Tag Archives: Food

Strawberry Season

Posted on May 24, 2014 by AnnieRie

Officially opened today at Gorman Farms. You do have to check to see when they are open. They had some hail damage.

As for us, we got strawberries Thursday from Miller Farms in our Friends and Farms basket. They are also open for those who live south of us.

These berries made it into three different meals already.

Strawberries with greens. Such a simple great salad. I used arugula, romaine and the pea shoots from our baskets. A very easy yogurt dressing. Scallions from my garden.

The second use.

Berry yogurt. Besides some of the strawberries, I used a few defrosted blueberries. The plain yogurt from Pequea Valley. A little agave for sweetness. That small care package in the fridge went with my husband for his 12 hour shift in an amateur radio contest. A few hardboiled eggs, and some penne pasta I made the other day.

The last of the strawberries from Thursday? I ate them. What can I say. I love fresh berries.

Besides Gorman, there are other pick your own farms around here. Depending on where you live, you can find one not far away.

Like Larriland, or Baughers in Westminster, or Butlers Orchards in Germantown. They are all saying early June opening.

Berries are a fruit that we enjoy picking. Our freezer was stocked with berry syrup cubes, and frozen berries.

We will as usual go out to Larriland and pick at least 20 pounds. You can’t beat the price.

#hocofood

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Posted in Day Trips, Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Mangia Italiano!

Posted on May 22, 2014 by AnnieRie

Italian feast. That’s what we can make with this week’s Friends and Farms basket.

Within this basket is a serious baseline for “gravy” or as known here in the States, tomato sauce.

Tomatoes. An onion. Garlic. Carrots. Basil. Sweet Italian sausage. Mushrooms. Really, you can have one very interesting experimental session making your own version of an Italian staple.

But, you know you can add that Swiss chard.

As for other meals, this is my egg and bacon week.

Eggs and bacon. There is probably not much else that just jumps up and makes us happy.

Well, maybe strawberries.

We all got a quart of strawberries. This should do well with finishing off that yogurt I bought last week.

And, the chicken.

This weekend. One spatchcocked grilled chicken coming up.

I forgot! Those pea shoots. You know, I definitely love pea shoots. But, they have to be eaten soon.

Great Memorial Day basket! Time to get grilling!

#hocofood

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

Lunch From the Garden …

Posted on May 20, 2014 by AnnieRie

… and a few regional farms.

In the process of making lunch, the picture above shows some of the kale and chard from this morning’s thinning of the garden. Dressed with a simple yogurt dressing. Shake yogurt and lemon infused olive oil with some garlic powder, salt and pepper.

An apple from last week’s Friends and Farms basket, served with some of that provolone that we got, too.

Homemade peach yogurt.

To share, we used one cup of plain yogurt. One defrosted peach, from my stash in the freezer (courtesy of Larriland picking last August). A 1/2 tsp squirt of agave. That’s all. I control the sweetness when I start with plain yogurt.

This yogurt is available at Friends and Farms. At Breezy Willow Farm store. And at England Acres in Mt. Airy. Best yogurt we have ever found. No web site, as they are an Amish farm.

As for the rest of this bag of peaches. Destined to become peach pops. Simple to make. Blend the peaches with yogurt. To fill my popsicle molds I need about 32 ounces in the blender. If I get a little too much, the rest goes in a small plastic jar and becomes frozen yogurt. I am using whatever I have to give it the amount of sweetness I want. Currently I have agave, but I also use honey or maple syrup.

On a related note, I harvested a few more white onions today.

Including one very large one, that was too crowded in the middle of the rows.

And found the beginning of an onion scape on the largest one. Now, I need to head back up there and pinch off scapes to let the onions put more energy into the onions and not the shoots.

Back on the home front, though, my garlic out in the back yard hasn’t begun to produce scapes yet. They are getting really large finally, so I hope to get at least one dozen large heads of garlic in a few months.

So far, a good start to the harvest of spring vegetables. Now, if only the strawberry picking season would begin. Gorman Farm projects that they will open Saturday the 24th of May. Larriland is still posting “late” May. We are almost out of the last of the frozen berries, and can’t wait to get out in the fields and bring in this year’s berries. The freezer is getting empty now.

#hocofood

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Posted in Farms, Friends and Farms, Gardening, Hobbies, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, farms, Food, foodie, gardening, hobbies, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

The First Harvests

Posted on May 16, 2014 by AnnieRie

It’s always exciting when we switch from planting to harvesting. This year I am keeping a record of what we get, from the multiple sites where I have vegetables and herbs growing.

My favorite microsite is my foraged asparagus.

At the top of our driveway, where the asparagus is growing wild. Today, I got one new spear, added to the six already picked. Last year I think I counted 42 spears. Let’s see what this year produces. And, yes, that is crape myrtle, with the asparagus firmly entrenched under it.

Up at the community garden, it was time to thin the greens.

By the way, three inches of rain will penetrate the heavy row cover. The weeds are coming in, so I weeded and thinned today.

I have mostly kale and chard up there, but did add some recently sprouted arugula. Today’s take. Two ounces. They will grace an omelet this weekend.

Notice the chive flowers. I inherited massive amounts of chives, and a few varieties of sage in our plot. I took the best flowers to use in that omelet, and admired the bicolor sage that recovered after the winter.

This sage is tiny but my common sage bush is doing well also. I love sage when I make pork dishes, and in tomato sauce with sausage.

Today I was also fighting the pests. On the cucumbers and the eggplant. Potato beetles on the eggplant and cucumber beetles chewing off my young cucumber shoots. Garden Safe to the rescue, we hope. I am on a 7 day schedule with this OMRI approved insecticide. These pests already killed off four cucumber plants, and made a mess of the leaves of the rest.

If you look behind the plant stick, you will see one of the potato beetles. Soon to meet his maker, like his brethren I squashed that were noshing my pink eggplant leaves. I think I do need to cover the eggplants. And, those are weeds you see. I am trying to keep up with them, but this blasted rain just makes everything grow so fast.

I came home with this.

Some greens. A few blossoms. The one two foot long asparagus from the driveway.

Tomorrow, I may head out to the garden in the yard and harvest spring garlic. At least three of the eighteen plants in the back yard aren’t that big, and they won’t mature enough before the heat of summer. They will flavor a few meals this week.

Not bad for mid May. I can’t wait for tomato season, but this is a good beginning.

#hocofood

Trying to garden organically is tough, but I will prevail (I hope).

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Posted in Food, Foraging, Gardening, Hobbies, Nature, Weather and tagged Food, foodie, gardening, nature, real food, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

A Tale of Two Providers

Posted on May 15, 2014 by AnnieRie

Both of them awesome. The source now of most of what we eat. Well, with the exception of my garden, which will provide all kinds of goodness in the next four months.

Today, our Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative CSA started up. For a 25 week summer season and a seven week fall extension. We dropped down to a half share because we still do Friends and Farms, and yes, we have a garden.

The reason why we love this CSA. The diversity. Have you ever heard of Egyptian walking onions? Well, until today, neither had we.

Our half share included:
Green Kale
One pound of spring mix
Arugula (which was in the full share, but I swapped for it)
French breakfast radishes
Red scallions
Asparagus

The full shares got the purple asparagus. They had ten items in their share. They got microgreens in theirs.

I also signed up for the chicken share. Three pounds a week of free range, antibiotic and hormone free chicken. This week:

Two chicken breasts and two legs.

Add to that bounty, the individual share from Friends and Farms. Between the two, we won’t be drowning in items and the portions are perfect for a couple.

The complete deliverable.

The sandwich steaks and provolone. Just what we need to make cheese steak sandwiches. The shrimp. Ten ounces in our individual basket. The small basket got twice that amount. Ten shrimp. Ten ounces. These are prime shrimp. There will be shrimp and grits, I think, to use up the last of the grits.

The add on I picked up this week. Plain yogurt. I have plans for the yogurt. The special. Leftover ewe cream cheese for a sale price. I could spread this cheese on cardboard and love it. It is particularly good on specialty breads. I am also thinking of crackers with cheese and the last of my homemade pineapple habanero jelly.

The rest of the items in that picture above. Spinach, green onions, beets, hydroponic tomatoes, butter lettuce, bread and a couple of apples.

I really don’t need to touch a market or grocery store with this kind of variety coming to our home weekly.

Tonight’s dinner celebrated those sources. I was home alone as my better half is out for the evening.

I covered a plate in spring mix. Sliced one of those hydroponic tomatoes, and added some basil from my garden. Shredded the end of the chicken from the last roaster (December delivery LFFC). Shaved a bit of Roots parmesan. And a scallion in the salad. I drizzled Newman’s Caesar dressing over it all. I was too lazy to make dressing with the yogurt today, but it will be made this weekend.

A glass of white wine, and what could be simpler for a meal?

Thanks to the regional deliverables of great ingredients, I had one of my fresh tasty meals.

#hocofood

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, LFFC, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, farms, Food, foodie, LFFC, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Event Overload Again

Posted on May 14, 2014 by AnnieRie

The third weekend in May. Absolutely one of the most overbooked event weekends around here.

Wine in the Woods. Both days, Saturday and Sunday.

The Preakness. Saturday is the race in Baltimore, and the Balloon Festival at Turf Valley the 15th-17th if the weather permits it.

The Columbia Triathlon is Sunday morning. Our love/hate relationship with this event depends on whether we need to get anywhere by car that morning. We live right off the bike race route.

The EC Tasting Gallery Pop Up at Bistro Blanc is Sunday night.

There is a Family Open House at Belmont Saturday morning 10-12, with guided hikes and other goodies. The Howard County Conservancy is providing environmental educational programs at the Belmont site.

We are volunteering for Big Cork at Wine in the Woods.

Been fans of their wines since they opened the winery. Love the chardonnay, and really am looking forward to the release of their first red wines this fall. And, their new building out in Rohrersville.

As for that pop up dinner, we will be there. I can’t wait to see what the EC chefs and Chef Johnny at Bistro Blanc create in a culinary culture tour.

If I can drag myself out of bed Saturday morning to see the mass ascension at Oh-Dark=Thirty up at Turf Valley, I will be doing that too.

Belmont does interfere with Wine in the Woods. Darn. Van Wensil is leading two guided hikes which should be wonderful to do.

Sunday morning finds us cheering on the leaders in the triathlon as they pass the Royal Farms at the circle where Dayton and Glenelg meet. We like heading up there for coffee and bagels and to watch the world class athletes as they head out, and then back, from their loop out to Triadelphia.

And, can’t forget to sit out and watch the Preakness while sipping a Black Eyed Susan. Last year they changed the recipe for the cocktail. Sounds really interesting, if you have St. Germain around the house.

What are you doing this weekend? Are you guilty of event overload, too? I’ll need a week to recover from all this entertainment.

Oh, and the azaleas at Brighton Dam are still blooming. If the rain the next two days doesn’t mess them up.

#hocoblogs

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Posted in Adventures, Community, Food, Hobbies, Howard County, Real Food, Restaurants, Travel, Volunteering, Wine and tagged community, Food, foodie, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, West HoCo, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Simply Spring: Onions

Posted on May 13, 2014 by AnnieRie

A staple in my house. Year round. Those different colors, textures, and tastes. Spring onions.

These onions are being harvested from my garden. To thin the white onions I planted a while back.

I planted a set of 80 white onions. I know I don’t want 80 onions in August, so thinning them out in the early weeks, harvesting those spring onions, will leave me with a manageable amount of onions to cure.

I use a very large amount of spring onions in my cooking. In my salads. My soups. Stir fries. Frittatas. I buy them when I don’t get them in CSA baskets.

This week, besides what I harvest, I am getting them from Friends and Farms, and in my first Lancaster Farm Fresh basket. This is one item that I know will get used quickly.

I just never thought until I started gardening, about all the items we get from the process of growing vegetables.

Like the onions, spring is the season for microgreens. Thinning out those greens.

Like my kale and chard. And the arugula out on my deck. Those little gems pack lots of flavor. They don’t go to waste.

Garlic scapes. Spring garlic. Pea shoots. I am now a firm believer in putting everything edible to a good use.

So, here’s to spring onions. I think I will let them shine this weekend. Grill them. Make them a star of a dish. Instead of a supporting player.

#hocofood

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Posted in CSA, Farms, Food, Friends and Farms, Gardening, Locavore and tagged cooking, CSA, farms, Food, gardening, grilling, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Market Strategies

Posted on May 11, 2014 by AnnieRie

Shopping strategies. Using local markets, CSAs and farmstands instead of grocery stores. For the period of May through November, much of what we buy comes from locally, regionally acquired sources. Small businesses mostly.

I haven’t set foot in a Safeway in years. Giant, maybe two or three times since January. Harris Teeter and Wegmans get visited often during the slow seasons, but not much in the summer.

I was over at Jenny’s market this Friday. Right off Route 32, a family produce stand. Yes, they buy things at the produce wholesale markets, as does Boarmans. That doesn’t bother me, as they are acquiring very fresh items, many of them local.

I picked up bananas and oranges at Jenny’s. Not grown locally, obviously, but major purchases for us, as we use citrus in many preparations, and bananas are important for our health. She also has avocados, lemons and limes. I don’t need to run off to a grocery store for those normal ingredients that show up in many of my salads. I can support a local family and get them there.

The bulk of my food this summer. Three sources. Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, for a half share of veggies, for chicken and a monthly delivery of cheese. Delivered to a house in Columbia. That same day I will head over to Friends and Farms for an individual basket. Add to that my garden. Only a few staples and some spice and oil need to be picked up at any stores.

In May 2011, I discovered Community Supported Agriculture. I did OK with it, but we did give away stuff we didn’t use. These days, since I have changed my diet drastically to use veggies and fruit as the dominant contributor to all meals, I almost never leave things go to waste.

Somewhere in the last four years, I made a massive adjustment in what I bought and how I cooked. Now, my cholesterol is way down. My HDL is the highest it has ever been. All other numbers at my physical are good, or better than good. Getting all that sugar and sodium out of our diets has made quite a difference.

Yes, it takes time to cook from scratch. To garden. To process foods for freezing and canning. But, I control what goes in them. I limit the salt. Don’t add sugar or high fructose corn syrup. I feel so much better.

I like this market strategy.

This week the CSA begins again. And, I can’t wait to see what we get. And have fun with how I use it.

#hocofood

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Gardening, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, gardening, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Scones, Scallions and Spice

Posted on May 10, 2014 by AnnieRie

Busy week. Making scones for the first time. Harvesting spring onions in the garden, aka scallions. And, cooking with Indian spices tonight.

Let’s start with the scones. Made for the Mother’s Day event that was canceled. At least I only made the test batch before we got word that predicted heavy rains for today would make it potentially abysmal in the gardens. Turns out the rain was about an hour later than predicted, but we all know about those weather people. Not to be trusted, or believed. (Just kidding, it is hard around here to figure out the weather patterns).

As for those scones.

Blueberries and peaches mixed with peach yogurt. Good peach yogurt from Pequea Valley.

One cup yogurt and one cup fruit. I used defrosted blueberries and peaches, from my Larriland picking last summer. These were added to the other ingredients at the end. I started out with 3 cups AP flour, 1/2 cup cane sugar, 2 tbsp. baking powder and 1 teaspoon baking soda. One stick of very cold unsalted butter added to these and mixed until the texture of a cornmeal. Dump in fruit and yogurt. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Next, let’s talk about the garden, and the newly harvested scallions.

I was thinning the white onions today. Took out three scallions that will grace the dinner table tomorrow. My first items this year.

Finally, the spice. The Indian inspired dinner.

Spiced chicken with yogurt sauce. I started out with a recipe but didn’t really follow it at all.

Except sort of, for the yogurt sauce. Easy to make. Big on taste. 6 ounces plain full fat yogurt. One lemon, juiced and zested. One tbsp. cilantro, chopped. Couple of shakes of ground ginger. 1/2 tsp. garlic powder. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix together. Put on everything! This stuff is incredibly tasty.

I had leftover chicken breast, cut into cubes, or strips, or some of each. About 8-10 ounces of chicken. Made a dry rub. Tsp. of cumin. Tsp. of coriander. 1/2 tsp. of paprika. 1/8 tsp. of cinnamon. 1/4 tsp. ground cayenne. Two garlic cloves, minced. Lemon juice and zest. Salt and pepper. Mix with chicken, then cover in olive oil and bake for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees (if it was already cooked chicken). With raw chicken, this would need 20 or so minutes at 400 degrees.

Serve with whatever bread you have to sop it up. I used the olive bread from The Breadery.

Serve it also with a wine that can stand up to the heat of the cayenne. I used a Traminette from Big Cork.

Let’s see what sort of goodies I can make tomorrow with those chicken thighs in last week’s basket.

#hocofood

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Posted in Food, Friends and Farms, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, MD Wine, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Themed Baskets

Posted on May 8, 2014 by AnnieRie

The latest thing in our weekly baskets. Foods that will work together to make a meal. Not just random, ripe, in season veggies, but well thought out combinations for exotic dinner ideas.

Sort of like Food Network and Chopped.

This week: we could do Indian or Middle Eastern foods easily.

These are the contents of our small basket from Friends and Farms.

The ideas? Butter chicken. Spiced kabobs. Chorizo, eggs and asparagus. Ribs with peach yogurt barbeque sauce. Or with peppers and onions. Lots of recipes on the web site to tempt us, too.

The proteins, to start. Eggs, chorizo, chicken thighs and country pork ribs. Dairy, this week, peach yogurt and the small container of plain yogurt. To make those Indian inspired sauces and marinades.

We were supposed to get tomatoes, but a last minute change due to availability gets us tomato puree, perfect to use in marinades and sauces.

Onions. Peppers.

As in seriously sized peppers.

White potatoes. Cameo apples. Broccoli. Cilantro (again, great in so many recipes).

And the bread. Kalamata olive and rosemary. One of my favorites from The Breadery.

I am having a difficult time deciding what to make first. I think there will be spiced kabobs soon, though.

One of the broccoli crowns was steamed to use with dinner tonight. And, the peach yogurt will go two places. Scones for the Mother’s Day tea (on Saturday) at the Conservancy. The rest. In peach pops. Warm weather makes me crave peach pops.

Yogurt pops are simple. Any flavor yogurt. Appropriate fruit. Blended together with a splash of simple syrup. Tomorrow, I am using defrosted Larriland peaches, and the peach yogurt we got today. I bought my cute little pop sticks at Casual Gourmet in Glenwood.

Hey, the temps are in the 80s around here. Time to think about summer food.

#hocofood

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Posted in CSA, Food, Friends and Farms, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather and tagged cooking, CSA, farms, Food, foodie, Howard County, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

AnnieRie Unplugged

Tag Archives: Food

Strawberry Season

Mangia Italiano!

Lunch From the Garden …

The First Harvests

A Tale of Two Providers

Event Overload Again

Simply Spring: Onions

Market Strategies

Scones, Scallions and Spice

Themed Baskets

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