that leek recipe from the Paula Wolfert book made even better soup than a side!
We added a couple of potatos from Long Valley and let them bake on low while other things were cooking, then added about a gallon of veg broth and blended.
Highly recommended!

Today has so far been home made bread, leftover meat, and brussels sprouts. Tonight I may grill some bluefish from last autumn's exceptional catch.

Broiled Bluefish
Choose a fillet which is even in thickness.
Remove the dark meat which runs down the center, it is likely to be highest in mercury ( shame, it's my favorite bit ). Leave the skin on, it will stick to the pan and protect the fish like foil.
If you prefer not to use foil, a brown paper bag on a baking pan works well to reduce cleaning efforts later.
If you have leftover bacon, grind it into breadcrumbs.
Use about 1/4c breadcrumbs per pound of fish. Some people butter copiously, I prefer to use herbs and either lemon or vinegar. There being very little access to local lemons, it shall be verjus tonight.

Broil the fish on the bottom rack of your oven, if you have the internal kind of broiler. When the juices turn white, spread the crumb mixture evenly over the fish, and continue to broil til they brown.

I am conflicted about preserving fish and meat by freezing, but boy, it's a treat to be able to sock some treats away!

Wow, I'm doing it without trying, which is great for the day before I'm supposed to start trying!

Breakfast was an egg, some cheese and a roll, all local ( non local flour, but locally made ).

Lunch was brussels sprouts and leeks from the yard, and my snack is a tiny watermelon I discovered while I was removing the vines. Not bad!

The plan for dinner is a couple of burgers and some cookies Mom made. Mom-made desserts are, by their nature, sacred and therefore exempt from all attempts at green, health, or local.

Leeks

I got some wheatflour from a semi-local source, but had a problem getting it home safely ( the cooler leaked, it got soaked. Into the compost... )

Tonight we shall have leeks and carrots from the garden, a steak, and perhaps some corn pudding.

Leeks based on the "Slow Mediterranean Kitchen", Paula Wolfert , page 55

Stuff; 1 heavy pot with a good lid
some parchment or foil
a spoon
a larger bowl
a smaller bowl
a knife
a stove
a timer
a cutting surface

Parts;
2 pounds of leeks, trimmed, rinsed and ready to go, cut into chunks.
2TBS olive oil
2 carrots, chopped up some
2 smallish onions, chopped up.
1/4c olive oil
1 t sugar
1 half lemon or 2T vinegar
1/4c barley, soaking in a bowl of water.

First; chop up the leeks and let them soak in tepid water in the bowl. This helps them plump and helps them let go of grime. Drain them well, you don't want to add more water to the pot.


Sautee the onions and carrots in the oil. When they take color, check the leeks over for dirt, and layer them on top of the onions and carrots. Sprinkle the sugar on top.
Pop the lid on with the foil underneath to tighten the seal, lower the heat to med/low, and set the timer for 20 mins. It's supposed to be pretty dry, but if you need to, add a tablespoon of water from the barley bowl.



When the timer dings, drain the barley and lay it in. Add salt and pepper as you see fit. Put the foil and lid back on, and cook another 20 mins.

Remove from the heat and add the lemon or vinegar. Let the dish cool, and serve.
............
This is not a faithful adaptation. The original calls for rice and slightly different proportions.

I would have liked more barley.

The vinegar made the dish.

I will add potatos and turn this into soup if it's not a hit as it is.

Oats and oatcakes

In the great quest for grains, I have either struck gold or dross. Not sure yet which.

The local Amish market sells bulk goods. He gets them from a vendor and repackages everything. The question is; are these “middleman” products or “factory” products? Some of the stuff seems pretty well straight from the mill, but I'm thinking factory.

I bought oatmeal anyhow because we need it, and I figure supporting a vendor instead of a superchain is one step up, at the least, and if I am lucky the mill is something I can rely on over time.

Sadly, the place we used to rely on got bought out by a “health food superchain”, and the only grain mills I can find around here are for animal feed only.

Crock Pot oats

If it is hot out, do this on the porch. You won't heat the house, and the pot won't have to work as hard.

2 c whole or “old fashioned” cut oats

6 c water,

or 4 c water and 2 of fruit juice

or meat broth

or vegetable broth

Peppercorns, cinnamon, or bay leaves depending on liquid selected.

Toss it all in the pot and set to low. Go to sleep.

Wake up, stir, and serve.

We make the leftovers into oatcakes

Cool oats

Warm frying pan

Warm holding oven or food dehydrator

Sheets for oven or dehydrator

Dollop oats onto pan, flip carefully when the top loses it's gloss

Set the other side, then place on a baking sheet or rack

Place the sheet in the oven on low overnight.

Keep in an airtight container. Excellent with sauteed leeks, leftover stew, and the like.

It looks like local eating in Central Jersey will be both a huge plus and a huge problem. Poultry, beef, eggs, milk products and cheese are all available on demand from within 20 miles of my front door.

None go through a factory process except the chickens. We prefer the ones from another vendor, but those are from Iowa.

We can get chickens from a local producer but I don't have the best feeling about the place. They don't have innards or other signs of processing would which make me comfortable. They seem to sell more pies and imported delicacies than their own poultry, which makes me nervous. The quail eggs I got from them were not as good as hoped either.

It will be easy enough in September, but how about December? Will I be one of those throwbacks hastily canning apples on the off-chance that we will still be able to tolerate them come May?

Are there hothouses around here that grow lemons?

There's Pennsylvania on one side, with the Amish vendors coming to us ( one middleman, no factory, often home-grown ), and Manhattan on the other ( huge ethnic population, lots of small producers and

suppliers, but using outsources for ingredients ). We have several pick your own type places, some farm markets, and some boutique style producers and processors, which are welcome in our plan if not in our budget.

I have three weeks to figure out the solution for year-rounding rationally.

So if the rules are so loose, what in heck are we doing?

We have allowed ourselves a lot more leeway than most of the food bloggers we have seen who are also involving themselves in this.

If so much is acceptable, from spices to what's already in the pantry, from bananas to road food, are we actually making any changes?

Yes and no.

We are agreed that our diet and approach to it could be better. We agree on a general plan of attack. We have an overall concept of preferred foodway, and have been working towards it or some time.

We will be steering more and more over the next years, with the Locavore Challenge as a kickstart, to something we call "European Macrobiotic". The idea is to eat traditional, pre-New World foods as they occurred in Western Europe until relatively recent times, and as our ancestors would have approached them.

We will intentionally remove almost all factory foods, try to limit the junk we rely on, go for more home cooked, planned meals rather than "fridge diving", and generally aim for a less crappy diet with more awareness overall.

Our general plan of attack is so fluid so we can stick with it. Our recipes are either off the cuff, craves, or from some neat old European cookbooks which have been coming in to print over the last years.

One of my favorites of the very early cookbooks is Das Buch Von Guter Spise, "the Book of Good Spice" which is a convent cookbook from Germany.
I like the fact that I can see the original recipe, decide if I even want to deal, and go from there.
The foods called for are not all available, much less to our preferences. However, some of the seasoning combinations are revelations, and the food is designed to be simple, pleasant, and reasonable to prepare. Unfortunately, it isn't organized like a modern cookbook, so it's a pain to navigate. The big risk to using foreign cookbooks of any age is when the translator changes the recipe to suit their own perceptions, but doesn't explain that decision to the reader. We might never know, when we are getting bilked.

My favorite modern cookbook is the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. It can be fussy, but since I am searching more for inspiration on flavor combinations, it works really well. The recipes range from very simple to quite elaborate, the ingredients as well. The flavors and successes from it have been bringing me back to the book more and more.


The Big Guy has been referring to Florence Lin's Chinese Regional Cookbook. It's a very practical layout, clear and simple to find recipes in. If you enjoy reading cookbooks for color, this isn't the one. If you just want to find a recipe, it's great.

More on the rules, if you can call them that

More on the rules, such as rules can exist in my life

we will eat out. There are three main restaurants we use in the area, which are home cooking at it's earthiest.

“the fish place” is a man, a van, and a pan. He goes to Fulton, he brings food home. Sometimes there are fries, sometimes salad. He's good people, and he's very good at fish.

“the lutong” is a Phillipino lunch spot, not healthy, not terribly popular, but solid home cooking. The young men who work there speak some English, which helps, but isn't really essential. The food is earthy, no branded ingredients are involved. Once, I got a piranha for lunch. It is nice to be on top of the food chain!

:”the pizzeria” is one of the originals. Only open for a couple of hours a day, they put out the most wonderful pie. The ingredients are factory, but it's all about that brick oven. Sometimes we act all crazy and get a stomboli instead of a pie. Horrors! ( in NJ, almost all pie ingredients are factory ) I think that's all that's on the menu anyhow.

We might find ourselves in other places, but those are the three we aim for, that we think of as an extension of our own kitchen, and of our home.