LWK Week 6: Plowing through!

I can't believe we're already at week 6 of this adventure! Only two weeks to go. Fortunately, we're offering another three months (6 weeks) of LWK in a special one-time-only March-May share. Sign up now if you haven't already--shares are limited!

Last week I had a fun adventure being the Guest Chef for the Friday Mornings @ SELMA local foods breakfast salon. (read more about it here!) The pictures on today's blog post are highlights of that experience. We made some tasty quiche and warm apple-spice waffles. I was thrilled to have so many Community Farm Kitchen cooks join me in the kitchen to bring off a triumphant morning!

So, on the LWK front, I'm excited about all the tasty local treats we have to offer this time. I just discovered that Calder Dairy offers sour cream and cottage cheese (thank goodness for home delivery meaning I don't have to lug pounds of dairy products all around town.) Once again we're also featuring incredible noodles from Pasta e Pasta--lasagna this time. Read on!

Roast Chicken with Rosemary Orange Butter --ever since I first clapped eyes on the gorgeous whole chickens we've been getting I've wanted to roast them whole rather than pulling them apart. Well, here goes!
Baked Lasagna - Old Pine Farm ground beef, our taste-of-summer frozen tomatoes, and Pasta e Pasta's lasagna--is your mouth watering yet?
Beef Stroganoff- Just a classic, perfect to show off Calder Dairy's sour cream.
Red Wine-Braised Pork Steaks with Peaches, Cinnamon, and Couscous We have these lovely peaches from Locavorious and had to *something* with them, right??

I guess that wraps it up. Stay warm, people. We'll see you Friday.

Mary

Photos: 1. Quiche at SELMA 2. Many hands make light work 3. Proud chef at the end of a successful breakfast run--serving over 100!

February Days are Warmed by Long Winter Kitchen pt 5

Michelle and I are so excited to be back with another fabulous (if we do say so!) selection of dishes. Last week I had an incredible meeting with Kris, the farmer who is raising our meat. We talked about a lot of things (including the future of the Long Winter Kitchen--stay tuned for further developments!). She told me about the challenges of being a female rancher, what her son thought when he went to work at a conventional meat processing plant (imagine a 19-yr-old boy reduced to showing emotion and horror!), and what she's learned from the other farmers she works with to source this incredible meat. There were a few stories I thought you'd find interesting: did you think last week's cuts of lamb were small? Well, it's not your imagination. Kris is raising a heritage breed of lamb that doesn't get as large as modern breeds. But, I hope you'll agree, that these animals who were bred for flavor deliver. Another interesting factor that you haven't seen because we've been taking your chickens apart: the chickens we get in your shares are all different sizes--not standardized. Kris points out that this is because she doesn't cull the smaller birds from her flock as they do in traditional chicken farming. She says "This is the real world--I'm not going to waste a chicken because it's a little smaller than the others!" She's also raising some heritage chickens along with modern breeds, so that accounts for some of the variability too. I'm learning so much from being part of this meat CSA... as with any CSA, you learn to live with uncertainty and variety!

SO, This week's menu:
Corn and Kielbasa Chowder --a small portion of kielbasa lends a punch to this creamy chowder with summer's sweetest corn preserved by Locavorious and our own homemade chicken stock.
Chicken Chili - a white chili--just the thing to warm these snowy days.
Pasta Fagioli - bursting with flavor from our summer harvest of tomatoes and Old Pine Farm's ground beef
Vegetable Rich Pot Roast - We're going to the freezer and throwing the whole summer into the pot for this one! Eat it and read seed catalogs and think of summer.

And, Michelle and I are working hard to get the details nailed down for CFK 2.0. Stay tuned, as I said. We're excited about what's coming next........
peace
Mary
Photos: 1. Steamed Lamb with Thyme and garlic 2. The Breakfast Dish 3. Steak with roasted pepper sauce.