Tag Archives: foodie

Salad Bars

Posted on March 23, 2013 by AnnieRie

I remember when salad bars first became popular. For example, the amazing selection at the restaurant in the Columbia Mall Woodies. For whatever reason, I stopped going to places with salad bars. Probably because of getting Norwalk at a salad bar and buffet in Canada, ten years ago.

It doesn’t mean I stopped enjoying that mix and match of salads, but these days I can do it at home. Thanks to having a CSA, a freezer and the time to make the salads.

Today’s lunch was brought to us mainly due to the lovely greens from Breezy Willow CSA this week. Spinach and mixed greens, sitting in the fridge in their salad spinners. Mushrooms from the CSA too. And, a dozen hard boiled eggs this morning. Some for lunch today, some destined for egg salad, and a couple to grab and go before tomorrow’s hike at the Conservancy.

I hardboiled the first week’s dozen, now eighteen days old, and finally getting a little void that makes them easier to peel. We only have a dozen left now, and next week no eggs in the CSA delivery. We get them three weeks out of four.

The salads were simple. One made with a handful of greens, some Larriland blackberries defrosted from the freezer, goat cheese feta picked up at England Acres, a few Marcona almonds and a pomegranate vinaigrette. The other, spinach, eggs, mushrooms and a creamy Caesar dressing.

Lunch was finished with a tiny treat of yogurt, berries and granola. A favorite way to use frozen berries from last year’s picking. Mix with a little lemon yogurt. Berries from my freezer, granola and yogurt picked up at Breezy Willow on CSA day.

A mostly locally sourced lunch. Variety and taste. Reminiscent of salad bars, without the treated/sprayed veggies, and without all those nasty germs.

hocofood@@@

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Early Bird CSA Week Three

Posted on March 20, 2013 by AnnieRie

Spring is here, officially, by calendar. But, it was a bit breezy up at Breezy Willow today for CSA pick up. Warmer than the first week. We were there fairly early, and needed to stop over at Rhine, across the road from the farm. I should remember not to buy ice cream if I have other errands but couldn’t resist the salted caramel.

As for our items this week, here is what we got. Lovely looking, isn’t it?

1 pound spinach
1/2 pound mushrooms
3 Valencia oranges
3 grapefruit
1/2 pound bean sprouts
1/2 pound spring mix
2 humongous carrots
1 Napa cabbage

Plus, the dozen eggs and this week we picked Old Fashioned White Loaf, from Great Harvest.

Looks to me like this week there will be spinach salad with oranges and mushrooms, maybe spinach salad with hard boiled eggs, some sort of stir fry to use some bean sprouts and Napa cabbage, maybe a slaw with the last two apples in the fridge and the Napa cabbage and carrot. Who knows? Lots of inspiration in this basket.

I finally did get the second salad spinner at Costco a while back. Comes in handy when you have two different greens to wash. It also keeps them fresher for longer.

As for using up most of last week’s veggies, tonight for dinner I baked some kielbasa from Orchard Breeze farm, picked up at Olney a while back. This is real PA style kielbo, garlicky and spicy. Served with my turnip, Brussels sprouts, white potato concoction I roasted yesterday. Not pretty, but very tasty.

After smashing the veggies, I added a little milk, two pats of butter, some nutmeg, paprika and heated it up in the oven. Not quite colcannon, but a good green and white mix. Roasted turnips have the best flavor.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

“Go To” Recipes

Posted on March 14, 2013 by AnnieRie

I think we all have them. Recipes we make over and over again. Food we take to family events, pot lucks, picnics, you name it. We find our comfortable items and go with them.

I have a few of them these days. They are mostly simple, but the flavors and the freshness of the ingredients are what makes them special.

Like the pumpkin hummus and the ajvar. Two recipes I have used for months now.

I called these noshing food. Learned to make them from browsing the local blogs. I just throw them together and off I go. The pumpkin hummus keeps evolving. I find all sorts of recipes to use as I make up my own concoction.

They have not replaced my favorite spring and summer time staple. Pesto. I have made pesto using the traditional basil, plus garlic scape, and a real stretch, carrot tops, radish greens, mint, basil, parsley, pistachios, pine nuts, parmesan and garlic. Olive oil drizzled in.

Pesto on crostini is a perfect take to picnics choice.

Other favorites include mozzarella with basil and olive oil. Sliced potatoes with goat cheese. Ina Garten’s herb roasted onions. I don’t know how many family picnics where I have had requests to bring the onions.

But for me, the watermelon, feta and mint salad is the number one requested recipe of mine. Simple, flavorful, almost deceptive when you look at it. Reminds you of tomato, mozzarella and basil if you chop it right.

What are your “go to” recipes? What can you do from scratch without a cookbook? Something you have cooked for years. Seared into your brain, a signature dish.

hocofood@@@

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Dinner Out … In

Posted on March 12, 2013 by AnnieRie

And, no, I am not talking about In N Out Burger. Perish the thought. I am talking about replacing an evening out with a killer dinner at home. Better food. Less money.

We did that today.

Courtesy of Wegmans, my freezer, the Breezy Willow CSA, and my favorite Virginia winery, Linden.

It all started with a coupon for $5 from Wegmans, and a trip to Safelite because my windshield finally turned a ding into an eighteen inch long crack. A new windshield this morning and a visit to Wegmans looking for coffee.

Wegmans sells an 80 pack of this French roast for $35. Cheaper than Costco for an 80 pack. Add a $5 coupon to it, and it is a real deal for coffee snobs. A big, rich, bold coffee in environmentally friendly packaging. What’s not to love?

We had other coupons too. Yogurt, deli, sushi and cheese. I could do serious damage.

Today is Tuesday. Half price wine night at Bistro Blanc, right down the road. We considered dinner out. Until I saw the U-10 scallops in the seafood section at Wegmans. This is why I still love the place.

Buying a dinner out with scallops this huge would set you back a large amount of cash in a restaurant. Pan searing them in butter at home. A fraction of the cost. Trust me. Scallops are easy. So are fingerlings. I put the fingerlings in a pot with water for 15 minutes while looking for everything else. Finished them in that browned butter in the searing pan.

Made a salad with microgreens and the beets from the CSA. I roast the beets and use them in salads. I finished the potatoes with the last of that container of garlic scape pesto from my freezer.

Opened a bottle of chardonnay. Without the chardonnay, this dinner cost me $30 in ingredients. The scallops, $18. You could pay way more than $15 a person for much less at any chain restaurant for an entree.

Really easy here. Two pots, one for potatoes and one for scallops. Greens on the plate. Goat cheese from Cherry Glen. Kumatoes, I wanted to try. Not bad, a little mushy but a good taste. I did homemade dressing. You could buy yours.

Dinner in a half hour. Way better than Applebees, or any of those other chains. No beepers. No really overpriced beers and wines, the real cash cows at restaurants. What is stopping you from cooking great stuff at home?

Really. Don’t “Get out there”. Get in your kitchen.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in CSA, Food, Real Food, Restaurants, Wine and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, Linden Vineyards, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Improv

Posted on March 11, 2013 by AnnieRie

You know what they say about the best laid plans. Sometimes you find less than perfect execution after all your planning. Today is one of those days. Thankfully after all these years of reading recipes and learning to trust my taste (plus a little help from the internet) I recovered from what could have been a cooking failure.

I signed up to take pumpkin hummus to the volunteer pot luck luncheon at the Howard County Conservancy this week. Something new I learned to make using CSA veggies. I had a butternut squash from the market two weeks ago sitting on the counter, some garlic still in the coldest area where I store root veggies, half a jar of tahini and I had just stocked up on chickpeas, as I use them in couscous salad and lots of other recipes. The squash was from the Olney market.

Should have been easy. But no, the squash was pretty hollow down the middle. Skin still looked good. It was firm, not mushy, but was obviously dried out, or somewhat hollow down the center, at least the top half of it was. It smelled OK, so I did a little triage and salvaged the parts that weren’t drying out. It only gave me half what I needed.

Enter the internet and the CSA to the rescue. I got sweet potatoes last week from my Breezy Willow CSA.

I found a recipe that called for half “pumpkin pie filling” aka butternut squash for those of us who know that fact, and half sweet potato. Thank you, small bites blog. I did not use cumin and paprika, but used garam masala in their place.

My next problem came from my garlic. Yep, the last two heads of garlic in the storage area had gone moldy. I am now officially out of all that lovely organic garlic from Love Dove and the CSA. Thankfully, I had granulated garlic powder picked up at Costco. I had to do this by taste instead of measuring and I do like garlicky hummus.

The hummus came out really creamy, tasty and it is aging in the fridge now, ready to take Thursday to the luncheon. I am hoping to get an interesting bread this week from the CSA to use for dunking the hummus. Another improv, why go get pita for dipping when you can make your own toasty dippers from thinly sliced breads, toasted.

hocofood@@@

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Chayote!

Posted on March 8, 2013 by AnnieRie

A new vegetable. Part of my Sixty@sixty challenge. That is, the six new fruits and veggies part of the challenge. I already have three done. This is the fourth. Where did I find chayote and what is it?

I stopped at Weis the other day on the way home from the Conservancy. I needed a few items and wanted to see how their renovations turned out. They completely redid the store. They need to be competitive now that Harris Teeter is coming to Waverly. Harris Teeter opens in April.

The new Weis is pretty different. I was looking for fresh basil, to use in my Meyer lemon basil fizz, and to use in a tomato sauce. I like the living basil plants.

The basil has nothing to do with the recipe, but was the reason I stopped at the store. Weis has some fairly interesting veggies in their produce section. They have yacon which I blogged about after getting it in my CSA basket.

Lots of good Latin and Mexican veggies there. Reasonable prices too.

So, what could I do that was interesting with chayote. It is in the squash family. Not really flavorful. It seems to be one of those veggies that takes on the flavors of your seasonings and broths. I found a “posole” recipe on epicurious. Not real posole with pork and hominy, but a vegetarian take on it.

Traditionalists don’t like it much. But, it was pretty decent. I did alter the recipe a bit to use what I could find, and what I have here.

I used canned hominy, aka posole. This gave me another check off on my 60@60 list. A childhood memory. My dad used to make hominy for breakfast, with sausage.

Cook the homily in a quart of veggie broth. You need more for dried hominy, but the canned is already cooked so less evaporation. Meanwhile, in a large pot, cook one diced onion and a couple of cloves of minced garlic in olive oil, until browned. Add one pound of washed cut up greens. I used broccoli rabe. The recipe calls for collards. Didn’t have any. Add two julienned pitted chayote. A cup of the broth from the hominy pot. Simmer for twenty minutes, covered. Toast a half cup of pecans, chopped. Add the pecans, a half cup of dried cherries, an ounce of cider vinegar and the hominy with the rest of the broth and cook uncovered at a low heat for twenty more minutes. Just before serving, add a teaspoon or so of salt, and three tablespoons of butter.

I have to admit. This is really, really good. Not real posole, but a very satisfying vegetarian stew.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Real Food, Sixty@Sixty and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Inspiration for Eating Locally

Posted on March 3, 2013 by AnnieRie

We are coming into the end of the winter, and our Eat Local Challenge will be winding down in a few weeks. Eight of the ten group members from our cyber circle in the South and East have been posting fairly regularly about their meals. A couple of recent posts have inspired me for future meals.

I always turn to Backyard Grocery to find inspiration for using the venison in the freezer. Susan is a master of cooking with venison, and I found something on her website to use the venison neck roast. Pulled venison with blueberry barbecue sauce.

Other than the strange coloring, the recipe looks to be pretty interesting. Look for it to show up around here in a week or two. I have used her recipes when I made things like black bean chili with pulled venison. The venison was a shoulder roast slow cooked for a day, shredded, then slow cooked again to make the chili.

It showed up on the table for two dinners and a lunch last week. Basic chili recipe with tomatoes, onions, green peppers, black beans, spices and the venison. Much of it was local. My tomatoes. Farmstand onions. The venison. Yes, the beans, green pepper and spices weren’t, but still in the spirit of eating locally.

As for a new inspiring menu, just in time to take advantage of the kale we are supposed to be getting this week in our early bird CSA, I turn to Jes, at Eating Appalachia. Love her blog for new recipes. I picked up a butternut squash to try out her fritters. Her recipe for kale winter slaw will be on the menu soon as well. Breezy Willow Early Bird begins Wednesday. I will be posting pictures of what we get, and next week the Eat Local Meal will feature many of the goodies.

The Early Bird CSA is an added value CSA, getting us through those last weeks until markets open, and helping us plow down through the bottom of our freezers. Besides cold storage and high tunnel veggies, we will be getting some citrus from down South. It is a welcome addition to the pantry. Can’t wait.

My freezer in the basement is down about a third, with almost half the tomatoes gone, a good dent in all that pesto, and interestingly enough, lots of fruit left. Remember all that basil last summer? Still jars and bags of pesto cubes in there.

As for fruit, it seems I didn’t really use it the way I envisioned. I am now defrosting bags every week to use in salad dressings and making fruit drinks from them. Lots of peaches left though. I do also have quite a bit of greens, jars of broth and stew starter, and will be set until I get that huge influx of veggies in the summer CSA.

The other major cooking day this last week was Thursday when I slow cooked a brisket from TLV Farms. With dry rub and cooked in beef broth defrosted from the freezer. A few onions and carrots from England Acres. A small jar of my oven dried tomatoes. Plopped in the crock pot for ten hours. Here is the container with the leftovers.

I didn’t take pictures of dinner. We had some of it again last night, and I saved the last of the brisket for sandwiches this week. As for what I did with all that extra broth? Yesterday it became the basis to cook couscous for a salad. We will get three or four lunches from that salad.

Eating locally most of the time these days. At least the main ingredients are local. Whenever someone asks me how we use a CSA share with just two people, these are the types of things that make it worth the money. But, you do need the time to do this cooking. Thankfully, time is something we have lots of, as retirees.

hocofood@@@

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Saturday at Tractor Supply

Posted on March 2, 2013 by AnnieRie

The baby chicks are in. We headed out to Tractor Supply today to use my 10% coupon, looking at the greenhouse, wanting some bird seed, hubby wanted a new belt and a good pair of jeans, and I wanted hiking boots. My old ones are shot. With the coupon and the sales, Tractor Supply has the best prices on basic bird seed, work clothes, Ariat boots and shoes, and they were advertising a small greenhouse at a great price.

And, yes, the chicks are in. They have five or six varieties, rock cornish, red pullet, brahma bantam, to name a few. They also had baby ducks. Minimum purchase is six. No Easter presents is the reason. These are chicks for those who want to raise egg layers or fatten up those future broilers and fryers. The rock cornish are the chickens we get from England Acres. Great birds. Really a good breed for those looking for meat production. Chicks were $1.99 or $2.99 each, and ducks were $2.99 each. They were doing a brisk business selling chicks.

I did find hiking boots. If you have never bought Ariat boots, you really should look into them. A very nicely made product that lasts forever, and is not inexpensive. Mostly leather products. Lots of riding boots. I have many of their items and this is my first hiking boot purchase.

Of course, it seems every time we visit Tractor Supply, we run into someone we know. Today the place was very busy and we ran into a friend who has a farm over in Glenwood. We talked about how their lambing, and the birthing of their goats are going.

Popular place, in Mt. Airy. While out there I did head over to England Acres to get a few things. CSA starts next week so I only needed some dairy, bread and a few apples. I did pick up some lovely carrots and onions to make a chicken soup midweek, just in case I don’t get them in my first CSA delivery.

They knew I was coming, and they saved me a package of gingersnaps. I had asked about them the last visit, and there weren’t any. These are the best gingersnaps. Chewy, spicy, great with milk. My husband loves them as a snack. One of the little pleasures of knowing the source of your food. We also put our name down to get the side of lamb in April. They are doing two offerings of fresh lamb, one this month and one next month. Only chance this year to get fresh lamb from them. A side of lamb is about 20-25 pounds, just enough to give you some special meals.

Freshly ground lamb is so good. Remembering my grilled kofta from last year. I can’t wait to be able to make it again this spring. Doesn’t this picture just scream springtime?

Link to my post and recipe is here.

hocoblogs@@@

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Posted in Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, West HoCo and tagged Food, foodie, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

How Did That Chicken Turn Out?

Posted on February 25, 2013 by AnnieRie

For my Winter Eat Local Challenge. The other day I posted about the pastured animal calendar and the dry rub chicken recipe in it.

I had a picture of the TLV Farm chicken marinating but didn’t put up the finished product. It came out looking like this.

The chicken went into a 300 degree oven, for about an hour. I put veggies bought at England Acres under the chicken. A large onion, two large carrots and some purple potatoes. Most of the veggies came from Lancaster Farm Fresh Coop, wholesaled to England Acres.

The other star of this dinner was the salad. Greens from East Rivendell. The golden beets were from Roots Market. Goat milk feta and red onion from England Acres. The dressing. Homemade black cherry yogurt dressing. Pequea Valley Farms yogurt. This yogurt is by far the best we have ever tasted. I buy it at England Acres by the quart. It never lasts very long, but I did make dressing from it.

We split up this salad to have after the chicken and veggies. Drizzled the dressing over it. Still have a little left for later this week. Awesome dressing.

As for dinner with the local wine. A 2011 Linden Avenius Sauvignon Blanc. This sauvignon blanc is more of the fume blanc style than the style of New Zealand, which is citrusy and acidic. Lovely pairing.

Saturday night’s dinner turned out very well. Mostly local, with some spice, herb and oil exceptions as usual. That yogurt is just beckoning me. I have an unopened container of blueberry up in the fridge. I think I will make it dessert tonight, with a few of those candied walnuts from the Olney market.

If you can find the yogurt, you have to try it. I promise. You will never want grocery store yogurt again.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Food, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, Linden Vineyards, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Paper Calendars

Posted on February 23, 2013 by AnnieRie

I am surprised that there are still lots of paper calendars out there. Many of us have changed to using our tablets or smart phones to record upcoming events. But, my husband still likes that calendar hanging on the side of the refrigerator. I picked up a very interesting free calendar out at England Acres last month. This is a new one for me.

I am learning all sorts of facts about locally pasture raised meats from this one. Like the February fact.

Each month also includes recipes, so today using one of my TLV chickens, I am making this recipe. Should be a good dinner as the rub smells wonderful, and the white BBQ sauce tastes really nice. It has been in the fridge since last night.

I am using half a chicken so I cut the amounts in half. The chicken looks like this as it is marinating.

Here is the recipe for the BBQ sauce. This is really good sauce. Strange combination but it works.

I know I cut off the end of the page in the pic. Just brush it on during the last ten minutes of cooking. I also cut this recipe in half since I have half a chicken. Use a little more Old Bay if you want a spicier sauce.

Tomorrow I will be posting my weekly Eat Local meal, and this will probably be it. There are other really good recipes on this calendar, that may show up on my table soon.

hocofood@@@

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