What's In Season Sunday: Eggs

I don't have chickens, but I will someday.

Then I could eat fresh eggs all the time. Instead of eating meat, sometimes I opt for eggs instead. Eggs are a familiar breakfast food, but they can be used in many ways for lunch and dinner too. Eggs are delicious in egg salad sandwiches, in egg burritos, in home made mayonnaise, salad dressings, salads, with roasted asparagus, in custards, bread pudding, and other baked goods. There are so many uses for eggs. I guess that is where the slogan comes in, "the incredible edible egg".

Yesterday I visited a friend's farm near Royal City, WA. His family gave me almost two dozen farm fresh eggs. Thanks Brett! I was in the hen house when they were collected and saw the chickens. Any farmer would probably laugh and say, "big deal". It is a big a deal. Us city folks, those of us who don't have urban chickens wandering our backyards anyway, consider this an adventure. We simply don't get to see the chickens that lay the eggs we eat. It is as simple as that. I think about it often. Having the story behind the food I eat, makes me enjoy it so much more. Breakfast isn't just breakfast, it's an experience.

Farm fresh eggs have good health benefits over their grocery store counterparts. They have a third less cholesterol, a fourth less saturated fat, two thrids more vitamin A, two times more omego -3 fatty acids, three times more vitamin E, four to six more times vitamin D, and seven times more beta carotene. That is fantastic! Read more about it here.

Farm fresh eggs are becoming available at some grocery stores. Make sure you ask your grocer where they came from (so you are aware of how the chickens were raised) and when they arrived. Farm fresh eggs can also be found at your farmer's market or from bartering with an urban farmer in your neighborhood. It is becoming increasingly popular to raise backyard chickens. Seattle and Portland both have annual chicken coop tours. Plan ahead and go to Seattle's here!

So, who's with me? Let's go buy ourselves some chickens!

Easter Fixings

My Easter weekend was filled with many blessings. I spent the weekend with my Father and Grandparents. And of course, we ate very well. Over the course of Lent, I gave up meat entirely. Well, except for fish. During this time, I acted as a Catholic vegetarian or a Pacific Northwest vegetarian. It is very hard to eliminate fish too! I would find it very difficult to be a vegetarian full time. Much respect to vegetarians. And just because I can eat meat again, I still plan on limiting my meat consumption to a few times a week.

With that said, it was with great excitement to return meat to my diet on Sunday! I started off the morning with bacon. I made a simple egg frittata with spinach, tomatoes, chives, cheddar and sliced avocado. For dinner we had barbecued top sirloin steak. I sauteed mushrooms, garlic, and shallots and served the mix atop each piece of steak with crumbled blue cheese. My sides included an herb salad with marinated red onions, bacon bits, and sliced avocado tossed in a simple red wine vinaigrette. I also roasted red potatoes and mixed in roasted garlic and rosemary. I learned a valuable lesson watching TV recently that I must share on how to roast potatoes to perfection. First, cut up the potatoes and boil them in water. Cook them until they are just barely cooked through then strain. When the potatoes have dried enough with their own steam, toss them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary and lay them on a sheet pan. Place in the oven at 375 degrees for about a half hour to 45 minutes. When finished, the potatoes will not be dried out and they will still have that brown, crusty shell we all love.

Our dinner was followed by a scrumptious strawberry, apple, rhubarb crisp topped with cinnamon honey ice cream. The rhubarb came straight from the garden. So did the chives mentioned earlier. Spring is here. The sun was shining on Saturday to prove it. Even though we are back to rainy whether, the plants are growing. There will be more bounty to share in no time. Happy Easter!

Learn more about homesteading every Monday. I'm participating in a weekly homestead blog barn hop aimed at getting those of us interested in the topic well connected to one another. Learn more about getting back to the basics by clicking on the barn hop logo!

My Easter Dinner

Eating locally is really rewarding but it can be challenging. That is, only as challenging as you want to make it. And such is life. My biggest lesson, while trying to make an Easter dinner made entirely from ingredients locally grown or caught was, if you can grow your own herbs and vegetables in a garden space (it can be small!) do it! You can save yourself a lot of money and when you grocery shop all you have to do is walk out to your garden. And who wouldn't want to do that!? My other big lesson was, be flexible, often times you can buy what it is you have on your grocery list but, more than not, if you visit your grocery store you will have trouble finding Washington grown carrots or fresh herbs at the local farmers market in early April. Therefore, you might have to improvise.

Everything I bought for our meal was grown in Washington with a few exceptions. I'll take you through each menu item. First, I bought leeks at the farmer's market grown in a community garden in Tacoma. The leeks were used to make a creamy leek sauce that paired very well with the salmon. In the sauce I used chives grown in my Dad's garden in Gig Harbor. The leeks were simmered in butter then dry white wine. Some cream was mixed in then I added the fresh chives. I pureed the mixture in a food processor until smooth, added chicken broth to thin it out and salt and pepper to taste. For the main course, I bought fresh King Salmon at a fish stand in Pike Place Market caught in the Columbia River. It was grilled on the BBQ to perfection and was rich and fall apart tender. My sides included roasted potatoes bought at Metro Market in Tacoma, a mixed herb salad with a red wine vinaigrette, and sauteed parsnips with raw local honey.

The potatoes were grown in Washington. I tossed them with finely chopped lemon thyme from my Dad's garden and garlic from Scappoose, Oregon, before roasting. The herbs for the salad were also purchased at Metro Market and were grown in Duvall, Washington. I mixed basil, watercress (the only item purchased from California!), italian flat leaf parsley, and tarragon to make the salad. I thinly sliced a red onion (grown in Tacoma and bought at the farmers market) and tossed it with the herbs. The vinaigrette was very simple; red wine vinegar, honey, salt, cracked pepper and olive oil. The salad was amazing. I highly recommend trying a fresh herb salad, it is packed full of flavor and it very much compliments the fish and cleanses the palette after each bite. The parsnips were also purchased at the Tacoma farmers market (an improvisation from my original plan- carrots), sauteed in olive oil and butter, some chicken broth and honey. When the liquid evaporated and the parsnips were tender, the sugars left over caramelized around each parsnip leaving them buttery, sweet, and delicious!

This meal was a fun challenge to plan and put together. It was a pleasure to eat and everyone at the table loved hearing the individual stories about each of the ingredients, where they grew and where I bought them. Preparing this meal has inspired me not only to continually challenge myself to eat this way, but to do it in a way that is sustainable to my budget (thus my emphasis to start growing my own food! Especially herbs as I use herbs in just about everything).

Easter Menu Planning

I know it is Good Friday and I am planning a lavish feast! I should say a couple extra prayers tonight at mass. But in preparation for the feast of Easter, I better start planning the meal early. Two days early should be good enough ;) After all, I shop at too many different places, so I have to gather things along the way. First order of business is the menu planning. I am making every possible effort to eat with the season, buy my supplies as locally as possible, and if no other possibility exists- buy organic or from California! Do you think I can do it?

Here is what I am planning. Grilled salmon with a creamy leek sauce. Leeks are in season. Have you tried one before? They are like giant green onions but their flavor and fragrance are more subtle. The sauce for the salmon will be prepared by sautéing the leeks in dry white wine, then adding heavy cream, fresh chives, and chicken broth. These ingredients will be pureed until smooth and set aside for serving with the salmon. My sides will include a salad and potatoes. The salad I am choosing to make is a fresh herb salad with sliced red onion, and then tossed in a red wine vinaigrette. The potatoes will be roasted with garlic and salt and pepper, and then at the last minute, tossed with finely chopped lemon balm (which I am hoping has already started growing in the herb garden)!

I've already purchased the fish from a vendor in Pike Place Market. I bought fillets of fresh Columbia River King Salmon, caught yesterday. Then I walked around the vegetable stands throughout the market to purchase the herbs and potatoes but was disappointed to find that all of it was being shipped from California. My goal is to find produce from Washington State, preferably grown on the west side of the mountains. As local and seasonal and delicious as possible. I will be visiting the Proctor farmer's market in North Tacoma tomorrow. We will see what I can find. Stay tuned!...

Memorial Weekend Dinner

This Memorial Day weekend I was fortunate to have a household of people to cook for! As with any fun family gathering, food is always central to the festivities. I wanted to make a northwest inspired meal for our east coast visitors that had a diversity of flavors but was simple enough to pull together in the midst of visiting. 

Now I'll set the scene. Cooking at my Dad's house in Gig Harbor is always great. I had sharp, professional knives to work with, a gas stove, convection oven, plenty of pots and pans, and a beautiful view of the Olympic mountains from the kitchen window to gaze out of. On my shopping list I had wild Copper River Salmon (right now fresh at Costco!), a bag of red potatoes, and idea for a salad. 

Since Saturday was an amazingly sunny day, we decided it would be best to optimize our deck time and cook the salmon outside. Our faithful Webber would once again be put to the test. My Dad grilled the salmon while I stayed inside to make a simple lemon caper sauce to finish the salmon with and garnish it with chives from the garden just before serving. What to do with the bag of red potatoes? Inspired from my recent visit to Astoria, OR, I decided to roast the potatoes in lemon juice and rosemary in the oven slowly until they developed a crispy outer shell and a soft middle. In the food processor, I made a green goddess dressing, for dipping the potatoes in. Green goddess dressing, if you haven't had it, is a wonderful creamy dressing made with tarragon, parsley, and garlic. For the salad, I took goat cheese which was then sliced into medallions. Each piece was coated with a bread crumb walnut mixture and sauteed in olive oil. Once both sides were crispy they were placed in the oven to keep warm. Salad greens were tossed with a raspberry vinaigrette, sliced strawberries, and then served with the warm goat cheese. For dessert we had a strawberry tart.

This light, springtime meal was a delicious way to end a wonderful day, to celebrate the company of family, and to honor the men and women who have given their lives for our freedom. Happy Memorial Day!

Feature Recipe: Asparagus Goat Cheese Pizza

Asparagus is showing up in area farmers markets! I bought a bunch and threw together this quick and easy dinner. You will need whole wheat lavish bread (I bought it at Trader Joes and it makes an excellent thin crust for this pizza. You could also use whole wheat tortillas). You will need 1 bunch asparagus, three red bell peppers, 1 lemon, 2 bulbs of garlic, 5 oz goat cheese (also available at many farmers markets),  1/3 cup toasted slivered almonds, 1/2 cup shredded parmigiano-reggiano cheese, and cracked pepper. 

First cut the ends off of your garlic bulbs and place on foil. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Wrap foil completely around the bulbs and bake at 375 for a half an hour or until cloves are tender and come easily out of the skins. Let cool. Next, set your oven's broiler to high. Place the three whole red bell peppers in the oven on a pan with foil. Watch carefully. Broil until all sides of the peppers are blackened. Take peppers out of the oven and place in an air tight container for ten minutes. Remove skins, stems, and seeds, and place peppers in a blender or food processor.  Blend until smooth. Add 3-4 cloves of the roasted garlic. Salt and pepper to taste.  Let cool. Next cut up asparagus (tips and the top half of the stems) in half inch pieces and place in a small saute pan.  Saute asparagus with a little oil and a squeeze of lemon juice for 2-3 minutes on high heat. Remove.

Spread roasted red bell pepper sauce on lavish bread. Cut thin slices of goat cheese rounds and place on pizza.  Depending on how much garlic you enjoy (I like a lot!) place the remaining garlic cloves on top of pizza. Add asparagus and slivered almonds. Sprinkle shredded parmigiano-reggiano cheese and cracked pepper on pizza to finish. Bake in a 375 oven for 8-10 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Cut into pieces and serve!