Two Local Dinners

I'm still a pitiful excuse for a blogger. However, we finally have internet at the new digs, so the posting should become more frequent-- excepting next week when I'll be taking a trip to Tigalda to do some archaeological survey.

Since my last post I've been back to the Wednesday Market, and finally made it to the South Anchorage Farmer's Market and the 15th and Cordova Farmer's market. It's been beautiful, but mostly the bounty I've been bringing home has been beautiful! Look at those amazing golden beets from Rempel Family Farm.

I also have two tasty local dinners to share. (Since I'm once again behind, and owe a few weeks to the challenge in terms of posting my meals...though I've successfully made at least one entirely local meal a week since my last posting!)

Two or three weekends ago we ventured down to the mouth of the Kenai river to do some dipnetting. While Cheryl caught her first fish (ever!) and Kelly and James came home with two, we got skunked. I think that's the first time that's ever happened to me while dipnetting.

Having entered the weekend with the expectation that we'd be coming home with at least 20 fresh fillets, I couldn't let go of my desire for salmon the following Monday night. Thankfully, I had one final sockeye left in the freezer from last summer, such were the beginnings for one local dinner.

The salmon went into the oven with a little olive oil, a few onions and some fresh dill. I tossed a salad of local greens, red cabbage, onions, carrots, tomatoes, and goat cheese. The salmon seemed the perfect opportunity to cook up the Beach Asparagus I'd picked up at the previous Wednesday Market. I sauteed the beach asparagus with some Mat-Su Valley Potatoes and olive oil. The saltiness of the beach asparagus with the mild taste of the potatoes and the rich olive oil where the perfect combination!

Topped off with two pints of the Broken Birch Bitter from Homer Brewing Company- What a perfect local summer meal!










This past week's local dinner was more basic, but no less tasty. Having just seen mention of roasted turnips and mashed potatoes on the South Anchorage Farmer's Market Newsletter, and two fresh snow apples (white turnips) I knew this had to be the basis of this week's one local dinner!



Not quite an hour later, potatoes mashed (skins on), turnips roasted with olive oil, garlic and Mark Remepl's beautiful golden beets, and a side of beat greens and rainbow chard creamed- I had one tasty and simple local dinner. (Which I proceeded to stick in the refrigerator so we could meet Kelly, Cheryl and Sed for a hike.) Home alone last night (with T in Kenai setting up for the field project both of our agencies are working on this week) feeling hungry, but not terribly motivated, I popped this all into the oven for a few minutes and enjoyed it so much!

Two local dinners, One Local Summer!

I've been missing

My blogging has been seriously lacking. Anyone who cares has already noticed I'm sure. First I was on Adak, with sketchy internet access. Then I was moving. Since I've moved, I've not yet really acquired internet access at my new place. There have been many things about which I've wanted to write, I just haven't found the time.

Last week a coworker brought me fresh cream AND mozzarella from the valley. The day before I'd just picked up a beautiful bunch of rainbow chard and some bow tie rainbow pasta from the farmer's market. I had this recipe fresh in my mind and the fresh cream was all the motivation I needed to whip up some chard stem cream sauce and pasta.

I used part of the cream to make butter. In the process I found the perfect use for the tea glasses that Jacy gave me for Christmas two years ago (which I love, but I've always found to be too small for a proper cup of tea) and fashioned myself a few butter bells. I had a loaf of generic Alaska Pride sandwich wheat bread leftover which I purchased for far too much money, out of desperation, on Adak which I'd hauled back from the island with me, simply because I couldn't bring myself to leave most of a $5.00 loaf of bread, even if it was just a generic bagged sandwich bread. I used the bread, and fresh butter and mozzarella to make something resembling crostini.

Fresh cream + homemade butter+ rainbow chard stems + fresh local pasta + crostini = incredibly tasty. Thanks Cleaner Plate club, via Simply recipes.

Or was it the week before last? I can't recall. But that's not the point. The point it, it was delicious, and it was entirely local. I believe that may have been my first meal composed entirely of local foods of the summer. OK, so the Challenge started over a month ago, and this meal didn't happen until somewhere around July 10th. I know. I'm behind. I've been busy, I've been out of town, the farmer's markets were painfully slow starting. I've got fairly good excuses, and better late than never, right? I'll be better for the rest of the summer, I promise.

The farmers markets are full now, and so is my enthusiasm!

One Local Summer!

Farm to Philly is hosting the One Local Summer Challenge. The idea of the challenge is quite simple, prepare one meal a week using entirely local ingredients. The exceptions for local ingredients are salt, pepper and oil. Simple enough, right?

Given that this sort of thing is right up my alley, I signed up for the challenge enthusiastically. Well, here it is, June 28th-- a full 28 days after the challenge started and I have yet to make a single meal using completely local ingredients. I guess living in Alaska this has turned out to be not quite as simple as I was expecting, especially early in the season.

The fish are late and running in low numbers, the days have been overcast and the nights cool which have the farms producing much more slowly than normal. My garden has gotten off to a slow (and basically non-existent) start.

I've been out of town, on Adak Island for a week...but up until the point that I left my lack of local eating certainly hadn't been for lack of trying. While I had suceeded in consuming several locally produce reindeer hot dogs, the farmers markets have just been empty of produce and the like. I realized after leaving Anchorage that I still have a freezer full of last year's locally caught (by me) salmon, and Alaska grown potatoes in the pantry...but for some reason, those never occured to me for this challenge. It's summer, I was thinking fresh!

Because the markets and the fish have been so slow in starting, I was thinking of expanding my local boundaries to include my shipments from Full Circle Farms. Given that this is Alaska, and even during the best growing season, there are so many limitations on what can be grown here, that wouldn't have felt like stretching the rules TOO much, if all of their produce was actually Northwest Grown. Since it's not, it felt like too big a stretch. I have decided, however, that the 100 mile rule doesn't make sense to in Alaska, and for this challenge, I will be including anything grown/produced or harvested in Alaska in my eating locally challenge.

Thankfully, I saw the good news on adn.com's root cellar, that the produce is starting to roll in at Anchorage farmer's markets. I can't wait to go shopping for some local fair when I get back. I can stop considering having to add FCF produce to my local eating challenge. In the meantime, I'll offer a picture of the local fair I've been able to sample while on Adak Island.

While out conducting archaeological survey two days ago, another crew member and I were lucky enough to stumble upon a field of ferns, fiddle heads still present! We gladly whipped out an artifact collect back (nothing more than a glorified Ziploc) and harvested some fresh greens. They were a very welcome addition to dinner that night, sauted with a little garlic and oil...especially given the limited amount of produce our crew has on this trip. The look a little bit like Brussel Sprouts, don't they?

We tossed them on top of our Spaghetti Alfredo-- the freshness and crunch they added was just perfect and so delicious! Sadly, no pictures of that final product.

Actually, scratch that. At the moment...no pictures on any product! The internet connection here in the middle of the Aleutians is crazy sketchy, and it won't let me attach any pictures. I'll upload them just as soon as I can!