Lunch Kebabs

This one was a little too time consuming for the normal morning rush.  Luckily I got up really early and had a few minutes to spare.  I took extra skinny straws and cut them to make skewers that wouldn't injure and harmless kindergarteners.  Threaded them with cherry tomatoes, small rolls of ham, cubes of mozzarella cheese, cooked tortellini, and served with watermelon chunks.  I put in a side of ranch for dipping, but Kira said "mom, it was so yummy, I didn't even need the dip!"  Another lunchbox returned empty!  Yay!
Oh, and I'm taking a break tomorrow.  Kira heard it was pizza day at school!

Veggie Overload!!!

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• Dinner tonight...lots and lots of veggies!  Used up a good portion of the past few days tomatoes for the sauce!  It takes lots of tomatoes to make a little sauce!  
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• 1 large pattypan squash, sliced thin and steamed until tender
• 3 eggplants, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 4 cups bread crumbs
• 6 cups spaghetti sauce, divided ( made my own with whole, peeled tomatoes...see below!)
• 1 (8 ounce) ball fresh mozzarella cheese, shredded
• fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• fresh basil, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Dip eggplant slices in egg, then place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.  Bake in preheated oven for 5-10 minutes.
3. In a 9x13 inch baking dish spread spaghetti sauce to cover the bottom. Place a layer of steamed squash slices in the sauce.  Top with Italian sausage and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.  Then layer on eggplant slices, more sauce and a sprinkle of basil. Sprinkle with the mozzarella and more Parmesan cheeses. 
4. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until golden brown.
5. Serve over hot fresh pasta...

All I do to make yummy, fresh tasting pasta sauce is peel garden fresh tomatoes, squeeze the extra water and seeds out and heat them until mushy.  Add some fresh herbs (whatever I have on hand...tonight was thyme, rosemary, basil, and oregano with a touch of parsley.  I ALWAYS add chopped onion and spicy garlic.  Then simmer on the stove until thickened.  A sprinkle of kosher salt, a crank or two of the pepper mill and it's done!  

***TIP***  ***TIP***  To quick peel tomatoes with no mess: Boil a large pot of water.  When boiling, drop the tomatoes in and blanch for 45-90 seconds.  IMMEDIATELY remove from the boiling water and plunge into a bowl of ice water.  The skins then slip right off.  Use this tip to peel peaches, too!!!

Second day of fun lunches!

I hear I have a few followers just to peek in at my lunches, so here's day 2!  I toasted some organic mini-waffles and layered them with homemade strawberry jam and natural peanut butter.  They made cute little sandwiches!  I gave each girl 2 of them and then added a small cup of granola, raisins, and cinnamon chex.  Add a piece of fruit (pear for Kira and an apple for Alayna) and a bottle of milk and call it lunch!  Kira loved it and Alayna ate all but half her apple!  Success (and it really only took 5 minutes to assemble!)
I can't get the picture to post right side up...sorry!

Love you lunch

Speaking of creative...I managed to dish out a healthy and fun to look at lunch for Kira today.  She requested a ham and cheese sandwich with apple slices.  I grabbed one piece of white bread and one piece of wheat bread and cut heart shapes out of each and swapped them.  So easy!  Layered with ham and local cheese.  I filled a reusable silicone heart cupcake baker with local new crop apple slices (dip them in lemon juice to prevent browning).  Filled in the spaces with grapes and multi-colored cherry tomatoes (which she reported back that all the kids wanted to try!).  I included some cake chunks and a drink, too.
I just hope that tomorrow, when I actually have to get up and go to work before she wakes up that I can manage to get a creative meal ready to go!

Breakfast of Champions

I have to admit that I was really excited about the locavore food challenge because I wanted to learn more about what other locavores eat.  I was hoping to see variety and creative cooking.  I was hoping for ideas that would appeal to my whole family!  However, what I have been seeing is that a lot of people who eat local foods tend to eat the same things over and over again.  Well, I am here to tell you that while I eat a primarily local diet, I enjoy a HUGE variety of foods.  My CSA box really helps with this, as I don't  know what I am getting week to week and get to try many new vegetables.  Nancy is great at adding tips for cooking, too.  In addition, I grow a lot of heirloom varieties that can't be found in typical garden stores.  Top that with local farmers markets and I've got vegetables galore.  With that said, I am most definately not a vegetarian!  All my meat comes from local farmers, with the exception of the seafood I get from Maine.  And I also do not shun bread.  I LOVE my bread.  I bake fresh bread with flour from Cayuga Organics.  I also can't get enough of the pancakes I've made recently with the same all purpose unbleached flour.  YUM!  We fill them up with blueberries grown locally and frozen in my downstairs freezer the same day we picked them.  Add some local Grade B Maple syrup and you've got one fabulous breakfast!  I often fry up a little local bacon on the side.
A big request from my girls is breakfast for dinner.  Add the above with some homemade hash browns (garden fresh heirloom colored potatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic and mix in a little homemade salsa for kicks.  Delish!
So, don't stick to the same old yogurt and fruit for breakfast...venture out and see what the local foods have to offer up and get creative!

Recipe: Originally passed down to me from one of my Lamaze students/labor patients and refined over the past decade to this:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I use local flour from Cayuga Organics in Ithaca when I can!)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 Tbsp melted butter
2 Tbsp real maple syrup

Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the wet ingredients.  Stir until combined.  Pour onto hot griddle greased lightly with additional butter.  Add fresh or frozen blueberries by sprinkling onto the tops of the cooking pancakes before you flip them.  Serve with real butter and real maple syrup.  A real treat!  :)

Back to School with Bento

Anyone who knows me knows that I've long been passionate about food.  My food obsessions have ranged forward from the unhealthy (900 calories a day, anyone?) to gourmet (yummy, but time consuming) to trendy (30 minute meals) and everywhere in between.  I often think about the past food paths I've taken and how each one fit into my life at the time.  Right before I got married, I set out to write a cookbook.  I researched and collected hundreds of recipes and tested them all out on my very happy (and full!) boyfriend.  I must have done it right, because he did marry me!  Then, during my pregnancy, I had a nesting phase which led me to cook and freeze 42 casseroles for use during the up-all-night baby days.  After both girls came along and I was forced to increase my hours at work due to restructuring, I entered the 30 minute meal era.  When I moved to New York, I came to realize that regional cooking was interesting and fun...and this NE region is quite different from my mid-western fare.  I easily made the switch from tacos and spicy barbeque to riggies and greens!  Most recently, as I've read about and researched the commercial food industry, I made the switch to local, seasonal cooking and food preservation.
I thought my food culture was here to stay, but over the past couple weeks, I began another shift in my food thinking.  This shift came about as the first day of kindergarten began to approach for my oldest daughter.  I watched Jamie Oliver's show about school foods and I've read menus of our local school cafeterias and I know that I want my daughter to be eating healthy foods that will keep her energy up all day long.  I'm just not sure the school food is what she needs.  So, I headed to the store, let her pick out a new lunch box with water bottle and thermos.  But, as I should have predicted, this was not enough for food obsessed mama!  I came across a book with creative lunches packed in the Japanese Bento style.  Lots of healthy choices in a creative presentation for the enjoyment of the eater.  I am hooked.  Of course, being a locavore isn't just about food, and I just can't bring myself to order a bunch of cutsie food storage from Japan.  I am hoping I will find it right here at home.  Most importantly, I've discovered a huge array of healthy food choices for lunchboxes that will leave the plain-Jane pb&J in the dust.  I do have to consider that my 5 year old is a rather p-i-c-k-y eater, but I'm hoping that with her help, we can find some good lunch ideas.
Lucky for me, I read cookbooks like they are novels.  I love to hear the idea behind the food and peek into the life of the creator.  I am armed with a few lunchbox books and lots of motivation.  Hopefully the time to create a healthy lunch each morning before I leave for work at 6am will come.
Stay tuned, and I'll let you know the good, the bad, and the returned-home-uneaten food stories as the weeks go on!

Locavore Challenge Month!

It's finally September, and although it didn't bring with it any cooler temperatures yet, it always brings change to our lives.  Jeremy started back to school last week and Kira's kindergarten orientation was today.  Next week, she starts to school, and the week after I send Alayna to her last year of preschool.  As for me, September always brings about a lot of change in the garden.  Out with the old, droopy plants and in with the new fall crops.  It takes a lot of work (and in this heat!  ugh!), but come the colder days it is worth it when we still have fresh salads and root crops from our own backyard!
This September, I also discovered that there was a challenge put forth in central NY for eating local.  I took the idea to the foodshed and then on to the reporter who is researching local foods and reporting it out to our local community.  The challenge is simple: eat only local foods grown or produced within a 100 mile radius of your home (250 miles optional for some harder to find ingredients).  This includes ingredients to make any foods purchased.  Some are challenged to eat this way for 30 days, others a week, and those new to the concept can join the 1 day challenge.
Although I already eat primarily local foods, I've never limited myself this completely.  I'm going to do the week long challenge (I'd do 30 days, but not in the same season that our family is already in upheaval!).  I'll let you faithful followers know when I start and how I do, but for now, I want to help out those who are already in the challenge.  Most of my home-cooked meals are completely local, and I thought I'd spend the next month or so sharing them with those who are interested.  One thing I've noticed a lot in reading about the local food journeys of others is the lack of variety, which is essential to my style of cooking (and eating!).  It won't be my usual bantering about my not-so-simple life, but I hope it helps!
When possible, I'll include locations where I bought the ingredients or cooking tips...
WARNING! Do NOT read if hungry!

I'll start with my birthday dinner from this past Sunday:
I really wanted a local birthday dinner to welcome in my next year of life, so in my usual tradition, I cooked for myself.  Don't feel bad...I love to cook!  Ask my old friends from Oklahoma.  Every year come my birthday, I'd invite all my friends over for a big party and cook all day to feed them all!  I miss those days.  Anyway...

This year, I decided to grill some steaks.  I started with grass fed sirloin bone-in steaks from Sunnybrook Farm in Deansboro, NY.  I've never grilled steak before, but I had a "new" grill that I stole off the curb when my neighbors moved and left it behind (with a paper sign on it that said "works" but was missing a wheel).  So, I made a marinade with a little olive oil (not local, but will always be one of my wild cards!), apple cider vinegar (from a local orchard), and some Backyard Bullweed rub from Walking Clover Farm that I purchased through the Foodshed Buying Club in Utica.  I left it in the fridge most of the day while I celebrated my birthday by making pickles and putting up a huge harvest of veggies in the freezer.
When the grill was ready and our stomachs were growling, I seared the steaks over high heat and then  cooked them on the grill for about 10 minutes to get them to medium well.
I had just harvested a heap of white heirloom pole beans from my garden, so I steamed those and tossed them with a dab of butter (from Maine, but the closest to local I had on hand) and any fresh herbs I had in the garden (I think it was thyme, oregano, parlsey, and chives!).  These beans were sent to me by a friend in Oklahoma who had inherited the seeds from her grandmother.  I have no idea what the variety is, but I love them!
I also had a nice box of baby potatoes that I harvested about 2 weeks prior.  I noticed a little yellowing of the leaves before I went on vacation, so rather than have my Dad (gardener while I was away on my vacation) stress over the keeping of my potatoes alive in case of fungal disaster, I decided to early harvest them.  I was delighted to find a huge array of multi-colored potatoes under the dirt.  I had several large potatoes ready for storage, and bowls full of the tiny, velvety, almost sweet new potatoes.  I tossed these new potatoes with a little olive oil and some thyme and rosemary then slow roasted them while the rest of the dinner cooked.  The kids were delighted with the purple ones, and I heard remarks from both kids and husband on how good they were!
On Thursdays, I stop by Old Path Farms and pick up my weekly box of CSA veggies.  This past week, we had a bunch of braising greens.  First, I fried some bacon from Sweet Grass Farms.  I drained off most of the bacon grease; chopped up a few of the Sweet Alisa Onions from my garden, added some spicy Danube Rose garlic cloves again from Walking Clover Farms, and heated them slowly in the same pan with a little olive oil. When everything was soft and carmalized, I wilted in the greens and simmered them for a few minutes.
Last, but not at all least, I grabbed one of the quarts of cherry tomatoes resting on my counter after being picked in the cooler morning sun.  I popped them in a hot oven until the skins popped.  Ooooooooooo!  They were so sweet and concentrated that they were like candy!  I grow several varieties of cherry tomatoes: chocolate cherry, yellow pear, honey bunch, sungold, sprite, super sweet, and more...
The meal, of course, was highlighted for the adults with a wine from Three Brother's Winery in Geneva, which I picked up on my way home from a site visit for work.
Hungry yet????  Keep reading this month for more!