I was right...

I had no idea what day it was when we got home! We left for Connecticut on a Sunday, and returned on the second Thursday. For most of our extended  trips, we are gone Sunday through Saturday. When The H travels alone, he gets back on a Friday. So Friday felt like a Sunday to me and Saturday to him. Now that it's Sunday, it feels like...well, something else. I'm all messed up. What a jumble!

The little guy and I made the best of it, however, and made a stop at the farmer's market on Friday for some deliciously seasonal produce. Here's a couple-days meal plan I was able to concoct:

Friday - chicken tacos with cilantro-lime rice, corn on the cob, and homemade pico de gallo
Saturday - my former running partner's wedding! Leftovers for lunch
Sunday - breakfast-dinner for lunch, then homemade pesto pasta with chicken, watermelon, salad in the evening

My lunches on Friday and Saturday were largely composed of this beauty:

A rainbow of tiny tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, both from the farmers market, with basil from my yard and olive oil/vinegar from the co-op. I enjoyed a side of Greek yogurt with local blueberries and raw honey on the side. It was *almost* as good as ice cream. Don't let The H know I said so.

Unplanned meal plan

The H was supposed to be traveling this week, and I had a great idea for my meals this week with that in mind--more on that later. Anyway, I had to come up with an H-friendly plan sort of at the last minute. Here it is:

Sunday - gluten free pizza at the corner pizza joint! A new acquisition for them.

Monday - broccoli soup from this recipe with grilled cheese sandwiches

Tuesday - chicken and brown/wild rice in the slow cooker with roasted butternut squash

Wednesday - flank steak fajitas using beef from the co-op

Thursday - out with The H, who wants to go new-suit shopping

Friday - roast chicken with carrots and potatoes (whole chicken from the co-op)

Saturday - breakfast for dinner--a frittata? I have a few ideas in my Google Reader...

Gluten free fruit cobbler

This recipe comes from celiac.com, a great resource for those transitioning to gluten-free living. We were planning dinner with The H's parents, and I wanted to use some of our co-op haul for dessert. I was looking for something that would go well with with ice cream. Fruit cobbler sounded just right.

I used four of these lovely peaches, and the rest of the organic blueberries, perhaps 1 cup.

Gluten Free Fruit Cobbler

from Celiac.com

1 stick of butter

1 cup gluten-free flour blend (your choice--I used Bob's Red Mill GF all-purpose)

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup kefir or buttermilk (I used milk soured with 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar)

1 large can peach halves, or 2-3 cups frozen thawed berries to which 1/4 cup sugar has been added (I had a total of 4 cups fresh fruit)

Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, or other spices, to taste (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350* and melt the butter in a glass 8x8 baking dish.

2. Mix all other ingredients, except for fruit. Pour batter onto melted butter. If you stir it around to incorporate the butter, you'll end up with a rich, buttery cakelike cobbler. If you don't mix it in, you'll have a chewy, buttery edge (I mixed it together).

3. Spread the fruit on top of the crust and sprinkle with spices of your choice. Bake 45 minutes or until set in the center.

Because of the full stick of butter and loads of sugar called for, I can't really consider this "clean" though there are certainly ways to clean it up.

I think the crust could get away with less than a full stick of butter (see how much is just sitting on top after I mixed it in? Yikes...), and the sugar in the dry crust mix could likely be cut back a bit and probably exchanged for sucanat. I just didn't have enough to try it.

I used maple flakes for the sugar on the fruit, though as I typed the recipe above, I think I could have omitted that since I wasn't using frozen berries, which are notably more tart than fresh peaches! If I were to use frozen, I'd try mixing them with honey rather than a dry sugar.

The spices I used on top of the fruit were cinnamon and nutmeg. I used a light dusting of each.

The middle was a bit soft after 45 minutes, so I left it in the oven for another 10, then turned it off and let the heat continue cooking it while we cleaned up after dinner.

It was still somewhat soft when we ate it, but since there was no raw egg or anything potentially harmful in it, we just dug in.

This made 9 servings. The H and his brother had two servings each, in rapid succession. It was one of the better gluten-free desserts I have eaten, let alone made from scratch. We didn't eat it with ice cream, but it was great nonetheless.

This week's menu

The fridge, freezer, and pantry are looking lean indeed. I had to dig deep to create this plan. My goal is to put off shopping until payday (Tuesday) and then stick to a bare-necessities list because we have co-op pickup on Wednesday evening. Getting through Wednesday sure gave me trouble! Here's what I managed to eke out:

Sunday lunch - leftover beef curry over brown rice for me and The H (plus a Greek yogurt for him); mac 'n' cheese, turkey, edamame and pretzels for the little guy

Sunday dinner - homemade pizza with red pepper, spinach, homemade sauce, mozzarella, nitrate-free pepperoni, roasted garlic if I get that ambitious...

Monday - BBQ chicken breasts and Branny's Boston Baked Beans, probably with barley for a side, unless I buy corn on the cob before then...

Tuesday - Vegetable soup based on this recipe in the slow cooker, made with a bag of frozen veggies, homemade broth, some sad parsnips left in the veggie keeper (just for flavoring, I won't make us eat them), chickpeas, and rice pasta

Wednesday - Gluten-free macaroni with peas or edamame, soy-flax tortilla chips and pineapple salsa, homemade gluten-free banana bread

Thursday - Leftovers, whether I run with friends or not

Friday - Grilled chicken, co-op purple beans, brown rice

Saturday - Gluten-free Monte Cristo sandwiches (basically, gluten-free French toast/grilled cheese with turkey, Swiss, and jam inside), co-op peaches, and co-op bacon

Clean and local burgers & fries

Tonight we had burgers and fries--the clean and local way! Or, at least the way *I* do clean and local.

The fries were made from local parsnips (thanks to the farmer's market) and sweet potato. I cut them into fry-sized pieces, tossed with some olive oil, salt, pepper, cinnamon, and cayenne, and roasted at 425* for about 35 minutes.

I got this idea from Katie at Health for the Whole Self--I never would've thought to make parsnip fries on my own, but I'm glad to have another way to prepare them.

I shuffled them around after about 25 minutes to help them brown evenly. I like 'em crispy.

The burgers were 1/4-lb patties from a local farm via the co-op. The H seasoned them perfectly--I love dried chipotle powder! Between that and the cayenne on the fries, it was a pretty spicy meal.

When the fries were done, we plated everything and sat down to deliciousness. Our burgers were topped with spinach, tomato, and mustard (organic ketchup for The H).

I ate mine on a sandwich thin, and The H had his on a piece of freshly-made gluten-free, egg-free bread. I used flax meal "eggs" with our usual GF bread recipe, and it came out great. And you know what? We ate off salad plates, so even though it looks like a heap of food (and it was really filling) our portions weren't overpoweringly heaping. Try it sometime!

A meaty month

Apparently May is "meat month" here in our household. The H has been asking for beef burgers lately, but I keep holding him off by making burgers out of beans and/or ground chicken. We've been filling in our menu with co-op bacon/pancetta, Canadian turkey bacon, the dregs of meat I've frozen from other meals, and protein alternatives like eggs or the quinoa in our stuffed peppers last night.

The last time I cooked actual chicken breasts is when I made these beauties more than two weeks ago. I have been wanting to hit up a local farm retail store, which I finally did with the little guy on Monday. There we stocked up with five packages of 1/3 pound beef burgers (a total of 5 pounds, or 15 pre-made patties), two pounds of ground turkey breast, and about 4 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breast.

Tomorrow is co-op pickup night, so I just logged in to remind myself what I ordered this time--and there I saw one package of 1/4lb beef burgers (oops), a pound of stew beef, and two pounds of flank steak. Looks like lots of grilling in our future!

Speaking of which, I grilled up a package of the 1/3lb patties tonight after running. Oh.My.Goodness. I wanted to keep eating long after my patty--topped with cheddar, mustard, ketchup, and sliced pickle on an HFCS-free wheat bun--was gone. On the side, we polished off a personal watermelon and some tomato-feta-balsamic vin salad. Fantastic!

Spring has truly arrived!

Know how I know? The little guy and I went to the FARMERS MARKET on Wednesday!

I was happy to see "my" egg person again, selling large and jumbo dozens for $0.50 less than I get them from the local food co-op. When we run out mid-week and co-op pickup night is a few weeks off, this is a great way to supplement.

We also picked up a bunch of fresh asparagus, some of which I roasted for lunch with olive oil, sea salt, and pepper (but forgot to take a picture of), some gifts for Mother's Day, and a cute little basil plant.

My attempt at basil-from-seeds did not, shall we say, go well.

The new plant will get repotted in fresh soil and take up residence in a pot--eventually with some other herbs--on my back porch, where I can move it into the sun or out of the rain as needed. The old one, that has been "growing" since January (I know! I'm not very green-thumby), will get pitched into the garden.

Oh, and since it was "ten o' clock snack time" the little guy and I shared a delightfully gooey fresh pecan cinnamon roll. We've been fortunate to have access to local food throughout the winter, thanks to the co-op, but I love market season and I'm glad it's back!

It's shopping day!

The ordering window for the co-op opened this morning and I wasted no time filling up my virtual basket. On the list this month:

Eggs - the brown ones pictured here

Carrots - the producer says they're incredibly sweet

Parsley - for quinoa tabbouleh

Frozen blueberries - for pancakes, yogurt, and oatmeal

Frozen raspberries - for yogurt and smoothies

Ground turkey - I have a honey-mustard meatloaf recipe to try!

Stew beef - for stew (duh) and curry

Chicken necks and backs - for making stock

Nitrite-free bacon - SO GOOD

Pancetta - a new item this month, just wanted to try it

Maybe towards the end of the week we'll see how our 4lbs of coffee from the last pick-up is holding out and add another bag if it looks like we'll run out before the end of the month. We are completely out of chicken breast, so I will plan a trip to one of the local meat markets this week and pick some up. It's a meat-heavy month, but the freezer is getting bare so it's time to stock up.

Co-op night!

Tonight is co-op pickup, and I am so excited. Just like always! First, The H and I are having dinner at our favorite local place, the Cheetah restaurant you may have seen me mention before. I'm already drooling at the thought of raw fries... I was thrilled to find that I had a very similar approximation of raw fries saved in my Google Reader, courtesy of Elly Says Opa. Can't wait to try them!

This month we ordered more meat than usual, since I never seemed to have enough in the freezer towards the end of the month. On our list this time:

Eggs (three dozen; two never seemed like enough, especially now that I'm making more gluten-free bread at home)
Hamburger patties, grass-fed
Chicken apple sausage
Stew meat
Fingerling potatoes
Yellow onions
Dried cherries
Dried blueberries
Multigrain bread
Spelt bread
Cheddar cheese
Jack cheese w/dill

I plan to attempt my own Larabars with the dried fruit and some dates/nuts that I bought at the grocery store this week. Some of this food will travel with us to the Chicago area when the little guy and I join The H on his next business trip. Clean eating on the road, part eight hundred million, coming soon! :)

Meal Plan Monday

Meatless Monday -- Vegetarian fried rice

Tuesday -- Vegan split pea soup, modified for the slow cooker

Wednesday -- Date night at our favorite local place before co-op pickup!

Thursday -- Mushroom cheddar burgers with sweet potato fries (this is the one I'm most looking forward to, after date night!)

Friday -- OPEN (maybe a birthday party)

Saturday -- Corn chowder with apple grilled cheese sandwiches

Sunday -- (tentative) roasted chicken, fingerling potatoes, confetti kale (DDC meal)

So THAT's why I use the CrockPot

Don't tell The H, but I burned the chili tonight. I've been meaning to make CrockPot chili since Monday, so when the turkey was still in the fridge today I knew it had to get cooked or tossed. But I still didn't have 6 hours to devote to dinner, so I had to do it on the stove... you know, the old-fashioned way. :D Chili without a slow cooker is really just about a 20-minute meal, so I don't know why I put it of so long, but that's beside the point.

For those of you who just can't stand the suspense, it turned out fine. Delicious, even. Perhaps one of my favorite batches (since we all know I don't really measure, it's hard to duplicate things we like). The point is that when you are used to putting all your ingredients in a slow cooker and literally walking away from it for 6-8 hours, you may need to watch your pot a little more carefully if you choose to make dinner on the stovetop for a change.

But like I said, it was delicious: Ground turkey breast, two small red onions (co-op), one small Yukon Gold potato (co-op), kidney beans rinsed and drained, 1/2 diced red bell pepper, tomato puree, and canned tomatoes with garlic and onions, seasoned with sea salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper, cumin, and ancho chili powder. And once I realized that after 40 minutes it has ZERO liquid left and had begun burning to the bottom of the pan, I quickly added some water and a reduced-sodium beef broth packet (Trader Joe's) to bring it back to life. Crisis (and takeout pizza) averted! We served it with some rice elbow noodles, freshly grated mild white cheddar (co-op), grapes, and gluten-free bread. Thanks to some creative thinking, my son ate nearly his entire bowl of "bean soup!" The kid goes ape over canned beans but wouldn't touch the spoon when we called it chili. Whatever works, you know?

DDC #2: Holiday dinner #3

One of my self-chosen Dark Days Challenge rules was to make local-food items for family gatherings or potlucks as much as possible, so when our third family dinner in as many days rolled around I knew I wanted to contribute local ingredients to the table. With co-op pickup handily scheduled for last Tuesday, I was prepared to make parsnip mashed potatoes (using this recipe) and an apple crisp (using this recipe) today. Both got rave reviews, I'm happy to say. And though they are not the greatest, I took two pictures I have of the dishes--parsnips keeping warm on the stovetop, and apple crisp waiting to be baked 'til bubbly.

The parsnips were sweeter than potatoes, but very similar in texture. Even without cream or butter, they turned out so creamy and pleasant. My only change from the recipe linked above is that I doubled it and added one extra potato, so my ratio was 8 parsnips to 3 (large) Pontiac Red potatoes. Both the parsnips and taters were locally grown. I also made roasted broccoli, for the second time ever, using this recipe again. It was also very well-received, though not made with local ingredients. Does broccoli grow in west Michigan? I don't even know!

Due to The H's wheat allergy, I made the crisp with gluten-free flour. I love how the apples caramelize in the filling, and a crisp, sweet crumb topping is one of my favorite dessert components. I accidentally told my sister to add to much sugar to the apples (gotta love help in the kitchen, though!) so it was a bit sticker and sweeter than it's been other times I've made it... glad I was able to get my long run in this morning!

Dark Days Challenge: Beef Stew

This was my first meal for the DDC. It's been a month since our last co-op pickup and I am not (yet) a canner/freezer/preserver so our local-food stock was running a bit low. I had one package of grass-fed stew beef in the freezer and some carrot, potatoes, and onions left, so really my first meal for the challenge kind of put itself together.

The only non-local ingredients I added were some red wine (which could've been a Michigan-made thing, but I didn't want to open a fresh bottle for one cup), beef stock, and seasonings. Yesterday I made Jell-O (with juice) for the baby with fresh-picked-and-frozen Michigan strawberries, so we had that, too.

Aaand wouldn't you know the camera battery was dead. So just picture a steaming bowl of cubed Pontiac Red and Yukon Gold potatoes, diced red and yellow onions, the cutest carrots you've ever seen, and browned stew meat (and my son stabbing cubes of red gelatin) and there you have our dinner. We did have my sister join us, which was nice.

Tonight was co-op pickup, so hopefully I'll have more creative fare for next week's DDC meal!

Soup's on!

The other night I finally got to make the kale and sausage soup I've had my eye on for days. I used this recipe as my inspiration, which is a copycat recipe from the Olive Garden restaurant. It was a perfect soup for a snowy winter day. Leftovers turned out well; I liked that it thickened a bit when it was reheated. The original recipe is as follows, with my version below.

Toscana Soup

• 12 links spicy pork sausage, sliced
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup diced onion
• 1 1/4 teaspoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons chicken soup base
• 4 cups water
• 2 potatoes, halved and sliced
• 2 cups sliced kale
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

• 
  
• Directions for original version:
• 1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
• 2. Place sausage links on a baking sheet and bake 25 minutes, or until cooked through. Slice into 1/2 inch slices.
• 3. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onions until translucent; add garlic and cook 1 minute.
• 4. Stir in broth, water and potatoes; simmer 15 minutes.
• 5. Reduce heat to low and add sausage, kale and cream; simmer until heated through and serve.

My cleaned-up version:

• One package Jennie-O spicy Italian turkey sausage, removed from casings and browned/drained (minus 4oz once it was cooked, for another recipe)
• About 1 tablespoon olive oil
• One diced yellow onion (co-op)
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• 2 packets low-sodium chicken broth packets from Trader Joe's
• 4 cups water
• 2 potatoes, halved and sliced (co-op)
• 2 cups sliced kale, cram-packed full!
• 3 small carrots, washed and sliced (co-op)
• Half package sliced baby portobello mushrooms
• 1 can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• Splash of half-and-half (if I had more time or energy, I would've pureed some of the soup after adding the beans and before adding the kale and sausage with the hope that I could cut out the cream altogether. Maybe next time!)

1. Remove sausage from casings and brown in large skillet. Drain well and set aside.

2. In large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, saute onion in oil until translucent. Stir in garlic, cook about 1 minute.

3. Stir in broth, water, mushrooms, carrots, and potatoes; cover and cook until potatoes are nearly fork-tender, about 20 minutes.

4. Reduce heat to low and add sausage, kale, beans, and half-and-half. Simmer until heated through. Serve hot.

The Dark Days Challenge

A fellow food blogger (Hi, Wendy!) suggested I participate in the Dark Days of Winter Eat Local Challenge, and after reading about it online, I've decided I have no excuse *not* to try this. What's one meal a week, when we belong to the co-op? Granted, I am no canner-preserver-freezer extraordinaire. But I do have resources. It will give me pre-determined blog fare at least once a week, too. In light of this decision, I've altered my current co-op order a bit.

Rather than just regular (fair trade, organic) coffee, I'm also ordering 2lbs of decaffeinated (also FTO) beans. Since one of my goals prior to this challenge was to eat more locally anyway, it doesn't make much sense to keep sending Gevalia money every other month when Craig at Grand Rapids Coffee Roasters is roasting it fresh practically in my own backyard every day. I'm also ordering maple syrup for the first time, since there is no way I can justify Trader Joe's organic grade B maple syrup as "local" especially since I drive two hours to get it in the first place. LOL!

Since we have plenty of non-co-op meat in the freezer for now I won't order any more this cycle, but will plan on some in future months. Eating locally may help me get out of the stock-up-for-an-army-stranded-in-a-blizzard mentality, as good local meat is much pricier than the bulk bags from the grocery store, as Wendy wrote about here.

I know the point of this blog isn't locavorism, but please bear with me during this short experiment. I will still do my best to eat clean, of course; I'm simply adding the challenge of eating clean close to home on a more official platform than before.

So here are my personalized rules:

1. Make at least one locally-sourced meal weekly, using more local ingredients than non-local

2. Blog about the meal

3. Participate in the challenge for 5 weeks before re-evaluating

4. Prepare locally-sourced food(s) for any upcoming holiday potlucks or family meals

And in the words of my son's favorite TV show, "Let...the mission...BEGIN!"

Beef stew and apple crisp

Yesterday was a snowy, blowy day here on the west side of the mitten state, a perfect day for beef stew in the slow cooker. As I was putting this together, I realized that the majority of the ingredients came from our co-op. Perfect! I'm trying to transition our household to eating more local food vs. grocery store stuff, so this meal was ideal. And it was tasty, too. I think The H had three bowls at dinner, and took leftovers for lunch today.

Co-Op Beef Stew

1lb beef stew meat, cubed (co-op!)

Red wine, for deglazing pan

6 small carrots, scrubbed and sliced (co-op!)

2 onions, peeled and diced (co-op!)

4 potatoes, washed and cubed (co-op!)

Canned tomatoes

Zucchini, diced

4oz fresh sliced mushrooms

Worcestershire sauce, about 1 Tbsp

Black pepper and sea salt, to taste

Beef stock or broth, about 2 cups

Prepare potatoes, carrots, and and place into olive-oiled slow cooker crock. Add tomatoes. Brown cubes of beef with a few cloves of minced garlic, and add to crock. Deglaze pan with about 1/2 cup red wine; bring to a boil, get all the brown bits off the bottom of the pan, and add the wine to the slow cooker. Pour in beef stock. Season with salt, pepper, and Worcestershire (hot sauce, like Frank's, would probably be good in here, too). Cover the crock and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until potatoes are tender. Add the sliced mushrooms and zucchini for the last hour of cooking. Thicken with a cornstarch-water mixture if desired. We left it brothy per The H's request.

Dessert was an oatmeal apple crisp made with co-op Ida Red apples. It was delicious! I used this recipe from allrecipes.com with very few modifications. For example, I used turbinado sugar instead of white, added nutmeg to the apples, and walnuts to the crumble topping/crust. Instead of straight butter, I used Smart Balance 50/50 blend. It was a perfectly sweet, homemade end to our chilly winter day.

Veggielicious

Here's a confession: some days I crave vegetables. The really hearty, filling, warm and steamy, make-your-house-smell-divine roasted kind. Today was one of those days, so that's what I made for dinner tonight to go along with our leftover CrockPot lentil soup. Since co-op pickup was earlier in the week, I had plenty of fresh, local root veggies at my disposal. There was no recipe to follow (by now, you should be used to that from me) but here's the gist of it:

1 large red potato

1 Yukon Gold potato

1 large carrot

1 sweet potato

1/2 red onion

1 small yellow onion

4 cloves garlic (yes, the kitchen was rather pungent...)

Olive oil

White balsamic vinegar

Sea salt, black pepper, dried rosemary, dried thyme

Preheat oven to 450* and spray a roasting pan/jelly-roll pan with olive oil cooking spray. Wash all the veggies and peel the onions. Slice potatoes and onions in half lengthwise, then in fairly even slices so they cook evenly. Cut the carrot on an angle without cutting it in half first. Mince the garlic. Toss all veggies and garlic in a large bowl with a few swirls of olive oil, some salt and pepper, and small amounts of the herbs, to taste. Pour out onto pan. Roast for 20 minutes, stir, and roast another 20 minutes. Add a sprinkling of cheddar (or other cheese) during the last 5-10 minutes if you feel like it. Serve hot.

This was a colorful, tasty addition to our leftover soup (see here for the original recipe; I made it as stated, including adding potatoes and tomatoes).

It's co-op shopping day!

Today is the first day of shopping on my second-ever co-op cycle. Supposedly November is a big month for the co-op, as I imagine people are planning holiday meals, so I wanted to jump online and start ordering ASAP. Some things have already sold out! Good thing I didn't plan to make leek soup this month, and I snagged a bag of baby carrots before they were (virtually) gone.

I'm gradually working towards making one big co-op shopping order, one trip to Trader Joe's (Friday!), and a few small grocery-store stops for milk and non-local necessities every month. My grocery spending tends to get out of control and I am hoping that shopping with a purpose in mind helps reign that in.

Other things on our list this month include kale (ah, kale...), a couple kinds of squash, red and yellow onions, a few varieties of potatoes, a bag of hydroponic greens, apples, beef stew meat, frozen blueberries (for baking and chilly-day oatmeal breakfasts!), and eggs. I hope The H is available to assist with the heavy lifting.

My first fingerlings

Remember how excited I was about my first co-op order? So far nothing has disappointed! I've been munching Honey Crisp apples for two weeks, our farm-fresh eggs are creamily divine, you've read about my love of kale, we tried a buttercup squash on Sunday, and we really loved the fingerling potatoes I ordered for a Clean Eating Magazine recipe. They turned out great, though the cooking time was misleading as written. The H called these "juicy." I called them the cutest potatoes I'd ever seen. Seriously, some were the size of a large gum ball.

Lemon Thyme Fingerling Potatoes from Clean Eating Magazine, Sept/Oct 2009

1 1/2 lb fingerling potatoes, about 1-2 inches in length

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp fresh thyme, chopped (I used 1/4 tsp dried)

2 tsp olive oil

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400*.

2. Cut potatoes in half lengthwise and place into a mixing bowl. Add lemon zest and juice, thyme, oil, salt and pepper and toss to coat. Arrange in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet (I skipped the paper) and place in oven.

3. Bake for 20 minutes* turning once, or until potatoes are golden brown and tender when pierced with a fork.

* 20 minutes was not long enough, even though I had such diminutive spuds. They were in there at least 30 minutes, though I lost track while trying to cook steaks, mushrooms, and grody rabe at the same time. So start with 20 but expect them to take longer.

These didn't crisp up quite like other roasted potatoes I've had, but they were delicious. The thyme was subtle, so I could increase the amount I used next time, and I might even add a bit more lemon zest. Very pleasing flavor combination. Here is the one and only picture I have of these potatoes, taken at the end of the meal when I remembered the camera was sitting next to me. No, I am not a food photographer. At least they don't have bites out of them.

Keeping it local

I'm so very excited to report that I've joined a local co-op! Rather than relying on the farmers' market from May-November, I now have year-round access to fresh, local produce, meat, eggs, and a whole ton more. This is my first cycle with the co-op, so I can't say for sure how I like it yet, but so far I'm thrilled. (The H may not be, once he sees the total, but we have to *eat* right?) :) My desire to eat and shop locally has been growing since this blog began. Reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver has contributed to that quite a bit. It reads like a novel, and while I don't agree 100% with every word inside, I like that the tone is not preachy or holier-than-thou at all. I've already recommended it to my mom, an avid herb-and-veggie gardener, and asked that The H read it when I'm done, so he can understand where my "locavore" tendencies are coming from.

This co-op shopping cycle, I'm trying out a bunch of different producers, ordering things like eggs, squash, potatoes, lean beef, and dried cherries. Did you see that I wrote "squash" there? I know it's not one of my favorites, but I'm really trying to like it. Eating locally means I am choosing not to buy a bunch of warm-weather fruits and veggies until April or May, so I'd better get used to what's available here in the mitten state. I figure getting it fresh and local might help with that endeavor, since that is likely where the best, most flavorful product will come from. My experiments with spaghetti squash and sweet potatoes have turned out well, so I have nothing but high hopes for the other varieties we'll try this winter. Up next: buttercup. Stay tuned. Maybe one day I'll take a picture or two and stick them on here.