The West
Almostina is submitting her frittata for this week’s challenge – but what a frittata! The sweet beet greens and red and yellow chard came from 20 feet away – her own backyard! That is such a wonderful accomplishment! Eggs, potatoes and mushrooms from the farmer’s market and cheese and bacon from the pantry made this a wonderful meal that even little Max enjoyed! Yum!
Arugulove feels that her Dark Days meal this week did not live up to her high standards, but it’s all local – which is what matters! She made a butternut squash pancake with smoked cheddar cheese on top with braised dandelion greens on the side. I’ve never had dandelion greens, and Arugulove didn’t love them much, but I still think that a 100% local meal deserved a round of applause! Good job!
From Dirt to Dinner served her husband “the perfect vegetable soup” this week – and she teaches us some great tomato tricks while describing how she prepared it. I love her descriptions of choosing her vegetables from her garden, and what a garden! Broccoli shoots, snow peas and snap peas, beets, rutabagas, turnips and yellow carrots (yum!) were snipped fresh and added to other foods from the kitchen that needed to be used up. I am going to try this soup this week – and try the wine trick with the tomatoes!
Married with Dinner had a sick wife this week and cooked up the most scrumptious sounding chicken soup with dumplings. Every single yummy ingredient except baking powder (where does that come from, anyway?) was local – such a huge accomplishment. Visit the site for a wonderful tutorial on making chicken soup quickly and easily. And now I know how to make dumplings! I hope your wife is on the mend and enjoyed her soup!
Our Life in the Country invented a casserole of scalloped potatoes with chard and bacon with what she had on hand during a busy week updating the carpeting in her home! Leftovers with more chard proved that this invention is a keeper!
Prepping 4 28 enjoyed a yummy complete meal salad of market cabbage, kale, snap peas, radishes, green garlic and garbanzo beans over brown rice with hard boiled eggs sliced on top and a dressing of red onion, garlic and balsamic vinegar cooked in olive oil. That sounds so delicious! She enjoyed this meal while catching up on Dark Days posts, after having her wisdom teeth out – glad you are on the mend!
Jen over at Dark Days Challenge tells us the journey of the duck that eventually made its way to a dark days meal of roasted duck with sauteed brussels sprouts on the side, and another of roasted duck with a side of wheat berries salad. She also made stock and rendered the fat. She mused that while some relationships are fleeting, our relationships with our local farmers are “lasting, important and steady.” Well said!
The Middle
Aagaard Farms enjoyed their dark days meals from Baja! They ate locally the entire time and even managed to cook locally when not eating out. Dark days meals from this lovely locale included pan-seared fresh scallops with tiny limes accompanied by a salad of local market veggies, a veggie roast in tin foil with local potatoes and squash, and a friend brought by some freshly caught wahoo fish that was delicious! What a scrumptious week! Let’s all go to Baja for our next week’s challenge, shall we? Mmm…
Fast Grow the Weeds enjoyed another bean-filled week, cooked by her husband! (Yes, I did see a pig fly by just now!) He prepared so many beans that many meals ensued. Their menu of Cuban Black Beans, baked beans, biscuits and greenhouse salad, all from local sources, are enough to inspire us all to cook up some beans and join her!
Green Leanings is growing tired of potatoes, and so turned her attention to the beans as well. She cooked then “low and slow” and blended them with cauliflower to make a mashed potato-esque side dish. She served it alongside pork chops and green beans. What a creative side dish!
Midwest Green had a meat and potatoes meal this week. Some from the pantry, some from the basement and some from the Farmer’s Market combined into a comforting meal of pork chops, roasted potatoes, salad and green tomato relish. Even the drinks at dinner were local! Homemade seltzer sounds intriguing!
Notes from a Country Girl also had pork on the menu: pork tenderloin with rosemary garlic roasted potatoes and homemade bread and butter. She makes it sound so easy, just tossing things from pan to pan – love the cast iron! This is a great reminder that our local meals don’t have to be fancy; simple and quick, this meal is a great one to look to when creating another dark days meal seems overwhelming.
put your shovel where your mouth is made chili this week after inventorying her freezer. Homemade black beans combined with market onions, homegrown garlic, summer-frozen sweet corn and sweet peppers and home-canned homegrown tomatoes with a wedge of Wisconsin cheddar and homemade yogurt on top. Yum! She also made up a tangine earlier in the week, using up the green beans, zucchini and eggplant from the freezer. Well done!
Simply Me prepared Oven Barbecued Chicken for her Dark Days Challenge meal, following the Simply in Season recipe for her own barbecue sauce. Steamed collards and kale were on the side, and the meal was wholesome and delicious. She comments that cooking through the Simply in Season cookbook has made her very aware that, when making homemade sauces and the like, it is possible to create quite a variety of meals with just a few simple ingredients. I’ll have to see if my library has that book – it sounds perfect for our challenge!
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