Local Food Connections

Hi everyone,

Wow…. I have been away from my blog for far too long. I hope the Thanksgiving holiday was a wonderful one for you. We were blessed to have a table filled with delicious food and family with us.

Finding ways to deal with leftover turkey isn’t that hard for me. I have lots of ideas and leftovers go pretty fast. What I did find in the refrigerator that puzzled me a bit was a bowl of cranberry sauce (the jelly type). This year, I didn’t make a from scratch recipe – time got a bit in the way with the other dishes I was preparing. So, I found myself staring at the dish thinking hmmm…. what to do with this?

Cranberries

Hi everyone,

Zucchini season for sure! We’ve had an interesting summer (or some say lack of) here in MN. I think the cooler weather has caused some crops to go on overload. I have noticed an abundance of zucchini everywhere.

Take a minute to read my article on zucchini – it might help you use up some of the extras you have sitting around now!

Here a Zucchini… There a Zucchini… There a Zucchini – 5 Ways to Use Zucchini

Enjoy….
Take care,
Judy

Hi everyone,

It is summer and that means zucchini. I enjoy zucchini and summer squash, but sometimes I want to try something new and different.

This week, I will post a few different ideas to use the bountiful crop that summer brings.

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Nothing like a summer trip to the Farmer’s Market or a basket from your CSA to get you cooking. I remembered a recipe in Prevention and personalized it a bit with all of the goodies in the fridge that I needed to use. Soup doesn’t need to be a cold weather dish. A lighter soup is refreshing because it isn’t heavy food to eat.

Fresh from the Market

Hi everyone,

Finally, we are pulling back the blanket of a chilly, snowy winter and looking forward to seeing the new apparel that Mother Nature will give her tree and flower children this year.

I think we all need spring badly this year. Our country is in economic chaos, our people are stressed and we need to find some joy and warmth in our lives. Spring just might be able to help warm us all up just a bit.

And this post couldn’t be more appropriate for Earth Day 2009.

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Hi everyone,

Salsify – I love that word. It just rolls around your tongue and comes out sounding like music. Talk about stereotyping, immediately exotic comes to mind. This vegetable is far more popular in Europe than the U.S., which makes it even more interesting to me.

When we received our 2009 CSA brochure, salsify was on the list of vegetables they are testing this season. So, now I am curious if the flavor of salsify will sing as much as its name. Salisfy comes in two colors – black or white and looks like a carrot or parsnip, but even skinnier. Apparently not only are they tasty, they have a beautiful flower to adorn your vegetable garden as it grows.

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Hi everyone,

Some sense of the end of a gloomy winter came last week with the arrival of our Crazy Daisy CSA brochure for 2009.

Crazy Daisy's Daisy

They are some wonderful new adventures in veggies for us this year and I am so ready for that fresh bounty every week. We are also working on their first cookbook and I hope to have it ready for the 2009 members to have some great new ideas.
 

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Hi everyone,

Last week, my husband and I took another class at the Kitchen Window. We are pizza snobs and proud of it. Whenever possible, our pizza of choice is made at home with our own dough. The class was “Better-than-Pizzeria Pizza” and making the perfect dough was the premise for the class.

The dough was ready for us so we could start cooking. We were paired in groups and off to work. We assembled two types of pizza and then spent a rotation at the dough station. Our group was so much fun and we worked well together. Our Bacon-Cheeseburger and Chicken Taco pizzas were delicious. Never thought I would eat a pizza with dill pickles on it! The Pear and Gorgonzola just melted in my mouth. My least favorite was a Roasted Vegetable (which I normally love) and I think it was because of the potatoes. I would have preferred peppers, artichokes, zucchini, and onions, which is the great thing about pizza – you can make it your way

John Michael Lerma (the instructor), of Food Network fame, was ill so a local chef, Scott Hurlbut, taught the class for him. He walked in at the very last minute and taught an amazing class.

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Hi everyone,

Many of you are familiar with Lynn Rossetto Kasper, her excellent cookbooks, her newspaper column, and her show on Public Radio, The Splendid Table. 

Chefs are coming more and more to the forefront with the Eat Local movement and Chef Kasper is no exception.  
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Happy New Year!

We are almost halfway through January of the New Year and I am wondering how many of you are already losing that resolve to make major changes in your life?

This past summer I was involved in a writing intensive with an wonderful supportive and talented group of women and a great coach, Suzanne Lieurance (The Working Writer’s Coach). Last week, she had a reunion call with our group to discuss our writing goals for 2009. After the call, I reviewed my goals based on the discussion, but also thought about them in a different light. Now I am applying that philosophy to my life, not just my writing.
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