Pepper harvest

Last night we had our first frost. We hadn't checked the weather until late afternoon, so we spent last evening hurrying to get everything picked and inside before dark, mainly peppers and pole beans. All the houseplants came inside as well, and I dug some of the herbs--we'll see if they'll grow inside in pots.

We have many peppers to freeze. How many? Here's an illustration:

On my way home from work today I stopped at a produce stand near our house. I had gotten sweet corn there last year, but hadn't stopped this year. The man running it told me their last day this year is the 31st. I got some Granny Smith apples as a change from our mystery Red Delicious cross, sweet onions, and a free watermelon (last one of the season).

I decided to use my finds along with our abundance of peppers for supper, so I made sweet and sour chicken. I cheated slightly by using vinegar from some of our pickled hot peppers. Here's the recipe, heavily adapted from More-With-Less.

Apple Chicken

1-1 1/2 cups chicken breast and other meat, cut into pieces
1 large onion, cut in wedges
1 red pepper, cut in pieces
1 tart apple, thinly sliced

Saute chicken, onion, and pepper in a large frying pan. Once chicken is cooked reduce heat and add apple. Fry a minute longer.

Make a sauce with:
3/4 cup apple cider
2 Tablespoons vinegar
2 Tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons salt

Add to frying pan, stirring until sauce thickens. Serve over noodles.

Chili!

Tonight was our church's annual chili cook-off. As such, it fell under our free food and social exemptions. In addition, we were on the committee that coordinated the event so we invoked a seldom-used ox-threshing-grain exemption.

With three simultaneous exemptions working for us we ate a lot of chili. Sarah says she gained five pounds since this afternoon--she claims our bathroom scale proves this. I don't have such definitive proof but I certainly feel as though I've gained weight.

By our count, there were twenty-two different types of chili at the event. Sarah systematically tasted each one; I was less deliberate but--I think--equally thorough. We also served fruit, vegetables, cornbread and iced pumkin bars but with that much chili to choose from who needs anything else?

Yesterday was a busy day, so in lieu of cooking a local supper we patronized a great local restaurant, the Little Grill Collective. They serve local meats and eggs and make an effort to buy local produce. So I felt I could semi-justify a meal there during our month of eating locally.

Unfortunately, last night left us with no leftovers for today. My in-a-hurry lunch packing effort yielded a midmorning snack of a sweetpotato, and lunch of radishes, baked potatoes, yogurt and cider. Not quite what my ideal would have been, but filling.

For supper this evening I made hamburger stew and spoonbread. I think it was the first time I had cooked ground beef since living at home before college. This ground beef was from Polyface Farms
(courtesy of a natural food store in Harrisonburg). I remember ground beef as being slighly greyish and greasy. This was completely red before cooking, and when I tried to drain off the fat, as the recipe instructed, there was none to drain. I've been semi-vegetarian for a long time since I don't particularly enjoy most meat, it's expensive, factory farming is an abomination, etc. This discovery of local meats may change things. It'll probably still be a rare thing (because now it's really expensive), but I can think of some very tasty recipes which may need more than the other half of this ground beef pound.

Clam Chowder

The way Sarah tells it, she asked the folks at Kroger if they had any local food and after much thought they suggested Chesapeake Bay clams--the bay just falls within our hundred-mile line. She happily purchased them and created a delicious clam chowder with local potatoes and milk, and cuttings from our herb garden. Since I'm not much for seafood Sarah was even kind enough to make clamless chowder for me. It was delicious too.

To accompany our chowders I opened a jar of homemade white grape* juice. It was the perfect complement: sweet and pungent to set off the creamy, earthy flavors of the soup. I tend to take a utilitarian approach to food but this was a meal worth savoring.

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* In the past we've waited months for these grapes to ripen to concord purple. This year we were smarter.

A change of pace

This afternoon at work, after eating a non-local lunch (thanks Ben!) I was trying to come up with a supper plan for tonight. I visited the farmers' market this morning, and though I didn't find carrots or onions, I did buy eggs (we were down to one from our hens), beets, and radishes. That combination didn't inspire any supper ideas, however. I jotted down a few ideas, but none of them really struck my fancy.

When I got home, I remembered that I had marked a few recipes in the More-With-Less cookbook a couple days before that I thought I could make with all local ingredients. I decided on a breakfast-for-supper theme and made a modified version of High-Protein Pancakes or Waffles (waffles, in this case). Ben made decaf coffee (our exemption), and I blended some of our peanuts for peanut butter, thawed a few strawberries, and got out the honey and maple syrup.

Here's the slightly modified recipe:

1 cup yogurt
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
4 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup melted butter

Whirl in blender until well mixed and foamy. Bake in waffle iron.

The taste and texture reminded me of cheesecake. I suppose we didn't get our serving of vegetables for the evening, but it was a nice change.

A confession

I need to make a confession: I ate lunch at a Thai restaurant. In my defense, it was a business meeting and my colleagues don't always pack lunches. I carefully saved half the meal and brought it home to Sarah. She assumed I was being thoughtful and was very appreciative; she doesn't realize I was sharing the forbidden fruit.

Gadgets

Yesterday we bought a pasta maker at a kitchenwares store in Dayton. When we got home Ben set to work grinding wheat, setting up the machine on the edge of the counter, and eventually feeding out sheets of thinly rolled whole wheat pasta dough. He made spaghetti while I foraged in the refrigerator, basement, and garden for ingredients for spaghetti sauce. We didn't let the pasta dry before cooking it, which may be why it came out a little gluey, but all in all it was pretty good. Much preferable to my previous mashing out of stiff dough on the counter with the rolling pin.

Ben also was inspired to try using the pasta machine to roll out today tortillas, so I made the dough this afternoon and for supper we had tortillas with scrambled eggs and swiss chard topped with some of our canned tomatillo salsa. Again, the pasta maker made it easy to get things nice and thin.

I also found local maple syrup on our shopping trip (inspiring me to make french toast for breakfast this morning) as well as cheaper local peanuts. These are still in the shell, but at $1.49 a pound, versus $4.99, I'll shell my own. I still haven't made peanut butter. I'm not sure how our blender would handle it, and I'm reluctant to gum up our grain mill. Hmm, maybe we need a peanut butter grinder. . .

The other gadget of the day was the apple sauce strainer. We made another 5 quarts of sauce this afternoon. I currently have the leftover sauce in the oven on a cookie sheet, attempting to make apple leather. I've never done it before--I hope it's done before bedtime.