Eating in the Snow: Dark Days Update

Here at Chez Raven, located inside the beltway of Washington DC, we were blessed with almost twenty inches of snow this weekend!

My family spent much of the weekend sitting on the couch watching the snow, enjoying fires in the fireplace, listening to books on tape, knitting, and drinking warm beverages.

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We started the morning with migas (made with local eggs, cheese, onions, and salsa as well as home-grown parsley picked just before the snow--but non-local beans) and mimosas (made fresh with non-local clementines and champagne):





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I spent most of the day knitting holiday presents in the warmth of our house while David and our son shoveled the driveway, made snow forts, and went sledding.

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Our brisket dinner cooked all day in the crockpot. I added to the pot a few onions, some turnips, mushrooms, carrots, shredded cabbage, and dehydrated greens. Before serving, I shredded the meat and added it back to the liquid. We served the stew next to mashed potatoes.  Everything was local except the tomato paste I added to the sauce.  We enjoyed some local red wine along with our meal.



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Dessert during the snow was homemade eggnog with local milk, egg yolks from local organically raised free-range chickens (important if you're consuming raw eggs), and maple syrup from the farmer's market. The adults spiked with non-local bourbon.



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This time, we decided not to have our meals at the bistro table on our deck.  The lump on the left lower than the table is my chair!

Local Thanksgiving: Dark Days Challenge

We had a wonderfully quiet, almost 100% local Thanksgiving this year--following on the heels of a combination of travel to various conferences by both the adults in the family, work crises that took a lot of time and emotion, and lots of random busyness and its attending crankiness. It was lovely to take a day off just to cook, play games, and eat.

We have a tradition of splitting our Thanksgiving feast into two meals. This plan works well for both cooks and eaters.

For lunch, we made a thick apple-butternut squash soup enriched with local onion, cream, and hot pepper as well as some non-local spices such as ginger and cumin.



David fried up some fritters made with wild rice and frozen corn. The rice, while not local, is sold by the sustainable White Earth Land Recovery Project, an American Indian organization dedicated "to preserving and restoring traditional practices of sound land stewardship, language fluency, community development, and strengthening our spiritual and cultural heritage."



It seemed especially fitting to recognize the importance on native harvests--like wild rice but also corn and winter squash--as well as American Indian cooking traditions. The recipe for the fritters can be found in the beautiful new book, Foods of the Americas: Native Recipes and Traditions.

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At suppertime, we had our main meal of local turkey, pickled lemon cukes, pickled garlicky green beans...



...roasted Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes-and-turnips, and cherry jam (instead of cranberries--which we could not find locally).  The dressing was made from cornbread (the gorgeous Indian corn we grew in our backyard!), assorted winter greens from our backyard garden, CSA carrots, sage and rosemary from our herb plot, local eggs, lots of local mushrooms--plus local oysters!  We ran into them at the very last moment--and it was absolutely kismet.  Oyster stuffing may become a tradition in our family.



The meal was served with a local white wine. When David first handed it to me, I misread the variety and honestly thought it said it was Vinegar. Luckily, it was a delicious, perfect-with-turkey Viognier.

To end the feast, David made a not-pumpkin pie using the recipe on the back of canned pumpkin. He made a few exceptions: first, he used pureed butternut squash and carnival squash which he baked himself. Second, he replaced the canned evaporated milk with a mix of milk and cream from our Amish dairy supplier.



The pie was fabulous--a little yellower than pumpkin pie but sweet, light, and delicate. We served it warm with whipped cream.

We enjoyed the rest of the evening in front of a fire in the fireplace, sipping our wine and reconnecting.

Eating Local during the Dark Days of Winter

This year's celebration of the eating local during the Dark Days begins this week. While finding local produce seems easy during the abundant harvests of late summer and early fall, the pickings start getting slim once the temperatures drop and the amount of light lessons. The annual challenge put forth by the (not so) Urban Hennery helps motivate eaters to keep up the work and realize that what sometimes seems hidden is in fact its own kind of abundance.

Eighteen months ago, we started a tradition of Eco-Shabbat, or Sabbath for the Earth--a continuation of Earth Hour. We were originally inspired by Melinda at One Green Generation to have an evening off the grid. We've enjoyed the candlelight dinners every fall, winter, and spring--but during the summer, we usually loose our way when the sun provides the light to allow us to continue full speed ahead. Darkness doesn't point toward a slowing down until it is almost time for bed.

But now that the "Dark Days" are back, we've started again. Our No Impact Project helped us adopt the practice again more regularly this season. The official project guide gives a variety of helpful suggestions for ways to mark one day a week as an eco-sabbath.

For our recent Eco-Shabbat, we pulled the only successful spaghetti squash out of our garden and baked it up.  We served it with a sauce made of red peppers (from our amazing CSA), which we dehydrated last summer.  Dried peppers simmered in water--just as simple and plain as that, and yet it was astoundingly delicious.

For a side, we cooked up some mixed greens with an onion and some garlic from our CSA and from the farmer's market in town.

We also served a home-canned jar of "Not-So-Sweet Bread and Butter Pickles." The recipe can be found in the excellent canning guide The Joy of Pickling: 250 Flavor-Packed Flavor-Packed Recipes for Vegetables and More from Garden or Market.

For our dessert beverage, the adults at the table sipped our sickeningly sweet but oddly charming homemade Rhubarb Liqueur.  This little taste of preserved summer was a lovely ending to the evening.

Eating Local on the Road

I've not been posting much recently about our efforts to eat locally, but that does not mean we haven't been doing it! At home, much of our diet is sourced locally--so much that we sometimes take it for granted. Quite often, we realize half way through a meal that all ingredients other than salt and pepper are local.

On the road, however, it is a little more difficult. Our two week vacation to visit our families has had a few local moments--including one of my favorite annual traditions: roasted oysters, gathered and prepared in coastal South Carolina where my parents are from. Delicious!

Chicken Soup with Rice

I sometimes wonder if I've signed up for too many little blog games. Well, perhaps I can sometimes combine them. How about an alphabetical local meal?



We stuck a still-partly-frozen stew chicken from our local meat supplier into the slow cooker and covered it with water along with a bit of locally-grown onion. About 18 hours later, the stock was thick and smelled wonderful.

When dinnertime rolled around, we added some leftover local rice (well, at least it was local where it was bought) and assorted root vegetables, as well as salt and pepper.

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In February it will be
my Snowman's anniversary
with cake for him and soup for me
happy once, happy twice,
happy chicken soup with rice!

--Maurice Sendak

Hoppin' John

In almost a New Year's Day reprise, we made local Hoppin' John and collards.

Both the rice and the crowder pease were bought and grown in South Carolina near where my parents live. Although the beans are so fantastic and flavorful they need nothing more than a smidge of salt, this time I seasoned the Hoppin' John with some bacon from a nearby Amish farm.

The collards were from our local farmers market. I sprinkled my greens with hot pepped vinegar--which we put up during the summer with our own homegrown red peppers.




David and Son decided to do an interpretive dance of our menu:

Eating Local in January

One of our main sources for local food is an Amish Farm in Pennsylvania. In honor of the Amish who have sustained local agriculture in the area when so many others have gone corporate, we dedicate this meal:

Pork Chops with Sauerkraut and Applesauce, served with mashed potatoes:



The pork chops and sauerkraut are from the farm linked above. The potatoes and applesauce are from Twin Springs, a few miles to the west of Gettysburg, Pa.

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As we were cooking the meal (which was absolutely delicious), I kept thinking we really needed a side of green beans. But nothing green is fresh around here this time of year. We didn't prepare well enough to have our freezer stuffed with veggies--but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the mix of vitamins from the cabbages, apples, and potatoes would probably hold us through.

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Pork Chops with Sauerkraut and Apples

Pork chops
Salt and pepper
Sauerkraut
Applesauce

Season chops with salt and pepper, then brown them in a little olive oil. Put them in a baking dish and cover with sauerkraut first and then applesauce. Sprinkle with a little bit of water (maybe a quarter cup?). Cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour. Serve with mashed potatoes.

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Next time we make it, I think I might add some sauteed onions and garlic as well as some sauteed chopped apple.

Happy New Year!

Many cultures celebrate the turn of the year with special foods. Food is sometimes the way we pray.

In Japan, you eat unbroken long noodles and mochi to ensure a long and sweet life. Greeks eat cakes with coins cooked into them. Italians swear by fat pork sausage and lentils, celebrating the richness of the new year while hoping for the pennies at the same time. In Spain, you savor 12 grapes. And of course, the French find my favorite use of grapes: champagne.

If you grew up--black or white--in the American South, you probably eat a meal very similar to the one on our stove right now. Some people say that the collards in a traditional New Year's meal stand for dollars and the black-eyed peas stand for the coins. Others say you get good luck from eating beggar's food on the first day of the year.



While we were visiting my parents, brother, and extended family in coastal South Carolina, we picked up cow peas (a New Year's tradition even older than black-eyed peas) and rice from Carolina Plantation. Growing along the Pee Dee River are crops that have been grown on this land for almost three hundred years. We're thrilled to discover a local source--or at least local when we travel to my parents--for dried beans, rice, and grits. Time to stock up!

Leftovers

Still eating our local Thanksgiving feast--this time as pot pie. We chopped up some turkey, added some steamed mustard greens and cauliflower from the farmer's market, and dumped in the detritus of the pumpkin soup. After mixing a bit of leftover gravy with some milk, we poured that over the casserole and topped it with whole wheat biscuit dough (not from a local grain source, unfortunately). After heating in the oven for about half an hour, it was ready to eat. Easy and delicious!

Totally Corny

After a lovely dinner of turkey soup, we played family games which involved lots of silliness (including trying to act out "tofu" in charades).



We took a break for a local snack: popcorn on the cob!

Thanksgiving, Locally

Yesterday, my family was invited to spend the holiday with friends in Virginia. Over the years, we've become more like family to each other than we ever would have expected.

But today, we had our own Thanksgiving feast at home. Following our tradition of the past few years, we divided the meal into parts. Often we have turkey, dressing, and veggies for lunch and then later have soup and salad and dessert at supper. But this year we did things a little differently.

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At lunch, we made soup cooked in a pumpkin:





It is a great, flexible recipe that I think we'll try again next time we pick up a little pumpkin at the market. After cleaning out the inside, fill the body with chopped onions, a few chunks of bread (we used a locally produced whole wheat bread), some strong-flavored cheese, some milk, a little horseradish (we bought a jar at the farmer's market during Passover and it is still good), and a bit of mustard (alas, non local). Let it bake in the oven on a cookie sheet for a couple of hours, and serve with scoops of the softened pumpkin in the soup. Sprinkle with roasted pumpkin seeds.



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I spent the afternoon asleep while David cooked a beautiful turkey with dressing. We bought the turkey from our Amish dairy provider. The stuffing was made with the above-mentioned bread, red onions and shallots and kale from the market, local butter, and homemade chicken stock from an earlier bird. Absolutely delicious!



We served it with sides of smooshed rutabaga and roasted Brussels sprouts.

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We opened a bottle of cassis aperitif which we bought when we were in Quebec City. It is a perfect dessert wine all by itself...



...but we followed it up with a crustless sweet potato pie, served with whipped cream sweetened with local maple sugar. Wow.



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Our non-local ingredients were going to be only salt and pepper--but we each made a goof. David put a bit of leftover champagne in the dressing, and I put a sprinkle of flour and a squeeze of lemon in the gravy without thinking about it. But still--since this is our first local Thanksgiving and a very quickly-planned fiesta, we followed our rules pretty well. And it was an incredible dinner.

And thank goodness it was good. We have lots of leftovers in the fridge!

Dinner with the Moles

One of Son's favorites is Brian Jacques' Redwall series of books--about medieval rodents.

One of the dishes the characters feast upon--and an especial favorite of the mole population--is Turnip n' Tater n' Beetroot Pie.




We made our version for dinner.

First, boil up a mess of cut-up boiling potatoes and turnips (or rutabagas). When they are tender, mash them roughly. You can add butter or olive oil, milk or yogurt or cream, vegetable or chicken broth, or whatever you like in your mashed potatoes. Season to taste.

In a separate pot, boil beets whole. (You can roast the whole beets instead but you'll wind up with a much sweeter pie.) After the become tender, drain them. When they have cooled slightly, slip off their skins and cut into thin slices.

Saute some onions until they are golden. We took ours off the heat while they still had some texture and bite, but that is up to you.

In a deep casserole dish, put half the mashed vegetables, then a layer of the onions, then a layer of beet slices, then the other half of the mash. Top with cheddar cheese. Or some other cheese. Or not.

Stick the pie in a medium-hot oven (maybe about 375 degrees?) for as long as it takes for it to get hot throughout and bubbly on the top.

(Can you tell I am an instinctive cook? Can't I just say "cook until done"? But trust me: with this recipe, ingredient proportions don't matter and neither does cooking temperature or time.)

Serve with a good sprinkling of black pepper.

Yummy!

We served the casserole with roasted okra. Just toss them in a little oil or melted fat with some salt and pepper, then throw them in the oven while the tater pie cooks. One of my favorite vegetable dishes of all time. (And try Brussels Sprouts with the same treatment. Absolutely heavenly, even if you think you hate Brussels Sprouts.)

All of our ingredients were local--bought at the farmer's market or acquired from our local dairy farmer.

Sausage Strata

For the Dark Days Challenge (and for a local-foods dinner organized by friends in Gettysburg PA) we cooked a Sausage Strata (although I only rifted off the linked recipe):

From Rainbow Acres (the Amish farm from Lancaster PA which has a delivery arrangement with a group in our area):
Sausage (ground by the family's neighbor who is a butcher)
Mozzarella Cheese (made by the family)
Milk
Eggs
Butter

From our garden:
Rainbow Chard
Anaheim pepper
Tomato (the last one!)
Parsley
Basil
Chives

From the TPSS Co-op:
Bread made by the Spring Mill Bakery—a small local company which uses some non-local ingredients

Completely non-local:
Salt