Tag Archives: cooking

Things to Be Thankful For

Posted on November 20, 2012 by AnnieRie

Two days left before the holiday season kicks off with Thanksgiving. For us, a little bit hectic but not like it was when we had two sets of families to juggle with visits. Now, we are pretty much all residing in Maryland and my brother hosts many of the holidays.

My mom lives about 30 miles east of us, and my brother about 30 miles southeast near Annapolis. Both are easy rides. I am thankful we can avoid the holiday traffic on the highways. I remember when I was still going to Hopkins at night to study electrical engineering and we had class the night before Thanksgiving. We worked in Silver Spring. I never made it to class. Sat for three hours trying to get up the highway to Baltimore. So, I am very thankful I still have family locally.

I am thankful they found my collapsing discs before I had permanent nerve damage, and that I had a great neurosurgeon repair it. Health is something we take for granted when we are young, and don’t know how hard it is to recover from injuries or illnesses as we get older. I still have bad days after doing things for the first time since the operation. A little Tylenol and I cope. It could have been life changing if I hadn’t found out in time.

I am thankful my husband and I could retire and enjoy it. Enjoying our hobbies, our friends, the local events and get togethers. Finding my niche at the Conservancy to still feel useful.

Him connecting with the radio clubs and getting to do something he loved as a teenager. Something he gave up when we lived in Columbia in a town house. Having fun at field day every year.

Putting up the antennas and getting on the air is his hobby. No, he doesn’t play golf. He never wanted a boat. All those hobbies that many people have, he wasn’t into those things. His hobby is practiced right in the rec room, on his radios. Maybe I do get a little tired of “CQ contest, CQ contest” for up to 48 hours. I like the CW (Morse Code) contests better. I can’t hear him using the keyer. Phone contests I get to hear him call stations and give the proper exchanges to validate a contact.

I am thankful we went through the derecho and the hurricane with minimal damage. We were counted among the lucky ones. For that, we are making sure we help those who still need help. Giving clothing, non perishable foods, toiletries, and contributions where we can. We lost a few trees. We lost some food after the derecho. Nothing earth shattering for us. We know we were very fortunate. The largest ones were caught in others and missed our home.

I am thankful we live in such a pleasant and relatively safe environment. Even with all its warts, this country and, personally for us, this area are peaceful. Civil unrest, riots, financial crises like those across the pond, we are relatively insulated here. I am thankful I got my degree, thanks largely to encouragement from the good nuns in my high school. They insisted I take math and science. From thinking I would do a business curriculum and get a job in Baltimore at 18, to getting to go to college and major in math. Without that push, I would have had a vastly different life. Instead, I got to experience amazing things.

young and adventurous, my month at an ice research station

I am glad the Dream Act passed. Education is key to making a life better. Any type of education. I learned that. So did my husband. Both of us worked our way through college, and made better lives for ourselves. Without that education, we wouldn’t be retired and enjoying life. I am so eternally grateful to our parents for helping us, even though they struggled. My dad was a policeman. His dad a coal miner, then a factory worker. We know that our education, his in engineering, mine in math and computers made us marketable and employable, even during the recession in the seventies when we graduated.

We have much to be thankful for. Thursday we are off to visit my family and celebrate the traditional turkey day the way we have for many years. Dinner, a nice long walk, then some football.

Today is CSA day. We are getting good things for my dinner. Tomorrow I pick up my Maple Lawn turkey. Then, off to England Acres to get a centerpiece and some things that won’t be in my CSA box today.

This weekend our little private personal Thanksgiving, a tradition we started years ago when I wanted to learn how to cook a turkey, we will give thanks again for what we have.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my cyber readers, and my cyber circle of locavores.

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Posted in Family, Food, Hobbies, Local Businesses, Locavore, People, Retirement, Travel, Volunteering and tagged amateur radio, commentary, cooking, family, Food, hobbies, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, real food, retirement, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Significant Birthdays

Posted on November 19, 2012 by AnnieRie

Sort of significant. Not the divisible by five ones, like 55 or 60. Those are the ones we celebrate by going out to dinner. Otherwise, I make a simple tasty meal with a killer wine for a fraction of the restaurant cost.

Today was sort of significant for my husband. Sixty two. Old enough to receive Social Security. That is a milestone. He was out all day with his radio buddies, fixing cable on the towers used for field day. They did bring him cupcakes to celebrate. I knew he would be out all day, so I just made one of those simple dinners with first class ingredients.

Anyone can make something this easy. The food cost me less than $25 total for the two of us. The wine, a splurge, RdV Rendezvous. Still dinner for under three figures. Find somewhere that serves petite filet this good, for $12 a person. Please let me know if you do.

The salad was microgreens, arugula, radishes and tomatoes, with a bleu cheese dressing. Steamed broccoli with the same dressing. Filets from Harris Teeter. They really looked good when I was there last week. These were fork tender steaks. Pan seared, then finished in the oven. Nothing but garlic powder, salt, pepper. and balsamic on them before cooking. Put in the hot pan from room temperature. Then, about 5 minutes in a 350 degree oven to cook to medium rare.

The 2009 RdV Rendezvous was just this amazingly huge wine. Dark, deep, full of tannin and with a very long finish. Perfect with the beef.

Later on tonight, I will open a late harvest Petit Manseng with some aged Parmesan, for dessert. No more sweets today. The wine with the cheese is a great pairing, and a very good dessert for us. The wine is a 2005, from Linden. Here’s to sort of significant birthdays.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Wine and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, Linden Vineyards, traditions, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Cooking from Scratch Sunday

Posted on November 18, 2012 by AnnieRie

It is going to be one of those crazy weeks. Every day something going on. Holidays with heavier foods. Today I wanted vegetarian, and I wanted to use up some of the CSA veggies.

You know that Bank commercial, the one where they picture “homemade” lasagna from Stouffer’s. That was me twenty years ago. Thankfully, I now make my own lasagna.

I had beaucoup squash on the counter. Greens in the fridge. My trusty iPad gave me inspiration.

It is funny. The author improvised. So did I. I roasted a couple of squash, delicata and acorn, at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Peeled and sliced, so I could layer them easily. A little salt and pepper and olive oil. I also took a large bunch of lacinato kale and sauteed it in olive oil, with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

I made the sauce. A 15 ounce container of ricotta mixed with two eggs, and a healthy sprinkling of parmesan. About four ounces of milk added to thin it out. A third of it went in with the kale. Add more nutmeg, salt and pepper to both. Do it to your taste.

Take a square pan. Grease it. Add a layer of sauce, then kale. Put noodles on it. Add some sliced mozzarella. Then put all the squash on it and press it down. More sauce. More noodles. Kale, mozzarella and then sauce on top. A little oregano, salt and pepper on top. If you like garlic, add granulated garlic powder to each element. Same for the nutmeg. I grind my own.

Bake all of this for 25 minutes covered with foil (spray it with Pam first), then take off the foil and bake 15-20 minutes longer until it browns. Take it out and let it rest.

Cut it and serve it with a big white wine. You will not miss the meat. Kale and squash. Good for you and really a great taste. The only discussion we had about it, was that it was slightly underseasoned. Next time we may add some cayenne flakes, to spice it up.

Not bad for vegetarian.

hocofood@@@

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

Thanksgiving Wines

Posted on November 18, 2012 by AnnieRie

One of the hardest dinners to pick a wine to match. We get to bring wines to my brother’s house every year, as we have the cellar and have been collecting for a very long time. But, our older reds aren’t the perfect match for the turkey, particularly when other dishes would compete with them. Easter is always easy for me, since he makes lamb. Christmas generally he has a Smithfield ham and we always have shrimp, so a nice white works there.

Thanksgiving though, drives me nuts with choosing the pairings. One of the couples only drinks reds so I considered getting this year’s Nouveau. I do hear it’s slim pickings due to a small harvest.

I think I finally settled on what I am taking. I need to come up with four bottles total, to cover the number of people. These were the choices and they all will complement the turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and won’t be totally messed up by the sauerkraut, that Maryland anomaly on the table. 😉

locapour dominating the Thanksgiving choices

It turns out I will be bringing the three local wines on the left, and not the Hillinger. I may take that down for Christmas as it will fit better there. The Vidal Riesling is my mom’s favorite. It has a little spritz and is an off dry wine, but not too sweet. It really goes well with the stuffing, if you use a spicy sausage in it. It is a perfect wine for novices to drinking wine, but has enough structure to make a wine lover happy. I will take one of those.

The other two wines are pretty big rose wines. Linden’s is made dominantly from their merlot. Breaux’s is a blend of Nebbiolo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chambourcin. 2011 was the year Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee did a number on the red grapes in the area. Wineries like Linden and Breaux used some interesting red grapes to make these wines. They didn’t try to force big red wines from grapes that had too much rain dilute their structure. It became a year with many very good roses, and there are some decent light reds out there in Virginia from 2011.

These two will both pair nicely with a Thanksgiving dinner. As for what we will be opening on the weekend when I make my turkey, it will probably be a Maryland red. My weekend Thanksgiving turkey, bought from Maple Lawn, and served with stuffing made with local bread and sausage, and CSA veggies, will be grilled if the weather holds. I am thinking of opening one of the Black Ankle pinot noirs. We have two of them from their first vintage, 2008. I think it is a better choice than the Syrah, which is bigger.

It is nice that there are such good wines made locally. You do have to search for the better wineries around here, but you can usually find something that meets your needs. Making this locavore a locapour as well.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Family, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Wine and tagged cooking, family, Food, foodie, grilling, Linden Vineyards, Locavore, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Restaurant Quality Dinners

Posted on November 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

What would you pay in a restaurant for a really good steak salad?

steak salad

My husband really loved dinner tonight. Simple, elegant, sort of. We had one leftover package of meat in the freezer from last winter’s CSA. It needed to be eaten. It was a skirt steak from our Zahradka CSA, sourced from JW Treuth’s in Oella. I marinated it in olive oil and red wine vinegar and added a coffee based dry rub.

Put together a salad of arugula, microgreens, scallions, tomatoes and added a potato with tzatziki on the side. The salad base is the key. Fresh organic arugula and microgreens from Roots. Scallions from the CSA. Tomatoes were from Costco. I mixed some very old balsamic and olive oil from St. Helena Oil in California to drizzle over it. With this base, dinner only needed a small amount of the slightly rare, dark and juicy steak, and half a potato with the tzatziki on the side.

With the dinner we opened a 2009 Petit Verdot, a signature grape being cultivated in Virginia. This was a cellar selection from Breaux. A lovely fat wine. A good salad under a beautiful skirt steak. A little carbohydrate in the potato we shared. Looked like a restaurant meal to me.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to drive over to Oella, right next to The Breadery, you really need to try Treuth’s beef. Outstanding stuff.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

The End of the Season

Posted on November 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

Planning for Thanksgiving? You still have one more chance to get in on local goodness supporting our farmers. Oakland Mills market Sunday morning from 9 am until 12:30 pm. The final day of the market until the spring.

I hit Glenwood today. Four of the Glenwood vendors will be at Oakland Mills tomorrow morning. If you do nothing else, getting apples from the customer appreciation sale by Lewis Orchards is worth the trip. Ten dollars for half a bushel and you can mix two types. I like Fuji because they are good eating apples and will work for applesauce and pies.

Half bushel Fuji apples

I got some fresh cider from them also. They were doing a brisk business today, as you can see by the stack of upturned 1/2 bushel baskets. I was in line about five deep when I first got there to get the apples. It was good to see each vendor doing a decent business with cars coming in. I was there before 10 am. When I left the cars were still pretty constant coming in.

I got eggs and a ham hock from TLV. I know I can continue to get them out at the farm. Honey from Breezy Willow. And, a pecan pie for one of the desserts I will take to my family’s Thanksgiving dinner, from Stone House. The eggs are for my Christmas baking, which I will be starting the weekend after Thanksgiving.

TLV, Stone House, Cosmic Bean and Lewis will be at Oakland Mills. I don’t know about the produce vendors there, or whether Great Harvest will be there. Zahradka and Breezy Willow were doing a brisk business today, with people getting veggies for their holiday meals. Lots of broccoli and cauliflower. Squashes. Brussels sprouts on the stalk.

Stone House will be around for a while at TLV, during Christmas tree cutting season. Check their site to see which days. I got my pecan pie today that just needs a quick heat up in the oven. All sorts of pies, cakes, cookies, cupcakes and breads. I have two loaves of their specialty breads in my freezer to heat up with soups.

A big thanks to all our local vendors and farmers, who have given us almost seven months of markets here in the county. I know I appreciate them being here, and hope to see them all next spring.

hocofood@@@

The Fall CSA, Three Weeks In

Posted on November 15, 2012 by AnnieRie

I can tell Thanksgiving is here. The veggies attest to it.

Sandy Spring Fall CSA Week 3 of 2012

I keep playing “I’m celery the eighth, I am, celery the eighth I am, I am” in my head. These two heads of organic celery were just massive. More than enough for stuffing, or dressing (your preference), and for under the turkey and to use when making turkey noodle soup with the leftovers. Of course, we are also getting veggies next Tuesday (early because the holiday is Thursday), so we may be really up to our ears in celery.

Here’s the list, but modified to show we got extras of a few things, in order to make up for the lost week. Next to each is the cost from my visit today to Harris Teeter. Organic, when possible. Otherwise, regular. The popcorn a guess, based on cost of microwave popcorn in the store. I round up the penny.

1 Bunch French Heirloom Carrots $3
1 Head Broccoli $3.50
1 Butternut Squash (2 1/2 lb) total comes to $3.25
1 Bag Hakurei Turnips (2 1/2 lb) $14.95 (see below)
2 Bunches of Celery $8 (yes, organic were $3.49. EACH)
2 large Yellow Onions (1 1/2 lb) $2.70 total
1 Bunch Lacinato Kale $3
1 Head Napa Cabbage (3 lb) $5.10 total
1 Bunch Yellow Popcorn use $4 to compare to microwave
2 Rutabaga (2 1/2 lb) $3.25 total

The added up cost for this week is $49.65. Cost for a share $31.25 a week. Add to last week where it was $42.22 (remember we lost a week due to Sandy), total is now $91.87. I think. I may need to check my math but it looks like after week 3 we are almost even with what we pay. Down only $2. If they keep adding amounts like they did this week, twice the celery as originally stated. A very large amount of turnips. We should be way ahead by Christmas, as is usually the case with this CSA.

As for the turnips, Hakurei are a delicacy. A small bunch of them (less than 8 ounces in weight) were $2.99 at Harris Teeter today. We got two and a half pounds of them. I really love these turnips. They are sweet. They can be eaten raw or cooked. I am thinking of taking them to my brother’s for Thanksgiving, baked in a light butter sauce with Brussels Sprouts. I need to find Brussels sprouts at one of the last markets this weekend.

Hakurei turnips

As for that popcorn, we found a recipe that says, just put it in a paper bag in the microwave. We need to try this.

Last night was “Use up the CSA” dinner. My roasted root veggies before baking. I added some of my bag ripened heirloom tomatoes to the pan, too.

veggies before roasting

After they finished, I boiled some pasta, added a few cubes of my garlic scape pesto I took out of the freezer and had a primavera of sorts that was so good. We did eat the last grillers from TLV on the side.

Not bad for using up leftover veggies, roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, heirloom tomatoes, Locavore, tomatoes, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

Something to Nosh On

Posted on November 11, 2012 by AnnieRie

The invite said bring something to nosh on, and something to sip. An old friend, met twenty years ago when he worked with my husband, now is living not far from us. He sent the email inviting a bunch of us to join them for an evening of music by some very talented musicians who get together periodically to play.

We haven’t done an evening of listening to great jazz, classic rock, some reggae and all sorts of improv good stuff in a very long time. It was absolutely fantastic, but I can’t get Radar Love out of my head now. It is funny how you still know all the lyrics of songs from your college years.

Of course, I may not forgive them for doing Don’t Worry, Be Happy, but they redeemed themselves with Bob Marley’s Is This Love. I have to rummage around and find my Legend CD now.

Anyway, besides the fact we stayed out late enough that we didn’t get to the birding today, I did have a good time making some of my new dips to take as the noshing contribution to the evening.

I have perfected for my taste, both the pumpkin hummus and the Ajvar recipes.

ajvar and hummus

I decided to experiment with the hummus and I did finally succumb to buying tahini. It gives me the incentive to make more hummus and stop buying it. I also found great hummus dipping chips, Flamous Falafel Chips These work so well with hummus, and with the ajvar.

To make the hummus, this is now my recipe. I adjusted what I use to make it taste the way we like. The amounts are approximate for the seasonings, but here are the basics.

One medium butternut squash, roasted in the oven until soft and scraped out of its skin. I slow roast at a lower temp, 300 degrees. One can of organic chickpeas, drained and rinsed. Three cloves of garlic. Put these three things in the food processor first. Add olive oil, about a 1/4 cup and pulse until it is chunky. Add the juice of one lemon. Plus 2 heaping tablespoons of tahini.

Now, seasonings. I have been experimenting and I like these. Garam masala, sriracha, salt, white pepper and a drop of sesame oil. This is where it gets interesting. I don’t measure seasonings. I try and taste. There is at least a teaspoon of garam masala and salt used this time. Half a teaspoon of white pepper. As for the sriracha, I probably used at least a dozen drops to start, because we like the spicy undertones. I added a few drops when I served it, swirled in to add a little more heat to the sweetness and the garlicky tones. If you aren’t a garlic fan, cut back to one or two cloves. But I love garlicky hummus.

Now, for the ajvar (pronounced eye-var). I have seen recipes that go all over the place and are attributed to Macedonia, Serbia and elsewhere across the Mediterranean. Some use eggplant, and others use only red peppers and garlic. I like the version with eggplant, but next summer when I can get large numbers of peppers, I am going to try the one without eggplant.

oven roasted eggplant

I made this version with four very large red peppers, and one large eggplant, all drizzled with olive oil and roasted until the peppers blistered. I used 325 degrees, and watch it closely. Put the peppers in a container and seal so they steam. Remove skins.

eggplant and peppers, to show sizes used

After removing the peppers and eggplant, turn off the oven. Immediately put cloves of garlic in the oven wrapped in foil and drizzled with oil. They will roast to the perfect texture without burning in the residual heat. I always make a few extra to use for garlic bread, or to put in omelets.

oven roasted garlic

Take the eggplant out of its skin. Remove some of the seeds if you want. I like the slight bite from them, so I leave some of them in.

Pulse the eggplant first, with three cloves of garlic and drizzle in the olive oil. Then add juice from half a lemon plus the peppers, peeled, and making sure no seeds remain on the peppers. Add salt to taste. It also gets better the longer it sits. Do not use jarred peppers to do this. The taste will not be the same. If you have a gas grill, or a gas flame, you can char them over the flame, but I think slow roasting them until they char gives it something better. Do it both ways and see which one you prefer. That is part of the fun of making a recipe “yours”.

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Posted in Adventures, Food, Real Food, West HoCo and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, real food, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

It’s a Chicken Soup Kinda Day

Posted on November 9, 2012 by AnnieRie

You know, a little blustery. Sunny, but breezy. Fall weather that makes you crave chicken soup. I knew when we got celery and carrots in the CSA box that I would be making soup.

Turns out that I bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco last night as I was running late. I always turn leftover rotisserie chicken into soup if I have the ingredients. So right now, soup is happily bubbling on the stove top. It will be ready to serve about an hour from now.

chicken soup simmering on the stove

I started with about half the chicken, including all the bones, the skin and shredding the breast meat before adding it to three cups of chicken stock and two cups of water. For herbs and spices, I used tarragon, salt and pepper, all to taste. I don’t measure herbs.

I added the trilogy. Celery, carrot and onion. Two carrots. One onion. About half a cup of celery. That’s it for now.

By the way, purple carrots aren’t purple inside. Here is one I was starting to peel. They are really sweet, though. I love them shaved into salads, too. But this one and another made it into the pot.

As for the noodles, they will go in just before I serve the soup. Only staying in for a few minutes. These are fresh egg noodles from Baugher’s in Westminster. I love these noodles. Four simple ingredients. Oodles of taste.

Chicken noodle soup. Reminds me so much of my childhood. Makes me feel warm just thinking about it. And, to serve with it, I will pull a Stone House Bakery loaf of bread out of the freezer and pop it in the oven for 10 minutes. Warm bread and hot soup. Yum!

hocofood@@@

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Fall CSA Week 2, sort of

Posted on November 8, 2012 by AnnieRie

Week One was canceled due to Sandy. When they can, we will be getting more items before the eight weeks are done.

Today we did get larger amounts of stuff. Not the variety, but the quantity was up. Sandy Spring Fall CSA delivered to Columbia for us to pick up today. Ten items.

Sandy Spring 2012 Fall CSA

The list:
2 large Leeks
2 Heads of Celery
1 Bunch Hakurei Turnips
1 Bag Sweet Cubanelle Peppers
1 Bunch French Breakfast Radishes
1 Bunch Collards
1 Thelma Sanders Squash
1 Bag Purple Carrots (almost two pounds)
1 Bunch White Scallions
1 Bag White Hamon Sweet Potatoes (almost four pounds)

The Thelma Sanders squash is a new one to me. It is an heirloom. I can’t wait to try it. And, the White Hamon. Such a great sweet potato. They will become something associated with Thanksgiving, like sweet potato casserole, or a pumpkin pie.

Plus, I really love the Hakurei turnips. They are sweet, and getting all those lovely greens is a bonus. Plus, celery with lots of greens. I may be making a pesto with the turnip greens, radish greens, celery greens, scallion tops, pine nuts, pecorino and olive oil. Sounds like a great meal for pasta this weekend.

Hmmm, carrots and celery. There are also a few onions left from previous weeks. And, half a TLV farm chicken in the freezer. Sounds like a chicken soup is soon to come, as well.

Loving all this fresh organic food.

hocofood@@@

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