I can't believe I let myself go over a week without posting! In my defense, the past week has involved a lot of stuff for my Irish dancing, a car accident in front of our home, my mom's birthday celebration, and a get-together with friends, most of which occurred while a had a bad cold. To ease myself back into blogging, I'll just post some of the more food-related highlights of the eight days from Saturday the 17th through Saturday the 24th.
On Saturday the 17th, my mom and I ate lunch ate Farmers and Artisans after I had a dance show nearby. My mom and I ordered two sandwiches, the Tomato Basil Caprese Panine and the Apple Camemburg Panine. The former was excellent, with plenty of basil and oozing mozzerrella. Both of us hated the cheese on the latter, which I thought tasted literally tasted like vomit. With another cheese, like cheddar, combined with the crisp apple (Ginger Gold?), the sandwich would have had a wonderful flavor. It was our first meal out since the Locavore Challenge started, so in the end it was just nice to eat a meal without either of us having to cook it!
On Sunday the 18th, I had an Irish dance competition in Syracuse. We were starving by late afternoon, since all we'd eaten so far were fruit smoothies for breakfast and a packed lunch of homemade bread, grapes, and pears. It was a good thing we could go back to The Restaurant at Elderberry Pond, where we'd previously eaten after going to the State Fair on the first day of the NOFA-NY Locavore Challenge last year. Our meal started with apple cider and bread, both of which were above critique. Then we moved onto soup, with my mom choosing potato leek and me ordering squash tomatillo bisque. I'm so glad I took a risk with the soup, which really highlighted the complex spiciness of tomatillos. For a main course, my mom chose chicken in a cranberry sauce with tomatoes and summer squash, while I had fettucine with vegetables. My pasta was good, and my mom's chicken was perfectly cooked. Somehow, we found room for the unique and delicious elderberry-apple pie a la mode for dessert. Overall, it was a meal that satisfied stomach and soul.
Thursday the 22nd was my mom's birthday. For dinner, I made Swiss chard fettucine with leftover mozzerella and feta cheese instead of ricotta (garden Swiss chard, fettucine from Flour City, Tuscany on Main olive oil [Wild Card Item], farm stand onions, farmers market basil, cheese made from friend's goat's milk). I'm told it was excellent, with a flavor that was sweet and slightly spicy, but my nose was too stuffed up for me to taste too much. For dessert, I made cake (Thorpes whole wheat flour, Upstate Farms butter, homemade maple syrup, yogurt made from friend's goats' milk), and ice cream (friend's goats milk, friend's goats milk cream, homemade maple syrup). Only my dad liked the cake. As he said, it tasted "healthy," which my mom and I think a cake just shouldn't taste. The ice cream was a much bigger hit.
On Friday the 23rd, my friend Karin De La Rosa, the NOFA-NY WNY coordinator, hosted a dinner and Lakeview Organic Grain chicken feed pick-up. Diners were Karin, Karin's husband, my goat-keeping friend, the goat-maid's husband, my parents, and me. Karin provided salad and butternut squash soup made with the products of her humungous garden, as well as wine. Paula brought "The Imam Fainted," which is an eggplant dish. My parents and I brought apple cobbler (Thorpes apples, homemade maple syrup, Upstate Farms butter, egg from my hens, Thorpes whole wheat flour, honey from my dad's bees) the apple cider my dad had made from apples he and I picked from our yard and our neighbor's. There's nothing like good food and good company -- and the good feeling that my chickens are now eating quality local feed!
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