Dark Days Week #4: Meals 1, 2, 3

Still no progress on the Italy recap front – I finally decided to go ahead and upgrade my Flikr account and figured out how to add a slide show here, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten. I’m targeting Saturday as the day to deal with photos. So look for my recap of Milan and Genova on Sunday.

In the meantime, it’s been  nice to get back to doing some cooking. While I was gone, we got our 1/2 pig from the butcher. Now our freezer is really full with veggies, fruits, chickens, beef and pork. Wow – good thing we’re omnivores! Our dinners this week are almost all around 90% local. We’re not as committed for breakfasts and lunches as we both like our coffee and not much else in the mornings. And for the moment we’re taking local fruits, cheeses and breads in our lunches, but eating other non-local favorites to round things out. Oh well, we both have our biggest meal at dinner time so we’re continuing to focus there…

On Sunday night I roasted one of our nice big roasting chickens, a 3.5 pounder. I brushed it with olive oil, salt and pepper (not local) and roasted it in the oven. On the side we had smashed potatoes and steamed carrots (local) with butter. Everything but the olive oil, salt & pepper were from within 100 miles.

Monday morning, I took the rest of the chicken, carcass and all, and put it in the crockpot to make stock. I added carrots, onion, turnip greens and water and cooked it on low all day long. When I got home, we pulled out the bits and picked out the chicken meat. We made a nice chicken noodle soup by sauteeing leeks, carrots and turnips in a bit of the stock. Then adding back the chicken, fresh stock, some fresh herbs and salt and pepper. We finished off with some egg noodles (non-local but from the pantry). On the side we had a salad of local greens, cucumber (green house) and radish. Yum! The soup also became Tuesday dinner and lunches, and I’ll freeze the rest of it tomorrow. Everything but the salt, pepper and noodles came from within 100 miles.

Finally, tonight we had our first bites of our pig, from now on known as Herbert. We had pork chops rubbed with fresh rosemary and thyme and cooked on the grill. On the side we had braised Brussels sprouts tossed with bacon, garlic, thyme, cider vinegar (non-local) and honey. So good. I can only continue to look forward to eating more of Herbert with glee! All the ingredients, including Herbert, came from within 100 miles except the salt, pepper and cider vinegar.

*****

In other news, I’ve now set up my own grow operation in my kitchen. Mike is concerned that the neighbors may report us for growing pot, but I’m not sure that we really need to worry. A few months ago, my mom (hi mom!) sent me an Aero Garden. But since it was still prime growing season it’s been hanging out under my desk ever since.

Now that the dark is upon us, my herb pots are struggling. And I’m not good at having indoor plants seeing as I tend to kill them off quickly. So tonight after work I set it up and plugged it in. It included the sets for the herb plants and apparently we’ll be ready to start cooking with them in about 6 weeks.

Hmmm. I’m torn as on the one hand it seems slightly off to grow herbs under a light for the winter. On the other, it’s only taking two CFLs to work. And it’s got to be better for us and the environment than using dried herbs trucked in from 2,000 miles away. Right? Anyway, I’m really looking forward to having fresh herbs to cook with all winter long. And when the herbs are done, it seems that we can order replacement plugs and grow either salad greens or tomatoes instead. What fun!

Possibly Related posts (newest to oldest):

1. Dark Days 09/10 Week #14 :: Beef Stew
2. Dark Days 09/10 Week #13 :: Chicken, 2 ways
3. One Local Summer – Week 7