Brittney at Rock Solid is finding it easier to come up with locavore meal options, heading into week 7. She made a breakfast strata this week, a great way to use up odds and ends in the fridge — mushrooms, leeks, and Cougar Gold cheese — and served it with a side of sunny, home-canned nectarines.
Acorn Cottage Artisanry‘s Alison is finding the challenge a bit… challenging this week. Though she didn’t plan a specific Dark Days meal, she enjoyed her daily egg from her backyard hens, snipped some homegrown herbs, and roasted a whole chicken for use in a number of meals both this week and next.
Over at Culinaria Eugenius, Eugenia indulged her husband’s penchant for “white and mushy” foods with an all-local winter salad of tarbais beans and frumento wheat berries — a soft, red variety with a bacony flavor. Monochromatic food gets a bad rap, but this salad looks delicious and fresh.
Farmer Jo planned to make salade lyonnaise — that lovely bistro classic with frisée, bacon lardons, and a poached egg — but discovered she’d bought another kind of endive by mistake. Proving necessity the mother of invention, she whipped up a stunning whole-wheat penne with bacon, greens, and garlic.
I love the way that Lauren at Dropstone Farms repurposed a fridge full of leftovers to make a trendy meal of small plates. Garth gets the credit for the innovative idea, and the dishes they enjoyed — fried chicken, pot roast, cheesy scrambled eggs, and a potato-parsnip gratin — sound so good I might not want to share them.
At Our Kids’ Earth, Erika decided that without the support of her whole family (little ones and husband included), it’s hard to commit to eating mostly local. She says her farewell to Dark Days with pumpkin soup and squash meatballs, and plans to incorporate some of her challenge wisdom in everyday meals.
Annette at Sustainable Eats rounded up more 100% local meals in one post than some of us manage in a month: Spicy beef tacos, roast chicken with homemade spaetzle, braised cabbage with fennel-potato gratin, a table full of home-pressed juices, ham-loaded biscuits, barbecue chicken pizza, and a luscious crab dip.
Eco-Geek Sarah is loving the personal connections that come from meeting the farmers who grow the food she enjoys. (It’s one of my favorite parts of the SOLE life, too.) This week’s menu included slow-cooked short ribs, butterball potatoes, and her favorite carrots, washed down with local pear cider.
Yet another pot roast devotee heard from! Declaring this week’s feast “the easiest local eating I’ve done so far” Jessi at Mudrakers combined meat from her freezer stash with wine, potatoes, parsnips, onion, and leeks, and served it with local hard cider. (I’m sensing a theme here, and I’m getting thirsty.)
If you’re feeling too busy too cook, take inspiration from Farming Mom‘s Beth, who managed to fit in a multi-course Dark Days meal (a delicious-sounding pizza soup and homegrown green beans, with berry smoothies for dessert) just a couple of days before giving birth to little Madilyn Barbara. Congratulations to the whole family!
Bringing up the rear, our hostess Laura at (not so) Urban Hennery simmered up New Year’s Day pot of navy beans flavored with celery root, onions, sage, garlic and thyme, plus bacon that had her dog Jake begging for a taste.
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A visit to the Waterfront Fish Market in Everett was the start of two different Dark Days meals last week. The person behind the counter was really helpful when I explained that I needed fresh local seafood, not something brought from out of state. For one dinner I used 2 pounds of fresh steamer clams, local potatoes, onions and leeks, local cream and butter, to make clam chowder and served it with chunky applesauce. Two days later, I steamed local spot prawns (purchased frozen but very fresh when thawed) and served them with a kale and potatoe casserole and fresh carrots.