Ever Heard of Dragon Tongues?
One of the best things about this diet, in addition to Rhaya’s list of course, is discovering new foods, and for some people it may be discovering your own appliances. I have already learned to cook some foods in a new way, or with new ingredients but I have also learned to cook a few things that I have never even tried like spaghetti squash (I bought another one at the co-op yesterday) and have discovered a few new things too like dragon tongues (pictured above).
The ladies at Little Seed Farm in Chatham, NY introduced me to the dragon tongues at the Farmer’s Market Saturday. Dragon tongues are about 5 to 6 inches long, are similar in texture and crunch to a green bean, and have a funky cream colored edible pod with random purple stripes that disappear when cooked. They are crispy and juicy and are what I am snacking on today!
Going Local: Liz’s Day 4
Sorry to dissappoint but other than the dragon tongues, due to a morning run, work and an evening meeting, today is a lot of left-overs and repeats from earlier this week!
For breakfast I had some little local plums and yogurt.
Lunch was a big veggie and greens salad and some carrots and black beans.
I also had some afternoon snacks, an apple and dragon tongues.
Dinner will be leftover Eggplant Zucchini Lasagna.
Maybe a little bedtime snack of some toasted honey whole wheat bread with a little maple sugar on top and a glass of raw milk.
From the Farm to My Table
I had an interesting trip Sunday out Rt. 7 to pick up a few things right off the farm. While I grew up in a small town in Illinois surrounded by farm land, I’m not sure how many times I’ve actually been to one so I was excited to actually have the opportunity to stop in on one. And despite missing the exit and ending up in Bennington, VT, it ended up being a beautiful drive, as the sun was setting, through the Green Mountains to Breese Hallow Farms in Hoosick Falls, NY (pictured above).
Going Local: Liz’s Day 3
I made another frittata last night to have for breakfast over the next few days. This time I used eggs and milk that I picked up at Breese Hollow Farm. I added some fresh basil, zuchinni, tomato, onion and cheese, all from various farms at the Troy Waterfront Market. I made some Whole Wheat Honey Bread last night too, which came out pretty good considering it was my first attempt at making bread and I had a limited ingredients to work with. I used whole wheat bread flour from Champlain Valley Milling company, local honey, yeast, local butter, and water. I toasted a slice this morning and topped it with yummy maple sugar from Woodview Sugarbush in Delanson, NY that I picked up at Indian Ladder Farms during their annual Local Food Festival. (Check out some fantastic pictures of the festival from the www.almostfoodies.com blog right here)
Lunch was a salad made of farmer’s market greens and veggies, a handful of carrot sticks from a farm in Schoharie County, NY, and a side of locally grown black beans. I had to stop at the locol food co-op after work so I ended up snacking on some fresh local mini plums on the way home.
For dinner I needed to use up a farmer’s market eggplant and zucchini and was wanting to try the grass fed beef from Breese Hollow. So after seeing Rhaya’s post yesterday with the Quick Cooked Tomato Sauce, I got the idea to make an Eggplant Zucchini Lasagna. I love lasagna and this was a great “going-local” version. I also had a side of cooked collard greens that I made based on a combination of recipes to accomodate the diet. Basically, I cut up some collards into bite size pieces and cooked them with some water, a little cider vinegar, and chopped garlic and tomato. They had a great flavor and since I’ve only had collards in my green-lemonade, it’s great to find another way to “eat my greens!”
Cooking For One
Going Local: Rhaya’s Day 3
I’m not a morning person, especially without my coffee, but I did get up in time this morning to make myself scrambled free-range eggs (from Phelps Family Farm), topped with raw milk cheese, and salsa courtesy of the Salsa Queen.
For lunch, I had leftover pasta from last night, with an apple and some cantaloupe as snacks. This challenge seems tougher when I am cooking for one (my husband is out of town this week on business). Because of the amount of time that goes into preparing and cooking the meals, it seems like a lot of work for just one single meal. So from now on, when I am making dishes that lend themselves to leftovers (like the pasta), I am going to start making larger batches and then preserve the leftovers in fridge (or freezer) to eat at a later date.
Keeping with this idea, I spent the evening cooking some lunches and dinners for later this week. While I cooked, I had a little bit of each of the dishes I made (to be posted about later) and I also made some Sweet Potato Fries, recipe courtesy of Going Local.
Make Mine A Mead
New Day Meadery has a stand at our local Farmers Market, but it wasn’t until we went to the Local Harvest Lunch that we actually tried this wonderful wine, made from raw honey.
New Day Meadery is always “going local” by only using local honey and fruit to make their wine. Some of their varieties include Dry Mead, Dry Peach Honey Wine, Dry Blueberry Honey Wine, Dry Red Raspberry Honey Wine, and Semi-Dry Mead.
So next time you are picking out some wine, instead of looking to Napa or across the Atlantic, see what local options you may have overlooked, and give something new a try — like Mead!
Who’s Your Farmer?
This is Charlie from R & R Farm in Easton, NY, just about 25 miles north of the Albany, NY area, and he introduced me to spaghetti squash this past weekend at the Troy Waterfront Market. I have to admit, I have always wanted to try it but have never really known how to prepare it. But low and behold, the $2 squash became dinner for night #2 and it was so easy and very delicious.
Going Local: Liz’s Day 2
Breakfast was a pre-run peach and a post-run maple flavored sheep’s milk yogurt from Old-Chatham Sheepherding Company.
Lunch was a big fresh greens and veggie salad topped with a few cloves of pickled garlic from Saratoga Garlic. I also had a handful of carrot sticks and side serving of potato salad.
Mid-afternoon I snacked on some more edamame.
As mentioned above, dinner was all about figuring out how to use this squash. So, I ended up taking the advice of a friend and decided to do something simple and just bake it. To prep the squash I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds* and placed the 2 halves face down in a baking dish. Baked it at 350 for 30 minutes. Then after it had cooled enough to touch, I shredded the inside of each half with a fork into a saute pan with a some olive oil, salt and pepper. I cooked everything on medium until heated through. Just before taking it off the heat I stirred in some chopped fresh basil and just a tad of shredded chedder cheese. It was great, but after I finished eating and read Rhaya’s Day #2 post, I thought it would have been great to add some chopped fresh tomatoes too!
*After scooping out the seeds I cleaned them off and tossed with a little olive oil and salt and then put them on a baking sheet in the oven with the squash for about 10 minutes. Yum!
Seasonal Potato Salad
I love this recipe from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver which I decided to try for our going local challenge. On her website, she adjusts the ingredients based on what is in season. I used the summer version below, but check out the recipes for the 3 other seasons too.
Seasonal Potato Salad
2 lbs. red or golden new potatoes cut into 1 inch pieces
3 tbsp olive oil
course salt
2 yellow or red bell peppers, cut into small pieces
2 cups green beans (stringed or broken in 1 - inch lengths)
1-2 ears sweet corn on cob
Toss the potatoes with salt and olive oil and spread on a baking sheet. Roast at 450 until tender (20-30 minutes). Add ears of corn, lightly oiled, peppers and green beans to roast for the last 10 minutes. After taking it out of the oven, loosen the vegetables witha spatula, cut kernels off the cob and combine in a large shallow bowl
For the Dressing:
2 cups tomatoes cut in wedges
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil whisked together with balsamic or other mellow vinegar.
Toss all ingredients with the roasted vegetables and salt to taste.
A Tomato Day
Going Local: Rhaya’s Day 2
I really missed my usual cup of coffee this morning, but instead had another raspberry mint smoothie and an apple from the Farmers Market (because I read somewhere that an apple is a good alternative to coffee — something about the crunch helps to wake you up).
For lunch I had a big Caprese salad (tomatoes, basil and mozzarella cheese from Traders Point Creamery) and an afternoon snack of green beans.
By dinnertime, I was in the mood for something a little different so I pulled out the pasta I bought at the Farmers Market. Ruth, an Amish woman, makes the pasta from local organic eggs (yolks), flour, water and salt. She makes all her pasta for the entire year in the springtime — talk about planning ahead! I topped Ruth’s pasta with Quick Cooked Tomato Sauce (A recipe from Victoria at Going Local), eggplant, and some raw milk cheese from Traders Point.
Pleasant Surprises Already
Going Local: Liz’s Day 1
While I can’t say that I am an experienced cook, I really do love to experiment in the kitchen. And I can already tell this week will be quite an experiment with lots of new recipes and even new foods to try. Here’s a summary of today…
Breakfast was an egg frittata made with local eggs from Cooper’s Ark, zucchini, tomato and onion from various farms at the Troy Waterfront Market on Saturday.
I had an early lunch, so I ended up having an amazing peach from the market and some Maple flavored Old Chatham Sheep’s Milk Yogurt. Later on, I snacked on some Edamame from Cornell Farms in Rensselaer County, NY and some local cheddar cheese. (Pleasant surprise #1: Edamame grows right here in New York!)
For dinner, I made stuffed red peppers and a salad with veggies from the market. For the peppers, I used grass-fed, hormone-free beef from Sweet Tree Farms in Carlisle, NY and sauteed it with onions and garlic from the market. I then mixed the beef with black beans, tomatoes and a little basil. I stuffed everything into fresh red pepper from the farmer’s market and topped it off with a little local cheddar cheese and baked it until heated through. (Pleasant surprise #2: the local co-op carries black beans in bulk that are grown in New York!)
So in the first day I have already enjoyed two foods, edamame and black beans, that I never would have thought were grown in New York. Over the weekend while shopping for groceries for this week, I was really surprised to learn that foods like these can be purchased from local sources and it made me think about how out of touch I am, as are many others I’m sure, with where my foods really come from and what the local farm community really consists of.
Getting To Know My Blender
Going Local: Rhaya’s Day 1
Let me start by saying that I am no cook. Part of taking on this challenge made me realize that I was going to have to dust off some appliances that have been sitting on my cabinet shelf for a long time. Namely my blender. Which I used twice today.
For breakfast today, I had a smoothie made with yogurt from Traders Point Creamery, raspberries from my parents garden, and a little raw honey and chocolate mint from the Carmel Farmers Market. I also had a couple eggs that I picked up at the market as well.
Lunch consisted of Cool Cantalope Soup with a side of corn on the cob.
For dinner, we made Personal Portobello Pizzas (recipe submitted by Ashley) with portobello mushrooms from the Farmers Market that we topped with basil, Capriole goat cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes (courtesy of my parent’s garden, and my dad’s food dehydrator.)
Another Cool Soup: Melon
A refreshing soup for a warm day, that is perfect for the going local challenge.
Cut up a ripe cantaloupe, add a little yogurt, honey and some springs of mint. Blend until almost smooth (you still want some texture in it) and serve chilled.
A chef served a variation of this last week at the Local Harvest Lunch. He included a little cayenne pepper in his, and topped it with a dollop of sour cream.
