ecoyear

Oh my!  I just missed a month - not too bad considering that I've read just about every post and every comment on The Oil Drum lately, as well as The Automatic Earth (when I need ammunition for my discussions among friends of WHY exactly the stock market is headed nowhere but down for the next few months, anyway).

I did, however, empty my chest freezer and make a list of what I managed to preserve for winter.  Then I tried a sample of a month's worth of menus, combining frozen (by me) food, contents of the Abbondanza winter share, and a few (mostly processed) non-local foods.  The non-local foods, by and large, could be local if I made them myself, except I don't.  This includes pasta, mozzarella cheese, and pizza dough.  I did not end up with local grains, partly again because of not starting a local dry goods co-op.  In other words, possible, cheaper even, just inconvenient.

These are dinner menus.  Breakfasts consist of local smoothies, half-local baked goods, or non-local cereal, yogurt with granola or oatmeal.  I eat apples and local cheese, personally, and a hard-boiled egg, many times, but I am immune to the problem of disliking repetitive food, unlike other people I know.

Lunch is similarly not so local.  The kids eat at school.  Yecchh!  Just a statement of my laziness, and my decision to pick dinner as my battleground.  I am afraid though, that tater tots are gaining in popularity faster than homemade soups.  I'm not quitting yet.  Again, I eat leftovers, so I manage to stay local.

Dinner, then, is planned as follows:

1. Broccoli quiche with acorn squash

2. Turnip soup, eggs, corn

3. Pasta with basil or parsley pesto

4. Pizza with tomato sauce, green peppers, goat feta cheese

5. Tabbouleh (I still have a few fresh tomatoes in the fridge...)

6. Stir-fry with cabbage and snow peas

7. Roasted chicken with potatoes and greens - note: I always make chicken stock with the leftovers, and then look for a soup recipe that involves a fair bit of stock to use it up rather than freeze it.

8. Carrot soup, bread and eggplant salad, roasted shallots

9. Broccoli cheese soup

10. Pizza with tomato sauce, mushrooms, mozzarella

11. Roasted brussel sprouts, delicata squash, onions, peppers, garlic, whatever (this was my chance to try two roots that were completely new: scorzonera and salsify - grown by Red Wagon Organic Farm - thanks!)

12. Pulled turkey and corn with greens - this is made by Eastern Plains Food Co-op.  By the way their heritage chickens, including the Standard New Hampshire are delicious.  I haven't quite found a good way to cook the Cornish Game Fowl.  We have heritage Blue Slate turkey planned for Thanksgiving - will be reporting on that.

13. Pasta with tomato sauce

14. Butternut squash soup

15. Ratatouille (previously made and frozen; fast food!!)

16. Pizza with perso, mushrooms and goat cheese

17. Beet soup

18. Mushroom cobbler

19. Tomato soup made from frozen sauce

20. Mom's laziness special: poached egg on whole grain toast

21. Goat cheese souffle with bok choy

22. Leftover chicken with potato gratin

23. Wheat berries with onion, carrots, peppers, leftover chicken

24. Potato leek soup

25. greens with eggs - I have to report on the kale from Abbondanza 2 weeks ago: outrageously good!!

26. Turkey and trimmings

27. Post-thanksgiving fast

28. Face the leftovers turkey soup

29. Annie's Macaroni and Cheese (what really goes on in locavore households after dark...)

30. Don't you have friends? Won't anyone feed you if you begged?