Week #8 means we are half way through our Dark Days Challenge, and that is cheery news to me! Not so much that we won’t be Challenge-ing, but that spring is eight weeks closer than when we started. What did our Midwesterners come up with at the halfway mark? Let’s take a look.
THE MIDWEST:
“There is something wonderful about eating your own garden produce in January,” begins the entry from Aagaard Farms this week. I couldn’t have said it better myself. They met the Dark Days Challenge with a ham from their very own Berkshire pork, but it was their roasted Delicata squash that really captured their attention and tastebuds. If you have the patience to let your squash ripen fully to a pale yellow (rather than the standard creamy-yellow-with-green-stripes), maybe you can experience their “divine” results too. I’ll keep that in mind!
At Fast Grow The Weeds, El and her family don’t need to go to the gym for a workout. Instead, they make dinner and “pound a single chicken breast into submission” for a prosciutto-free saltimbocca (brilliant!). The meal also demonstrated how to feed a family of three on what at first may appear to be meager ingredients, but wow: Blue Coco green beans and a spelt pilaf round out a delicious sounding dinner.
Did you know that another name for Welsh rarebit, or “Welsh rabbit,” is caws pobi? Anne did. Her perfect-for-January dinner consisted of this most excellent comfort food accompanied by cream of tomato soup. I’m with her: beer, cheese, bread, and soup… what more could you want in these chilly evenings? (And you can skip the beer and sub in more milk or cream if you’re not so inclined. Read more of Anne’s tips at Green Leanings.)
“Twelfth Night” was celebrated locavore style by Melissa’s family at Little Locavores. Local beef, local vegetables, local beer. But even the tastiest menu would have a hard time competing for attention when it came time for the – say it with me – Galettes des Rois! So beautiful! I’m going to try to work that into conversation this week, I think. Just to be able to say it aloud.
Shifting gears and pulling back a little after enjoying lots of holiday meals, Midwest Green served a light dinner for Week #8 featuring their own potatoes and an organic, hydroponic green salad. Small businesses were supported in the beverage department: milk from a small farm for the kids and a chardonnay from local monks for the adults. Lovely!
“It all started with a chicken carcass sitting on my sidewalk in below zero weather waiting to be cooked down for stock and final de-boning…” That old refrain? If I had a nickel for every time I heard that one. So begins Nordic Walking Queen’s tale of How She Met The Challenge. I’ll give away the ending: Red pepper corn chowder served with sunflower whole-grain dinner rolls (which I have to point out were free with the purchase of the local soup mix). Well done! (And P.S. to NWQ: you say “cheater,” while I say “supported a local business and stuck to the spirit of the challenge in doing so.” To use my husband’s phrase, “good on you!”)
Since you asked, we’re in Week 8, Country Girl. Your Dark Days meal caused me to hearken back to the hazy, lazy days of summer. Roasted chicken, homemade bread, corn on the cob, and a romaine salad made with homemade yogurt & feta dressing. Sigh. What a great reward for the summer labor of storing food for… well, now… and a reminder of what is ahead of us. Wait, why do we think of them as “hazy, lazy days,” anyway? All those hours in the hot kitchen, canning… all those hours in the garden, in the heat… all that planning ahead stored carefully in the freezer… that’s hard work, well rewarded.
For Dark Days inspiration this week, S, writing at Put Your Shovel Where Your Mouth Is, turned to one of my favorite cookbooks, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. On the menu: cream of onion soup with all-local ingredients, and ham sandwiches with local ingredients and ham from the local old-style butcher, a small family business (within walking distance!) that both needs and appreciates her support. And an “A” for effort on what I’m sure turned out to be delicious focaccia, even if it didn’t make it to the dinner table for the sammiches!
How often has this happened to all of us – everything is local except the meat; the main dish is all local but the sides miss the mark? ** The Local Cook set out this week to make “every. single. ingredient” count, and the result was a dinner that was “the most delicious meal [she’s] had in a while.” Her achievement came in the form of honey baked chicken, collard greens, and baked apples & squash. You know a meal is a success when you have to restrain yourself from licking clean the casserole dish, but only because you’ll burn yourself! My, oh my. ** And if this happens to you more often than not? Still “good on you,” I say.
THE SOUTH:
It’s hard to tell the difference between the North and the South these days, temperature-wise. We’re all in the deep freeze! Let’s turn our minds to happier things, like the offerings for Week 8′s Dark Days Challenge.
Hippychick started her day with some of her homemade granola (with homemade yogurt) she was saving for just the right occasion. She then had two Dark Days eligible meals. Which to choose — the bean soup, or the chicken pot pies? She chose the former and provided the cheery details for all three.
Laura is pleased to report that the changeover of her pantry to mostly all SOLE ingredients is proceeding nicely. This week’s meal, while not what she had originally planned (there’s that freezing weather spoiling produce plans again), was pulled together with SOLE ingredients from the pantry: all-beef hot dogs and some tasty-sounding sweet potato shoestring fries. And she met the Challenge this week while tending to a sick family to boot. Check Laura’s Mommy Journal for a link to a recipe for those frites.
Featuring some smoked chicken she purchased as a whole bird, mashed potatoes and sweet potato from a previous farmer’s market run, and corn she had frozen from the summer, HT, writing at Life is Like A Box of Chocolates, proclaimed her Dark Days lunch “just delicious!” Now if only I could get my corn to look that good when I freeze it. Does anyone else’s get sort of waterlogged? HT, perhaps you’ll share your trick? (Is it the already-off-the-cob-before-freezing part?)
Well, now. If I had to give a prize for Most Creatively Named Dish, it would have to go to Tennessee Locavore‘s entry this week. “Eggs In Hell” was made with sun-dried tomato sausage, eggs, potato, onion, garlic, parsley, canned tomatoes, and served with a baguette… all local ingredients. And no worries; I’m sure you’re forgiven for the splash of non-local balsamic vinegar.
The Mommy Porch shares some of her holiday traveling adventures, and while they’re not specifically her Dark Days entry for the week, I’d like to note her family’s sourcing their meal ingredients locally whenever possible. Crabs, shrimp and grits, oysters… the list goes on. Sigh. A nice reminder, there, to savor what the locals are enjoying as much as it’s feasible to do so. As for her Dark Days meal? Another lovely sounding dinner of roast chicken and mashed potatoes — “good, Southern comfort food” being a theme in her Challenge choices thus far.
Last but not least, posts like this make me wonder why I don’t eat before writing about what everyone else is eating… because now I’m downright starving. In the spirit of the New Year, Windy City Vegan jumped back into the swing of the Dark Days Challenge. Putting the past Weeks 5-7 firmly in the past, she “regained [her] kitchen mojo” with red lentil and butternut squash burgers, roasted brussels sprouts, caramelized sweet corn with mint, and fresh bread. Oh, behave! (And share some of that fabulous looking whole wheat boule with the rest of us!)
Laura in:: My backend is a PITA for uploading photos. I’m giving Peg a hand but it will likely be tonight before I get them inserted. Nicely done Peg and everyone! Our meals are being put to shame every week – yay!
*****
Possibly Related posts (newest to oldest):
I would say the three things I’ve done in freezing corn are:
1 – Make sure it is VERY fresh. Anything picked more than a day ago is not fresh enough.
2 – Freeze it as quickly as possible, because the colder temperatures will keep the ice crystals forming inside to stay small and cause less damage and keep the mushiness to a minimum. I always put my freezer’s temperature as low as possible before freezing.
3 – Remove as much air as possible! If possible vacuum seal.
4 – I’ve also heard some people fry the corn in a little butter before freezing, but I’ve never done that myself.
I would not call these tricks, but when followed religiously it has worked for me!
Great recaps this week! So glad to be a part of this awesome community. Thanks for hosting us.