We’re still going strong on our Dark Days Challenge, but things get even more interesting next week when we begin posting about the Dark Days Challenge Challenges! Here’s what we’ve been up to this past week:
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Well! I, Miranda, finally came up with something fitting for this challenge! This Saturday marked the first day of the return of our local farmer’s market. Thank God! I had the best intentions of stocking up on some local produce, meat and some goat cheese from a favorite cheesemaker, but instead left empty handed. The Winter market hasn’t gotten an EBT/Debit Card to token system set up, and all we brought with us was our Oregon Trail card. So, no stocking up for us, the “poor” and unemployed, and a change in plans for my Dark Days contribution for this week. I really just can’t get it together for this challenge!
Also on Saturday, I happened to have some art and a Nude Soap pop up shop in the InSight Gallery in the offices of the Arc of Benton County. Yep: i make soap, i blog, i cook and i used to paint. I’m a children’s book illustrator, but still occasionally dabble in the finer arts and am happy to hang my (mostly very old) work on whatever wall will grace it.
Art receptions are often known for their snicky snack, cheese and crackers and wine. I decided to make my own crackers and serve it with this delicious local cheese. SINCE i wasn’t able to get the cheese, i went with homemade cheese crackers instead. They’re uber addicting, and this batch was even better by one special dried cayenne left from our Austin garden. The other cracker ingredients weren’t locally sourced, but hey: they’re homemade crackers, and that’s pretty cool, right?? We also served some locally made cookies, so at least we supported a local business. Sigh, i’ve failed again, haven’t i? One of these weeks i’ll be able to keep up with the challenge!
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While most people are finished with the holidays, in my family (Xan) we’re just at the start of the marathon. In the space of about 7 weeks, we have Christmas, New Year, wedding anniversary (number 29, or 34 depending where you start counting), my birthday, DH birtday, BIL birthday, MIL birthday, Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day. Then we get a month’s break before my sister-in-law’s and my son’s birthday (2 days apart), hard up against Easter.
What all these celebrations mean is that it’s hard to hold the line on eating well. People want their favorite foods, which aren’t always compatible with SLOW and SOLE. People want to eat out. People want cake. People want turtle cupcakes for my, um their, birthdays, but local chocolate doesn’t exist, and while I’m sure there must be local walnuts and even pecans, I’m damned if I can find them. I made traditional New Year’s bread with local flour and butter (and managed to gift it to my kids and the New Year’s Day party we went to, so it didn’t go to my hips). I made a wonderful pie with local ingredients–apricots frozen last summer (freeze them raw and whole), lard from a local ethical pig farm, local flour from Great River Milling, but I blew it by putting in pineapple. The recipe is here.
I did manage to make a wonderful vegan chili, not only from local ingredients, but 100% from my garden (okay okay, except for the chili powder), with SOLE cornbread (and my friend Julia from Snarky Vegan gave me some tips on vegan cornbread). I wanted to make Dog Hill Kitchen’s pumpkin-chorizo hash, but my chorizo source failed me. I need to go to the mercado and start reading labels. Suzy Morris is campaigning for me to make my own noodles and pasta. Alright already. I bought some lasagna noodles, but maybe I’ll try making my own.
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Since I (Jennifer) home school my daughter, I find it best to keep lunchtime simple. It can be hard to find time to cook and serve up a “real” meal and then clean up messes before getting back to school work. Most days my daughter prefers sandwiches for her midday meal, although occasionally she’ll request eggs and toast. And she adores cheese.
We stopped purchasing American “cheese” years ago and try to stick to aged cheese. It’s not always easy to find local hard cheeses, so I count myself lucky that our dairy also makes raw milk cheeses. Last year I began making hard cheese myself, starting with this yummy cow’s milk Manchego. It makes the BEST grilled cheese sandwiches ever and my mom even requested some for her Christmas present this year. The combination of a rustic loaf of bread, cultured butter, and this cheese is phenomenal and would even please the pickiest grownups. I’d even go so far as to add sprouts, tomatoes, or roasted red peppers!
It can’t get much easier or comforting than a toasty, melty grilled cheese sandwich with a side of soup on cold winter days!
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Don’t forget to see what our “East” side contributors have been up to in the previous post!
Just confirming here – the manchego is to die for! What it did to a meatloaf (leftover) sandwich is sinful.