Day 090 LocalrootZ Project (March 31,2010)

Breakfast

Fuji Apple

Lunch

Plain Smiling Hill Farm Yogurt

w/ Honey

Dinner

Leftover Pasta

w/ Spinach & Tomatoes

Rainy Day Part Three... Today I added some of that wonderful winter spinach to the mix as well as a slightly "un"Maine ingredient... but as a conscious consumer and a produce manager by day, I was curious how good those Vermonters were at growing tomatoes.  Seeing Longwind Farm is at a very similar latitude to Portland, I had to add them to my leftover pasta because it would be "research" and a big surprise for Cassi, who has craved some tomato slices alot !  I purchased a handful of Vermont Organics Longwind tomatoes.  With Olivia's Garden on stand by... getting ready to ramp up their operation for a plentiful spring and backyard beauties keeping what they do and dont do to control pests a secret from an inquiring produce manager, we had no choice but to lean a little west !  Anyhow I would highly endorse the Longwind farm tomatoes.. and when Olivia's Garden has a gap I would highly recommend bypassing the madison monsters from backyard beauties and pick up a Vermato from Longwind. If you can't find them ask... and keep asking !

Transportation Today

Work Commute : 15 miles bicycle

Day 089 LocalrootZ Project (March 30,2010)

Breakfast

Braeburn Apple

Lunch

Smiling Hill Farm Yogurt

w/ Honey

Dinner

Leftover Pasta

w/ Tomato Sauce & Shredded Mozzarella

Aroostook Garlic Bread

Glass of Coastal Red

Rainy Day Part Two... Leftovers with the addition of jarred tomato sauce and some swallowtail mozzarella to spruce up the dish !

Transportation Today

Work Commute : 15 miles bicycle

Day 088 LocalrootZ Project (March 29,2010)

Breakfast

Gala Apple

Lunch

Plain Smiling Hill Yogurt

w/ honey

Dinner

Basil Alfredo Sauce

over

Whole Wheat Pasta

w/ Shrimp

Aroostook Wheat Garlic Bread

Glass of Coastal Red

 

Monday wet windy... Im not gonna let it get me down ! A grueling bicycle ride to say the least...nasty wind gusts as well as three inches of rain falling on the peninsula in the last 24 hours or so... that coupled with days packed full of to do's... I decided to make this evening a night of cooking with Cassi.  In fact it would be a pasta marathon kinda night with a clean kitchen to dust in flour for a couple hours and the evening to share with Cassi who would be working every night this rest of the week.  The pasta once again was a pretty lengthy and demanding meal but the 2 hour preparation was going to make the next few nights dinners an easy task.  With the fettucine noodles completed, I sauteed the shrimp with garlic and butter... combined cream and Echo Ridge Romano cheese with a cup of homemade pesto for the basil alfredo sauce... It all came together for a wonderful warm belly filling dinner that ought to get us through some rainy days ahead....

Transportation Today

Work Commute : 15 miles bicycle

Day 087 LocalrootZ Project (March 28,2010)

Breakfast

Plain Swallowtail Yogurt

w/ honey

Lunch

Sunny Side Up Duck Eggs

w/ Yukon Gold Potatoes

and sauerkraut

Slice of Levain

Dinner

Hahns End Camembert Cheese Plate 

w/ Honey

Toasted Aroostook Wheat

Allagash Interlude

Transportation Today

Errands: 4 miles walking

Day 086 LocalrootZ Project (March 27, 2010)

Another Saturday morning that had me up early and walking down to Rufus Deering for a haul for wood that I need for constructing a cold frame on our rooftop deck.  More on that later... after that I was off once again to the Winter Farmers Market, letting Cassi sleep in as she is still battling a lil bit of the flu.  This is what i grabbed...

Butter & Milk from Caldwell Farm

Yogurt, Duck Eggs &a levain from Swallowtail Farm

Scallops from Port Clyde Fresh Catch

Breakfast

Plain Smith Farm Yogurt

w/ honey

Lunch/Dinner

2 Eggs Sunny Up

w/ Yukon Taters

and Kraut

Transportation Today

Errands : 6 miles walking

Day 085 LocalrootZ Project (March 26, 2010)

Breakfast

Braeburn Apple

Lunch

Plain Smith Farm Yogurt 

w/ honey

Dinner

Grilled Aroostook Wheat Cheese

w/ Wilted Beet Greens

the end of a long week... I was excited to get some baby beet greens from Sparrow Farm today and took advantage of their easy preperartion for a quick dinner before Cassi had to head out to work. I simply washed, then tossed the beet greens with cider vinegar before chopping and warming them them on a hot skillet for a couple minutes.

Transportation Today

Work Commute : 15 miles Bicycle

Errands : 3 miles Walking

Day 084 LocalrootZ Project (March 25, 2010)

Breakfast

Cooked Oats & Honey

Lunch

Smith Farm Plain Yogurt

w/ Honey

Dinner

Assorted Raw Oyster

(Malpeque, Winterpoint, Bluepoint)

Tofu & Greens

Glass of Mead

Transportation Today

Work Commute : 15 miles Bicycle

Errands : 3 miles Walking

Day 083 LocalrootZ Project (March 24, 2010)

Breakfast

Slice of Spelt Toast

w/ Honey Butter

Lunch

Smith Farm Plain Yogurt

w/ Honey

Dinner

Pan Seared Scallops

over Bed of Arugula

Drizzled with Cheese Sauce

w/ Garlic Spelt Bread

Dessert

Honey Baked Apples & Oats

w/ Maple Ice Cream

Transportation Today

Work Commute : 15 miles Bicycle

Errands : 3 miles Walking

Day 082 LocalrootZ Project (March 23, 2010)

Breakfast

Gala Apples

Lunch

Smith Farm Plain Yogurt

w/ Honey

Dinner

Pan Fried Cod

w/ Mashed Yukons & Golden Turnips

With Cassi having to work, dinner had to be quick.  I pedaled by the fish market on the way home and grabbed a nice hunk of freshly filleted cod... it was being processed as I walked in... I fried it in a pan of swallowtail butter and coated it in egg and freshly ground cornmeal... milled and gifted to us from Lois & Dan.  Paired with some honey roasted carrots and mashed turnips and potatoes.  

Transportation Today

Work Commute : 18 miles Bicycle 

Errands : 3 miles Walking

Day 081 LocalrootZ Project (March 22, 2010)

Breakfast

2 Eggs Sunny Side-Up

over Spelt Bread

w/ Saurkraut

Lunch

Smith's Farm Plain Yogurt

w/ honey

Dinner

Wild Mushroom & Tempeh Salad

Dessert

Truffles

(mmm handmade & brought by our friend)

Garlic & Wakame Seaweed with Sunflower Oil

The mushroom stock reducing to a sauce...

the finished dish

Monday has come once again and our new "Monday Friend Dinner" is in its second week.  This week we invited our painter friend Tanja.   She provided wonderful company and even brought some home made truffles for a special treat.  It was a bit challenging to come up with a meal based on the fact that she is vegan as well as having an allergy to gluten... no wheat or dairy !  Oh no... Mushrooms are always the best answer for an alternative.  The dinner was good, not great... I should have gone heavier on the mushrooms and less on the tempeh.  But its a learning curve and all in all it was a satisfying meal, just not the take yur breateh away kind of meal i always strive to prepare !

Transportation Today

Work Commute : 18 miles Bicycle

Day 080 LocalrootZ Project (March 21, 2010)

 Breakfast/Lunch

Blueberry Pancakes

w/ Maple Syrup

 

Dinner

Assorted Cheeses

(Honey Havarti, Tourmaline Spread, Eleanor Caraway)

w/ toasted pita

Today was another wonderfully productive morning that started with me hooking up the bike trailer and heading out for the local hardware store with a detour over to the community garden plot.  Upon arriving at the plot I ripped up the weed clumps and gathered the excess straw that I had spread over the bed... as I inspected the compost pile wondering with "what" should I enrich the soil with this growing season... I drifted with thoughts about what I need to do to inspire this years garden... everyone else has wood planks walling off their beds... I looked at the hill behind the plots and in the mass of plastic shopping bags, disposed furniture and christmas trees of the past... I noticed quite an array of lonely stones that yearned for the company of  other isolated stones... I started piling them over by my plot and created a nice pile surrounding the bed and it fit me perfectly... since I was a teen I have always been intrigued by the random stone walls... overgrown with brush, hidden in the middle of the forest that winds along the Merrimac River where I grew up... what was the story behind this wall, whose boundary was this marking, what happended to the homesteaders that worked this land years before... 

More on the garden as it progresses....

Day 079 LocalrootZ Project (March 20, 2010)

Breakfast

Swallowtail Plain Yogurt

w/ Honey

I started the morning up early as usual...with a hunger in my stomach and hours till Cassi would rise for our traditional walk to the farmers market and after we would eat brunch.  I scooped a cup of Swallowtails plain and creamy yogurt and then folded in a tbs of honey.  This combination never gets old... I mean as you see I eat it almost everyday.  You begin tasting the nuances of one farm from teh next... when the animals are pastured heavier and clover is sprouting in the pasture  the flavor changes.  So far I think my top three yogurts would be Swallowtail Farm, Townhouse Farms Ewegurt and Smiths Farm.  The cream on the top rich jersey cow flavor gets me everytime !

Anyhow like clockwork Cassi rolled out of bed and off we went to the Winter Farmers Market...
this is what we snagged this week !

Swallowtail Farm
1/2 # Butter
Loaf of Spelt Bread
(spelt grown at Webb Farm)

Goransen's Farm
Red & Yellow Onions
QT Maple Syrup

Buckwheat Farm
Bunch of Leeks
Dozen Pastured Eggs

Fishbowl Farm
Winter Spinach

Port Clyde Fisherman's Co-Op
Lobster Tails
1# Maine Shrimp

with a bag full of great food and a beautiful day we were off on foot, back to our west end hideaway.  Upon returning we assessed our stock of food and Cassi suggested something with the lobster tails and hollandaise sauce for brunch... OK that was easy to talk me into ! I was off into the kitchen....

Brunch
Wild Mushroom & Lobster Tail
Eggs Benedict

over Swallowtail Spelt

here's what the ingredients looked like at the start....

 here's those ingredients put together....

 

 

After brunch we spent sometime picking up the rooftop garden and seeding a couple little boxes of spinach and arugula.... 

 

 

 

and then I got some of the pellets and soaked em in water in preparation for some germination...

Transportation Today

Errands : 7 miles walking

Day 078 LocalrootZ Project (March 19, 2010)

Breakfast

Fuji & Braeburn Apple

Lunch

Plain Swallowtail Yogurt

w/ raw honey

Dinner

Cider Bay Scallop Salad

Hard Shell Lobster

Cheese Plate

Glass of Mead

 Happy Friday ! This week was a busy one and I am very glad to have the blog completely updated and back in order.... sometimes a couple days can fly by without the computer time being spent.  Anyhow the weather was beautiful once again reaching into the mid 50's on my commute back into Portland after work.  With so many leftovers on the menu this week I had a few extra dollars hanging around in my pocket so I decided to make a little special dinner for such a arduous week.   The lobsters have been a bit on the pricey side for the last few months of the winter.... and it seems the price is still holding firm @ 5.99/# for hard shell chix.  I picked up a couple one pounders and supplemented the dish with a half pound of fresh bay scallops.  Once home and greeted by my loving girlfriend... I got the lobster pot going and proceed to concoct a dish with the scallops.  First I sauteed some stuttgarter onions and german hardy garlic... (garlic supply running low, scapes coming just around the corner though !)... to that I added the rest of the winter spinach we had left... probably about 3-4 cups... add a splash of fermented cider and a tbs of honey butter.  I then tossed the scallops with a spoonful of cider syrup and added that to the mix... searing on high heat for 2-3 minutes.  On the side I sliced a little bit of Hahn's End Eleanor Carraway and Swallowtail Honey Havarti cheeses.  A perfect meal to end my work week, Cassi on the other hand is just getting underway !

On the garden front I got my Fedco seed order in last week and am patiently awaiting their arrival.  Ill give the varieties when they arrive... Im also currently gathering supplies to build a cold frame on our rooftop deck and finally got a couple types of spinach (space, bloomsdale) as well as a small container of arugula seeded.  Tomorrow I will be making the trip down to the garden plot and tilling up the soil for the spring planting!

Transportation Today

Work Commute : 15 miles Bicycle

Day 077 LocalrootZ Project (March 18, 2010)

Breakfast

Braeburn Apple

Glass of Cider

Lunch

Plain Swallowtail Yogurt

w/ raw honey

Dinner

Tempeh Cider Salad

Another one of those quick and easy, super healthy meals.  The salad consisted of cooked, and sprouted wheat berries, tempeh, garlic, red cabbage, winter spinach, cider, cider vinegar, honey and hot sauce.  Delicious !

Transportation Today

Work Commute : 15 miles Bicycle

Errands : 3 miles Walking

Day 076 LocalrootZ Project (March 17, 2010)

St. Patrick's Day

Breakfast

Cooked Rolled Oats 

w/ raw honey

Lunch

Chantenay Carrots

w/ Lavender Cheese

Dinner

Leftovers

Baked Haddock & Wild Mushroom Seafood Stuffing

w/ Boiled Cabbage, Carrots & Potatoes

Dessert

Allagash Curieux

Finally at the end of our leftovers and it actually went perfect with the traditional boiled Irish dinner.  I put a ton of miles on the bicycle today with temperatures reaching into the 60's.   I had a quick meeting after work about a mural project I may be doing in the near future.  That coupled with a few errands added to the return commute home, made for the first sore biking legs of the warm weather season... soon there will be many more !  Luckily I had gotten a few barrel beers gifted to me at the brewery to celebrate the evening in a true St. Paddy's Day style !

Transportation Today

Work Commute : 35 miles Bicycle

Errands : 3 miles Walking