Dark Days Eat Local Challenge Recap - Week 1

We're off to a mixed start in the 2008 Eat Local Challenge that runs through the winter months. We have had some really terrific meals of local foods this week, but also had a couple of "survival" nights due to other things that got in the way of my planning.

Monday this week, we had my birthday meal prepared by Grady. Last night, we had a simple not-quiche - I guess it would be a frittata. I decided we didn't need a pie crust now since we will be eating pie in a few days. So, I just put the mixture straight in the pie plate, into the oven and baked it. In addition to the eggs, it had poblanos from our yard, diced fingerling potatoes, onions and mushrooms from the farmer's market, plus a local cheese.

With Mom newly arrived in town, I thought I would fix a nice dinner this evening. Because, after that, we'll probably be clearing out the refrigerator the next couple nights in order to accommodate all the Thanksgiving food.

So, the dinner I'm working on for this evening is:

roast pork shoulder Pacific Village pork (Banks, Oregon)
wilted rainbow chard our garden and some left from our last CSA share
Beans with pancetta and sage cranberry beans (Hood River)
recipe courtesy of Anita at Married with Dinner

This report will have to part one, or a draft, because our weekly recap for the Dark Days Challenge was supposed to be ready an hour ago. But, I got a late start on dinner tonight. Mom and I took a cooking class this afternoon and it ran quite a bit longer than I had expected. So, dinner is still cooking. I could add some picture later, or maybe it doesn't really matter.

Meanwhile, I do have this photo of the quiche-turned frittata from last night.



Update following dinner:
Since we were late, I didn't bother taking any pictures of tonight's dinner. But, it turned out well. The beans were delicious and were a particularly nice combination with the chard. The pork, roasted with just salt and pepper, was very nice. We haven't had a pork roast in quite a while and I'd forgotten good it can be.