Locavore Challenge - Day 7

Breakfast -  apple and coffee

Lunch - meatballs, kale, sweet potatoes and caramelized onions
(I should have been reading, but I NEEDED to cook. You know that feeling of needing to get an idea out of your body - some people need to write, paint, draw, sing... I sometimes get it for cooking. I had this idea for baked meatballs with kale. I dreamt about it. I needed to making it. So I stopped fighting it and did. It turned out better than I thought it would have.)

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1 tbsp oil
1 small onion, chopped
~1/4 lb. kale, washed, destemmed and finely chopped
1 tsp zatar spice
1 tbsp ground cumin
1-2 tsp ground garlic
1 tbsp allepo chili flakes
salt - be generous
pepper
1 egg, beaten

1. Saute the onion in the oil till it begins to soften.
2. Add in the chopped kale.
3. Cook till the kale starts to wilt. Pull of the heat.
4. Combine all other ingredients and mix well.
5. Add in the onions and the kale.
6. Form in to meatballs and place on a baking dish/jelly roll pan (something with sides).
7. Bake at 400F till meat is cooked through - flip once during cooking so you get delicious brown crusts on at least two sides.

While the meatballs are baking...

Sweet potato and kale (its not pasta, but it goes well with meatballs)
1lb kale, cleaned and chopped
1/2 onion sliced
1 sweet potato diced
1tbsp oil
salt

1. In a skillet, saute the onion in the oil till it begins to caramelize.
2. Add in the sweet potato and cook over high heat, charring the edges.
3. When the sweet potato becomes soft, add in the kale and stir over high heat till the kale wilts.
4. Season with salt.

Serve meatballs atop kale and sweet potatoes.
Enjoy the fact that hodge-podge last minute, lets-use-up-food cooking turned out something decent.
Go speed read before class.

Afternoon Snack - coffee and half an apple

Dinner - left over chili and first batch of cornbread (I froze it)

Locavore Challenge - Day 6

Breakfast - coffee, chili and cornbread (cats attacked the cornbread, removed it from the chili and ate it when I went in the other room)

Snack - apple

Dinner - social gathering cheating
I broke.
I have been trying to get together with two friends for almost two months and this was the weekend it could happen. We met up for dinner and I ate non local food. It was too much ___ effort to find something that was local and gluten free. I had a horribly mediocre burger, sans bun and side salad.

Snack at home - leftover homemade apple sauce
See I am not "that" bad.

Locavore Challenge - Day 5 potluck

I braved the Whole Foods on a Saturday just to make chili. I must have lost a bit of my mind, but I really wanted to make chili. So 1 hour, 3 ingredients and about $11 later, I headed home to chop and cook my butt off.

Local hodgepodge chili
1 lb of ground beef
1 lb of chuck steak, cut into cubes
oil
1 large onion, chopped
ground cumin
ground allspice
ground cinnamon
salt
pepper
granulated garlic
4 cascabell chilies
chili flakes
2 bay leaves
ground cayanne pepper
ground ginger
smoked paprika
dried Mexican oregano
1/2 lb mushroom, chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
4 cups chicken stock (probably too much, but I needed to use it - I made it last Sunday)
2 pints of homemade pureed tomatoes

1. Brown the chuck. Remove from pan then brown the ground beef. Remove that from the pan.
2. Toast the spices (add more oil if you don't have enough from the beef renderings)
3. Throw in the onions and allow them to sizzle on HIGH.
4. Throw in the mushrooms. Let them cook a bit too.
5. Add the beef back into the pot.
6. Throw in the garlic, stock and tomato puree.
7. Stir, let simmer and the cover and PRESSURE COOK for 2 hours.
Cool, taste, re-season - mostly for salt and add hot sauce if you feel daring. YOU FEEL DARING

This might be the best chili I have ever made. I am not joking. Better than my 2nd place chili at the Abbey Lounge's Chili Cook-Off of 2008.
Normally I throw in a beer, or cocoa, but I don't think it needs it.
I through in the mushrooms as a stretcher - instead of beans - and they seam to work out nicely.

Applesauce
I don't think this could be easier, well if you owned a food mill it would be faster.
Quarter and remove the seeds of apples (as many as you like) leave the peels on, it will give a pink hue to your sauce
1-2 tbsp water

1. Put the apples and the water into a sauce pan.
2. Cover and cook over high heat until the apples become soft.
3. Mash with the back of a spoon or fork.
4. Remove the apple peels.
Enjoy!

Applesauce Cornbread
2 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 cup apple sauce (see recipe)
1/4 cup oil
1 - 1 1/2 cup water

1/4-1/2 tsp salt
3 medium eggs, separated

Preheat the oven to 350F
1. Combine the corn meal, apple sauce, oil, water, salt and egg yolks in one bowl. Stir to combine - you are looking for a thick cornbread batter. If you scoop it up it should fall in plops off your spoon - not wet enough to form ribbons. The applesauce is going to make it chunkier than normal - fret not.
2. In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites to a soft peak. (If you have farm fresh eggs this is going to take a lot of muscle.)
3. In three additions, add the egg whites into the cornmeal batter, by folding them in.
4. Pour into a greased baking dish. (I used and 8x8 but that was really tight. I would use a bigger one next time so it has some room to rise on the sides more)
5. Put in the oven, lower the temp to 325F. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. This took about an hour for me, but the oven couldn't keep a temp and I had to futze a bunch. 

Disclaimer - if I was able to use a leavener I would have. Whipping egg whites brought me back to my day's working in kitchens and realizing how much arm strength I have loss. I laughed at the thought of pulling out a mixer to whip 3 medium egg whites, but oh I thought about it, twice.

The cornbread was a little sweet-tart. On its own it was ok, but it was fantastic with the chili. It really helped to balance out the heat. It was appreciated at the pot luck and no one missed the non-local nor the gluten.

Locavore Challenge - Day 5 breakfast

Spicy potatoes, coffee.

More coffee and pondering how to make cornbread lighter sans leavener.

Locavore Challenge - Day 4 second dinner

Because I am a hobbit, I ate more.
I had some Cherry Glen goat cheese - I have had their silver and ash before, so I tried out there Monocacy Gold. I feel it is a solid cheese, but not really up my alley.
More collards, rice and caramelized onions.

I sort of want dessert, but I am all appled out.

Locavore Challenge - Day 4 dinner

Congee with the last of the apple chutney. So sad to see you go you delicious beast you.

Locavore Day 4

My grand plan of photographing and posting about everything I am eating has gone by the wayside. There are several reasons for it, but lets just hold on to the fact that "constraints" have messed with my goals.

Tuesday night I made some cornbread: 2 cups local cornmeal, 2 farm eggs, water, oil (freebie) and salt (freebie). I started it in a hot cast iron skillet, finished it in the oven. It turned out pretty well.
I am a northerner, so I did miss the sugar.

Since then I have been eating pretty much left overs: cauliflower and potato curry, collards, some of the chicken, some of the chicken stock, apple chutney. That has been my world. I have augmented it with some local cheese I found at the whole foods, and some congee I made with some of the rice. I had soup on Tuesday night - broth, collards, rice and chicken. Breakfast has mainly been the cornbread and chutney - which I finished this morning.

A few coffee shops have local milk, so that has added a new zest to my routine. (I normally avoid milk, but without almond or coconut milk I realized I don't like cheap coffee black.)


Realizations - I eat a lot more sugar than I was aware of.
Cravings - hummus, almonds, popcorn, toast, tea, sugar in coffee, BUTTER, potato chips (though I did have a few made with local potatoes, and it was great)

Overall, I find myself angry.
-I am frustrated that the refrigerator in the graduate lounge is disgusting and not useable for my lunch.
-I found myself eying a croissant with loathing and desire. Its something I haven't done in a long time. Its bringing back the feelings of first going gluten free. Seeing so many things that I cannot eat.

-I also realized that I overbought on certain things. I am used to shopping for two, and I feel that I could have better spent some money, but the week is not over.

For the record - I am eating aloo gobi and chicken and some coffee

Locavore Challenge - Day 1 Breakfast

Breakfast - black coffee; sweet potato, potato, salt, garlic powder and a scrambled egg

I don't normally eat many eggs because they make me feel sick, but these eggs were small and I thought I would give them a try.

I forgot about sugar and tea.
I also found the crock pot overflowed and most of the chicken fat was all over the counter. I was really looking forward to using that chicken fat. Grrrr.
Partner in crime assisted in pulling out the chicken, throwing the meat back in to let it simmer for the remainder of the day.

I packed up lunch and snacks and I feel pretty good about having enough noms for school. 
***
I arrived on campus, and the fridge in the grad lounge is foul, foul squared.
This is the place I hope to house my dinner. I am thinking it will last 4 hour sans refrigeration, but I am none too happy. I usually bring frozen food to school, so it thaws in my backpack and I don't worry about refrigeration. I might freeze the rest of my packed meals to avoid the nastiness that is inside that white box.
I ended up eating during class, which is not my favorite thing, but the food was good.

Locavore Challenge - Prep 2

I made the following things for the future of me:

modified aloo gobi (cauliflower and potato curry)
collards with onions
apple, smoked cinnamon, sumac chutney (I wanted to have something sour)
sweet potato hash (for tomorrow breakfast)
chicken backs are simmering in the crock pot - this will hopefully result in some meat and some awesome stock
rice - its my 4th freebie

I did not measure anything.
I am weeping from the onions, but that's never stopped me before.

Locavore Challenge - Prep

Here is my non-local last supper, pre-challenge:

Homemade baked beans and a German weiner, whole grain mustard on the side.

I enjoy eating, I enjoy cooking, I am not enjoying this adventure.
It hasn't started yet. 
Yes, I know, but it has.

Sunday was the farmers market in Takoma Park.
$2.50 on 2.5lbs of chicken backs (they were out of stew hens and everything else was too pricey)
$13 on a half bushel of apples
$4.50 on a dozen eggs
$7.50 on potatoes and onions
$13.50 for collards, kale, sweet potatoes and one of the largest heads of cauliflower I have ever seen

Even before this weekend, I have been planning, scheming and thinking about ways to cut corners and costs. Buy in bulk; swap meals; think creatively about my 4 "freebies"... this has been a process.

So tonight I sit here realizing I have made a quick dinner and need to read, grade papers, watch a movie, fold laundry, shower, and make food for tomorrow. Yes, this is me bitching. This is me realizing I need to figure out what my last freebie is (coffee, spices, cooking oil are the 3) and get crackin.