Dark Days #5: Blueberry bread

last night i whipped up some blueberry bread mini-loaves.

i used bob's red mill flour, homemade yogurt and butter, and blueberries that i picked this summer with friends. beyond the soda, salt and sugar, it was all local.

in these dreary winter months, a friend at work and i decided to swap lunch/breakfast duties. one of us makes up some lunch food and the other breakfast, enough for us to enjoy it a couple or three times that week. i am liking the idea so far.

this week tigress in a pickle mentioned dark days and how a lot of pantry eating comes of it. and that might just be one of the things i love about it, the reminder to eat all the delicious things i have been stockpiling like a little squirrel. you look the challenge in the eye and then your mind starts to poke around your shelves until you suddenly have something amazing to eat—that didn't require a trip to the store.

Dark Days #4: Baked eggs and polenta

i love simple, delicious, dishes.

monday night i made up some polenta in the oven. 1 c. polenta (Bob's Red Mill, sourced from Pendleton), 1 qt. water and a dash of salt in a casserole pan and baked it for an hour at 350. after an hour, i stirred in a tablespoon of homemade butter and cooked a little longer. (i pulled the idea from this nytimes article.)

voila! polenta.

tonight i dressed it up a little for the full meal effect.

a scoop of polenta, a dollop of (homemade) tomato jam and carmelized onion jam each—and topped with a backyard fresh egg. 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven and >boom< dinner.

the tomato jam added that extra note that kept this from feeling dull and the onion jam added a nice richness. bacon would be a good addition, as would cheese. but i didn't have local options on hand and i have to say this was quite tasty as it was.

Dark Days #3: Unexpectedly local

around eleven today i thought i would like to eat something amazing today.
it is a thought i often have when i am bored or restless at work, and hungry.

no less than ninety minutes later, here i am lunching on four-cheese ravioli made by our local italian delicatessan doused in a pea-shoot pesto my roommate created using organic microgreens a good friend grew. to round it out i made up a little sunflower and pea shoot salad and am taking the last sips of a bottle of Cougar Crest Anniversary Cuvee.

it is indeed pretty amazing.
bonus? this may be the most green i've eaten in weeks. a happy girl indeed.

Dark Days #2: Refreshing solstic breakfast

this morning i was up at 5 am and out the door to a Winter Solstice celebration put on by a friend—108 Sun Salutations to clear out the cobwebs of negativity and move into the new year revitalized.

it was oh so heavenly.

i came home feeling so lovely and calm and bright.
and i thought, today is an 'only good stuff' day.

so today i nourished my body with homemade yogurt and granola with frozen raspberries.

the yogurt i made yesterday—in fact i pulled it from its incubation right before i left for yoga. the milk is from a dairy in touchet, which is only 15 minutes away and i used a starter my parents gave me. after all my intimidation, making yogurt was incredibly easy and i am so happy to have had a successful first go of it.

the raspberries came from my grandmother's backyard and we're frozen for future deliciousness.

the granola i made up specifically for dark days: bob's red mill oats (closest to local), homemade fruit butter and honey, and a smattering of spices (nutmeg, cinnamon). i used this recipe as an approximation (i left out the fruit and nuts, although i have a source for local walnuts for next time):

Fruit Butter Granola

• 5 cups rolled oats

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

• ¾ tsp. salt

• ¾ cup brown sugar

• ¾ cup fruit butter (blueberry, pear)
• ¼ cup maple syrup
 (honey)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup dried fruit (cranberries, raisins)

• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preheat the oven to 325° F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine oats, spices, and salt. Mix well.

In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, fruit butter, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Pour wet ingredients into oat mixture and stir until the oats are evenly coated. They will be moist. Evenly spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and stir. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the granola is golden and crisp. Remove from the oven, stir in dried cranberries and almonds. Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Happy Winter Solstice to Everyone! The days will only get longer now!

Dark Days #1: Local Tacos

the forces of the universe combined in such a way that some delicious steak tacos were the result.

free range skirt steak marinated over night and grilled, sauteed winter sweet onions, homemade salsa and shredded local cabbage, all served up on corn tortillas made in the town ten minutes away.

enjoyed with a friend, it was the perfect foundation for an epic night of dancing and debauchery.

it made me happy to no end to remember the corn tortillas. i see some delicious dark days breakfast tacos or huevos rancheros in my future.

all about meat

tuesday i ordered some meat from our local free-range, organic ...meat farm? with a 'first-time customer' discount of twenty dollars off a fifty dollar purchase, i thought, stock up!

no sooner is the meat in the freezer than i get an email about their 72-hour sale. so here i am on thursday with six more pounds of ground beef and two skirt steaks.

so far i've imagined "dark days" meatloaf, carbonara, stuffed pork chops with homemade applesauce and roast beef sandwiches. i think i should create a meal road-map, give me something to look forward to.

there is something nice about not eating a lot of meat. for under sixty dollars, i have probably procured enough meat to sustain me for the winter months. its always been a hope of mine to eat meat infrequently but of superb quality. i think this winter season will be a time to push myself to do just that.

i have definitely hit my 'store up for the winter' stride. need to pick up some oats on the way home and then call it quits for a few weeks. the shopping, not the cooking. that is just getting started.

dark days shopping list

okay. dark days challenge is underway and i need to get my rear in gear.
this will be my second year and i am looking forward to doing things a little differently. i'm excited to pick up local pasta from cugini's, make my own yogurt and find local grains. added bonus? cooking for one, i think i'll have a little more flexibility

i have a bushel of beets, butternut squash up to my ears, a consistent source of eggs and a variety of canned salsas, sauces and jams. today i started thinking about what else? and then all the best things came to mind: meat! cheese! pasta!

tonight i'll stop by the local co-op and look at their selection of bluebird grains. i'd like to have some whole grains for grain salads or pilafs, as well as some flour to make my own starter. i have an order at Thundering Hooves for a roast, ground beef, pork chops and bacon ends—it should last me awhile.

in other preparation-related news, i am working on connecting with Schreiber & Sons farm which is outside yakima. they typically have local lentils, chickpeas and dried beans which would be an awesome score.

as for cheese and milk. it looks like Organic Valley has three farms within 150 miles of Walla Walla, and i will wind my way out to the Monteillet Formagerie before the end of their season and snag a few treats.

mmm. all this talk makes me hungry.
get excited! i hope to cook my first meal tomorrow night!
can't wait to make the kitchen fill with the smells of roast.

stocking up

thursday as i set out for the farm stands, it began to sleet, snow and slush. go figure. i remain undaunted and was handsomely rewarded: braeburn apples, bosc pears, cider, beautiful bountiful cabbage and a big ol' bag of beets.

i did a little snoopy dance to find so much local produce clear into december.
i am all set to hole up and cook my weekend away.

back from a long hiatus

i've been on the fence about this blog.
but i've decided to continue. you know what cinched it? the dark days challenge.

last year i rocked out about half of the required meals.
so i've even been on the fence about the challenge.

but i can't pass up a good challenge, so i am in.
i mean i can't pass up my heritage right? see exhibit a, b and c.

of course, neither u-pick or farmer's markets exist here at this temperature.
(but there just may be some farm stands open, and i will find out friday afternoon.)

dark days meal #1 is due december first, two weeks from now.
in the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for a post or two—or five, about canning.

Dark Days Wrap-Up

the dark days challenge is officially over.
i enjoyed the challenge immensely but was somewhat disappointed in my ability to come through each week. all in all, i participated in eight of the eighteen weeks—so just under half of the challenges.

what was my hold up?

primarily the shortage of local resources in walla walla come winter. our farmer's market is closed before halloween and around that same time the local farm stands also shut up for the winter, if not sooner. we have a local free-range meat provider and one local milk/cream farm selling in the grocery stores; and there are some locally sourced grains and grain products available by mail or our upstart Co-op.

so in the end the majority of my options came from my own cupboards and with that we enter into an entirely different sort of complications. primarily: my feeble attempts to store for the winter and my inability to think outside the box(store).

the best thing i came away from the challenge with is a better understanding of what i need to do to make the most of my garden and local farms this season so that i can become a better locavore for the next dark days challenge. i don't think that i would have that perspective without having tried the challenge.

want to hear more? read about my 2009 dark days adventure.

Dark Days #19: Local Pasta Two Ways

with the fish success behind me i thought i'd push myself to make the last dark days post.

this friday i picked up some bacon from our local free-range grass-fed meat supplier. i am anxiously awaiting the announcement of their chickens and in the meantime receive their newsletters regarding sales and special offers. breakfast sausage brought me in, but i couldn't leave without some bacon.

with bacon as my choice ingredient my thoughts turned in two directions: breakfast for dinner or pasta carbonara. i chose the latter and boy was my tummy happy.

pasta carbonara with local bacon and backyard eggs

rigatoni with eggplant puree from this summer

the carbonara was whipped together with backyard eggs, local bacon and cheese purchased downtown at our new cafe-marketplace. for the vegetarians in the group (er, the one vegetarian in the group) i thawed some roasted tomato and eggplant sauce that i prepped during the tomato glut in october and froze.

to round it out i roasted some local asparagus that is slowly finding its way into our grocery stores. its a little early so it is a rare find, but spring is now inextricably tied to asparagus and i'm craving it these days.

i sipped on some boomtown syrah with dinner. the meal was delicious. with friends over, there were some non-local items on the menu that were of course tasty but (of course) not worth mentioning here. 

Dark Days #18: fire-grilled fish with heirloom tomatoes

spring is here—the daffodils in my front yard tell me so, and you don't have to tell this girl twice. accordingly, i am spending as much time outside as the sun and life will allow.

the past few weekends i have spent the majority of at least one day sitting in my backyard, looking at the sky and watching the animals. this past weekend on one such day i had a dark days surprise fall into my lap, right over the fence.

we had a small fire going, and were sitting around it, still enjoying the fresh air, when my neighbor popped her head over the fence and asked if i liked fish. viola. fresh fish her sons caught, delivered right over the fence—!

intimidated at the thought of cleaning them i was glad when a friend was up to the task. we pulled out the cast iron pan, threw in some quartered tomatoes i had the the freezer from this past summer, some slices of onion from sarah's farm, added a dash of white wine and olive oil, and threw it on the fire.

we were enjoying some tasty, flaky, fresh fish right off the bone in a matter of minutes. and the realization that i'd just prepared my first dark days meal in weeks made me extra smug as i went to bed that night.

Dark Days—Recaps!

i just completed my first (and only this year) turn at the recaps for the Dark Days Challenge.

in a word? —whew! i'll admit that last night i was a little overwhelmed as i was counting up the thirty or so odd posts that i needed to read, experience and appreciate, in verbal form. but here it is 11am on a tuesday, i started around 7pm monday night and i got a full night of sleep in. even better? it pulled me into the Challenge in a whole new way and got me reading some blogs that i had yet.

more than anything it made me supremely jealous of anyone still able to access a farmer's market this time of year. at the start of the challenge i thought i'd have an advantage with my small agrarian town, and i was extra proud of all the home-grown, home-canned food i had at my disposal.

right now, in the middle of winter, i wouldn't mind being able to hop out and pick up some locally grown kale or better yet, mache. and i would absolutely adore the opportunity to meadering through a bustling farmers market...even if we were all bundled up to our ears.

the only lesson i can take from this at this point is to grow more next year and enjoy it while it lasts. in the meantime, check out my work on the regional recaps for the East and the South.

my basic quiche

i am always surprised when i bring a quiche and am received with ooh's, aah's and recipe requests. but then i remember that there was a time when i referred the recipe books for quiche. i think that was about two years ago.

i expect my basic quiche resembles this:

• 7-9 eggs + 1-2 cups of milk, whisked together thoroughly
• 1 onion, sauteed + additional vegetables, also sauteed.*
• 1 cup of grated cheese
• 1 pre-made pie dough shell (i get plenty of compliments)
• herbs. garlic? thyme? sage? rosemary? dill? fresh? dried?
• smattering of salt and pepper
  

*sauteing vegetables pulls some of their water content out, helping keep your quiche from being soggy.

combine all the above in a pie pan and bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean—viola!

the only other tricks i have to share is that i have been known to do an egg wash (yolk+water) on the pie shell before adding the filling and i often use a baking stone in the oven, allowing it 30 minutes or so to warm up in the oven. both of these are touted as helping keep the bottom crust from being soggy.

beyond that i am simply creative based on what i have on hand, what sounds good and what is in season.

Dark Days #10: Quiche with Carmelized Onions and (Oven) Dried Tomatoes

at the start of the (literal) dark days i was lazy and did not outfit my chickens with a light—boy, did i feel the pain.

after a couple of weeks where two eggs a day was a miracle, i gave in.
and was rewarded in abundance:

i'm collected approximately fourteen eggs a day

so for this week's Dark Days Challenge i thought i would make quiche. it is an old standby of mine, but the Dark Days Challenge threw me the new experience of making pie crust from scratch.

and...well, i cheated. after diligently reading Julia Child's pate frisee recipe i admited to myself that i just didn't have the attention span. so i pulled out my food processor cookbook and whipped up some pie dough in a matter of minutes. given that i also made bread, applesauce and one napkin this weekend...i think a shortcut to some pie dough is reasonable.

so sunday afternoon after a leisurely (and chilly) bicycle ride around town, i came home and rolled out my dough while the red onions we grew at the farm slowly carmelized in the pan. towards the end of their cooking i threw in some garlic grown over at milt's farm in milton-freewater and the tomatoes that i had grown and dried myself this summer.

the eggs were from my backyard and the milk once again from pure eire.

quiche is easily one of my favorite foods and i make it often enough that my recipe resembles an experiment each time. i will make sure to post my method soon, but for this evening i don't have enough energy.

given that i have six dozen or so eggs still awaiting my attention, i am sure that i will have many more chances to go into greater detail. for now, just know it was delicious.

local seed sourcing

this saturday as i sat down to my locally sourced breakfast i had the pleasure to page through the seed catalog from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds, a seed company i came across during the dark days discussions.

what i love is that they are located in Ellensburg, Washington. i don't know if i've ever come across a local seed producer before. after looking through their amazing collection and reading their personal and professional ethics, i've become quite excited to support them.

so this year i will buy the little i need from Irish Eyes—with my dried beans coming from Seed Savers.

Dark Days #8: Emmer Pancakes and Fried Eggs

welcome to my breakfast table.

Bluebird Farms emmer flour pancake mix, eggs from the backyard and homemade applesauce.

it was a delicious (and local!) way to start the morning, eating and looking out the window at the chickens and cats and the dreary rainy day.

Dark Days #6: Pumpkin Curry Soup

so i missed the last two weeks of the Dark Days Challenge. i think if i missed any more the project would be dead in the water, so i am pushing myself to complete the challenge this holiday week.

there is nothing more cold-weather than a hot bowl of soup.
this winter so far i have already made tomato soup, lentil soup, cream of broccoli soup and cream celeriac soup. two of these were Dark Days meals. i have mixed feelings about this. am i using soup as a crutch? well, a crutch: a thing used for support or reassurance. my pumpkin curry soup got me through a hard spot of Dark Days meals, so i'll concede it to be a crutch and be thankful for it.

...of course this means that my meal next week better be no less than awesome.

pumpkin curry soup
8 cups chopped fresh pumpkin (about 3 pounds)
4 cups vegetable broth
3 small tart apples, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tsp. curry powder (or to taste)
1 tbsp. fresh minced ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. cayenne
pinch of cumin

In a 5-qt. slow cooker, combine all ingredients.
Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or until pumpkin and apples are tender.
Blend using a stick immersion blender, garnish with roasted/salted pumpkin seeds.

it was spicy—! but delicious. and i have to admit that i felt like i was cheating since i used a slow cooker.

but i didn't, because all the ingredients (save for the broth, spices and the pumpkin seeds). the apples came from davis farms and everything else came from sarah's. i actually planted, ho'ed and harvested the pumpkin which i made into this delicious soup. i have to say that feels nice.

#4 Skipped.

last week i missed Dark Days Challenge #4.
i had the inkling it would happen but thought something may inspire me. nothing did.

i am finding that living in a small town is a drawback when one is looking for local produce in december. so i will need to double, triple, quadruple my efforts to locate some local produce that isn't already residing in my fridge. specifically i am interested in items such as broccoli, kale, spinach. still seasonal, so its not like i am asking for a local banana—these items should be able to be located, somehow.

sadly our farmer's market closes in october and our co-op is too small to carry produce very effectively. so i will have to become more creative...i'll let you know how that goes.

what does local mean to you? or, me?

this blog has certainly been focused on the Dark Days Challenge, i'll cop to that. i'll blame it on the lack of a camera (gone missing during halloween) and a lack of a garden (gone fallow for the winter.)

on that theme, i thought i would expound on my thoughts on "local" and how i came to subscribe to it.

my intention is to buy my food as locally as possible with the limited budget that i have. this can range from home-walla walla-grown to produced in the USA, the closer the better but sometimes it can't be helped.

it began not even with an interest in eating locally or even seasonally.
i was fortunate enough to work at Baker & Spice, which prides itself on local, seasonal and organic products. in eating there over the course of year and more, i became someone more in-tune with the season-to-season produce. after a long winter of apple handpies, the appearance of the pink tartness of rhubarb brings a small thrill to your day, and then you are onto the berries, stone fruits and more. we were fortunate enough to have an exchange program with one of our suppliers, Gathering Together Farm, and as a struggling college and post-college student, i took full advantage. there is nothing like a booth of colorful organic vegetables to get you excited about trying new things.

then one reads The Omnivore's Dilemma and you're off on a new path...

naturally, there are differences between the ideal and the reality. you may find me in the grocery store buying lemons and i will probably have no idea where they have come from, but you will probably never see me buying tomatoes in the off months—or for that matter, asparagus. some vegetables are just too good to buy off-season.

when i am out of town i try to pick up local treats that aren't available at home. this summer i took a trip to portland in which my primary purpose was to pick berries. and now, i have some luscious berries stored up in my freezer for the winter! (better believe they will be in some Dark Days challenges!)

you get into things such a milk and cheese, two of my favorites, and i will confess that i am happy to consider Tillamook on the Oregon Coast local. its regional to be sure, and i simply love it. and the prices aren't out of this world. so as a splurge i will buy fresh local cheese (usually goat) but for my day to day eats, Tillamook still fits my locavore paradigm.

not to mention, there are just some things that cannot be found locally. correct me if i am wrong, but i do not think there is a source of sugar that isn't Hawaii, Florida or the Carribbean. or rice. they do not grow ride in the pacific northwest. so i haven't yet made the leap to local raw materials—flour, grain, baking supplies.

and specifically for the Dark Days Challenge i am fudging on breads and pastas if they are made locally. because i might not know what they are made out of, but i know that the people making them are part of my community and that is something i want to support—and want to include in my meals.

so..........what does local mean to everyone else? am i just a lazy cheat?