Tag Archives: foodie

Making the Most of a Full Share CSA …

Posted on August 8, 2012 by AnnieRie

… along with my large garden of tomatoes. How am I doing at using up a full CSA share and using my tomatoes? I have been in the kitchen quite a bit this summer.

Processed veggies and fruit

From left to right, there are refrigerator dill pickles, made from CSA and garden cucumbers. Rhubar-b-q sauce, made with CSA rhubarb a few weeks back. Blackberry puree, made with Larriland berries picked last week, which becomes blackberry vinaigrette every couple of nights. The first jar is gone already. The last of the parsley and pine nut pesto, made a few weeks ago also.

On the lower shelf is a container of oven roasted garden peach tomatoes. They were roasted for an hour at 300 degrees, with salt, pepper, sugar and olive oil, and were used in a risotto last night. These are the second half of the batch, which will become part of dinner this weekend.

Today I also made salsa to use my glut of pineapple tomatoes. Here are two of them. They ripened Sunday through Tuesday, too late for the fair.

Heirloom Pineapple Tomatoes

The large one weighed a pound and a half. I sliced them up. Let them drain and took out the seeds. Mixed them with sweet onion, cilantro, garlic paste, salt, pepper, key lime juice, jalapeno and chipotle Tabasco sauce.

Salsa before blending

The finished product is in the refrigerator waiting for dinner tonight. The rest of the tomatoes and the onion are being roasted in the oven and will become another freezer container of ingredients to be used in sauces this winter.

Pineapple tomato salsa

The best investment we made this year was the freezer. It is slowly filling up with fruits, veggies and pestos made with garlic scapes.

We have been pretty diligent about eating those items in the CSA that don’t freeze well, or in the case of getting a huge amount of potatoes, I took some of them to my mom’s last week.

Mixed organic potatoes from the CSA

Haven’t seen this week’s CSA list yet, but from the other sites it looks like there will be corn and tomatoes again this week. Now I need to get the canning equipment out. Come winter, I will be glad I did. I need to process the newest haul of little tomatoes before they get overripe. This is three days worth of my miniature tomatoes.

They will be oven dried and made into small bags for use in sauces and vinaigrettes. Can’t let these beauties go to waste.

hocofood@@@

9 Comments

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

Recipes, and Why I am Bad at Them

Posted on August 6, 2012 by AnnieRie

Many times for my SSFC posts I have posted pictures of dinners made to use local foods for the food challenge. Since our current challenge to use local foods for one meal is heading into the season of tons of squashes, I have been trying to find ways to use them creatively.

Last week I made two dinners using almost completely local items, with a few additions. One was my eggplant parm, and another a baked chicken dinner.

Eggplant Parm

Baked chicken thighs with Amish egg noodles and roasted veggies

If I needed to document what exactly went into these two dinners, I would be in deep trouble, because when I cook, I don’t measure. When I bake, yes, when I cook, it is just whatever seems to look and taste good, and whatever I have around the kitchen.

These dinners were from Monday and Wednesday last week, mainly using up CSA items before I got my Thursday pick up. The eggplant Parmesan recipe started out from a web search that went into a half dozen places, including Martha Stewart. I think I used parts of hers but improvised because I had no mozzarella in the house.

The eggplants were a mix of Italian and Japanese. Sliced, salted and allowed to drain out moisture. The sauce was made by mixing all my overripe tomatoes with half a jar of Wegmans organic sauce and a squeeze of tomato paste from the tube in my fridge. See what I mean about measuring? I have no idea how much went into that base.

I didn’t have mozzarella so I mixed grated domestic parmesan from Roots with all the Firefly Farm chevre I had left in the fridge and the last of the Bowling Green Feta, grated. Added a little milk to make it creamier.

Dredged the eggplant in beaten egg, Panko bread crumbs and Parm, added a little salt and lots of pepper.

Coated the bottom of the baking dish (a small deep dish) with olive oil, added sauce, eggplant, cheese, sauce, eggplant, cheese, sauce and topped with the last of the Parm. Baked it for over two hours on a slow cook setting on my oven until it was dinner time.

As for the chicken thighs, same sort of thing. Put olive oil, tomatoes, onions, peppers and chicken in a casserole, Covered the chicken in herbs, salt and pepper. Put it all in the oven on slow cook setting for three hours while doing chores around the house.

Served it with Amish egg noodles. The noodles were homemade by a vendor that sells at the Briggs Chaney farmers market. The chicken came from them also. The egg noodles were quickly boiled at the last minute.

Accompanied this SSFC meal with a local wine. We belong to a cellar club at Breaux. This wine is wonderful with chicken and with seafood. I love the blend.

Breaux Wine served with Chicken

Getting back to recipes. We got a huge eggplant this week. Along with lots of lovely tomatoes, garlic, white peppers. This week’s eggplant dish may actually be a stacked version using the tomatoes and mozzarella I bought at Roots.

Veggies inspiring a variation on Eggplant Parm

Who knows what I will cook next? And, if I will remember what I did put in it? That’s the fun of being in a CSA, getting creative with What’s in the Box.

hocofood@@@

4 Comments

Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, SSFC, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, tomatoes, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Eating Locally Recap

Posted on July 30, 2012 by AnnieRie

A week and two days. Dedicated to eating at least one item a day from MD farms. We did it. It is easy with the goodness from Howard County Farmers Markets, and from a few local farms like England Acres, and from the case at Atwater’s Bakery in Catonsville.

Some of the items I used:

Corn, from England Acres and from TLV Farm, bought at the market

Chevre, from Firefly Farms

Eggs, from TLV and England Acres

Add to that watermelon, cantaloupe, spring mix, feta, smoked cheddar, ground lamb, ground beef patties, onions, and such a variety available here in MD.

Good meals like this one, from Saturday night. Breezy Willow spring mix and Firefly Farms chevre with my tomatoes and basil. Yes, the sockeye came from Alaska, not a local fish, but a great dinner.

Buy Local Week may be over, but the markets are still here. If you want to see great foods available for you in the future, it always helps to buy from our local farmers.

This weekend is the start of the Howard County Fair. There will be local produce and local cheese at the Fair. Support your local farmers and buy from them, if not at the fair, at the county markets.

See you at the Fair. We will be there at least four of the days. A season pass is a bargain if you want to enjoy all the entertainment and just absorb the atmosphere.

hocoblogs@@@

5 Comments

Posted in Community, Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, SSFC, West HoCo and tagged community, cooking, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, tomatoes, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

CSA Week 12, Tomato and Corn Season

Posted on July 26, 2012 by AnnieRie

My favorite time of year. The CSA starts sending us multiple varieties of tomatoes and we get sweet corn.

Sandy Spring CSA Week 12 Full Share

I had to take the picture on the island as the counter by the window is full of my heirloom tomatoes. Between them and the CSA I am officially in canning and freezing mode. What did we get today? Eleven items this week, all certified organic

6 Ears Bicolor Sweet Corn
1 Bag Purple Majesty Potatoes, 3 pounds
1 Bag Red Tomatoes, 2 pounds
1 Italian Eggplant
3 Green Zucchini
1 Bunch Fresh Red Onions
1 Pint Jumbo Cherry Tomatoes
1 Bunch Red Beets
1 Bunch Italian Parsley
1 Bag Heirloom Mixed Tomatoes, 1 pound
2 heads Garlic

The heirloom tomatoes were particularly beautiful this week.

Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes

They are destined for a salad with some chevre, just like the one I made the other night. As for tomatoes, the 2 pounds of red tomatoes went into the pot to be blanched and are already peeled and sliced in half and in the freezer.

I also blanched and froze the last of the green beans left from an earlier delivery, and oven roasted some of my yellow plum, yellow pear and green grape tomatoes to make an oven dried sauce that is bagged and frozen for use this winter.

Mixed tomatoes in oil, salt, pepper and sugar, prior to roasting

Tomatoes after roasting, at a low temperature for two hours

And, it wouldn’t be summer without gazpacho. I made gazpacho yesterday with my orange blossom tomatoes, augmented by a few from the Catonsville farmers market, a white bell pepper, scallions, shallot, lemon cucumbers and eight pieces of Wegmans Italian bread soaked in water. It all goes into the blender with white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. A cup for dinner last night.

Doesn’t get any fresher than that.

hocofood@@@

4 Comments

Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, local businesses, Locavore, real food, tomatoes, wegman's. Bookmark the permalink.

Midway Through Buy Local Week

Posted on July 25, 2012 by AnnieRie

And how am I doing? It is so easy to make things from the farmer’s markets in the area. Summer goodness in every bite. Monday night these were the star of the meal. We did have a small naan pizza that I added ratatouille as a topping.

Local corn and my tomatoes

The corn was from England Acres. The goat cheese in the salad was Firefly Farms Allegheny Chevre, picked up at Atwater’s in Catonsville while I was buying bread. Tomatoes and basil from my garden. All my vegetable and herb plants were bought at farmstands, farmer’s markets, local farms or nurseries. That is an easy way to support the farmers. Buy plants at the Howard County markets in the spring, instead of Home Depot.

As for Tuesday, we went to an amateur radio club picnic at Centennial. The dish I took was my infamous watermelon, feta and mint salad. I forgot to take pictures. Here is an earlier version.

Watermelon, feta and mint salad

Watermelon was bought at the Sunday Catonsville market. Feta was not Bowling Green as I didn’t get there in time. You can easily make this salad after a visit to one of the county markets. Bowling Green Farms feta is awesome.

We also took England Acres ground beef to make hamburgers, and topped them with Eve’s Cheese smoked cheddar, bought at England Acres Farm Store in Mt. Airy. There are no pictures from the picnic since I forgot my camera. Just the package that is in the freezer of the same ground beef patties we used last night.

Local meats have become very easy to find these days. Besides England Acres, I buy much of my meat from TLV at the Howard County farmers markets. Like bacon, and chicken.

They go to almost every market from Wednesday to Sunday across the county. Freshly processed free range meat is so much better tasting. It is worth it to buy. The only place they don’t sell is Thursday East Columbia.

If you want another local treat worth the effort, search out local eggs.

The little ones are pullets from England Acres, hand picked right out of the basket the day that the hens laid the eggs. The really large one is an extra large from my dozen last week from TLV, bought at the hospital market.

The eggs were in my zucchini fritters earlier this week, and I made a frittata Saturday for breakfast, that also fed us lunch Monday.

You have Thursday through Sunday to stop at one of the local markets in the county and support Buy Local Week.

hocofood@@@

3 Comments

Posted in Farmer's Markets, Food, Gardening, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore and tagged cooking, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, gardening, heirloom tomatoes, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Eating Locally: Ratatouille

Posted on July 7, 2012 by AnnieRie

A go to veggie side when we drown in zucchini and eggplant. We don’t have eggplant yet but lots of zucchini and a few yellow squash Thursday in the CSA box.

I wandered into Wegmans after having the pickup serviced over at British American, to get some organic tomatoes and two small eggplant, to use with the squash, a yellow pepper from the farm stand, onions from the CSA and my basil pesto. All mixed up in a pan, roasted, and served with local beef sausage, the last of the deliveries from Zahradka in April.

The beef sausage is a good fit with the ratatouille. We also opened one of the Glen Manor 2010 Cabernet Francs that was left up in the dining room wine rack. A good match because the wine wasn’t overwhelmed, nor did it upstage the ratatouille. A simple rustic dinner.

This week’s contribution to our Southern Sole Food Challenge, using sustainable, organic, local and ethically grown or raised veggies and meats. The ten members of the challenge use Google Reader to keep track of what we are making using our local bounties, all of us living south of the Mason Dixon Line.

hocofood@@@

4 Comments

Posted in CSA, Food, Locavore, Real Food, SSFC, Wine and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, hoco loco, Locavore, real food, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

Brinner

Posted on July 2, 2012 by AnnieRie

Breakfast for dinner. One of the simple pleasures. Lots of things left from the fridge and a couple of eggs. Everything locally procured, except for the bread which came from High’s. But, it was Hauswald’s, a Maryland bakery. You know, that weird white bread is just different after eating freshly made good bread from places like Atwater’s. But, when the roads are all messed up and High’s is open, you make do.

The A/C is fixed. Just a capacitor, a victim of the power surge. It is now cooling down again, but dinner was quick, easy to make and didn’t heat up the kitchen too much.

More tomorrow about our clean up and some thoughts about being in West HoCo after such a huge storm.

hocofood@@@

2 Comments

Posted in CSA, Farmer's Markets, Food, GGSAC, Howard County, Local Businesses, Locavore, Real Food, Weather, West HoCo and tagged community, CSA, farmer's markets, Food, foodie, GGSAC, hoco loco, Howard County, local businesses, Locavore, real food, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Eating Locally: Even With All the Craziness

Posted on July 1, 2012 by AnnieRie

Yes, the craziness. Loss of power. A Weekend trying to stay cool. Did we do it? Yes, mostly.

Tonight we grilled. Since the downstairs AC is down, we didn’t want to heat up the kitchen. I went to Jenny’s market this morning, and found them moved up the road since their tents were ruined with trees falling Friday night. They are still upbeat and have lots of good things to eat.

I had a pound of Black Angus beef taken out Friday to grill Saturday for friends. That didn’t happen after the storm, so we used it tonight.

The beef was formed around some Wegmans pepper jack cheese, and seasoned with salt and pepper. The beef is local, from this winter’s CSA. The cheese isn’t.

Tomatoes from southern MD. Onions local, too. Corn probably from VA. Not our good sweet corn, but not bad.

Salad made from CSA beets, greens and a pear from Harbin Farms farm stand. Beer and wine both local. He wanted beer. I wanted wine.

I added one of my frozen strawberry purees to my wine glass, making a sangria.

Honestly, what is better than a low carb meal, no bun, with fresh onions, tomatoes and cheese stuffed burgers?

Oh, I forgot. Grilled corn with seasoned butter.

hocofood@@@

2 Comments

Posted in CSA, Food, Locavore, SSFC, Wine and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, hoco loco, Locavore, wine. Bookmark the permalink.

The CSA Box, Week Seven. Get It Before It Wilts

Posted on June 21, 2012 by AnnieRie

Boy, it’s hot. Getting that CSA box early is a smart thing. The Lancaster Farm Fresh refrigerated truck was there when we arrived a few minutes before 1 PM. Lots of people arriving right after we did. Don’t want those veggies to wilt, do we?

The haul. It keeps getting harder to take the picture. I am glad I have lots of counter space to clean and prep it all. It takes about 20 minutes to process all of it.

I did one swap. Dandelion greens to get another bag of pickling cukes. The list.

The analysis. Based on organic pricing. Green Kale $3. Yellow Chard $3. Pickling cukes, eleven of them at 2/$1 is $5.50. Heirloom carrots (priceless 😉 ) where else do you find this sort of carrot — $3. Onions $3. Fennel $3.50. Zucchini $3. Two slicing cukes $2. A pound of rhubarb $3. Large green cabbage $3. Total is $32. $3.25 more than the weekly cost of the CSA. Running cumulative total is $51.90, with eighteen weeks to go and so much goodness coming into the house.

As for all these cukes, I am busy doing easy refrigerator and crock dill pickles. Check out the crock at the moment after I added new cukes to the mix. This is what my mom and my husband’s mom always did. Keep a crock of pickles “dilling” in a cool place in the kitchen.

You can see differences in the older pickles and the new brighter green ones, as well as some of those white cucumbers from last week’s CSA. I bought a food grade white bucket, sterilized it in the dishwasher and for these, used a prepared dilling mix that my husband wanted me to try. He thought my original pickling spice mix wasn’t like his mom’s, so we tried this one. It is OK, but I will be experimenting with fresh spices I grind myself to change it a bit. This is Mrs. Wages, bought at Butler’s Orchard in their canning section.

I just use a 2:1 water/vinegar mix and use the appropriate amount of spice, boil it quickly, cool it and cover the cucumbers. Put a plate on top and a clean dish towel and leave it alone in a corner. There is also a bowl full of sauerkraut fermenting next to it from the cabbage two weeks ago. It is coming along nicely and I will probably grill kielbasa and serve it over some sauerkraut next week. Another staple from my mom’s and my grandmom’s German influenced kitchens.

The sauerkraut is really easy. Cut up cabbage. Pack it into container layering it with salt and caraway. Get enough water in it to cover it. Add salted water if needed. Put a plate on it. Weight it down. Let it ferment its little self silly.

OK, all this talk of food has made me hungry. Time to go up and find my crock pot soup made with greens and bacon, using up all of last week’s leftover CSA greens. Veggie stock from the freezer. Greens, beans, bacon and onions. Herbs, salt and pepper. Two or three dinners. We may look like we are drowning in veggies but we do make a huge dent in them every week. Check out our What’s In The Box linkytools party to see how dozens of us are using our CSA deliveries. Bon Appetit!

hocofood@@@

3 Comments

Posted in CSA, Food, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, CSA, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

The Wegmans Effect, Part Two

Posted on June 20, 2012 by AnnieRie

The past two posts focused on my initial visit to the new store, and what it was like to get there and back. A while ago, I wrote about what I thought might happen in the area once the store opened. I thought it might affect Costco or BJs, in addition to the chain grocery stores here in Howard County.

Since I only used Wegmans in the past for hard to find items, or specialty fish and meat, I never wandered their organic aisles, or their grocery and bulk sections. Now I have, twice. We went back this morning to pick up some items for my husband’s upcoming field day. Items for hydration. He also wanted to see the new store, and as retirees we can wander in at 10am when parking is relatively easy.

This is what we went to get. Bananas and oranges and vitamin water with potassium. Field Day set up in 90+ degree heat this Friday will be tough on the guys doing it. Hydration is important so we stocked up on supplies. I also found they got distilled vinegar in last night to fill the empty shelves I found yesterday. For pickling, I go through lots of this stuff and the price here was really good.

Of course, as usual, I got way more than what I needed as items tempted. Just what you expect when you go shopping.

Organic lemons and limes. Key limes. Meyer lemons. I always buy organic citrus so I can use the zest without worrying about what may have been sprayed on them. A couple of the key limes will be used for tongiht’s rockfish on the grill.

The Meyer Lemons! With my basil and some Aranciata and vodka, it will be Meyer Lemon Basil Fizzes on the patio while the fish cooks!

With all the organic foods there, I wonder how it will affect Roots, MOM’s and David’s. I found their prices to be better than Roots for organic dairy items. This will be an interesting evolution.

And, like Tale of Two Cities found out, take out dinner from there can be very reasonable, so how will this affect the takeout places near there?

We got in and got checked out very quickly today. And, stupid me. I forgot to give the cashier the two coupons to get the eggs and bread free. I bought them to use towards the field day egg and toast breakfast we make for the radio operators who work all night Saturday making contacts. No problem. As I started out, I remembered, turned around and headed for customer service where a roving employee took my coupons, walked behind the counter and gave me $3.48 in cash for my coupons. Didn’t even ask to see my Shoppers card. No hassle and great customer service.

Giant and Safeway will be affected by them definitely. Who else? Only time will tell. They also were giving out cups of iced water at the entrance for hydration. A map of the store. Free Menu magazine with $10 more in coupons good until September. The magazine had great recipes in it, like for grilled pizzas.

I actually watched one couple wandering the store with the magazine looking for items to make one of the recipes. Very slick marketing. The pizzas looked great.

Yesterday I picked up a loaf of their miche bread.

Their specialty breads will be giving the local bakers competition, that’s for sure.

I have to admit, I am seeing my habits change to use them instead of Giant or Safeway for the things I don’t get from the farmer’s markets, local farmers and dairies, my CSA and some bulk items. I used to drive to Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods occasionally. I believe for me that will stop, as Wegmans becomes my substitute.

Now, if I can just figure out where everything is located.