used some paste and a can of Muir Glen organic tomato puree. I wanted to make a thick rich chunky meat sauce.

I started with two links of Boarman’s Italian sausage. One sweet. One hot. Put in the pot with onions and peppers. Onions from Breezy Willow. Peppers from Roots.

The sausage is cooked in olive oil. A little garlic powder and Italian herbs.

The frozen tomatoes are put in another pan with more garlic powder and herbs. You need to do it this way so you can drain off all of the water from the tomatoes. Here is what the tomato pan looks like at the end of the process. I had drained almost two inches of water out of it while I was working.

Note that if you had tried to make tomato sauce with frozen whole tomatoes, it would have been extremely watery. Here is a shot of the sauce pan, with the tomato puree, the sausage mix, and as I was adding tomatoes from the other pan.

This is the type of thick meaty tomato sauce that is perfect for lasagna, or as a filling for ravioli or shells.

The finished sauce.

Meat sauce this thick can be thinned with a little pasta water. I took some of it and thinned it out and served it over spaghetti. The rest will be used with some tiny shells as a lunch later this week.

I didn’t take pics of the dinner plate, but I want to show the killer wine we served with it. A 2002 Barboursville Barbera Reserve.

After all, I need to uphold my locavore image. Local wine in an Italian style. Ten years old. Lovely. As for making the sauce, much of it was local. It was almost completely organic. The pasta was organic, whole grain. Hitting most of those Sustainable, Organic, Local, Ethical (SOLE) buttons.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine, Winter Eat Local and tagged CSA, Food, foodie, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, tomatoes, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Decisions, Decisions

Posted on January 28, 2013 by AnnieRie

Summer CSA decisions. The Sandy Spring site went live today for summer sign ups. I have been considering a switch as I am doing the early bird spring Breezy Willow CSA, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do for the summer.

Sandy Spring has changed what they offer. They now offer a 60% share for those who don’t want all the veggies we get in a full share. No having to split a box anymore. For me, the drawback of that share is this simple fact stated on the web site. No exotic veggies in the 60% share.

If you aren’t into things like salsify, horned melon, black radishes, Jerusalem artichokes, tatsoi, and a myriad of other items, you now can get what I call plain Jane veggies and fruit. No strange herbs either.

We signed up today. Mainly because we like the challenge of strange veggies. I did a boatload of research before deciding. Looked at blog pictures, and read what was offered elsewhere in Howard County. In the end, the challenge won out.

It does mean I have two overlapping weeks between Breezy Willow and Sandy Spring. I may be taking things to the food bank. Or, doing a fair amount of freezing items.

I still will be buying Breezy Willow eggs, meat and ice cream at the farm or the market. I decided against fruit, egg and cheese shares from Sandy Spring, and will buy those items at the Howard County farmers markets, and at the farms themselves.

Besides, it looks like we won’t have the big garden this year. I need to build a new one that will get sunshine. Our current garden is now almost completely shaded. That means, buying tomatoes to freeze.

It is time to start planning for summer. Many of the local CSAs fill up quickly. Check out what is offered, and think about bringing locally sourced foods into your home.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore. Bookmark the permalink.

Eating Locally: Foraging in the Freezer

Posted on January 27, 2013 by AnnieRie

It is Sunday night. Time to post about our winter challenge. Cook a meal using mostly local foods, in the middle of winter. My cyber community linked on my food challenge page is doing OK. Not as much posting as we used to do, but people are still into sourcing their food from near their homes.

I went shopping in my freezer this weekend.

Oven dried tomatoes from my CSA this summer. Beef broth made earlier this month. Lovely beef short ribs from a trip to Breezy Willow a week ago. Add to it some celery from Olney market, carrots (not pictured) from Zahradka, an onion from England Acres and a can of organic black beans. Put it all in a baking dish. Add seasoning and olive oil.

Put it all in the oven on the slow cook setting for five hours. Somewhere near the end, put a loaf of Stone House Rustic Italian bread, out of the freezer, into the other oven to defrost and crisp up.

Serve it all with local wine and local butter. It looks wonderful, doesn’t it?

Mission accomplished. Another almost totally local meal in the dead of winter. The beans weren’t local. Neither were the seasonings. Other than that, it is a tribute to what you can do around here with farm stands, markets and the contents of your freezer.

hocofood@@@

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