Yesterday we made it bright and early - and I mean EARLY - to the Farmer's Market. We got a parking space in no time flat, and it wasn't too crowded! It pays to be there by 8 a.m. Especially when your toddler wakes up at 6:15 a.m.
We got some lettuce, eggs, potatoes, buckwheat flour, dried cranberries, and honeycrisp apples. Not a bad haul overall. We verified that our favorite bounteous supplier of local organic dry goods (flours, oats, seeds, beans and eggs) will be at the market year round. Hampshire Farms rocks!
Saturday I spent the better part of the late morning prepping fruit to be dried. I halved and pitted about 25 italian plums and peeled, cored and sliced about 6 older apples. About 30 hours later, the apples are delicious and pliable and awesome! Our first drying endeavor is a success. Silas cannot get them into his mouth fast enough, so yay for healthy local snacks for babies. The plums have a ways to go, but they're looking more shrivelly and prune-like every hour.
I also turned 6 other older apples into a delicious, mostly local apple crisp. So good with a scoop of local vanilla ice cream!
Yesterday for lunch I made Oven Roasted Ratatouille, something I've never made (or possibly eaten) before. It turned out delicious, and it was a fabulous way to use up some of the CSA veggies that I was running out of ideas for.
Oven Roasted Ratatouille (from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman)
4 red peppers, cut in large strips
2 eggplants, sliced 1/2 in thick
2 onions, thinly sliced (I used one yellow, one red)
10 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved
4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chunked
1 tsp fresh or dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup of olive oil
Preheat the oven to 350. Layer veggies in a 9x13 pan. Sprinkle with thyme, salt & pepper and drizzle with 1/2 cup of EVOO. Bake for 1 hour. Yum!!!
We ate it over spaghetti with leftover italian baked tofu. Good stuff!
This morning Chad woke up sickish (Silas has been sick for several days with a snotty cold, yick) so I decided to try out Isa's recipe for Chickpea Noodle Soup, from the forthcoming Veganomicon for breakfast. Soup for breakfast?! I know, but we're weird like that sometimes, especially when we're sick. It freaking rocks, make it immediately!!!! It totally captures the essence of chicken noodle soup, minus the chicken. I think I added too many noodles to mine, but my husband said "is there really such a thing as too many noodles?!?" And I kind of have to agree. I'm so glad there are leftovers!
Showing posts with label dehydrator. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dehydrator. Show all posts
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
Whoa, and we're back
Next time we have out of town guests in, remind me that I DO NOT cook for them. No matter what I think/want/wish I will do, I just don't. Unless it's breakfast and/or sandwiches. Geez. My Father-in-law doesn't eat any non-breakfast meal without a beef product of some kind, so that was out when they were visiting. I don't care if you make your own beef product at my house, but I'm not cooking it for you, dig? Then there were just so many places we wanted to take my parents, that I barely cooked at all. Plus, I didn't want to "stick" anyone with the baby while I cooked. I felt odd about that, but there it is.
So after three weeks of mostly eating out, we were only too happy to get back to local food and cooking for ourselves!
Some recipes I've tried lately...
Creamy Broccoli Tahini Pasta Bake from Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook. It was pretty good the first night all by itself, but it improved a lot when we had it as leftovers and added homemade marinara! It was kind of like super-protein baked ziti. With broccoli. Not particularly local, except for the broccoli and breadcrumbs. But it made a ton and was good for lunch the whole week.
Another night I made sauteed veggies in TJ's spinach simmer sauce over jasmine rice. I used local red pepper, red onion, broccoli, parsnip. I also made asian baked tofu (local tofu!), using a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. And let me just say that marinating tofu is for suckers. I didn't marinate it at all, just tossed the marinating ingredients into the pan with the tofu, covered with foil and baked it for 15 minutes. Then I removed the foil, baked for another 10 minutes, then broiled it for 3 minutes. The marinade totally bakes into the tofu. No need to press or waste your time marinating.
Another day I made Pasta with Arugula Pesto. It was good! I was surprised. I've made it in the past and thought it was pretty "eh." But this recipe I found substituted garbanzo beans for nuts, which made it really creamy and bonus, the baby could it eat. I also used TJ's Quattro Formaggio cheese blend instead of straight parmesan, which couldn't have hurt. We had it tossed with red pepper, mushrooms, garlic and onion (all local, plus the arugula was local). The recipe made a ton of pesto, so I think I'll have it on pizza this weekend.
We also have a bumper crop of apples, so I made an apple crisp the other day, which is SO good. We had it with local vanilla ice cream. yum!
And of course we've been enjoying green salads with fresh local lettuces and tomatoes from our garden.
I can't believe how much of the frozen marinara we've blasted through already! Two quarts and one pint, so far. Holy crap.
Food related stuff we need to do:
Dry our italian plums in the dehydrator.
Make applesauce with the apples.
Bake bread (check! Rye Caraway bread is in the breadmaker as we speak!)
Harvest all the backyard basil; make pesto or dry it
Harvest/transplant the thyme
Harvest/transplant the oregano
Harvest the mint
Use up our:
So after three weeks of mostly eating out, we were only too happy to get back to local food and cooking for ourselves!
Some recipes I've tried lately...
Creamy Broccoli Tahini Pasta Bake from Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes Cookbook. It was pretty good the first night all by itself, but it improved a lot when we had it as leftovers and added homemade marinara! It was kind of like super-protein baked ziti. With broccoli. Not particularly local, except for the broccoli and breadcrumbs. But it made a ton and was good for lunch the whole week.
Another night I made sauteed veggies in TJ's spinach simmer sauce over jasmine rice. I used local red pepper, red onion, broccoli, parsnip. I also made asian baked tofu (local tofu!), using a recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance. And let me just say that marinating tofu is for suckers. I didn't marinate it at all, just tossed the marinating ingredients into the pan with the tofu, covered with foil and baked it for 15 minutes. Then I removed the foil, baked for another 10 minutes, then broiled it for 3 minutes. The marinade totally bakes into the tofu. No need to press or waste your time marinating.
Another day I made Pasta with Arugula Pesto. It was good! I was surprised. I've made it in the past and thought it was pretty "eh." But this recipe I found substituted garbanzo beans for nuts, which made it really creamy and bonus, the baby could it eat. I also used TJ's Quattro Formaggio cheese blend instead of straight parmesan, which couldn't have hurt. We had it tossed with red pepper, mushrooms, garlic and onion (all local, plus the arugula was local). The recipe made a ton of pesto, so I think I'll have it on pizza this weekend.
We also have a bumper crop of apples, so I made an apple crisp the other day, which is SO good. We had it with local vanilla ice cream. yum!
And of course we've been enjoying green salads with fresh local lettuces and tomatoes from our garden.
I can't believe how much of the frozen marinara we've blasted through already! Two quarts and one pint, so far. Holy crap.
Food related stuff we need to do:
Dry our italian plums in the dehydrator.
Make applesauce with the apples.
Bake bread (check! Rye Caraway bread is in the breadmaker as we speak!)
Harvest all the backyard basil; make pesto or dry it
Harvest/transplant the thyme
Harvest/transplant the oregano
Harvest the mint
Use up our:
- eggplant
- beet greens
- arugula
- peppers
- mushrooms
- broccoli
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
ELC Days 10 & 11
I was feeling under the weather yesterday, so no post. I'm going to keep this quick!
Menu, Monday 9/10
Breakfast:
Homemade granola
yogurt
kefir
Pero (strange toasted grain beverage, sort of like coffee)
Lunch:
Tofu "egg" salad sandwich
Popcorn
Backyard tomatoes
Dinner:
Gnocchi (from Roma)
Homemade tomato sauce
garlic rye toast
slow roasted roma tomatoes
a couple pieces of hazelnut chocolate...mmmargh...
Menu Tuesday, 9/11
Breakfast:
Kefir
scrambled local eggs
Gatorade (to combat my dehydration/stomach cramp problem)
Lunch:
Disappearing pasta shells and zucchini
1 slow roasted tomato half (hurt my tummy)
Snack:
Key lime pie bar from Pinwheel Bakery
Dinner:
Grilled cheese on rye (local bread, local cheese)
Tomato soup w/ chickpeas and fresh basil (just our tomato sauce thinned down; almost totally local!!!)
In other news....
We picked up the food dehydrator yesterday! It's a Ronco!!!! Haven't tried it ouy yet, but soon...very soon. As an aside, it appears everything we buy off of craigslist in detroit is available for pick-up on Prentis street. We bought a car from a guy on Prentis like 3 years ago, and yesterday, like 4 buildings down, a dehydrator. Strange, no?
Oh and we also picked up our CSA share yesterday (on foot! Go us.) Here's what's in store this week:
Menu, Monday 9/10
Breakfast:
Homemade granola
yogurt
kefir
Pero (strange toasted grain beverage, sort of like coffee)
Lunch:
Tofu "egg" salad sandwich
Popcorn
Backyard tomatoes
Dinner:
Gnocchi (from Roma)
Homemade tomato sauce
garlic rye toast
slow roasted roma tomatoes
a couple pieces of hazelnut chocolate...mmmargh...
Menu Tuesday, 9/11
Breakfast:
Kefir
scrambled local eggs
Gatorade (to combat my dehydration/stomach cramp problem)
Lunch:
Disappearing pasta shells and zucchini
1 slow roasted tomato half (hurt my tummy)
Snack:
Key lime pie bar from Pinwheel Bakery
Dinner:
Grilled cheese on rye (local bread, local cheese)
Tomato soup w/ chickpeas and fresh basil (just our tomato sauce thinned down; almost totally local!!!)
In other news....
We picked up the food dehydrator yesterday! It's a Ronco!!!! Haven't tried it ouy yet, but soon...very soon. As an aside, it appears everything we buy off of craigslist in detroit is available for pick-up on Prentis street. We bought a car from a guy on Prentis like 3 years ago, and yesterday, like 4 buildings down, a dehydrator. Strange, no?
Oh and we also picked up our CSA share yesterday (on foot! Go us.) Here's what's in store this week:
Butternut Squash
Acorn Squash
Green & Red Peppers (sweet)
Beans
Eggplant
cherry tomatoes
Macintosh apples (from Brozowski Farms)
Tomatoes-6 romas per share
More soon.
Monday, September 10, 2007
ELC Day 9
Sunday we did a bit of cooking. First thing, for breakfast I searched out a recipe for peach coffeecake, since we had quite a few tasty peaches begging to be transformed into something breakfast-y. The results were a little disappointing; I guess it just wasn't sweet enough, or maybe it was lacking in spices. I rated it a 3 out of 5 on allrecipes.com anyway. Not great, not terrible.
Then a good bit of the morning was spent getting the next batch of tomato sauce in the crockpot - it takes a bit of time to chop all those cute little heirlooms up! But it is always, always, always worth it. I don't think Chad will let me cook a dinner this week that doesn't involve tomato sauce. We froze three quarts and have 1 fresh jar in the fridge. It's sooo good! I used about half as many onions this time and fresh herbs instead of dried (from the backyard! I love growing stuff to use in cooking). And it was interesting, the last batch of sauce used a lot of different colored tomatoes, and the sauce had a more orange-y hue. This batch was RED RED RED. Kind of neat how non-uniform cooking can be when the ingredients are just a little varied. ;) So we now have 5 quarts of sauce in the freezer. I know this won't get us that far, but it still makes me so excited! I hope we can get some more tomatoes this weekend at the farmer's market...
Oh, and speaking of tomatoes (god, do I talk about anything else?!?), I also slow roasted the romas we got from our CSA share last week. Cut in half, brushed with EVOO, sprinkled with chopped garlic and fresh backyard oregano, s&p and baked for 2 hours. O. Mi. Gawd. They are so good, like tomato candy. Rich and tangy and luscious.
AND, inspired by The Green Mommy I hit craigslist in search of a food dehydrator. And I found one! We pick it up tomorrow morning in Det-wa. Right before storytime at the lie-berry. I'm psyched, I've never dehydrated anything before. But I've got big dreams. Big dreams.
Day 9 Menu
Breakfast:
Fresh Peach Coffeecake
Pero (weird toasted grain coffee-like beverage)
Lunch:
Tofu "egg" salad sandwich on local rye bread
Grassfield's local cheeses
Caramel Corn (from Lansing farmer's market)
Snack:
Coffeecake
Dinner:
Gnocchi from Roma Grocery
Fresh out of the crockpot tomato sauce (Lansing heirloom tomatoes, local onions, peppers, garlic, backyard basil and oregano. Non local tomato paste, salt, EVOO and sugar).
Garlic rye toast
The baby enjoyed some jarred baby food and cottage cheese that he fed himself. Weird.
Then a good bit of the morning was spent getting the next batch of tomato sauce in the crockpot - it takes a bit of time to chop all those cute little heirlooms up! But it is always, always, always worth it. I don't think Chad will let me cook a dinner this week that doesn't involve tomato sauce. We froze three quarts and have 1 fresh jar in the fridge. It's sooo good! I used about half as many onions this time and fresh herbs instead of dried (from the backyard! I love growing stuff to use in cooking). And it was interesting, the last batch of sauce used a lot of different colored tomatoes, and the sauce had a more orange-y hue. This batch was RED RED RED. Kind of neat how non-uniform cooking can be when the ingredients are just a little varied. ;) So we now have 5 quarts of sauce in the freezer. I know this won't get us that far, but it still makes me so excited! I hope we can get some more tomatoes this weekend at the farmer's market...
Oh, and speaking of tomatoes (god, do I talk about anything else?!?), I also slow roasted the romas we got from our CSA share last week. Cut in half, brushed with EVOO, sprinkled with chopped garlic and fresh backyard oregano, s&p and baked for 2 hours. O. Mi. Gawd. They are so good, like tomato candy. Rich and tangy and luscious.
AND, inspired by The Green Mommy I hit craigslist in search of a food dehydrator. And I found one! We pick it up tomorrow morning in Det-wa. Right before storytime at the lie-berry. I'm psyched, I've never dehydrated anything before. But I've got big dreams. Big dreams.
Day 9 Menu
Breakfast:
Fresh Peach Coffeecake
Pero (weird toasted grain coffee-like beverage)
Lunch:
Tofu "egg" salad sandwich on local rye bread
Grassfield's local cheeses
Caramel Corn (from Lansing farmer's market)
Snack:
Coffeecake
Dinner:
Gnocchi from Roma Grocery
Fresh out of the crockpot tomato sauce (Lansing heirloom tomatoes, local onions, peppers, garlic, backyard basil and oregano. Non local tomato paste, salt, EVOO and sugar).
Garlic rye toast
The baby enjoyed some jarred baby food and cottage cheese that he fed himself. Weird.
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