One Local Summer, Week 5, 2008
Hmm, haven't been getting in front of the computer to blog much lately. I will have to make an effort to change that as I have things to share with you (assuming my readers haven't wondered off and forgotten about me). If nothing else, I have a local meal that I made for a friend's birthday and I even remembered to take pictures. I promised a birthday dinner and then asked this vegetable avoiding friend what his favorite meal is. The answer was one word: lamb. As longtime readers may know, I was a vegetarian for at least 16 years, so I am often intimidated by cooking meat and I have had no experience with lamb other than sheep sausage I used in a breakfast egg dish at the beginning of the challenge.
A trip to the Farmer's Market was necessary. Smith Meadows Farm was able to help out with a pound of lamb chops. Now what should I serve with the chops? Three Way Farm in Warsaw, VA had wax beans and green beans...so I quickly decided that green and yellow bean salad with chunky tomato dressing and feta might be appreciated. So I picked up the hot house tomatoes from Toigo Orchards (with promises of fresh tomatoes coming soon). I already had some Feta in the fridge from Blue Ridge Dairy. My friend, being Irish, doesn't think a meal is complete without potatoes (although onion rings will do in a pinch), so I bought some new potatoes from Golden Goose Farm in Riva, VA which I would boil and serve with butter from Blue Ridge Dairy and some Parsley that I had picked up at the Tuesday market maybe from [I like to spread my Farmer's market purchases around and support many farmers.]
But how to cook the lamb? I lucked out while paging through a copy of Real Simple I tore out this recipe for lamb chops with tomatoes and olives. But I didn't have any shallots and my friend doesn't like olives and I already had tomatoes in the meal plan and any of the women in my cooking club will tell you that it is rare that I use a recipe as more than a guide...so I made lamb chops with spring onions and summer squash with capers (from my Food Matters CSA) following the basic directions from the Real Simple recipe. It was a great dinner even if the wine was Italian (my friend brought the wine). We ended the evening with peaches and black berries from Olin Fox CSA with whipped cream from Natural by Nature in PA.
A very local birthday meal.
Glad to see that you are blogging again. Sorry about Saturday. It turned out that I was in no mood for being around people and needed to just stay home. Call me when you get back into town.
Posted by: Wendy | July 07, 2008 at 11:45 PM
That meal looks so good. You're my hero!
Posted by: Stephanie | July 08, 2008 at 11:55 AM
how to cook lamb? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbgVhCjid9c
is one way!
Posted by: Bill | July 09, 2008 at 11:27 PM