maple sugar – Sheetar.com

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 8

By Sheetar 23 June 2015 18 June 2015

MORE PORK! Yes, we’re big fans of the pig meat, but this meal was so filling that I only managed to make it through about half of that chunk of meat on the plate. It’s probably the fault of the overflowing salad bowl, but that’s the way I like it! I’m always doing salad prep while husband is out running the grill, so sometimes I get a little overzealous, today being no exception. In the salad bowl is lettuce, turnips, radishes, mushrooms, cucumbers, and carrots along with the same not-local-but-homemade dressing we’ve been using. It’s just olive oil, homemade vinegar, and a little bit of red wine, but it works great and is simple enough to not overpower the awesome vegetables in the bowl. Going around the plate we have a Ham Steak which was really really great – cooked up nicely on the grill, rubbed with pepper, salt, and a little maple sugar. Then there are steamed green beens with sea salt, and a cucumber salad made by soaking the cucumbers in vinegar, red wine, and a little crushed pepper. We cracked open a bottle of our homebrewed PA Maple Reserve which is actually all local except for the yeast – local cider, local maple syrup, all fermented into a really delicious wine.

Ingredients:
String Beans – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Jack’s Farm
Radishes – Full Circle CSA
Turnips – Full Circle CSA
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Lettuce – Full Circle CSA
Cucumber – Clover Hill Farm
Ham Steak – M&M Creek Valley Farm
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Wine – Homebrewed PA Maple Reserve with Maple syrup from Miller’s Maple and cider from Linvilla Orchards
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil, homemade vinegar

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 7

By Sheetar 17 June 2015 17 June 2015

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 6

By Sheetar 12 June 2015 24 July 2015

Well I really have no reason to cook since the husband enjoys it so much and I find it such a chore. That said, I did help out this week by making the spaetzle! We had bought a spaetzle maker (basically a slotted metal plate like a cheese grater with an open-bottomed container that slides across the plate) but hadn’t tried it out yet, and this week seemed like a great opportunity to use it and fill in some space on the plate! We followed the recipe on the spaetzle maker package which gave us a really thin batter, but I’ve tried it once now and know what sort of consistency to shoot for. Also on the plate is a pork rib roast, cooked on the rotisserie on the grill, covered in maple sugar, salt, and crushed pepper and brushed with homebrew amber ale, vinegar, salt, and pepper while on the rotisserie. Then we have bacon wrapped asparagus, a bowl of cucumbers with salt and pepper and vinegar, and a nice glass of Blaufrankich from Chaddsford Winery. Everything came out AMAZING and made for a really nice dinner.

Ingredients:
Pork Rib Roast – M&M Creek Valley Farm
Asparagus – Clover Hill Farm
Spaetzle – Whole Wheat Pastry Flour from the Mill at Anselma and butter from Handmade by Abby
Bacon – Countrytime Farm
Cucumber – Clover Hill Farm
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Wine – Chaddsford Winery
Non Local – homemade vinegar, salt, pepper, homebrew amber beer

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 4

By Sheetar 27 May 2015 27 May 2015

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 17

By Sheetar 16 October 2014 13 October 2014

I suppose it’s not even One Local Summer anymore – it’s One Local Fall! Some of my favorite foods are available in the fall. Pumpkins and squash, apples and asian pears! The day the meal was made was rainy and chilly which made for perfect baking and cooking conditions. And yes, I actually used recipes! Usually our One Local Summer meals end up on the wing-it spectrum, somewhat simple, and tend to be basic stuff that doesn’t involve a lot of thinking and prep work. Grilled cheese and soup are still pretty basic, but I needed a bread recipe and hunting around for soup ideas gave me the soup recipe.

A few weeks ago, we were in central PA and picked 160 pounds of apples at my grandparents house. We came out with 4.5 gallons of juice that’s being fermented for hard cider, but we threw in the towel with about 10 lbs of apples remaining since it was getting pretty dark and late and we were dead tired from crushing and pressing all the apples. Husband went back out to sea and I was scratching my head, trying to figure out what to do with the remaining apples. I’m not a huge fan of applesauce, but figured it was the easiest way to use them up. I cut them into chunks, steamed them in batches for 5 minutes, then ran them through the press. That press made SUCH quick work of the apples that I was done in about an hour! I added nothing to the sauce – no sugar or cinnamon or spices – and actually like it a lot as just straight up applesauce with nothing else added. Then came along the bread recipe for Applesauce bread. It’s a basic sandwich bread with the only non-local ingredient being yeast (and flour, kinda, since the one flour imports wheat from the midwest but they’re both still milled at the historic grist mill nearby). I used both blue cheese and a nice alpine style cheese to melt between the slices. The soup is made from delicata squash and leeks for the most part with water instead of broth and a little goat’s milk yogurt. Those “apple croutons” on top are slices of apple sprinkled with maple sugar and crisped up in the oven. I didn’t quite follow the recipe and decided it was easier to leave the skins on the squash and just immersion blender them to pulp which was easier than trying to take the skins off the roasted squash. Add a warm cup of hot cinnamon spice tea, and it was a great meal for a dreary day.

Ingredients:
Flour – Mill at Anselma (Whole Wheat Pastry Flour and Bread Flour)
Applesauce – grandparents house (no sugar added)
Cheese – Birchrun Hills (Blue and Equinox)
Delicata Squash – Jack’s Farm and Charlestown Farm
Butter – Spring Creek Farms
Leeks – North Star Orchard
Apples – North Star Orchard (for apple croutons)
Goat’s Milk Yogurt – Shellbark Hollow
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Non Local – Olive oil, salt, pepper, sage, tea

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2013 – Week 22

By Sheetar 6 January 2014 2 January 2014

CHILI! My favorite, and the first time we’ve been able to pull this off as a one local summer meal. Our local orchard, North Star, had been experimenting with growing beans and drying them, so we finally got a harvest and my FIRST thought upon seeing them at the market was CHILI! Husband again took the lead on this since he’s the chili master and had this amazing stuff simmering in the crock pot all day. I can honestly tell you that the only thing holding us back from the chili was the beans, and we had been pretty much doing this locally anyway, using bison instead of cow beef since it makes the resulting chili way less greasy. The whole meal together on the table was incredible – the asian pears were heated up a bit and drizzled with maple syrup. We managed to get enough tomatoes from the volunteer tomato plants to put in salads, so that worked out great. Really can’t wait to do this again!

Chili with Cornbread and Salad:
Bison – Backyard Bison
Hot Bison Sausage – Backyard Bison
Beans – North Star Orchard
Celery – North Star Orchard
Peppers – Jack’s Farm
Jalapenos – Charlestown Farm
Onions – Jack’s Farm
Tomato sauce – Homemade, frozen from prior harvest
Tomatoes – Our Garden
Asian Pears – North Star Orchard
Cornmeal – Mill at Anselma
Flour – Mill at Anselma
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Salad Greens – Jack’s Farm
Non Local – cocoa powder, salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 16

By Sheetar 4 September 2012 20 September 2012

In a move of colossal idiocy, I formatted the card that contained the meal photo for this week, and wrote right back over it with some lovely portraits from a family session. *FACEPALM* So, I will describe the meal instead, which won’t be as good as the photo, because the photo was really really good, and I can’t believe I did that.

It was husband’s last week home, and he did the shopping at the Farmer’s Market, bringing home a big chunk of Pork Butt to feed to the crock pot. It simmered in there all day with some home made hard cider (apples sourced locally) and maple sugar, and was falling apart at dinner time. SO tender and juicy. Next to that, on the plate, was a pile of mashed potatoes which had been mixed together with caramelized onions and garlic. Next was steamed and sauteed garlic string beans. Then we had grilled roma tomatoes from our garden, and finally grilled peaches with Fat Cat cheese (the highlight of the plate for me). Seriously, those peaches were delicious and inventive, and something I would’ve never thought to have made.

Epic Meal that you’ll Never See:
Pork – Countrytime Farm
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Hard Cider – with apples from Linvilla Orchard (I think? This was brewed a while ago!)
Garlic – Jack’s Farm
String Beans – Jack’s Farm
Onions – Jack’s Farm
Potatoes – Jack’s Farm
Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Tomatoes – My Garden
Peaches – North Star Orchard
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, various spices, cider vinegar

One Local Summer

One Local Summer – Week 13

By Sheetar 9 August 2010 9 August 2010

Week 13?! At this rate, I’m almost sure I could do this all year. The folks at Hoagland Farm really inspired this week and egged me on into trying this recipe. They had cabbage and pork roast, and I ended up coming home with both ingredients and intentions on this being an easy crock pot recipe. It was just that, and I never could’ve imagined the delightful flavors that came about as a result of combining the two. I’m SO glad we have leftovers on this one! We sort of followed a recipe here, making a few changes to make it more local.

Pork Roast with Cabbage:
Green Cabbage – Hoagland Farm
Pork Roast – Hoagland Farm
Onion – North Star Orchard
Maple Sugar – Miller’s Maple
Wine – Mount Hope. Gewurztraminer.
Non-local – Vinegar, spices

One little bonus localish item that didn’t make it into the dinner photo – cupcakes! These were so good, and I’m still blown away by how amazing these cupcakes are. I picked up a 6 pack of cupcakes from Iced by Betsy this past week and WOW WOW WOW. If you go to the Phoenixville Farmer’s Market and haven’t yet given in to temptation, you really ought to. Trust me.