Fallling Off the Wagon :(

Whoa, it sure seems like I've fallen off the Eat Local wagon lately. In trying to analyze, it's not so much that we aren't eating a goodly portion of locally grown foods as it is that I haven't been doing much thinking or planning. Lots going on, including eating a number of meals elsewhere - at friend's houses or restaurants or Christmas parties. And, currently, I am in a clean out the refrigerator mode since we are heading out of town on Saturday to spend Chrismas in Alameda, California with my sister-in-law.

Now that I think of it, though, last night's dinner was largely local. I started out making a pork chile verde. It ended up to be more rojo than verde, however, based on what we had available. The pork and most of the vegetables were local. But, I did use some commercially canned tomatoes and am not sure where they came from. The whole wheat tortillas were made locally. But, we also had brown rice which is a travelling item.

The next week will be similarly haphazard because we will be on the road. Since we'll be in California, I'm thinking there will be lots of options that are local to where we're spending the holiday, but I won't be the one doing most of the meal planning. That will be a nice change from the usual large gatherings here at our house for Christmas. In any case, I should be able to get back on the wagon and do some more careful thinking and planning after we return. Although, my main farmer's market will be closed by then, so that will really add a bigger challenge to the whole game.

But, then, that's OK. My main theme of this blog is having more time in my life to do things I think are important. Never thought it would all be easy.

Fa-la-la-la-la

On the theme of trying new tricks, I have been curious about how to include a video clip in the blog. So, I am going to make an attempt with this high class musical interlude.


And, on the further theme of high class musical events, we had our last rehearsal tonight for my singing class recital on Thursday. Grady is nobly suffering with the disappointment of being unable to attend. His sister is conveniently arriving at the airport at the same time. I'm wondering how much he paid her to schedule that arrival time.

Brrrrr! Redux

OK, I don't know what is with my luck at outdoor shopping. When I went to the Farmer's Market last weekend, we had snow during the 45 minutes I happen to be there (keeping in mind it seldom snows in Portland). No snow prior to that and none since. Until today, that is. And, this time it came just when I arrived at the Saturday market (an outdoor arts and crafts market). No sign of it before my outing and none during the remainder of the day. I have the feeling I'm not going to be welcome at these markets anymore. I could have gone on Saturday when it was sunny and warm. But, I had decided to wait until Sunday so I could go on my way home from church. Another of my resolutions in my "new" life (i.e., life beyond school) is to think more about my trips in the car and to try to consolidate them and eliminate as many unnecessary trips as possible. So, rather than make a special trip just for that on Saturday, I waited to combine it with another trip in a similar location - and got the snow! I was hoping to buy some Christmas gifts to support local artists and came home with some cooking utensils in beautiful hardwoods from trees in this area.

I made another local meal this week in addition to the squash and pasta. It was a quiche which we had for breakfast this weekend. Eggs, milk, bacon, cheese, arugula and shitake mushrooms all from within a 100 mile radius.

I'm attaching a photo from the crafts market. Mainly all it accomplishes is to prove I was there - the snow was too light and my camera too basic to be able to see it coming down. But, I can tell you that those stands selling the fleece hats were very popular.

Locavore Week 8

Well, it's not really week 8 for me since I was a late joiner to the challenge. But, in any case, this is one of our local meals for this week - Baked Goat Cheese and Roaster Winter Squash over Garlicky Fettuccine. This was one of my more successful local meals since darn near everything came from easily less than our 200 mile winter radius- the squash, goat cheese, red pepper, fettuccine, garlic. The exceptions were olive oil, salt and pepper, and I have no idea of the origins of the crushed red pepper. Also, the salad items all qualified - lettuce, arugula, radish, green onion. Plus, it was all delicious! I used the delicata that I got on my snowy outing to the Farmer's Market. This meant I could leave the skin on the squash and it roasted up very nicely. This was another recipe from my "Best of Cooking Light" collection.

Brrrrrrrr!!!!

I have to admit that, when I think of going to the Farmer's Market for vegetables, my mental image is warm summer mornings or cool, sunny autumn Saturdays - walking from stand to stand, checking it all out, thinking about what I can cook that week and then buying produce from farmers in our area. It's more than grocery shopping - it's an experience in the outdoors, sometimes seeing friends to chat with. Ahhh...now, doesn't that sound lovely?
What I do not picture is 35 degrees and snow - rushing to the nearest stand and buying whatever they have there rather than shopping around. We seldom get snow in Portland, but, the one brief allocation of it came yesterday right at the time I had available for the market. So, I bundled up and went for it. In actual fact, it either got warmer while I was there or I got used to the cold because I did spend more time wandering about than I had originally thought I would be able to tolerate. So, it was a pretty happy adventure after all in spite of the frigid temperatures. And, who I am to complain when I can get fresh fruits and vegetables from nearby farms on December 1 in our climate?!
One of our local meals this week will involve that delicata squash, the red pepper and Nonna's handmade linguine that you see in the picture up there. Nonna, or someone who must be a very good friend, had hooked up a small heater with a fan to a canister of propane gas from her grill to keep warm while selling her pasta in the cold outdoor market. More on the squash and pasta later.

While still struggling to make meals with a high percentage of local ingredients during this season, I am now adding a layer of difficulty to my task - meals that are lower in fat and calories. Not that the two goals are incompatible, it's just more things to take into consideration when planning what we eat.
Last night's dinner was moderately successful on the former and very successful on the latter goal. Chicken and Goat Cheese Quesadilla from one of the "Cooking Light" books. I could have used local chicken, but am still using up turkey from last week. The goat cheese was from Fraga Farm, not farm from here in Sweet Home, Oregon. Whole wheat tortillas, onions, chicken broth and sour cream all local - not so the lime and I don't remember where the cilantro hails from, but assume it is another in the ubiquitous California supply. Those lovely green slices on top are tomatilloes from our garden. The recipe is also on the Cooking Light webpage.

Meanwhile, in my continuing journey to life after school, I've taken an important step this week. In consultation with my husband, I finally made the decisions about how to handle the retirement options and sent all my paperwork into the public employee's retirement office. Woo-hoo! It's official. And this afternoon, we are heading to our financial planner to get more advice on our long-range planning. Of course, this now means another challenge to add to the food planning - spend less money!

Thank you, Julia

Sunday night I made Boeuf Bourguignon for our last dinner with the kids home. It gave us a break from the turkey leftovers, but also presented some challenges for our eating local efforts. The recipe is an update of a Julia Child recipe that is on Epicurious and a favorite of ours. The meat was no problem - the beef from a ranch in Riddle, Oregon. The four slices of bacon are cured at New Seasons, and originated at a ranch in Silverton. The onions, shitake mushrooms and new potatoes all came from within our state. But, for some reason, all the carrots at New Seasons were Californians. I had thought that this time of year, I'd be able to get more local carrots. Might have been able to do that had I checked out other places. But, this is the dilemma I sometimes find myself in with the eating local challenge. I might find a product grown within a hundred or two hundred miles if I drive to several places that are not close to my home. Or, I can go to the New Seasons market that is .6 mile from my house where they make an effort to buy local, but sometimes get produce from further south. There are a couple of farmer's markets that are also quite close and would surely have had the carrots, but it is past their season now. So, California carrots was what I used.
The other dilemma was the wine. We have wonderful red wine grown and made here in Oregon. But, I haven't found any that are inexpensive. And, with two cups going into the stew, it's hard for me to justify paying $20 or more for a bottle when I can get a reasonable tasting, but much cheaper red for this purpose from elsewhere. I promise to make up for it by drinking lots of nice Oregon pinot noirs!

So, if you are looking for a nice winter dinner, this could be done with a fairly high percentage of local products - especially if you live in California. As my sister-in-law said: you can hardly go wrong by cooking a good piece of beef for a long time with a lot of wine and vegetables.