AnnieRie Unplugged

Kofta

Posted on June 5, 2012 by AnnieRie

Something I have wanted to make, and never got around to it. My New Year’s resolutions included cooking different ethnic foods.

Kofta Kebabs

Made with Kite Hill Farms lamb bought at the market in Catonsville. More spices than you can shake a stick at. Worth it to grind them yourself. I did have cumin seed, coriander seed, allspice, cinnamon and peppercorns to grind and mixed that with the cayenne, ginger and sea salt to make the spice mix that went into these kebabs.

The recipe is from Sara Moulton.

I made three large kebabs and used metal skewers instead of soaking bamboo. We ate outside last night as the weather was lovely. I opened an old bottle of Virginia wine from King Family Vineyards. A Meritage blend of 75% merlot and 25% franc, a soft wine that went well with the lamb. Besides, it was ten years old and definitely ready to drink. I just checked on my wine cellar spreadsheet and see we have one left. Need to make a note to drink it soon.

I served the kofta with tzatziki, not home made, since I don’t have ripe cucumbers yet. Costco does make a nice tzatziki, and we use it all the time with spicy foods, or put it on potatoes. I made steamed English peas, asparagus (foraged), mini bok choy and snow peas. Served with butter and mint. Parboiled, then grilled new potatoes. Most of these are CSA or farmer’s market veggies, and the asparagus is almost the last of my wild ones. I have four spears still growing out there, ready almost but not quite. Haul this year seems to be a total of 36 spears of wild asparagus.

Dinner was relaxed, the breezes mild and the sun stayed out. A perfect evening enjoying the weather.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Food, Foraging, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather, Wine and tagged cooking, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, grilling, hoco loco, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Eating Locally: The First Weekend of the Challenge

Posted on June 4, 2012 by AnnieRie

As I have posted, I am participating with a group of women in a challenge to cook seasonal local foods all summer and fall. We call it our SSFC and blog about it. We have set up a google reader page, as well as we all link to one another.

I also have a page where I will link back to all my posts on the challenge.

Sunday night I made the first completely local meal for the challenge, even though Saturday I also went almost totally local.

I used CSA collards, CSA Yukon Gold New potatoes, Love Dove Farms scallions, Boarman’s bacon, and South Mountain Creamery chicken, with herbs from my garden. All put in a crockpot with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a rub of herbs I dried last year. The fresh herbs included tarragon, sage, rosemary, and marjoram from my herb garden just off the kitchen.

To complement the dinner, we opened a 2009 Linden Chardonnay. This wine is a blend of all three contributing sites that make up Linden’s wines. A creamy, soft wonderful Chardonnay that does well with chicken and seafood. No longer available, this wine sold out quickly with only 206 cases made. It includes the famous experiment with the “egg” for the Avenius contribution to the blend. The “egg” is still in the cellar at Linden, and I forgot to ask at the barrel tasting what they are using it for.

We finished the meal later in the evening with a small bowl of South Mountain Creamery ice cream, their peach flavor.

Definitely a delightful meal from local sources, and using fresh meats and veggies. Not a bad wine, either, from VA.

hocofood@@@

6 Comments

Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, SSFC, Wine and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

The Transit of Venus

Posted on June 4, 2012 by AnnieRie

For those into astronomical events that only occur once or twice in your lifetime, Tuesday evening has one of the better ones. Cross your fingers that the weather cooperates, and come to the Howard County Conservancy where HAL is holding a viewing party for the transit of Venus across the sun.

Set up is around 5:30 pm, with the start of the transit at 6:03:38 pm EDT. If the sun is visible, there should be viewing available until almost 8:30 when the sun has set.

If there are no clouds, many club members are bringing nighttime viewing scopes and will hold a star party after the solar viewing ends.

If you miss this viewing, you can catch the next transit in 2117, one hundred and five years from now. Do not try to view the sun directly on your own, as you may damage your eyes.

Come say HI as I am one of the volunteers from the Conservancy assisting in HAL’s visit to the site.

hocoblogs@@@

Everything is Better With Bacon

Posted on June 3, 2012 by AnnieRie

At least that is what you hear on TV constantly. It is why I keep a small package of thick cut bacon from Boarman in the freezer. I buy only 5-6 slices, freeze them, then take it out and cut off a few squares to add to dishes as they are being made. Like last night’s frittata.

My first Southern SOLE Food Challenge meal. A mostly local meal, with a few exceptions when putting it together. We got a boatload of chard in this week’s CSA delivery. It needed to be used in something that would highlight its earthiness, but also I wanted to balance it with a little creaminess. South Mountain Creamery to the rescue.

Mozzarella, peach ice cream and provolone from SMC

We made a trip to Hagerstown to the outlets today so stopped at the creamery on the way back. The outlets and the creamery are both off Alt. US 40, about 10 miles apart. My hubby had to get an ice cream cone, and we watched them milking cows. I also picked up two chicken leg quarters to use for Sunday night supper with some of the collard greens from the CSA. So, I get two nights meals mostly local. I miss South Mountain being at the Glenwood market.

Back to the bacon, though.

The frittata was made with eggs from TLV Farm, bought Friday at the hospital farmers market. First, I put Love Dove Farms scallions in a pan with a bit of oil, and added the equivalent of two slices of bacon, just cut off in one inch sections from the frozen package. The one inch squares will defrost and cook quickly in the skillet, giving the scallions that bacony taste. I used about 12 ounces of the chard, wilting it on top of the bacon and scallions. A little salt and pepper.

I then mixed 6 extra large eggs with a couple of ounces of milk, and two tablespoons of my recently made garlic scape pesto. Poured all of it into the pan. Let it start to set.

Then added: leftover cheeses. Firefly Farms chevre, and Bowling Green Farms feta. Totaled about 8 ounces of cheese. While we were driving home, I decided to investigate England Acres Farm as a source for meat in the future. They run a farm stand on weekends attached to their historic farm, just west of Mt. Airy.

If you are in the market for fresh chicken this week, their Cornish Rock X chickens, first batch, will be ready on the 6th. While talking to the women who run the farm stand, I found out that they would start processing and selling chickens this week. They already sold out of this week’s eggs before I stopped there at 3 pm Saturday. They do a brisk business and also carry Trickling Springs dairy items, and some amazing goat cheeses from Obergood in Sharpsburg.

I picked up a couple of greenhouse tomatoes there, one of which ended up on top of the frittata, with thin slices of the South Mountain mozzarella. Under the broiler to melt the cheese, and finish the top of the frittata.

Finished off and served with a 2010 Linden Seyval, a hybrid grape that has a citrusy taste. This wine, well balanced and relatively low in alchol, at 12.7%, went well with the frittata, and cut through that richness of the mozzarella. The greenhouse tomato had that hint of acid, and actually tasted like tomato. A promise of what we will be getting in just a few weeks from my garden.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Day Trips, Farmer's Markets, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, SSFC, Wine and tagged CSA, farmer's markets, Food, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, real food, SSFC, tomatoes, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

The Calm AFTER the Storm

Posted on June 2, 2012 by AnnieRie

Last night was pretty intense. The worst weather passed us by, east and west of us. We sat in the middle but winds made us nervous when it came to the antennas and the gardens. We lost no trees this time, thankfully.

I did a walk around this morning to check the garden and the wires in the trees. We got 0.6″ of rain. Ten miles east or ten miles west there were reports of 2-3 inches of rain. I count ourselves lucky this time.

The garden survived. Things are growing like mad.

Tomatoes

Cukes getting closer

Pole beans

My flowers are ready to pop open

I think again Howard County was mostly spared from lots of damage. We are thankful that we dodged the devastation and our prayers are with those in the other areas of Maryland affected by the severe weather last night.

How Did I Do on Avoiding Grocery Stores in May?

Posted on June 1, 2012 by AnnieRie

A while back I made a resolution to avoid shopping at chain grocery stores unless I absolutely had to get something not easily found elsewhere. I also promised my hubby to clean out the pantry and freezer, and maybe he would get me a chest freezer for my summer produce and fruit.

We found the freezer at Costco and picked it up yesterday. He kept his part of this bargain and I did pretty well on my part. This March picture of the freezer shows lots of CSA and market meats that needed to be used.

I have been plowing through them and not shopping until I made a dent in it. This crock pot Tuscan style soup, made with beans, greens, new potatoes, tomatoes included chicken stock plus a smoked ham hock from the freezer.

I grilled CSA Italian sausages more than once this spring, so they are gone now.

I only set foot in Giant once, and Weis once this month. Grand total there was less than $100 together. Mostly staples and things like Mother’s Day card and Graduation cards. No produce. No meats. No seafood. I got all those things from Boarman’s, Roots, CSA, farmer’s markets, or Costco.

I also am down to only three organic pizzas in the freezer, left over from buying some packaged items at Roots before my February surgery. Turns out we didn’t need to use them.

I have to say I did a good job of ridding my freezer of processed foods. Now, to reap the benefits of my garden, the CSA, and U pick projects at Larriland by filling the freezer with summer bounty to enjoy next winter. My new chest freezer will be dedicated to fruit and veggies, and maybe part of whatever we get at the County Fair. I am thinking of getting lamb at auction this year.

I am using that last package of ground lamb from the winter farmer’s market to make kofta kebabs this weekend. My first attempt at making these. Should be interesting.

Cooking from scratch. It is far more satisfying to me to do this.

Taking this:

To this:

hocofood@@@

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

CSA Week 4 from Sandy Spring CSA

Posted on May 31, 2012 by AnnieRie

Down to Columbia this afternoon to pick up my bounty. It gets harder and harder to fit it all in the picture.

Notice the large amount of green things. Not too many other colors other than the potatoes, and the stalks of the chards. Here is the official list of what was in the box.

I did one swap. Spearmint went into the swap box, and a broccoli came home with me. The veggies are so fresh, and so good to munch on right out of the box. The snow peas were the first victims of my munchies, but other things like the broccoli don’t get put away without me munching on them for my lunch. The mini bok choy are a treat too.

I am glad I have lots of colanders and a spinner, for all these greens. Right now the broccoli is up on the stove in the steamer basket waiting for me to turn it on, to have with salmon and potatoes for dinner.

More garlic scapes and more kale. I am going to try a vinegar, sea salt and pepper version of kale chips this weekend. Also going to make a garlic scape hummus using cannellini beans.

Price analysis a little tougher this week, as some things aren’t easy to find.

Spearmint worth at least $6, as there was enough in the bunch to fill at least three of those packages found at the store. The pound of baby chard, and the pound of mini bok choy, each would cost $9 at Roots, for packaged fancy greens. They would cost more from Our House Farm at Olney. There, they are $14 a pound. I will use the $9 number, so $18 for both. The deer tongue lettuces would cost $2.50 each for organic. Total now up to $29, and not quite halfway done. Collards, kale and yellow chard $3 each at markets. Garlic scapes, 10 of them so two bunches at $2 a bunch to compare to market price. Snow peas, $3 a container at Olney. Yukon Gold New Potatoes, a pound and a half, for about $1.75, or a bit more. Broccoli, count only one, since spearmint was in the box, even though I didn’t take it. Broccoli is $2 at the market.

Grand Total this week: $48.75. Cost of a share $29.75 a week. Savings this week, at least $19. This was a huge week, as the mini bok choy and chard alone are premium greens when sold by organic farmers at the markets.

Total savings to date: $40.15 after only four weeks. If you are vegetarian, or have a large family, this haul is more than enough to sustain you a week. If you are two crazy people like us, you eat all you can, and freeze the rest. I am getting good at making things that go in the freezer for later.

Our weekly trip down to the pick up point off Cedar Lane is well worth it.

hocofood@@@

6 Comments

Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Locavore, Real Food and tagged CSA, farmer's markets, Food, Howard County, Locavore, real food, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

Connections Through Food

Posted on May 30, 2012 by AnnieRie

On June 1st, a small group of ten women who met over the internet are setting off on a self imposed challenge to reap the bounty of summer harvests, cook what looks great, and blog about it once a week.

We call it our Southern SOLE Food Challenge. I have a page dedicated to it. The ten of us participated for four months last winter in a challenge to cook locally once a week, when farmer’s markets were scarce, and when our gardens were mostly dormant. We made it through with much support and encouragement by our section leader and chief cheerleader, Sincerely Emily, from Texas. Emily recapped us weekly, and commented on our meals through the entire challenge. SOLE food. Sustainable, Organic, Local, Ethical. We try to find foods that meet all the criteria, but sometimes sacrifice one or two in order to complete a meal. We certainly have enough choices here in Howard County to find local and organic, and meat that is pastured or free range is abundant. My local resource page will show how many I already have found here. Add to that my garden, which is pesticide free, and has many heirloom varieties of tomatoes and five varieties of cukes.

In essence, we all became acquainted over the internet, and didn’t want to lose the camaraderie once the challenge ended. We chose to continue cooking our local specialties across the summer, and share again what we find, and make using what nature gives us.

Some of us have met, as well. Victoria and I live less than 10 miles from each other, and met at the Glenwood Market a few weeks ago. We frequent the same stores and grow some of the same veggies. We get cooking ideas from each other, and share emails when we see something interesting.

Every week I will post about something local and seasonal that I am doing, maybe cooking, maybe canning or freezing. So will the rest of the group. We will talk about it and comment on our own blogs, and have some low key theme weeks. All for fun, and sharing what we find. Like what to do with kohlrabi, garlic scapes, baby turnips and tons of greens.

I get my CSA box tomorrow, so will be doing something from it this weekend. Summer cooking, easy, light, local and shared. Stay around to see what I will be making. In the meantime, a link here to one of the participants getting ready to start. We all have been emailing and suggesting things to get ready.

Like Rebecca over at Eating Floyd posts about making your own homemade lemon curd. Doesn’t this pic from her blog look simply mouth watering? I am adding this recipe to my to do list because it will be used often. I like her idea of freezing it. I also loved all of Rebecca’s feasts from the winter challenge.

Off to check out how my tomatoes and cucumbers fared after last night’s inch of rain. And, planning what to make for this weekend’s challenge.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Locavore, Real Food, SSFC and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, gardening, Howard County, Locavore, real food, SSFC, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Just Another Meatless Monday

Posted on May 29, 2012 by AnnieRie

As opposed to a manic Monday. It turned out we had another night with dinner not including meat on the plate, and didn’t miss it. Particularly, when it is hot and humid, we don’t like heavy dishes. Meat dishes tend to be that way, at least in our house.

What did we do Monday night?

Watermelon, feta and mint salad. Refreshing, light, made with goat’s milk feta from the Lancaster market. Take feta, watermelon, fresh mint, add good olive oil, salt, pepper, and at the last minute before serving, lime juice. Don’t add the lime early or it will pickle the watermelon.

This feta was so good. If you have the opportunity to visit the Lancaster Farmers Market, buy some.

I grilled the CSA kohlrabi, with apple and garam masala, on a baking sheet for 30 minutes at 500 degrees. It really does taste like cabbage, but milder. The Indian spice mix gave it a good flavor.

We quickly grilled a naan with garlic scape pesto spread on it, as our bread part of the meal.

Served with a lovely 2011 Linden Avenius Sauvignon Blanc.

A tasty grilled meal.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Real Food, Weather, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, grilling, Linden Vineyards, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Spicy Kale Chips, and Other Goodies

Posted on May 27, 2012 by AnnieRie

Finally made the kale chips. They were easy but a bit time consuming.

The drink is a blood orange Cuban basil fizz. These were tonight’s cocktails on the deck. I also made a mostly local dinner to kick off our challenge to eat locally at least once a week. I did a veggie frittata tonight and served it with a Maryland wine.

The frittata used asparagus, scallions, turnips and eggs all local. There was some Parm in it, olives and olive oil, none of which are local. The bulk of the meal was local though.

The kale chips, from my CSA kale with salt, smoked paprika and white pepper. Roasted in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Crispy, salty and so good with the cocktail.

The wine, a Black Ankle Gruner Veltliner. A perfect match to the earthiness of the turnips, olives, scallions and asparagus. The frittata was started stove top and finished under the broiler.

It came out beautifully. Don’t even miss the meat in this dinner. Vegetarian, light and so tasty. Dessert later will be the last of the strawberry rhubarb crisp made with last week’s haul from the Howard County markets.

hocofood@@@

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