Locavore In Training

Quick drive by to share our Maryland wine tasting on Saturday!

Such a pretty drive!

First stop was Linganore Winery, where we tasted 16! wines. Picnic after that!

(Picture shamelessly stolen from Stephanie - our 3rd partner in crime.)

After that tasting, we hung out there for some bread, fruit and cheese. Divine!

Then we made a quick stop at Loew Winery, where we weren't super impressed with the wines and generally disappointed with the tasting. So we headed to Elk Run!

Gotta love any winery that has a cat wandering through the tasting room. His name is Moo!

We did the "choose your own adventure" tasting, where you picked any 6 wines to taste. Lots of interesting wines there, including a zinfandel and port. The pinot was the big surprise winner... that, and the sangria.

Yummy sangria!

We finally ended our day at the Wine Kitchen in Frederick. Everything was delicious, I would definitely go back!

Ok, so it's not California by any stretch... but I was really pleasantly surprised with the wines. Such a fun day with Steph and Kristin, and I think we'd all go again!

Ok, let's just politely ignore that I used canned pumpkin, shall we? Last night I made pumpkin gnocchi. I didn't even realize gnocchi was on my list of things to make from scratch, but after seeing how easy it was, it will definitely be added to the easy dinner recipe list!

I found a new blog while searching for Gnocchi recipes. Mine came from Foodess.com, and boy, as it delicious and easy! I omitted the sage, only because I don't have any on hand, but I'll definitely try  it again with it! I changed the recipe a tiny bit by frying the cooked gnocchi in the browned butter until one side got crispy. I think this really added a nice texture.

Pumpkin Gnocchi

Source: Foodess.com

• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cup flour, plus for rolling out dough
• 4 tbsp butter (original recipe called for 3 tbsp)
• 1/4 cup sage leaves (which I omitted)
• grated parmesan cheese
• salt, kosher or sea

1. Set a large pot of water to boil. Meanwhile, combine pumpkin, egg, salt, and nutmeg. Once mixed well, add flour in batches.

2. Flour hands, separate dough into 3-4 sections. (4 worked well for me.) Roll on floured work surface into 1-inch thick rope. Cut into 1-inch pieces. Repeat.

3. Add gnocchi into boiling water, and cook until they rise to the surface. This took 4-5 minutes. While gnocchi is cooking, melt butter in a saucepan. (Add sage leaves if you have them.) Cook until butter browns.

4. Drain gnocchi, (she suggested draining on paper towels, which I missed but seems like a good idea) then add to saucepan with brown butter and fry until crispy. Sprinkle with parmesan and salt.

Well, I ended up with 3/4 of a cup pumpkin left from dinner... So I turned it into breakfast! Spiced Pumpkin Buttermilk Biscuits. I changed nothing, so the recipe is here. I got 9 biscuits instead of 10, they rose beautifully and tasted amazing.

Oh, and did make ghee last night! Easy enough once I got the temperature right.

Projects to do, in which I apparently mean "things to cook." I can't help it... On the path to local-ism and self-sufficiency, the kitchen is my place to start. I can't really grow things where we live (too much shade) though I have tried... and so far, I'm not raising animals (cats do not count!). By the time I can do those things, at least I'll know what to do with my spoils! In the meantime, the kitchen is my workshop.

In no particular order (except the ghee, which is on deck for this week):

• Ghee
• Sausage
• Popcorn on the stove - If there was ever a post to motivate me, this is it. Plus I threw out all my microwave popcorn.
• Granola
• Cheese! (Been on the list for... 3 years now.)
• Nut butters - Lots of options on this site, and others, but this one may just be at the top of my list.
• Mayo
• Beef stock (This is on the agenda because the 1/4 cow purchase includes bones... so, why not?)
• Learning to cut up a whole chicken
• Tallow
• Tortillas

Turns out, I'm just not very good at blogging. Oh well. I've decided not to care about that, and get to it when I can and want! My last extended absence was more or less a result of not accomplishing anything locavore-related. In this case, it's exactly the opposite! Can't really say what kicked me in high gear, but I'm not complaining.

I've been cooking. A lot. I mean, a lot. It's been awesome. I've been inspired by so many blogs, cookbooks, recipe sites and cravings. Some recent projects (all of which I planned to blog about, maybe I'll actually get to a few):

• Season of Soups! I've always been picky (in which picky = broccoli cheese only) about soups, and I decided to kick that aversion this year once and for all. I'm shooting to make one new soup recipe each week. (With as many local ingredients as possible.) Here's what I've made so far:
• Loaded Potato
• Chicken Tortilla
• Chicken and rice
• Pumpkin Black Bean
• Cheeseburger Soup (Jay's favorite, hands down - said it was the best soup I've ever made.)
• White Chicken Chili (sort of... no actual chilis were harmed in the making of this soup, so I may have to try this one again.)
• Chicken Stock - Directly related to the above project! I've been making a batch every week or so using a whole, cut-up chicken in my crockpot. I end up with delicious shredded chicken and healthy stock, both of which makes me feel better about spending $22 for a free-range, pasture raised chicken. To the linked recipe, I just add a bunch of water, enough to more or less cover the chicken. I'm going to see if I can get a second batch using the leftover bones... maybe save the wings to add to them?
• Homemade Vanilla Extract - I have two batches going, one started 2 months before the second. The first one had (remedied this morning) less fresh beans and used Dewers as the base. It may or may not turn out, but the fact of the matter was that we had a bottle of Dewers no one wanted anything to do with. The second uses absolut vodka. The second has been brewing maybe 6 weeks and is starting to smell like something I'd actually like to use. Oh, and I did buy my beans from Amazon, and they're far better than anything I've ever purchased from the grocery.
• Lard. Yep, I said it. Such a bad rap. I ordered pork fat in my last Polyface delivery (5 lbs for me, 5 lbs for Penn) but it ended up coming in a 3 and 7 lb bags. So, I quickly (hahaha) whipped up some lard for use in baked goods that call for shortening and any other shenanigans I can get into. (So, the recipe said 8 hours in the crock pot would do it, but after almost 24, I ended up finishing on the stove. And buying a new crockpot.)
• Local food hunt and gathering. I recently read Joel Salatin's new book Folks This Ain't Normal (please read it), and I'm more motivated than ever to opt out of the existing food system. I'm getting really close to not needing Safeway anymore. (Even though they recently declared me a "VIP" customer. Oy.) I've found some new, and started using some old sources:
• Polyface Farm: Ordering almost all our chicken and beef here. In fact, finally bit the bullet and ordered 1/4 cow this year. And 10 chickens. For delivery the same day. Oh, and I'm going camping, so Jay's left home to deal with all that. Thanks, honey!
• My Butcher and More: Love this place! They have a price list on the wall for local meats verses non-local. And deal directly with lots of local farms. Our source for Bison, chicken breasts (now considered a treat), sausages (so far, Italian and lamb feta), and duck fat(!!!).
• South Mountain Creamery: Such a convenience! Delivery to our door of milk, cheese, granola, bread... even turkey products (whole turkeys, ground turkey, turkey jerky). They have other meats, but our needs are pretty much covered with the other sources.
• Farmer's Markets: There are 3 for me to choose from (aren't I a lucky girl?) in the Anne Arundel County area convenient to me. My favorite is the Riva Road market on Saturdays. More vendors, more produce vendors to pick from. But the Westfield market on Sundays is also a nice stop, not too many options, but I can get most of what I need there. The Downtown Annapolis market is nice, but a little more of a hassle with parking, and the furthest away.

There may be more, but I'm drawing a blank! There's Chicken Tikka Masala in my (new) crockpot and Naan dough rising... Can't wait!

Between my business trip and a nasty cold, I've been pretty much down and out. I managed to start a batch of homemade vanilla extract and make some fairly local potato soup, both things I'll share once I'm out of this sick fog!

Things I've bookmarked recently for future ideas...

• Peach-Basil Infused Vodka, inspired by Ashley English's method (love, love her), found on Punk Domestic (seriously, why are all of these things new to me?)
• No-cook tomato sauce for freezing. So appealing, since the thought of a steamy hot day in the kitchen cooking and canning tomato sauce is nearly enough to do me in.
• Roasted Salsa Verde. Must.Find.Tomatillos.
• Peach Galette. Yep, I admit I'm still smitten with peaches. I'd better get on it - Fall's on its way!
• Homemade Maraschino Cherries An important step on a more local ice cream sundae!

I can't explain why I bought so much fruit knowing that I'd be out of town half of this week. Way too much fruit! So, inspired by Food in Jar's Skillet Jam, I got to work!

I used basically the exact recipe, except I used 3 peaches and 1 pear to get 2 1/2 cups of chopped fruit and subbed mint leaves for lemon verbena leaves (wish I was cool enough to have that on hand, but I'm not). Local honey was used, and bam! Just over 1 pint of jam in 20 minutes.

Bam = cook on high heat, stirring often for about 10 minutes, until it's cooked down and has gelled into jam.

Can't taste the pear, or the mint... but it's still delicious! Will definitely use this method again - I love that it uses honey instead of sugar, and that you could use a water bath to make it shelf stable.

Next time around, I'd probably use less honey to fruit and add scrapings from a vanilla bean or cinnamon. Maybe both... mmmmmm.

As I mentioned, we lost every bit of our food due to the power outages from Hurricane Irene. Figured this was a pretty good time to get refocused in local food! Thus, my weekly shopping on Saturday went from one stop to three. First up was the Anne Arundel County Farmer's Market. I was clearly in good company with this plan- the traffic was crazy! But, I ended up with some good loot!

• Gala apples
• Asian pears
• Peaches
• These tiny fruits that seem like a cross between a plum and apricot - wish I'd written down the name! Plum cot?
• Blueberry jam
• Onions
• Garlic
• Green beans

I could have bought more but the crowds used up my patience!

My next stop was a new destination - My Butcher and More. How great is this:

Our meats are hormone, steroid, and antibiotic free at the time of harvest and come from independently owned farms where the animals are humanely raised. The animals are 100% grass fed or they are fed all natural non-animal by-product feeds.

I'd seen them on the listing for a local dairy, and figured it was worth the visit. Yes, it definitely was! Even though they were in the process of restocking due to Irene (popular task, apparently) they still had most everything I was looking for. They were closed almost a full week due to power outage, and told me they had lost over $8k worth of meat. So sad!

I tried to add ground pork to this list (for meatball making) but their machines were busy making their italian sausage. As a concession, they offered up the option to buy the sweet Italian sausage, fresh off the machine!

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (sliced in half, so I can pound for Gina's Chicken Rollatini - wonder if I'll ever find local prosciutto?) from New York
• 4 links house-made sweet Italian sausage (only 3 remain... so tasty!)
• 1 package pre-formed Bison burger patties from Gunpower Bison in Monkton, MD (Really excited to find a source for this that doesn't require a trip to the Downtown Annapolis Farmer's Market!)
• Quart of 2% milk Kilby Cream in Rising Sun, Maryland. (Ironically, this was not the dairy who lead me to My Butcher, but it was what they had in stock. They may have also had their ice cream, which I'll have to try at some point... but trying to remember the goal of local food consumption and at least weight maintenance!)
• 1 lb tub salted butter Kilby Cream

I rounded out the day at Safeway for some necessities like soda and flavored water. Also, bread and mayo, which yes I could make myself... but it wasn't on the agenda for this week. I ended up making some peach, pear skillet jam on Sunday, which I'll share soon!

Hello there, blog world! It's been an embarrassingly long time since we talked.

It's been hard to get back here, as I've spent most of the last year decidedly opposite of my goals of eating locally. I set off to lose weight in the Fall, and since I really didn't have any idea how to do that - I joined Weight Watchers. The program worked great, but the problem really was that my diet was consisting of frozen and/or boxed processed foods. Breakfast - frozen WW breakfast sandwich, Lunch - yet another "frozen delight." Afternoons would be fiber bars or popcorn. Dinners, I might do better - making meals from Fat free this and reduced fat that. Sure, I'd through in some fresh fruit or veggies throughout the day as a snack... but not very much in my diet that one might be able to purchase from a farmer's market or directly from a farm.

The last few months I've pulled more and more away from the land of processed and frozen. Still not quite getting back to the local goals, but still, closer to real food. But the scale's been showing the changes. I kept meaning to jump back into locally sourced, but just wasn't making it a top priority.

Well, Hurricane Irene came to town recently, and it looks like she's giving me a jump start. With the power out multiple days, by the time we found a generator, our food was long gone. Completely empty deep freezer, side by side freezer currently contains nuts and coffee. Even the fridge looks starkly empty: soda, beer, a few things that were shelf stable: bbq sauce, homemade strawberry jelly, and almond milk.

Since we're more or less starting with a clean slate, I'm challenging myself to carefully consider the items going back into the house. I haven't quite figured out how to make local, whole foods work in a diet situation either, so that's challenge #2.

I managed to acquire eggs from a coworker. She's raising Silkies and Americanas (so jealous!) so the eggs I'm buying from her are either teeny tiny or green. This batch is full green. I'd been buying several dozen at a time from Polyface, but this is much, much more local and nice to really know the person caring for the animals. Still hoping to raise my own, but that continues to be another story.

I talked (begged) Polyface into allowing me to order after their cutoff date, so today I'll be picking up some meat:

• 4 lbs ground beef
• 1 broiler chicken, cut up
• 1 lb bacon
• 1 whole Freedom Ranger (new breed of chicken they are "trying out" this year)

While I don't think this is enough to cover the next 5 weeks until the next Polyface delivery, my coworker had also given me a lead on a really local farm that produces beef, pork and chicken. I'd like to try them out too! I do love Polyface, but we don't care for their pork products, so it would be nice to find a source we prefer. Supporting a more local, small farm, definitely a bonus!

I'm a bit at a loss though for the main transition plan... The diet-friendly meals call for things like 99% fat free ground turkey breast and boneless, skinless thinly sliced chicken cutlets. Reduced fat cheese and fat free milk. Not something I'll solve today, so I suppose I should just try to work through it one step at a time. If anyone's still out there, I'd love thoughts on how you do it!

Today I'm interrupting this blog to document a non-local but really yummy meal. I'm still in Colorado, and last night we went to Le Bosquet in Crested Butte. It's a French-esq restaurant we decided, featuring a variety of small plates, fondue, salads, soups and entrees. And, everything was quite good.

I started with the wedge salad, which featured a homemade blue cheese dressing with crispy pancetta. The blue cheese had really nice flavor.

After that, I had two small plates... A trio of sausages: venison with orange, duck and pork with orange and one with chipotles - and two kinds of mustards.

And the second small plate... Portabella Fries with Gorgonzola cream dipping sauce. No question, the highlight of the meal.

Tiffany and Chris ended their meal with Chocolate Fondue... We all got a taste, and it was really, really great!

Pretty much the first thing I did after arriving in Colorado, was visit the Crested Butte Farmer's Market. I visited last year, and remember it being pretty great... but what I didn't remember was how this tiny town's market puts all the Maryland Farmer's Markets I've visited to shame. Seriously, Maryland... we need to step it up! Their brutal winters and extremely short growing seasons hasn't limited them... what's our excuse?

I figure those who are in Maryland might be a little miffed at this point... so, don't take my word for it! Here's a picture tour from the market! (Warning - this post is picture heavy! Give it a minute... it's worth it!)

Can't beat the location!

My mom could not have been more excited about these Fava Beans! She's been on the lookout for them earlier in the season in Florida and now here... It's apparently the last week for them, so she loaded up!

Baby squash! So cute!

Circle A had 4 kinds of garlic?? Yes, please! The Spanish Roja was quickly dispatched into spaghetti sauce last night. The cloves had a beautiful red color, and the flavor was amazing!

Fresh apricots! I never did find any at home.

Freshly made crepes... because every farmer's market has that...

They even have the dreaded kohlrabi.

Kids love beets? These kids do!

Not pictured... the bluegrass band, the smoker BBQ station, the massage booth, the jewelry and other art... And all dogs! This area is dog crazy! It's awesome.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go have goat cheese and pumpernickel bread for breakfast.

I'll leave you with the sunset from my first night here.