Fried Okra and Sliced Tomatoes: 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.