Tag Archives: cooking

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

Root’s

Posted on December 3, 2013 by AnnieRie

In Manheim. Pennsylvania.

Checking off items on my “resolution” when I turned 60. A new city in a surrounding state. A new market. Lunch at some locally owned family type place.

I found this market on an app on my iPad. Food Network on the Road. Every Tuesday a huge food market, auction, flea market, antique dealings, collectors, and who knows what else.

Including lots of locally produced items.

I was on a mission. See if anyone sold salsify. They didn’t. Find a reasonably priced butter for baking. Found one. Maple syrup. Yes. Ground coriander. Check.

Oh, and this. Which I did not buy!

As for my favorite item, it was this one.

Can’t wait to try out the yellow bell pepper pappardelle. I went on the web site when I got home and found out it is available locally. At Casual Gourmet in Glenwood, and at Secolari, the new shop in Columbia Mall.

I need to bookmark those locations, as these pastas may become my new standard. I plopped a little of the soup mix in my turkey soup. At $2 a package, it was a great bargain. Mix and match, it seems.

Oh, and of course, in Amish country, I couldn’t resist one of these.

What a lovely day we had today. Temps in the 50s. Nice lunch at Hahn’s in the market. Cookies in the car on the way home. And, the promise of some very good pasta this weekend.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Adventures, Day Trips, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Sixty@Sixty, Travel, Weather and tagged cooking, day trips, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, travel, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Cookie Monster

Posted on December 1, 2013 by AnnieRie

It’s December, and my focus turns to cookies. Christmas cookies. One of the first planning items, right before doing the Christmas cards, and getting the live greens for decoration.

Mickey Gomez, a fellow hoco blogger, had me looking for potential candidates for sugar cookies.

On her Facebook page, baking with her grandmother. Prompted a search for old Rumford recipes.

My mom’s cookies. Something I can’t seem to duplicate, so I may be messing around for the next few days, trying recipes.

I need a few dozen to take to the Conservancy crafts fair Saturday. Might be time to try some experiments in baking.

I have decided to use those lovely molasses cookies from my post last week, as my new cookie in the box.

The ones from Bon Appetit, post was here.

I got a good supply of Trickling Springs butter, and lots of chocolate, sugar and flour. Time to get baking.

After all, it is December!

hocofood@@@

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Posted in cookbooks, Family, Food, People, Real Food, Remember When and tagged cooking, family, Food, foodie, howard county conservancy, real food, traditions. Bookmark the permalink.

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.

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.

Soup, on a cold rainy evening, before the frantic Thanksgiving cooking.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, CSA, Food, foodie, holidays, local businesses, Locavore, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

The Markets Are Done for the Year

Posted on November 23, 2013 by AnnieRie

ALmost, but not quite, the end of the Howard County Market Season. Just tomorrow at Oakland Mills.

Today I did stop out at Glenwood, where three vendors were present. Getting to be somewhat slim pickings as the season winds down.

Lewis was having their customer appreciation sale, and tomorrow they will be at Oakland Mills to finish. Large baskets of apples at really great prices.

Besides Lewis, Stone House had people picking up their orders for the holiday meals. We got our parker house rolls to take to my brother’s for our Thanksgiving meal.

Stone House has a storefront up in Taneytown, for those who can’t wait until spring to get more of their freshly baked breads, pies, cakes and cupcakes.

I also put a couple of small breads in the freezer to save for when we aren’t getting CSA shares.

TLV had meat, potatoes, squash and eggs. They will still have many of their items at the farm when they open for Christmas tree season next week.

I ventured off to Breezy Willow to get yogurt and butter, and found the welcome surprise of the return of the Bowling Green Farm cheeses. Glad to see them back.

Breezy Willow farm store, besides being open on Saturdays year round, will be open this Tuesday for those who want a few last minute items for the holiday.

Finally, off to Roots to get beans, coconut milk creamer, a few baking supplies, and coconut so I could make this.

My first time making home made granola. Rolled oats, coconut, almonds, walnuts, dried cranberries. The secret to this granola. Honey and egg whites. Very little sugar. The egg whites do a good job instead of using lots of sugar and oil. Flavored with cinnamon.

I may never buy granola again. This was super easy to make.

Now, to get into the holiday baking soon. I have a few new recipes I want to try.

As for markets, there are still a few around. More on them in a future post.

Plus, a list of farms that have items available all winter.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Community, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Real Food and tagged community, cooking, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Fall CSA In All Its Glory

Posted on November 21, 2013 by AnnieRie

Today’s pick up was fall on a plate (or in the box, when I picked it up).

This is what we got.

1 bag desiree potatoes- Millwood Springs Organics
2 pieces rutabagas- White Swan Acres
1 head white cauliflower- Healthy Harvest
1 bunch daikon radishes- Millwood Springs Organics
1 piece white kohlrabi- Crystal Springs Organics
1 bag sweet onion- White Swan Acres
1 head napa cabbage- Bellview Organics
1 bunch green komatsuna- Peaceful Valley Organics
1 bunch tatsoi- Hillside Organics
1 head baby bok choy- Plum Hill Organics
1 container portabella mushrooms- Mother Earth Organics

OK, I admit, I swapped the daikon, as they were huge and they are not our favorite radish.

I saw a bunch of mustard greens in the swap box.

Mustard greens cooked with bacon, ginger, garlic, onions, vinegar and a splash of oil are downright awesome.

This was a chicken week, and yes, we got bread.

My husband is already inhaling that rye bread. Had some with a roast chicken dinner.

This was our last England Acres chicken. Now, we get chicken in the CSA and I don’t need to run out to England Acres to snag chicken before it is gone.

Chicken over rice with veggies was dinner today.

At the CSA pick up, we were discussing the announcement of a winter CSA, with all sorts of add ons.

More on it later, but this is such a great announcement. Fresh local winter veggies, along with options like eggs, chicken, meat, butter, yogurt, milk, cheese and bread.

What’s not to like? Locally sourced organic foods at a reasonable price!

hocofood@@@

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