Tag Archives: crock pot cooking

The CSA Box, Week Seven. Get It Before It Wilts

Posted on June 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

Boy, it’s hot. Getting that CSA box early is a smart thing. The Lancaster Farm Fresh refrigerated truck was there when we arrived a few minutes before 1 PM. Lots of people arriving right after we did. Don’t want those veggies to wilt, do we?

The haul. It keeps getting harder to take the picture. I am glad I have lots of counter space to clean and prep it all. It takes about 20 minutes to process all of it.

I did one swap. Dandelion greens to get another bag of pickling cukes. The list.

The analysis. Based on organic pricing. Green Kale $3. Yellow Chard $3. Pickling cukes, eleven of them at 2/$1 is $5.50. Heirloom carrots (priceless 😉 ) where else do you find this sort of carrot — $3. Onions $3. Fennel $3.50. Zucchini $3. Two slicing cukes $2. A pound of rhubarb $3. Large green cabbage $3. Total is $32. $3.25 more than the weekly cost of the CSA. Running cumulative total is $51.90, with eighteen weeks to go and so much goodness coming into the house.

As for all these cukes, I am busy doing easy refrigerator and crock dill pickles. Check out the crock at the moment after I added new cukes to the mix. This is what my mom and my husband’s mom always did. Keep a crock of pickles “dilling” in a cool place in the kitchen.

You can see differences in the older pickles and the new brighter green ones, as well as some of those white cucumbers from last week’s CSA. I bought a food grade white bucket, sterilized it in the dishwasher and for these, used a prepared dilling mix that my husband wanted me to try. He thought my original pickling spice mix wasn’t like his mom’s, so we tried this one. It is OK, but I will be experimenting with fresh spices I grind myself to change it a bit. This is Mrs. Wages, bought at Butler’s Orchard in their canning section.

I just use a 2:1 water/vinegar mix and use the appropriate amount of spice, boil it quickly, cool it and cover the cucumbers. Put a plate on top and a clean dish towel and leave it alone in a corner. There is also a bowl full of sauerkraut fermenting next to it from the cabbage two weeks ago. It is coming along nicely and I will probably grill kielbasa and serve it over some sauerkraut next week. Another staple from my mom’s and my grandmom’s German influenced kitchens.

The sauerkraut is really easy. Cut up cabbage. Pack it into container layering it with salt and caraway. Get enough water in it to cover it. Add salted water if needed. Put a plate on it. Weight it down. Let it ferment its little self silly.

OK, all this talk of food has made me hungry. Time to go up and find my crock pot soup made with greens and bacon, using up all of last week’s leftover CSA greens. Veggie stock from the freezer. Greens, beans, bacon and onions. Herbs, salt and pepper. Two or three dinners. We may look like we are drowning in veggies but we do make a huge dent in them every week. Check out our What’s In The Box linkytools party to see how dozens of us are using our CSA deliveries. Bon Appetit!

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, CSA, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

Eating Locally, the Whole Weekend

Posted on June 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

Without going to Wegmans. 🙂

Seems like all anyone is talking about is Wegmans. Don’t get me wrong. I love going there for specialty items but camping out? Really? Seems like from the comments I will be OK if I go looking for that Marvesta shrimp and stay away from the food court.

My challenge to cook locally continues and most of this weekend included local meals. Check out what the others are doing on our Google Reader page.

Friday night we went to Black Ankle. Most of what I took to eat was locally produced.

Saturday I grilled all sorts of local goodies.

The petit filets and tomatoes were from Boarman’s. Yellow zucchini, asparagus and radishes from Glenwood market. Potatoes, lettuce and onions from CSA. Green beans and herbs from my garden. The tomatoes were not local, but they were so good after oven roasting them.

Today was a fun day. Lots to do around the house. No time to camp out to go to a grocery store. Can you tell I wonder why people would camp out to go to a grocery store? Really. The only thing I ever camped out for was Jimmy Buffett tickets.

Getting ready for ARRL amateur radio field day. More on this later in the week. But, we spent hours checking hardware for the towers.

Dinner was in the crock pot. Lots of greens this week in the CSA, so I made a variation of a Tuscan bean soup. A pound of kale. Chicken broth from my freezer. Italian sausage from South Mountain. The butter beans were not local, but they were organic from Roots. Spring garlic from my garden.

So were the herbs.

A sweet onion from the CSA, salt and pepper. A really good meal.

Dinner tonight was served with a 2004 Linden Cabernet Franc. Love their francs. None of the bell pepper acidity of other Virginia francs.

Last night an old Pearmund complemented the filets. Hanging in there barely but still a good wine. 2002 was not a big year in Virginia. This Ameritage was starting to fade just a bit. Still, with the big steak flavors, it did OK.

Friday night of course was Black Ankle night. Lots of local MD wine to drink.

I think I went an entire weekend eating mostly locally produced foods. Haven’t been to a grocery store all month. You can eat amazing meals using markets, CSAs and a local butcher like Boarman’s.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, SSFC, Wine and tagged crock pot cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, 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@@@

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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.

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.

White Asparagus Anyone? Right Out of Your Yard?

Posted on April 17, 2012 by AnnieRie

White Asparagus. What comes up deep under the mulch if you don’t move it out of the way.

Wild asparagus grows many places in this area. The best way to find out is to look for the plants that aren’t harvested and that become small trees. This is how we found ours.

At the base of one of the crepe myrtles there are thin wispy fronds that have fallen over. They are what sprouts from the crown if you don’t harvest the plant. You can find them if you really look carefully. We found ours while mulching one year. It seems this plant was some sort of volunteer that comingles with the base of the crepe myrtle.

Today I went out looking and first saw this.

If you look very closely, you can find one spear in the upper left, and one in the lower right. We had lots of mulch built up around the crepe myrtle this spring so the rest of the spears were fully covered. Careful moving of the mulch revealed the rest.

Then I started uncovering the white ones.

White because of lack of exposure to sunlight. I also found this one hidden on the other side of the bush.

Now there are five spears coming up in total. Hopefully in two or three days, I will have enough to cut and make pancetta wrapped grilled asparagus. Foraged food. Right out of the backyard.

Do a little looking around in parks and on roadways in the area. See if you can find a source of asparagus. Don’t tell anyone you found it. Just harvest and enjoy.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Foraging, Gardening, Howard County, Locavore, Nature, Real Food and tagged crock pot cooking, Food, foodie, gardening, hoco loco, Howard County, nature, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Even Though the Challenge is Over …

Posted on April 1, 2012 by AnnieRie

… I am still cooking locally produced foods.

Today was one of those crock pot days. At the market yesterday, I picked up those beautiful short ribs from the Amish farm. Plus, chard to go along with my CSA mustard greens.

Add to that some stuff from the fridge and pantry.

I made a sauce using the organic fire roasted tomatoes, some tomato paste, and added tomato preserves, harissa and some honey. Added fresh herbs from the garden and garlic and spring onions. Used a turnip and a couple of carrots from the CSA, and put it all in the pot but the meat. The meat I browned first, before adding it to the top of the crock pot. Seasoned it with ground ginger and cinnamon, too. Smelled like Morocco in here.

I have been using the crock pot liners since I can’t lift and wash the insert. I know I could get my husband to clean it but it’s just easier to do it this way. They are an interesting invention, as I am amazed at how strong they are. I think more people would use crock pots if they used this easy clean up time saver.

After setting up the crock pot, I made a local breakfast for us. The last two pieces of chicken fried steak that I made the other night from the cube steak I bought at Wagner’s. Two eggs from the CSA. Atwater’s rosemary bread, toasted with fresh butter. Yum, steak and eggs for breakfast.

Back to dinner, after spending time cleaning out the pots outside so I can plant some chard and arugula, and messing around on the internet, I came down the cellar to look for wine. I needed a big wine to stand up to the beef with all those intense tomatoey, spicy notes. Ended up digging around and found a 2000 Linden Red, not one of the individual vineyard designations, but a blend of grapes from the three sites. 63% Cabernet, with more than 30% franc and the rest petit verdot. This was a big wine. It just goes to show that if you have the talent and the patience, you can make great wines in less than stellar growing years. This wine had gobs of fruit. Still dark, dense and chewy. I bet we paid around $20 for that wine, and it would stand up to a Cabernet from California that costs at least twice the money.

Dinner was equally impressive, even if it looked a little messy.

The salad was nice, too. We used some of the Cherry Glen goat cheese, the Monocacy Gold, with CSA greens, plus arugula and tomatoes from Mock’s Greenhouse.

I am finding it very easy to make good meals using local items and no processed foods. Check this one off as something I will make many times.

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Posted in Farmer's Markets, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged crock pot cooking, Dark Days Challenge, farmer's markets, Food, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Eating Locally — A Crock Pot Meal after a Hike

Posted on March 15, 2012 by AnnieRie

Today I went hiking on the Conservancy trails for the first time since surgery eighteen days ago. I made it two hours, although we walked to different locations and stopped to talk to the group we were leading. I can handle that.

Before leaving the house though, I put the center cut pork chops from the CSA in the crock pot with collards, sweet potatoes and a sauce made with local ingredients.

The sauce was made with:

All local, including the pepper jelly hell from Suzanne of Glenwood. I did add a tiny bit of honey from the bees at the Conservancy. Went away for eight hours and came back to this.

Pork chops from Treuth’s in Oella. Apple sauce from Quaker Valley in PA. Tomato Preserves from McCutcheon’s Frederick MD. Sweet potatoes and collards from Zahradka Farm. Broth added to the pot, defrosted turkey stock from my Maple Lawn turkey.

Another successful week eating locally in the winter.

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