local foods
...now browsing by tag
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.
Click to continue »
Posted in eating in, eating out, hunting & gathering | No Responses »
Tags: farmer's markets, farmers, local foods, restaurants, Skagit Valley
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
and Casa Moro
. Clams and white beans: so simple, but two ingredients I had never thought of combining. We brought back a bag of fresh clams from Taylor Shellfish after our walk on Sunday, and we were good to go.
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.
Click to continue »
Posted in eating in | 1 Response »
Tags: beans, clams, local foods, seafood, shellfish, Spanish food
Friday, August 7th, 2009
I 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.
Posted in eating in | 1 Response »
Tags: berries, local foods, raspberries
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Our local farmer’s market finally starts up tomorrow, hurray! We’ve been able to buy the occasional local vegetable at the Co-op, but nothing compares to buying directly from a farmstand or market booth. We don’t subscribe to a CSA, just because I really enjoy the shopping/choosing/visiting part of it all – well, and because I’m picky and like to have a say in what I’m eating in a given week.
Looking forward to seeing friends, eating Swedish pancakes (possibly) and picking up some good ingredients. Happy market season!
Posted in hunting & gathering | No Responses »
Tags: farmer's markets, local foods
Monday, November 10th, 2008
The last time we stopped by the farmstand at Dunbar Gardens, Steve happened to ask if we wanted any fresh cannellini beans, and he pulled out a large plastic tub full of bean pods. Somehow I had never even thought of getting cannellinis in the shell, and I happily filled a small bag with them. Click to continue »
Posted in eating in | 1 Response »
Tags: beans, local foods
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
After a successful food safari out on the Skagit Flats on Saturday (including a truly amazing brunch at the Rhody - I mean, seriously, potato pancakes with sausages, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce!?! Not to mention those little cranberry walnut things – yum) we came home prepared for a cozy November evening inside.
We brought home bread and strawberry jam from the Breadfarm (we bought fresh macaroons, too, but somehow they never made it home), fresh leeks, celeriac, broccoli, shelling beans and chioggia beets from Dunbar Gardens, and a nice bag of groceries from Slough Food: multicolored eggs from Osprey Hill Farm, farro from the Methow Valley, guanciale (cured pork jowl) from Salumi, Humboldt Fog and Petit Basque cheeses, and a bag of fresh chanterelles. Dinner almost cooked itself!
Click to continue »
Posted in eating in, hunting & gathering | No Responses »
Tags: cheesy goodness, local foods, mushrooms, pork, rice, risotto, Skagit Valley
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
We like to celebrate the beginning of summer with a nice dinner out, and this year we decided to finally try out Lark for the occasion. We’ve been to Licorous before, but never Lark – I was expecting the two places to have much more similar vibes, but Lark was much more rustic and comfortable than I would have thought. It’s a small plates/local/seasonal kind of place, and we were very happy with what we got. We ordered all of our plates in advance, and the waitstaff brought them in whatever order they saw fit, one at a time. With most of the meal we drank a McCrea Sirocco Blanc, a beautiful white Rhone blend that made us really happy.
First we got a plate of Yakima Valley asparagus, thin and perfectly cooked, with a little mizuna salad and drizzles of cheese sauce and tomato vinaigrette. The flavors were straightforward, but very pleasing and fresh.
Next came the yellowtail carpaccio Click to continue »
Posted in eating out | No Responses »
Tags: Capitol Hill, local foods, restaurants, Seattle
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Finally, a beautiful day! We celebrated by going on food safari, as Jen from Last Night’s Dinner puts it (I’m adopting that phrase, it’s perfect). We had visited the farmer’s market the day before and gotten a bunch of goodies, but on Sunday we drove out Chuckanut for further supplies. We got mussels and Kumamoto oysters at Taylor Shellfish, a loaf of farmer bread from the Breadfarm (plus what may have been the world’s best macaroon), and a completely gratuitous chorizo sausage from Slough Food (hey, as long as we were in there…) We took our haul home, fired up the grill, opened up some wine and settled in to eat shellfish.
Click to continue »
Posted in eating in, hunting & gathering | 4 Responses »
Tags: greens, grilling, local foods, mussels, oysters, shellfish, Skagit Valley, spinach
Monday, June 16th, 2008
At last, we have local strawberries! J went out to Sakuma Brothers last week and bought our first Skagit Valley strawberries of the season. They were huge, juicy and sweet – a totally different animal from the California berries for sale in the grocery store. I know that there are great strawberries in California – we used to buy them at the Santa Barbara farmer’s market every week – but they never make it up here.
What did we do with our fresh berries? Apart from eating one every time I walked by the box, that is? Strawberry shortcake, naturally.
Posted in eating in | 2 Responses »
Tags: berries, desserts, fruit, local foods, strawberries
