My Current Moral Debate
Posted: May 22, 2012 Filed under: local food | Tags: local food, Organic 4 Comments »I am currently struggling with the problem of having amazing produce all around me all day long, offered at a great rate, BUT most of it is not from the area or even within the US. I have tried to keep a relatively seasonal diet over the past year minus my daily banana. This means I do not buy any other tropical fruits, berries, or tomatoes unless it is the summer, and I eat a lot of kale and squash in the winter. Now I am not perfect and I do on occasion have some foods out of season, especially when I order a salad out and it is made of baby greens and contains tomatoes. No one is perfect but just think about how amazing a summer tomato tastes warmed in the sun’s rays vs. a hot house tomato flown in from Mexico. There is no comparison. Not to mention the amount of fossil fuel used to fly the tomato to me and the conditions the pickers have to deal with.
Getting back to my issues…we carry the mother load of delicious all organic produce and it is very hard to say no to the strawberries, peppers, and raspberries. I try and stay away from them as much as possible but some are just so hard to pass up. We just need to get the local crops in ASAP and my garden needs to start producing!
What would you do?
Everything is In!
Posted: May 17, 2012 Filed under: garden | Tags: garden, gardening, lettuce 3 Comments »It is a beautiful day here in Maryland! The garden is growing, and I finally got everything planted (minus a few replacement heads of lettuce after harvest).
Everything seems to be doing well except my snap peas and a couple of tomato plants that were sampled by a chipmunk or some other type of rodent ( we are pretending it could never be a rat…). They seem to be the only trouble we have had with nibbling, which is good because I am trying to keep the garden as organic as possible. I am actually more worried that my nibbler problems will be of the two legged variety come July. As of today no one seems to want to steal kale and lettuce but tomatoes and peppers are a little bit more appealing.
The latest garden additions are pepper plants, some herbs and marigolds.
I love sweet red peppers!
Basil and parsley looking a little sad after watering.
Cheery marigold! They are supposed to keep pests away and my mom will be proud of me for getting a plant that is not food.
Along with planting, I also harvested two Romaine heads and some more spicy salad greens.
Yay lettuce!
Both are hanging out in my crisper waiting to be eaten tonight for dinner! My tomatoes are still very small but growing. It is almost time to harvest some spinach too! Green Monster smoothies and salads for all!
Dino and Inman Family Wine Dinner
Posted: May 13, 2012 Filed under: date night | Tags: date night, Dino, Olivet Winery, wine dinner Leave a comment »
Nick and I were able to attend an amazing dinner at Dino on Wednesday. I have ben wanting to go to the restaurant for quiet some time because of their focus on sustainable and local, and this seemed like a perfect time to try it out!
You can see the first two courses described above – it was my first time having pig head! The one with green on top is the pork and the other is the seafood. This was paired with a Rose and was our second favorite wine of the night. We both liked the seafood crostini better.
Next was my first soft shell crab ever! It was grilled and paired with a tomato sauce jarred last summer. It was accompanied by a Chardonnay. I still like lobster better 
The owner and wine maker made the rounds giving us insight on their organic wines and how they use local and sustainable products. This is Dean the restaurant owner and he is full of passion for food!
The third course was duck leg roasted with a homemade ginger glaze (so good), duck fat fried potatoes, and a poached quail egg. This was paired with a 2007 Pinot Noir on the valley and was lighter.
The fourth course was AMAZING! This was a stewed lamb with herb crust over 4 cheese polenta. The polenta was so good with gruyere, blue cheese, assiago and some other kind I cannot remember. I wanted to lick my bowl clean! This was paired with another Pinot Noir.
Lastly we ended with two lovely cheeses and the best Pinot Noir of the night! Sorry it went un-pictured.
We took the metro to allow ourselves a full night of wine enjoyment. Although we got home late (thanks red line track work!) it was worth it. Great date night!
Life in Silver Spring
Posted: May 12, 2012 Filed under: silver spring | Tags: farmers market, fenton street market, Silver Spring Leave a comment »We have lived in Silver Spring for almost 4 months. We are truly enjoying our time here.
Every Saturday morning I make my way to the Farmer’s Market and now there is a street occurring. I finally had enough time to walk into town and snap some pictures instead of dashing in and out.
It was an awesome day to be outside!
Other than spending time in town we have been exploring the local restaurants and have plans to get strawberry rhubarb cocktails tonight at 8407 Kitchen Bar!
I hope you are enjoying your Saturday!
Best Dressing To Date
Posted: May 8, 2012 Filed under: recipe | Tags: avocado, lemon, nutritional yeast, recipe, smoked paprika Leave a comment »Today I may have made the best dressing ever. It may look like super gross baby something or other, but if you like smoky and lemony flavors, this is for you.
Smoky Avocado Dressing – approximate measurements, coasted 3 servings of quinoa veggie salad
- 1 avocado, mashed
- 1 TSP olive oil
- 2 TBSP lemon juice
- 1 TBSP nutritional yeast (optional)
- 1 TSP smoked paprika
- 1/2 TSP fresh cracked pepper
- 1/4 TSP sea salt
- Mix together and stir in with a naked pasta, quinoa, or rice salad
I made this one up this afternoon for Nick and I to have for dinner. I am working late so I can take half and he can re-heat when he gets home. Win-win. Besides the dressing there is quinoa, onion, mushroom, zucchini, tomatoes, and kale. We shall see how it all turns out. I bet it will be amazing coated in all that smoky deliciousness!
What was something amazing that you made recently?
Tomatoes Abound!
Posted: May 7, 2012 Filed under: garden | Tags: garden, lettuce, mixed greens, tomatoes Leave a comment »
I was back in the garden yesterday, and Nick planted his first plant ever! I wish I had gotten a picture of it! Check out how much the greens have grown! You can see how small they were in this post.
I was even able to harvest some spicy greens for a salad!
Check out my first peas!
As for today we planted okra, cucumber, and 12 tomatoes. We could be swimming in tomatoes by the end of the summer, but I love them and I am sure my co-workers would enjoy them.
They are super itty-bitty now but soon we will have lovely Brandywine, Black from Tula, and Sun Gold tomatoes a plenty.
We really only have room for some peppers now, and I am going to plant some parsley, basil, and cilantro once we harvest the Romaine. Once the kale comes up I will probably plant some more lettuce. We shall see how it goes. We have had some bolting in the spinach and mixed greens but I cut them out yesterday. We still need some tomato cages, clippers, and Nick needs gloves. The gardening list never ends, but it is so much fun to watch everything grow!
Get growing tomatoes!!!
Rhubarb!
Posted: April 30, 2012 Filed under: farmers market | Tags: baking, compote, farmers market, rhubarb Leave a comment »This weekend I was fortunate enough to pick up some rhubarb from Three Springs Fruit Farm at the Farmer’s Market.
Rhubarb grows like a weed but hardly anyone keeps it on their land because it is a bit of an eyesore. It is however, one of my favorite flavors of springtime! Strawberry rhubarb is my second favorite pie flavor behind pumpkin. Given my shortage of butter and oats I was stuck looking up some recipes for my rhubarb. I found a cake recipe on a Rhubarb website (yes there are entire sites dedicated to the stuff) that did not involve butter or oil, so I was sold. I cut down the sugar and made it half whole wheat. I also used pecans instead of walnuts because I am allergic, and I have a big bag of pecans on hand. Lastly I added some lemon zest to the batter because it really helps to bring out the flavor of rhubarb.
This was delicious! The cinnamon, pecans and rhubarb really came out in this. I had some rhubarb leftover after making my cake so I whipped up a quick compote to slather on top of my oatmeal and toast.
Just boiled sliced rhubarb, a little water and a little sugar. I might need to figure out how to get one of these growing at our non-existent future house!
Farmers Market Finds
Posted: April 21, 2012 Filed under: farmers market | Tags: farmers market 2 Comments »
Farm eggs, ramps, asparagus, and cut flowers. Sissy inspected and approved.
Garden Update!
Posted: April 20, 2012 Filed under: garden | Tags: beans, compost, garden, gardening, lettuce, peas 2 Comments »Yesterday I got to work in the garden! It is warm enough to start greens and peas so I went ahead and started planting!
I started by fencing off my little plot and found out it is about 15ft x 4ft. Super long! I tried to get out all of the rocks and pieces of glass while also checking out what was leftover from last year.
Bucket of rocks and lots of little baby garlics. 
Lots of little squash of some sort. I pulled a bunch of these out so they weren’t over crowded. We shall see what they turn out to be! Tilling was seriously hard work.
Next I dumped out a giant bag or organic compost and some organic plant food. The odd shape is because I am trying to give everyone an equal amount of light and my plot is east, west lengthwise. Till, till, till.
Planted! 4 mixed greens, 6 spinach, 6 heads of romaine, 6 heads of kale, 4 sweet peas, and 2 green beans. Next up, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini, and herbs!
I need more compost!
Dry Rub Catfish
Posted: April 10, 2012 Filed under: dinner | Tags: catfish, kale, recipe, wheat berries 4 Comments »There was a new fish on the dinner plate tonight! I have always known catfish to be southern and fried, but I also know there are a ton of them swimming in the rivers of North America. I consulted with my fish expert Jess, and she said that catfish was a good choice when looking for a fish species to feel good about eating in terms of sustainability.
My former fish market boss said the best way to cook catfish is blackened. I just made Emily’s blackened tofu last week so I thought I would go with about the same spice mix but bake it on high heat until it started to crisp.
I mixed together garlic powder, cayenne, celery seed, paprika, salt, pepper, coriander, and oregano, then coated my fish before baking it at 425 for 17min.
It was good but I think I like trout better. Something about it was just off. I’m not really sure what? Maybe it does need a good sear in some oil.
Along with the catfish I cooked up a wheat berry salad with baby kale, onion, garlic, beets and smoked paprika.
The sweet onions were a good compliment to the slightly bitter kale.
I will give catfish one more try, but given a choice I would pick another sustainable fish. Next up, mussels!
Have you eaten catfish? How was it prepared? Did you like it?
