On the road

In the last six weeks we have done a lot of traveling, actually visiting 11 states in that time. I knew it would be nearly impossible to eat locally on the road, but we still tried and noticed a few things along the way.

One of my surprises was Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where my husband and I lived when we were first married 25 years ago. While it was a nice town, I didn't remember it as cutting edge. What I found on our visit was that Sioux Falls has grown up quite nicely. There were at least two restaurants I noted that were featuring locally grown and produced food. That may not seem like a big deal since Sioux Falls is in the heartland and has access to some of the best produce and meats available, but not everyone recognizes the importance of supporting local producers.

The other thing that stood out was the ease of recycling. Being on the road means we had a lot of cans and bottles from soda and water. We try to collect them in a bag to recycle when possible along the way. In Sioux Falls there were recycling trash cans throughout the city. That trend continued as we traveled west to Chamberlain, South Dakota, and on to the Black hills. I don't remember seeing that anywhere else in our travels this summer. For example we spent time in Tulsa, OK, a city five to six times larger, and the only evidence of recycling we saw was a recycling center at the edge of town.

In Indiana recycling was spotty, but the Hampton Inn was stayed in used biodegradable utensils and plates (made from potatoes) in the breakfast room. I was hoping to see that at the other Hilton Family properties we stayed at on our travels, but was sadly disappointed.

One of the reasons I try to eat locally is to lesson my footprint on the earth. Recycling is just a part of my daily life and is something hard to give up when on the road.

Turkish Lahmacun

Eating locally doesn't mean you have to limit your menu. Last night Scott made Lahmucan, a southern style pita topped with spicy lamb. He found the recipe in "Sultan's Kitchen." a cookbook featuring Turkish foods by Ozcan Ozan.

It was very easy, basically putting ground lamb, parsley, onion, tomato, and paprika on a crust and bake for 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. You don't have to brown the lamb before putting it on the crust. Everything cooks at about the same rate. We served it with tahini sauce.

Scott and I enjoyed the lahmucan, but I don't think it will be put into our regular rotation. I thought it had too much parsley and the paprika gave it to much of an after burn. The fun thing was using the locally produced lamb and locally grown tomatoes in a Turkish recipe.

Peach and Blueberry Pie

Last night we got back from our fourth trip out of town in the last six weeks. Eating locally has been nearly impossible and our food from Fair Shares has been given to friends, or even wasted at times since we haven't been home much.

I've been trying to make up for lost time in the last 36 hours, though. The highlight was a peach and blueberry pie I made this evening using peaches in last week's share (which my mother picked up for us while we were in Tulsa) and blueberries from the share the week before, which I had frozen for later use.

I had never had a blueberry and peach pie and wasn't sure what to expect. What I found was a perfect blend of flavors. The two fruits enhance each other to create the perfect summer treat.

It was a simple recipe taken from a wonderful pie cookbook my sister in law gave me, "Bubby's Homemade Pies," by Ron Silver and Jen Bervin.

The crust was made using local butter, King Arthur all purpose flour, salt and ice water. The filling was made with a few simple ingredients, too -- locally grown blueberries and Centennial Farms peaches, brown sugar, flour, lemon juice, lemon zest and locally produced butter.

Tomorrow I will post about a turkish meat dish my husband made tonight with the ground lamb we got in last week's share. We have also enjoyed some locally produced bacon, spare ribs and pesto pasta. It is so good to be home eating real food.

Zucchini Five Ways

Zucchini season has sprung. We have received zucchini for the last three weeks from Fair Shares and I am working hard to find ways to eat it. The first week I made zucchini bread using a recipe my best friend, Vicki gave me over 20 years ago. I have to admit making this recipe brought back many fun memories. Vicki wrote the recipe on the back of the invitation to her wedding reception. I smile every time I turn over the card and am reminded of the dinner reception at Flaming Pit all those years ago. Vicki gave me many recipes she inherited from her mother, and I treasure them all.

Vicki's Spiced Zucchini Bread

1 c sugar

1/2 c butter

2 eggs

1 3/4 c flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t nutmeg

1 c finely grated unpeeled zucchini

1 t vanilla

1/2 c chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 X 5 X 3 inch loaf pan.

Cream sugar and better, Beat in eggs.

Combine flour, salt, baking soda and nutmeg.

Stir 1/2 of the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Stir in zucchini (batter may look curdled) Stir in remaining dry ingredients, then walnuts and vanilla.

Bake 50-60 mins. Turn out on to a rack to cool.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Second I made Zucchini Chocolate Chip cookies, using the recipe I picked up from Heifer International. I think next time I'm going to use more butter and less baking soda. They ended up a little too cake-like to me.

And today I made Zucchini three ways for lunch -- Fried, sauteed, and zucchini latkes.

Fried

I dipped slices in milk, then beaten eggs, then a mixture of flour and corn meal, the fried in olive oil.

Sauteed

I sauteed some garlic in olive oil, then added the zucchini, some balsamic vinegar and some fresh oregeno and basil that I have growing by my back door. (I think I sliced the zucchini too thin, but it had a nice flavor.)

Zucchini Latkes

from The Farm Market Cookbook, by Judith Oleary (I think, I can't read the photocopy I made of the recipe) I saved this recipe from a local newspaper from about 15 years ago. I don't know which paper, and I can't read the cookbook authors name.

3/4 pound tender zucchini

2 heaping t grated onion

1 large red bell pepper, roasted, skinned, seeded and divided

1 egg beaten

1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 c milk

2 t minced fresh basil

1/4 t hot pepper sauce

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/2 c all-purpose flour

1 t baking powder

Olive oil for frying

1/3 cup sour cream

Grate zucchini through medium-fine blade (the recipe says to salt and let sit for an hour to get rid of some of the water, but I don't always do this)

Mix in onion and 2 T diced red pepper

In another bowl, stir together egg, cheese, milk, basil, 1/4 t salt, hot pepper sauce and pepper.

Mix together, add the flour and baking powder and stir well until mixed.

Fry by ladle full in olive oil over medium heat. Fry on both sides until browned.

To make sauce, puree the remaining diced pepper with sour cream. Serve with latkes.

(I also used this sauce with the fried slices)

Yield about 7 servings.

I've made this recipe for years and love it.

Please share how you are using zucchini this season. I'm always looking for new ways to use this bountiful vegetable.

Summer Cold Picnic

Last night I went to the Muny with my family and 10,ooo of my closest friends to see Disney's Beauty and the Beast. If you're not from St. Louis I probably need to explain. The Muny, is on outdoor theater that opened in 1917 and has been a St. Louis tradition ever since. Seating 11,000 people, is the nation's oldest and largest outdoor theaters.

Part of the tradition is arriving early and picnicking in the area. There are a few picnic tables just outside the theater, but many of us choose to picnic beside the fountains and ponds in Forest Park, taking the time to relax before the show starts. (It also helps with finding parking that is within an easy walking distance.)

The 2010 season opened this week with Disney's Beauty and the Beast. As usual for this time of year, the temps were hanging close to 100 degrees -- a typical Muny evening. We let each of our daughter's invite a friend to go with us, as well as my mother, which meant I needed to create a picnic dinner for seven people that could be enjoyed in extreme heat. One of the friends is also a vegetarian.

Black-Bean and Tomato Quinoa fit the bill. It has a light, refreshing lime dressing that really hits the spot on a hot evening, and it is a family favorite. If you're not familiar with quinoa, you should be. It is considered a super food -- providing protein, iron and calcium. The recipe I use calls for a pretty involved method of cooking, but I just rinse and cook like rice in our rice cooker. The only local foods I used in the recipe were butter, cilantro, and my homegrown cherry tomatoes. I can't get locally grown quinoa or limes.

Accompanying the quinoa I made deviled eggs, using eggs from the River Hills poultry alliance, and a fennel and kohlrabi salad, using locally grown fennel and kohlrabi.

Fennel and Kohlrabi salad

We received Biver Farms fennel last week, and kohlrabi this week, and I had never cooked with either one before. Everything I read about fennel talked about a licorice flavor, which didn't appeal to me, but, boy was I wrong. It does have a licorice flavor, but it has a freshness that makes it very different than licorice candy. It is a refreshing flavor that enhances food.

The kholrabi comes in a bulb shape. It is very hard, kind of like a hard potatoe. I sliced it very thin with my food processor and did eat a slice or two before making the salad. It too, had a refreshing taste. Together I knew it would make a great salad.

I used a recipe I found on line that said to make a dressing out of lemon juice and canola oil. It was much too tart for my family, so I added some sugar, salt and pepper. Everyone liked it. We finished it off at lunch today.

Overall I was pleased to create a cold picnic dinner I could take to the Muny that was primarily locally grown. I look forward to seeing what I come up each week as new items come into season.

My first harvest of the season!

Last night we returned from yet, another weekend out of town to find some tomatoes had started to ripen. Here is my first harvest of the season. These are small cherry tomatoes, and very welcome at our home.

It is a welcome sign of things to come.

Blueberries and Cauliflower

For Father's Day I wanted to make something special for Scott and use some of our Fair Shares produce. In particular I wanted to make Indian flavored cauliflower. He'd been wanting it for a couple of months, but cauliflower hasn't been in season until now. I also wanted to use some blueberries, but without making a desert or baked good. After a little internet searching I came up with hamburgers with blueberries. While it seemed like a strange combination, I also know fruit can be great complement to meat. It seemed worth a try.The recipe called for 1/3 cup of blueberries to be pureed with balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard and worchester, which was then mixed into the 12 oz of hamburger. You can see the blue flecks in the patties above.


The cauliflower was browned for five minutes then I tossed in cayenne, tumeric and fresh ginger. I left it covered on low for about 30 minutes for the cauliflower to cook until soft, then threw in handful of chopped cilantro (from fair shares a few weeks ago.) I think I could have cooked it longer, but the flavor was really nice. Next time I think I'll add some onion.



The burgers were surprisingly moist and had a really nice flavor. I put cheddar cheese on top of mine. Our girls missed the meal because they were at the pool with friends, but I think they would have liked it, too.