Hello! I’m Anne from Green Leanings and I’m recapping for the Middle this week.
Farm Mom is my new personal hero. It took some effort to pull myself away from her extensive list of fruits and vegetables grown last year (and new plants planned for the 2008 Growing Challenge) and her delicious-looking homemade whole wheat bread! Her meals for the past two weeks included a beautiful butternut squash soup with homemade bread and a succulent roast chicken with all the fixings: roast Hubbard squash, Asian-style greens and cornbread-mushroom stuffing. Sorry to hear about the outcome of the mozzarella experiment (but I’m going to learn from your experience and use bottled water when I finally try it; I live in an area with hideously chlorinated water.)
Katie reported on finding local and refreshingly affordable ground lamb and goat, and now has me wanting to make her Ethiopian goat stew. I wonder if my local farm/butcher shop can set me up with some ground goat?
As for me, I had to try making meatballs again. Still no actual ball shapes (despite baking them this time!) but I think I am at peace with that. Along with a rather normal brunch (bacon, eggs, wheat/sunflower bread, and LOTS of butter, all local) and some pomegranate-glazed pork chops (served with mashed potatoes, broccoli, and baked delicata squash), I mixed things up with some Asian-inspired pork in romaine lettuce wraps. Thank goodness we have one farmer growing romaine in the winter, because I love the idea of lettuce wraps. I finally doctored up my frozen butternut squash soup (with carrots, ginger, curry and milk) and came up with a soup that even I enjoyed (despite my recent discovery that I don’t really like butternut.) There will be more soups in my future, especially since I won a 6-quart All-Clad pan from the Menu for Hope benefit – I’m still giddy with excitement, because I am one of those people who never win anything.
*****
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Thanks Anne! You did an excellent job!
Anne,
Ask an expert for help with meatballs. (So, for example, the owner/cook at a small Italian family restaurant or simply someone who always seems to have perfect meatballs when you go to her house.) Make them once or twice her/his way, even if it means not doing it with local ingredients.
Once you have the process into your muscle memory with perfect success, then switch back to trying local ingredients.
That’s my recommendation!
-Katie