No, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet!

I haven't posted in just over two weeks, and it feels like it's been even longer. Hopefully you haven't missed me too much. Like many bloggers I know, I've been struggling to find that delicate balance between work, home life, and blogging, and for the past couple of weeks I've allowed work and home to win that battle. We're making a lot of changes for the better at home, and I've pushed my office to take a huge step toward sustainability starting next year, so I've had plenty to do around here without blogging.

It doesn't help that I've made blogging somewhat difficult for myself. In my roughly three months of blogging, I've signed up to participate in no less than seven challenges, including my sister's growing challenge , green bean dreams' bookworm challenge (parts 1 and 2), chile chews' quit now challenge (parts 1 and 2), 'burban mom's weekly challenges on going green , and farm to philly's one local summer challenge. Five of these are active right now, and I have to admit that at this point I just can't keep up with reading others' blogs, keeping up the garden, working on the various challenges, and writing about them. I just don't have enough hours in the day to get all that done.

So my apologies to the inspirational organizers of these great challenges, but I'm officially dropping out of one local summer and the bookworm events for now. Rest assured that I'm still eating about 50% local food, with a goal of bumping that up to 85% before long. I'm also reading books from green bean's list - I've finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and Omnivore's Dilemma, and am reading Living Like Ed right now. But for now, I won't be posting weekly updates about local meals or writing up book reports. I hope you understand...

I promise updates on my various projects and the remaining challenges soon.

One Local Summer Update

I've been awful about keeping up with One Local Summer so far. Last week we ate two meals that pretty much qualify, so here they are.

BREAKFAST - VEGGIE FRITTATA

















Ingredients:
2 eggs plus 3 whites - Pilgrim Acres, Foristell MO (CSA share)
1/2 each Zucchini / Summer Squash - Lee Farms (CSA share)
1/4 cup fresh goat cheese - from our CSA share
2 small spring onions - Rob's mom's garden, Cape Girardeau MO
1 tomato, diced - Tower Grove Farmers Market, St. Louis MO
1 small handful fresh basil, chopped - from our CSA share
2 cloves garlic, finely minced (organic, but not local)
1 T unsalted butter (organic, but not local)
salt and pepper to taste (not organic or local)

Method:
In a smallish, oven-safe skillet, saute the squash and onions over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, until just starting to soften.

Add garlic and tomatoes, continuing to stir occasionally until most of the tomato juice has evaporated. This took me another 4-5 minutes.

While the other ingredients are cooking, whisk eggs with goat cheese, adding salt and pepper to taste. This is a good time to turn your oven on, set to Broil.

Pour egg mixture into skillet with the veggies. Do not stir. When the eggs look like they're drying slightly around the edges, use a spatula or wooden spoon to ease the edges up and tip the pan slightly to allow the runny bits to get underneath. Don't do this too much, or you'll end up with a big lump in the middle, which definitely isn't pretty.

When it looks like the eggs are mostly cooked, move the skillet to the oven. Broil, checking frequently for doneness, until the frittata looks set on top and starts to turn a light brown.

Carefully remove from oven, cut and serve with a sprig of basil.


DINNER - PASTA SHELLS WITH BISON MARINARA



Ingredients:
1 lb ground bison - CSA share (ours was frozen)
1 medium onion (organic, not local)
3 cloves garlic (organic, not local)
14 oz can diced tomatoes (organic, not local)
1/2 each Zucchini / Summer Squash - Lee Farms (CSA share)
small handfull fresh basil, diced - CSA share
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of dried thyme, oregano and parsley
finely grated fresh parmesan cheese if desired

Method:
In a large skillet or sauce pan, sautee onion and garlic in 2 T olive oil until softened. Add ground bison, breaking up as it thaws and cooks. When the meat is nearly done (no more pink bits), add the tomatoes and spices. Cover and allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve over freshly cooked local Mangia Italia pasta, with a side of sliced CSA cucumbers and farmers market tomatoes, and fresh CSA lettuce salad.

One Local Summer

Before:
+ free range, all natural eggs from our CSA share
+ plain bagel from our CSA share
+ methuzela cheese from our CSA share
+ Mississippi mud coffee from our CSA share (locally roasted)
+ chives bought last week at the farmers' market
+ hothouse tomato (salmonella free!) bought yesterday at the farmers' market














After:
Bagel draped with melted methuzela cheese and topped with a halved 2-egg chive omelette, served with a side of tomato slices and washed down with fresh-brewed iced coffee liberally dosed with hormone- and antibiotic- free 2% milk.

One Local Summer Update

This year, I signed up for the One Local Summer Challenge. This means that I've committed to eating one meal made from entirely local products each week. For this exercise, I will define local as originating from less than 150 miles of my house. I'm allowing exceptions for oils, spices, and items like flour that are milled locally but the grain itself may have originated from slightly farther away.


What did I eat this week?
The plan for yesterday was to head to a U-pick strawberry farm with a couple of friends so that I could make something yummy with local berries. We'd meet at 8 am, then carpool for 30 minutes to the farm to pick. That seemed reasonable, since this particular field is open 7:30 to 11:30 am, or until they are picked out of ripe berries. Unfortunately for us, their parking lots were nearly full when the gates opened at 7:30 am. When I called at 8:00 to make sure they were open, I was told that they were closing their gates at 8:30. Although we could have rushed to make it into the gates before they closed, it didn't seem make sense to drive all the way out there to hunt for the last ripe berries in the field.

Now what to do? We decided to head to the Tower Grove Farmer's Market to see if we could find fresh berries there. After a half hour stay at the market, I had nabbed a nice bag full of sunflower sprouts (an incredibly tasty addition to salads), a beautiful bunch of chives (Rob was planning on making cheese and chive scones later that day), a dozen local eggs, and three quarts of bright red, sweet smelling, organically raised strawberries. Though the berry vendor is not certified organic, a sign on their stand noted that they do use organic farming practices. I've found this is fairly common in smaller farms, because the certification process can be painful and expensive.

Anyway, enough rambling and let's get to the food. When I got home from the market I found a yummy sounding recipe for Summer Strawberry Bread in a cookbook I picked up earlier this year. We've made a couple of things from their recipes so far, and they've both been excellent. So, I pulled together my local ingredients and went for it. Here's how I made it.

Summer Strawberry Bread, Adapted for Local Ingredients
1/2 cup chopped local almonds
1-2/3 cups locally milled 10-grain flour
3/4 cup turbinado sugar (not local, but organic)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (not local)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (not local)
1/2 teaspoon salt (not local)
3 large, local, free-range eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil (not local)
1/3 cup local, organic milk
1 cup small, local strawberries, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8" loaf pan. Spread whole, raw almonds onto a rimmed cookie sheet and toast for 8-10 minutes in the oven. Cool for 5-10 minutes and chop finely.

Combine flour, sugar, almonds, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk eggs in a small bowl until frothy; whisk in oil, then milk. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the egg mixture. Blend until just moistened. Fold in the berries.

Spoon into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes. Run a sharp knife all the way around the pan, gently running between the pan and the bread to loosen any stuck spots. Turn the bread out onto wire rack and let cool.

How did it turn out?
I really liked this bread, and I think it would work with a lot of other fruits. If you eat bananas, you can trade the almonds for walnuts and the berries for bananas. If you have fresh blueberries, you could probably swap those directly for the strawberries. I suspect that rhubarb would also be a welcome addition.

What would I do differently?
I would add another 1/2 teaspoon of salt and maybe 1 tablespoon of honey if your berries are not quite sweet. If you use anything but 10-grain flour, you should reduce your liquids to 2 eggs and skip the milk.

How did I eat it?
I brewed a pot of local Kuva coffee in the french press while the bread was baking and poured myself a big mug with turbinado sugar and a little warmed milk. Then I sliced a couple of pieces of bread and slathered them with a little bit of fresh goat cheese.

Yum.

My goal is to make my local meals more and more complex, but this was a simple and delicious way to start my local summer. Oh, and next time I'll try to have pictures.

Note: You can also keep an eye out for a post from one of my strawberry picking / farmers' market going friends, who is planning on posting her recipe for Strawberry Cupcakes. I tried one, and it was quite tasty...