Peach Blackberry Coffee Cake

Today I was feeling cabin fever. I broke my arm a few weeks ago and have been afraid to go out in the snow and ice so I've been in a lot.

On Friday I got my arm out of the sling so I have a little more use, and today I was looking in our basement freezer and found blackberries and peaches that I froze this summer. It seemed the perfect day to make a tasty summer dessert and break the winter blues.

I used this recipe from myrecipes.com. I had used it once in the fall when I needed to make something to take to school for my daughter's teachers, but I never really got to have it for our family. It was easy enough to make with my hurt arm, and the best part was I was able to use mainly local ingredients. The ingredient new to me this time was flour grown and milled in mid-Missouri by the Missouri Grain Project. Here is an article about the Missouri Grain Project from 2009. It explains that Missouri is #5 in wheat production, but none of it was being milled locally until 2008. The wheat is grown chemical free. I also used local butter, local eggs, and local fruit.

The best part of the whole thing is that it tastes like summer on a snowy, icy day.

Holiday Feasts

Holiday meals have a lot of tradition. In our house I've been serving turkey for thanksgiving and nice beef cuts for Christmas for a few years. The side dishes vary some, but between the two holidays there is always cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, some sort of sweet potatoes and a green vegetable. This year I was pleased to incorporate a lot of local foods into these feasts.

I have to admit, I opted not to buy a local turkey. Fair Shares had made arrangements with some local turkey growers, but my family doesn't really care for turkey very much so I try to buy a small one that won't have leftovers. Along with my non-local turkey though I had all locally sources side dishes. I was able to use a family favorite sweet potato soufle that is topped with pecans, using local sweet potatoes and locally grown pecans. In the picture above you will see it on the table next to pan roasted brussels sprouts topped with locally sourced cheese. It was a fun way to prepare the brussels sprouts, but not as good as some I had at Mazara a couple of weeks ago. They did a silimar preparation but added prosciutto. I'm going to try it again with some great berkshire bacon from Salume Beddu.

In the top pictures I feature grassfed beef tenderloin steaks from American Grassfed Beef. The beef was awesome. I tenderized it using a tool I bought from the American Grassfed Beef website, a Jaccard meat tenderizer. At $39.95 I wasn't sure if it would be worth it, but it has been a great investment. The steaks were wonderful. (but they may have been even without using the Jaccard), but I've also used it on chicken breasts and on a pork tenderloin. I also bought one for my mother. She uses hers often and believes it does make meat better.

With the beef, I served mashed potatoes and turnips. I made a mistake by trying to boil the potatoes and turnips together. The turnips take longer to cook so we had hard lumps, which turned off my kids. We also had sauteed apples, using apples from Schwarz Farms, in OFallon, Il, and a tossed salad with salad dressing made from jam from Centennial Farms, of Augusta, MO. (the salad included fresh veggies and sprouts from various farms) My mother made homemade rolls -- you can't get much more local than mom's homemade rolls.

Overall, it was nice to be able to incorporate locally produced and grown foods in our traditional holiday meals. We didn't have to give up anything we would usually have, and found even better flavors in most of the dishes.

A typical fast meal using local foods

Time and physical challenges have kept me from writing about our resolve to eat locally. December is crazy busy, as we are heavily involved in church activities, then I fell down some stairs earlier this month which as limited the use of my left arm/hand. The good news is I will heal, and my family has been stepping in to do more cooking.

This is a photo of a typical meal we will throw together on a busy night. It includes pasta, sausage, sauteed greens, garlic, olive oil, and cheese. This combination is one of my favorites. The hearty sausage, with the tasty greens has become a comfort food for me. I also like that it helps us clear ingredients from the refrigerator. You can throw in other veggies if you have some strays in your frig. Shoots from Claverach farms regularly make an appearance.

We made this wonderful apple galette to finish the meal (and use up the apples that were getting soft.) I always make an extra crust to freeze when I make a pie, which I had for the holidays, so we already had a crust ready. Roll it out flat and pile the apple filling* in the center, pull the sides up around the sides and bake at 375 for 40 minutes.

My husband used this recipe, but didn't peel the apples and used locally grown pecans rather than walnuts. I was really easy and fast -- apples, brown sugar, nutmeg and nuts.

Kitchen Tools I Couldn't Do Without

Since joining Fair Shares and eating locally grown/produced food, I have had to change some of my cooking habits. I have always loved to cook, but I also love convenience. For example, I usually bought bags of salad, pre-chopped garlic in jars, and have even been known to buy a pre-chopped onion for a recipe. Those days are gone. When we get our weekly share fromFair Shares there is a little more work prepping the food, but I find with the right tools it doesn't take much longer, and I know it is worth it. The funny thing is I already owned most of these kitchen tools, but hadn't used them in awhile. It's nice to get use out of those things taking up space in my cabinets.

Here are my most used go-tos:

Hand Held Cheese Grater

I used to buy bags of pre-shredded cheese for pizza, tacos, potatoes, everything. Now I am getting blocks of cheese from Heatland Creamery and Ropp Jersey Cheese so I need an easy way to shred it.

I love using this gadget. I cut a hunk of cheese drop it into the well, squeeze the handle with my left hand and turn the grater wheel with my right. I can shred the cheese directly onto pizzas, salads, or into a measuring cup for a specific amount for a recipe. It is also easy to clean. It comes apart and goes in the dishwasher.

Pampered Chef Garlic Press

This is wonderful. You can drop in a clove of garlic, with the peel on, and it will crush the garlic through, leaving the peel in the press. We have been getting wonderful locally grown garlic from Roundabout Farms.

This press is also dishwasher safe.

OXO Salad Spinner

This is a kitchen tool I

had to buy. I had a salad spinner years ago, but since the introduction of bagged salads I wasn't using it and got rid of it, which was probably good. It was cheaply made and was falling apart. I love my new OXO salad spinner. The bowl is a solid plastic and the spinning bowl can be stopped mid spin to allow the lettuce and greens to rearrange in the basket before re-spinning. It definitely gets out more of the water. I use it for all the various lettuces we get, as well as the greens and bok choi. I've found I can put a couple of handfuls of greens in the bowl, fill with water, agitate the water with my hands to get off the dirt, then pour the greens into the basket to spin. I then lay the cleaned greens out on a dishtowel and start the next handful. After everything is washed and thoroughly dry I put the greens in my green bags, which is my last and probably favorite Kitchen tool I couldn't do without.

Green Bags

I use these bags religiously and have had great luck. Lettuce, celery, greens, even cut cucumbers last longer. The trick is making sure the produce is dry before putting the items in the bag. I have not used them for tomatoes, because tomatoes need to be played on a counter without bags. I have used them for apples, pears, and various greens when keeping them in the refrigerator.

Thai Sweet Potato Salad

The last Fair Shares newsletter suggested looking at a blog from Overlook Farms for some new apple recipes. I did a little searching on the blog and found some other recipes that caught my interest. The one for Sweet Potato salad (scroll down the page) was perfect for my family. My daughters won't touch sweet potatoes, but love Pad Thai so I thought I'd give it a try. (we will be trying the Pho Bo soup, too. Vietnamese Soup is big in this house.) My youngest daughter, who won't try anything new, was asking for seconds. She said it tasted like Pad Thai.

I made a few adjustments to the salad dressing. The biggest changes were that I cut back on the mayonnaise because I knew my husband would like a less creamy dressing. I also used olive oil rather than sesame oil because I didn't have any on hand. To make up for it I added some toasted sesame seeds.

This is how I made the dressing:

Sweet Potato Salad

Cut three sweet potatoes into bit size pieces and boil until tender.

Combine these ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour the dressing over the potatoes.

1/2 c soy sauce

1/3 c mayonnaise

1 1/2 T ginger

1 1/2 T olive oil

6 cloves minced garlic

3 T creamy peanut butter (I used Sappington market's honey roasted)

1 T Chinese chili sauce

3 T brown sugar

I wanted to toss in some chopped green onions and crushed unsalted, roasted peanuts, but I didn't have either one. I think they would have added, but it was great as it.

As I said yesterday I caught my family dipping their tunrips in the sauce. I also saw some being put on the trout we served with it.

I hope you give it a try. Sweet potatoes are a great food and this is a refreshing way to eat them.

Italian Pak Choi

We recieved some greens in our share last week from Fair Shares, which I think they were pak choi. I did some searching to look for ways to cook it, keeping in mind I would be serving it with a garlic trout, found a couple of Italian bok choy recipes and used them as a guide.

Since joining Fair Shares I've found I enjoy some greens, but this has got to be my favorite so far. In the last minutes you throw in some fresh basil and thyme which gives it a super fresh feel.

I served it with a garlic trout, as well as the turnips and sweet potato salad I wrote about earlier this week. Here is a picture of the whole meal, including the last tomatoes from my garden and some bread.

Italian Pak Choi

One bunch pak choi -- remove leaves from stems and clean. Chop the stems into 1/4" pieces. Slice the leaves into 1/2' strips.

Sauté 2 cloves of garlic and half an onion in olive oil. When it the onions have started to caramelize add the chopped stems, sauté until soft. Add the leaves and sauté until just wilted. Throw in the about 10 fresh basil leaves and approximately 4 tablespoons of fresh thyme (removed from the stems). Remove from heat. Sprinkle on some ground black pepper and a little sea salt to taste.

This is one green I went back to have seconds on. (My daughter's didn't care for it, though.)

Turnip Greens

Tonight we had roasted turnips and turnip greens. I got the "recipe" from the Fair Shares newsletter from last week. It was really easy to make and a fun way to eat turnips. I left the leaves and stems on the turnips, washed and dried them thoroughly. Spread them on a baking sheet. Drizzled on olive oil and sprinkled on sea salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

The newsletter suggested serving with a fruit relish but I opted to serve as it. I found my family was dipping the turnips in the sauce from a Thai sweet potato salad that I also made tonight. I'll post about it tomorrow.

I liked the toasted turnip greens. And the turnips were fine. My older daughter thought they tasted like carrots. I didn't think they had much flavor, which was fine with me.