busy/OLS weeks 8 & 9

I never realized how busy I get sometimes! But, here it is, a couple weeks after my last entry, and I don't even know where the time has gone! I have been crazy busy at work doing our physical inventory and valuation...fun stuff let me tell you. So, by the time I get home at night, I have no desire to even look at the computer, or do much else for that matter!

I haven't even had a chance to post last weeks OLS meal, which we had! I don't even know if I took pictures of it...I made pizza. I have never made pizza dough from scratch, but it was really easy. I think it was just flour water and yeast (the yeast was not local). I didn't have any pizza sauce, so I just sliced up some yummy tomatoes from the garden and put those on the pizza dough, with some olive oil and salt. I didn't have local cheese either, just your everyday shredded mozzarella...I still can't find milk that isn't "ultra-pasteurized", and am not sure I am ready for actual raw milk, is there something in the middle? Then on the cheese, green peppers from the garden, and also some shredded chicken that I had roasted up the day before. It was really really good. It also made more pizza then I knew what to do with. I think next time I will freeze half of the dough so that it is available to me later on for an easy pizza...I think I can freeze the dough, does anyone see a problem with that?

This week's local meal, also no pictures, I took all the many veggies I had in the fridge...ok so it was zukes, onion, peppers from the garden...not as much variety as I thought. Then I just put them on the grill. It was delicious, that's for sure. I have never had grilled zucchini, I have to say it really brought out some amazing flavor. Seasoned with just a bit of (non-local) olive oil and salt and pepper. Yum!

I'm hoping that I can get back on track with posting, although I don't know what I want to post about now. I am still concentrating a lot on getting the house finished, and just settling into a normal life...It's really nice to feel slightly settled.

One Local Summer Week 7

This week I decided to try making tortillas. I had seen the recipe on Liz's site, and figured I would try it. I have been in a bit of a baking mood recently. It was actually really easy. Of course I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I should have. So I made the tortillas with King Arthur flour, non-local oil, and some local (tap) water :-) Can't really beat that!



I also decided to start picking the jalapeno peppers that are growing on my plant on the deck. I wanted to make pico de gallo, and of course wanted it super hot, but since Matt wasn't in the mood for hot, I made a nice mild pico de gallo (no seeds or ribs). I picked up some organic tomatoes and onions at the Farmers' Market (Hallowell, 6 miles) and used a bit of non-local lemon juice and some salt. Yum! I love to just put this over salad greens as well.




And for the filling, we scrambled up some free range eggs, also from the Farmers' market. This was the point at which we forgot to take pictures. Matt is almost finished with his here :-)




Mine were closer to being whole when I remembered to take the picture. All in all, really a great meal!




I hope to make these again soon, and the next time I think I will probably try and bake them to make nacho chips.

canning and furniture

Looking at the many green tomatoes I have, I realize that I need to start thinking about what to do with them after they turn red. Matt and I go through a lot of tomatoes in a week anyways. I cook with them so much. However, I have a strange suspicion that all of those lovely green tomatoes on the vines on my deck will turn red all at the same time. In which case, I need to figure out what to do with them.

At first I was thinking about buying a pressure canner. "It's the only safe way to can." However, I have decided that since all of the stuff I will be canning is tomato based, I think I can pass with just the old water bath method. Does anyone have any insight on this? I mean, I have never actually canned anything in my life, but have been the recipient of many a canned gift, all of which was done with a water bath, and I haven't died yet.

I really am just so excited about my container garden this year. I am already thinking ahead to next years garden and more veggies I want to plant. I like the container gardening, it is easy, there are no weeds, and they are all on a second floor deck, which means the nice woodchuck family that lives next door can't get at them. The problem? You may have noticed from previous pictures that my deck is completely full. I don't think that I can fit anything else up there. So what do I do?

I am too inexperienced to actually plant a real garden I feel. I don't think I could take it if I planned a great looking garden, took care of it, and then one day come home to no plants because the woodchucks ate them all, or I have some weird infestation of bugs that ruins everything. At the same time I think, people have been gardening forever, and they seem to do ok, so maybe I should just not worry about it.

In other news, our living room furniture arrived yesterday. I can't even describe how elated I am to have a place to sit now! We haven't had a place to sit in the living room since we moved in. It was nice to be able to sit down last night with a (local) beer and watch a movie. It is starting to feel like home! Now...if we can just get the dining room painted and a floor put in...all will be right with the world :-)

One Local Summer week 6

OK, so I feel really bad about not posting an OLS meal last week. We did eat some local food, but not primarily in a dinner, and I didn't have time to post or take pictures of anything not wedding related. So this week I would like to do two meals, but not promising that either. To start, we will have one, and see where it goes from here :-)

I was really in the mood to have pasta again. My last attempt...well it was less than stellar to say the least. Not that it didn't taste great, but I eat with my eyes first, and the strange pasta shapes I came up with...well not the best. So this time I borrowed my mom's rolling pin. I think I need to work in smaller sections though, because I ran out of space to roll on the counter, and ended up with thicker pasta again. It was still good though, and it actually resembled those wide noodles when you order drunken noodles at a thai restaurant...mmmm drunken noodles.


With the pasta I decided to make fresh sauce again from some Backyard Beauties. They really work quite well in the interim, and I find them to taste really good as well. I just chopped up the tomatoes, threw them in a pot with some olive oil and the rest of the garlic I had gotten at the Farmer's market. Add some oregano and salt and pepper...

And there you have it, fresh tomato sauce.



I thought I should also add something else to the sauce, so I chopped up the zucchini and squash that I had (from Waterville 32 miles), and sauteed them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.



Here is the finished product. Yummy if I do say so myself. Matt really likes the homemade pasta as well. I think I would like to try making ravioli at some point...I don't think I can do a local one unless I don't use cheese. I haven't been able to bring myself to try making cheese yet. Well part of that is the fact that I can't find any non ultra-pasteurized milk...maybe someday :-) For now, I have to just try and buy cheese that is in my region. Does anyone have any idea on a New England ricotta?



I can't believe that OLS is almost done! Just a few more weeks. I just have to say that I am really thankful that I found Liz's website. She has really helped me look more closely at the food that I am eating, and where it comes from. Plus, it now gives me an excuse to spend hours in the kitchen, which to some may seem like a chore, but to me it is like heaven!

One Local Summer Week 4

Today I decided to make my OLS meal, and after this dreary cold and rainy day I figured soup would be perfect! My old standby is my take on the Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana soup. Usually I start out with some onion, but I didn't see any at the Farmers' Market, so instead, I just took my organic local hot sausage (Snafu, 15 miles) and sauteed it with a little non-local olive oil and red pepper flakes.

Then I took some of the chicken stock I made and froze from my roasted chicken a couple weeks ago, and threw that in the pot after the sausage was browned. Add a little salt and more red pepper flakes...I really do enjoy spicy food, have I mentioned that before? Anyways, in went some sliced up local Maine potatoes, from the Fish and Produce guy in Hallowell. I didn't realize that all of the produce they sell comes from his father just a few miles away. They aren't certified organic, but they don't spray and seem to farm organically. It's amazing what a few questions will tell you! Let the potatoes cook, and then add some Kale, and maybe a little more salt (I am a firm believer in seasoning every stage of the meal.) When the kale is wilted, just add a little heavy cream, or in our case half and half from Oakhurst farms, then the soup is done. Although it tastes much better if you let it sit overnight. Usually I add a little cheese to top it off, but since I didn't have any local cheese, we skipped that :-)

So here it is in all it's glory, my lovely soup, and probably one of my most favorite meals. And pretty easy to make. I have enough for tomorrow's dinner as well. In my original recipe I also add a little bacon which I could have done if I had thought far enough in advance and bought the bacon at the farmer's market on Saturday...but, overall not bad at all!

I am really enjoying putting together local meals. I really want to thank Liz for getting me to think about my food and where it comes from. I feel so much healthier eating this way as well. I have also found that I tend to have more local meals during the week, although we still do buy lot of stuff too. But, it is all about baby steps and that is what we are trying to do.

strawberries part 2!

Well, today has been extremely eventful. I was able to get a ton of stuff at the farmers market, which I am always happy about, and also got all of my many pounds of strawberries processed. Here is the breakdown:

4 quarts whole strawberries in the freezer (I love smoothies, pop a couple strawberries some oj a banana and some plain nonfat yogurt...yum!)
3 quarts sliced strawberries in sugar, also in the freezer
3 pints sliced strawberries in syrup, again, in the freezer
18 pints of strawberry jam, on my counter hanging out
1 big bowl of fresh strawberries left, which will be used for strawberry shortcake tomorrow (my mom's b-day) and for snacking the rest of the week.

And to top it all off?! My husband is cleaning up because I have been working hard all day :-) Love him!