Veg*n Cooking and Other Random Musings: Weekly Local Booty 12/14-12/20/08

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Weekly Local Booty 12/14-12/20/08

Thank you everyone for the incredibly kind comments on my last post. There are times when immersing oneself in information can become a bad thing. Reflecting on the current situation and the relative helplessness it can lead to are tough to deal with at times, and it helps to make sure that you take the "heavy stuff" in moderation and make time for the fun. I am generally very good about this, but at times I find myself overwhelmed. I think it is something that all of us who are concerned with the state of things, the sustainability of our current situation, with minimizing our impact, feel - without moderation it can really start to bog you down. I appreciate all the comments and have been (and will continue to) take the advice given. Brett and I are going to enjoy this chilly day in Mid-Missouri by playing games together and making a tasty dinner. I might try to get a little reading in as well, but thankfully, the books I have in "queue" are not heavy or depressing, quite the contrary. And though I always say I will do book reviews and then forget until I am immersed in another book, I will try to do reviews of the ones I have yet to read.

Anyways, on to the real purpose of this post, this week's local booty! You will notice that there isn't nearly as much here as we usually get, we have a lot of local goodies around still: peanut butter, almond butter, tahini, salsa, jam, pickles, walnuts, pecans, chestnuts, pasta sauce, locally produced chocolate, apples, squash, potatoes (sweet and regular), kidney beans, onions, garlic, and the last of our community garden tomatoes that were ripened in a paper bag. With the "non-locals" starting to show up at the Root Cellar, I have also starting using the stash of local veggies and other goodies we froze over the summer from our garden, CSA, and the farmer's market. I did pick up some non-locals this week, but they are a minority of the ingredients planned for use in this week's meals.

I didn't make a trip to Uprise Bakery this week as Brett is doing fine on coffee and we are planning a chunky soup eaten with tortilla chips for this weekend. I considered stopping in for breakfast on my way to work but we had some seriously crazy winds yesterday morning here in Columbia.

Here is this week's haul from the Root Cellar, this ran about $30.















Starting from the bottom right: lots of shiitake mushrooms, 4 lbs. of purple potatoes (we really like potatoes), cayenne peppers, carrots, 2 avocados (not local, obviously), a bell pepper (not local), and a bunch of Red Russian Kale (not local, from Colorado). I also got a St. Louis produced Fitz's Root Beer; it's just not pictured here.

I forgot to talk about fantasy football/football picks last weekend, and I know how very disappointed that makes you all, so I will fill you in on what happened. Our team snuck into the playoffs, the first of the two games was last weekend. Unfortunately, we lost our playoff game and thus our fantasy football season is over. We are both very pleased with the outcome, neither of us thought we would come even close to doing as well as we did. In football pick news, Brett had gained a slight lead on me - but we split on quite a few games last weekend - I now have a 3 game lead since I "swept" in the games we split on. "Fucker" was his response to this outcome. :-) We split on 3 games this weekend, so we'll see how it pans out.

Song of the Day: "Lullaby of Birdland" - Dexter Gordon and Lionel Hampton

Have a great weekend everyone!

'Til next time.

5 comments:

Erin said...

Purple potatoes are the best! All of that produce looks great. And I'm impressed that your fantasy team made it to the playoffs, mine did not this year. I stopped paying attention weeks ago!

Anonymous said...

I love purple potatoes - I got a big stash at the winter farmers' market last week and have been just looking at them - they are so pretty!
I'm glad you are feeling a bit better... sometimes it makes it better to step back and take a moment to really look at the balance in life, you know?
I'm jealous that you get local peanut butter and almond butter! Those I have never been able to find in central CT's foodshed. Do the farmers grow the nuts, or the company produce the spreads? I can't find either :-(

jessy said...

oh man, sorry fantasty football is over for you guys! sadface! Brett's too funny! :)

purple potatoes!! yay! i saw some in our local market the other day, perhaps if there are still some there next week i'll grab some. we love potatoes, too. soooo good! all those shiitake mushrooms are making me jealousfaced!

oh yeah - we FINALLY made your refried beans las tnight! oh my gooooooooodness - they're soooooooooo good! i kept shoving spoonfuls into my mouth, and i can't wait to have them in quesadillas this evening! mmmmmmmmmmm! thanks for the rock'n recipe - and i should have the post up this evening!

stay warm, Jennifer! and happy holidays!

Anonymous said...

One recommendation for a non-depressing book. I'm reading "The Agony and the Ecstasy" by Irving Stone. It's a long book (700 pages) but is flying by. A very accessible, non-ponderous historical fiction about the life of Michaelangelo. Some jackass checked it out of the library, but it'd be worth a buy...lots of fun.

Oh, and there's a significant amount of food references in there as well. Bonus!

J said...

Erin - I love how they keep their color, though Brett isn't sure how he feels about purple mashed potatoes. :-)

I was too, I didn't really understand how the game was scored when I did my auto draft, so I didn't expect to do very well. I think I'm going to go all out and set up a draft board and do the live draft next year.

Living in a Local Zone - Wahoo for having tons of potatoes.

Thank you, I am, and I am glad too. You are right, I have to remember to take time for fun and a little relaxation.

I am pretty sure the peanuts are locally grown, but I'm unsure about the other nut butters, I think they may just process their tahini, almond, and cashew butter.

I think it takes a fairly decent growing season for peanuts to do well. I know someone in northern Indiana who grew some and they didn't do too bad, but I think that is reaching the limits in terms of the area they can be grown in.

Jessy - Don't be sorry at all - I am more than stoked with how good we did. Haha, yes, Brett is funny, and he was pissed yesterday when I got the two games we split on (we split on tonight's game as well - Go Bears!).

I'm so happy you liked them! They are one of our favorite dishes we make, and I can just eat them plain. Give me a bowl of them and some chips and I would be good to go. I bet they will be FANTASTIC in a quesadilla!

I'll try, it's almost lunch and still under 10 degrees here (it has been unseasonably cold!). You too, stay safe.

Scott - Thank you for the recommendation. Perhaps when that jackass takes it back, I can go check it out. :-) It sounds like a nice change-up from that things I have been reading, and extra awesome about food references - score one for the book already.