Tag Archives: Food

A Picture Perfect Fall Day

Posted on September 14, 2013 by AnnieRie

That’s what about 70-80 people decided who came out to the Conservancy to join our family hikes.

We had four hike leaders and each one of us had 15-35 people. The largest group was with our preschool leader. She had at least 35 people on the short tour around the farmhouse and down to the play areas.

I took about 15-20 people on a couple of loops to show them all the cool things we teach the children on the field trips. Almost 90 minutes out there.

Then, we found dozens of families down in the nature center checking out Maize, our corn snake, or reading books, or looking at all the exhibits. Into the midst of the chaos, a family showed up to tour the facilities for a possible wedding in 2014. I got to take them for a tour and show them the grounds, as Alison was out and about with all the visitors and handling the snake. We didn’t think the mother of the bride was into snakes.

I finally left there at 1:00. Too late to hit Breezy Willow or Larriland so I ran over to Harris Teeter to get pectin, pineapple juice, sugar and a few boxes of cereal for my better half. I missed my chance to pick up my favorite yogurt at Breezy Willow so it will have to wait until next week.

Turf Valley is coming along quickly. The outdoor seating at Facci is there. Looks like they are very close to opening, and you could smell wood smoke (maybe the pizza ovens?) and someone in a chef’s cap was out in back, taking a break, talking on his phone. They look to be the first to open.

Petite Cellars and Grille 620 are hiring, if anyone is looking for a job.

Mimi’s was being worked too. The cleaners have opened.

We may finally have another fully occupied shopping center in northwest HocCo, with new restaurants. Woo Hoo!

Tomorrow is pineapple habanero jelly making day. Stand by for the report on how well it goes. If I don’t seriously hurt myself handling the habaneros I will have 6 jars of jelly to use for appetizers, glazing, and I think, to make some killer chicken wings.

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Posted in Community, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Nature, Volunteering, Weather, West HoCo and tagged community, Food, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, local businesses, Locavore, nature, volunteering, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Update on the Farms

Posted on September 13, 2013 by AnnieRie

Just in case you want to get out and stock up for winter, there were a few emails lately with what is happening at local farms.

England Acres announced a new batch of fresh chickens for this weekend. The market is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10-6. If you have never made fresh chicken, using these lovely birds, you are in for a real treat if you head out and buy one or two of them. They can’t keep them in stock for long. They just fly out of the refrigerator at the farm store.

As for other goodies available, Breezy Willow still has their 25 pounds of tomatoes for $25 special. If you are inclined to make tomato sauce to freeze, this is the way to get good organic tomatoes for a great price. The farm store is open tomorrow from 10-2. I may be stopping there to pick up some yogurt and cheese, as they have some of my favorite vendors in their store.

Last, Larriland.

All sorts of specials, like tomatoes in the field by the barn. Otherwise, here is the latest chart.

Opening Saturday, September 14, 2013
1. Jonagold apples: picking is good. Jonagolds are sweet/tart, large, greenish with a red cheek, all purpose apples. Jonagolds are a cross between Jonathan, a tart apple, and Golden Delicious, a sweet apple.

2. Spinach and Swiss chard. picking is excellent. This year we planted “Rhubarb Chard” which has red stems and looks just like beets but no bottoms.

3. Tomatoes: this is a new tomato field with garden tomatoes, roma/paste tomatoes, grape tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.

4. Blackberries: picking will be fair. The blackberry season is almost over.

Ripening Soon:
1. Apples: there are 14 more apple varieties to ripen throughout September and October. Click on the Fruit Harvest Calender below for varieties and ripening times.

2. Broccoli will be ready in late September.

3. Beets will be ready to pick in October.

4. Pumpkins will be ready to pick in October.

5. Cauliflower and cabbage will be ready to pick in late October.

I love heading out to Larriland. I may be stopping there tomorrow also, as I need pectin and apple cider to make my habanero jelly. More on that later.

Fall is coming, that’s for sure. Today was just a lovely day. Cooler, breezy, sunny after the rain headed out. Can’t wait for pumpkin season.

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Posted in Farms, Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Weather, West HoCo and tagged cooking, farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Falling Behind

Posted on September 12, 2013 by AnnieRie

In the CSA consumption. Week 17 crept up on us before we finished week 16. Another Baker’s dozen this week.

1 Spaghetti Squash – Riverview Organics
1 bag Bintje Potatoes- De Glae Organics
1 bag Sweet Onions – Liberty Branch Farm
1 bag Garlic – Friends Road Farm
1 bag Habanero Peppers – Tasty Harvest
1 bunch Dinosaur Kale- Farmdale Organics
1 head Green Leaf Lettuce – Green Valley Organics
1 head Green Butterhead Lettuce – Maple Lawn Organics
1 stalk Edamame – Liberty Branch Farm
1 head Curly Endive Meadow Valley Organics
1 head Baby Bok Choy – Plum Hill Organics
1 bunch Italian OR Curly Parsley – Noble Herbs
1 pint Gold Grape Tomatoes – Chiques Roc Organics

The new one here is the Bintje potatoes. Who knew potatoes could arouse such passion and controversy. These are the famous Belgian potatoes used for frites, according to the WSJ article about them.

So now I need to find beef drippings?

Then there’s the edamame. Which we love. Simply cooked. Boiled in heavily salted water. Squeezed out of their pods as the perfect appetizer to accompany gin and tonics on the patio.

But then, there’s those killer habaneros.

There are eleven of these things! I can handle one or two, but ELEVEN! OK, time to find a hot pepper jelly recipe. Stay tuned to see how this works out.

I do love the return of the greens. We got butter lettuce, endive and leaf lettuce. Plus the kale.

Fall is definitely coming. I do need to get out of garden processing mode, and start eating the CSA bounty a little quicker.

hocofood@@@

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

Perfecting Pesto

Posted on September 10, 2013 by AnnieRie

To me, pesto is one of those universally adaptable ingredients. Slather it on flatbread. Mix it to make dressings. Plop it on pasta. Spread it on fish. On chicken. Drop cubes of it into crock pot meals. Like chicken soup.

I love making pesto with all sorts of bases. Like basil. Like garlic scapes. Like radish greens, carrot tops and whatever else green looks good.

One thing that is always in my fridge and my freezer is pesto.

I have been working on my processes to make pesto. Like using the food processor to grate cheese.

Start with a few hunks of pecorino romano and/or Parmigiano Reggiano. Process it until the food processor stops migrating across the counter top.

Whatever doesn’t get used in the pesto goes in the refrigerator for later use.

Today I harvested three cups of African Blue Basil.

African blue basil has been my most prolific producer for the past two years. I still have at least 4-6 cups out there in the herb garden.

I toasted some pine nuts. Added some pistachios. My ratio: 1 cup basil to 1/3 cup nuts to 1/2 cup cheese. I add two cloves of garlic for every cup of basil.

This is my roasted garlic from yesterday. There were six cloves added to my three cup basil mix today.

I start with a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper, then add to taste as I go along. I drizzle extra virgin olive oil into the processor to get the consistency I want. I don’t even think of measuring olive oil. It is just eyeballing the clump spinning around in the processor and getting it to that creamy mix, that isn’t too dry.

Today I put two cups of it away in the freezer. I also had a four ounce container to use for dinner tomorrow. This combination was one I really liked, and will try to duplicate in the future.

Here’s to pesto!

hocofood@@@

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Cooking Up a Storm, Again

Posted on September 9, 2013 by AnnieRie

Today, with the cooler weather, I had crock pot, oven, stove top and food processor going, in order to keep up with the last of the garden harvests. And with some of the CSA veggies.

What did I get done?

Another batch of tomato sauce using all of my paste tomatoes, and the CSA roma tomatoes.

A foil package of about 30 cloves of garlic, put in the oven after taking out the chicken that I slow cooked for most of the day, which I had finished in the oven, to get it brown. I used the last of my previous batch of garlic to make dinner Sunday night. I always keep a container of roasted garlic in the refrigerator. Beats buying it from the olive bar at the grocery store.

Two quarts of chicken stock tonight, using the carcass and all the drippings from the all day crock pot chicken cooking.

Pesto, using the CSA basil from a week ago, and some of mine. I still have enough to do another large batch.

Add that to last night’s work. I made ajvar and roasted red pepper hummus while I had last night’s lamb on the grill.

Finally, I have to decide if I want to keep that rendered chicken fat skimmed off the top of the stock, and download Michael Ruhlman’s iPad cookbook dedicate to schmaltz. Now that’s a new adventure that I might just have to try.

Tell me. If I saute kale in chicken fat, do they cancel each other out? Healthy food. Serious fat. Could be interesting.

The freezer is filling up again.

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Posted in cookbooks, CSA, Food, Gardening, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, CSA, Food, foodie, gardening, local businesses, Locavore, real food, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Mostly Local

Posted on September 8, 2013 by AnnieRie

Back when I first started writing this blog, I used participation in food challenges as a way to increase my awareness of local foods. I did the Dark Days Challenge, the Southern SOLE Food Challenge, another winter challenge, the Buy Local Challenges and found out how easy it is to cook with local ingredients here. I need to update my local challenge page to reflect the current status, but it is a great link to some sources of local foods, as is my local resource page.

My first dark days luncheon in 2011. Locally sourced items for a salad.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped doing weekly challenges, as my refrigerator, freezer and pantry had quite a bit of local ingredients stashed in them. Almost every meal had something local in it.

Meat and dairy is simple here. So are vegetables from all the CSAs in the county.

Yesterday I didn’t even think about it. I took two dishes to the reunion. Both had local ingredients. I also took a few bottles of Big Cork wine. A winery just outside of Frederick. A Traminette. Perfect for those who loved the shrimp and the crabs, and the pulled pork. A spicy wine, similar to Gewurztraminer.

My contributions were tomatoes, goat cheese, basil over a bed of arugula. To be accompanied by McCutcheon’s dressing. Tomatoes. Mine. Basil. Mine. All the plants from Sharp’s Farm. Goat cheese. Cherry Glen. Just west of us in Montgomery County. Arugula. Love Dove Farm. Howard County.

My other dish. A four bean salad. Using wax beans from TLV, and green beans from my CSA. Yeah, the cannellini and garbanzo beans were canned, bought at Roots the other day.

Breakfast today. Love Dove eggs. Lunch today. Leftover salads from yesterday.

Dinner tonight. One incredibly awesome sirloin lamb roast from England Acres, one of the packages from the half of lamb we bought in April. Potatoes, from the CSA. Peaches from Lewis Orchards. Love Dove arugula. Catoctin Mountain Orchards Peach Vinaigrette over the salad.

My latest batch of ajvar on the side with some pita. Using CSA eggplant. My garlic, roasted. Yeah, I bought the red peppers at Harris Teeter, as we haven’t seen many nice red peppers. Hasn’t been hot enough this summer.

I really am thankful that we have our markets. We have many local farms open year round. We have year round CSAs. Making our meals that much fresher, that much better.

Thanks to our local farmers. They make it easy to eat locally and seasonally.

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Posted in CSA, Dark Days, Farmer's Markets, Farms, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, Dark Days, Dark Days Challenge, farmer's markets, farms, Food, foodie, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Picking Fruits and Veggies

Posted on September 6, 2013 by AnnieRie

The end of the peach season is upon us. Soon, the rest of the 15 varieties of apples will be ripening at Larriland. We need to get back out there and pick some white peaches for the freezer. You can’t beat a day with this view.

I have also never picked grapes out there. Or, quite a few other veggies. This lovely weather makes me want to hit the farm and get a few more good items to put away.

The web site also tells us that the tomatoes will be good through October. I may go there and get a large quantity of romas, just to finish the sauce processing.

This year, my romas and paste were way down from previous years. Even with more plants. I know it is time to move the garden out to the field even if it means twice the length of hose to irrigate it. We are now down to seven hours of sun a day, maximum, on the current garden site.

I do have quite a harvest of heirlooms still ripening. Most get picked before I get stink bug or something chewing on them. I think it’s the squirrels. I need to get a dog. Seriously.

Not only are the squirrels getting into my plants, they are chewing on the cedar siding around our doors.

All in all, though, I did get, and I am still getting quite a haul of heirlooms. Finally, pineapple tomatoes, hillbilly tomatoes, and Amana orange, all producing fruit almost every day. Another full windowsill.

I do love this mild, low humidity weather that we are experiencing. I could get used to working outside without that heat and humidity.

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A Baker’s Dozen in the CSA Box

Posted on September 5, 2013 by AnnieRie

Again, on week 16 we get 13 items in the box from the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative truck.

The List:
1 bag Red Flesh/Red Skin Potatoes – Crystal Springs Organics
1 Sucrine du Berry Squash – Liberty Branch
1 bag Red Beets – Sunny Slope Organics
2 Green Zucchini – chemical free- Kings Produce
1 Raven Zucchini – Autumn Blend Organics
1 bag Onions – White Swan Organics
1 bag Orange Carrots – Sunny Slope Organics
1 bag Japanese Eggplant – Maple Lawn Organics
1 head Radicchio – Bellview Organics
1 bunch Dinosaur Kale – Peaceful Valley Organics
1 bag Green Beans – Healthy Harvest Organics
1 bunch Cilantro – Noble Herbs (I swapped for fennel)
1 bag Roma Tomatoes – Elm Tree Organics

New to me this week, the Sucrine du Berry and the raven zucchini. Must be an omen to get a raven zucchini on football opening day.

The Sucrine du Berry squash, similar to, but supposedly sweeter than a butternut is reviewed as good for making risotto or soup or even roasted in huge chunks with Asian spice to tame the heat. We shall see what I decide to do with it.

As for the reason I swapped the cilantro, I had just bought two pots of it at Harris Teeter, to keep on the windowsill. They are from Shenandoah Farms in VA and are meant to keep supplying you with herbs for as long as you remember to water them. I needed it for that bitter melon soup.

As for the eggplant and the two types of zucchini, I am sort of ratatouille’d out, so there may be chocolate zucchini bread, or zucchini fries. The eggplant will probably end up in a new batch of ajvar if I pick up a few red peppers.

I also really love those red flesh and red skin potatoes for salad. With the white, the purple viking and the red flesh potatoes, you can make one amazing potato salad.

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Fall Sneaking Up on Us

Posted on September 3, 2013 by AnnieRie

Signs that we are heading towards that change of season.

My first Thelma Sanders squash, hidden under the leaves in a corner of the garden.

Berries on the crab apples. A bumper crop of berries. Here’s hoping we get the cedar waxwings who love to feast on the berries.

Rhododendron buds are really plentiful this year as well. Last year there was lots of growth but not that many blooms. This year, all the rain was good to them and they put out huge amounts of buds, which means lots of flowers next May.

Morning glories completely out of control. I didn’t prune them back this year. A friend who grows grapes told us in rainy seasons to let the flowers and weeds get close to your garden. In the case of a very wet summer, their competition for the moisture will be beneficial to keeping your veggies and fruit from diseases caused by too much water.

A basil plant that decided to rise from the ruins of the bunny devastation of last spring. I have no idea how it came back from its puny little nub left after the rabbits got to it.

Newly mowed meadow. Ready to be baled. Driving my sinuses nuts, but it really looks forlorn, where once there was all this tall lovely grass.

Lots of green tomatoes still out there, hiding and in plain sight. I figure we have about four or five more weeks before the weather changes for good, and I have to bring them in if they don’t ripen. Right now I am still getting lots of slicing tomatoes, but all the paste tomatoes are about finished for the year.

Weather is lovely, isn’t it? Temps in the low eighties and high seventies. Cool nights.

The blue basil is going to seed. Time to do the last big harvest and make another boatload of pesto.

Enjoy this weather while we can!

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Posted in Food, Gardening, Hobbies, Howard County, Nature, Weather, West HoCo and tagged Food, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hobbies, Howard County, tomatoes, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Bitter Melon Soup?

Posted on September 2, 2013 by AnnieRie

OK, we tried it. It was edible. It is supposedly good for us. Cross that off my Sixty@Sixty list and let’s move on.

We got bitter melon in the CSA last Thursday. According to most web sites, blanching it will remove most of the bitterness.

Umm, they lied. Have you had hot and sour soup? It kind of reminds me of that. Thankfully, I made basmati rice and garlic naan, to tone it down a bit.

I was surprised at how easy it was to make. But now, I do have fish sauce, bean thread noodles and some leftover mushrooms to use up. Along with a large amount of basmati rice.

It looked interesting when cooking it.

And, the seeds and white pith inside had to be scraped out, but the seeds were bright red.

I was glad that the pork mixture stayed inside so well. I was afraid it would fall out. I did have extra pork so I dropped “meatballs” in the broth along with the stuffed bitter melon. Oh well, bitter melon is supposed to lower your blood sugar and lots of other healthy things.

Found the recipe here.

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