Today Claire and I made squash and turnip gratin. Its an awful lot like scalloped potatoes, but with an actual vegetable. I made it last week, but the recipe needed tweaking before unveiling. I dare you to find a way to say gratin without sounding either pretentious or like a hick. Try it, you can't do it.
I also made rose hip tea. I added 4 rose hips to boiling water and let it steep covered for half an hour. The tea was really week and not particularly delicious. Also the rose hips were very expensive. I might do this regularly if I had a less expensive source. Boourns.
2 - cloves of garlic
1 - small turnip cut thin
1 - small squash cut thin
2 - onions chopped sort of fine. But I don't like to fuss
2? cups cream. This really depends on how large the squash and turnip are
1/4 tsp or less nutmeg
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup of cheese or more. I like cheese I added more
Rub a 9X13 baking pan with the garlic. Layer 1/3 of the turnip, 1/3 of the squash and 1/3 of the onion. Salt and pepper to taste.
Repeat with the remaining of the veggies in thirds.
Boil the cream and nutmeg
Pour over veggies
Top with cheese
Bake 50 mins or less.
EAT!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Oh January! Sometimes you feel like the most boring month
Despite a friend's valiant attempt to feed me priced to clear avocados, I'm still sadly lacking in fruit department (is avocado a fruit? I could look it up, but I like the mystery of the unknown). I had my boyfriend over for dinner on Saturday night and I probably spent about an hour finding something suitably not boring to eat and less than an hour cooking it. I have acquired some cookbooks for seasonal cooking namely: 'The fabulous potato' (props to all my friends and family who have been fed extraordinary amounts of potatoes last winter. 'Eating by the Seasons' and a magazine publication by Canadian Living. Also, the LCBO's food and drink magazine makes great use of seasonal foods. Let's add a picture to keep your attention:
Unfortunately, I have no idea what is in the picture, but it looks tasty and its a front running for next time. Also it looks like it has tomatoes and cucumbers, which are still available, but the supply will likely be running out sometime soon, so I guess I had better hurry.
I finally decided on a potato omelet and pumpkin soup. Eggs and potatoes for protein and pumpkin for vitamins and fibre. The potato omelet was less than stunning. I think its essentially an excuse to use up potatoes, as opposed to something potatoes are actually delicious in. Also it called to whip the egg whites, which amounted to a lot of work (pulling out the mixer) for very little net delicious effect.
BUT I think the pumpkin soup turned out really nicely, so I'll include it here:
3 cups of cooked pumpkin ( I used canned, because that is what I had)
3 cups of broth or cream (I used broth because my dinner guest isn't into milk products)
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup of heavy cream if you used the broth (I left this out, but it sounds delicious)
You'll notice the picture has garnish and my recipe has none. Well, that is because I shamelessly stole the picture which is far better looking than my soup. But I still think my soup was tasty, and hopefully provided me with some fibre and vitamin C because those are two things I feel like I'm lacking right now.
I'm trying to get some apples ordered from Hall's orchard, but for some reason my order is 'still waiting to be processed'. I'm probably going to cave and buy apples from Loblaws even though I have great suspicions that they have traveled over 1000 kms to get to my door. Tonight, I dream of vitamin C!
I finally decided on a potato omelet and pumpkin soup. Eggs and potatoes for protein and pumpkin for vitamins and fibre. The potato omelet was less than stunning. I think its essentially an excuse to use up potatoes, as opposed to something potatoes are actually delicious in. Also it called to whip the egg whites, which amounted to a lot of work (pulling out the mixer) for very little net delicious effect.
BUT I think the pumpkin soup turned out really nicely, so I'll include it here:
3 cups of cooked pumpkin ( I used canned, because that is what I had)
3 cups of broth or cream (I used broth because my dinner guest isn't into milk products)
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup of heavy cream if you used the broth (I left this out, but it sounds delicious)
I'm trying to get some apples ordered from Hall's orchard, but for some reason my order is 'still waiting to be processed'. I'm probably going to cave and buy apples from Loblaws even though I have great suspicions that they have traveled over 1000 kms to get to my door. Tonight, I dream of vitamin C!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
First Post - A Little Advice
Hi!
Welcome to my blog about my exciting exploits in eating local! My aim in writing this blog is to share my endeavors and to connect with other local foodies in Ottawa. If you aren't a local foodie, and just want to laugh at my rotten cabbages and carrots, feel free to follow! Hopefully I get some successes along with the failures.
Ottawa is the center of what I call 'Local', but I don't have strict rules on what I will and won't buy. Basically if I can get a closer alternative, I will. However, everybody knows coffee and chocolate grow in Ottawa, right?
I started eating local three years ago in January 2008. First piece of advice, don't start eating local in January, because it sucks. A big part of eating local is about food storage and I quickly realized that I was completely dependent on merchants to store and ship food. This packs on the carbon emissions with fridges, freezers and trucks. Also, the variety of what you can buy in January is, let's just say limited. Although I strive to eat local, that doesn't mean I don't indulge in the occasional banana. I try to apply the mandate with some common sense, even though my family would disagree.
In year three of the plan, I have expanded into exploits in food storage, which is what spurned me into posting today. The reason I'm working at storing food is two fold: 1. What we think of as 'regular' grocery stores ship 100% of their food from warehouses in Toronto and Montreal. I look at all the beautiful farm lands around me and ask why my food has to spend 5 hours in a truck consuming the world's limited supply of fossil fuels. I think there has to be a better way. The second reason that you can never be too prepared for the apocalypse. You laugh now, but you will be knocking at my door on peak oil, and I ain't sharing. Mom told me that Mennonites store 7 years worth of food. I googled that, but couldn't find it. I may or may not be true.
Today's exploit: Failed cabbage storage. Reasons I wanted to store cabbage because they are readily available at the farmer's market in the summer and I love cabbage rolls. I heard you could just hang them with their roots in a cold room and store them all winter. NOT TRUE. I have a room off the back of the house which I keep about 7C. I bought cabbages about the first week of October with their roots still on. I hung them in the cold room with visions of sugar cabbages dancing in my head. About a month ago I made some borscht with them. At that time I found little bugs on the cabbages. After some internet searching I decided they were probably not harmful, although I couldn't confirm what they are. They are small (2 mm) long green-black bugs with wings living on the stem of the cabbage. I just took off the bugs, washed the cabbage and was ok to go. If you think you know what they are, tell me.
However, I went downstairs today in anticipation of making cabbage rolls and all my cabbages went moldy :( Sorry for the blurry photo, but you get the idea. I guess all cabbages are not created equal. Next year I'll try to get some cabbages specifically designed for storage.
Next post, will be a success story!
Welcome to my blog about my exciting exploits in eating local! My aim in writing this blog is to share my endeavors and to connect with other local foodies in Ottawa. If you aren't a local foodie, and just want to laugh at my rotten cabbages and carrots, feel free to follow! Hopefully I get some successes along with the failures.
Ottawa is the center of what I call 'Local', but I don't have strict rules on what I will and won't buy. Basically if I can get a closer alternative, I will. However, everybody knows coffee and chocolate grow in Ottawa, right?
I started eating local three years ago in January 2008. First piece of advice, don't start eating local in January, because it sucks. A big part of eating local is about food storage and I quickly realized that I was completely dependent on merchants to store and ship food. This packs on the carbon emissions with fridges, freezers and trucks. Also, the variety of what you can buy in January is, let's just say limited. Although I strive to eat local, that doesn't mean I don't indulge in the occasional banana. I try to apply the mandate with some common sense, even though my family would disagree.
In year three of the plan, I have expanded into exploits in food storage, which is what spurned me into posting today. The reason I'm working at storing food is two fold: 1. What we think of as 'regular' grocery stores ship 100% of their food from warehouses in Toronto and Montreal. I look at all the beautiful farm lands around me and ask why my food has to spend 5 hours in a truck consuming the world's limited supply of fossil fuels. I think there has to be a better way. The second reason that you can never be too prepared for the apocalypse. You laugh now, but you will be knocking at my door on peak oil, and I ain't sharing. Mom told me that Mennonites store 7 years worth of food. I googled that, but couldn't find it. I may or may not be true.
Today's exploit: Failed cabbage storage. Reasons I wanted to store cabbage because they are readily available at the farmer's market in the summer and I love cabbage rolls. I heard you could just hang them with their roots in a cold room and store them all winter. NOT TRUE. I have a room off the back of the house which I keep about 7C. I bought cabbages about the first week of October with their roots still on. I hung them in the cold room with visions of sugar cabbages dancing in my head. About a month ago I made some borscht with them. At that time I found little bugs on the cabbages. After some internet searching I decided they were probably not harmful, although I couldn't confirm what they are. They are small (2 mm) long green-black bugs with wings living on the stem of the cabbage. I just took off the bugs, washed the cabbage and was ok to go. If you think you know what they are, tell me.
Next post, will be a success story!
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