Tag: <span>carrots</span>

Tag: carrots

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2016 – Week 5

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I actually have TWO this week for One Local Summer, so I’m jamming them into one post instead of splitting them into two.  This week was husband’s final week home before going out to a ship for quite a long while, so he took advantage of the time home to cook up a storm.  This is me, not complaining.  First up!  A house favorite, biscuits and gravy with a side of yogurt and strawberries and of course, coffee.  We made our biscuits with lard – I have no idea where the recipe came from, but if I find out, I’ll add a link  – and they come out so delightful.  We had the buttermilk for the gravy and it felt like it would be a slight not to include it in the biscuits as well.  The flour is probably my favorite part of this.  We actually have an old stone mill locally that buys their wheat from PA farmers and then mills it with a gigantic water wheel just a few minutes down the road.  They sell it, along with cornmeal, to help fund the mill’s educational programs and it’s SUCH a delight to have locally grown and milled wheat available to us, not to mention the historic aspect of the fact that it was ground in  a mill that’s 250 years old!   In order to make the meal just a little more healthy, we added the side of strawberries and yogurt.  The coffee?  Not local, but I dare you to tell me that I can’t have it with breakfast.

Ingredients:
Lard – M&M Creek Valley Farm
Sausage – M&M Creek Valley Farm
Flour – Mill at Anselma
Strawberries – Hoagland Farm
Yogurt – Seven Stars Farm
Buttermilk – Maplehofe Dairy
Non Local – Coffee, Salt, Pepper

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I did mention this was a two-fer, right?  Second local meal for the week features ribs with grilled vegetables, a cucumber salad and CHEESE.  The ribs were cooked in the slow cooker first and then given a quick roast in the oven with our own homemade fruit ketchup using tomatoes and apples from the farmers market and peaches from our own tree.  Pretty sure this is the same recipe we used from the Ball Canning Book  for the ketchup.  The veggies on the side were carrots, snap peas, and zucchini.  Then there was the classic cucumber salad – cucumbers soaked in vinegar making not-quite-pickles, but a nice refreshing not-lettuce sort of salad for the side.  Then there’s the CHEESE – I believe that’s all Birchrun Hills cheese between Fat Cat, Red Cat, and some Clipper.  REALLY a good dinner – the ribs were absolutely perfect and it was a nice way to end a stormy evening.

Ingredients:
Ribs – Countrytime Farm
Cucumbers –  Jack’s Farm
Zucchini –  Jack’s Farm
Snap peas –  Jack’s Farm
Carrots –  Charlestown Farm
Cheese –  Birchrun Hills
Non Local – Homemade Vinegar, Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2016 – Week 4

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Week four, cooked and consumed already during our One Local Summer.  Husband was home again this weekend, so I was happy to step aside and let him take charge of the kitchen!  The vegetable supply is really starting to diversify since so many farmers start seeds early, so we already have zucchini and snap peas available.  The meal is a veal chop marinated in vinegar, salt and pepper, cider, and cilantro then grilled with some cheese on top.  On the side are  grilled carrots, snap peas, and zucchini and some more cheese (because there can always be more cheese), paired with a nice leafy green salad tossed with some olive oil and vinegar, and a glass of homebrewed cider.  The cider we had here actually finished off a 5 gallon keg we’ve been nursing for over a year now, but fortunately  we have the next batch ready to go, made from apples picked at my grandparents’ home some four hours west of where we live.  Since the apples followed us on a trip we would’ve made anyway, I include them into local summer since their “food miles” didn’t count as just transporting food.  We crushed and pressed the apples into cider ourselves, gave the juice some yeast, and let it do its thing.  The resulting cider came out tart and dry, just how I like it, so while I’m a little sad to see this keg go, I’m also eager to see how the second batch tastes!  Anyway, enough about the cider, the meal was a nice way to cap off the long holiday weekend since this was Monday’s dinner before husband left again for the week.  Hopefully he’ll get in one last OLS meal before heading out on a long stretch for work, and then it’s all on me!  I may have to entice some guest chefs to visit and contribute  (read: beg friends to cook for me) during the summer.

Ingredients:

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 11a

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This is the last week of catch-up posts, I swear.  Well, at least for now.  I can’t make promises about future weeks, but I’ll try to get them posted on the actual week that they’re made this time!  I’m back by myself for this week, and went a little crazy with the vegetables.  A neighbor had let his zucchini plants go a little wild and had a few baseball bats sitting on the vines.  I graciously offered to take one off his hands so he didn’t have to ding-dong-ditch zucchini all over the neighborhood.  It’s hard to tell underneath all the other vegetables, but I spiral sliced the zucchini with my new slicer and made zucchini pasta!  I cooked that quickly in a big pan with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, just enough so it still had a little crunch to it, but was warmed thoroughly.  In another pan, I had onions, fennel, and tomatoes cooking together  to put on top of the zucchini pasta.  The sausage was pan seared, carrots steamed, and potatoes roasted.  Then the peaches!  Oh it’s peach season and these are particularly perfect, eat-over-the-kitchen-sink-because-they-drip-everywhere, juicy and delicious peaches.  I smothered them in blue cheese and baked them in the oven and they always make a perfect sweet and savory dessert.  The plate is incredibly full this week, but it’s 90% vegetables, so I don’t feel bad about it, not one bit.

Ingredients:
Zucchini – Neighbor’s Garden
Potatoes – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Clover Hill Farm
Tomatoes – Clover Hill Farm
Fennel – Jack’s Farm
Onions – Clover Hill Farm
Peaches – North Star Orchard
Cheese – Birchrun Hills, Blue and Equinox
Sausage – Canter Hill Farm, South African Borewors
Non Local – Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 9b

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Another installment in the catch-up posts for One Local Summer.  Husband had originally planned to do these pork chops on the grill, but the sky got dark and opened up so quickly that he ended up pan searing with the cast iron skillet and finishing it up in the oven.  Apparently, this is my new favorite way to cook pork chops because I have never had a pork chop quite so perfectly juicy before.  Pork can go from juicy and moist to shoe leather in a split second it seems, but man, skillet in the oven is IT.  Even though it was delicious, I only managed to finish off half of that pork chop because of the ridiculous amount of veggies.  Steamed green beans and carrots, that huge salad as usual, and then potatoes with olive oil, chives, and onions.  Top that all off with a glass of Spring Wine from Chaddsford Winery and we have a great rainy day dinner.

Ingredients:
Radishes  Full Circle CSA
Turnips  Full Circle CSA
Mushrooms  Oley Valley Mushrooms
Lettuce Full Circle CSA
Carrots – Full Circle CSA
Cucumber Clover Hill Farm
Tomatoes Clover Hill Farm
Potatoes – Jack’s Farm
Pork Chops –  M&M Creek Valley Farm
Chives – My Garden
Onions – Clover Hill Farm
Green Beans – Jack’s Farm
Wine – Chaddsford Winery, Spring Wine
Non Local – Olive oil, salt, pepper.

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 7

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Don’t tell anyone, but we’re actually a week ahead due to husband’s love of cooking local food.  Really though, that’s fine, because at some point, we’ll end up being away or too busy or something and we’ll fall behind a week, so I figure this will all come out in the wash, as Willy Wonka might say.  Husband is a big fan of the basics – meat, vegetable, and a salad makes a meal.  However, it’s the prep and spices and whatnot that bring it far beyond that level.  I’ve never had a complaint about any dinner, and how could I – my basic policy is that any meal I don’t have to cook is a good one!  Enough babbling, onto the plate!  First up, in the salad bowl, we have lettuce, turnips, radishes, and some carrots with a non local but homemade dressing.  On the plate is a slice of a Pork Loin  Roast on the rotisserie after being rubbed with pepper, maple sugar, and salt, glazed with red wine and maple syrup while being cooked.  Then we have carrots drizzled with maple syrup, and grilled zucchini (a personal favorite).  Topped the whole thing off with a glass of red wine and we had a lovely dinner.

Ingredients:
Pork Loin  Roast – M&M Creek Valley Farm
Zucchini – Clover Hill Farm
Carrots – Clover Hill Farm
Lettuce –  Full Circle CSA
Turnips – Full Circle CSA
Radishes – Full Circle CSA
Maple Sugar/Syrup – Miller’s Maple
Wine – Paradocx, Barn Red
Non Local – Olive Oil, homemade vinegar, salt, pepper

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 4

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Another wonderful week of local food!  We’re getting some awesome vegetables ripening, and strawberries are ready for picking.  We’re probably a week ahead, even after the very long, late winter, mostly thanks to a TON of rain in April and then three weeks of full sun.  We could use the rain now though, but it isn’t stopping our local providers from having some great food for us to enjoy.  Husband and I worked together on this one – he did the main plate and I worked up the salad.  We have a pork butt steak cooked on the grill, rubbed with maple sugar, salt, and pepper and marinated in malt vinegar.  Then there are carrots with a touch of maple syrup, another chunk of homemade gouda with milk from a local farm, and cucumbers in vinegar with salt and pepper.  In the salad, we have DELICIOUS strawberries over a bowl of mixed greens and snap peas, dressed with an olive oil, wine, and homemade vinegar dressing.  To finish things off, there’s a glass of homebrewed peach ice wine.

Ingredients:
Port Butt Steak – Countrytime Farm
Cucumbers – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Jack’s Farm
Cheese – Milk from Birchrun Hills
Strawberries – Charlestown Farm
Mixed Greens – Jack’s Farm  and Charlestown Farm
Snap Peas – Jack’s Farm
Maple Syrup – Miller’s Maple
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Wine – Paradocx Barn Red
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, Homemade vinegar, Homebrewed peach ice wine, olive oil

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2014 – Meal 22

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TWENTY TWO!  Yeah, that’s a lot of orange on that plate (Heyooo Dutch reference again), but it’s delicious orange!  The plate contains a pork butt steak with steamed carrots, mashed sweet potatoes, and a chunk of delicious Fat Cat Cheese.  Mmmm root vegetables and meat, all washed down with a glass of sweet apple cider.  Husband braved the chill outside to cook the pork on the grill after it was rubbed with a sweet and spicy  rub  which, while the rub isn’t made from locally sourced ingredients, it is blended by a local woman, so I’ll count it as a partial win.  This is probably one of our favorite cuts of pork because it’s easier to grill up and still keep it tender and juicy.  Pork goes from edible to rubber quickly if you’re not careful with the temperature, but the butt steaks seem more forgiving.  It was devoured quickly, but there was enough steak and vegetables for some leftovers.

Just a quick note too, the cheese maker, Birchrun Hills, has started a Kickstarter to help them “Raise a Cave” at their farm.  They’re currently renting space at another facility to make their cheeses which isn’t incredibly cost or time effective.  We love these folks SO much and enjoy supporting local agriculture, and hope you might consider sending a few dollars their way!  It’s always great to see Sue at our local farmers market, and we’d love to see this succeed.  Also, if you haven’t yet been able to find their Smoked Blue Cheese, you aren’t really living.  Honest.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/993112740/birchrun-hills-farm-raise-a-cheese-cave

Ingredients:
Sweet Potatoes – Jack’s Farm
Carronts – North Star Orchard
Apple Cider – North Star Orchard
Pork Butt Steak – Countrytime Farm
Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Milk – Camphill Kimberton
Non Local – Salt, Pepper

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2014 – Meal 20

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DSC_1294-rgbMeal 20.  Meal TWENTY.  Thanks to the husband’s big interest in One Local Summer and his culinary creativity, we’ve pushed well past the goal of 14 meals and made it to twenty meals with still more planned.  He’s back home again and decided to work up a meal he remembers fondly from his childhood.  His mom was regularly cooking for a table set for  10 or more people, so recipes that were cost effective and served lots of people at once were the standard.  This is called Hutspot, a Dutch meal consisting of mashed carrots, parsnips, potatoes, and topped with bacon.  It actually dates back to the 1500s in Holland and was no doubt a part of Doug’s paternal family that came over from Holland in the 1950s.  History and dinner!  I’ll admit that it’s kind of bland (that’s the point though) but the bacon on top is a nice touch and the use of root vegetables means you could’ve likely made this most of the winter as well when fresh vegetables were scarce (pre-electricity).  Perfect time of year to introduce this into our One Local Summer set of meals.  On to the ingredients!

Ingredients:
Turnips – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Jack’s Farm
Potatoes – Our Garden
Bacon – Countrytime Farm
Maple Syrup – Miller’s Maple
Non Local – Salt, pepper