One Local Summer - Dinner # 11

This is a picture of the bounty from our garden. We have basil, pea sized tomatoes and a white eggplant. The pea tomatoes and our green tomatoes are doing well, and the basil is always a sure thing, but our potted squash and zucchini plants died suddenly in the middle of July. I think I am going to give growing squash and zuchinni one more try next summer because I know that they can be productive, thus saving me the $2 per pound that I pay every week. I also feel very ambitious when I start my seedlings in March so hopefully the discouragement I feel now will abate by then and I will be able to give these onerous plants another try.

Dinner this week was a mish mash of summer vegetables, many from our potted garden. We had fried eggplant rounds, prepared from one of our homegrown white eggplants, sliced tomatoes from our homegrown, always green, tomatoes, squash and zucchini ribbons with cheese (recipe borrowed from here) from the South and Passyunk Tuesday Farmer's Market, and french bread drizzled with olive oil that we bought from Greensgrow a while ago and froze.

One Local Summer - Dinner # 10

This week we had our local meal down the shore with friends. And since the meal was already written up on a blog, I cam taking it easy and just linking to it here. Oh, it was tasty.

One Local Summer - Dinner #'s 6,7 & 8

This week we did 2 dinners.  We got a tons of good stuff from our CSA, tomatoes, nectarines, peppers, zucchinis, cantaloupe, white eggplant, kale, butter, goat cheese with ginger, almond and honey (YUM!), whole wheat bread, a bunch of basil and a seedless watermelon that I dropped on the floor as soon as I walked in the house.  So, since Andrea came home from camp last Saturday, on Monday we had a 'Welcome home from camp, here is some fresh, local food instead of the (mostly frozen and or fried) camp food you have been eating for two weeks' meal. Andrea had sliced tomatoes with mozzarella (her favorite) and I had some sliced tomatoes on bread with the goat cheese (with ginger, honey and almond!!) instead of mayo, and some fried (oops! more fried food) eggplant.

The next night, Andrea's mom was visiting again and I came home from work to a meal of grilled zucchini and squash (from CSA), fried green tomatoes (from our garden!), grilled string beans (from Andrea's mom's garden).  It was a

 really good meal. The next night we had stuffed tomatoes (the cheese & bread crumbs were not local, but the tomatoes were), corn, cucumbers, and home made egg rolls stuffed with cabbage, carrots and green onions.  All of the vegetables were from Andrea's mom's garden.  It might have been the best meal ever.  I had 2 more egg rolls the next day for lunch and they were just as good the next day.  Andrea said the same thing about the fried green tomatoes that she also had for lunch the next day.

Also, Michael Lee has branched out into string beans. Last week we got some from the Head House Farmer's Market that were purple - they turn green when you cook them. It was neat - food AND a science experiment!

Pie!

Ok, I made this cherry pie about a week and a half ago, the cherries were local, but that was about it. But, it turned out so pretty, I had to post the pictures somewhere. Ever since cherries came into season, I had been dying to make a cherry pie, but we kept eating all the cherries before I could make it. I bought a pie crust mix up by Andrea's parents house, I don't think any of it was local, but I have never made a pie crust, so I thought I would just try it (even though it is sorta cheating). I realized afterwards that I did the lattice a bit wrong, but it looks ok! So, here are the pictures. And it tasted pretty good, if I do say so myself!

One Local Summer - BBQ # 1

So, this weekend I made my local meal without even realizing it.  Michael Lee and I were headed to my aunt's house for some swimming and I volunteered to make potato salad.  I have two young cousins (Hi Gavin! Hi Tommy!) who are allergic to several things so I decided to make 2 types of potato salad:  one with blue cheese crumbles, blue cheese dressing,  and sour cream (no good for kids allergic to dairy, but dang, I like my cheeses!) and one with red wine vinegar and olive oil.  I had a bunch of white fingerling, red skin and blue potatoes that I bought at Robin's  farmer's market down in Newark, DE, and I added some parsley, chives and dill from our backyard.  I am not a fan of dill, but I have to say, it wasn't bad. Oh, and don't forget salt and pepper.  That is always key. 

I was telling Robin about and she said, "oh, so is that your local meal?"  Yes!  I was planning on having a summer veggie meal for dinner the next night, so I didn't even realize that I had done one already.  Not to mention the several meals of leftover Tortilla Español I had.  Local eating just gets easier and easier.  

Finally, Michael Lee has enjoyed both zucchini and yellow squash this week.  This boy loves his vegetables.  It really makes life easy!

One Local Summer - Dinner # 5 (or breakfast or lunch)

Andrea is away for 2 weeks and I am living as a single mother (and let me tell you, it ain't easy - I don't know how other women do it). So, I decided that I was going to do something simple and quick that I don't mind eating five meals in a row. Plus, my friend John came down from North Jersey to watch Michael Lee for 2 days while I was at work, and he just got home from a vacation in Spain, so what better way to welcome him back than with my favorite Spanish dish - Tortilla Español (aka potato and egg fritatta)!

The eggs & portlet cheese (I know cheese isn't traditional, but I love to throw some on top) were from our CSA, the potatoes & onion were from the Headhouse farmers market (I am terrible at remembering the name of the place I am buying from). The olive oil is Goya. I love making this and I love eating it. Also, I love the picture because I realized after I took it that it looks like Pac-man.

Last but not least, Michael Lee has been enjoying local sweet potatoes this week. Next week it's zucchini. We'll see how that goes.

One Local Summer - Michael Lee's meal #1

Today we fed our five-month old a vegetable for the first time.  He has been eating (organic) rice cereal for a week and did really well with it, so we decided to go for it and feed him some carrots. Andrea bought these at the farmer's market (local & organic!) the other day and we just boiled them up, then chopped them up to a blob in the blender, added some of the water they were boiled in then dumped it all into an ice cube tray and froze it.  We didn't quite fill a tray, but close enough. This evening we heat up a cube & I think he liked it alright.  He ate it all at least.  He might still have some carrot on his nose though.  Babies are messy.