The Beet goes on!

On the 4th of September & I woke up thinking about how good last night's dinner was! Obviously I had to redo it for breakfast. Preceded by my morning tea.

Beans in the solar oven

The Tuscan Beans, Polenta, tomatoes & pesto were just as heavenly as they were last night. If you have never made Tuscan Beans, it is the easiest recipe ever:

Tuscan Beans
2 c. Dry beans (Pinto, Yellow Eye, Cannellini, Calico...)
water
20 leaves fresh sage
lots of sliced garlic (to taste, but not less than 3 big cloves!)
Olive oil
salt & freshly ground pepper

Soak the beans overnite. Next day add garlic, about 1 Tblsp. Olive oil and the garlic and bring to boil. Simmer until just tender, then add salt & pepper. Cook another 1/2 hour or so. Serve drizzled with a bit more olive oil.

We cook them here in the solar oven.


The Beet & beet green gratin is another surprisingly delectable recipe. Chard can be substituted for beet greens.
Find the recipe here: Don't that Beet All...

With Cypress Grove, Loleta Cheese Company & Rumiano cheeses, countless amazing beers & wines, grass fed local beef, Humboldt Creamery, Clendenen's Cider, the Tofu Shop, Shakefork Farm and all the other amazing farmers of the local Farmers' Markets it's simple to eat locally produced food. Add to this wild Blackberries, one's own garden produce and eggs, homemade vinegar, yogurt and other condiments, and I find we eat very, very well.

Time flies in Harvest Season!

Holy Cow! It's September 12 already!
It's been so busy around here I just haven't found time to write. To catch up here's my  daily menu:

Tuesday 9/4 - Having to use up the local bacon is such a pain! I start the day with bacon and an egg, with slices of fresh tomato on the side. Tea of course, and water. Just assume I am having a cup of tea every morning whether I write it down or not!
Snacks these days are generally grazing on snap peas, cherry tomatoes, peaches or Asian Pears, depending if I'm in the garden or orchard.
For lunch a fried pepper, pesto, cucumber and Cypress Grove Fromage Blanc sandwich on the bread I baked from Shakefork flour. This is very good.
Dinner an oriental style stir fry incorporating chicken hearts from the meat birds we butchered earlier this year. Vagrant ingredients were peanut oil, soy sauce and ginger root. I have grown ginger root in the past, and you see it in town, mostly as an ornamental, but this one is an import from??? I'll have to find out.
I am mainly drinking water, but I do have some apple cider & apple cider / cranberry mix we put up and add in now and then. The apples are from our or our daughter's trees and the cranberries came from some folks who were at the Arcata farmer's market last fall.

Wed 9/5 - Breakfast was an Asian vegie scramble (i.e.- leftovers scrambled with eggs). with some homemade yogurt with blackberries and peaches. Eating hearty as I will be in town the rest of the day and going to a birthday pizza part likely to be full of non-local ingredients. Had a small bottle of Clendenen's wonderful cider, too, when I got to town.
Lunched at the Eureka Natural Foods Deli, spinach salad and chicken salad, both of which I was assured were made from mainly local ingredients (I have my doubts about the pine nuts & feta cheese!).
Pizza was at Tom's Sourdough in Fortuna. I know they house make their sourdough crust. Didn't get to ask as to the source of the ingredients, but - Hey! I'm the Grandma and I am not going to spoil the party. And the exquisitely delectable chocolate birthday cake from Ramone's bakery counts as local - doesn't it?!?

In the marinade

Thursday 9/6 - Did a brunch rerun of the rest of the leftover Tuscan Beans with grated Loleta cheddar. That held me nicely until an unbelievable tasty dinner of grilled vegetables: zuchinni, crookneck, eggplant, peppers and corn on the cob. I slice and marinate all but the corn in olive oil, chopped garlic, salt, pepper, a bit of oregano & basil and some of my homemade red wine vinegar for at least 1/2 hour, then grill them up. YUM! Topped this meal off with a nice glass of Coates vineyard Syrah. Yeah, this local food challenge is tough...!

You have no idea how incredible this is!

Friday 9/7 - vegie scramble w/leftover grilled vegies for breakfast, fried pepper, tomato & cuke sandwich for lunch. I am a big fan of fried peppers & grow special Italian Frying Peppers every year just for this. Seed & split the pepper & fry in a dry pan until soft and w/ brown spots on both sides. Have to hold it down with the spatula in the beginning until the soften a bit. De-lish!
Back in town overnight at a friend's, I brought vegies Dinner was sauteed vegies & corn on the cob with bread and Cypress Grove cheeses on the side & some wonderful wine from Briceland winery

Sat. 9/8 - In town for the Natural Fiber Fair, Breakfasted on Loleta Bakery 9-grain Toast with local Zimmerman BlackRaspberry jam & a dollop of Organic valley cottage Cheese. Some of our local Humboldt dairys do send milk to Organic Valley so, hopefully, this wasn't to big of a stretch.
At the Fiber fair were the most wonderful catered delights in the kitchen. I had a lovely local salad & focaccia with caramalized onions.
Once home I supped on Loleta Cheese cheddar and toast with a lovely cup of tea.

Sunday 9/9 - Tea, a vegie/egg scramble to start the day
Another variation on my fried pepper sandwich with pesto, tomato and chevre  for lunch. These are all amazingly delicious! Even my visiting granddaughters think so.

Fresh tomato/zucchini sauce simmering

With the help of the girls we made spaghetti from scratch. Organic flour from Guisto's and our farm fresh eggs for the noodles. tomatoes, onion, garlic, zuchinni & fresh herbs for the sauce and also a bit of fresh basil pesto, made with almonds from near Chico. With a fresh cucumber and tomato salad on the side, dressed with oilve oil and my homemade red wine vinegar, it was a fabulous company feast.

Monday 9/10 - Tea! Lovely Shakefore hot cracked oat cereal with Humboldt creamery butter, honey from Carlotta, & sliced Asian Pear from our tree. Yum!
Lunch was our favorite blackberries with yogurt in a 1/2 cantaloupe bowl. The bowl, of course, is delicious!
Baked a new bread of Shakefork wheat, oat, rye and barley flours, and snacked on fresh bread and Cypress Grove chevre (plain, from a section of chevre log).
A very special dinner tonight of local salmon, steamed fresh green beans, crookneck squash and corn on the cob with a glass of the Coates Syrah. Ahhh local luxury indeed!

Beet Gratin

Tuesday 9/11 - Tea! A fried pepper and egg sandwich with a bit of Loleta cheddar for breakfast. Have I mentioned how much I love fried peppers?
A light lunch of toast and Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog
Dinner was a solar baked Beet Gratin. This amazing all local ingredient dish is easy to make:
On the side I had an artichoke our plant unseasonably produced, corn on the cob and leftover cucumber salad.

Wed. 9/12 - The Beet gratin makes a wonderful breakfast, too, with a slice of melon on the side.
Lunch was another variation on a fried pepper sandwich, with tomato, cucumber and chevre.
I was craving grilled vegies, so dinner was a heaping plate of marinated and grilled zucchini, onion, pepper and eggplant. A glass of the Coates Syrah and a dessert of grilled apple slices with a dash of Humboldt Creamery 1/2 and 1/2. Yeah!

We're really 'suffering' with all this local goodness - Oh my!

It has begun...

Humboldt Abundance

 And so it begins, a month of a strictly local foods based diet.
I consider this more of a celebration than a challenge. I can't imagine many places having a more diverse variety of good food grown and produced in such a small area.

Being right in the middle of our garden harvest season, we are surrounded by wonderful choices from fruit to squash, onions to herbs.
My plan this year is to make all the main foods be locally grown or produced, but allowing myself my tea (locally roasted coffee fits the bill, but no one produces black tea), salt spices & things like baking powder, yeast.

To get in the spirit of things and prepare I baked a loaf of bread using grains from Shakefork Community farm in Carlotta. I now use a bread machine, as I only need one loaf at a time, and came up with a whole wheat, rye & buckwheat flour bread. Other ingredients are local honey, sea salt, yeast & gluten.

Yummy combo - mmmm...

After starting the challenge with a favorite breakfast of Shakefork cracked (not rolled) oat cereal with honey and some of the first fruit from our young Asian Pear tree, we devoted the whole Labor Day weekend to food, canning beans, pickles, tomatillos, & mixed vegetables with barley for soup.

We eat a lot of soup in the winter, and I love to have a lot in the pantry. It's a great way to put by food when you don't have a lot of any one thing & the best use of extra summer squash I know. Tossing a tablespoon of raw barley in the bottom of the jar before adding the vegetables & processing it adds a lot to the finished soup in flavor and texture.

Menu Sept 1 - Tea, Humboldt Creamery 1/2+1/2, Shakefork Cracked Oats with Humboldt butter, honey & our Asian Pear
Baked whole wheat/rye/buckwheat bread from Shakefork grain (recipe)
Dinner was fried pepper, cucumber & tomato sandwich, cucumber salad
treat - blackberries, peaches & cream

Menu Sept 2 - Tea, egg & mixed vegie scramble with Loleta Cheese's pepper jack
Snack - gravenstein apple, hard boiled egg
Dinner, steamed green beans & Crooknecks & fresh corn on the cob, toast with Humboldt Fog from Cypress Grove.

Menu Sept 3 - Tea, Local and locally cured bacon from Hatfield's Meats in Mad River, egg and toast.

Making fresh linguini!

Lunch was homemade pasta with fresh pesto and chopped heirloom tomatoes. The pasta was made with Lundberg flour from the central valley, I'm not sure if it's grown quite within our 250 mile radius, but it could be. But my daughter and granddaughter were here making pesto with me and there was no way we were NOT going to have some noodles to try it out!
Snacking on Asian Pears
Dinner - Oh my! Tuscan beans made with my favorite Yellow Eye beans from Warren Creek Farm in the Arcata Bottoms, soft polenta from Shakefork corn, with a dollop of fresh pesto and chopped fresh tomato. I cannot tell you how delicious this was. Hooray for leftovers!

I think we're off to a good start.

We're Baaaack!

I've signed up again!
Rebel Localvore that I am, I created my own category - 'Extreme lifestyle'. My plan is to eat local foods for every meal with the exception of a very few ingredients: salt, spices, tea,  baking powder & yeast. If possible I will try to create meals that forgo much of those as well.

Again, I will chronicle my journey through the amazing bounty of our area. It all starts September 1.
To learn more, click here.

Some of our local bounty

An Exciting Week... not just the food

Life goes on. To continue from last post, things were normal enough. I have been harvesting and canning the garden bounty as well as applesauce and drying some tomatoes. To learn more about food preservation and being a more hard-core localvore, do read our posts from 2009. But I digress! We begin here on Tuesday, September 20th, a work day in the Simmons Soap shop. Our local meal was Breakfast - fresh eggs and Loleta Bakery sourdough toast with our first ripe melon from our lower greenhouse.

9/21 - Lunch was my summer favorite sandwich - Cucumber, tomato and Loleta Pepper Jack on Loleta Bakery sourdough. I used our home made mayonnaise for this.

9/22 - Lunch - The amazing, ultimate salad! Not just lettuce & tomato & carrot & red cabbage from the garden, but sliced steamed beets and grated Loleta Cheddar and home canned local caught Albacore. Vinagarette of our herbed red wine vinegar. 

9/23 - this is the day things got exciting! I do volunteer Emergency Medical Dispatching. I'm usually on call one weekend a month. This was NOT my weekend. However, at around 1 in the afternoon a wildfire started up in Ruth and the dispatcher who was to be on call was evacuated!

I had planned to can Ancho peppers and had picked the peppers, which we grow in containers in a greenhouse. Anchos are fabulous big blocky peppers with an occasional bit of heat. We have been using them instead of Anaheim chilies for years. I can them for future chile rellenos - much like the canned Ortega Chilies you buy in the store (which are Anaheims). 

While I often roast them over a charcoal fire, we did it on the gas grill this time. Slower, but just as efficient. The aroma of the roasting chiles is amazing, and we got them all done with visions of a dinner of Chile rellenos dancing in our head - and that's when the phone rang!

For the next 6 hours I pretty much was on the phone helping coordinate information for the fire. From Sheriffs to Red Cross, Forest Service, Cal Fire, Volunteer Fire Departments, EMS personnel, road closures, evacuation centers and more, the beginning of a wildfire in an inhabited area is a mass of organization and controlled chaos!
Did we have dinner? I don't remember. I did have a breakfast of eggs and toast, so that was covered...
I somehow managed to get my peppers peeled and in the refrigerator to finish processing manana!
9/24 - Well, tonight is a benefit dinner and the official Ruth Fire USFS meeting. No rellenos tonight, but we got the peppers into jars, setting some aside for tomorrow's dinner. Our Localvore meal was Lunch - Quesadillas with Bien Padre tortillas, Loleta Pepper jack, chopped peppers and fresh tomato salsa from the garden.
9/25 - Yippee! Dinner - Chile Rellenos! A very special treat. 
Stuff the roasted, peeled, seeded Ancho peppers with a piece of Loleta jack cheese and dredge in flour. I used some Shakefork Farm barley flour to keep it local. Then I separate eggs (I used 3) and beat the whites until stiff. Now I mix a little salt (exception alert!) in the flour & fold the flour into the egg whites. Lastly I fold the egg yolks into the beaten whites.
I use a small 6" cast iron frying pan and put (exception alert!) about 3/4 inch vegetable oil in it (I'm using safflower)(I know they grow safflower as close as Davis, Ca.). I heat it until a drop of the egg mix sizzles immediately and browns fairly quickly. Then, carefully, dip the floured, stuffed chiles in the egg mix and add to the hot oil. 2 fit nicely in the pan. turn as soon as they brown on one side. When brown on both sides remove from oil onto a cooling rack over paper over a plate or pan. I use newspaper. It's just to catch the drips. Adjust the heat as needed to keep the rellenos cooking quickly, but not too fast. You'll get the hang of it in short order.
We had these with fresh tomato salsa and our homemade hot sauce, corn on the cob, and watermelon grown by a friend in nearby Larabee Valley. FEAST!
9/26 - I neglected to photograph the dinner before we ate it (sorry) but Breakfast - leftover relleno (heated in a microwave) with watermelon and scrambled eggs with some leftver corn cut from the cob & stirred in. Fresh salsa and hot sauce on top and Oh Boy! This is livin'.
9/27 - Poached egg on toast for breakfast with another melon, Honeydew, from the garden.
9/28 - Last Wed. of the month and our local Book Group chat & chew. I brought the delicious Zuchinni Curry and Cucumber Raita. There were local apples and grilled eggplant and tomato on ciabatta and many more delectable treats including a wine made by a group of folks who get together to make wine in Hayfork (Trinity County).
9/29 - Breakfast was scrambled egg with chopped garden vegetables: onion, bell pepper, summer squash... topped with fresh chopped tomato.
Tomorrow is the last day of the Eat Local Challenge and I have been saving for another special treat. I will be making the Eggplant Parmesan I came up with in 2009, last time we took the Challenge

Continuing Menu of Local Delights...

Oh I am lazy this year!
I confess our breakfasts are virtually all 100% local based (having chickens doesn't hurt), and often, that is the meal I count for my 1-Local-Meal-a-Day.

So, from where we left off:
9/10 - Breakfast: The delectable poached fresh eggs on Brio bread with grated Loleta Cheese

9/11 - Dinner: The wonderful Beet & Beet green Gratin! A solar cooked delight, see the recipe on our earlier blog post: Garden Delights: Don't that Beet All! With this we had a garden green salad with Napa Olive Oil and our homemade herbed red wine vinegar. We love solar cooking, and use the Sun Oven as often as possible, all year round.

9/12 - Breakfast: Leftover Beet Gratin with eggs on the side

9/13 - Breakfast: Our favorite Huevos, Simmons Style. Eggs poached in home canned Zesty Salsa, on Bien Padre tortilla with grated Loleta pepper jack!

9/14 - They had Cod Cheeks in town! We LOVE these local fishery tidbits. Sorta like faux scallops and inexpensive to boot. Dinner: Cod cheeks sauteed with my fish herb seasoning, fresh corn on the cob, and marinated cucumbers from the garden.

9/15 - Lunch: Green salad with home canned local caught Albacore

9/16 - Breakfast: Simmons 'Eggerito' Scrambled eggs in a Bien Padre tortilla with a bit of grated Loleta cheese and homemade hot sauce on top.

9/17 - A lovely picnic lunch on Arcata Plaza in the middle of the North Country Fair! We had Brio bread, Cypress grove chevres and Humboldt Fog, locally made bear/venison/pork salami, BBQ Humboldt Bay oysters from one of the food booths, fruit from the Farmer's Market and some Coates vinyard wine. What's not to like!

9/18 - Home again for a romantic dinner of grilled local beef, fresh corn on the cob and steamed carrots

9/19 -  Dinner: grilled local salmon, zucchini curry (many non-local spices in this - added up to maybe 1 tablespoon - but it had to be!) and Raita made with our cucumbers, cilantro and home made yogurt YUM!!!

Picked more cucmbers today, as well as peppers and squash and tomatoes... & will be canning applesauce and mixed vegetables for soup. This time of year is full-on abundance in the garden.
The Autumnal Equinox is this coming Friday, we need to enjoy what is left of this summer season.

2011 - Officially Localvorious again!

Well, we thought we'd sign up 'Officially' to the NorthCoast Co-op's Eat Local Challenge again this year.
 We eat local origin food as much as possible anyway, especially during the end of summer harvest, when dinner often is what came out of the garden that day. On top of this our freezer has a supply of local beef from a neighbor, chicken from birds we raised here, and locally caught fish, as well as canned local tuna in the pantry.

Of the levels available, I inadvertently chose 'Lifestyle Localvore' -

Lifestyle Localvore
For at least one meal per day, eat only locally grown,
raised, and/or produced foods with a few exceptions.
Exceptions may include: non-local spices, cooking
oils, vinegar, and spirits.

part of our 'garden salad bar'

I generally choose a more rigid level, but the type was small and the evening late and the link finicky. Ah well.
But I am content with my choice. If 2011 has been as intense for you as it has been for us, you will appreciate my accepting a lesser challenge.

Part of our inspiration was finally making it to the top of the wait list for ShakeFork Farm's grain share CSA (Community Supported Agriculture - learn more). We have always admired and wanted to support the CSAs in our area, but we give away flowers, herbs, & vegetables, not buy them... But the chance to get locally produced oats, wheat, barley, & more was perfect for our needs.

To accommodate the challenge, I need to make some yogurt, sour cream, and mayonnaise. Other than that, we're good to go, I think. Stay tuned!

So, let us begin.
One meal a day up to now:
Sept. 1: Breakfast - eggs from our hens, poached, on Loleta Bakery Sourdough with Loleta Cheese Pepper Jack

Sept. 2: Dinner at a friend's in town - Local wild caught Salmon, Brio Bakery bread, Arcata Farmers Market broccoli

Sept. 3: Breakfast ( at friend's. In town for Blues on the Bay) - Our eggs, Brio Bakery multi grain bread (Yum)

Sept. 4: Breakfast - same. We're sorry Humboldt Hot Dogs were not at Blue on the Bay this year

Sept. 5: Home again! Picked up some local Cod Cheeks at Eureka Natural Foods on the way home. Wonderful dinner of sauteed Cod Cheeks with my Fish Herb Blend (for which we grow lemon Basil & Lemon Thyme), garden salad & Brio Bakery Bread

Sept. 6: Lunch was a garden salad (literally) with home-canned local albacore tuna and dressing made from Napa olive oil (an exception) and my home made herbed red wine vinegar (see below).

Sept. 7: Just canned our favorite "Zesty Salsa" recipe from the Ball Blue Book, and used the leftovers for Breakfast - Huevos Rancheros of our eggs poached in Fiesta Salsa, over Loleta Pepper Jack on a Bien Padre corn tortilla. YUM!!!

Got Cukes?

Sept. 8: Lunch - Garden classic: Tomato & Cucumber sandwich on Loleta Bakery Sourdough. My all time summer favorite (when I don't have frying peppers).

Sept. 9: Brunch - cleaning out the fridge salad with canned tuna. Loleta Bakery bread on the side (end of loaf )

So far, so good. I should note that we generally drink water with meals. I do have tea in the morning, but not wioth breakfast and always with Humboldt Creamery 1/2 & 1/2 :^) Snacks here often consist of raw peppers or cucumbers or tomatoes, at least THIS time of year.
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Herbs & Garlic drying on the back porch

We have made red wine vinegar for many years. Nothing to it. Pour a bottle of inexpensive red wine into a clean glass jar. I use a gallon or 1/2 gallon jar, depending on what's brewing at the time. Add 1/4 c. Mother of red wine vinegar, cover the jar with a fine mesh cloth so it can breathe, but not big enough to let the fruit (vinegar) flies in. Keep in a warm, dark place. Occasionally add leftover red wine. In about 6 weeks you have rustic wine vinegar. I am happy to share Mother of vinegar (e mail me via Simmons Natural Bodycare), but you can use 1/2 cup of raw cider vinegar instead. Shake well before measuring or, better yet, just use the dregs in the bottom of the bottle. Bragg raw cider vinegar is perfect. For more information on making your own wine vinegar, see the 'Gang of Pour'.

We have many herbal vinegar blends that we make for cooking. I thought I'd pass one along here - a favorite base for salad dressing. We even made a gallon of this to use at the reception dinner for our daughter's wedding.
Again, the important thing is to use enough herbs when you are making the flavored vinegar - 1/2 cup dried mixed herbs to 2 cups of vinegar.

Recipe: For this blend use red wine vinegar with the addition of basil, oregano, garlic and black peppercorns. We use about 12 peppercorns and 6 cloves of garlic per 2 cups of vinegar. Let the mixture steep in a dark place and shake occasionally to mix. Taste after a week and, if it is not strong enough, let sit another 2 or 3 weeks. When it tastes right, strain and store in clean, tightly capped bottles.
To make the salad dressing, mix 1/3 herb vinegar with 2/3 good olive oil or a mix of olive and other salad oil, as you prefer. Enjoy!