It’s been a busy two weeks around here. Lots of house work, outside work, unpacking and regular life. Our local eating has been limited to what’s in the freezer and pantry and the few things that I’ve been able to find at the store up here (potatoes, onions, garlic, pasta). Not that we’ve been deprived by any means…

Meals included that chicken recipe I mentioned last recap which turned out okay, but not great. I don’t think it was the recipe’s fault, I think it was the chicken because the flavor was excellent but the bird was tough.

In addition we ate pot roast, beef stew (from the leftover pot roast), linguine with pesto, pork chops, hamburgers, french toast and bacon and various lunch and breakfast items. All of it local including the potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, meats, pasta, pesto, bread and eggs.

Our standout was Easter brunch on Sunday. While we’re not religious, and didn’t go to church or anything along those lines, we do always mark the holiday with a family meal. Mike’s mom joined us, as did my friend Heather who was up from Portland for the weekend. We made eggs benedict, potatoes O’brien, fruit salad and mimosas. I won’t begin to claim that the entire meal was local, because it definitely wasn’t. But the biggest parts of it were - the potatoes and onions, the ham (local butcher) and eggs, the butter and champagne.

I made my first ever batch of Hollandaise from scratch. Wow. If I’d known Hollandaise could be that good I’d have started making it years ago! Now I can’t wait until the asparagus comes in so we have an excuse to eat more…

April 7 will be the last recap of the year and will cover any meal between now and then. The official end of the challenge is March 31st. Thank you to everyone still cooking - it’s been fun!

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The Middle:

From Chile con carne with cheddar skillet cornbread, to pasta with portabella sauce, to sausage mushroom ragu over pasta, Farm Mom has been cooking up a stomach rumbling array of local foods. While she apologizes for the simplicity of them, I say that there’s no such thing as a simple Dark Days meal. Plus, she grew her own mushrooms for two of those dishes!

Anne starts off with her almost chicken piccata. Not only were almost all of the ingredients local, but it sounds divine! She followed it up with pork chops marinated in apple cider and served with roasted red skin potatoes and corn from the freezer. Finally, she made a big batch of deviled eggs for a potluck and finally found a way to prepare egg yolks that she likes.

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The West:

Anita and Cameron celebrated St. Pat’s day in style with not only a home cooked New England Boiled Dinner, but made it with home cured corned beef! She assures us that curing your own brisket only sounds hard, but I’m not so sure as I’d have to resist the urge to cook it too soon, and that can be hard around here when it comes to roasts. The rest of the meal all came from the Ferry Plaza market (need one of those here!) and included local horseradish. The rest of her post covers their other 7 local meals at home and 7 dinners out at locavore oriented restaurants. I stand by my wish to live at Anita’s house.

Putting her bread machine to good use, Donna filled us in on her local pizza recipe. Toppings included sausage from their pig, mushrooms, homemade pizza sauce and mozzarella. Anyone have any suggestions for how to keep the mozzarella from melting into a big slab? I’ve got the same problem with my version.

Katrina is back in the land of the living and “obsessed” with local food again. Her ode to no knead bread is excellent, as are her thoughts on what’s cooking now. Her local highlights were gems such as new broccoli and garlic in olive oil, spring asparagus, fried rice, Easter brunch of eggs with mushrooms and pickled peppers. Her thoughts of spring make me long for the days of summer when rain is a treat and not a downer.

Not to be outdone, Michelle reinvented a classic with a new twist and a no holds barred approach to cooking locally and seasonally. Her sweet potato gnocchi sounds delicious and looks even better. It makes me wonder if Mike would like it. Her stories about the spring farmer’s market are enough to make the least interested long to experience the magic.

After spending a few days out of town enjoying the San Juan Islands and local meals there, Joan celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in style. With Irish blood, her holiday meal pulled from family traditions as well as new sources. The brisket was even better than usual and the whole meal was topped off with Anita’s Irish Coffee recipe.

Idaho Locavore rejoins us with a local pot roast meal, complete with local carrots, potatoes and onions. And of course some of that famous no-knead bread.

In amongst all of their spring garden preparations, the Shibaguyz still found time for one last Dark Days post. They grilled a beautiful flat iron steak and laid it on a bed of spicy spring greens dressed in a crumble of blue cheese and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. They finished it all off with a glass of local red wine. As their final gift to us, we even got a picture.

Melinda took the week off, but send me her update via email. Local meals included lemon soup (lemons from her garden!) with sauteed kale and scallions, spaghetti with homemade tomato and squash sauce and pizza with local beer.

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The East:

When she hasn’t been sugaring, Kim has been cooking up a storm. Her meals include steak with green beans and potatoes, chicken tacos and tostadas, steak, asparagus and biscuits, and grilled hamburgers. You’d never know there was snow everywhere at Kim’s house based on her beautiful summery meals.

The last days of the challenge at Wendy’s house has been all about the “no trying” local meals. In the same day she not only made pork chops with whipped potatoes and salad for lunch, but then she turned the leftovers into gumbo-less gumbo. Yum.

Due to the croup (bummer) The  Purloined Letter has been lying low. Even so, the first fruits of the garden were on the table yesterday. The fresh herbs were sprinkled on wilted baby spinach, sauteed fish and graced with a light sauce of fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.

Danielle is busy with the first stirrings of spring, but still managed local meals featuring: braised goose in red wine gravy, curried goat stew over sticky rice, roasted chicken with gravy and biscuits, frittata mixed baby greens, salted bacon and swiss cheese and roasted pork tenderloin with turnip greens. Wow, all that and baby pigs too!

With a local smoked ham ready to roast, Sophie had to improvise when her apple cider didn’t thaw in time. Good thing she had  a jar of maple tree sap in the fridge - sounds delicious.

After rescuing his beets from their long winter sleep, Ed pickled some of his beets and turned some into dinner. The dinner beets were tossed with red onion pickles, overwintered arugula and blue goat’s milk cheese. That salad almost makes me willing to try another beet… Almost. And if that’s not enough, next he made homemade ghitarra pasta with pesto. And paired it with a fresh salad garnished with rosemary blossoms.

Continuing her lamb theme, Julie made grilled lamb leg steak with broccoli, oven-baked fries and chocolate bananas. No matter that the bananas, chocolate and broccoli were travelers, I think the dedication she showed her lamb more than makes up for it.

As she tries to keep up with the greens in her CSA box, Jasmine is finding new ways to prepare them. One new favorite is mushroom and kale triangles - so good that even a veggie hating friend like them. Also up was greens with couscous.