Food Storage

A favorite breakfast treat for me: New England milk and yogurt blended with our frozen summer raspberries and blueberries (and a touch of New Hampshire maple syrup). Yum!

A New York Times columnist recently wrote that it is erroneous to think that people living in cold places can sustain a trendy local diet in the winter. Who can imagine pulling carrots from the frozen tundra or subsisting only on kale, and who can sustain themselves on a cute home-grown garden? Well, I have a lot of conflicted thoughts about how trendy and elitist this approach to food is (perhaps for another post), but this guy seems to have missed out on the fact that human beings have been growing and storing food for thousands of years and - with the ease of modern technology - we New Englanders can still have access to local food in the winter! In the West household, we have been rewarded with tasty winter treats because of our good planning: frozen berries, peaches, and apple sauce, pesto, canned pickles, dried sage, rosemary, and thyme, and oven-dried tomatoes. I could certainly have done more this summer, but I have little space to store it - I dream of the day that we have a root cellar and a chest freezer.

You might recall that I canned pickles this summer from New England cukes and dill - they are delicious, crisp, and fresh!

Seasonal Produce

Our friend John pointed out this fun seasonal produce map on epicurious.com (a site I love to use to find recipes). For our region they tell us:

"The growing season is currently dormant here; opt for items from storage, such as apples, pears, and root vegetables."

Ha, no kidding!

Veggie Stock

We are overrun with parsnips. What to do with all these parsnips? And that pesky turnip I can't stand? Well, my solution is to make and freeze vegetable stock. This is the simplest of tasks and uses some of those root vegetables that get out of control at this time of year.

Step 1: Wash veggies - in this case, I have used one carrot, one parsnip, a turnip, and an onion. Cut these into large pieces and cook in about 1 tsp. of olive oil, just until the sides are brown. I have found this gives the vegetable stock more flavor.

Step 2: Fill the pot with water, add a bit of salt, some black peppercorns (or ground pepper), and a couple of bay leaves. Bring to a boil and simmer until the stock turns a rich brown color.

Step 3: Strain and cool, then freeze! I put the stock in yogurt containers, which are about 4 cups each. This is perfect for thinning soup, steaming veggies, making rice, etc., especially when my vegetarian friends come for dinner.

Why we do this...

The other night I was getting an almost-midnight snack, looked down at my plate, and realized THIS is why we embarked on this food adventure! This little snack, made of fresh Iggy's bread, Kate's butter, and homemade plum jam, is composed entirely of local ingredients. It is the perfect tartine (French for bread-and-butter) and made my mouth water. The bread is flavorful and the perfect texture, with a hearty crust and a chewy, moist interior. The butter tastes fresh and creamy, and our homemade jam tastes like the plums off the tree...and the combination is magnifique!

Oh la la!

Apple Sauce a la Grandmere

When I was a little girl and visited my elegant grandparents in New Hampshire, I could always count on a small dish of sweet, pink applesauce after lunch. Grandmother made this applesauce herself using a wonderful contraption: a food strainer! This year, as a Christmas gift, my dad gave me a food strainer, which I put to use on the apples I have been storing. While making applesauce is hardly a difficult task, this device streamlines the process and almost eliminates waste...and, for me, brings back lovely memories of the sounds and smells of making applesauce.

This strainer is composed of several parts: a large, plastic funnel, a handle, a grinder, and a chute. To make applesauce, wash and quarter the whole apples, boil them until soft (with cinnamon and nutmeg, if desired) and then grind them in the food strainer. The core, skin, and seeds are pushed out of the end of the grinder, while the smooth pulp comes through the strainer, down the chute, and in to the collecting bowl. The applesauce is sweet and delicious.

California salad...in Massachusetts!

One summer afternoon, when we lived in lovely Berkeley, Andrew and I enjoyed a goat cheese salad, based on a recipe my Mom has made many times before. But, this time, it was different: all the ingredients came from near Berkeley, including lemon zest from our own tree, Sonoma goat cheese, farmer's market asparagus, and an icy glass of Husch white wine. We dubbed this "California Salad" and imagined, with some sadness, that it would be a distant memory when we moved away.

However, tonight Susan and I recreated this salad. While the setting was different and there's snow on the ground, this salad took us to California! We used greens provided by Enterprise Farm, green beans I froze from a previous produce delivery, Vermont goat cheese, and Flying Pig Bread (from Maine, available in the store across the street!). Thanks to Geri's Christmas generosity, we have a new supply of California lemons, which we zested on top of the salad, giving it a fresh, incredible flavor.

"California Salad" - serves 2

4 oz. goat cheese, formed into rounds

Dredge these in flour, then yogurt/egg/or mayo, then bread crumbs

Saute the first side in olive oil on high heat, then turn down the heat and brown the other side slowly.

Place these rounds on a bed of lettuce with vinaigrette dressing, or on a salad of cold cooked green beans or asparagus with vinaigrette. Serve with croutons or fresh bread - we prefer French or sour dough bread brushed with olive oil and toasted in the oven.

Garnish with fresh lemon zest - preferably Meyer lemons from California! And, definitely enjoy this with a glass of cold sauvignon blanc.

Thanksgiving

Our friend Alison of Ithaca's Food Web asked us to post our Thanksgiving menu - but since we weren't home, it didn't seem that relevant. I do dream of doing a local Thanksgiving meal, but am not ready to give up being pampered by relatives who really know how to whip up the traditional fare. I have become a pie baker for our yearly festivities, though, and discovered I took some photos of my apple pie. I love pie more than any other dessert - we even had pie at our wedding, rather than the traditional wedding cake. I love the crisp, flakey, buttery crust above all else, and the filling is really secondary to me. This year I used flour milled in Vermont, Massachusetts apples, and Maine butter to make this lovely holiday pie! It was a hit and had the crisp, flakey, buttery crust I crave.