End of One Local Summer Challenge

Well, Becke said last week she was hoping we'd go out with a bang since this has been the last week of the One Local Summer Challenge. And I'm going to have to let her down. No big production this week - just a lot of good local produce and simple meals. We had a quiche with local eggs, mushrooms from the farmer's market and cherry tomatoes from our yard. One night we had a beautiful fruit salad - all from our CSA and other stands at the farm market. Tomatoes on sandwiches, tomatoes in salads, tomatoes in gratin and sometimes... just plain sliced tomatoes. Big red ones, dark colored Black Russians in large and small sizes, pear-shaped little reds. And they are cooperatively getting ripe in the garden a few at a time. So we eat a few one day, by the next evening more are ripe.

Last night was one of our simple, but all local and very delicious dinners. Aileen and one of her college buddies joined us. We each had an ear of corn (from the farmer's market) with a very lovely gratin made with zucchini and tomatoes (both from the garden). Then, having had a fairly light dinner, we enjoyed a raspberry (backyard frozen earlier) and peach (farm market) crisp. Aileen happened to have brought a pint of "Ginger Dream" ice cream made by one of her neighbors last week which went extremely well with the crisp.

The recipe for this gratin was in "the Oregonian" last week. Needless to say - a recipe using summer squash and tomatoes, both making big appearances in our garden - I cut it out immediately. Here's a link to the recipe and a photo:
Zucchini and Summer Squash Gratin with Parmesan and Fresh Thyme


The picture was taken shortly after I started cooking it. And, then, when it was done, I forgot to take an "after" picture. But, this gives an idea of what it looked like.

So, local eating will continue here since we are now in the season where the choices are plentiful and will be for a while into the early fall. But the crushing pressure of producing a report every week will be lifted. Whew!!

One Local Summer

I went looking for something new and different to do with sole this evening and found something on Epicurious that included a few other things I wanted to use and was written by Jamie Oliver, a favorite of Jeff's. I varied the recipe quite a bit and, fortunately, it still turned out to be wonderful. The green beans were steamed just plain and the potatoes were roasted.

So, here is the rundown on this meal for my One Local Summer report:
tomatoes, swiss chard, basil - our garden
other tomatoes, green beans, new potatoes, garlic - our CSA and the farmer's market
dover sole - caught in Oregon
white wine - not local

Here's the recipe from Epicurious. I'll describe my variations at the end.

Pan-Baked Lemon Sole with Spinach, Olives, and Tomatoes by Jamie Oliver

Adapted from Happy Days with the Naked Chef

• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup Chardonnay or other dry white wine
• 1 (28- or 32-oz) can whole tomatoes in juice
• Fine sea salt to taste
• 1/2 cup brine-cured black olives (3 oz), pitted
• 1/4 cup packed fresh basil leaves
• 1 flat anchovy fillet
• 4 (7-oz) lemon sole fillets
• 5 oz baby spinach

Make sauce:
Cook garlic in 2 tablespoons oil in a 2-quart flameproof gratin dish over moderate heat (on stovetop), stirring until softened (but with no change in color), 1 to 2 minutes. Add wine and boil until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice, breaking them up with a spoon, and gently simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 20 minutes. Add sea salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat.

Prepare fish while sauce simmers:
Preheat oven to 400°F.

Pulse olives, basil, and anchovy to a coarse paste in a food processor (or finely chop with a knife). Add 2 tablespoons oil and pulse to combine.

Lay fish fillets, skinned sides down, on a work surface and season with pepper. Divide olive paste among fillets and spread evenly. Beginning at narrow end, roll up each fillet.

Bake fish:
Arrange fish rolls, seam sides down, on tomato sauce in gratin dish. Drizzle with remaining tablespoon oil and bake, uncovered, in middle of oven, until fish is just cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Transfer fish to 4 heated plates. Heat tomato sauce in gratin dish over moderate heat (on stovetop), then add spinach and cook, stirring, until wilted, about 1 minute. Spoon sauce with spinach alongside fish.

My variations:

I had about 1/4 the amount of fish, but made 1/2 the amount of the sauce and was glad I did - would have been happy to have even more of the sauce. And these were dover sole - have to admit I don't know anything about lemon sole.

Used fresh tomatoes instead of canned, added a little extra water and a little extra wine.

Don't like olives and didn't have an anchovy fillet. So, the sole was wrapped up only with chopped basil with a tiny bit of olive oil.

We had a lot of chard in the garden, so I used that in place of the spinach - chopped it up to be about the same size as baby spinach leaves.

Roasted Ratatouille - One Local Summer

It being zucchini season, among other things, we are in that perennial hunt for "what is one more way we can use zucchini?" One of my favorites is ratatouille and we'd had it a couple weeks ago. But, I had found a slight variation in the Moosewood "Simple Suppers" cookbook recently. They suggest roasting the vegetables instead of cooking them on the stovetop. So, that's what I tried Sunday evening. It's the usual assortment of late summer vegetables, with some olive oil and salt and pepper - but roasted in the oven for close to an hour at 450. When serving, a bit of chopped fresh basil is added. It was delicious, sweet and rich tasting as is often the case with roasted vegetables. We had the ratatouille with a small London Broil steak cooked on the grill and a piece of wheat nut bread, with whole wheat, walnut chunks, flax and millet - from New Seasons' bakery.

zucchini, tomatoes, basil - our garden
eggplant, peppers, onions - Deep Roots Farm, our CSA
steak - New Seasons Pacific Village beef

The ratatouille - Before....

during.... (stir periodically during the roasting)

and after

First Tomatoes out of the Garden - OLS Week 9

Hot, hot, hot here in Portland. Whew, we're just not used to this. We generally wilt when it gets to 100, never mind 106! I've never been good in the heat and that certainly hasn't changed. So, cooking meals is just not an option. What is an option is eating out at restaurants with AC and eating simple meals that can be prepared with chopping and assembling. On our worst three days this past week, we had two salads here and one at one of those restaurants.

The best was last night's caprese salad. I have to say it was nothing unique or unusual. But, all I need to say is that the tomatoes came right out of the garden and onto the plate. It just doesn't get much better than that. They were still warm from the sunshine and so delicious. With the salad, we had bread with pesto. I did actually heat up the broiler and put in the pesto bread with a little cheese for a few minutes. All done quickly enough not to heat up the kitchen.

So, here's the local food rundown:
tomatoes - first of the season from our garden
mozzarella - have to admit I don't remember where it came from
basil - also fresh out of the backyard
olive oil - brought from Italy by our friends the Dawsons
white balsamic vinegar - I got it in San Francisco on our last trip
ciabatta bread - from the bakery down the street, Grand Central
pesto - made last week using our garden basil
cheese - Tillamook white cheddar


And, lastly, because Patty requested more puppy photos, here's one of Lucy. She's growing like crazy. Still pretty shy, but making slow progress on that front.


100

Fresh Crab and Zucchini from the Garden - OLS Week 8

We are escaping a small portion of the heat wave in Portland by spending a few days at the coast. Alas, we have to return on Tuesday morning and I believe that Tuesday and Wednesday are predicted to be the worst days - somewhere in the vicinity of 102 degrees. But, at least we will have missed the high 90's days leading up to that. It's lovely here in Manzanita.

I headed to the Little Apple grocery store to look for some fish for dinner. They're pretty good about getting in a variety of whatever is in seasons and caught nearby. There was a sign on the door that said: "Crab Today". No further persuasion needed for me - we both love fresh crab. This was caught near Astoria and I brought home one nice sized crab for us to share. I basically did nothing other than clean it and melt some butter, an obvious additional benefit to eating crab - no cooking!



Ordinarily, we have a green salad and some sourdough bread with fresh crab. But, for this dinner, I did something different because of what we have and what was available. Our lettuce didn't fare so well with our three weeks away. So, Grady pulled up most of what was left and planted new starts. While we're waiting for those to be ready for harvesting, the zucchini in our garden has gotten itself ready. So, I had brought down a yellow zucchini when we came to the beach. Recently, we've sauteed and grilled it, so I decided to make a stuffed zucchini tonight. I carved out the center of each half of the squash. I sauteed the zucchini that was cut out, some mushrooms, part of a carrot and some green onions in butter and white wine. Then I added crumbs of some Grand Central Bakery bread and a little shredded white cheddar cheese. Put all this back into the carved out zucchini and baked them for about half an hour at 350 degrees. There was a fair amount of extra stuffing, which I baked at the same time.

Before baking....

...and after

I looked for some herbs to add to the stuffing, but couldn't find anything that seemed appropriate in spite of this selection:

Since we loan out the house to other friends and family, we end up with a random accumulation of spices and herbs - not necessarily what I need at any given moment. But, it's always a challenge to see if I can use up any of this stuff!

So, here's the local wrap up for this meal:
Crab - caught near Astoria miles north up the coast
Zucchini - our garden
Green onions and carrot - Deep Roots Farm, our CSA
mushrooms - probably not at all local (but I really wanted mushrooms in this stuffing)
cheese - Tillamook Aged White Cheddar (Tillamook is about 30 miles south of here)
bread crumbs - Grand Central Bakery bread brought from Portland
Sauvignon Blanc- from New Zealand (could probably have found something that was made closer, but we had this on hand in the cupboard here)


PS: In reading one of the comments about this meal, I realized that I was a bit careless in the use of the term "fresh". In fact, most of the time when we buy crab at a fish market or grocery store, at least around here, the crabs have been previously cooked - usually steamed or boiled. So, in fact, they are cooked when we get them. But, I think of them as fresh because they came in that day from where they'd been caught and because I don't have to cook them myself.

One Local Summer, Week 7 Babyback Ribs and Green Beans

This is somewhat of a cautionary tale about finding and remembering recipes this week. I always read the food section of the newspaper each week and I also read a variety of food blogs - recently, the folks around the country who are participating in the One Local Summer eat local challenge. Earlier this week, I remember reading more than one or two descriptions of preparing ribs. And I also saw a recipe for green beans, using a little maple syrup, that sounded interesting. Then, I happened to see that Sheridan was having Carlton Farms babyback ribs at what looked to be a good price. And I got green beans from the CSA. So, I went back to look for those recipes I'd seen. And, of course (!) I couldn't find any of them. I don't know why I read things and think I'll remember where to come back to find them. I think I need to do more bookmarking of online recipes and more cutting out of newspaper ideas.

But, obviously, there are lots of ways to cook green beans and ribs. As it turns out, we have some locally made barbecue sauce in the fridge and it seemed to make sense to use that rather than make something new from scratch - especially since it was a warm day and less time in the kitchen sounded better than more. So, the ribs got the "Ooga Booga" treatment - with advice from the butcher at Sheridan on how to cook them. And, in a happy coincidence, while looking for the previous recipes, I found a nice description of a treatment of green beans in the blog of another OLS participant: Versatile Green Beans by Ami at Writing:My Life . She used tomatoes, onions and garlic (which I had on hand), basil (which I have in the garden) and goat cheese (had a small chunk leftover from the anniversary party). I also roasted some fairly local small potatoes with a little olive oil and salt and pepper.

Here is the rundown of where our dinner tonight came from:
Babyback ribs - Carlton Farms, Yamhill Valley
Ooga Booga BBQ Sauce - made in Northeast Portland
German butterball potatoes - from "Oregon" (according to New Seasons market)
Green Beans, tomatoes, and onions- from Deep Roots Farm, our CSA
Garlic - farmer's market
Basil - our backyard
Goat cheese - Rivers Edge, Logsden, Oregon

We had spent most of the week eating leftovers from our anniversary party, and had two dinners out. So, today was really the first time I was doing any serious cooking this week.

Back From Norway - One Local Summer, Week 6

Yes, we're back from our adventures in Norway and France. More on that later.
In the meantime, I wanted to make a quick report for the One Local Summer Challenge since I missed out on weeks 2-5. And even this is a bit late, but I can chime in on the comments section.

This is not about a whole meal, but one thing that I made for our anniversary party Saturday night. We celebrated 35 years this week, so decided to have a party and invite what turned out to be about 35 friends. We had three people who were at our wedding with us - my sister, Grady's sister and our best man. We have fabulous contributions from friends and family, cooked a few things here and got a couple of items from a caterer. All in all it was a lovely evening - good food, good friends and lots of catching up.

So, one of the salads I made was pretty much all local. It was a tomato-bread salad using a recipe from one of our cooking classes taught by Ken Hoyt at "In Good Taste" Cooking School. The tomatoes and onions came from our CSA (Deep Roots Farm), garlic from another stand at the farmer's market, basil out of our garden (survived our absence - hooray!) and the bread was made at New Seasons. Here is Ken's recipe:

Tomato-Bread Salad with Basil and Capers
5 C 1/2 inch cubed French or Italian bread
1.5 lob tomatoes, diced medium
2 medium garlic cloves, minced
1/2 large red onion, diced
1/2 C fresh basil leaves, julienned
1/4 C capers, drained (I forgot these)
1/4 C olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar (I actually used a white wine vinegar because I didn't realize I was almost out of red wine vinegar)
salt and ground black pepper, to taste.

Put bread cubes in middle of 250 degree oven until bread is dried out, about 30 min.
Combine tomatoes and garlic in medium bowl; stir and let stand until juicy, about 30 min.
Add all remaining ingredients (reserving bread) and fold to combine. Ten minutes prior to serving, add the bread cubes; toss again. Adjust seasoning, including pepper, to taste.

Since I was making this the day of the party, and was just a tad bit busy, I didn't remember to take a picture. But, it both looked and tasted quite wonderful.



Later, I'll do a post on some of the local foods we ate in Norway.

Pasta with Spring Vegetables in Light, Lemony Cream Saucie - One Local Summer WEek 1

One Local Summer Begins this week. Our west region's activities will be moderated by Becke at Columbus Foodie. It's great to find a new food blog with beautiful photographs and great ideas.

We started out the week with a dinner inspired by a recipe in "The Oregonian" recently. In the category of great minds think alike, I was at Jeff's house recently and he had made the same thing. We both made several modifications, but the basic recipe was a terrific starting point. You can go to this link to see the original newspaper version.

I made made a trip to the farmer's market this weekend and had new spring veggies I wanted to use. I also had gotten some spinach fettucine at the market. A cool thing about this recipe is that it does use some cream, but it is fairly minimal, and yet still makes a very nice sauce. You reduce some chicken broth (no, not a vegetarian recipe inspite of its name) by about half, add the cream and reduce further, adding lemon zest after taking it off the heat. Then toss in the veggies, some parmesan cheese and fresh herbs.

The biggest change that both Jeff and I made was to saute the vegetables in a very small amount of oil, rather than steam them. We both wanted to use mushrooms and steamed mushrooms just doesn't sound very good at all. In mine, I used fresh peas, leeks, sweet onion, baby carrots, zucchini and shitakes. Plus, Grady had brought up some green beans from last year's CSA that we still had in the freezer, so I added some of those as well. For the fresh herbs, I used chives and basil out of our garden. The meal was completed with a salad using three types of lettuce from our garden plus some a raw version of the same things we put in the pasta.

So, in the category of local foods in this meal were all the vegetables, the pasta, chicken broth and cream. Not local in Oregon, but important, were the lemon and the parmesan.

I didn't manage to remember to take a picture before we ate the pasta. Not back in the routine yet. But, here is a substitution:

our farmer's market goodies from this week. We have joined an alternative form of a CSA with Deep Roots Farm. Instead of having a box delivered somewhere each week, this is set up as a running account balance to use at the farmer's market stands. This scenario takes some of the challenge and surprise out of having a farm share. But, since we are going to be gone a fair amount this summer, this seemed to be more practical for us this year.

One Local Summer, Week 13

We've just returned from four days in Manzanita for the holiday weekend with friends and lots of local foods on the menu. So, I'll give a brief write up of what we had there. But, also, for my official Week 13 report, I want to refer you to an earlier post this week:

Curly Kale and Potato Soup

That one at least has a picture, although the soup was not particularly photogenic.

There were three families on our trip to the coast. We all have gardens and all three belong to CSA's. In addition, Jeff stopped at a farm stand on the way down and I went to the Manzanita Farmer's Market. So, there was a refrigerator full of wonderful local foods for us to choose from. At various times, we enjoyed:
red new potatoes with wilted chard
a saute of zucchini, onion and fresh corn
green salads with garden lettuce, cherry tomatoes, scallions, cucumbers
chicken ( from "Lance's Beef", a farm in Bay City)
pork chops (unknown origin - purchased at the little grocery store there)
frittata with peppers (some local, some not), cherry tomatoes, cilantro and Rogue River cheddar with jalapenos
french toast with local eggs and milk that I'm not sure about, made with challah made by a nearby bakery

We have been going to the coast for Labor Day weekend with these friends for many years. It has always been that last blast before school starts for three teachers, their kids and one guy who always has to put up with a lot of "school talk".

Although I don't have any picture of the food, I do have this showing a gorgeous bouquet that Grace (Jeff's neice) got for me at the Manzanita Farm Market:



Clearly a young woman of quality and taste. Grace is a soon-to-be sixth grader who will live here in Portland for the school year with Jeff and keep him honest by being a student in his class for his last year of teaching.

One Local Summer, Week 12

Even with my limited picture-taking ability, aren't those just beautiful?! More basil from our plants in the pot, but now we also FINALLY have some tomatoes ready to go. So far, only the cherry tomatoes are ripe, but the others are working on it. So, at least a couple of our local meals this week involved pesto and tomatoes.

My cousin, Carol, from Virginia and her friend were in town visiting this week. Since it was her first trip to the Pacific Northwest, I thought we needed to show them what we can do with local foods in Portland. I made pasta with pesto, Italian chicken sauage and cherry tomatoes plus a green salad. Later in the week, I made another batch of it to take to a potluck party.
pesto - basil from our garden (parmesan, pine nuts, and olive oil not local)
Chicken Italian sausage - made at New Seasons
Cherry tomatoes - backyard
Lettuce - backyard and CSA
Tomatoes - backyard
Scallions, red onion and carrots- CSA
pasta - bought in bulk at New Seasons, but I don't know its origin

Meanwhile, back in the garden - in addition to the arrival of the tomatoes, here are a couple of other recent appearances:

Pears

on our espaliered pear tree

and peppers

And, in the preservation department, today, I froze some green beans from our CSA and a bunch of rhubarb brought to us by a friend.

One Local Summer, Week 11

On Friday, I took a cooking class with three friends at the In Good Taste Cooking School in Northwest Portland. This is the second one that a couple of us have taken and it is a great way to learn some new things and have a lovely dinner. This class was called "Dog Days Dinner Party" - a menu you can prepare in the cool part of the morning and then serve on a hot summer evening. Little did they know, when the class was planned in April, that August 15 would turn out to, in fact, be a true dog day in Portland. Seeing Ken's comment to this post, I'm adding an quick edit. It reminded me that I had forgotten to put in the name of the instructor for this class - Ken Hoyt. With a demonstration class, the instructor's ability to carry on an entertaining conversation can make a big difference in the enjoyment of the class and we really did have a good time. Thanks, Ken.

One thing on the menu was "Summer Corn Salad". So, for tonight's dinner, I tried it out.
The salad is made with:
tomatoes (Denison Farms in Corvallis)
corn (from Washington)
red onion and bell pepper (our CSA)
avocado (not local)
cilantro (California, unfortunately, since my plant is dead)
pine nuts and jalapeno pepper (can't remember where they came from)
and dressed with olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper

We had it with quesadillas made with local whole wheat tortillas, Tillamook pepper jack cheese, the same tomatoes, jalapeno and cilantro that I used in the salad. Turned out to be a nice summer dinner.

Our heat wave seems to have come to an end - for which we are all pretty much thankful, including Molly. Looks like we'll even have a little rain this week which should make the garden plants happy.

One Local Summer, Week 8

Wow, when I think back to the "Dark Days Eat Local Challenge" and the degree of difficulty factor in finding local vegetables back in December, January, February. And, then compare to the options now, it is amazing! The offerings at the farmer's markets, of which there are many in Portland, our CSA share, and our little backyard garden make it easy to eat local. In fact, the difficulty now is in choosing and in keeping up with the garden and farm share.

So, we've been having mostly local meals except for when we want to just try something else or are eating elsewhere. One of our best local meals from this week is the one in the picture above.
Grilled Pork Country Boneless Ribs - Sweet Briar Farms in Eugene
Marinted with Huckleberry Pear grilling sauce - Apple Valley Farm Country Store, near Hood River
Russian Banana fingerling potatoes, garlic and WallaWalla scallions - all from our CSA
Salad -garden and CSA lettuce, local blueberries, radishes and snow peas from the CSA share

That Huckleberry Pear grilling sauce is to die for. When we make our next trip up to the "Fruit Loop", I will want to get another jar.

Meanwhile, we've switched over a few things in the garden. Took out a couple of the lettuce plants that had bolted while we were in B.C., cleaned things up and put in some more chard and some new lettuce plants. The peppers and tomatoes are making progress, but still have a ways to go.

The basil, on the other hand, has gone to town. I pulled off enough from it at the stage it is in here to make 3 batches of pesto and still have plenty for everyday cooking.

One Local Summer, Week 8

Our week was chopped up again since I went to Manzanita for three days. I brought some of our backyard greens and some leftovers, so not much exciting to report on there. And, I have no idea of what Grady ate here on his own.
But, we had a lovely breakfast one morning:

Probably the last picking (sigh) of our raspberries and loganberries in the backyard.
I combined them with some Oregon Blueberries to make a Summer Fruit Compote (Art of Slow Food, Alice Waters). We had it on top of multi-grain pancakes. I have not yet investigated the source of the grains that I buy in bulk at the grocery store, so I can't designate them as local. But, the butter, eggs and buttermilk used with them to make the pancakes were all local. The berries in the compote soaked nicely into the pancakes and made for a delicious combination.

Today, I needed to make something to take to a neighborhood potluck picnic down at Ladd Circle. I started out looking for something in which to use the fennel from our CSA share since it was probably more than we would be likely to use during the week on our own. I think fennel is something of an acquired taste and I'd have to say that Grady has not yet made the acquisition. I found a recipe for Fennel Slaw on Epicurious and took this to the potluck.Fennel - CSA share
Cabbage - from Washington, not really local, but close
Carrot - grown in Oregon
Walla Walla scallions substituted for the onions - CSA share

It's hard to believe we are already at week 8. We've settled into some routines with our local eating. I haven't been to a farmer's market in a while - keep missing them because of being out of town. But, between the little bit we get from our tiny garden and the small share we have from Little Frog farm, we're in pretty good shape for vegetables and fruits. And now we have a locally grown chicken available at New Seasons, plus fish, beef and pork. I think it's time for me to pursue more about the grains as we move into week 9 - or when we run out of the flours that we have on hand.

One Local Summer, Week 7

Just back from our road trip through British Columbia, so tonight's dinner is the only meal I've made here at home this week. It was an almost all local meal. We haven't had chicken in a while and I had a hankering for it. So we've grilled some local chicken breasts that I had marinated in ginger, garlic and chili powder - based loosely on a recipe in The Farm to Table Cookbook.
Chard from our garden sauteed with garlic and some hot pepper.
Gratin with local fingerlings, shitakes, and mild. I didn't have time to look for a local substitute for the cheese, so I went ahead and used gruyere as called for in the recipe. This was also a variation on a recipe in Ivy Manning's book.
And, finally, a green salad with lettuce from our garden.


The potatoes look a lot better in the before picture than they do in the completed meal - partly due to my picture-taking abilities, but also probably due to the fact that it got overcooked while I was waiting for Grady to get back from a visit to the neighbors. (Always handy to have someone else to blame!)

I haven't posted any pictures of Molly lately - the namesake for the "old dog", as I explained in the very first post of this blog. The potatoes gratin may have been overcooked, but that didn't keep her from showing her interest. She was happy to have us back home and she always appreciates it when we eat on the deck since the table there is lower than our kitchen island, making it much easier to get her nose up close.



We did have a lovely dinner in Victoria that also qualifies for One Local Summer. I asked our host at the B&B for suggestions of restaurants that use local products in their cooking. He enthusiastically suggested three restaurants that he said were all very good. We chose Paprika Bistro and it was excellent. I started with a salad of local organic greens, green apples, Poplar Grove Tiger blue cheese and hazelnuts. Then followed with Cowichan Bay Farm duck with sour cherry and ginger sauce and a potato strudel.

A few more observations on our trip through B.C. later. I managed to come home with one souvenir I didn't appreciate, a full-on cold with all the usual symptoms. So, this is about all the effort I can muster tonight.

Eating Local in Pemberton, BC - OLS Week 6

I thought I would report in from the road and share a little of our local eating efforts in British Columbia. During the first part of this week, we were mostly just trying to use up leftovers and bits of things in the refrigerator to clean it out before leaving for 10 days. We had lots of lettuce from our garden and our CSA with all those leftovers. But, otherwise, it was not too interesting.

We are currently on a road trip loop through British Columbia, on our way to Prince Rupert (four days worth of north). From there, we take a 15-hour ferry ride wouth along the inland passage to Vancouver Island. At the moment, I am sitting in a park in Fort Frasier using wifi from the public library, I think.

Day before yesterday, we were in the little town of Pemberton, a short distance north of Whistler. Saturday night we had dinner at the Pemberton Valley Vineyard Inn and Restaurant. We started with a salad of several types of greens, and both red and golden beets from their garden.

I had wine-poached Pacific west coast halibut with Across the Creek baby new potatoes. The Pemberton area has quite a bit of farming and potatoes are a specialty. These were served with some zucchini spears and onions also from their garden. I don’t remember the name of the duck entrée that Grady had, but I believe it was also raised in the area. I also had a glass of the Pemberton Vallery Vinyard wine.

ncidentally, we had a lovely evening because of the beautiful setting and the fact that they were not busy. So, we were there three hours, getting to watch the sun go down and the moon appear and make its way across the tops of these mountains.

Sunday morning, we drove to the North Arm Farm. We walked around the farm a bit and then got a pint of strawberries they had just picked and pastries made in the kitchen there. They have a bakery in which they make pies and other pastries using whatever fruit is currently in season.

This is a cherry strudel. Doesn’t look like much in this picture, but it was so delicious. Quite decadent to have, basically, cherry pie for breakfast, but we tried to be more circumspect the rest of the day.
It was a beautiful warm sunny morning and we ate our breakfast out on one of the picnic tables looking at this view.

One Local Summer, Week 5

I decided I should just go ahead and write up one of our local meals now because we are eating out or with other people the next three nights and I don't know how much control I will have over the options.

Boy, I am loving this not working most of the summer. Reminds me of when I was first teaching. There is so much you can do when you have big stretches of time available. Today, Is started out doing some volunteer work in the morning, had a workout at the gym, and ran some errands. And, then, in the late afternoon, I rode my bike to the Eastbank Farmer's Market. We're lucky to have a couple of mid-week farm markets and both are in easy biking distance from our house.

Back at home, I picked basil and made pesto. The freshly made pesto with basil right out of the garden is SO much better than other versions we've had.

Our dinner tonight:

Pesto Pasta Genovese: basil from garden, potatoes and green beans from farmer's market
Whole wheat penne: didn't make pasta from scratch today - too hot!
Salad: greens from CSA; tomatoes, cucumbers and green onions -today's market trip
Pinot Noir: King's Ridge made in Newburg, Oregon
Baguette: made by the bakers at New Seasons

The Pesto Pasta Genovese recipe was in my new Ivy Manning cookbook. This is a variation of pasta with pesto that we first learned about from our cooking teacher in Siena several years ago.

In fact, all our meals so far this week have been pretty much local thanks to the garden, our CSA, and local choices available at the grocery store. It is getting easier and easier with so many options this time of year. I'll have to try to remember these good feelings along about next February when the choices are quite a bit less plentiful.

One Local Summer, Week 4 Report

We've had a few different local meals this week, but my favorite was this evening's dinner. The plan started out when I was in Manzanita and went to the great bookstore there because I'd finished reading the book I'd had with me (The God of Small Things). While I was at the Cloud and Leaf Bookstore, I found a copy of The Farm to Table Cookbook, by Ivy Manning, calling my name. So, I started reading the "Spring" chapter and found a couple of things I thought would go nicely together.

Spicy Minced Pork in Lettuce Bundles (well no lettuce bundles showing here, but this is the pork with all it's seasonings)

Watercress, Snow Pea, and Shiitake Stir-Fry

and Asian Slaw with Peanuts from Epicurious.com

And, here is the whole package. Pretty sloppy-looking picutre, but, being at our friends' house, I didn't want to take time to stage photos.

It all went together quite well and we've all had more than our daily ration of fresh ginger today since there was a good amount in all three dishes. The vegetables came from our garden, Cochran's garden and the farmer's market. The pork loin came from Pacific Village portk producers in Oregon via the New Seasons market in our neighborhood. Not local: peanuts, ginger, red pepper and lime juice.

And I'm looking forward to spending more time with Ivy Manning's cookbook.

One Local Summer, Week 3 Report

We've had a few meals that were all, or nearly all, local this week. But, I have no pictures. For the first couple, I wasn't thinking about it since we were eating with friends. And last night, I started out taking pictures during the preparation, but then misplaced my camera! Couldn't find it when I went to take a shot of the finished product. It has to turn up soon - I hope!

Last Sunday, Jennifer and I made a dinner for three of the fathers in our lives. We had:
Salad - lettuce, spinach, carrots and snap peas
Sauteed spinach
Roasted carrots and fingerling potatoes
Grilled stuffed salmon *
Rhubarb crisp

The salmon was wild caught from Bristol Bay, Alaska. Everything else (except the lemon juice) was local - either from one of our gardens, a farmer's market, or Jennifer and Ian's CSA farm. Even though I couldn't get salmon from the Oregon coast, I decided to go ahead and make the stuffed salmon for Father's day because it is one of Grady's favorites. The recipe came from his Mom many years ago (but I don't know where she got it.)

Last night I made whole wheat fettucine from scratch and topped it with a mushroom sauce. I sauteed the Oregon shiitakes, added garlic, green onions, rainbow chard, chives, white wine and cream. The chard and chives came from our garden, wine and cream from New Seasons, everything else was purchased at the farmer's market. Salad accompanying the pasta also was fresh from the back yard.

We also had a local breakfast while out at the coast mid-week, using Melinda's recipe for yogurt pancakes, topped with strawberries. (See last post).



* Barbecued Stuffed Fish (serves 12)

Wash fish quickly in cold water, pat dry. Rub cavity with salt & pepper, stuff with garden veg stuffing. Close opening with skewers and lace. Brush with salad oil. Place in wire basket on grill 4 in. from medium coals. Cook 45 min. until fish flakes easily with fork, turning 3 times and basting with mixture of 1/2 c melted butter & 1/4 c lemon juice.

Garden vegetable stuffing
(enough for 10# fish--salmon, cod, snapper, lake trout)

1 c finely chopped onion
1/2 c cut parsley
1/4 c butter
1 1/2 T lemon juice
1 clove garlic crushed
1 c mushrooms cut up
2 c dry bread crumbs
1 egg
1 c shredded carrot
1/4 tsp ea marjoram and pepper
2 tsp salt

Cook the onion in butter until tender. Lightly mix in remaining ingredients. If there is extra stuffing, place in aluminum foil pan, cover, heat on grill for 20 minutes.

One Local Summer, Week 2 Report

Our dinner this evening:
Black Cod (troll caught in Columbia River): Hollywood Farm Market
(grilled after marinating in olive oil, garden cilantro, salt and pepper)
Salad: cilantro and 3 kinds of lettuce from our garden, carrots and onions from Sweet Leaf Farm, Rogue Creamery blue cheese (OK, Central Point, Oregon is quite a bit more than 100 miles from here, so technically, not local as in 100 mile radius, but it's in the same state after all and darn good blue cheese)
Red Potatoes with Wilted Greens: potatoes and garlic from Sweet Leaf Farm, rainbow chard and chives from our garden
"Peace Bomb" bread by Dave's Killer Bread at Portland State Farmer's Market

Otherwise, it has been a week of eating elsewhere (Sun, Wed, Thurs, Fri) - still the season of retirement parties, dinners before seeing a play, and visits from out of town friends.

Hooray, the sun has FINALLY returned to the northwest and we feel like we are actually getting some summer here in Portland. I enjoyed a nice bike ride to the downtown Farmer's market today only to find that half the population of Portland also thought it was a terrific time to go to the market. All I could think of, as I elbowed my way through the crowds, was that farmer's markets were one of the early items in the list of "Stuff White People Like".

Meanwhile, still no evidence that the raspberries or loganberries are even close. :(
But, we're ready - our new freezer has been delivered and is ready to go!

One Local Summer, Week 1 Report

It's time for the first week's report on our efforts in the "One Local Summer" challenge. And the story here on Ladd Avenue is lettuce, lettuce, lettuce, rainbow chard, various herbs, and - did I mention lettuce?! We have had some beautiful salads from our garden the past couple of weeks. If you're not from Portland, you wouldn't know that it has been Rose Festival for the past two weeks here. And, one guarantee with Rose Festival is crummy weather - well, crummy for me, at least. Really, I don't know why they always hold it at this time, but it is entrenched in tradition, so there it is. (presumably good for the roses) So, the good news is that our backyard lettuce and the chard love Rose Festival weather - cool and rainy.

But the raspberries are not so much loving it. Usually during the last week or so of school, I would be able to bring in a bowl of raspberries. But, this is what the raspberries look like at this point:

And the loganberries are not much closer:

But, we've had one fully local meal and a couple of "almost" dinners. The first, and my favorite, was actually a brunch where I made a scramble with local eggs, Willamette Valley farmstead cheddar, Oregon crimini mushrooms, troll-caught salmon from the coast, yellow fin potatoes ( the salmon and potatoes leftover from our trip to the coast). Also this week, we had chicken enchiladas one evening, where everything was locally grown or made except for the enchilada sauce which I had to buy ready-made because of shortage of time. And another evening we had a grilled steak (Country Natural Beef, Brothers Oregon) and polenta with roasted vegetables. I don't have a local source (that I know of yet) for polenta, but the vegetables were all from the farmer's market.

And, beyond that, it was a lot of eating elsewhere. It's the season for graduation and retirement parties and one 60th birthday celebration. We'll have more of that in the next couple weeks. But, I did bring home some nice things from one of the farmer's markets yesterday to complement our continuing crop of greens for our meals at home.