Going Local

Saturday morning, at the Waltham Farmers Market, I picked up four peppers, one large onion, five tomatoes, and two ears of corn for only $5.75 at Dick's Market Garden. I had to prepare for a dinner that my friend and I were hosting at her house. I also bought three pints of grape tomatoes from Bart's farm and a quart of plums. It is that time of year where I start buying my favorite fruits and vegetables in excess to freeze or can for the winter. I made two pints of roasted grape tomatoes to freeze. This will be my staple for salads and bruschetta in the winter when I am feeling that the summer taste of tomatoes is so far away.  In the mornings, I feel a crispness to the air that tells me fall in coming soon.  With the mornings and evenings being cooler, it won't be so painful to turn on the oven for two hours for roast my tiny tomatoes and make some plum jam.

Back to the dinner. We cooked a three course meal using only local ingredients. Since there was the first football game of the season, we decided to have football foods for our dinner. For the appetizer, we made nachos using local flatbread topped with ground bison, salsa, and cheese. The nachos had a nice kick to them. The main course was chili, made with ground beef, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and black beans sprinkled with medium cheddar cheese from Smith's Country Cheese. Dessert was local ice cream with a warm apple maple syrup sauce. All of the ingredients we used were from our local farmers markets. Our beverages included local wine from Fulchino Vineyard in Hollis NH and some beers from Throwback Brewery. It's not a true party unless my Dad does a beer tasting so we all got to try the Fat Alberta Imperial Stout. I strongly believe that the combination of chocolate and peanut butter is one of the finer things in life, if you feel the same way, you will probably like this stout. The throwback brewery buys the hops, wheat, barley, fruit, and spices from local farmers, so this was perfect for the local dinner theme.

Recipe of the Week:

Chili

1 lb ground beef or turkey
1 large green pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2-3 tomatoes, skinned and diced
1 ear of corn, cut off the cob
1 cup black beans

Brown the beef and drain.  Diced all the vegetables and put in a large pot.  Add ground beef and simmer at least one hour.  The longer the better for chili.  I sometimes use a crock pot and let it cook all day.