so much local food!
This evening, I sautéed some of the abundant greens (reds?) from baby beets in olive oil/salt & pepper/lemon juice (on the advice of the Hot Chef). Earlier today for lunch, I continued my dalliance with the radish sandwich for the second week -- a pumpernickel roll, sweet butter, and slices of cherry bells. Except for the roll from Le Bus Bakery in RTM, everything was from a local farm, via the Farmstand!
Sunday was an excellent food day, as well; I had like four courses of breakfast! I woke up early (8 in the am!) to make phone calls and sort out my plans for the day, and it was amazing to have the whole morning to sit outside with my coffee, call a high school friend, and read. Eventually, I got around to cooking...
In one of the most exciting developments at the Farmstand YET, there is now scrapple being sold there! It's from Country Time Farm in Hamburg, about 30 miles east of Allentown. I failed to procure any before it was sold out two weeks ago, but last Friday I sought multiple reassurances that it would still be in stock during my volunteer shift on Saturday morning. I fried up a couple slices on Sunday morning, and I mostly approve -- it has a mild taste, thankfully not too sharp, but also not as savory as it could be. After the scrapple, I made myself an omelette; it would have been better if it had greater cohesion, or if I had remembered salt, but the ingredients were tasty. The pasture-raised eggs, the herbes de provence chevre, and slivers from carrots and the FIRST asparagus of the season! Again, everything was locally produced. :)
As soon as I'd finished eating the omelette, I had to leave my apartment to meet my family for brunch at Farmicia. There, I had two more servings of breakfast -- a slice of their brioche french toast with strawberry sauce, then their yoghurt + granola. I'm sure that the brioche and granola were baked on the premises, and I suspect the yoghurt was local as well.
Surprisingly, perhaps because each breakfast course was reasonably-sized and separate, I was merely pleasantly full after all this locally-produced bounty. In the evening, I cooked more produce that I'd been tempted into buying at the Farmstand -- some young red russian kale, small yukon gold potatoes, spring hardneck garlic, half a portabello mushroom, and a shallot from Trader Joe's. The dish actually did not turn out as well as I'd imagined, because I cooked some ingredients separately to obtain different textures but did not find a way to successfully blend the flavors.
Before I end this entry, a little catblogging, which I do not do nearly as often as my cat is blogworthily adorable. ;) ...on the subject of food. Sam usually lays around while I cook and grumbles because I am paying attention to the stove instead of her, but as soon as I took the scrapple out of the fridge on Sunday morning, she went nuts!! She came over beside the counter to whine and claw insistently at my leg; I could only assume this behavior was related to the smell of the scrapple, so I cut an extra slice to fry. After I was done eating my slices, I put half the extra one in her food bowl...where she didn't bother eating it. Finicky much?
Later that day, though, she did seem intrigued by a leaf of the kale that dropped to the floor. I almost took it away from her -- but then realized that if I intended to feed her people food occasionally, why not let her have some veg in her diet? I put the leaf into her food bowl...where she played with it for about 10 minutes until she'd torn it into pieces! Silly cat.
Sunday was an excellent food day, as well; I had like four courses of breakfast! I woke up early (8 in the am!) to make phone calls and sort out my plans for the day, and it was amazing to have the whole morning to sit outside with my coffee, call a high school friend, and read. Eventually, I got around to cooking...
In one of the most exciting developments at the Farmstand YET, there is now scrapple being sold there! It's from Country Time Farm in Hamburg, about 30 miles east of Allentown. I failed to procure any before it was sold out two weeks ago, but last Friday I sought multiple reassurances that it would still be in stock during my volunteer shift on Saturday morning. I fried up a couple slices on Sunday morning, and I mostly approve -- it has a mild taste, thankfully not too sharp, but also not as savory as it could be. After the scrapple, I made myself an omelette; it would have been better if it had greater cohesion, or if I had remembered salt, but the ingredients were tasty. The pasture-raised eggs, the herbes de provence chevre, and slivers from carrots and the FIRST asparagus of the season! Again, everything was locally produced. :)
As soon as I'd finished eating the omelette, I had to leave my apartment to meet my family for brunch at Farmicia. There, I had two more servings of breakfast -- a slice of their brioche french toast with strawberry sauce, then their yoghurt + granola. I'm sure that the brioche and granola were baked on the premises, and I suspect the yoghurt was local as well.
Surprisingly, perhaps because each breakfast course was reasonably-sized and separate, I was merely pleasantly full after all this locally-produced bounty. In the evening, I cooked more produce that I'd been tempted into buying at the Farmstand -- some young red russian kale, small yukon gold potatoes, spring hardneck garlic, half a portabello mushroom, and a shallot from Trader Joe's. The dish actually did not turn out as well as I'd imagined, because I cooked some ingredients separately to obtain different textures but did not find a way to successfully blend the flavors.
Before I end this entry, a little catblogging, which I do not do nearly as often as my cat is blogworthily adorable. ;) ...on the subject of food. Sam usually lays around while I cook and grumbles because I am paying attention to the stove instead of her, but as soon as I took the scrapple out of the fridge on Sunday morning, she went nuts!! She came over beside the counter to whine and claw insistently at my leg; I could only assume this behavior was related to the smell of the scrapple, so I cut an extra slice to fry. After I was done eating my slices, I put half the extra one in her food bowl...where she didn't bother eating it. Finicky much?
Later that day, though, she did seem intrigued by a leaf of the kale that dropped to the floor. I almost took it away from her -- but then realized that if I intended to feed her people food occasionally, why not let her have some veg in her diet? I put the leaf into her food bowl...where she played with it for about 10 minutes until she'd torn it into pieces! Silly cat.