Category Archives: Real Food

Mama Millie’s to the Rescue

Posted on January 5, 2017 by AnnieRie

Some days you can’t possibly consider cooking.

Monday night the kitchen ceiling looked like this. Tuesday it was way better, but still at 8:45 PM when the electricians left, I was in no mood to cook. So, I called Mama Millie’s.

They are in “downtown” Glenelg, not far from us. Small. Locally owned. A pizza was a good idea. While cleaning up dry wall and other stuff.

Then, come Wednesday, ceiling repair and “mudding”. Another day with the kitchen covered in plastic.

This time I was tempted by the Stromboli.

Trust me. The “small”. Could feed us for two days.

Today, we heated up leftovers.

Originally, we had ordered a Stromboli and a baked ziti. Either one of them could make half a meal for us. Tonight, I reheated the ziti, and the rest of that Stromboli will be dinner tomorrow. I never opened the garlic bread last night, as two pieces came with the ziti order.

Over all, I spent $40 over two nights. Have at least four nights of dinners. They are fresh. They are seasoned well.

I could occasionally be tempted in the future to get Stromboli when I don’t want to cook. They are very good.

By the way, my husband first tried them while looking for a good Italian cold cut sub. Like he used to find in Pennsylvania at the local Italian deli. This one.

You know, even as slow food and home cooked advocates, we sometimes take a break. My break? Has to use small businesses, and not chain food places.

Mama Millies. Glenelg. Try them.

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Posted in Food, Local Businesses, Real Food, Restaurants and tagged foodie, hoco loco, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

A Betty Crocker Christmas

Posted on December 18, 2016 by AnnieRie

Remember these?

My first recipes. Back in 1975 when I moved to Columbia. I found the box up in the attic inside a moving carton, along with my husband’s recipe cards. His were McCall’s and bought when he first moved to Columbia in 1977 (he learned to cook from them, in his new townhouse before I met him).

That budget casserole up in my cards? Made an appearance many nights for my two roommates and me. Just 1/2 pound of ground beef and one egg. Really cheap eats. Back when we couldn’t afford anything fancier.

I decided to pull out the cookie cards and make some of them for Christmas. Along with an old favorite. This one.

Which was on the menu tonight.

As for the cookies, check these out.

Shortbread. Crescents. Caramel-nut bars.

I still have spice cookies and toffee to make tomorrow, but this is a trip back in time. And, no, I didn’t succumb and use Crisco, even when the recipes called for it.

Any old memories being resurrected for your holiday?

I may be tempted to make that fudge too.

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Posted in Food, Real Food, Remember When and tagged cookies, cooking, Food, holidays, real food, traditions. Bookmark the permalink.

Good Grits!

Posted on December 15, 2016 by AnnieRie

Have you ever cooked with grits? Local grits, from up the road in Bucks County PA.

Tonight I ended up with a mostly local, and certainly small business provided dinner. Because we got grits in our CSA share. And I really need to expand my basic dinner rotation to include more grains. My flour and grain share provided grits. Alton Brown provided the basic recipe.

I cut it in half and tweaked it.

Milk, water, salt, boiled. Grits added. Then, I added the juice from my shrimp mix. As for the shrimp. Bought at Boarman’s in a 5 pound bag, Gulf shrimp. Divided into one pound portions and frozen. This one pound portion was steamed, then added to a can of Rotel tomatoes and chilies. A handful of scallions. It simmered away waiting for the grits.

I kept spooning tomato liquid into the grits to spice them up a bit. Then, when finished, I added some butter and Parmesan.

Plated with a garnish of CSA cauliflower. Served with a Black Ankle Rosé.

A mix of local and small business foods. You gotta try grits. They are amazingly good.

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Posted in CSA, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Joining the Fresh Revolution

Posted on December 8, 2016 by AnnieRie

I have been pretty vocal about missing Friends and Farms. They were like a second family. I loved the concept, the execution, and the amazing vendors. I know that Phil is trying to establish a buying club, for meat and seafood. We have been early adopters, so to speak. Buying some lovely seafood for the Thanksgiving holidays.

We got another email today. To order meat, poultry and seafood for Christmas and New Year’s. Really awesome stuff for a very good price. A couple of pick up options or a delivery to home choice (but you have to be home to accept).

Link is here. Hope it works.

You could also email Phil to get added. His email is phil.freshrevo@gmail.com and he would love to add you to his growing list of people who loved what we received from the suppliers like Nell’s Butcher and Reliant Seafood.

In January they are holding a meeting to see if we can make this buying club permanent. There will be more information on the blog next month, but the meeting will be at St. Agnes in Catonsville.

If you would like to join us, we would love to expand the audience for locally processed proteins. And no, I get no monetary or complimentary perks from this. I just want to see it succeed, so I can continue to get quality foods from local vendors.

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Posted in Community, Food, Friends and Farms, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged community, cooking, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Great Grains

Posted on December 7, 2016 by AnnieRie

I have been slacking off. Forgetting to write about some of the really fantastic additives to my fall Community Supported Agriculture basket from the farmers’ cooperative at Lancaster Farm Fresh.

My flour and grain share. Two pounds each. Every other week. This past week was the pastry flour and the spelt berries.

Two weeks ago.

Bread flour and rye berries.

The first delivery last month.

All purpose flour and cornmeal.

The flours are all from Daisy. They aren’t easy to find. I used to get mine at Atwaters in Catonsville. The Anson Mills which produce Daisy flour are located in Pennsylvania. Atwaters sold bags of their wonderful flour. I am loving the quality of the bread flour for those holiday breads like my chocolate zucchini bread or my pumpkin bread.

The grains, all come from Castle Valley Mill in Bucks County Pennsylvania. Other than wheat berries, which we got from Friends and Farms a few years back, I hadn’t been a big grain cooker. I purposely ordered this add on to my CSA share to remedy that lapse.

I am loving the berries. I found the perfect way to cook them, in my rice cooker. Simple. One cup berries. Three cups liquid. I have used all water. All veggie broth. A mix of chicken stock and water. Turkey stock and water. Add some seasonings. Set on the brown rice setting and let it do its thing. Makes absolutely perfectly cooked berries.

Served here with a wilted arugula salad. Cranberries, pistachios, a drizzle of Secolari’s lime olive oil. A squirt of lemon juice.

I also downloaded an iBook, called Grain Mains. So many interesting ideas, including a take on a “gazpacho salad” using berries.

Who knows what will come in my final biweekly basket on the 13th of December. I do know that I am loving this addition and will be adding it to my winter subscription.

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Posted in cookbooks, CSA, Food, LFFC, Locavore, Real Food, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, Locavore, real food, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

Bitter Sweet

Posted on October 27, 2016 by AnnieRie

Bitter like the greens. Sweet as the beets.

It may be a slow improvement, but still. The change to my lifestyle and my eating habits since retiring has been paying off. My annual physical was yesterday. Saw much improvement by moving away from commercially prepared highly processed foods and by cooking from scratch as much as possible.

I considered naming this post “A1C is the new LDL” since decades of eating low fat, or no fat, and not cooking with basic ingredients has impacted our health. Face it, we had significantly more sugar in our diets while we worked and commuted. Too many frozen dinners, carry out meals and high carb restaurant choices like pasta, or pizza.

Now, my generation fights the battle against Type 2 Diabetes. All those low fat meals contained hidden sugars.

I am glad I made the switch. Even though it is time consuming to cook this way. I also know that my CSA is the real reason I don’t give up.

That salad up there. I made the dressing. The greens and beets and berries are from my CSA. So is the cheese.

The creamy dressing. Yogurt without added sugar. A very tiny bit of preserves. White balsamic and good olive oil. A pinch of salt and pepper.

It’s not the only thing we have added to our vegetable share. We get cheese, fruit, meat, yogurt, and bread. I have added a grain and flour share for fall.

This is the bread we now eat.

A different one each week. No dairy. No sugar. The miche is awesome with soups and stews. Comes with our CSA delivery. Made in a bakery in Brooklyn NY. This one and the polenta are my favorites.

Today I threw a whole bunch of things in the crockpot. Minimizing sodium, sugar and preservatives. Yeah, I didn’t skip the fat. Mostly the healthy fats, like olive oil. A layer of greens. A layer of beans. Some lovely beef short ribs from Boarman’s.

I admit it. If I didn’t have a year round CSA delivery, I probably wouldn’t have stuck to the “real food” diet. I would have been lazier and bought some ready made items. Having those vegetables hanging out in the fridge and on the counter reminds me daily that I need to continue this path. I don’t want my golden years to be consumed by health issues. I don’t want to take all sorts of prescriptions to combat something that I can prevent with a little effort.

Here’s to my feeling good about the progress. Here’s to getting better, while not feeling old. Here’s to that heart healthy red wine. Can’t forget that.

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Posted in CSA, Food, LFFC, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, local businesses, real food, value of CSA, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Rainy Days

Posted on September 19, 2016 by AnnieRie

Finally, we get a good soaking rain. Good enough to give the sod a fighting chance to survive.

Although it also kept the carpenters from working on the deck.

I will be happy when they get done with the work and we can finish seeding the sodding the yard. The mud runs are getting a wee bit eroded.

The good news also, the tomatoes in my garden got much needed relief from the heat and drought conditions.

I am running low on ripe tomatoes, and there are many green ones on the plants up at my garden.

Today though was cooler, dreary, just the type of weather that screams “SOUP!” and has me reaching for the pans and the crock pot.

I dug into the freezer and took out a package of my Maple Lawn turkey drumsticks. The last ones from my visit at Thanksgiving. I freeze them with two to a pack. Just the right amount to make turkey stock, and crock pot soup.

Don’t make the mistake that I made and put frozen turkey into the crockpot. It could crack your ceramic from the thermal shock. I started my stock this morning on the stove.

The turkey will defrost, and you should take it out and let it cool down enough to shred. What you see above is the bones, skin and tough pieces, used to make a hearty stock. Those shredded pieces?

Went here. In the crock pot. This is a two step process, but yields at least four meals.

In that stove top pot, I placed the legs with carrots, onions and celery. Tarragon, parsley, salt and pepper. I forgot that I didn’t have carrots in the freezer, so Jenny’s came to the rescue here. I will miss the market when it closes in five weeks.

When she opened this morning, I bought enough carrots to use today and to cut, blanch and freeze some for when I need them in the winter. The freezer is getting back to being ready for the end of the markets.

In the crock pot, I put water, the better parts of the carrots, celery and onion (I use the ugly stuff in the stock, and then discard them). After I got the turkey ready, I shredded it to remove all those pesky little bones that turkey drumsticks have. Seasoned and left to slow cook all day. I just added the egg noodles at 4 pm, so they will be perfect when we are ready for dinner at 6.

A nice bowl of soup. Some of our awesome CSA bread.

Last Tuesday we got a loaf of miche.

One of my favorites from She Wolf Bakery. I definitely will be getting bread in my fall CSA share, as I love the vegan breads we get. They stay fresh all week. No mold. Don’t get hard and stale. Bread and butter, with soup. A perfect meal to herald the change of seasons.

The flowers? Just a bit of sunshine on a rainy day.

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Posted in Food, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Locavore, real food, value of CSA, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Pepper’d and Squash’d

Posted on September 15, 2016 by AnnieRie

My Community Supported Agriculture basket is overflowing with peppers this week.

Including ghost peppers. Which I have no idea what I am going to make with them. We also got a healthy dose of squash.

Acorn and patty pan this week. Last week?

Zucchini and delicata.

It may say “autumn” in the next week around here, but the vegetables are still screaming summer.

Because there’s six ears of sweet corn in this week’s basket, too.

A little side dish, celebrating the seasons.

I took the zucchini. Sliced it. Covered it with items from the olive bar at Wegmans. Drizzled in olive oil. A very tasty side served with Boarman’s steak.

And, now, because my programs have failed me twice while writing this post, I think I will run off quickly before it dies again. Here’s to Indian Summer, enjoyable while it lasts.

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

Succotash!

Posted on September 4, 2016 by AnnieRie

And more trivial local interesting food stuff.

Because every year I get drawn in by the signs on Rte. 32 that tell me Jenny’s market has fresh lima beans. Shelled by the patriarch of the family. If you have ever shelled lima beans, you know you do much work to get those tasty beans out of their shells.

The beans, corn and scallions in today’s version of succotash come from Jenny’s. The red pepper, from my CSA.

The cornerstone of one absolutely delicious Sunday dinner.

Fingerlings from the CSA. Salmon from a trip to Wegmans. Wines?

A local Sauvignon Blanc throwdown. I liked the Linden one. My husband, the Big Cork.

To me, around here, summer is always about fresh food. Bought locally. Prepared simply.

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Slow(er) Food

Posted on September 1, 2016 by AnnieRie

A few days ago I blogged about fast food options at home. I got a few comments about my cast iron pan.

csa and lamb dinner and pans 015 And, about seasoning it. I have had my original two pans about a decade or so. I bought them at Tractor Supply. On sale. They are Lodge pans. I am not sure if others are as good, but these pans have handled just about everything and are very easy to clean, and to keep seasoned.

I only use hot water to clean them. With an abrasive sponge to scrub. I season occasionally with olive oil. Put in the oven. They are definitely non stick.

Besides using them for quick cooking, I do make dinners that take a bit more time. Like with these pork chops.

spring stuff including fandf 009

I had seared them in the pan, then I put them in the oven with some apple cider to finish them while keeping them moist. Pork takes a little more time to cook.

As for other options that need more time in the oven, but not a huge commitment in active preparation, I have many meals that take 10-15 minutes to set up. Then, about half an hour to execute.

Like this week. This was my CSA basket.

csa and lamb dinner and pans 001

So many choices. The first night I decided to make lamb meatballs with stuffed patty pan squash and fingerlings.

I stuffed the squash with half a tomato from my garden, crumbled feta, herbs and olive oil. Boiled the fingerlings. Put the squash in the oven while prepping the meatballs. It took about 15 minutes to prep. 30 minutes to cook. The result?

csa and lamb dinner and pans 027

Excellent meal. By the way, I cooked the meatballs in a muffin tin. It wasn’t a very fancy meal but it certainly was full of flavor. And done in less time than driving to a restaurant, getting put on a waiting list and hanging out for 30-45 minutes waiting for a table.

We had a nice cocktail out on the patio. Once the oven timer went off, we came in, opened a pinot noir and had a leisurely meal.

I have learned to cook simply. Using the fresh ingredients from my CSA. Baking or sautéing a protein. Taking the time to sit at the table and have a quiet conversation. While not spending $50-$100 for dinner. :Like you easily can do around here. Those drinks, appetizers, wine, tip, taxes and desserts all add up.

We like to go out a few times a month, but can eat better foods, with incredible wines, by putting together meals with great local fresh ingredients.

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Posted in CSA, Food, LFFC, Locavore, Real Food and tagged CSA, Food, foodie, Locavore, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.