Tag Archives: foodie

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.

Horn of Plenty

Posted on May 6, 2014 by AnnieRie

Seems like when it rains, it really pours. We have gardens in the works. Foraged asparagus coming up. CSA has given us notice that we are a “GO” for this summer and fall.

The first spear of foraged asparagus. Showed up in my stir fry last night. About six more are showing out under the crepe myrtle.

Tomatoes planted today. Earlier than ever before, but the temperatures are saying that we need to do this. I planted 26 plants at the Conservancy and I am putting in four here at home (praying for enough sun). At least I could run out and pick a few supersweet 100s and Early Girls, if the site gets enough sun.

My new tomato this year. German Johnson. Along with my favorites. Hillbilly. Pineapple. Work horses. Sun gold. Yellow plum.

Yesterday we did maintenance at the gardens. Like string trimming and trash removal.

It is looking good up there.

Onions anyone? The white onions are going crazy. Time to dig up a few spring onions, and enjoy them.

I am one very tired but very happy camper these days. Fresh veggies make me that way.

#hocofood

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Posted in Food, Foraging, Gardening, Howard County, Nature, Weather and tagged farms, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, howard county conservancy, real food, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

What’s In Your Basket?

Posted on May 2, 2014 by AnnieRie

CSA season is upon us. Baskets and pick ups will begin soon. For us, we still get our Friends and Farms weekly small basket. Which will soon change to an individual basket, if we hear that Lancaster Farm Fresh got enough people to keep our CSA alive.

One week to go for that decision. In the meantime, Friends and Farms continues to deliver their quality product. This week, much more on the fresh front.

The wide angle view of the entire May 1 delivery.

What was in there?

Arctic char. Which almost immediately was being marinated in wine, oil and spices. Next to the char was the package of sirloin steaks. They were the proteins this week.

Well, except for the ewe crème cheese and the eggs. And the usual bread, this week honey whole wheat, rounded out the non vegetable and fruit items.

Moving on to the veggies.

Red leaf lettuce. Greenhouse tomatoes. Sweet potatoes. A boatload of kale. Onions. Apples.

Oh, almost forgot about one of my favorites. The raw Virginia peanuts. There is nothing like roasting spiced peanuts, or maybe getting bold enough to make peanut butter. The peanuts have a sheet with the recipes.

How easy is that?

This week is serious small plate heaven. The cheese. Perfect for crackers. With some of my famous (?) habanero jelly on it. Peanuts. Sit out on the patio and have a snack with a beer. Kale. I like this kale for kale chips.

#hocofood

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

Digging the Parsnips

Posted on May 1, 2014 by AnnieRie

A couple of dinner pictures and descriptions. Using the parsnips from last week’s basket.

See those parships hiding behind the greens? Those really good for you vegetables that no one ever seems to be buying? Turns out they are really good for you, and they taste good too.

Yesterday I made colcannon using the biggest one. I love colcannon and haven’t made it in a while. It is pretty versatile as you can use any combination of starchy vegetables and cabbage/greens.

This dinner used all sorts of items from the Friends and Farms basket. The deviled crab was baked on the portabella mushrooms. Boarman’s crab cakes covered with a sauce of sweet mustard and Old Bay. Drizzle of oil. Baked at 400 degrees.

Colcannon. First, peel and slice/quarter a couple of potatoes and one very large parsnip. Boil them until soft. Mash. Meanwhile sauté half a sweet onion, and add blanched greens. I used the turnip greens from last week’s basket. Once wilted add to the mashed potato/parsnip mix, and stir in one cup of buttermilk and one tablespoon of butter. Salt and pepper to taste.

Not bad for a Wednesday night dinner.

But then, tonight. A new basket with Arctic char in it. I will do my weekly basket post tomorrow. Tonight though, was all about that char.

Coated with a red pepper pesto and olive oil. Convection baked for 30 minutes at 325 degrees. As for those last two parsnips, they were steamed with some Brussels sprouts and two carrots left from an earlier basket.

I am a serious parsnip fan these days. Sweet, tasty veggie.

#hocofood

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

Out and About Again: Petit Louis Bistro

Posted on April 29, 2014 by AnnieRie

Not the one in Roland Park. The new one on the lake in Columbia.

Last Thursday we had the privilege of participating in the opening of the patio on the lake at PLB, as it is known for short. A really lovely addition to the community and to the people who already enjoy Cindy Wolf and Tony Foreman’s other restaurants in the area (like my favorite celebration restaurant, Charleston).

Exquisite tastings were offered.

Besides these beet and chevre bites, there were cheese pastries and a game bird terrine. Inside, four wines were being sampled.

My favorite was the rose from Provence. Probably the place on earth I would most like to live. If only my spoken French was better than it is.

Meet Will Napier. Will is the sommelier at PLB. Two seconds after meeting him, my husband found out he once worked at our favorite Virginia winery, Linden. Of course, the winery that makes wines in the French tradition. Small world, isn’t it?

And, Le Comptoir. That little side venue where you can indulge in brunch, or lunch, or maybe a petit dejeuner.

There will be a petit dejeuner in our future.

As it was, we made a reservation to stay and dine. Dinner, excellent. I did refrain from being geeky and taking pictures. Truite aux amandes was my choice. Saumon grille was my husband’s. Followed by a cheese plate, French press coffee and a pastis.

I almost felt that I was back in Provence.

With markets that would make this locavore one very happy person.

Thanks again, Petit Louis Bistro for hosting such an enjoyable event.

#hocofood

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Posted in Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Real Food, Restaurants, Travel, Wine and tagged community, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

The End of the Venison

Posted on April 27, 2014 by AnnieRie

Finally, roughly a year after getting a few dozen packages of venison, courtesy of our neighbor, we grilled the last package. Tenderloin chops.

Served with naan, bread cheese and a very tasty strawberry sauce, made using some of our IQF (individual quick frozen) strawberries from Friends and Farms.

This dinner was a mix of old and new, near and far.

And, thanks to Iron Bridge we had one absolutely perfect wine to drink with it.

Isabel Mondavi Deep Rose, made with Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. I have to admit. I really like this wine, even thought it is big, bold and must be served with food, unlike many rose wines.

I bought some Carr Valley bread cheese at Wegmans a few weeks back. Picked up some naan. A container that included roasted peppers and sundried tomatoes at the olive bar. All the makings of an easy to grill meal.

The bread cheese reminds me of halloumi. That Greek cheese perfect for sautéing or grilling. Alongside the venison it was a good pairing for a fairly simple dinner.

The venison was marinated in a mix of blended strawberries and red wine. With a few basic seasonings like salt and pepper and garlic powder. The biggest strawberries were set aside to heat up on the grill and use for garnish. Tricky to keep them from falling into the grill. But, I managed to only lose two.

Venison tenderloin. Grilled until it is medium rare to medium. Served with strawberries. A fitting way to end the adventure of a freezer full of venison.

Final thoughts on venison. Love the roasts. The tenderloins. The ground venison. Not a fan of the steaks. If we get another opportunity to pay for processing and get more, I will maximize the ground meat, for chili. And only take the shoulder roasts, neck roasts and tenderloin. Glad we did this, to see how flavorful it can be, and how different it is, when compared to the fattiness of beef.

#hocofood

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Posted in Farms, Food, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, grilling, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

This Week’s Basket

Posted on April 26, 2014 by AnnieRie

You know, I almost forgot to post about the goodies we got in this week’s Friends and Farms basket Thursday. That would be a result of having so many activities going on, and not getting around to it.

I did get the big picture up there the other night, but that wide angle shot doesn’t do it justice.

Some highlights.

There were pork chops and chicken legs in the basket. The legs, along with a couple of chicken breasts from a previous basket, are happily marinating in a buttermilk brine. Soon to become oven roasted buttermilk chicken. They need another day though. The pork chops will make it in the oven early next week.

Turkey sausage. A favorite to keep around for when I make lasagna, or tomato sauce. It went in the freezer for a while. If I dig around in the basement freezer I will find some peeled tomatoes to make a sauce.

The rosemary was a nice touch. It will get used, just don’t know where yet. Love the apple cider. Perfect for use in the pork chop department. Or, straight up with lunch. The black cherry yogurt keeps disappearing at breakfast. With some granola mixed in.

Those hydroponic tomatoes from Hummingbird Farms. One with dinner tonight, over the greens (not pictured above). This week we got a Breadery baguette. Already almost gone. There was garlic bread with pasta last night. Green beans. Will be served with the pork chops, or maybe the chicken. Who knows?

Eggs. A few breakfast dishes. Some egg salad maybe. The grapefruit. In a salad or two. I like that refreshing hit from the citrus in salads. The portabellas. Definitely will be made later this week with a couple of Boarmans’ crab cakes spread over them.

As for the mother of all Napa cabbages I have ever encountered, I have no idea at the moment. I usually do a slaw, but this one would feed our zip code.

Parsnips. I love them. An underappreciated vegetable. Thinking of a riff on colcannon using some greens, parsnips and a few potatoes that are left.

I really enjoy this challenge. I feel I have wandered onto the set of Chopped, on Food Network.

And, next week. Looks even better.

I just need to stop going out. We seem to be doing that often this month.

#hocofood

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

Too Tired to Post

Posted on April 24, 2014 by AnnieRie

That would be a strange occurrence for me, but after just downloading 90 photos and editing them, I realized how much we had done in just a few days. The camera had pictures from:

Grilling the last of the venison.

Finishing the tilling and pathway construction of the garden.

Picking up the Friends and Farms basket.

And, socializing and dining at Petit Louis Bistro.

There will be individual posts on each of these topics coming up, but in closing tonight, before I collapse on the sofa to watch Elementary, a reminder that Lake Kittamaqundi is a special place. Go enjoy lunch or dinner there, or stop by Le Comptoir for breakfast.