Category Archives: Locavore

Last Minute Gifts

Posted on December 18, 2013 by AnnieRie

We’re a week away from Christmas. Six more shopping days.

Have you found the perfect gifts yet? How about a few locally inspired/small business/non profit suggestions?

Even some of the more unusual items. Like gifts of food, or a CSA membership. Or, head over to the Howard County Conservancy or Robinson Nature Center gift shops to pick up stocking stuffers.

How about toys made in the USA, that Clark’s Farm has in their gift shop? They are open Saturdays from noon to three. The Enchanted Forest book, maybe, as a gift to someone who grew up here and has memories of visits and parties there.

Specialty foods for the holidays? Like the handmade specialty sausages made for Copper Penny by Simply Sausage. If you go there this weekend, I may be fighting for those last packages of these treats. Particularly the chorizo and the kielbasa. Although I may be tempted by that Philippine longganisa.

The same chorizo that they make for Jaleo chef Jose Andres.

Other local options. Wine from Black Ankle, Big Cork, Elk Run, Sugarloaf, Old Westminster, Serpent Ridge, all wineries very close to us and whose wines are available not only at the wineries but at many local liquor stores.

Greenbridge Pottery is another local place where awesome items are crafted right here in the county.

Gift certificates to locally owned restaurants would be a nice present. How about Iron Bridge, Victoria Gastropub, Bistro Blanc, Aida Bistro and dozens more? Make a choice to give something local instead of a chain restaurant card.

Local farms like Breezy Willow have gift items, not just food, but crafted items like the alpaca woven clothing, felted soaps, RJs herbal soaps.

Ice cream. Cheese. Local honey. Jam. Jellies. There are hundreds of possibilities.

Support Mother Nature’s off Snowden Parkway for your birding friends and relatives.

Crunch Daddy Popcorn of Columbia for those who love traditional and way out there flavors of popcorn.

Anything else you can think of? I have given you ideas from places where I have bought gifts, or visited, or dined at. What else is out there that supports the local economy?

hocoblogs@@@

Fall CSA Week Six, The End is Near

Posted on December 12, 2013 by AnnieRie

Week Six of Seven. Next week is the last delivery. Just in time for Christmas cooking.

This was a very good selection of food. Almost all will work in soups and stews.

We got:
1 bag carrots
1 bag Yukon gold potatoes
1 bag sweet potatoes
1 bag garlic
1 bag watermelon radishes
1 bag red beets
1 piece celeriac
1 bag parsnips
1 container cremini mushrooms
3 leeks\
1 green cabbage

The bread this week was an Italian boule. Perfect for the chili I will be making this weekend.

I really enjoy these one pound loaves of bread. Lots of variety and just the right size for us.

I already roasted the beets and the radishes tonight, to use in salads. The root vegetables will keep. I have a large paper bag hanging from a hook in the garage, keeping the potatoes fresher longer.

Tonight for dinner I found a good recipe to use up last week’s cabbage.

A simple braised cabbage. Made with a small head of green cabbage, a sliced carrot, an onion, some chicken stock, salt and pepper. Roasted for two hours, covered with foil. Then finished for 20 minutes to caramelize. I served it with Copper Penny Farm garlic sausage.

Enough left for lunch, probably Sunday.

One more week to go, and two chickens coming next week. Here’s crossing my fingers that the winter CSA starting the end of January gets enough members for the MOM’s Jessup pick up site.

hocofood@@@

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Santa’s Little Helper

Posted on December 11, 2013 by AnnieRie

At least in our house, the major helper as I prepare for Christmas is right here.

Yes, it is the crock pot. Without it, trying to accomplish all the decorating, cleaning, baking, writing cards and wrapping presents would be quite a bit more complicated.

I have to admit, I didn’t use my old crock pot very much. With my long work hours, I wasn’t able to time things for them to be ready when I got home. They usually were mush after my eleven hours out of the house. Working in DC meant long days.

I have pretty much perfected the timing these days. Get everything out of the freezer by nine. Crock pot started before ten. A six hour cooking on high setting, with the warming function keeping dinner warm until we are ready to eat about six.

Soups are the best thing to make using items from my freezer. Add a jar of chicken stock, some tomatoes maybe, whatever protein works best and then fill in from the CSA veggies.

I have a tag in the blog. Crock pot soups. Lots of variations using some very basic items.

Any sort of greens from the CSA will make a very good base for soups. Like the kale from last week.

A pint of stock. A couple of ham bones from Copper Penny Farm. A couple of cans of organic cannellini beans. A few carrots, some celery and an onion. That’s all you need to make bean soup for dinner. Oh, salt, pepper, garlic powder.

If you get really busy during the holiday season, consider using that crock pot to make some rich flavorful soups. So far this week I have made three different soups. When the temperatures get down below freezing at night, soups, stews and chili are our favorite meals.

A collection of some of the best I have made.

Grandma’s Tomato Soup
Navy Bean Soup
Freezer Clean Out Sausage Soup
Venison Chili

The possibilities are endless. Break out that crock pot and make dinner the easy way.

hocofood@@@

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

It’s Been A Soup Sort of Week

Posted on December 10, 2013 by AnnieRie

Seems to be the norm this week to have soup for lunch or dinner. What with a second snowfall today.

At least we got the snow thrower some hours. I think it hasn’t been used in two years. My husband had everything done in about an hour this afternoon. All told, between the two storms we had about seven inches of snow on the ground.

It even brought the red bellied woodpecker up close to the house, something she rarely does.

While we were out there, the crockpot was on, with my latest version of cauliflower leek soup bubbling away.

The secret to my soup? Garam masala. It makes it much more complex in flavor.

The recipe:
1 small head cauliflower, broken into pieces
4 medium leeks, sliced, white part only
2 scallions, sliced
4 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, parboiled first
1 pint stock (I used turkey)
1 pint almond milk
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt

Everything in the crockpot except for the almond milk, for six hours on high, or eight hours on low. One hour before serving, I pureed most of the mixture, leaving about 1/4 of it in its chunkier form. After pureeing it, add the almond milk for the last hour to give it the creamy texture.

Tonight we dressed it up a bit.

I had a package of Copper Penny Farm mini chorizo in the oven on slow cook (250 degrees) for that last hour. Placed a few of them, with some of their juice, over the soup.

A mostly local meal tonight. Just the spices and the almond milk, not local. Warm, satisfying. It’s interesting how soup is one thing we love to have when the “weather outside is frightful”.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Birds, Farms, Food, Locavore, Nature, Weather, West HoCo, Winter Eat Local and tagged birds, cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, farms, Food, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, nature, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Spirit of the Season

Posted on December 7, 2013 by AnnieRie

Let’s start with the cookies, and then move on to the crafts fair and then to the winery. All in all, a busy weekend so far.

The cookie inspiration came from Rantings of an Amateur Chef.

I adapted it to use my butternut squash instead of pumpkin puree.

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

What you will need:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup roasted butternut squash
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup natural cane sugar, for rolling the cookies

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until creamy and smooth. This took a while as i hadn’t softened the butter enough. Add the roasted butternut squash, molasses, egg, and vanilla extract. Mix at medium speed until well combined.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, not all at once. I had about a cup at a time. Continue mixing until combined and it starts to clump up.

Refrigerate the cookie dough, wrapped in plastic wrap, for at least 1 hour. The dough can be chilled for 2-3 days. I chill mine overnight when I can. Because I made a double batch, I did divide it in half.

When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350° F. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the cane sugar in a small bowl or on a plate. Roll tablespoon-sized balls of dough in the cane sugar until well coated and place on prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10–12 minutes, or until cookies look cracked and set at the edges. I put two sheets at a time in the oven. Top and bottom third.

The cookies will still be soft. Let them cool on the baking sheets for 2-3 minutes after removing them from the oven, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. I made larger cookies and got about 30 of them per batch.

I made a double batch to take to the Conservancy. The holiday crafts fair, which was a huge success. Including some amazing crafts made by the children. Like this one.

I spent today assisting at the fair. Watching all the festivities and linking people with local farms for trees, and for holiday dinner items like beef and pork.

Then, we headed off to visit a new winery to try out some bubbly. Nothing like a good blanc de blanc to get you in the spirit.

Our first visit to Old Westminster Winery, and definitely not our last. What a wonderful family owned winery. Right up the road from Mt. Airy.

Just the beginning of the holiday season and already we are out and enjoying the festivities. Here’s to a few more weekends spent out and about.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Adventures, Community, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Wine and tagged cooking, farms, Food, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

CSA Pick Up Today

Posted on December 5, 2013 by AnnieRie

In short sleeves. Couldn’t believe it was 60 something degrees out there. Didn’t feel like fall, but we got our delivery of fall veggies today. Week Five of the Sandy Spring CSA, with the cooperative farmers’ contributions to our basket of goodies.

This is what we were supposed to get. I did make one swap.

One Bag Desiree Potatoes
One Bag Orange Carrots
One Bag Hamon White Sweet Potatoes
One rutabaga (I swapped to get an acorn squash)
Three Large Leeks
One Bag Curly Kale
Four Enterprise Apples
One Bag Scarlet Turnips
One Package Shiitake Mushrooms
One Package Portobello Mushroom Caps

Also this week, the bread was multigrain. And, my two chickens which come biweekly.

I like the bread option of this CSA. It has been one pound boules. Each week a different variety. So far my favorite has been the rye with caraway. We use these breads for dinner, with soups or stews.

I also am happy to see the mushrooms. I will be trying to duplicate Root’s market vegan mushroom pate with these.

I am glad to see only ten items this week. I can make headway on the backlog of greens in my refrigerator. It must have been a very good year on the farms, as week after week we have gotten very large amounts of each item. Signs of a good harvest, but somewhat daunting when you are not always home to cook. Due to Thanksgiving and dinners out, I have fallen behind a bit.

I think it’s time to slow cook a deep richly flavored veggie broth to tide us over the five week period with no CSA.

This week, by the way, had us getting new items. For us, at least. Enterprise apples are a variety we had never seen. One of them lasted an hour before my husband had it as a snack after yard work.

And, scarlet turnips. I don’t believe I’ve seen these before. They are supposed to be sweeter than the purple topped turnips we get. We shall see how they taste compared to our favorite, which is baby Hakurei white turnips.

Just to show how much I enjoy the diversity of our veggies, here is a picture of tonight’s dinner.

The radishes are from a few weeks back. Roasted with nothing but grapeseed oil on them, then finished with a little butter and garam masala. The greens, a mix of tatsoi and komatsuna, stir fried with scallions, tamari, and sesame seeds. Leftover Maple Lawn turkey. Having exotic veggies around the house makes cooking interesting for me. And, really good tasting for us.

hocofood@@@

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Turkey Lurkey

Posted on November 30, 2013 by AnnieRie

My mostly local Thanksgiving meal. Done tonight for just the two of us.

Pretty traditional this year. Roasted turkey. Green bean casserole. Mashed potatoes. Sausage dressing.

Every element of the meal had local ties.

Let’s start with our turkey. An eleven pound Maple Lawn Farm fresh “hen”.

Brined for sixteen hours in advance. I found a basic apple cider, salt, brown sugar, orange peel, bay leave, garlic, rosemary and water brine.

Roasted at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, and 90 minutes at 350 degrees. Trickling Springs butter under the skin. Grapeseed oil rubbed over the top, and a poultry mix sprinkled everywhere.

Really moist turkey this year. The right amount of time in the brine, and it wasn’t overcooked. I have a crock pot full of bones, skin and the innards, with a couple gallons of water, which will cook all night to make stock.

Side dishes this year. My take on classics, but revved up a bit.

Mashed potatoes included goat cheese, butter and milk. These were CSA potatoes, a mix of Yukon Gold and white potatoes.

I made a green bean casserole using Breezy Willow’s beans. Blanched them first, then put them in a casserole with some organic condensed cream of mushroom soup I got at Roots. Half of the container became the base for the gravy. The onion on top the beans was a CSA yellow onion that I roasted yesterday until it was crispy. It added flavor without all that breading and greasiness the canned onions have.

The dressing was simple. Bread cubes mixed with turkey stock (I started the stock early today, using only the innards and water, celery, carrots and scallions. Cooked up about 4 ounces of Boarman’s homemade country sausage and mixed it in. A little sage, salt and pepper. Baked alongside the green beans.

Complementing the meal, a Finger Lakes Pinot Noir. 2007 Konstantin Frank.

Really a soft wine. Glad we opened it. It is just starting to fade a bit.

All in all, just enough food. I didn’t go overboard on anything other than making just a bit too many potatoes.

As for leftovers, I have two cups of shredded turkey to make a soup. One leg to use for a lunch salad next week. One complete breast for a salad or dinner. A couple of thighs for another dinner.

Keeping it local. Supporting small businesses. I may not have shopped today, but I did pretty well.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, CSA, farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Small Business Saturday

Posted on November 29, 2013 by AnnieRie

For those of us who avoided Black Friday, and spent time doing things around the house, instead of standing in line at the mall, we have tomorrow to participate in the “Small Business Saturday” campaign.

For me, most of our time is spent in small businesses. Not just tomorrow, but most days we try and spend more of our money supporting local retailers, services, farms, and restaurants.

Where could you go tomorrow in and near Howard County that you might not have thought as a source of goods or services?

Christmas trees. Available at Gorman Farm on Gorman Rd. TLV Tree Farm on Triadelphia Rd. Greenway Farms on Rte. 144.

Meats for the holidays. Clark’s Farm. Copper Penny Farm. Maple Lawn Farm. Breezy Willow Farm. TLV Tree Farm. England Acres. Boarman’s Market. Wagner’s meats. Treuth Butcher.

Breads, cakes, cookies and more. How about Atwater’s in Catonsville. The Breadery in Oella. Great Harvest in Columbia. Bonaparte in Savage.

Shop Main St for gifts. Not just Main St. in Ellicott City, but in Sykesville, Mt. Airy, Laurel, Savage (The Mill), Catonsville, and in New Market.

Or the new Turf Valley Towne Square.

Support family owned restaurants instead of the chains. Buy gift certificates to them for your family gifts.

Think outside the (big) box (stores)! How about Mother Nature’s, or Crunch Daddy popcorn?

Or Maryland wine?

At Clark’s farm, check out the toy selection, of items made in the USA.

There are probably many more ideas, for Christmas shopping selections.

Keep our local businesses solvent this season.

hocoblogs@@@

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The Thanksgiving Basket

Posted on November 27, 2013 by AnnieRie

In CSA terms.

We got an email Monday, letting us know what might be there. So we could plan. The final tally wasn’t far off.

We got:
Butternut Squash
Yukon Gold Potatoes
Beauregard Sweet Potatoes
Turnips
Green Cabbage
Red Leaf Lettuce
Arugula
Lacinato Kale Hearts
Celeriac

All of us got those. The boxes also had three items that may have varied from box to box.

In my box:
White Cauliflower
Parsnips
Rutabaga

I swapped the rutabaga and parsnips.

Partially because there was a bag of arugula in the swap box, and I dearly love arugula. And, I wanted more leeks to make a cauliflower leek soup. There were leeks in the swap box too.

The swap box is a wonderful thing. Want to double up on something? Or, not feeling the love for an item. Swap it.

Today, though, I was really enjoying the large amount of greens. We are eating salads with lunch and dinner, so we go through quite a bit of greens. I just finished the last of the Love Dove Farms arugula, and had one head of salanova lettuce from last week left.

I really like the looks of the red leaf lettuce.

Besides these fresh veggies for the holidays, I got my weekly loaf of bread. This week it was a classic French boule.

Before heading over to Columbia and the CSA site, I stopped in Boarman’s to get my Maple Lawn turkey, and my order of sausage and oysters.

This will be a serious cooking weekend.

Making an Oysters Rockefeller Casserole, and sausage dressing with my turkey. Friday night, our personal Thanksgiving dinner. You know, that dinner made with what you want to cook.

Happy Turkey Day!

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Posted in CSA, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, CSA, farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food, traditions. Bookmark the permalink.

Thanksgiving Eve Eve

Posted on November 26, 2013 by AnnieRie

The calm before (and during) the storm. The ice and snow and rain and sleet and whatever storm.

Pretty dismal today, and the same for tomorrow. But, tomorrow, I have lots to do.

Pick up the turkey at Boarman’s. The Maple Lawn turkey, along with sausage for dressing, and oysters for stew.

My menu for our meal (Friday night) is oyster stew, salad, turkey, dressing, green beans and a whipped potato/turnip dish.

After getting the turkey, it is off to pick up the CSA box.

We got an anticipatory email, telling us what we might get, but with all the weird weather, we may have lots of substitutions.

Tonight we enjoyed a hearty crockpot soup.

This is my take on the vegetable soup (With smoked shank) that inspires crab soup.

How did I make it?

1 smoked shank from Boarman’s
1 package frozen green beans from last summer
1 pint stock from the freezer
1 jalapeno
1 baby bok choy shredded
3 large scallions
1 pint frozen tomatoes
1 can Navy beans
salt, pepper to taste
1 pint water

20 hours on low in the crockpot. This was one intensely flavored soup. Served tonight with the last of the rye bread from the CSA.