Eggs, asparagus, goat cheese, oh my!

Eggs are such a versatile ingredient and an excellent staple to have in your refrigerator. I buy our eggs from our Farmer's Market, at the Jack's Farm stand.  These eggs are awesome! I will never forget the first time I cracked a farm-raised egg.  I noticed that the yolk was so much brighter than the supermarket eggs I was so used to buying.  Those supermarket eggs, like so many other products, have a variety of labels or claims on them--free range, antibiotic-free, organic, natural, pastured. How do you make sense of it all? Rodale.com  had an excellent article earlier this week, The Truth About Your Eggs, that deciphers the many words you will find on grocery store eggs.  Take a quick read and learn some info! 

We have been purchasing Jack's eggs for several years now and really enjoy them. A great dinner that I've made with eggs is a frittata.  Just Google "frittata," and you'll find so many different recipes. Frittatas can be made in advance, served warm or cold, and are suitable for any meal (hint, hint, MOTHER'S DAY IS SUNDAY!). They are also a great opportunity to use leftover greens.  This week, I made one with eggs, asparagus, quinoa, and goat cheese.  I wanted to add some cherry tomatoes, but I forgot...oh well!

Here's the assembly (again, amounts are just rough estimates)

• 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa, at room temp
• 1 1/2 cups sauteed asparagus (approximately 12 stalks, cut in half)
• 5 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 oz. crumbled goat cheese
• salt, pepper, dill

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. While I was waiting for the oven to warm up, I sauteed my asparagus in olive oil, garlic, and scallions. Once they were cooked, I turned off the heat on the stove top.  In a large bowl, I combined the eggs and milk, give them a good scramble; add some salt, pepper and dill.

Fold the quinoa into the egg/milk mixture and pour into a greased glass baking dish (I use olive oil to grease the dish). Gently add the asparagus and shake the goat cheese on top. You may want to take a rubber spatula to push the asparagus and goat cheese into the egg mixture, so it is not floating on top.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes and finish with the broiler on high for 5 minutes.  Your frittata will be bubbling, but should not be runny liquid.  Allow to cool slightly before eating, but as I said before, you can eat this cold.  It is great to have as a leftover lunch, as I did this week.

Time to Carb Load!

Local Food Lady, along with 34,012 of my closest friends, participated in the 2012 Broad Street Run.  I really enjoy this race, as it takes you from Olney in North Philadelphia, around City Hall, through the gates of the Navy Yard, with a finish next to the big ships. 

You may have heard about runners "carb loading" before big races, as there is a widely held belief that by eating carbs before a long-distance running event, you loading up your muscles with glycogen.  I regularly run, but I don't regularly carb load before a race. I just had to this past Saturday, especially after my recent buys at the Farmer's Market.

I decided to make one of my favorite pasta dishes--penne carbonara--the night before the race. It combines carbs, fats, savory flavors, and proteins.  Great dish and simple to make!

To make:

• 1 lb penne pasta (fresh, if possible)
• 2 eggs scrambled (I got mine from Jack's Farm)
• olive oil
• fresh basil
• pecorino romano cheese

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta to the water and cook for 3 - 4 minutes. I used all of the whole wheat penne I bought from Vera Pasta. While the pasta is cooking, crack and scramble your eggs, add some cheese to the scrambled egg mixture.  Drain the pasta well, and return to pot. Pour egg/cheese mixture over the pasta and turn the heat onto low. Slowly mix the pasta with the egg/cheese mixture, until egg begins to get more solid. Top with fresh basil and extra cheese.

Farmers Market Report!

Saturday, May 5th, was opening day for the Phoenixville Farmer's Market. We've been lucky to have markets throughout the winter on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays, but the first Saturday in May opens the full season!  From now, through the end of November, the market will be open every Saturday from 9a to 1pm.

Each year, we are lucky to get a few new vendors to the market. This year is no different. I try not to miss a market, even in the winter months or in inclement weather.

This past weekend, I had a chance to see several new vendors at our market and picked up a bunch of great items.  Of course, I had to stop by my tried and true favorites, like FreshaPeel Hummus and Jenny and Frank's Artisan Gelato. Take a look at some of the great items I picked up:

Chocolate Supreme Gelato

Lemon Kale hummus

And some new products from new vendors: Naughty Nutty Love, Vera Pasta and our pickle vendor (I didn't catch the name on his stand, but those dill pickles were great!).  I am sure that I will be picking up many new items this season, as the market grows more and more each year. 

From the NY Times: Is it ethical to eat meat?

Michael Pollan is one of my favorite authors and I follow him on Facebook. His writing is excellent, and when I watch him in interviews, I find his tone to be approachable and never condescending. His advice is simple and I believe his book, "In Defense of Food" radically changed my food choices.  

He is a regular contributor to the New York Times and today, posted the following on Facebook: 

Winner of NYTimes "ethics of meat-eating" essay contest announced. V. controversial. http://t.co/OOUIEzyj

The NY Times article discusses the more than 3,000 responses to a simple question they posed last week, "Is it ethical to eat meat?"  Very interesting and Pollan is correct, very controversial. 

Image from NY Times. Russell Bell.

I have friends who are vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, omnivores, and carnivores. Most of my meals are vegetarian, and I never hesitate to accommodate the food choices of guests who come to my home. I believe that food choices are personal, and the reasons for these choices vary greatly.  

So, readers, what do you think of the NY Times question?  

LFFC CSA Week One

LFFC: Week One CSA

Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative's Week One CSA haul. It looks incredible and I'm so happy to have fresh, local, organic food in our fridge!  The mister picked up our first week on May 1. Here's the bounty:

• Two bunches white scallions
• One head of green butterhead lettuce
• One bunch of red radishes
• One bunch of purple mizuna greens
• One bunch green kale
• One bag mini bok choy
• One head red leaf lettuce
• One bunch of fennel leaf
• One bag of popping corn (do you see it in the photo above--on the upper left side)

Readers, even if you are not in Southeast PA, it's possible that LFFC delivers close to you--they have drop off sites in MD/DC and NYC area. Check them out.  I cannot wait to dive into this week's food. 

No winter CSA? Now what?

At the suggestion of one of my readers...


As I mentioned in my previous post, we learned in late/fall that our usual farm would not be offering a winter CSA this year.  My winter weeks would no longer be greeted by a whole chicken, a dozen eggs, and frozen items from the summer harvests (can you say roasted cherry tomatoes? garlic scape pesto?). This made me sad, but I figured that we'd have to improvise. 


Our Farmer's Market does operate through the winter, with an abbreviated schedule (2nd and 4th Saturdays, 10am to 11am) and many farmers ask for a pre-order, but don't require it.  We have great farmers/merchants at our market. Really great. Veggies, pork, poultry, hummus, wild-caught salmon, beef, eggs, bakeries. As such, the market is very popular and attracts a crowd, so it is best to get there right when it opens, as some will sell out very quickly and you don't want to be stuck with having kale as your only green veggie for two weeks. Don't get me wrong, I love kale, but I like variety in my meals.


As an aside: the mister and I eat a vegetarian diet about 85% of the time--in the summer, that percentage is even higher because of how many fruits and veggies are part of our various CSAs. When we do eat meat, pork, or poultry, I only buy directly from the farmer and know the quality of the conditions they raise their livestock in.  I know, I know, this might sound hypocritical that I'm "mostly" vegetarian, but my reasons for eating mostly fruits and veggies comes from the standpoint of health.  That's why I'm so particular about where our food comes from.  If it's not local, then my food usually comes from the supermarket and above all, it must be organic. 


Ok, so back to what I did when I found out that our farmer would not have a winter CSA this year.  I got boring and repetitive in my menus.  No matter the time of year, my weekday breakfast is always the same--organic whole oats, topped with raw local honey and usually fruit.  This fall, we gained a new provider at our  market--FreshaPeel Hummus--and I was quickly hooked on their pumpkin hummus as a topping for my oatmeal. It only takes about 2 tbsp. to add some great flavor to the oatmeal.  You can also add unsweetened pumpkin to the oatmeal, too. I've done that on a few occassions.


Lunches were far less inventive. Mostly the same thing each week--organic yogurt, organic string cheese, and an apple.  We had local apples up until mid-March, since we bought about 80 lbs of them back in November. They kept pretty well in our uninsulated coal room, off our basement.  


How 'bout them apples?

Very infrequently, lunch would consist of leftovers from the night before.


As for dinners, this is where I lost my mojo.  I felt like they were very repetitive, and if it weren't for the mister's chili-making abilities, I think we would have withered away through the winter months.  I also became quite reliant on my organic, whole wheat penne pasta as a meal staple and would saute various greens to add to the pasta dishes.  If it wasn't pasta for dinner, it was a variation of my farmer's stew.


Farmer's Stew

I would regularly top this dish with a poached egg, or put quinoa or cous cous as the foundation for the meal. 


Breakfast for dinner was also popular and easy to make.  Not to mention, Local Food Lady and the mister moved...so there were plenty of meals that were take out (:::hangs head in shame:::). 


The mild winter may have confused our plants, but it appears that our area is experiencing a real spring this year. Other than the fluke 80 degree days in late March, we've had cool nights and a few mid-April frost warnings.  That means that it is time for our spring/summer CSA to begin. 


We've found a new one this year--Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative. They are a non-profit food cooperative that buys from more than 75 farms.  The majority of products are organic and they partner with local churches, private residences, and other organizations for delivery locations. They deliver to areas of our region that have very little access to fresh food or grocery stores (see also: food desert).  I look forward to posting many more photos and food creations in the next few weeks, as we received our first CSA share on Tuesday, May 1st. 

Local Food Lady, where have you been?

I was looking at my blog yesterday and I could not believe how pitiful my 2012 activity has been.  Well, there's a valid reason for my inactivity--not much in the way of local food!

The mister and I have always said we were incredibly lucky to have year-round farms in our mid-Atlantic area. We've been part of year-round CSAs for several years now. These CSAs have been with different farmers--veggie, fruit, a combination of the two, but we've had local food at our disposal pretty much year-round. 

Late fall, as we were preparing to start up our winter CSA, our farmer sent an email to shareholders indicating that unforseen circumstances prevented the farm from offering a winter CSA that year.  This had me incredibly bummed, but grateful for their honesty and willingness to offer refunds to all shareholders. It could have been worse--we could have been 4, 6 or 8 weeks into the season, and received veggies that were sub-par. 

All of this is part of the risk/reward of participating in a CSA.  Some years, the bounty is good, REALLY good, and other years--either due to drought, too much heat, or too much rain (like August 2011)--the farmers can experience challenges and the harvest is not the best. 

I felt like our winter dinners were repeat after repeat and my readers would not want to see the same dishes week after week.  I was able to supplement with bi-weekly trips to our winter market and regular shopping days at the Fair Food Farmstand in Philadelphia. 

Other than the fluke 80 degree days in March, it seems like we are getting the chance to experience an actual spring this year. Of course, our winter was so mild, it was spring-like on many days in January and February.  We are in the early stages of our summer CSA, so expect to see more posts and photos of our shares. 

I don't expect another haitus like this past winter, so I hope that you will come back and visit throughout the next 6 months.