Funny Magic

Go Local :: From Farmstand to Kitchen Sink Soup

Today I'm guest-posting over at Living Senses for the Go Local Challenge. See you there!

Reasons to Love Summer :: 4

Rhubarb crisp in the morning, for breakfast. With Redi-Whip. Here's the recipe:

Topping:
1 C. flour
1/2 C. rolled oats
1 C. brown sugar, packed
1/2 C. butter, melted

Filling:
3 C. rhubarb, chopped
1 C. strawberries, sliced
1 C. sugar
1/4 C. flour
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 C. water

In a large bowl combine the first three topping ingredients and mix well. Stir in the melted butter and mix until crumbly. Press half of this mixture into a greased 8x8 pan; Reserve the other half for the topping.

In a separate bowl combine all of the filling ingredients and mix well. Pour over the crust in the 8X8 pan. Sprinkle the rest of the topping over the filling. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, or until the topping is light brown in color.

Cool, squirt with Redi-Whip, and enjoy!

This recipe used up the last of the rhubarb from my garden for the year. Dear, not-so-sweet-but-highly-versatile rhubarb, I'm a'gonna miss you!

(More great recipes using local, seasonal produce here.)

Go Local :: The String Bean Edition

This past Friday my mom dropped off a big bag of fresh string beans from my uncle's garden:

Sunday I cleaned 'em, blanched 'em, and stuck 'em in the freezer for eating at a later date. (A good bunch of instructions for freezing and canning fround here.)

I saved some, though, for eating right away.

I like 'em best this way: boil the green beans for 3-5 minutes, then drain and return to pan. Add some freshly grated lemon zest, a little buttah', and a sprinkling of coarse salt.

Yum!

These are the tomatoes I've got growing on the side of my house...all's we need is a few hot, sunny days and then they should ripen-up real good.

Can you guess what these are?

Onion stalks with flowering heads, again from my uncle's garden. Who knew the humble onion was such a beauty?!   Happy Tuesday, folks. I'll be back later with a bit of finished knitting; until then, Heather's got more Go Local stuff here. Toodles!

Go Local :: Week Six

On Saturday we went to the farm for a 4th of July lunch with family.

It was so fun to visit with everyone, and just as much fun to spend some time in here:

We came home with a couple bags of fresh-picked beets, peas, and onions. Yum!

Okay, gotta run - Juliet's begging to go to the park, and if I don't get my rear in gear she's gonna freak. "Mom, can we go now? Please?! I've been waiting to long!"

(Signing off now with a photo of some flowers: "Still Life with Sweet William and Ants.")

Have a good day! More Go Local here!

Go Local Monday

At long last I'm happy to report that I (and Juliet)  finally made it to one of our local Farmer's Markets last week:

The pickins' were pretty slim as it's still a bit early in the growing season here in the northland, but we came away with some lettuce, broccoli, strawberries, and a bundle of little red onions. I'm looking forward to going back each week and watching the whole market fill up with more summertime eats; in the meantime I'm quite content to nosh away on my salads and berries for now.

After our visit to the Farmer's Market, we met up with some friends for a couple of rides on one of the classic streetcars run by the Minnesota Streetcar Museum:

I've taken many a ride on the historic Como-Harriet Streetcar, but when you go with the little ones, what's old seems new again.

After our ride(s) we indulged in delicious, yummy, and very sloppy ice-cream cones by the lake:

...I'm so glad summer's here...   (Go Local food-happenings here.)

Go Local Week Two - From the Homefront

For the second year, my friend Heather is once again organizing Go Local, a deliciously inspirational challenge to eat one meal per week consisting of locally (within 250 miles from where you are) produced ingredients. The purpose, in her words, is "To inspire and be inspired to eat healthy, local foods. It's good for you. It's good for the environment. It's good for the economy." I couldn't agree more!  Myself, I'm looking forward to making my first trip of the season to my local farmer's market this coming Saturday morning; in the meantime, here's what's been happening around my place:

The rhubarb has been nearly picked clean and devoured this year: breads, compotes, and tomorrow... rhubarb crumble.

One of two tomato plants are coming along nicely.

And I'm loving my first experience with growing fresh herbs: sage, oregano, and thyme. Not pictured: rosemary and lavender, too.

Oh, and let's not forget this:

Catching and frying our own fresh fish, straight from the lake on my dad's property up north. When Charlie and hubby and my dad were up there a few weeks ago, they caught some nice sunfish...not enough to keep for a fish fry, so it was more of a catch-and-release type of weekend (lucky fish!).

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to my weekly dose of Go Local this year - the recipes and inspiration to be shared is such a good thing.

Time to go and check out this week's edition! Ta-ta for now...

Go Local Week 12 (with Sugar Babies)

For local eats this past week, we made a meal out of this:

Local corn and bratwurst on the grill, along with fresh cherry tomatoes from my little garden. It was delish!

This morning I came away with some good things from the farmer's market, which was just bustling with people and tons of produce. I love August and how bountiful it is...baskets of tomatoes just waiting to be canned, mounds of cucumbers and string beans on the tables, colorful Zinnias and big peppers.

Lettuce and basil, cucumbers, meat and milk, and a Sugar Baby watermelon, which I just love and cannot wait to cut into. Here's a little story about Sugar Babies for 'ya.

Back when we bought our first house, I planted a vegetable garden for the first time that summer. I grew corn and green peppers, string beans and zucchini, tomatoes and watermelons. By the end of summer, though, it appeared that the only thing that didn't do well for me was the watermelons.  They were small, and I assumed that I didn't give them enough space to grow or something...I wasn't sure, and I guess I was just too lazy to investigate further than my own silly assumptions. Then when the weather started turning cool and I was busy pulling everything out and turning the dirt, I took my shovel and started hacking into the watermelons, figuring they'd be good compost if nothing else. To my surprise, once I split the first one in half, I saw that it was bright pink inside! I just stood there looking at it with a confused expression on my face, something akin to WTF?!So I took it inside the house, cut a piece to try and sure enough, it was a juicy, sweet, 100% real watermelon. When I told this to my dad he confirmed that they must have been Sugar Babies and I, being a novice gardener, had no idea that when I put those watermelon seeds in the dirt all those months ago that this was the variety I had planted. I felt a little silly, but there you go.

Anyhoo, I have to share what I got in the mail this week from Heather, "Go-Local-Wrangler-Extraordinaire."

I was lucky enough to win her "Go Local" giveway, and here's what she sent me:

Some lovely pomegranate lip balm, a notecard, and two beautiful, made-by-Heather potholders.

I was sooo happy, because the two I'm using now are in super-sorry shape. I'd post a picture of them, but it's rather shameful...

So thank-you Heather, you're the best!

(Find more local foodies here...it's been truly inspirational.)

Go Local

Alrightee, then. So here's what we cooked up for this week's Go Local challenge:

Bratwurst (mit kraut) from the farmer's market and fresh vegetables from a little produce stand in our neighborhood. I guess they bring the vegetables in from Waverly, Minnesota, and let me tell you, they were so good and so crisp. Even my sometimes-finicky son raved about the sweet little grape tomatoes. (For the salad I just chopped up the green pepper with the tomatoes and cucumber and tossed it all with a few croutons and a bit of dressing. Yum!)

 

This week I also tried some local wine from Winehaven, a winery located in the Chisago Lakes area of Minnesota. This is (er, was) their rhubarb wine, and it was very good, especially when chilled. I'd say it was sweet enough to be more of a dessert wine, though...overall, a little too sweet for my highly developed palate taste. Next time I'm out shopping for spirits I'm gonna look for a nice red by this same winery. I like the idea of finding the perfect local wine to sip in the evenings when the kids are tucked in bed and I can put my feet up and hang out with hubby. Ahhh....

Oh, and my Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes are ripening on the side of my house! I can't tell you how much this excites me.

Juliet loves to help me seek out the red ones and pick them off the vines. "It's fun tomato-ing, isn't it Mama?"

(That yellow stuff above her nose? Just a little pollen from some flower-sniffin' adventures the other day.)

Here's wishing you a wonderful start to the new week. Now get out there and sniff some flowers!

Peppermint Sticks and Goin' Local

Candy in the form of flora from the garden:

These are Peppermint Stick Zinnias. I love them, but then I love all Zinnias.

They're so darn easy to grow - just plant the seeds directly into the springtime soil and badda-bing! You've planted yourself a whole lot of pretty.

For the local food round-up this week, we've done pretty well. We've been dining on veggies and meats from the Farmer's Market, and I've been purchasing my bread and baked goods from a local bakery near our house called A Baker's Wife. Walking in there is like stepping back in time - kitschy decorations adorn walls and shelves, muffins, lemon bars, and sweets too numerous to name fill the display case, while the smell of freshly made bread hangs heavy in the air. In a word, it's awesome.

This morning Juliet helped me shell the sugar snaps so that I could toss the peas with some pesto and pasta for lunch.

And for a light dessert we had angel food with a raspberry, blueberry, and rhubarb compote. (Rhubarb from my garden, raspberries from the freezer.) What about that fluffy white stuff, you ask? Well. That would be homemade whipping cream Redi Whip. Yeah, that's right. Redi Whip. The kind that you squirt into your's and your kids mouths when you're feeling all wild and crazy and you don't have company at the table. That stuff...and I'm not ashamed to admit that I love it!

(More local foodies found here!)

Go Local

Yesterday morning Juliet and I took a little walk to our local Farmer's Market. I couldn't believe all the offerings! The hustle and bustle combined with a beautiful summer's day...lots of fun and goodness, and fresh, hot coffee and crepes. Yum!

Here's what we came away with:

 

Lettuce and zucchini, tomatoes fresh from Wisconsin, sugar snap peas and string beans, chicken, ground beef, and tomato basil brats. All locally grown and produced, and all to be super yummy.

I hadn't seen milk at the Farmer's Market before...they were offering samples, and after a taste we took some home.  Truly, it's one-stop-shopping there.

 

And who can resist fresh, natural eggs??

Last night I had a friend over for some chit-chat and rhubarb galette, inspired from this post on Angry Chicken. (Rhubarb from a friend's garden.)

Serve it up with a good, local beer and you've got yourself a darn good (mostly) local dessert!

(For more "local foodies" around the country, visit Heather's blog. Thanks for the inspiration, Heather! Also, check out this feature story on local eating in vita.mn, a free weekly publication.)