Dark Days Challenge - A look back and my favorite meals

Last week I wrote about our 17th and final meal for this years Dark Days Challenge. From November 30 - March 30 I shared one meal per week that Gail and I were enjoying using SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, and ethical) ingredients that we purchased and prepared throughout the winter.
Looking back at all of the Dark Days posts I am not surprised that pasta dishes were featured in 7 of  the 17 meals! Gail and I both love pasta and ravioli and we manged to can 18 1/2 quarts of sauce using a combination of farmers market seconds and our tomatoes. Looking now we are down to about 5 quarts - pasta and sauce with maybe a sausage or additional vegetables is a staple of our weekly food routine!
My favorite dishes for the challenge were Week 11: Red Pepper/Goat Cheese Ravioli, Sauce, & Spicy Beef Sausage and Week 16: Braised Pork Rib, Roasted Potato, and Relishes. Both are very simple and incredibly satisfying dishes. We are lucky to have a few great pasta and ravioli vendors as well as an abundance of great locally made sausages to compliment our homemade sauces. The pork rib was the first 'country style' rib I had ever prepared and both Gail and I were so satisfied with the end result! Again it was a case of great farmers market items (meat, potato, pickled carrots) to pair with our own homemade relishes.
I found that sourcing items for this years challenge was incredibly easy. Evey weekend from before Thanksgiving through late April there is at least 1 winter market open within a drive able distance. Gail and I visited the markets in Wayland, Somerville, and the South End regularly as well as a one-off Brookline market this winter and continue to do so now. These markets had an amazing variety of produce, meats, eggs, milk, cheeses, honey, apples, coffee, prepared and specialty goods! Some weeks we would go with a long list of ingredients for a few specific meals and other weeks we would pick and choose on a whim and figure out what we wanted to eat for a local meal that way. There was no shortage of local goods throughout this overly warm winter. It is amazing to see the explosive growth of winter markets just in the last few years.
I love participating in this challenge as it gets me thinking about my food even when I am not in the garden or enjoying  fresh fruit and vegetables at the height of summer. I also was able to continue to make great connection to the people who raise, grow, produce, and make much of what Gail and I eat, giving us a genuine appreciation for our food and the hard work that goes into producing it.

Dark Days Meal #17: Broccoli and Fontina Ravioli, Homemade Sauce, & Maple Sausage

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.

This is it. Our final Dark Days Meal for this challenge. Sadly no good pictures came out, but how exciting is another shot of ravioli, homemade sauce and sausage? Not very exciting but it tasted damn good!!
For this our 17th and final Dark Days Challenge meal we enjoyed a broccoli and fontina ravioli with homemade sauce and maple pork sausage.
The Broccoli and Fontina Ravioli is courtesy of Valicenti Organico, the sauce from our pantry, and the Maple Sausage from the farmers at West River Creamery. The sweetness of the sausage was a great balance to the richness of the fontina. 

I will be wrapping up and reflecting on this season's Dark Days Challenge next week.

Dark Days Meal # 16: Braised Pork Rib, Roasted Potato & Relishes

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.

In an effort to enjoy some of the meat we have in our freezer I decided to make a country style pork rib for Gail and I to share. I braised the pork rib with beer (Harpoon 100 Barrel Series Catamount Maple Wheat) and an onion. I finished the pork with a reduction of apple cider and a hint of maple syrup. I roasted up some garlic and butter potatoes with a hint of dill and added some relishes and pickled goods on the side. An easy meal that used a variety of items we had on hand!

Country Style Pork Rib from Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds, cooked in Harpoon Beer (brewed in Boston, MA & Windsor, VT) with Red Fire Farm onions and garlic. Charlton Orchards cider and Cook's Farm maple syrup for the finishing sauce. Pickled carrots and grapes from Grillo's Pickles and the corn relish is from our own stash. The Potatoes are also courtesy of red fire farm as was the garlic they were tossed with, and the butter was Kate's Homemade.

Next week looks to be the last week of the challenge. Just in time for this blog to transition from less eating to more gardening, though I will try and keep a balance. Look for 1 more Dark Days Meal next week and a wrap up/recap following that.

Dark Days Meal # 15: Smoked Pork Chops with Garlic Braised Carrots and Sweet Potato Fries

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.

We didn't have a chance to visit any local winter markets last weekend due to our Florida getaway so I had to turn rely on what we hand on hand in our refrigerator, freezer, and pantry to prepare our Dark Days Meal for this week. I went with mustard rubbed smoked pork chops cooked in carbonated cider and garlic topped with our homemade beet relish, maple braised carrots and sweet potato fries with a kiss of honey.

Dinner portions were so big I ended up with a great
lunch sized portion as well!

The smoked pork chops were from John Crow Farm, while the Dragon Stout Mustard is from Pete & Jen's Backyard Birds, the cider is from Charlton Orchards, and the amazing beet relish is from our own stores. The carrots are from Winter Moon Farm, and included a hint of Maple from Cooks Farm & Bakery and Red Fire Farm garlic. The amazing white sweet potatoes are  also courtesy of Red Fire Farm and honey from Boston Honey Company.

We are nearing the home stretch on this years challenge with only a few meals left and lots of great frozen meat and pasta, canned sauces and relishes, and even a little bit of produce! Check back next week to see what we decide to cook up!

Dark Days Meal # 14: Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Cambridge and Fried Potato

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.

This dark days meal goes back to last week. I had been so busy with work and packing for our brief getaway that I had not even thought about a Dark Days Meal, but Gail was on top of it last week!
Wanting to use the leftover pan fried Red Fire Farm potatoes from an earlier meal Gail scrambled up some John Crow Farm eggs with some shredded West River Creamery Smoked Cambridge to whip up an easy and filling local breakfast.

No picture as I don't expect Gail to be as anal retentive and documentation oriented as I am! We are nearing the end of the challenge now with only 3 meals left to go!! The challenge has been far easier this year with the growth of local winter markets, which I will be reflecting on more when the challenge wraps up.

Dark Days Meal # 13: Salad, Artichoke & Boursin Ravioli with Turkey Sausage

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.

This weeks Dark Days meal brings us back to the world of Ravioli. All winter we have kept 2 or 3 packages of local ravioli in our freezer. We are fortunate that there are a few amazing local ravioli & pasta producers (Valicenti Organico & Nella Pasta being our favorites) who frequent the Winter Markets.  Gail and I love pasta and our major canning experience this summer was in producing jars and jars of delicious homemade sauce using fresh local ingredients at the height of summer.  Great local pasta and jars of our own homemade sauce make cooking a healthy and delicious meal after a long day of work much much easier.

This week enjoyed a (not pictured) salad of Red Fire Farm mixed greens with Winter Moon Farm radish and carrots, a Charlton Orchards apple, and West River Creamery Herdsman Cheese. After the salad came artichoke & boursin cheese ravioli from Valicenti Organico with a jar of our homemade sauce that  mixed with a few Red Fire Farm onions. To round out the meal I added an Italian turkey sausage from Bob's Turkey Farm.
Nothing fancy, but it tasted good and we had plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day! What local goodies have you been cooking up lately?

Dark Days Meal # 12: Sweet Potato Fries, Sautéed Spinach & Onion with Roast Carrots and Beef Sausage

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.
This Dark Days Meal was pulled out of thin air a few nights ago! Looking in our refrigerator and pantry I took stock of what was available, at which point I realized that I had absolutely no desire to cook. That is how it happens sometimes though, and we still had some produce that needed to be used, hence the plate of seemingly random deliciousness pictured below:

Our meal consisted of baked white sweet potato fries, sauteed spinach and onions, and maple roasted carrots with sliced leftover Italian sausage from our last Dark Days Meal. The sweet potato fries were a real hit with Gail and I and the remainder of the meal was good enough to eat! The sweet potatoes, spinach, and onions came from Red Fire Farm while the carrots are courtesy of Winter Moon Farm and the Italian Sausage is from Caladonia Farm.

Dark Days Meal # 11: Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Ravioli with Homemade Sauce and Spicy Beef Sausage

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.

No picture of this weeks Dark Days Meal. What can I say, I was feeling lazy! Pasta is a pretty regular part of our diet as there is so much that can be done with it. No matter how we prepare it Gail and I are always satisfied with pasta.
This week we had Roasted Red Pepper, Goat Cheese & Chive Ravioli from Nella Pasta (and our freezer) with homemade red sauce that we canned this summer along with our homemade garlic scape pesto, onions from Red Fire Farm, and spicy Italian beef sausage from Caladonia Farm.

We are lucky to have a few different sources of locally made pasta and ravioli from a variety of the winter markets in the area so we typically have a few flavors of ravioli and maybe a fresh made pasta in our fridge or freezer for the days we want something warm and satisfying! I'd never had this variety of Nella Pasta's ravioli but I really liked it. The taste mixed very well with the Italian beef sausage, which was also a new item for us, as last week was my first time buying meat from Caladonia.

All in all it was a simple and tasty meal that left us with full bellies and smiles on our faces!

Dark Days Meal #10: Roasted Beets & Grilled Cheese

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants

This weeks Dark Days meal sprung out of a need to use some leftover items in our kitchen. Gail made up this easy, delicious, and comforting dinner.

Gail makes excellent roasted beets without any oil or butter which taste delicious and can be used in a number of dishes. For this dinner she roasted the beets and tossed them with a bit of marinated feta, they were a great accompaniment for a grilled cheese sandwich. For a little bit extra I enjoyed a few pickled green beans on the side.

The beets are from Red Fire Farm. Marinated Feta from West River Creamery. Extra Sharp Cheddar from Cabot, and the buckwheat sourdough was homemade with local flour from Four Star Farms! The pickled green beans were made during the summer with Kimball Farm green beans and garlic and our own dill.

Dark Days Meal #9: Chuck Roast w/ root veggies, Salad, and Buckwheat/Sourdough

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants. 

This week's Dark Days meal continued on the trade of hearty roasts and root veggies, but I was fortunate enough to also have a delicious local salad and an entirely local loaf of buckwheat x sourdough bread! The chuck roast had a wonderfully rich flavor and was only a bit dry, which was my own fault. The roasted root veggies included carrots, parsnips, onions and potatoes. The salad was a mix of winter greens & edible flowers with radish, carrot, apple, and goat cheese. 

The buckwheat x sourdough had a rich earthy taste without an overly heavy crumb which complimented the roast and veggies perfectly. Having a nice fresh salad on the side is a nice treat in the middle of an admittedly mild winter!

The bone-in chuck roast was from John Crow Farm. The carrots and parsnips for the roast as well as the carrot and daikon radish in the salad were from Winter Moon Farm, while the onions and potatoes in the roast were from Red Fire Farm. The salad greens were from E & T Farms and the garlic and basil goat cheese is courtesy of Crystal Brook Farm. The apple in the salad was crispy and sweet and came from Charlton Orchards. The buckwheat/sourdough was made using buckwheat flour & a mix of whole wheat bread flour's from Four Star Farms along with my King Arthur Flour sourdough starter that I had fed with the same Four Star Farms whole wheat flour. 

I will be on the lookout for a nice pork cut to feature in an upcoming Dark Days meal as I feel there has been a lot of beef and sausage but not as much pork.

Dark Days Meal #8: Oven Roasted Root Veggies & Turkey Kielbasa sauteed with onions and peppers

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants. 

This week's Dark Days Meal was put together mostly on the fly. We had picked up a Kabocha squash that I had been meaning to roast so I started there and built a meal based on what was on hand - a turnip, carrots, and onions. Cubanelle pepper strips and turkey kielbasa from the freezer. Add some butter, a bit of cider for roasting and a dinner was made!

I roasted the squash pieces in a bit of olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a dash of maple syrup. I chopped the carrots and turnips to an appropriate size and roasted them in a dutch oven with whole cloves of garlic, a splash of cider, salt, and sage. The turkey kielbasa was tossed with sauteed onions and pepper strips and tossed in a bit of Burnin' Love Heartbreak Sauce.

Carrots, Onions, and Turnip from Silverbrook Farm.  Kabocha Squash from Red Fire Farm. Turkey Kielbasa from Bob's Turkey Farm. Garlic from Spring Brook Farm. Butter for cooking was Kate's Homemade. Cubanelle Peppers and Sage from my garden.

Everything came out great and cooked up in about 20-25 minutes. I had the squash cooking in the oven along side the turnips an carrots while the kielbasa, onions, and pepper was slowly sauteed. It was a simple no frill recipe that really hit the spot.

We also got to enjoy the 'extra' that comes with roast squash - roasted squash seeds, a simple and delicious treat

Dark Days Meal #7: One-Pot Meal-Beefy Beef Stew

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.


This week our Dark Days Meal was made for one of the voluntary Meal Challenges. The challenge as presented to us was - Soup and One-pot Meals: make a meal entirely in one pot like soup, stews, or a pan-roasted meal. When I saw this challenge I knew a beef stew was on way!! About 4 weeks ago Gail and I enjoyed a hearty beef stew from our freezer so I decided to challenge myself further by making a beef stock from scratch the night before to give my stew some extra flavor.

Extra Beefy Beef Stew

Using the beef shanks and a fatty piece of beef I got on Saturday from Charlton Orchards, and beef stew pieces from John Crow Farm. On Sunday I sweat a large red onion and a yellow onion from Red Fire Farm in Kate's Homemade Butter, browned the beef shanks and the fatty beef, and made a little more then a quart of deep rich brown stock.
The following morning I pulled out the same soup pot from the night before and browned the beef stew pieces, added 1/2 a bottle of the Plum Island Red from Mill River Winery in the style of beef bourguignon, the leftover meat and the stock and let everything cook and mingle at a low-medium heat, stirring frequently for about 45 minutes. While this was going on, I had soaked the meat & stock containers from the fridge in warm water and added these to the stock pot along with a huge pile of carrots from Terrosa Farm, as well as potatoes and more yellow onions from Red Fire Farm. I stirred frequently, adding water as necessary as everything cooked for close to 9 hours. Towards the end I added Garlic from Springbrook Farm along with dill and rosemary from our garden as well as a pinch of black pepper and salt. When all the ingredients were mixed together I added a splash more of the wine and let the flavors mingle and develop for a little while longer.
If the last beef stew I described as hearty this can only be described as beefy as the final product was thick with soft beef with the random larger chunk of beef stew pieces mixed in.
Overall it was very flavorful and maybe even a little too beefy, but it didn't stop Gail or I from each enjoying 2 servings for dinner as we toasted with the remaining wine!

Dark Days Meal # 6: Turkey Meatloaf with Roasted Potatoes & Turnip and Relishes

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants. 

turkey meatloaf, beet relish, corn relish, roast
potatoes & turnip, and pickled cranberries!

This week's Dark Days meal combines a summer purchase with root crops from our winter market and relishes we canned ourselves! For dinner last night we had BBQ Turkey Meatloaf with Roasted Potatoes and Turnip, along with some beet relish, corn relish, and pickled cranberries from our 'pantry.'

Back in the summer at the Brookline Farmer's Market I became familiar with Bob's Turkey Farm of Lancaster, MA. Their turkey kielbasa were a favorite of mine on the grill all summer long! They also make turkey salad, turkey pastrami, turkey chili, you get the idea! Before the end of the summer market season I stocked up on some goodies for the freezer: a few packs of turkey sausage, a turkey kielbasa, and the bbq turkey meatloaf we enjoyed last night.

The potatoes and turnip are from Silverbrook Farm in Dartmouth, MA courtesy of the SoWa Winter Market.

The beet relish, corn relish, and pickled cranberries were all canned by Gail and I at some point in the summer or fall using local ingredients. 

The meatloaf cooked up nice and moist and did not dry out. Gail had some, but found the texture a bit odd, and though the top with the sauce was 'too meaty' for her taste. I roasted the potatoes and turnip with rosemary and sage from our garden, with minced garlic (made from farmers market garlic this summer), and Kate's Homemade Butter.

Overall I was happy with dinner as it really hit the spot on a windy and rainy day and there are plenty of leftovers to enjoy. There will definitely be a meatloaf sandwich for lunch in my near future!

Dark Day's Meal # 5: Beef Ravioli & Homemade Sauce

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.

No pictures of this weeks Dark Days Meal as I was feeling a bit lazy and the meal isn't anything to special. I was very much still in recovery mode when I went back to work Tuesday and was looking for something quick, easy, and delicious for dinner. Pasta with sauce and some sort of vegetable or (maybe) meat is a pretty common meal here at Grown Away. Some days we don't want to cook anything fancy, just something warm and filling in our bellies. Tuesday was just that kind of night so I pulled a container of Valicenti Organico beef ravioli out of the freezer and warmed up a jar of our homemade sauce. That is it, nothing fancy but so delicious. I was expecting the ravioli to be loaded with ground beef, which I thought might be a little too much for Gail, but she was willing to give it a try. Turns out there was no need for concern as the consistency of the filling was creamy, and a nice mix of ricotta, beef, and seasoning without any of the ingredients overpowering the others. 

Quick, tasty, and simple food to start the year!

look for regularly scheduled posting to start up again next week.

Dark Days Meal #5: Chrismukkah Breakfast!

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants.

Gail and I are both Jewish and Christmas was never celebrated in either of our households growing up. The very common practice of Chinese food and a movie for Jewish families on Christmas is one I am very familiar with. Gail's sister is married to a great guy who celebrates Christmas. They visit his family on Christmas eve and their kids get to celebrate with all their aunts and uncles. For the past few years Gail and I have had the pleasure of celebrating Christmas day, and sometimes Chrismukkah when the calenders align like they have this year! 

We spend the afternoon munching and early evening playing with what seemed like an endless array of new toys and games with a pair of hyperactive 5 1/2 & 4 year old's  munching on a ton of great snacks, and enjoying a delicious (and very not local) Chinese food feast with Gail's sister, brother in-law, and their kids. It is a really nice tradition we have started with them and one, I hope to continue for many years!

Before we headed over to the Murphy's, Gail and I decided we would make a nice Christmas breakfast together(which I hope will also develop into a nice tradition), and figured we could easily make it a local meal. We filled our bellies with scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese & red pepper, buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup, Irish soda bread scones, bacon, and drank local cider and locally roasted coffee. The pancakes and scones were made from Garelick Farms buttermilk and King Arthur Flour, but did feature some baking ingredients that are pantry staples(Check back tomorrow for the Irish Soda Bread/mini-scones recipe). Gail even tried a few pieces of the very crispy bacon, enjoyed it and declared 'all bacon should be crispy!' Given that she is slowly integrating meat into her diet any successful attempt is worth noting. The Bacon was from John Crow Farm, the cheddar Cheese from Grafton Village Cheese, and the red pepper from The Herb Lyceum and their greenhouses while the eggs are from Spring Brook Farm,  and the maple syrup from the Vermont part of Cooks Farm operations. The apple cider is from Pine Hill Orchards and is slightly sweeter then the 'made from local apples' blend that many of the farmers put their apples towards. The coffee was a light roast Rwanda Coopac from the Barrington Coffee Roasting Company and their new Boston Cafe . 

With New Years celebrations this coming weekend I would guess our next Dark Days meal will come during the later part of next week and will probably feature something from our freezer or canned goods!

Somerville Winter Market & Taza Factory Store 12/24

I know last week's trip to the SoWa Winter Market seemed like our last market trip of the year but our schedule's were clear so Gail and I took a quick trip to the Somerville Market on Christmas Eve. Following the market we took a stopped in to the Taza Chocolate factory store where we picked up a few goodies that re factory store exclusive!

Here's the rundown of what we got at the Somerville Winter Market:

Sweet Italian Sausage from Stillman's Farm

Milk from Shaw Farm

Apples from Apex Orchards & Cider from Pine Hill Orchards (via Apex Orchards)

A loaf of Light Rye bread from Big Sky Bread

Carrots & radishes from Wintermoon Farm.

Fresh mozzarella from Fiore Di Nonno, and on our way home we also stopped at the market and picked up a small block of cheddar cheese from Grafton Village.

After our time at the market we headed over to the Taza Chocolate factory store. Unfortunately we weren't able to fit a factory tour into our schedule but we did enjoy sampling many of the great products including some factory store exclusives! We even brought home some goodies: a can of chocolate covered cashews, a can of chocolate covered golden berries (factory store only), orange flavored chocolate mexicano discs, and a small bag of chocolate covered ginger (factory store only). It seems like a lot of chocolate, but we will nibble here and there for a while on this supply. Plus, I really love Taza chocolate so if I am going to splurge on a treat for myself it will be on something I really enjoy!

Dark Days Meal #4: Hearty Beef Stew & Mashed Potatoes

The Dark Days Challenge is on! Running until March 31, 2012 over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal where you can follow along with all of the other participants!

For this week's Dark Days meal we decided to free up some space in both the refrigerator and the freezer. Gail was feeling a bit under the weather and mentioned that some stew would hit the spot. Back in October I made lots of brisket and a wonderfully hearty beef stew with the leftovers! All I had to do was thaw out the two portions I froze in October and warm it up. To give the meal a little more bulk and free up some additional space in the refrigerator I added a helping of leftover mashed potatoes with the addition of some fresh made horseradish!
Nothing fancy or special here, just warm comfort food. Horseradish was the 'fanciest' ingredient.
For me part of the challenge is using up the great ingredients in all of our canned chutneys, jams, frozen meats, and other food we've preserved.
 Back in August Gail and I made a few loaves of chocolate and plain zucchini bread and muffins when the farmers markets were overflowing with zukes, so this week we are enjoying a loaf with our morning coffee. Various relishes, chutneys, jams and sauces find their way into many of our meals. We canned 4 1/2 gallons of tomato sauce and there is no telling how soon we will run out of our home made sauce! We bulk it up with the addition of various root vegetables or saute greens that we pick up at the winter markets. Thanks to some great producers we have access to handmade pasta and ravioli's full of local ingredients. The increase in availability of local food year round is noticeable. Even looking back just a year or two there are at least a half dozen new winter markets in operation or starting up this season!
A big part of supporting local farms, markets, and producers are the personal connections Gail and I have made. We've turned to these farmers for cooking tips and advice for our own garden, learned about making pasta, roasting coffee, and beekeeping from the great vendors at the various markets we visit. Gail and I are naturally curious people and love engaging in conversation with the different vendors, learning a little bit about what goes into their worse gives us a much greater appreciation for the food while we are eating it.
As we sit on the doorstep of the holidays and new year consider thanking a local farmer or food producer for the work they do!

Dark Days Meal #3 Spicy Ginger Stir-Fry with Carrot Udon & recap info

The Dark Days Challenge has begun! Running until March 31, 2012, over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog/write about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling in Normal.

Before I get to this weeks Dark Days Meal that Gail and I ate, I wanted to point out that recaps for Week 1 (here & here) and Week 2 (here & here) have been posted over at Not Dabbling in Normal. It's really interesting to see the huge diversity of meals and ingredients being used by all the participants. Be sure to check out some of their blogs as well.
On to the meal that we had here at Grown Away kitchens:
We had a few ingredients that I have little to no experience with such as jerusalem artichokes and mushrooms. I know mushrooms are a common ingredient and are found in or the base of, countless dishes, but I'm not their biggest fan and have for a long time avoided them all together. The sole exception being my mother's chicken Marsala! I'm trying though, which is why we picked up some mushrooms at the SoWa Winter Market on Sunday.  We also had a small napa cabbage to use, as well as some very fat carrots, scallions, and a few surprises!

I wanted to try something Asian inspired for this meal but had a lot of trouble coming up with a balanced meal, especially with no local source of noodles!
Truth be told, this isn't one of the meals I am most proud of, but it featured a ton of local ingredients, was incredibly healthy and filled us up. Not all the meals are gourmet, sometimes they are just food, and dinner on Tuesday was just that: food.
I ended up dicing the napa cabbage and mushrooms, and stir-frying them with a bit of baby ginger, and a drop of (non-local) chili-garlic paste.
I peeled the carrots, not just the outside i really peeled the carrots and used the peeled carrots as noodles which I tossed into a mix of sauteed jerusalem artichoke, red pepper, garlic, scallions, ginger, and a dash of Chef Myron's Szechuan Sauce (while Chef Myron's does not use entirely local ingredients in their products they are a local small business & specialty food producer that I am happy to support. I was introduced to their sauces at a local food festival a few years ago, and believe that supporting small local food business' is as important as supporting local farms and farmers markets). Once the cabbage and mushrooms were cooked up I tossed them into the carrot noodle mixture and served everything up in one bowl. On the side I served up our first tasting of homemade pickled ginger & daikon (daikon was slightly sweet and absorbed the flavors well, ginger needs more time to develop).
As I said not our best meal, but it was healthy and full of vegetables and we ate all of it, so I must have done something right!
Spicy Ginger Stir-Fry with Carrot 'Udon' ingredients:
Carrots, scallions & jerusalem artichokes from Spring Brook Farm. Mushrooms from Shady Oaks Organics. Napa cabbage from Heron Pond Farm. Ginger from the freezer via Old Friends Farm. Garlic from Allandale Farm. Daikon for the pickled daikon came from Winter Moon Farm , and the Szechuan sauce was courtesy of Chef Myron's.

Obviously not everything purchased at our trips to the winter farmers markets markets that I highlight on this blog make it into our dark days meals. Many ingredients and items are peppered throughout our meals each week and local foods are a major part of our meal planning.

What's coming next week?? I don't know, but I look forward to sharing with all of you!

Eat Boutique - Holiday Local Market 12/10

This past Saturday Gail and I visited the Eat Boutique Holiday Local Market in Boston's Fort Point neighborhood. The one day event featured 15  regional food producers from as far south as Brooklyn, NY and as far north as New Hampshire and Vermont. Along with the great food vendors they also had four cookbook authors on hand signing their books. It was a great event with lots of delicious food and beverages available for sample and sale!

After circulating around the room, trying various foods, coffee, hard cider, and rum we were left with the tough decision of what to bring home with us.

We ended up with a great haul including: bergamot & salty peanut taffy from Salty Road (Brooklyn, NY), 1/4 lb of vanilla sea salt caramel from Suss Sweets (New Hampshire), vanilla and coffee goat's milk caramel sauce from Fat Toad Farm (Brookfield, VT), gluten free spice cake mix from Blue Egg Baking (Newburyport, MA), Cycledrome coffee from New Harvest Coffee Roasters (Pawtucket, RI), and a few Eat Boutique stickers!!!
Not a bad haul and a really fun event! I hope that it happens again, whether it's holiday time next year or before that I would definitely check it out again!

Dark Days Meal # 2: Garlic Horseradish Sirloin with roasted Carrot & Turnip.

The Dark Days Challenge has begun! Running until March 31, 2012, over 100 participants will be doing our best to cook and blog/write about one meal per week featuring SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) ingredients. Recaps will be hosted by the blog collective Not Dabbling In Normal. I will post links to recaps so that you can follow along with other participants. 

It finally started to get cold a few nights ago so I turned toward something hearty for this weeks dark days meal! We started with a too sweet butternut squash soup that I floated a crostini with melted cheddar in. The crostini was made from an extra piece of the crusty dutch-oven bread I made and the cheddar was from Smith's Farmstead which was a great way to balance the overly sweet soup. Our main course is pictured in this post, a delicious garlic and horseradish marinated sirloin steak with roasted carrot and turnips! This wasn't a tough dish at all. Once the steak was defrosted I rubbed a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of garlic pure6, and a tablespoon of horseradish all over the steak and let it chill out, covered in the fridge for a few hours, flipping it occasionally. When it was time for the carrot and turnips to go into the oven I cooked the steak in some melted butter.  As the steak finished resting the carrot and turnips were ready to come out of the oven.  Though the soup wasn't met with glowing reviews (it was edible but nothing special) the steak was good enough that it passed Gail's 3 bite test as she ate a few pieces and even set some aside for lunch too! The veggies were very easy and required very little effort. This type of dish can easily be modified for whichever root veggies are on hand. 

To make the root veggies preheat oven to 425 F,  cut veggies into wedge's or fry shapes and place them into a bowl. Drizzle them with a tablespoon of olive oil, a pinch of kosher salt, and a mix of thyme/marjoram/rosemary. Spread vegetables in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for 20 minutes.

All of the ingredients except the olive oil, salt, and pepper we used for this meal were sourced locally:

For the soup:

Butternut squash from NorthStar Farm. Onion from Enterprise Farm. Apples and cider from Allandale Farm. Cheddar from Smith's Farmstead.

For the steak & root veggies:

Sirloin from Stillman's. Garlic from farmer's markets this summer/fall. Horseradish from our garden. Carrots from NorthStar Farm. Turnips from Heron Pond Farm, and herbs from our garden.