Eat Local Challenge: Week 3

At the halfway point!!

Monday, was a state holiday, so I spent almost all day in the kitchen. I finished canning the apples I bought at the farmers market, and whipped up a couple recipes using the peppers Ike and Tiff sent a couple weeks ago. I don't like hot stuff, and am not crazy about hot peppers at all, so the fact that I would eat these creations, should say a lot. I made cheeky chili pepper chutney from my Jamie At Home cookbook. I love Jamie Oliver's recipes. They are usually very simple dishes, often seasonal and he always uses lots of fresh vegetables. The love the cookbook because it is arranged by season and ingredient and has lots of gardening tips. I also canned some green tomato and jalepeno jam, but substituted TWO habaneros for FOUR jalepenos. This stuff is hot! I was going to make hot pepper jelly, but used all my cider vinegar. Next week, maybe...

MONDAY

Breakfast: homemade waffles with local flour, eggs and milk. Topped with 100% pure maple syrup (I will never buy the brown-colored sugar water again... the taste is completely inferior compared to the real deal) and gingered pears. I have to hand it to my mom on this one. She made the pears and canned them. So, so, so good on waffles.

Lunch: leftover Italian Wedding Soup and some stale tortilla chips.

Dinner: Crispy and sticky chicken thighs. They weren't really either crispy or sticky, but they were very good. And it was an easy one-dish dinner.

TUESDAY

Breakfast: waffles with pears and syrup. I made a pile of waffles yesterday to eat on all week. Did you know that you can freeze them and make them in the toaster just like store-bought waffles? No need to buy the store-bought ones ever again. My recipe makes 14 waffles, which is more than enough.

Lunch: leftover roasted tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. I put the chili pepper chutney on the grilled cheese, for some heat. I don't like this stuff plain, but with gooey melted American cheese, it was pretty good.

Dinner: Venison pot roast with local potatoes and carrots, and pan of Mexican cornbread with local hot peppers, eggs and milk. I am not happy about having pot roast two weeks in a row, but I thought it was a wild turkey breast when I took it out of the freezer. I was planning on making turkey pot pie, but no. It was a venison ham roast, I think. I didn't have the time or energy to find a recipe using a hunk of deer meat. The quick search I did only gave me pot roast recipes. I braised it in about a cup of red wine and chicken stock, so we'll see how it is...

Snacks: leftover granola and a hard boiled egg (free-range and local, of course), apple and cabot cheddar cheese snack.

WEDNESDAY

Breakfast: waffles

Lunch: leftover pot roast and cornbread.

Dinner: BBQ Ribs, baked beans, baked potatoes, deviled eggs and hot rolls at my in-laws. Not local, but I ate way too much really GOOD food.

Snacks: granola, egg, apple, cheese

THURSDAY

Breakfast: oats

Lunch: roasted tomato soup and leftover cornbread

Dinner: navy beans and cornbread at my Mom's.

Snacks: granola, apple and cheese

FRIDAY

Breakfast: some kind of cornflakes with berries and nut clusters at my Mom's.

Lunch: I was at a conference with my Mom in Beckley. Lunch was provided. It was typical of conference fare... too salty and generic. Garden salad and rolls. Grilled chicken with green beans and new potatoes. Pound cake with peaches.

Dinner: headed up 1-79 to Morgantown for the game. Got a Colasessano's Everything Pizza at the recommendation of a co-worker from Fairmont. DELICIOUS. Thick crust with pepperoni, swee and hot peppers and LOTS of mozzarella (not the generic frozen shredded cheese either. I wouldn't be surprised if it was "real," if not fresh mozzarella.)

Snacks: fresh fruit and granola bar at the conference

SATURDAY (Game Day!!!)

Breakfast: leftover pepperoni roll from Colasessano's

Lunch: Oktoberfest Spread: smoked sausages, kraut, German potato salad and Yuengling. Lot's of Yuengling. Also, soft pretzels, chocolate chip cookies and some horseradish dip Christy made. Hey, it was game day... I'm going on the assumption that Yuengling is within 250 miles of Morgantown... I can't get either Google maps or Yahoo maps to tell me.

Dinner: leftovers

SUNDAY

Breakfast: bacon and local eggs (White Oak Ridge Farm in Philippi. This is where I ordered my Thanksgiving turkey from. The eggs and bacon are awesome. We didn't have their bacon today, but Erinn has fixed it for us before. If the quality of turkey is anything like the eggs and bacon are, this Thanksgiving meal will be awesome!)

Dinner: Manicotti at my Mom's. She used the spaghetti sauce we made this summer, which was local. Also, garden salad and broccoli slaw. For dessert, she made pear cobbler with local pears. I'm rubbing off on people!!! Yay!

Snacks: we stopped by my in-laws who had gone to Amish Country in Ohio this weekend. They brought us back some goodies, which incidently were all from within 250 miles. Smoked pepper jack cheese, blackberry cinnamon roll and a slice pumpkin roll. It was all yummy, but I'm on calorie overload from this weekend...