her able hands

I can’t believe OLS is over. I didn’t try half of the recipes I intended to try, but the summer isn’t finished and the produce at the farmers’ market is still abundant, so I’m going to keep this thing going on my own blog for a few more weeks.

I had no idea what I wanted to make last night because my brain is all fogged up with histamines. The goldenrod is in full bloom and my sinuses feel like a big rig has parked right up in there, and the driver is a heavy smoker. That and a new symptom that I’ve never had with seasonal allergies before—my entire body hurts as if I’ve been whacked all over with a rubber stick. Like flu aches. Lila and Tyler are both wonky from allergies too, so we all kind of pooped around all day. Be forewarned, this post is going to meander. My head’s a wreck. I promise eventually to get to the point, and it’s all related, just not particularly well organized.

The big college apartment complex out across the road that runs behind us had some kind of a battle of the bands event outside yesterday. Lots of extremely loud, angry music. I know I’m getting old because dudes…what the everloving hell? I just don’t understand the noise that passes for music with the kids these days. So much angst. Hate. Anger. No melody. No rhythm. How is this considered music? And why did it have to infect such a glorious day yesterday for eight solid hours? Hours that I had planned to spend wandering around outside, peacefully doing small jobs that wouldn’t entail too much lifting or bending over.

I tried working outside, but my heart was beating so fast from the allergies and the grinding metal guitar and screaming. I did manage to pick a large colander of San Marzano tomatoes, which I forgot to photograph and Chris has my camera down at the old house today, so you’ll have to take my word for it. I’ll snap a pic of the slow roasted sauce I intend to make with them today. I also finally dug up the last row of potatoes, German Butterball. Looks like about 20 lbs. Some of those will go into vegetable soup with the Red Russian kale I got at the market, and the carrots I picked.

While I did all of that harvesting, Lila and two of her friends discovered the wood lot for the first time in a year of living here. They marched around from one end to the other—barking out orders—and climbed the wood chip pile to survey the lay of the land. They also tromped through a huge patch of poison ivy. Oh joy. It was close to nap time though, and the two girls began to melt down, so it was time to break up the search party and head inside. Thank Maude.

Lila pissed and moaned for half an hour and I lay on the bed next to her reading Harry Potter and trying to ignore all of the terrible sounds coming at me all at once. Whining. “Music”. Lawn mowers. “Music”. Whining. Eventually she fell asleep and I stayed inside and read for three hours. To hell with everything else.

So by the time I started dinner it was already almost 6:00. I halved two acorn squash (organic from the market) and started them baking in a 350 degree oven. Meanwhile I warmed up the cast iron skillet and dropped in a dollop of Amish butter, some sliced Cippolini onions (market), 3 types of peppers (my Anaheim Chili, and 1 sweet red and 1 sweet green from the market) and sautéed until golden. Added some zucchini (market) and all blue potatoes (mine). I added these to ten eggs (mine), a cup of flour (local), 1 tsp. each of baking powder and baking soda (not local), and chopped fresh basil (mine). Poured the goop into a buttered 9″ square baking dish and baked for 35 minutes at 350.

While I waited for all of that to cook, I sliced up a bunch of tomatoes (Pink Caspian from the market, my Juanne Flammé and Black Krim) and a cuke (market), then tossed those with a little balsamic, salt and pepper (all not local), local goat feta and my basil. Doesn’t it look yummy? I didn’t get the photo until dusk, so it’s a wee dark.

I sat out on the deck browsing through the latest Gardening Jihad Catalog while everything cooked and Lila played on the swing set with two friends. The music, blissfully, had ceased. The air smelled of late summer, loamy and green with a tinge of decay, and a rich, eggy warmth wafting out of the kitchen. Soon the timer dinged…

So over the next month or so, I'd like to try cooking a few things I haven't tried before, but will need to do a bit more sourcing (driving) to accomplish locally:

Leg of lamb (I've never cooked lamb in my life, so this will be a new one. Any advice on cooking one on the grill much appreciated!) If we end up liking the taste of lamb, I have opportunity to buy a good amount to stock the freezer for winter.

Homemade pasta. I can't find my pasta attachment for the KitchenAid anywhere. It's only been used once in, oh, fifteen years. No idea what happened to it.

Stuffed Cabbage using local, grassfed bison.

I'm also going to do a little canning/freezing by doing some U-pick at Hilgerts a local farm that isn’t certified organic, but uses Integrated Pest Management. In the next month or three they have paste tomatoes (sauce & salsa, dammit!), green beans and cooking greens that I want for the freezer, onions, turnips, rutebega, yams, and parsnips for the chilly corner of the basement that I’ll pretend is a root cellar. I will have local foods this winter.

Jeepers. That’s like, right around the corner, isn’t it?

Technorati Tags: one local summer, eat local, locavore, garden, seasonal allergies, pantry, root cellar, harvest, zucchini tart

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