Well, today's been a much less eventful day, food-wise. I tried out a new pancake recipe for breakfast, as the Betty Crocker recipe we used to used was always too thin and the one we've been using more recently calls for rolled oats. Today's recipe (whole wheat flour from Thorpes, milk from our friend with goats, butter from Farmers and Artisans, and my chickens' eggs), which was from the wonderful book Flour Power, was the first pancake recipe I've ever used that was intended to be made with 100% whole wheat. The pancakes were fine overall, though they definitely took a while to fry and I think I'd actually put in a little more sweetener into the batter itself. I added a cup or so of the blueberries I picked at Thorpes to the pancakes, and my parents topped off theirs with homemade maple syrup.
Lunch was a hurried affair after my dad I and went beach, just some pieces of old homemade bread and smoothies. I've been making my smoothies a little differently this year than last. The yogurt I'm using is made from the milk of my friend's goats, and it's a lot thinner than what I'd been buying at the store. Because the yogurt is rather thin, there's no need to add milk to the smoothies. Because there's less liquid going into the smoothies with the elimination of the milk, the fruit flavor is able to shine more. In fact, I've found little need to add sugar at all this year. That's useful this September, because sugar isn't one of my family's Wild Card items, and I don't really like how maple syrup or honey can overpower the fruit flavor.
When I went to make smoothies at lunch, using blueberries was the obvious choice because we still had a lot from picking at Thorpes on Thursday. I was worried, because I've always found I've needed to add tons of sugar to blueberry smoothies in the past. Lo and behold, after blending the berries and yogurt, the smoothies weren't sweet enough today. I decided to go out on a limb and try adding peach for sweetness, because I've had no problem making sugar-free peach smoothies this year. The peach solved all my problems, and I was it made the flavor much more interesting than a plain blueberry smoothie. I never would have guess how much one ripe peach could flavor a smoothie containing three cups of blueberries.
For dinner, we had boiled potatoes from my garden, boiled wax beans from the farmers' market, and salsa with chips. We had plenty of tomatoes from my garden, and we also had the onion (farmstand), olive oil (Wild Card item, purchased at Tuscany on Main), hot pepper (farmstand), and bell pepper (farmers' market) that the recipe called for. My dad, who makes the salsa, went to the grocery store to get two Wild Card items we needed for the recipe, chips and limes. I got so involved thinking about what we needed for the recipe, I completely forgot it was September and had my dad get cilantro at the store as well. Imagine my horror when I realized my mistake after he came home with the forbidden cilantro! I didn't want it to go to waste, though, so I failed the Locavore Challenge on the second day and had my dad use up the cilantro in the salsa.
In better news, I discovered on the blog Land of Peapodriot last night the there will be a Potluck Across New York event in my area. The Potluck Across New York is the potluck NOFA-NY is encouraging people across the state to host for nearby Locavore Challenge participants on September 25th. According to Annie, the potluck will take place at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo on Elmwood from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Sunday the 25th. Locavore Challenge participants should bring a local dish to pass and are also encouraged to bring food, particularly local food, for the church's food donation basket.
So now can head off to make bread for tomorrow's lunch with the assurance that I will make it to a locavore event my my area, thus meeting one of the mini-challenges in the Join the Movement category of the Locavore Challenge.
~*~
World Class Pancakes
slightly modified from the recipe in Flour Power
2 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (preferably from a hard wheat, like hard red winter)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. (or more) sweetener (I used maple syrup)
2 eggs
2 cups milk
2 Tbsp. oil or melted butter
1 cup fruit (optional)
In large bowl, mix dry ingredients. In smaller bowl, beat eggs. Ad other wet ingredients. Gradually mix wet ingredients to dry ones, but do not overmix. Stir in berries or chunks of fruit if you're using them. Heat a bit of butter or oil in large pan, griddle, or iron skillet to medium-hot. Spoon batter into dollar coin-sized pancakes or larger and fry, turning pancakes at least once until cooked through.
Basic Table Salsa
slightly modified from Feast of Santa Fe
2 large, firm, ripe tomatoes
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/2 a hot pepper, with seeds removed
3 green onions (scallions), cleaned and cut into 1-inch lengths
OR 1/3 cup chopped onion, preferably red onion
1 bell pepper
1 tsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lime juice or red-wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup ice water
small handful chopped cilantro (optional)
Blend in food processor or blender. If using blender, use low speeds and stir frequently.
No comments:
Post a Comment