Nights in the Kitchen

I had to call in some help on Sunday night to cook what was on the menu, as I would never have been able to time it out right by myself. Fried crappie, locally caught by Big Monkey and his Papa, thin-sliced fried potatoes, and homemade coleslaw (remember the cabbage from the last post?). We don't own a deep fryer so everything was going into the widest, deepest pans we have along with generous amounts of lard. Yes, folks, you read right: we fry our food in good old-fashioned NON HYDROGENATED lard. I can get it from a couple of local farms with pigs and keep it in the fridge for just this purpose (bacon drippings, I find, work much better for frying eggs or seasoning greens. But lard has no flavor to itself so better for deep-frying and leaves everything super crispy and oh-so-delectable!). Screw the low-fat people: I much less worried about old-fashioned animal fats that have been eaten forever than I am about the new-fangled chemical concoctions foisted on us by an industry that exists only if we stay sick and obese. Follow the money trail, is all I'm sayin...

Dinner: cold beer, fried fish and chips, leftover batter as hushpuppies, with coleslaw on the side. I said to Big Monkey, "If you were always home on Sunday nights, this might be our standard dinner." Course, that would require him fishing a bit more often. Yeah, something tells me he wouldn't mind that too much.

Monday was Date Night At Home and another from the MSLiving "What To Eat For Dinner" collection. Oddly enough, I found it all as a cookbook at the Farmer's Market on Saturday at their cookbook swap table. I chuckled as I hadn't realized I was already doing what they wanted me to pay for (again, since you have to pay for the magazine)! My way has one key advantage: the cookbook is arranged in traditional fashion: all the apps together, all the entrees together, so forth and so on. With the card sets, the night's menu is put together for you, no picking-and-choosing required. I'll stick with my three ring binder.

This week was marinated goat cheese (skipped), minestrone salad, italian sausage with arugula pesto, and macerated berries with creme freche (also skipped). I opted for some of our venison bratwurst on the grill instead of buying pork sausage; at roughly 5 minutes a side it turned out juicy and wonderful. I had leftover chimichurri sauce from last week so just used that instead of hunting down arugula and pine nuts. But I did spring for all the ingredients (that I didn't have on hand) for the minestrone salad. Totally worth it. I'm not a bean fan but this salad has enough different textures and flavors to be worth the time it takes to make. And drizzled with balsamic vinegar and EVOO just makes it that much better. We had a ton left over and we were figuring out ways to change it so we wouldn't get bored eating it every day: add feta cheese. Or parmesan. Sprinkle liberally with fresh chopped basil. Or oregano. Add the stock back to it to make soup. Add chicken for some protein or chopped ham or shaved proscuitto. I mean, really, the possibilities are endless. I don't know that it will make it into the normal repertoire, but definitely something I'd pull out for a dinner party.

Hillsborough Farmer's Market, Saturdays, 8 to Noon

I don't work for the Hillsborough Farmer's Market, although sometimes I wish I did. They have become "my" market, out of the plethora that are available in Orange County. They're convenient-- a mere 10 minute drive from my house -- and still small enough that you can get to know the farmers by name. My only complaint is part of that: because they are still so small (roughly a dozen regular vendors, give or take a couple) there doesn't tend to be quite the variety of foodstuffs that you can find at, say, the Carrboro Market. I'm not 100% certain the story behind the story, but there are two farmer's markets in Hillsborough: this one, which meets in the Home Depot parking lot at the intersection 86 and I85, and the Eno River Farmer's Market, which holds court -- literally -- in the sheltered area behind the new Courthouse on Margaret Lane. I went to that one a few times last season but didn't find enough to keep me going back on a regular basis. There is an apple orchard that has a stall there, though, so might be worth going back once in a while (or figuring out where the orchard is and their pick-your-own times).

This weeks haul was small as it's between paychecks: cabbage (a HUGE head the guy gave me for $3. we'll be eating on it for a whole week), cucumbers (mine are leafing but not flowering yet), green tomatoes (for frying), peaches (glory be hallelujah! fresh fruit!), eggs, and -- a first!! -- shitake mushrooms! A rarity at ANY market but he says he's gonna be a regular. Whoopee!! I love it when I can stop buying anything that has to be trucked across the country. Maybe I can convince him he should start growing buttons and creminis, too. I asked him if he foraged for wild ones and he laughed and said no, he only trusted what he grew himself. Understandable, but I'd love to try some wild fungi from a knowledgeable mycologist.

Gratuitous picture of Lil Bit smelling the flowers at the market.You didn't know you needed that, did you?

Lots of Green(s)

Big Monkey and I agreed that Monday nights would be our official "date night." Fridays we're always working and we don't want to fight the crowds on Saturdays (not to mention the struggle to find a sitter!). We're almost always off on Monday nights, restaurants and movie theaters are relatively quiet, and family members are usually available to watch Lil Bit. The plan has worked out well but now that we've hit the lean days of summer, we won't be going out on dates much. Rather, we'll stay in, cook up something yummy on the grill, rent a movie, and kick back with a local ale.

For a while now, on the Mondays we didn't have a sitter or whatever and wound up at home, I've been working through my stack of Martha Stewart Living recipes. Not the cookbook (although I use it a lot) and not the Everyday Food ones but the ones that come on the tear out cards towards the back of the magazine. I've been collecting them for nine or ten years now, off and on, and have a 3-ring binder full. Some have turned out better than others but all have thrust me outside of my cooking comfort zone and let us eat something different. This week was (top photo) grilled goat with grilled peppers and onions. The whole dinner (each tear out page is four recipes: an appetizer, main course, side, and dessert) also included eggplant fritters, which I didn't cook cause we do not like eggplant, and a lemon-yogurt sauce, which I didn't fix cause I didn't realize before starting that the yogurt in the fridge had gone bad. But everything was still pretty yummy, even if I like my peppers and onions a little softer than the time alotted in the recipe had them. Dessert (bottom photo) was a plum-raspberry-tarragon chilled soup, minus the tarragon (cause my herb guy at the farmer's market didn't have any). Again, outside of my cooking comfort zone, on a couple of levels, and it was okay, but we both agreed it would be better as a granita or sorbet, and needed more sweet to cut the tart of the raspberries. Live and learn.

Tonight's dinner was back to standard fare: grilled chicken, corn, and green beans. I wanted to share this one with you because one of the blogs I follow posted about the Green Music Group issuing an "eat local" challenge for this week. You can use the Eat Well Guide to find local food in your area and then commit to eating one meal (per day, per week, whatever) that's primarily local. I thought about actually signing up for the challenge but got to thinking about it and realize that I already eat local so much, I didn't really need to validate it by joining another website. Now, I will admit that I could patronize some other farmers or markets, but I do pretty well with the local thing. Case in point: the chicken is from Roland (you'll just have to get used to the fact that I will reference him a lot. I'll get a picture next week. He's cute.) and his farm is literally within walking distance of my house. Even closer: the green beans are from my garden. Now, the corn I did not get locally; it's still a little early in the season. But almost every day I eat at least one thing that was grown right here in the OCNC. I can't say that it's always been that way but I have been doing it now for 2+ years so I would say that rather than a gimmick challenge, it's pretty much our way of life.

Today's harvest: (t to b) mixed chard, cilantro, green beans, loose leaf lettuce. Green green and more green.