When the July issue of Whole Living arrived this month, one simple article, 50 Ways to Eat Sustainably, really caught my attention. We were already practicing many of the 50 ideas: buying local eggs, reading labels, planting a few of our own veggies. But item #7 was a new idea to us: Challenge yourself to use only what’s at the farmer’s market for a week’s worth of meals. Really? People do that? WE could do that?
We decided, as a family, to accept the challenge. The menu planning began, and this past Saturday we were off to the Dallas Farmer’s Market. It was an adventure that turned out to be more fun than we could ever have thought. Three hours later, after eating our way through several of the delicious restaurants and many vendors, we hauled home our catch
And what a haul it was – I couldn’t even fit it all on our table! Not pictured are the meats, a large basket of tomatoes, another of potatoes, some peaches, and a basket-full of jalapenos, some 25 of them. I think we’ll be eating well!
This week, I’ll be dedicating Opulent Cottage to our menus, my recipes, and our family’s love of locally available food. While not every food we will be eating was grown locally, they were all purchased at the market. Our only exceptions will be baking ingredients, spices, condiments, and anything we grow ourselves.
I hope you’ll join us to celebrate our successes, and maybe even to lament our failures. Could it be that we will inspire your family to do the same? I sure hope so! OK folks, let the eating begin!!
Sunday’s Meals
For Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with bits of organic smoked ham steak, along with delicious sautéed potatoes and fresh Canton tomatoes.
These gorgeous, rich eggs are truly free-range, from pasture raised chickens that really do roam the farm. You won’t find yolks this color in grocery store eggs!
For Lunch: Plant Sandwich on my Homemade Bread
Vegetables (we chose zucchini, yellow squash, portabella mushrooms, and tomatoes
Olive oil for sautéing
Cheese, a combination of thinly sliced cheddar and a spoonful of crumbled feta
Homemade Bread
Slice vegetables thinly, season with salt and pepper. Sauté for only long enough to soften, and brown slightly, 2 to 3 minutes on each side. Stack the veggies and cheese on bread slices and toast as you would for grilled cheese, preferably on your Grandmother’s cast iron skillet. If you like greens as much as I do, pile on some fresh spinach or basil leaves before grilling.
Andrea's Homemade Wheat Bread
I have made this bread several times, with several different variations, and it seems to be foolproof! Here’s my latest, favorite version.
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 T sugar
2 t salt
1 packet active dry yeast
1½ cups water
½ cup milk
3 T butter
Mix 2 cups flour, sugar, salt, and yeast packet in a large bowl. Meanwhile, heat water, milk and butter in a pan until it is warm, but not hot. Pour over flour mixture and beat with mixer on low for 2 minutes. Add another cup of flour, and beat on high for 2 minutes. Add the cup of whole wheat flour and mix with a wooden spoon. Dough will start to get stiff. Add remaining cup of flour and mix, turning out onto a lightly floured board or your counter top when the mixture is too stiff to mix with the spoon. Knead dough for 8 to 10 minutes, until it is elastic and satiny.
Place in a bowl with a small amount of olive oil, and toss dough to cover completely. Cover with a towel and set aside in a warm place to rise for at least one hour. (I set my oven at 100, then turn it off and let the dough rise in the oven. In Texas in the summer you can also just set it outside!)
When dough has doubled in size, punch down, and turn out onto board. Cover with a towel and let rest for 15 minutes. Divide the dough in half, shape into loaves, and place in two oiled 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pans. Let dough double once again. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it.
Cool slightly on a wire rack. Gobble as much down as possible while still warm, with some delicious organic butter melted on top. This is why you make TWO loaves!
For Dinner: Cheese-Stuffed Meatballs in Fresh Tomato Sauce
First, make the meatballs:
2 slices bread
A splash of milk
Salt and pepper
Chopped garlic
Dash of Italian seasoning
1 egg
2 pounds ground beef
Cheese of your choice for stuffing, can be mozzarella or cheddar
Break bread into small pieces, and pour enough milk over to soak. Let sit a few minutes, then add seasonings and egg, and mix together. Slowly mix in the beef, mixing well but gently. Cut cheese into pieces. Make a nest of beef in your hand, place cheese in the center, and roll into a ball with cheese in the very middle.
Using the stockpot you will make your sauce in, brown on all sides in some olive oil. You will need to do this in batches. Set meatballs aside while you make the sauce.
Next, the sauce:
Olive oil
1 yellow onion
12 large ripe tomatoes, blanched, peeled and chopped
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
6 – 8 large cloves garlic, lightly crushed and cut into large chunks
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped
Add a little more olive oil, and sauté chopped onions until soft, about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and sauté 5 minutes. Crush tomatoes with a potato masher, and cook 10 minutes longer. Add tomato paste and simmer for 20 minutes. Add meatballs and garlic, simmer for another 30 minutes. Stir in basil just before serving with pasta of your choice.
OK, so I cheated on the very first night of our plan! I haven’t made a fresh tomato sauce in at least 10 years, and totally forgot how long it takes and how many tomatoes are needed. I didn’t start my sauce until about 5 p.m., and realized by 6 that if I waited for this sauce to cook down we would be eating dinner at midnight. Tomato paste is one of the few processed foods that I do usually keep on hand, so I relented in order to avoid a family mutiny this early in the week. Lesson learned! The flavor that the fresh tomatoes added was amazing though, and in the future I’ll always try to add some fresh tomatoes, even when I make the sauce with canned.
Later this week I’ll be posting all of my recipes on Tasty Kitchen, and I’ll provide a link to each for the ease of copying the individual recipes. The ground beef, milk, eggs, cheddar and feta cheese, and the cheese curds used for the meatballs were purchased from Truth Hill Farm (click on the link for their website), which sells at Texas Meats Supernatural in Shed 2. Most of the produce was purchased in the Local Barn.
I’ll be back tomorrow with another day of eating local. See you then!
Those recipes sound divine. I have never made homemade bread, but maybe I should give it a try. Those meatballs look really good, too. I wish we had a nice farmer's market near us.
Posted by: Kim | July 12, 2010 at 03:12 PM
Yay, Andrea! I can't wait to read every day! But, you are making me hungry! HUGS! Ashley
Posted by: Ashley Thames Brown | July 12, 2010 at 08:21 PM