Why are so many foods marketed to kids made of plastic faux-food crap, anyway? Walking by the “lunchables” section of the supermarket makes me queasy. Some kids never get to find out what real food looks or tastes like, which irritates the heck out of me.
local foods
...now browsing by tag
baking
beans
Beef
beer
braising
bread
breakfast
cheesy goodness
chicken
chile peppers
Chinese food
cocktails
cooking classes
drinks
eggs
fish
French food
greens
Gretchens
grilling
herbs
holidays
Indian food
Italian food
lamb
leftovers
local foods
middle-eastern food
mushrooms
noodles
pasta
pork
potatoes
restaurants
sausage
seafood
Seattle
shellfish
shrimp
Skagit Valley
soup
spices
tomatoes
travel
wine
Sunday comic: from the mouths of babes
Sunday, November 15th, 2009cool beans
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
I recently invented this soup, and its become one of our favorites – as it turns out, really just a version of pasta e fagioli (Italian for noodles and beans, also known as pasta fazool). It also happens to be one of the easiest soups I’ve ever made, with the exception of the kind that involve opening a can or two. The first time I made it with freshly shelled borlotti beans from Colony Creek Farm (which were incredible), and the second time I used some locally grown, cupboard-aged Calypso beans (like little Yin-Yangs) that had taken up embarrassing residence in my pantry. Good thing dried beans don’t go bad very quickly.
sheep farm
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Last weekend we were delighted to have the chance to visit Martiny Suffolks, the farm from whence comes the lamb we’ve been eating all summer. As part of the Skagit Festival of Family Farms, many small farms up and down the valley opened to the public for the day, including great places like Taylor Shellfish, Golden Glen Creamery, and Gordon Skagit Farm (to see the festivities at Gordon’s, check out this post at Willow Basketmaker). There were all sorts of activities, but we were there for the free samples and to give a few sheep noses some scritches.
We probably would never have ended up as customers if Linda Martiny (who owns the farm along with Mike Donnelly) hadn’t decided to try running a booth at the Mount Vernon Farmer’s Market this year. We saw the sign for local lamb on the first day and made a beeline, immediately buying a selection of chops and ground meat. We ended up buying half a lamb, and I suspect it will only be the first of many.
Festival of Family Farms
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Just a reminder to anyone in the general neighborhood: this weekend is the Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms, when many of the local small farms open their gates to visitors and feature tours, activities and goodies for the general public. If you want to visit a working farm or see where your food is coming from, now’s your chance. There will be hayrides and corn mazes and all kinds of fun stuff. Make a day of it!
The list of participating farms can be found here.
knowing where your pizza comes from
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
This was a good pizza.
It evolved naturally, inspired more or less equally by our usual Middle Eastern Lamb Pizza, the cover of the latest Food & Wine, and a recipe in Tessa Kiros’ book Falling Cloudberries
Savory and wonderful as the pizza was, there was something that made me stop mid-chew and stare at my plate for a minute. I realized that I knew where everything on that pizza had come from! Leeks and gorgeous fiery red peppers from Hedlin Farms in La Conner, lamb from Linda Martiny, local mozzarella, Shepherd’s Grain Stone-Buhr flour, salad (with flowers sprinkled in it) from Frog’s Song, and tiny tomatoes from our deck.
The only products I couldn’t put a face to were the salt, yeast and olive oil (well, okay, and the tamarind and cinnamon). I think that’s pretty cool.
Plus it was an incredible pizza.
double-corn spoon bread
Monday, September 21st, 2009
September is the month of corn. Trucks are parked by the side of the road, heaped high with ears of sweet corn and signs saying ten for a dollar (otherwise known as “Please! Take it!”). Coworkers bring in bag- and boxfuls to work, in desperate hope that someone will be willing to deal with the overflow.
When there is extra corn in the house, but I don’t really feel like eating it straight, spoonbread is a nice option. I’m not a big fan of fresh corn in cornbread, but spoonbread is more like an informal souffle with a bit of cornmeal in it. The version I like to make has both fresh sweet corn and roasted green chiles, as well as plenty of cheese, and the effect is rather like chile rellenos, with more of the fluffy coating and less of the chile. You get both a bit of crustiness and a rather pudding-like interior, and it makes a great accompaniment to roast chicken.
Ideally you should use anaheims, or other mild green chiles. Poblanos would be a great choice for a little more heat. On this occasion all I had were some big (and very hot) jalapeños, so I limited myself to two so the spoonbread wouldn’t be too fiery. You can either roast them in the oven (like I do with bell peppers) or toast them over an open flame with tongs.
Skagit Eat Local Week
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
Today is the kickoff of Skagit Eat Local Week, sponsored by the local Slow Food chapter and the Skagit Valley Co-op. If you’re in Skagit County, now’s your chance to take advantage of all this amazing area offers. Participating restaurants will be featuring local food specials, and residents are encouraged to shop at farmer’s markets, farmstands and shops selling local products. Are you cooking at home? See how much you can do with Skagit Valley-produced ingredients. Remember, Eat Local Week happens mostly at the end of your fork.
clams & beans
Friday, August 28th, 2009
For some reason I was in the mood for clams last weekend. When I began delving into cookbooks to look for some new ideas, I stumbled across the exact same recipe in both 1080 Recipes
I went with the Moro recipe, since it seemed a little more interesting, but it’s still not a complicated dish. Saute garlic in wine, add cooked white beans, saffron and parsley, add clams, done. I made it a little more work by using fresh cannellini beans, bought in the pod from Dunbar Gardens, but shelling beans is a very peaceful and philosophical activity – preferably with the aid of good music and a tasty beverage.
summer slump
Friday, August 7th, 2009I realize there has been a dearth of posting around here since we got back from our trip. Between the incredible heat and drought Western Washington has been hit with, and some personal stress in our lives, we’ve been eating some very comforting and predictable things – soup, pizza, stir fry – and going out for burgers when necessary. We’ve done a lot of cooking, but it either hasn’t been worth talking about or I was too busy to photograph anything.
One thing we have been doing is processing berries. The hot weather has really brought on the harvest, making it a bit more urgent than usual to appreciate them while they’re available. We’ve been buying a half flat of berries every week at the farmer’s market, eating all we can and then prepping the rest for the freezer. There’s not a lot of room in there, thanks to the half a lamb taking up most of the extra space, but we should have a good winter’s supply of fresh raspberries and quite a few blueberries for our morning smoothies. Now that’s a comforting thought.
find a farmer
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
One of the many cool presentations at IFBC was for a group called Shepherd’s Grain. An alliance of small family-farm wheat growers, they are committed to sustainable agriculture and high quality grain production.
Even cooler than that, Shepherd’s Grain has partnered with Stone-Buhr flour to create a nifty program called Find the Farmer, which lets you see exactly where the wheat for your flour was grown. …Continue reading find a farmer
