Here we are, the first recap of the 08/09 Dark Days Challenge. I can’t believe it! I had grand plans of writing a big inspiring intro, but I find myself at 11:06 pm without a lot to say. So I’ll keep it short and sweet by saying that I’m so impressed already by all the meals the people came up with! We’re off to a rollicking good start and I can hardly wait to see what else ya’ll come up with.
I never got around to writing up the couple of excellent meals we cooked at home this week, oh well. Suffice it to say that the garden continues to feed us, both with fresh ingredients and with those stored away in the pantry, freezer and barn. I’ll have to get more creative starting this week!
I’m pretty sure I’ve already seen the highlight of my challenge, my trip to San Francisco where Anita and Cameron graciously hosted me for both a place to stay and as personal tour guides while we ate our way through the city. For all the details, check out my posts here, here and here and the photos here. Also check out Anita’s posts here, here and here for more details on what we ate and how we found and cooked it - her Flickr photos are even better!
On a housekeeping note, we’re still lacking for theme ideas. If you’ve got any, leave ‘em in comments this week!
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The East:
Heather brought light to a rainy, dreary day with Toad in the Hole for dinner. The name alone sounds hilarious, but it’s actually an English standard. Her version was made with venison sausage. It sounds funny, but looks delish!
While debating canned vs homemade cranberries is like it’s own version of West Side Story at Nicole’s house, the good news is she’s on the homemade side. This week she made Cranberry Quince Pinot Noir sauce in preparation for the upcoming festivities. Mmmm, it sounds good.
Mia got her post up early this week, writing about a dinner of kielbasa, potato and kale soup. Ingredients were a mixture of supplies from the union square market, her CSA, the freezer and the last grape tomatoes from the fire escape. And Mia, I’ve got no answer for you on the wine question - I find myself wondering the same thing all the time.
Braving the farmer’s market in 24F weather, Sophie not only secured ingredients for the holiday, but also for dinner tonight. Her ribeye steak, purple mashers and sauteed kale were accompanied by a local red wine. Hope the food was warmer than the weather!
Pam’s potatoes might be lost in the garage, but everything else was ready and waiting for dinner. She combined collards and beets from the freezer with homemade bread and “fake” chicken with spices. Pam, does that fake chicken have a happier name?
“It’s the effort that matters, and the things I learn from it, not whether I get it exactly right every time.” Matriarchy is staring the challenge off with exactly the right attitude. Joining the British bandwagon, her dinner last week was bangers and mash with sauteed cabbage and apples, giving this British classic a German twist. Yum.
Peg not only grew the beans and the spinach for her dinner of beans and greens, but the carrots came from a friend. I’m very impressed with her beans as I was too chicken to grow them myself. And I have to agree with her, spinach that froze in the garden can’t be that much different than spinach you froze yourself. Same same I say!
Kicking off the challenge in true Dark Days style, The Purloined Letter made a dinner of breakfast. And not just any breakfast, sourdough pancakes from home ground wheat and starter, with fried eggs and sausage. I may have to try this just to play around with the sourdough / soda volcano effect.
Jenn found dinner at the last Tarrytown market of the year. She roasted an acorn squash and stuffed it with roasted broccoli, cauliflower, purple potatoes, leeks, carrots and fennel. Like a small bouquet of veggies!
Looking forward to the inspiration of what other’s are making, Kim started off the challenge with two dinners. The first was corn, bacon and shrimp chowder that made use of both the slow cooker and the rice cooker. The second was a spicy lentil chili featuring italian sausage and homemade beef stock.
Zoa has set herself an aggressive 25 mile radius for this year’s challenge! Her first meals included butternut and leek soup with homemade mozzarella and roasted chicken with baked sweet potato and swiss chard. It might not have all made the milage cut-off, but it sounds pretty good to me.
Mangochild managed to eat almost every meal this week using local ingredients! Her list of meals and ingredients was massively impressive when she emailed it to me. I can’t wait to see what else she conjures up this winter!
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The Midwest:
Anne joins us with a dinner of apple and maple sausage crumbled over braised lacinato kale. On the side was a slice or two of white acorn squash with a bit of maple sugar. I’d say she’s off to a good start on her new and interesting recipe goal - I don’t like kale and even I’d be willing to give this a try!
A breakfast of whole grain pumpkin pancakes, local hame and homemade applesauce made a fantastic breakfast at Karen’s house. With a pantry and freezer full of local goodies I can’t wait to see what else she cooks up this winter.
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The South:
While it’s not that dark in Texas and the garden is still producing, Donna’s meal still looks like winter. Dinner included a baby green salad, sauteed chard, sliced red potatoes and roasted egg plant. I’m delighted to see that even in Texas winter food includes chard!
Lucky enough to find a winter farmer’s market, Caitlin had her pick of local winter produce and meat. This week she features a breakfast of wilted arugula and scrambled eggs. She topped her eggs with a bit of tomato. On the side was a slice of toast with local clover honey. My kind of meal!
Having a bit of difficulty finding local ingredients, Rose starts the challenge off with a meal of sauteed yellow squash, roasted tomatoes and pasta. A bit of salad on the side and some stout. Mmmm, that would certainly pass muster around here!
Jennifer made a meal of honey chipotle glazed delicata squash and kidney bean burritos. She posted the recipes (look fab) but also wonders how to gauge if a meal is “local enough”. My rule of thumb is that if the primary ingredients, the ones that define the meal, are local, then it probably counts.
Finding herself 1500 miles from her cookbooks and CSA share, Laurel still managed an impressive first meal. Her cream of mushroom soup, romanesco broccoli and spinach salad all sound divine. I’m impressed she was able to wing the soup (I couldn’t) not to mention she remembered what she did - check out the recipe for details.
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The West:
Taking inspiration from a favorite late night meal spot, Jack made a dinner of parsley pesto broth, pasta and mussels. If the original is half as good as his version looks, it must be heaven. Check out his post for more photos and the recipe.
Maya’s meal of ribeye steaks, roasted kabocha squash and preserved green beans is a classic. The pumpkin seed and parsley pesto is a new one to me - recipe please? The green beans, grown and canned by Maya, were lacking in the texture department. The only cure for that I’ve found is to cook them even longer with some spices and stock.
Sometimes you just have to make do with what you’ve got. Taking stock of what she had, Einat made a garlic bread soup with using polish sausage, garlic, chicken stock, bacon and garlic bread. Sounds and looks yum to me.
After her husband forgot to pick up the CSA box, Nicole Rene found herself searching for a local meal. Not to be undone she combined late season cherry tomatoes and basil from her deck (so jealous) with whole wheat pasta and garlic. Not to worry Nicole Rene, you’ve got plenty of week’s left and I say that your dinner sounds quite delicious.
Chessa started off this year with the same meal as last year’s challenge, I think symmetry is great! The honeybaked lentils sound just as good now as they did then - I might finally have to try them. On the side was homemade wheat bread. other local meals last week included chile-cornmeal crusted tofu po boys and sloppeh joes with smokey collard greens.
With fresh ricotta almost straight from the cow, Kimberly decided to make scrambled eggs with red onion and ricotta. She enjoyed it on local toast with a bit of sliced apple to finish it off. I’m always so happy to see we’re not the only ones that enjoy breakfast the way it’s intended!
Joan started the week off with a mix of fast and fabulous meals. Included in the week were a savory egg custard and tonight’s roast pork shoulder with wilted chard and Anita’s beans. Mmmm, meals after my own heart. Joan, I hope your beans were as good as the night Anita made them for me!
Joining us by email, Melissa lucked into a fresh caught steelhead from her mother-in-law. She added lemon and garlic to the steelhead and combined it with swiss chard and bok choy in balsamic vinegar and steamed delicata squash. The biggest challenge wasn’t finding the ingredients, but rather figuring out what to make with them.
Amy launched the challenge, and her blog, with a meal of braised mixed greens and garlicky beans on toast. Pretty impressive on both counts. Meals later in the week included pasta with pesto and a few nights out to locally committed restaurants - check her post for details.
Anita’s meals were a combination of those we shared and those she and Cam enjoyed on their own. First up was that fabulous dinner of spare ribs, sauteed Brussels sprouts and beans with pancetta and sage. I’m so looking forward to recreating that meal later this winter. Then there was the fantastic breakfast of poached eggs and has that Cameron made us. That night, after I’d left, they enjoyed a Hennery chicken on the rotisserie. They wrapped up their weekly posts with celeriac bisque and a selection of leftover based meals such as their own version of chicken pot pie and firjoles refritos with skirt-steak tacos.
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Fabulous writeup — nice to see some new faces (and old friends).
Themes: How about “new traditions” for December, “resolutions” for January, and “winter foods we love” for February?
Thank you so much for putting this together! It is so inspiring to hear about all these wonderful meals.
Different ways to use squash seems like something a lot of folks might like ideas about!
Wow! Impressive…and that looks like an awful lot of work you did to get it all blurbed and posted. Everything sounds so great, though. I’m excited to see more!
Onward, mighty food-lovers and locavores!
I second the squash theme - with there being such an abundance of it around, it seems like a good theme to have for us trying to eat locally. All the food in the write up sounds so good, we’ll have plenty of inspiration should we get stuck!
I was thinking a squash theme too…funny we’ve all got it on the brain (and our kitchen counters!).
Some other themes:
Dessert for Dinner
Soup and Salad Supper
Share the Wealth (Get a local recipe from and share a local recipe with a friend, family member, CSA farmer, fellow Dark Days Challenger, your child’s teacher…)
Just some thoughts…
Finally got my post up! Sorry to be late…
I already have a squash theme going
I love the stuff and it grows very well around here. Cabbage, too.
What a great roundup of meals. I agree that the squash would be a great theme for our first month. I’ve got a 26 pound sugar hubbard lurking in the corner of my office, it would be great to have a few new ideas to use.
Per your request for the Pumpkin Seed and Parsley pesto. I took a handful of dry toasted pumpkin seeds and diced them very finely then placed in a bowl. A handful of fresh parsley diced to equal fineness and added. Several good grates of Parmesan. Combine all and slowly add olive oil to a desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper. You could make this in a food processor for a finer texture, but I found I liked the crunchy little bits of nut against the smooth squash puree. Other options to make this totally local would be to use hazelnut oil from one of the local orchards round here…that would probably give it a great nutty undertone, and the Italian parsley is strong enough to stand up to it. Good with pasta and other things too.
Wow. I don’t think my menu is going to be quite so fancy. My sweet potatoes are doing well. but they are not ready to unpot yet–I think I will wait until Christmas. There are a few pea blossoms and my tiny peeper has ceased to get bigger. My inside carrots are ready to pick as needed.
The only recession here is in the gas prices, so we aren’t spending much more on groceries yet. The sale ads and coupons just don’t get the price down enough.
this is terrific. thanks to all who are participating in the challenge and sharing ideas… i’m looking forward to seeing all the things we’re able to collectively create!