Tag Archives: foodie

Wegmans Marketing Strategy

Posted on February 21, 2013 by AnnieRie

What is it with the aggressive mailings from Wegmans? They have upped the ante in their latest mailing to the all anonymous “residents” in this area, at least. Don’t know where they are mailing closer to the store but we are 16 miles away from them.

It used to be $30 in coupons. Now, they have increased the value. And, changed from a free item to a $5 coupon, plus the other two $1 coupons, weekly.

Still, $7 savings barely will cover the gasoline to drive from west county to Wegmans, so is it worth it? 30-40 miles round trip depending on where you live. Most of us out here don’t drive energy efficient mini vehicles. We have a pickup and a couple of SUVs, since we get more snow and ice, and we have to haul much more than when we lived in the city. For us, 1 1/2 gallons of gas would be what it would take just to run to Wegmans to pick up those few items. $6-7 worth of gas.

Since most of the coupon items don’t interest us, it is only the $5 one that is a draw. I have to admit, though, that we will drive further to buy from our local farmers, than to go to a grocery store.

As for our coupons, when I get to Columbia for car repairs, dental work, or doctor appointments, I would use some of these coupons. For things like the coffee packs, better pricing than Costco for this San Francisco Bay.

If I remember correctly, these K cups are $32.99. With a $5 coupon, they are seriously cheaper than anywhere else to buy K cups.

Hmmm, maybe worth it to go once or twice in the six weeks. Dental appointment next week. Car maintenance next month. A very good price on coffee. Otherwise, not worth the gas consumption to grocery shop there.

I do appreciate the place, but it isn’t my weekly place to shop.

hocofood@@@

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Posted in Commentary, Food, Howard County, West HoCo and tagged community, Food, foodie, Howard County, wegman's, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

The Costco Stock Up Run

Posted on February 20, 2013 by AnnieRie

I almost titled this post, you can’t get there from here. It seems there is no direct way for us to get over to Costco from where we live. So, I noticed I am not using them for many of my purchases, just because of the time it takes to navigate through Columbia. No direct way from west county. I end up using Rte. 108 all the way around to go in the back way through Lark Brown to avoid the delays on the other roads.

That means I really stock up when I go there. Very little food these days though. It seems to be my Go To place for toiletries, paper goods, spices, oils, chicken broth, printer cartridges, and my personal favorite ridiculously expensive item, Sonicare toothbrush heads. Why in the world do they cost so much? I made sure I got enough olive oil, nuts, garlic powder and chicken stock, the low sodium one that I like to use for making couscous and risotto. Hopefully it will be another 3-4 months until I need to go back.

The only real food items I bought, and this is indicative of how we have changed our eating habits, were lemons, limes, Meyer lemons, oranges, and “WOOHOO” I found one of those lovely large ends of wild ahi. My one huge splurge for raw fish, and I love getting the end piece to portion out and make 4-5 meals from it.

Two pounds. I ended up making three vacuum seal bags out of it. Two have those perfect thick filets and one has about a pound of the under side and the very bottom. The large one will make one of my slow cooked oven braised in tomatoes and olive oil, Tuscan style tuna — which will serve us for two meals. The smaller ones will be pan seared, maybe coated with sesame seeds and a little garlic.

Now that I have the vacuum sealer from my brother, I know the freezer won’t dry out or burn this fish. It was really easy to make the bags. I am really liking this machine.

I have learned a little trick with the 11″ roll. Cut a short piece of it. Turn it sideways and seal the open two sides, making a fully sealed plastic pouch. Now, cut off one of the “permanent” sealed edges, to get a long thin bag.

This puts the white strip for writing on the bottom instead of the side, and you use less plastic for smaller items. You need that three inch section to go into the machine. Why waste 3 inches by 11 inches to put it in horizontally, when you only vacuum and seal on the three inches by five or six inches. You get much more mileage out of the roll, doing it this way.

The thin seals made by the machine are now on the sides, and the thick original seal is on the bottom.

I ended up with three nicely portioned bags, one to be taken out and used this weekend, the others to stay fresh in the freezer for weeks.

Since this worked so well, I may be getting some large packs in the future of scallops, and make them into single serve portions. I also can’t wait for summer, when I can freeze fruit from Larriland.

hocofood@@@

Garlic. Scape. Pesto.

Posted on February 17, 2013 by AnnieRie

Wonderful stuff. Even when it was frozen. It screams springtime. Makes me anticipate the coming of spring in just a few weeks.

I defrosted this pesto to have with dinner tonight. Six cubes of it from one of the freezer containers. Half was for dinner tonight and the other half for some pasta tomorrow. I have one more plastic container full of this pesto, still in the freezer. Come on springtime, so I can make some more.

I made the pesto, poured it into ice cube trays, froze it, then stored it in plastic. But now that I have those vacuum sealers I may do something different next year. I love garlic scapes. Never knew what they were until I got into the CSA, and until I saw them at the Howard County Farmers Markets. Next year I will be buying more, harvesting a few dozen of my own, and getting them from the CSA. All will go into making this lovely pesto.

These are garlic scapes. You cut them off so the garlic puts more energy into the heads of garlic than into the flower. They are more delicate than garlic cloves. Mix a cup of scapes with half a cup of parmesan and half a cup of pine nuts. Add olive oil, salt and pepper to the blender or processor until you get the right consistency. Use as soon as you can, or freeze, or put in a mason jar with a coating of olive oil, in the fridge for a week, no more. If you can keep it that long.

I use it on all sorts of stuff. Flatbread. Pizza. Pasta. Crostini. Veggies. Potatoes. Tonight it went on veggies and potatoes, served with England Acres petit filet mignons.

This was my Sunday night Eat Local Winter Dinner. Local beef. Potatoes from EA as well. Veggies from the freezer. The last from almost 10 months ago, in our winter CSA. I found them in the bottom. They, luckily, were still good. My pesto. The only nonlocal items were the spices, balsamic and the olive oil they were cooked in. Pan seared the steaks, then added oil and balsamic and finished in the oven. Steamed the veggies. Defrosted the pesto. Microwaved the potatoes, then added them to the steak pan to brown up in the oven.

Easy and good. Really easy. How hard is it to steam veggies, nuke a few potatoes, sear a steak and pop it in the oven. Dinner in less than 30 minutes.

hocofood@@@

Shopping at the Farms

Posted on February 16, 2013 by AnnieRie

Last winter I had a CSA and we did Silver Spring, Dupont Circle and Tacoma Park markets to get my local items for my winter challenge. I thought nothing of driving into DC or the suburbs to get fresh foods locally grown. At the time, I was unaware of the year round farm stores that are actually closer to me, and are now where I get my meats, produce and locally produced items like bread, milk, eggs and honey.

Every other week I head out to England Acres to get dairy, meat, winter veggies and fresh greens. Also, apples and sometimes citrus. Judy gets high tunnel microgreens and winter greens from a farm in Damascus, East Rivendell Farm.

I will be heading over to check them out some day probably a Friday when they are open. For me to add a farm to my local resources list, I like to visit and see what they have. I love the greens from East Rivendell. Today I picked up some winter salad mix, and a bag of red chard at England Acres. I believe both of them were brought in from East Rivendell. Like these greens a few weeks back.

The mix I got today includes some lovely baby dinosaur kale. I also picked up the Baby Bellas again today. And, some carrots that Judy orders from Lancaster Farm Fresh, the coop that supplies my summer CSA. The carrots are so sweet in the winter. My favorite time to buy them.

This week I made lots of soups and the lasagna, so we are eating leftovers until tomorrow night. Then, I will be making my winter weekly Eat Local Dinner, using two little 5 oz. filets I got from Judy today. We were talking out at the farm about whether I should order a side of lamb. She will be selling sides and whole lamb packages. In March and in May. After that, no fresh lamb until the fall.

I find it interesting to get meat from the local farmers. Chickens available only from May until late fall. Lamb available winter and early spring. Seasonal influences based on when the animals are ready to process. If you have never bought or cooked with locally raised, farm fresh meats, you don’t know what you are missing. Just like local eggs and local produce, that freshness and taste are unmistakable.

Only three weeks to go until my Breezy Willow Early Bird CSA starts. Still happily eating from the freezer, the pantry and a couple of trips a month to the farmstands. Can’t believe how little I get from grocery stores these days. I asked my husband last week to stop at the store for the few items I can’t get at markets, like coffee creamer, extra light olive oil for cooking and dishwasher detergent. When your total gasoline points for the month are 39 from Giant Food, you know you have changed your buying habits.

As for CSAs, the local ones are filling up quickly. Look over at localharvest.org if you want to get the freshest produce and fruit weekly. There are all sorts of sizes and types now being delivered to pick up spots all over Howard County.

hocofood@@@

4 Comments

Posted in Commentary, CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, West HoCo, Winter Eat Local and tagged CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, Howard County, Locavore, real food, value of CSA, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Grandma’s Tomato Soup

Posted on February 15, 2013 by AnnieRie

Nope, none of that canned stuff your mom might have served. The kind of soup my grandma made. Fifty years ago. Made with tomatoes, broth and slow cooked until everything came together.

Tomato rice soup. Made with tomatoes I grew last summer. Amish paste tomatoes. About two pounds of them. Put in the crock pot with some chicken broth and almond milk. Two tablespoons of tomato paste. A couple of cubes of my garlic scape pesto. Allowed to cook all day, until about an hour before serving when I pureed the tomatoes and added a cup of riso.

Served with crumbled rosemary crackers and a side salad of baby spinach, cranberries and goat cheese. The wine?

Tablas Creek syrah. 2003 vintage. Hard to believe it is ten years old. Big, balanced, with a hint of berries in the nose. It went well with the soup and the salad. A simple soup and salad dinner elevated to the next level with a great wine and completely made from scratch. Including the berry vinaigrette on the salad.

Enough left for a couple of lunches. Soup and salad is on the table many days for lunch. Thanks to another hocoblog food blogger for posting about tomato rice soup with basil. Although she used brown rice, the inspiration was there.

hocofood@@@

3 Comments

Posted in Food, Locavore, Real Food, Wine, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, crockpot soups, Food, foodie, heirloom tomatoes, Locavore, real food, tomatoes, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

I Love Lamb

Posted on February 14, 2013 by AnnieRie

Valentine’s Day. What could be more romantic than dinner shaped like a heart?

Not only did the lamb end up in the shape of a heart, there was also a heart in the cheese.

Boarman’s lamb rack. Cherry Glen Monocacy Ash goat cheese. The local contributions to our Valentine’s Day dinner. Most of the rest was organic, but the lamb and the cheese were locally sourced.

The wine. From deep in the cellar where there is a box of wine that we won at the Taste for Life auction a few years back. A local charitable event to raise money for cancer research. It has now moved to Baltimore but for years it was held at the Ten Oaks Ballroom. We bought some lovely wine there at the auction and have been opening one every year for a special occasion. This was the year to open the 1996.

Besides the lamb and the wine, I also served a salad with the goat cheese and my homemade fruit vinaigrette. I made this vinaigrette using St. Helena Olive Oil Co. balsamic and extra virgin olive oil. Plus juice from my strawberries and blackberries. I defrosted some of them this week to use to make dressing.

Keep adding berries to the bowl and smash them up to release the juice. Strain them through a fine sieve and add a three to one ratio of oil to vinegar. I added some dried mint and dried basil plus salt and pepper to the dressing.

Mixed greens. Cranberries. Monocacy Ash cheese. Dress with the vinaigrette. Grate a little sea salt and pepper over it.

Later tonight a little sea salt caramel gelato. A nice homemade Valentine meal.

hocofood@@@

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

Lasagna vs Lasagne

Posted on February 12, 2013 by AnnieRie

So, what is it? Do you use the Italian spelling when not using traditional Italian ingredients? I have been working on perfecting my lasagna recipe. Lasagna because my recipe uses ricotta and mozzarella, not traditional Italian bechamel and ragu lasagne.

I made a lasagna today, to use the meat sauce I made on Sunday. It just jumped up and said, I need to be in lasagna. It was right. The sauce was made with local sausage, my tomato sauce from the freezer, some onions, mushrooms and garlic and all slow cooked in the crock pot.

I served a small portion of the sauce over penne on Sunday night. The rest really needed to be used as the star in a recipe. Lasagne immediately came to mind. But, now I know that the Americanization of the dish substituted ricotta, mozzarella and egg for the bechamel sauce. I like our version, so at The Common Market yesterday I picked up ricotta, mozzarella and some durum semolina pasta.

There you go! Lasagna from scratch. Ready to go in the oven.

To make this lasagna, you need:

a pound of sausage, browned with an onion and half a dozen mushrooms
at least a quart of tomato sauce, I made mine with tomatoes I blanched and froze
Italian herbs to taste, with salt and pepper

This is the sauce base.

You then need to make the white part. 15 oz. ricotta, 8 oz. mozzarella, 1 egg, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and 4 oz. milk.

I used 8 sheets of lasagne noodles. Layer sauce, cheese, noodles, sauce, cheese, noodles, sauce, cheese. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. It comes out looking like this.

Yes, it did get a little crispy around the edges. Foil would have stopped that, but I like mine crispy. We will get three meals out of this. We served it with a Breaux cellar selection Barbera/Nebbiolo blend, called Six Degrees.

And, a salad of grapefruit, fennel, red onion over baby greens, with olive oil and grapefruit juice as the dressing. Mostly local, all organic. Absolutely lovely for a Tuesday night.

Who cares how you spell it?

hocofood@@@

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

Planning for Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 9, 2013 by AnnieRie

I know many people make reservations and go out to celebrate Valentine’s Day. To me, the crowded restaurants, rushed service and the push to turn over the table make for a less than pleasant experience. We prefer to stay home and have far better food at a fraction of the cost. From celebrations past, some ideas to have an in house dinner with minimal fuss (unless you want to cook, like I do).

My personal favorite. Chocolate and wine.

Last year we shared a Biale Zinfandel and dark chocolate with chili. This was after a fairly simple dinner. Salad with a fruit based vinaigrette. You can pick all of the ingredients up at Roots or Harris Teeter or Wegmans, including a good cheese, and baby beets. Or, whatever you like. Romantic looking, isn’t it? This was local cheese and butter lettuce from Mock’s. We bought the cheese and the lettuce at the Silver Spring farmer’s market, but you can get something just as nice in the stores mentioned above.

Dinner could be simple, or more complicated. I usually pan sear some sort of steak or lamb. This year I will be doing rack of lamb, picked up at Boarman’s, but you could just get a couple of petit filets and get them done fairly quickly. Here is the plate from our anniversary of lamb shops and potatoes. Fast, not that hard, and so good. Seared in a hot pan, then transferred in the pan to the oven to finish.

Or, pick up a few crab cakes at Boarman’s. And, a few stuffing mushrooms. This recipe is easy to do as well.

Take the stems out of the mushrooms. Spread a little Dijon mustard in them. Use two large mushrooms per crab cake. Drizzle with a neutral oil like canola or grapeseed. Sprinkle Old Bay on top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, until brown.

You can serve these with small potatoes like the ones above in the anniversary dinner picture. Boil them in salted water for 15 minutes, or nuke them (I still occasionally nuke potatoes even though they don’t come out as nice as boiling and finishing in a pan or the oven).

We almost always stay home for major events and anniversaries, and indulge in fancier foods and really nice wines. There are lots of places around here to also pick up good already made foods. Really good sushi, maybe. Or, shrimp steamed to your specifications.

We like putting music on, maybe satellite radio or a CD. Light a few candles. Share a split of sparkling wine, or open an old red wine. Break out the good napkins and just do nothing but cook, relax and enjoy an evening with food, wine and music we chose.

Think about getting something to serve at home, even if it is something already prepared. But, you can make it simple. It is really nice to put together that salad, pop the crab cakes in the oven, and then savor that chocolate with a glass of wine.

hocofood@@@

4 Comments

Posted in Food, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Wine and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, holidays, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, wegman's, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Downtown

Posted on February 8, 2013 by AnnieRie

Our downtown. Glenelg/Dayton. Not EC, or Columbia. The hub of west county, or at least the circle. A typical Friday afternoon. For us, a few quick errands before the weekend. Stamps. Gas. Money. Liquor. A movie. What else do you need? 😉

The circle at Ten Oaks and Triadelphia is always hopping. Day or night. The pictures are from last spring, when the trees had leaves, I know. Between the Ten Oaks Tavern, the TRI pizza place, Bistro Blanc, the Subway, and the Royal Farms, you can always find food and drink.

You also can get money from the ATM, hit the post office, the pharmacy, the cleaners, Redbox, the Old Tyme liquor store and run into at least one person you know somewhere in your stop there.

Today we hit the post office, Royal Farms for gas and money, and the liquor store to look for a liqueur for my Valentine’s Day dinner. Actually, I am looking for pastis. They had absenthe, but no pastis. I am recreating a meal from Provence for Valentine’s Day and hoped I wouldn’t have to drive to Ellicott City to find Pernod or Ricard.

No luck on the pastis, but we did have a fun encounter with another patron. He saw my purple fleece turtleneck and my black fleece jacket, and asked. Are you a Ravens fan? After all, maybe football season is over, but I still like purple Fridays.

I said yes, and he pulled out his phone and showed me his new pictures. The first one. The Vince Lombardi trophy on a table. A few pics later, our new acquaintance holding the trophy. It seems he was one of the bus drivers who picked up the Ravens at the airport on their way back from the Super Bowl. They all got to hold the trophy and get their pictures taken with it.

I knew Eyre drove the Ravens. You see the buses at the facility occasionally, and you got to see them on TV before the parade Tuesday as they shuttled the team from the stadium to City Hall. Can’t miss the logo. Travel on Eyre. The company sits right behind Ten Oaks Tavern. Another local Howard County business that is doing well.

You never know what you will encounter “downtown” in west county.

Have a great weekend. Spend some time at one of the events or markets around the county. Breezy Willow farm store maybe? Conservancy? Ellicott City Sunday Bakery event?

hocoblogs@@@

Redefining Local

Posted on February 7, 2013 by AnnieRie

For fifteen months now I have been blogging, mostly about being a locavore. I started out during my challenge to eat locally, by considering only locally grown items. I finally decided that this was unrealistic for me.

Locally grown, locally produced, or locally sourced. That’s my priority now. Beyond that, either organic or as natural as possible. Real food. Food made from scratch.

Things not grown here in Maryland, ever, like olives and most citrus, most spices and chocolate, I agree, are part of my cooking and won’t be avoided. I just try and maximize the local ingredients, and I support our local farms and markets. I buy from them, even the things they sell that they brought in from outside the state.

What has that meant? I shop rarely at grocery stores, and then, only for items not available at local markets, shops and farms. I shop organic as much as possible. I make many items from scratch, using fresh ingredients.

I also don’t eat at chain restaurants, or eat fast food, unless we are in the middle of a turnpike with no other options. I can’t believe how differently I approach dining out. And, how I now cook.

My freezer is full of local veggies, fruits and meat. I shop at farms weekly. I pick up staples and organic items at the grocery stores, usually Wegmans or Harris Teeter these days and very little of my food budget goes to them.

For my winter eat local challenge, I find that I don’t actually eat one meal a week that is local, but rather, I cook almost every meal with something local in it. Most of the time, the local items outnumber the others.

I know this isn’t easy to do, unless you have the time to do it. I really appreciate what our moms did, 50 years ago. Cooking from scratch every day. Eating in season. Stretching the food budget.

I see quite a few people doing the same as we are. Going back to basic cooking. Not eating all those overly processed foods from institutional food services. Not a bad way to spend time.

Bake a few brownies from scratch. Put a crock pot meal on the table. Spend time in the kitchen, instead of a restaurant lobby with a pager. Not a bad idea.