turnips – Sheetar.com

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 9b

By Sheetar 2 July 2015 30 June 2015

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 9a

By Sheetar 30 June 2015 30 June 2015

We’ve gotten rather ahead of ourselves with One Local Summer, so I’m going to double up this week with two posts to get back on track. Sometimes we just cook local meals by default and then I forget what week we’re on and things all go crazy. I figure doing extra local meals isn’t a bad thing and since we made them, I might as well share them! So, here’s a catchup post and in two weeks I’ll be all caught up, I hope.

We dug into the freezer for this one and found a Bison roast. Husband rubbed it down with freshly ground pepper and salt and put it on the rotisserie on the grill. While I realize it may be blasphemous to red meat eaters, the end chunk was cooked nicely well done (brown the whole way through) but was still tender and DELICIOUS. Also cooked on the grill were those skewers with zucchini and tomatoes, covered in olive oil, salt, and pepper, then there’s a cucumber salad with red wine and vinegar, and finally the salad bowl just like every week, with the same mix of greens and vegetables. It all came out great, and we found a local Cabernet Sauvignon to pair with the dinner.

Ingredients:
Radishes – Full Circle CSA
Turnips – Full Circle CSA
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Lettuce Full Circle CSA
Cucumber – Clover Hill Farm
Tomatoes – Clover Hill Farm
Bison – Backyard Bison
Zucchini – Clover Hill Farm
Wine – Sand Castle Winery, Cabernet Sauvignon
Non Local – Salt, pepper, olive oil, homemade vinegar

One Local Summer

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 2014 – Meal 20

By Sheetar 7 November 2014 7 November 2014

DSC_1294-rgb Meal 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

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 9

By Sheetar 12 July 2012 16 July 2012

This one is getting posted late, but I’ve been busy, honest! This one was on my own since husband is out to sea for a month. We’ve got veal cubes with turnips, fennel, and mushrooms on a skewer, and potatoes on the side, all cooked up on the grill! The skewers are pretty neat – they’re Fire Wires, and are basically stainless steel cables with a tip. Put the food on, marinate in a bag or bowl, then throw on the grill. Once the tip has been heated for about 10 minutes to burn off any bacteria, you move it off the grill so that you can pick up the whole wire using the tip that has cooled. Pretty easy! I filled up four Fire Wires, so I have plenty of leftovers.

Veal Kabobs:
Turnips – Jack’s Farm
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Potatoes – Brogue Hydroponics
Veal – Birchrun Hills Farm
Fennel – Jack’s Farm
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 6

By Sheetar 15 June 2012 15 June 2012

Zucchini are finally coming into season and we’re indulging in ALL THE ZUCCHINI! Husband took the lead on this meal again, cooked on the grill, and we dined al fresco. It’s been so nice that the weather has been compliant for outdoor cooking and eating – we’ve had a relatively nice spring/summer so far. On that plate is a Maple Apple sausage which really was something incredible. The outside was glazed in maple syrup and just perfectly sweet while the inside was savory. Really just the perfect combination. The grilled vegetables at the bottom of the plate are Zucchini, Broccoli, and Turnips, and the salad at the top is Lettuce, Turnips, Garlic Scapes, Spring Onion, and Blue Cheese, tossed with non local Balsamic Vinegar. There is a glass of wine along with the meal as well, a Gewurztraminer from the Mount Hope winery. And, if you notice there, the vegetables take up over half the plate and were oh so delicious. We have a pan for the grill that looks like someone took a hole puncher to a sheet of aluminum and went wild, and it works great for grilling vegetables – everything mixes together and comes out just right. This could also be attributed to husband’s chefly abilities. We did inadvertently agitate the Robin who is nesting under our deck and sitting on some eggs, but apologized profusely to her and allowed her to nest undisturbed for the rest of the evening.

Sausage, Vegetables and Salad:
Maple Apple Sausage: Mt View Organics
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Turnips – Jack’s Farm
Garlic Scapes – Jack’s Farm
Spring Onion – Jack’s Farm
Blue Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Broccoli – Charlestown Farm
Romaine Lettuce – Charlestown Farm
Gewurztraminer – Mount Hope Winery
Non Local – Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Balsamic Vinegar

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2012 – Week 3

By Sheetar 25 May 2012 25 May 2012

Another salad, I know, but the greens, they call to me! Also, we still don’t have much else available in terms of vegetables. At least this one is a little more creative? I added a whole bunch of toppings to this one including some amazing bison chorizo. Our local bison farmer (rancher?) is super nice, and I enjoy cooking with bison over beef any day of the week. I’ll admit that my diet is skewed about 80% towards vegetables with about 20% meat in there, so while I’m not all vegetarian, I certainly appreciate vegetables in my dish. So, this salad is a mix of three types of greens (romaine, mesclun, beet greens), roasted beets, chevre, grilled turnips, and that yummy chorizo. I decided to pour myself a glass of homebrewed hard cider since it’s been a little warm this week, and since I cooked everything out on the grill and the evening was starting to cool off.. well it felt right. The beets were put in an aluminum foil package with some olive oil on the grill first. Then the turnips with some olive oil and salt in a slotted grill pan, and then finally the chorizo. The rest is fresh, so it was easy to put together.

Chorizo Salad:
Romaine – Charlestown Farm
Mesclun – My Garden
Turnips – Jack’s Farm
Chevre – Shellbark Hollow
Beets & Greens – Charlestown Farm
Bison Chorizo – Backyard Bison
Non Local – dressing, olive oil, salt