Seems like most folks this week either had an elaborate, well-planned-out holiday meal, or a simple meal, made from what’s on hand, in preparation for or in recovery from a holiday meal. Both types are a wonderful celebration of the season.
THE MIDDLE
Aagard Farms roasted some chops from their home-grown Berkshire pork, and served them with mushroom sauce and scalloped potatoes for Christmas Eve dinner. They were also looking forward to home-raised bacon and farm-fresh eggs for Sunday breakfast.
Anne at Green Leanings had a “look around the kitchen” meal that sounds familiar … sausage from the freezer, potatoes, squash with apples, and kale with leeks. I, for one, can always use new ideas for combining these basic winter ingredients!
Midwest Green‘s husband and kids put together a pre-Christmas pasta and sauce meal with fresh homemade pasta with local wheat, and homegrown tomatoes in the sauce. Local monks made their wine — cool!
Nordic Walking Queen successfully pulled off a SOLE Christmas eve dinner, with chicken wild rice soup — oh, I long for local wild rice! — as well as fruit from the freezer, ham from a local pig, and locally-baked buns.
Thanks to a local buffalo farm, Notes from a Country Girl Living in the City include a last-minute decision to have buffalo pot roast, including a local beer, carrots, potatoes, and parsnips. Dark days meals that come together easily out of ingredients already put by are so satisfying!
For Solstice, put your shovel where your mouth is wandered through the winter farmers’ market and came home with the fixins for roast duck, a fruity bread-and-wild-rice stuffing, and homegrown pears, plus baguettes with some local flour and potato leek soup from friends’ CSA box. Homegrown eggs in the caramel ice cream, too, for a fantastic holiday meal!
The Local Cook puts together sausage and apples, plus an onion and some homemade hot pepper jelly (yum!); served over rice, this sounds like a delicious sweet-and-sour hearty winter recipe.
THE SOUTH
Delicious Potager adapted Barbara Kingsolver’s simple, tasty sweet potato quesadillas to suit what she had on hand (goat cheese instead of brie, no winter greens). Served with locally-grown polenta, it looks so cozy!
Over at Knitting 40 Shades of Green, the chicken breasts designated for Christmas dinner got set aside when other plans came up, and later became one of those meals for cleaning out the fridge: balsamic glazed chicken, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts with a mustard and local honey sauce.
Laura’s Mommy Journal describes more “baby steps” towards one whole SOLE meal — including local ingredients here and there in other meals is what it’s all about! Plus, a visit to the farmers’ market leads to hitting the bean jackpot.
It’s breakfast time at Life is Like a Box of Chocolates! Local ham, local apples, and biscuits from local wheat and dairy and eggs too. Even the spices are organic. It’s good to see breakfast represented, especially when it looks so delicious!
Family Christmas potlucks are time for compromise at Low Mileage Food‘s house, with their contributions to the party being mostly local, organic, and cheese-based — can’t go wrong there! — including a cheese ball, some nommy baked goods, cheese enchiladas, and sausage balls (and mashed potatoes and gravy, which had no cheese, unfortunately).
I’m bookmarking Tennessee Locavore‘s idea for the rosemary-garlic roasted local lamb left over from Christmas dinner. Sliced thinly and served over stale homemade bread slices, she drizzled the same herb-and-red-wine-vinegar dressing over the open-face sandwiches and the homegrown spinach freshly picked from under the row cover.
Breakfast makes another appearance, this time as dinner at the mommy porch. She whipped up a breakfast casserole with local breakfast sausage and all-local grits with sharp cheddar, butter, and eggs. Served with cinnamon apples alongside, this sounds like the perfect homey meal for a snowed-in Sunday dinner.
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These three posts have just made me so hungry that I’m going to have to have a snack before I head to dinner…
Nice job Lauren!