Thursday, May 14, 2009

Market to Table - May 14, 2009

Welcome back to Pantry Week (Round 3) where I'm whittling down all the preserved soups and stewed tomatoes lining the pantry shelves to prepare for the upcoming Spring/Summer harvest. There's a few oldies but goodies here, as well as some fresh new recipes. Let's get right to it!

Scrambled Eggs, Smashed Potatoes, Steamed Carrots 

Everyone loves breakfast for dinner, right? Well, we do! This was one of Dave's meals this past week and check it out - It's ALL local! The eggs, carrots, olive oil, and red potatoes are from our local farmers' market; the rosemary on the smashed potatoes is from a neighbor's yard (I'll have some of my own rosemary before long, I hope). The best part is Dave loved it all! Yeah for local!

Souped-Up Rice 

Because of Pantry week, I ate lots of what I call "souped up rice." The meal pictured here started out as 1/2 cup of local rice and 1/2 quart of homemade veggie soup. I was really excited when I opened this particular jar, having forgotten that any of the soups I canned earlier this year included black beans (the beans aren't local but a friend had given them - I LOVE black beans). Also in this jar of soup was cabbage, onion, mushrooms, and carrots (all local). Of all the souped-up rice I've eaten over the last three weeks of Pantry Week, this particular batch has been my favorite (I suppose it's those fabulous black beans).  The good news is I had a total of 7 quart jars of this bean and veggie soup, so there is yet some yummy souped-up rice in my future. Mmmm!

Wheat Berry Stir Fry 

As much as I tried to stick to pantry week, I did end up with some fresh veggies from the market last weekend as well as a few things harvested from the garden. Randomly pulling out veggies from the produce drawer (and snatching a few things from the back yard), I ended up with carrots (greens too), onion, broccoli leaves, mushrooms, and dill. All the veggies were chopped and sauteed in a little olive oil. When the veggies were nice and soft, I added some cooked wheat berries, covered, and turned the burner off to let it warm through with the heat already in the saucepan. It's been more than 2 weeks since I'd had a fresh stir fry and this certainly hit the spot. Delicious every time!

Salad

It's getting to be that time of year again - fresh salads! Let me stop and say that on top of the veggies I got at the farmers' market last weekend, a friend at the Monday market gave me the most gorgeous English cucumber. So this beautiful salad consisted of cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli greens, green beans, green onion, mushrooms, chopped pecans, and dried cranberries. I dressed it with a mix of equal parts olive oil and apple cider vinegar for absolute perfection. And other than the vinegar and the cranberries (though they were dried locally), it's all local!

Of course, I also had lots of local strawberries and canned stewed-tomatoes and rice. I've finally whittled the pantry down to 6 jars of soup and 2 jars of stewed tomatoes. That's a more comfortable stock considering my garden is coming close to exploding with fresh veggies. But I'm ready. Let the harvest begin!

2 comments:

J said...

Yum, yum, yum! I think I am going to have to pick up some wheatberries. I wonder if I made up a really tasty meal with them if Brett would even notice.

We've been on a pantry clean out mission ourselves. Gotta have room for all that produce coming in.

And salads - oh glorious salads. I never thought I would miss lettuce as much as I did. I am definitely reveling in the spinach that abounds as well.

hmd said...

Jennifer - I'll bet you can sneak them in :)