Bess Eats

My last local post!  The Eat Local Challenge ends tomorrow.  Here is my last recipe if you are cleaning those summer vegetables out of the fridge. 

Spanish Tortilla

Saute green pepper, onion, jalapeño and potato.  Season with salt, pepper, & cayenne.  Scramble 6 eggs and pour over the top of the sautéed veggies in a skillet. Continue to cook for approximately 5 minutes until it starts to set up.  Put the whole skillet in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes to cook all the way through.  Cut, serve and sprinkle with feta.

Sauteed Summer veggies

Dice and sauté zucchini & eggplant for about 10 minutes.  Add onions and garlic if you have them.  Add diced tomato and sauté for about 10 minutes longer. Sprinkle with basil and feta and serve. 

Seth and I are off to Kansas City and New York City for an extended family visit.  Wonder what local delicacies we'll find...

Last weekend I drove up to little, quaint Starkville, MS to visit the Campeau family.  It was a nice drive up, by myself, jamming out to my old college CDs.  It was a relaxing family weekend.  I always love getting so see those cute little boys growing up. The following picture was taken at the tumbling gym - super fun!  I swang on the rope and jumped in the foam pit. 

Saturday afternoon we visited the local BBQ joint because Becky was raving about the fried green tomatoes.  She was right!  Best fried green tomatoes I've ever had!  We also had fried okra and pulled pork, but we decided friend green tomatoes alone would have made an excellent lunch.  

Remarkably, I think it gets hotter in MS than it does in New Orleans.  It was in the high 90s while I was visiting and since has been over 100 degrees.  Not good for active boys that need to run around…. well, not good for their parents.  Thanks for the visit, Campeaus!

Lucky, lucky me… my office mate is also doing the Eat Local Challenge and was heading out of town so I got her leftovers… A lovely, local peach pie for a snack. 

This is a favorite of ours.  The recipe is from Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson.  At our house we just refer to Heidi by first name, like she's one of the family.  We make her recipes often.  She has some other variations on her blog that you also might want to check out.  

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/arugula-pesto-wheat-berries-recipe.html

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/wheat-berry-breakfast-bowl-recipe.html

2 cups wheat berries

1/2 cup feta

bunch of kale

1/2 cup blueberries

1 cup chopped pecans (Bergeron are local, from Rouses)

1/4 cup olive oil

juice of 1 lemon 

2 chopped green onions

salt, pepper

Cook the wheat berries for about an hour in a large pot of generously salted water.  Chop the kale small and boil for about 10+ minutes until it is tender enough for you.  Meanwhile, make the dressing by combining the olive oil, lemon, green onion,  and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Combine the cooked wheat berries, cooked kale, feta, chopped pecans, and a couple handfuls of blueberries and stir together with the dressing.  It's great warm or cold. 

You have to make this.  I always make crawfish pasta for company because it is a delicious dish with lots of flavor and isn't overly complicated.  For company I usually make the pasta from scratch (Well, Seth makes the pasta from scratch and I make the sauce.)  This night I wasn't up for making pasta so just made some LA rice.  This is another Donald Link recipe from Real Cajun.  I've adapted the recipe below for the localvore diet. I had some peeled crawfish leftover from a boil a couple weeks ago, but you can also use frozen Louisiana crawfish from Rouses. 

1lb peeled crawfish tails 

1 green pepper

1 onion

1 jalapeño

4 medium tomatoes

bunch green onions

juice of one lemon (cheat)

1 cup cream

butter

Salt, pepper & red pepper flakes

handful of basil

cup of rice

Saute the onion, green pepper, jalapeño and some red pepper flakes in some butter, about 5 minutes.  Add the diced tomatoes and crawfish and simmer until the tomatoes reduce by about half, 10-15 minutes.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add about a half cup to cup of cream (to taste) and let simmer and thicken about 10 minutes.  Add the juice of one lemon, chopped basil and green onions and smother over rice or pasta. 

So, can I call this an étouffée?  What constitutes a proper étouffée? 

I picked up some yogurt from Hollygrove and loved the sour flavor.  It made some great fruit smoothies for breakfast and for a snack.  Below is a picture of a peach smoothie and a blueberry smoothie. Add a handful of fruit to the blender, about 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/2 cup milk and some honey. Blend and enjoy. 

I was talking to my friend, Abby, yesterday and she was telling me all about her new Vitamix.  That thing sounds awesome. It'll just pulverize anything you put in there.  You can even make your own soy milk.  She had just made some strawberry, banana and spinach juice.  I'm jealous.

Thursdays I usually don't go into work until mid-afternoon so I have time to cook lunch for Seth and me.  This made a lovely lunch.  I found this creamy grits recipe on the localvore blog, and it was delish.  I rarely roast tomatoes because they take a long time, but it was totally worth the wait.  I'll be doing this one again.

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-creamy-grits-with-corn-151010

Creamy Grits with Corn, Goat Cheese, & Roasted Tomatoes
serves 2 to 4

3-4 tomatoes, sliced
1 cup stone-ground grits, rinsed
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup goat cheese, plus more for garnish
Salt
Butter 

Preheat oven to 400 °. Toss tomatoes with olive oil and salt and arrange on a sheet pan. Cook for approximately one hour until they are soft, shriveling, and turning golden brown.

Meanwhile, for the grits, bring milk and water to a gentle boil in a heavy sauce pan. Add grits and reduce heat to medium low. Whisk occasionally at first, then whisk more frequently as the grits begin to thicken, watching carefully to make sure the bottom of the pot does not scald. Cook until the grits are thick and creamy, about 30-45 minutes. Add more liquid if you feel they are too thick, and continue cooking until desired consistency is reached. Season generously with salt and a dallop of butter, adjusting to personal taste. (Grits can usually handle way more salt than you might think they can.)

Stir the goat cheese into the grits. Adjust seasoning, to taste. Top the grits with roasted tomatoes. Serve with boiled and spiced shrimp. 

A beautiful Panzanella

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/summers-last-hurrah-panzanella/

So, If you don't have Donald Link's Real Cajun cookbook, I highly recommend you get it.  He has lots of recipes that are primarily comprised of local ingredients.  I made a few adjustments to his potato salad to make it local.  Below is the recipe I used.  I just made a small batch this time.

3 chopped, boiled potatoes - boil potatoes until they are slightly overcooked.  You will want to be able to squish them with your hands when they are cool.  

4 large green onions, chopped

2 tbls Zatarain's creole mustard

1 tsp Steen's vinegar

big pinch of salt

paprika and black pepper to taste

(add some aioli if you have some made. i did not.)

When the potatoes are cool, combine all the ingredients  and mix together, squishing most of the potatoes with your hands.  This creates a creamy texture.  

Today was a lovely, lazy day.  I slept in this morning and spent several hours in bed reading a book, ran some errands and to make the day slightly productive I made it to a restorative yoga class at Life Yoga. 

For brunch I had a salad with blueberry & feta and scrambled eggs and boudin.

Dinner of flank steak from Gonsoulin Farms and sautéed zucchini and tomatoes with garlic and green onions. Luckily the rained stopped so we could fire up the grill.  

At Bacchanal they have this killer dish of steak with whipped feta and strawberries.  I've been craving it for days.  We put a little crumbled feta on top of the steak and it is a surprisingly good pair.  Especially the Ryal's feta which his more mild.