Category Archives: Real Food

Lunch At Early Mountain

Posted on September 23, 2013 by AnnieRie

Friday’s visit to Early Mountain was one of the highlights of this trip. We had never driven the three hours down to the winery, which reopened in 2012 after extensive remodeling and the change of ownership.

I kept seeing references to the winery, because of its unique “Best of Virginia” partnership program.

The chance to sample their wines, alongside wines from other prominent (and some not so prominent, but promising) vineyards, paired with excellent food, is what intrigued us.

Madison VA is not far above Charlottesville. Easy to access. The welcoming entrance sets the stage that this is someplace special, where you can relax, enjoy, linger and not feel as if you are drowning in hordes of people winery hopping (something that makes many wineries in Northern VA unpopular with us).

The inviting entrance area, full of sofas, a few tables, and lots of places to unwind, is what sets this winery apart.

Add to that, the back terrace, with its huge fireplace. Makes al fresco dining a joy.

I could have lunch here almost every week of the year and be happy. I like the changing menu and the changing wine pairings.

We started with a mixed sampler. Two cheeses and two meats. We each picked a different four wine sample. Love how you can mix, and match, the wines with food.

But, if truth be told, we went there specifically to try and buy Ankida Ridge Pinot Noir. Yep, Pinot Noir from Virginia. Ankida Ridge is really small. Their wines, though, are absolutely luscious.

We did buy some Early Mountain whites, as well as those Ankida Ridge goodies. We had a sneak preview of the 2012 Chardonnay. Elegant, really promising. A good year for white wine in VA, and this one is beautifully balanced. I purchased their dry Petite Manseng, their Pinot Gris, 2011 Chardonnay and their dessert wine for now. Nice wines.

Believe me, we will be heading back down when that lovely 2012 Chardonnay is released.

Anyone wanting to take an overnight from up here in Maryland, to the wine country around Charlottesville has to come here. It is worth the trip.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Hobbies, Locavore, Real Food, Restaurants, Wine and tagged Food, foodie, Locavore, VA wine, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Another Baker’s Dozen

Posted on September 19, 2013 by AnnieRie

Week 18 of the 24 week CSA. Thirteen items again in the box. A couple of fairly odd ones, and I didn’t swap anything.

We got:
1 head Bok Choy – Friends Road Organics
1 bunch Pink Beauty Radishes – Friends Road Organics
1 container Microgreens – Eastbrook Produce
1 head Green Romaine Lettuce – Bellview Organics
1 bunch French Sorrel – Kirkwood Herbs
1 bag Mixed Hot Peppers – Outback Farm
1 bag Mixed Mustard Greens- Organic Willow Acres
2 piece Gold Acorn Squash – Windy Hollow Organics
1 bag Red Potatoes – Green Valley Organics
1 bag Orange Carrots – Freedom Acres Farm
1 bag Shallots – Shady Brook Organics
1 bag Green Okra – Life Enhancing Acres
2 pieces Heirloom Tomatoes – Crystal Springs Farm

The odd one — the okra. I think we got it once last year and I swapped it. This year, I didn’t.

Okra can be done very well, with a little effort, so I guess the cookbook will be coming out for it. I also thought the mixed mustard greens were interesting. I feel like we have a real Southern basket this week.

As for all those peppers …

… now that I know I have conquered that fear of canning, there may be some pickled peppers, or some hot relish being made. I have some wax beans, and those teeny carrots in here. I could do a pickled veggie mix.

I may take a few of them and hang them to dry out, like I did a few years back.

But, the truth about not swapping okra. When I got there, the swap box was already overflowing with hot peppers, since the full shares and the half shares all got peppers, so if I put the okra in the swap box, I could have had twice as many peppers, or another couple of heirloom tomatoes, or the French sorrel. Not much of a choice left.

I feel for our hosts. They will be drowning in peppers tonight. They get to keep whatever is finally left in that swap box after all of us have picked up our shares.

By the way, I love French sorrel. Another fairly unique item we get. There may be a quiche in the planning for this coming week.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, heirloom tomatoes, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

The Fear of Canning …

Posted on September 18, 2013 by AnnieRie

… doesn’t have a name in the Phobia list, but it probably should.

I did find, in a Google search, a long list of blogs that used Fear of Canning in their title. So I was not alone when it came to having misgivings about canning.

I conquered that fear Monday morning. With Pineapple Habanero Jelly.

The recipe said it would make six 8 ounce jars, but I ended up with an extra pint of jelly. Thankfully I had a large jar in the dishwasher with the six jelly jars, so I could cope.

I found the recipe here.

And I promptly modified it. Here is what I used.

2 cups pineapple juice
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 jalapeño pepper, halved, seeded and with ribs removed
10 small orange habaneros, halved, seeded and with ribs removed
5 1/2 cups granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 (3 fluid ounce) pouches liquid pectin
1 teaspoon pickled beet juice (to replace red food coloring)

Put the peppers and the cider vinegar in the blender and pulse until peppers are minced.

Pour this mixture into a heavy saucepan. Add the sugar, pineapple juice, and salt. Mix until all is dissolved. Add the beet juice to make it a deeper color. You can increase the amount of beet juice to get it darker. Bring to a rolling boil. Cut the heat back just a bit and cook for about 10 minutes stirring it constantly with a wooden spoon to keep it from sticking to the bottom. I think I didn’t keep the heat high enough so I didn’t get the evaporation to draw it down to 48 ounces.

Add the two pouches of liquid pectin and get the mixture back to a boil again. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook for an additional 4-5 minutes until thickened and syrupy. Mine didn’t get really thick, but it seems to have congealed OK in the jars. I checked them all today and they are no longer runny when I tilted them.

Before I put the liquid into the jars, I did skim off the foam, and I strained much of the pulp out of it to give me a fairly clear jelly.

For the canning, I followed the recommendations in the Ball Blue Book of Canning. Used the dishwasher to sterilize instead of the canning pot. I filled all the jars, and put the six small ones in the pot.

Processed them for ten minutes, and they all sealed properly. Put the large jar in by itself and processed it for 15 minutes. It sealed fine as well. That one will end up in the fridge and be the first one used. I intend to use it on a soft creamy goat cheese and crackers. And, I intend to mix it with butter to coat chicken wings to make a hot wing appetizer. I will report back to see how it tastes, and how it works in recipes.

All in all, this was pretty simple. Now, to be brave enough to move on to that green tomato bacon jam recipe I want to try.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Real Food and tagged canning, cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Perfecting Pesto

Posted on September 10, 2013 by AnnieRie

To me, pesto is one of those universally adaptable ingredients. Slather it on flatbread. Mix it to make dressings. Plop it on pasta. Spread it on fish. On chicken. Drop cubes of it into crock pot meals. Like chicken soup.

I love making pesto with all sorts of bases. Like basil. Like garlic scapes. Like radish greens, carrot tops and whatever else green looks good.

One thing that is always in my fridge and my freezer is pesto.

I have been working on my processes to make pesto. Like using the food processor to grate cheese.

Start with a few hunks of pecorino romano and/or Parmigiano Reggiano. Process it until the food processor stops migrating across the counter top.

Whatever doesn’t get used in the pesto goes in the refrigerator for later use.

Today I harvested three cups of African Blue Basil.

African blue basil has been my most prolific producer for the past two years. I still have at least 4-6 cups out there in the herb garden.

I toasted some pine nuts. Added some pistachios. My ratio: 1 cup basil to 1/3 cup nuts to 1/2 cup cheese. I add two cloves of garlic for every cup of basil.

This is my roasted garlic from yesterday. There were six cloves added to my three cup basil mix today.

I start with a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper, then add to taste as I go along. I drizzle extra virgin olive oil into the processor to get the consistency I want. I don’t even think of measuring olive oil. It is just eyeballing the clump spinning around in the processor and getting it to that creamy mix, that isn’t too dry.

Today I put two cups of it away in the freezer. I also had a four ounce container to use for dinner tomorrow. This combination was one I really liked, and will try to duplicate in the future.

Here’s to pesto!

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, gardening, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Cooking Up a Storm, Again

Posted on September 9, 2013 by AnnieRie

Today, with the cooler weather, I had crock pot, oven, stove top and food processor going, in order to keep up with the last of the garden harvests. And with some of the CSA veggies.

What did I get done?

Another batch of tomato sauce using all of my paste tomatoes, and the CSA roma tomatoes.

A foil package of about 30 cloves of garlic, put in the oven after taking out the chicken that I slow cooked for most of the day, which I had finished in the oven, to get it brown. I used the last of my previous batch of garlic to make dinner Sunday night. I always keep a container of roasted garlic in the refrigerator. Beats buying it from the olive bar at the grocery store.

Two quarts of chicken stock tonight, using the carcass and all the drippings from the all day crock pot chicken cooking.

Pesto, using the CSA basil from a week ago, and some of mine. I still have enough to do another large batch.

Add that to last night’s work. I made ajvar and roasted red pepper hummus while I had last night’s lamb on the grill.

Finally, I have to decide if I want to keep that rendered chicken fat skimmed off the top of the stock, and download Michael Ruhlman’s iPad cookbook dedicate to schmaltz. Now that’s a new adventure that I might just have to try.

Tell me. If I saute kale in chicken fat, do they cancel each other out? Healthy food. Serious fat. Could be interesting.

The freezer is filling up again.

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Posted in cookbooks, CSA, Food, Gardening, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, CSA, Food, foodie, gardening, local businesses, Locavore, real food, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Mostly Local

Posted on September 8, 2013 by AnnieRie

Back when I first started writing this blog, I used participation in food challenges as a way to increase my awareness of local foods. I did the Dark Days Challenge, the Southern SOLE Food Challenge, another winter challenge, the Buy Local Challenges and found out how easy it is to cook with local ingredients here. I need to update my local challenge page to reflect the current status, but it is a great link to some sources of local foods, as is my local resource page.

My first dark days luncheon in 2011. Locally sourced items for a salad.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped doing weekly challenges, as my refrigerator, freezer and pantry had quite a bit of local ingredients stashed in them. Almost every meal had something local in it.

Meat and dairy is simple here. So are vegetables from all the CSAs in the county.

Yesterday I didn’t even think about it. I took two dishes to the reunion. Both had local ingredients. I also took a few bottles of Big Cork wine. A winery just outside of Frederick. A Traminette. Perfect for those who loved the shrimp and the crabs, and the pulled pork. A spicy wine, similar to Gewurztraminer.

My contributions were tomatoes, goat cheese, basil over a bed of arugula. To be accompanied by McCutcheon’s dressing. Tomatoes. Mine. Basil. Mine. All the plants from Sharp’s Farm. Goat cheese. Cherry Glen. Just west of us in Montgomery County. Arugula. Love Dove Farm. Howard County.

My other dish. A four bean salad. Using wax beans from TLV, and green beans from my CSA. Yeah, the cannellini and garbanzo beans were canned, bought at Roots the other day.

Breakfast today. Love Dove eggs. Lunch today. Leftover salads from yesterday.

Dinner tonight. One incredibly awesome sirloin lamb roast from England Acres, one of the packages from the half of lamb we bought in April. Potatoes, from the CSA. Peaches from Lewis Orchards. Love Dove arugula. Catoctin Mountain Orchards Peach Vinaigrette over the salad.

My latest batch of ajvar on the side with some pita. Using CSA eggplant. My garlic, roasted. Yeah, I bought the red peppers at Harris Teeter, as we haven’t seen many nice red peppers. Hasn’t been hot enough this summer.

I really am thankful that we have our markets. We have many local farms open year round. We have year round CSAs. Making our meals that much fresher, that much better.

Thanks to our local farmers. They make it easy to eat locally and seasonally.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Dark Days, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, Dark Days, Dark Days Challenge, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

A Baker’s Dozen in the CSA Box

Posted on September 5, 2013 by AnnieRie

Again, on week 16 we get 13 items in the box from the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative truck.

The List:
1 bag Red Flesh/Red Skin Potatoes – Crystal Springs Organics
1 Sucrine du Berry Squash – Liberty Branch
1 bag Red Beets – Sunny Slope Organics
2 Green Zucchini – chemical free- Kings Produce
1 Raven Zucchini – Autumn Blend Organics
1 bag Onions – White Swan Organics
1 bag Orange Carrots – Sunny Slope Organics
1 bag Japanese Eggplant – Maple Lawn Organics
1 head Radicchio – Bellview Organics
1 bunch Dinosaur Kale – Peaceful Valley Organics
1 bag Green Beans – Healthy Harvest Organics
1 bunch Cilantro – Noble Herbs (I swapped for fennel)
1 bag Roma Tomatoes – Elm Tree Organics

New to me this week, the Sucrine du Berry and the raven zucchini. Must be an omen to get a raven zucchini on football opening day.

The Sucrine du Berry squash, similar to, but supposedly sweeter than a butternut is reviewed as good for making risotto or soup or even roasted in huge chunks with Asian spice to tame the heat. We shall see what I decide to do with it.

As for the reason I swapped the cilantro, I had just bought two pots of it at Harris Teeter, to keep on the windowsill. They are from Shenandoah Farms in VA and are meant to keep supplying you with herbs for as long as you remember to water them. I needed it for that bitter melon soup.

As for the eggplant and the two types of zucchini, I am sort of ratatouille’d out, so there may be chocolate zucchini bread, or zucchini fries. The eggplant will probably end up in a new batch of ajvar if I pick up a few red peppers.

I also really love those red flesh and red skin potatoes for salad. With the white, the purple viking and the red flesh potatoes, you can make one amazing potato salad.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Bitter Melon Soup?

Posted on September 2, 2013 by AnnieRie

OK, we tried it. It was edible. It is supposedly good for us. Cross that off my Sixty@Sixty list and let’s move on.

We got bitter melon in the CSA last Thursday. According to most web sites, blanching it will remove most of the bitterness.

Umm, they lied. Have you had hot and sour soup? It kind of reminds me of that. Thankfully, I made basmati rice and garlic naan, to tone it down a bit.

I was surprised at how easy it was to make. But now, I do have fish sauce, bean thread noodles and some leftover mushrooms to use up. Along with a large amount of basmati rice.

It looked interesting when cooking it.

And, the seeds and white pith inside had to be scraped out, but the seeds were bright red.

I was glad that the pork mixture stayed inside so well. I was afraid it would fall out. I did have extra pork so I dropped “meatballs” in the broth along with the stuffed bitter melon. Oh well, bitter melon is supposed to lower your blood sugar and lots of other healthy things.

Found the recipe here.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Real Food, Sixty@Sixty and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Childhood Memories

Posted on September 1, 2013 by AnnieRie

Including one grown up version. The rest of today’s dinner, a trip back to PA for my husband.

Watermelon margaritas. Made with leftover watermelon, lime juice and a few other things. I remember having watermelon lemonade as a child. The bottom part of the watermelon scraped out, with all the juice. Lemonade mixed with it.

This version is the adult version. I used about 12 ounces of watermelon with the leftover juice. The dregs of the two week old melon. Added the four ounce container of peach puree that didn’t fit in the peach pop molds. Added two shots of tequila. One shot of Cointreau. Squeezed the juice of two limes into it. Added about eight cubes of ice. All blended together.

Happiness on the patio, before dinner.

Dinner. Kielbasa grillers. Baked, since storm predictions made me hesitant to fire up the grill and have to deal with possible lightning.

These are kielbasa from my husband’s home town. Not the big ring he had, all the time. This version is the hot dog bun version, but the taste is the same.

He requested that I make steamed cabbage like his mom did. Kielbo and steamed cabbage. Dinner many nights in the small town where he grew up.

Simple steamed cabbage. Two wedges of CSA cabbage. In the steaming basket for about 15 minutes. Served with fresh butter, celery salt and caraway seeds, mixed together and poured over the cabbage.

No, there aren’t any pictures from dinner. I was too lazy to go grab the camera after putting the plates together and heading outside. It hasn’t rained, like it was predicted. I could have grilled those kielbo.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Real Food, Remember When and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Garden Update

Posted on August 30, 2013 by AnnieRie

The garden is hanging in there but the stink bugs are out in force, so I have resorted to picking the tomatoes just before they get ripe and sweet. Cuts down on the damage.

The one on the top left is an Amana orange heirloom. It will turn orange on the windowsill. The other larger heirloom is a mortgage lifter. This year they are not getting huge. The weather hasn’t been hot enough. A couple of orange romas, one Polish linguisa, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and one lonely sun sugar.

The supersweet 100s are done. I have yet to get a ripe pineapple tomato, even though right now there are dozens of green ones on the vines. Got what looks to be the last Paul Robeson yesterday. The hillbillies and the boxcar willie plants also have dozens of green tomatoes on them. Hope we continue to have nice days, in order to ripen them.

I am glad I put in 48 plants, as many of them are underachieving this year.

I have gotten my share of weird plants too. Like this one.

I could have put it in the fair for strange looking plants.

The CSA has also given us some winners. Like this eggplant with a “nose”.

Garden and CSA veggies played well tonight for dinner, where I made my ratatouille pie. Using Breezy Willow bacon and feta, England Acres eggs, Trickling Springs milk, and a combination of CSA squash, eggplant and onion, and my tomatoes for the ratatouille base. I really love this pie. Like a quiche.

I used store bought pie crust this time. Being lazy. Bake the pie crust until almost done. I used two crusts for this. One on the base, and one hand torn and placed around the top of the deep dish.

Mix two cups of ratatouille with 1/4 cup grated cheese and about 6 strips of crisp bacon, torn into pieces. Dump on top the crust. Mix together four large eggs with 2 tablespoons of milk and 2 tablespoons of flour. Dump on top the ratatouille. Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.

Great with a Cabernet. Enough left for lunch this weekend.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged CSA, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, tomatoes, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

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Category Archives: Real Food

Lunch At Early Mountain

Another Baker’s Dozen

The Fear of Canning …

Perfecting Pesto

Cooking Up a Storm, Again

Mostly Local

A Baker’s Dozen in the CSA Box

Bitter Melon Soup?

Childhood Memories

Garden Update

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