One local summer - Dinner #3

This weeks local dinner was centered around cabbage.  We got some cabbage in our CSA share two weeks ago and didn't want to waste it, so we made our favorite sandwiches from the Reading Terminal Amish Stand.  Cabbage is one of those things that we would have ended up throwing out last year because we just wouldn't have known what to do with it.  This year we are committed to not throwing anything away (thus I must tackle the Ricotta from two weeks ago next) and instead planning meals around what we get instead of planning the meal and waiting for the arrival of the food.  

The dinner consisted of corn on the cob from the CSA share (it was surprisingly sweet for this time of the year), beet chips made from white beets from the CSA share and the sandwiches.  We turned the cabbage into cole slaw, and this is where we diverged from the rules a bit.  Kristin tried to make mayonnaise with which to make the cole slaw but it tasted too much like olive oil to be just right for our special sandwiches.  It's going to be really good with tuna though.  So I ran to the store at the last minute and got Marzetti's cole slaw dressing.  My motivation was two fold for breaking the rules:  I didn't want to waste the cabbage and I wanted to enjoy my meal and not just do it for the sake of doing it.   The Marzetti's made the cole slaw just right too and we are counting it as a spice.  So the sandwich, it was composed of the cole slaw,  smoked cheddar cheese and oat bread, which are both locally made (in Lancaster) from the Reading Terminal.  We drank locally brewed Kenzinger beer and if we could fit anything else in there are blueberries and peaches from the CSA for dessert.  

And also, I made kale chips Thursday night.  Kale came from the CSA too, tons of it. Kristin got the idea from this blog, and since we both love to make chips from vegetables, we thought we'd try it.  But, kale brings back childhood memories of my Dad boiling kale and fatback on the stove and it permeating the entire house with it's bitter smell so I didn't enjoy the kale chips, but Kristin says she likes them.  

One Local Summer - Lunch #1

So, we didn't do anything big this week.  I just made a salad for lunch.  It had spring mix, swiss cheese & hardboiled eggs from our CSA and carrots from the farmers market @ Headhouse (they were HUGE!). Andrea made the salad dressing - just oil and balsamic vinegar with some herbs from our backyard.  I am not sure which ones, I know rosemary was involved though. And I also know it wasn't a scary poison herb (sometimes they make me nervous, who knows what she is growing out there),  so that's good.  And then I also had an apricot we got from the Headhouse market and had I made more beet, turnip and sweet potato chips, so I took them too.

Sadly, they did not turn out too well.  I think I put to many in the frying pan at once and it lowered the temperature,  so they were soggy.  I tried to heat them up in the toaster oven, but it still didn't work.  They were ok, but not great.  But, now I know better for next time.  They were a decent snack right after they were made though.  And yum! Kenzinger!!

Hopefully next week's meal will be better.  We are hitting the Collingswood farmers market on Saturday. We are pretty excited because we haven't been there since last season.  

What's in season? The sweet potato question.

I don't know about you, but I am never 100% sure about what is actually in season or not. I went to the Headhouse farmers market Sunday and saw so many good things & thought I had a handle on what is in season locally & got so excited. Then I saw the sweet potatoes. I forget who had them, but there they were. And since I was planning on making beet & turnip chips for lunch this week, I thought - "hey! sweet potatoes - lets make some of them into chips! And make some sweet potato fries for our Monday night veggie burger dinner!" And so we bought them. And then I wondered - "hey! potatoes aren't in season till the fall! Isn't that the same for sweet potatoes?" According to this site they are not in season until fall. But here is what is in season - in the Northeast now. I have included spring and summer because we are pretty much in between both right now & I know how confused I get.

Spring:
Vegetables
asparagus
beets
broccoli
cabbage
cauliflower
fiddleheads
garlic greens
greens
arugula
beet
bok choy
chard
collard
cress
dandelion
mizuna
mustard greens
sorrel
turnip
lettuce
mushrooms
parsnips
peas-snap and snow
radishes
rhubarb
spinach
sprouts
Fruits
apples
strawberries
Seasonings
chives
cilantro
dill
marjoram
mint
oregano
parsley
sage
thyme
Summer:
Vegetables
beets
broccoli
cabbage
carrots
cauliflower
celery
cucumbers
eggplant
endive
fennel
garlic
green beans
kohlrabi
lettuce
mushrooms
okra
onions - red and yellow
peppers - hot and sweet
potatoes - new
radicchio
scallions
sprouts
summer squash
sweet corn
tomatoes
Fruit
apricots
blackberries
blueberries
cherries
currants
elderberries
gooseberries
melons
nectarines
peaches
plums
raspberries
Seasonings
basil
cilantro
dill
marjoram
mint
parsley
rosemary
savory
tarragon

One Local Summer - Dinner #2

Well, here we are at our second local meal.  We had to rely on our CSA pick up again because we were not able to make it to a farmers market this week (3 weddings & 2 sick people - it' s been busy).  So, at the CSA we received kohlrabi (see previous post), butter, ricotta cheese, pierogies, peas, strawberries, napa cabbage, rosemary bread and spring mix salad.

We were going to make a whole dinner party out of it, but discovered that we did not have enough of everything for 6 people.  We will do that another time.  

Anyway, we made roasted kohlrabi, peas, pierogies w/ sauerkraut and grilled (with olive oil) rosemary bread.  It was a pretty white meal - I think we need a salad and one less white food next time.  But it was all pretty good.  We fried the pierogies and they were really good - I usually only like the cheese kind, but these were tasty.  And Andrea, who hasn't been able to eat peas since being given a huge plate full (with ham) while in Spain, was able to eat a good bit and even finished them!  Good job Andrea!  I love peas (and never get them) and had them with a little vinegar (is that cheating?) The kohlrabi was pretty good.  Very turnipy and the bread was also really good.  

This local eating thing is pretty fun & 4 month old Michael Lee can't wait to start eating locally with us!

Random Vegetable

This week our random vegetable from our CSA was kohlrabi. It's fun to say and neat to look at. Last year we would have gotten it and either traded it at the CSA, given it to a friend or put it in the fridge with intentions of figuring out how to make it, then letting it go bad & tossing it. This year we have decided to change our ways.

The name is German and it come from Kohl - cabbage and Rube or Rabi for turnip. And it does taste like a turnip. It can be eaten raw, like in a salad, but we roasted it. It was pretty good, but took about 45 minutes in the oven. We also saw a mashed carrot and kohlrabi recipe that looked good. But, no carrots yet. We also thought it might be pretty good sliced up and fried like the beets we did last week. So, if our CSA gives it to us again, we are prepared!

One Local Summer - Dinner #1

So it was Kristin's big idea to join the "one local summer" movement and who ends up making the first local meal? Me. However, I found it easier to cook with fresh, local ingredients than if I had had to thaw packages and open cans. Our first local meal of asparagus and scallion frittata with cheddar cheese, mashed turnips with swiss cheese and fried beet chips took under an hour to make and only required a labor input of grating, chopping and mashing.

For the frittata, I sauteed the scallions and asparagus in a skillet and then mixed in half a cup of swiss cheese and six eggs. I put that on a stove burner until it was set and then put it under the broiler to finish off the top. The turnips were cut into large cubes and boiled for a half an hour and then mashed with a half of a cup of swiss cheese and 3 tablespoons of butter (amish butter from the Reading Terminal). Kristin loved the turnips but my favorite were the beet chips. They tasted just like those expensive Terra chips. I simply sliced the beets thin (actually my Mom did it with a cheese slicer) and then fried them in an inch of vegetable oil until they started to curl a bit. Next time we want to try beets, sweet potatoes and turnip chips all together but I think sweet potatoes are a fall vegetable so that might not be possible.


Everything we used, with the exception of the cheddar cheese and the butter, came from our CSA share that we pick up from Greensgrow every other Thursday. We bought the cheddar cheese at the Headhouse Farmer's Market at Second and Lombard Streets last Sunday.

I think once we get our deep freeze we would like to eat locally year round, that is if Kristin will start eating winter squash.