OLS West Week 7

This week at Chez Gnome, we had pesto chicken on pasta with a kitchen sink salad.(everything we could think of we through into that salad: eggs, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes....) We had fresh nectarines for dessert.

Amy at Amystery is starting to experience the first touches of fall there in Alaska. She made Risi e Bisi which is a type of risotto.

Cookiecrumb at I'm Mad and I Eat had a tart of whole-wheat flour crust (and butter and cream), filled with home-grown tomatoes, some herbs, and a sauteed onion. She goes on to say:

"The veggies went over the partially blind-baked crust, which was first smeared with Bodega Goat Cheese crema (groan!), and then it was topped with grated Spring Hill dry jack. Oh, mommy."

Turtle had modified Spanish Torta. You have to see how beautiful it looks!

Laura at the Urban Hennery made not one, but 3 OLS meals this week. She started with an egg scramble on Thursday, then came beef hash on Friday. Saturday night she finished with grilled chicken, a salad, corn on the cob and garlic mashed potatoes. They washed it all down with fresh peach ice cream.

Melissa at Homesteaders in Training feasted on corn on the cob, one of her absolute favorites, along with leftover noodles. She calls it a "cop out". We call it "good eats".

Sarah at Sarah's Homestead Blog had a big salad. It included greens, cherry tomatoes, lemon cucumber, roasted turnips and beets, and carrots. How refreshing

Wonderful job everyone.

Only a few more weeks to go!

Week 7 ~ New England & International

I've always thought of pasta "primavera" as a late spring/early summer dish, but here in Maine, we don't really have enough veggies for this classic until sometime in August. It was well worth the wait, though.

Leslie had the meal that seems to make most folks outside of New England the most jealous: lobster.

Wendy's husband often comes home for lunch, but this past week he missed out on a tomato and cheese omelet, homefries and french toast. I bet he's sorry he had that meeting...

Heather gave tortilla-making a try, and filled them with local eggs and pico de gallo.

Frances found herself craving a hearty vegetable soup after waking up to a chilly morning.

Lisa just added a tortilla press to her collection of kitchen tools so she could make corn enchiladas the slow-food way: with homemade corn tortillas, and two kinds of homemade cheese. Yum!

Korinthe enjoyed burgers, salad and some more of her salsa verde.

Laurie dined on foccacia along with veggies two ways: warm and roasted, and cool and marinated.

Moonwaves in Ireland turned to the kind of hearty meal her Mum would make: mince with potatoes. Mmmm.... comfort food.

Rebecca in Scotland has been super busy writing her dissertation, but managed to find time to get to the Edinburgh festival and make some homemade pasta with zucchini sauce. Whew!

Karen in Ontario enjoyed a simple meal of scrambled eggs with veggies.

Cheryl in Vancouver needed a quick meal, and tossed some non-local pasta with garden veggies and pesto (even local Parm!). She made up for the non-local pasta, though, with a local breakfast and lunch.

Yukino in Moldova got back in the game this week with a baked veggie and pasta dish that nearly looks like pizza.

Mary in Ontario went all out with a local Indian feast: pea curry, zesty roasted corn on the cob and even samosas (one of my absolute faves)!


Another great week of summer down, with a lot of great local meal ideas. I'm thinking I need to hit Mary up for that samosa recipe....

The South, week 7

It has been between 100 and 105 degrees here every day this week except for Saturday. We are all going stir-crazy, and one of my best market-gardener friends lost almost all of his tomatoes to the scalding-hot sun. The fruit literally cooked in its skin. We have fared a little better, but I think only because we grow more tougher-skinned and potato-leafed varieties.

No one really feels like eating too much, but we are doing our best! In fact, some of our southern OLSers really pulled out the stops this time around.

Jasmine says “the heat and drought has had some strange effects on what is available from my CSA and the market.” Still, she’s been making some gorgeous roasted vegetables. She used them on pasta last week and has been contemplating pre-freezing homemade pie crusts for spur-of-the-moment vegetable tarts.

After her heroic turn as my temporary replacement last week (thanks again, sweetie--Cairo is doing quite a bit better, and he sends you a kiss!), Stew put up a batch of pesto and invited a friend over for a ravioli dinner.

Jeff and Joyce are on the all-tacos-and-corn diet lately...which doesn’t sound like a bad way to be. Can I come over for dinner, guys?

The Purloined Letter, on vacation in Asheville, N.C., managed to whip up an entire day’s worth of local menus. And that’s not all: follow her links to see a Shabbat dinner and a tour of local restaurants.

Jen and her hubby are “the Best Blackberry Scavengers Ever in all the world.” They’re going to thank themselves later for making blackberry jam and wild blackberry wheat ale. Oh, and meanwhile, they’ve been canning spaghetti sauce, too.

Laurie had my very favorite type of meat this week. And delectable Green Zebra tomatoes, too! And a homemade baguette. And corn. And cobbler. Sigh.

Busy day? Check. Excruciatingly hot weather? Check. Paulette responded by making a quick, easy, and delicious meal of steak strips and sauteed veggies.

Maggie cleared the tomatoes off the dining room table so she could serve roast chicken, freshly dug fingerling potatoes, Roma and wax beans, and cornbread.

Pattie beat the heat with a cucumber salad “just like Mom used to make.” Sounds good to me--we've been looking for any excuse to use the cool, crisp veggies.

Amy and I both made desserts that mysteriously turned into soup. Hers was a peach pie, and mine was a muscadine grape cobbler. Ah, well--things happen! Better luck to us both next time.

Midwest, Week Seven

'Tis the season

Summer is slipping away! We're up to Week Seven of OLS.

We had a custard for dinner this week, along with some corn chowder. No, it's not an instance of dessert before dinner, silly, it was a savory custard!

Phelan is having camera woes, but she made game hens and a mighty fine peach cobbler this week.

Matt has been consuming lots of local meals lately, but the one he documented used local pasta. The pasta takes some getting used to, as it tends to cook quickly! I've noticed this with homemade stuff, too: just gotta watch it.

Lucette was feeling under the weather, but some local chicken soup lovingly prepared to help see her through definitely made her believe food = medicine.

Farm Mom Ang didn't especially feel like cooking, but she didn't especially feel like wasting good food, either. Maybe many of us feel this way, in this time of extreme produce glut. Just remember this won't last forever, folks.

FrugalMom has missed a couple of weeks due to a longer than anticipated recovery from surgery. She's on the mend, though, thankfully, so go check out her grub.

Evie has had a rough summer, too. This week, though, she put her daughter to work to go out and scavenge a meal from the garden. The first little eggs from their hens helped things out, how exciting!

Stacey just had a birthday and her loving hubby got her a KitchenAid mixer, so she's stepping up and stepping out...this week with pizza. YUM.

Kelly also went in for pizza this week. Whoa: didn't she do this last week, too? Well why yes. But hey: don't you all remember college? Or the once-a-week that our school cafeterias offered pizza and we all wanted it? Yeah. You'd eat it once a week, too.

Joanna made some lovely pasta and some only so-so corn fritters. She'll be out camping next week: anyone have any help for her for her local meal in NW Pennsylvania?

Linda had a meatball quite literally roll off the top of her spaghetti and onto the floor and the next thing she noticed...it rolled under a cabinet. Okay, it wasn't quite like that old song, but she does have some pointers about making sausage, so go check out her post!

E4 and Lori have been...busy. But! this week's meal was fast and satisfying for all.

Becke is the farmer's market shopper extraordinaire, so finding yummy dishes on her site is nothing new. She's getting help from her own garden with this week's meal.

Manerva says it's never too hot for soup if you're in the mood, and I quite agree with her, don't you? This soup featured some home-grown black beans, too.

And finally Kate agrees with Manerva: soup is just plain good eating, especially when it comes from the back yard! In fact, she calls it backyard soup, so go check it out.

Week #7 Mid-Atlantic

Naomi from Philadelphia made this lovely seitan and onion and pepper sauté.

Meredith in Pennsylvania made her favorite pasta sauce with loads of sweet peppers from her garden including a “sheepnose pimento.”

Seedling in NJ has reason for celebration! An hour after eating her Week #6 Meal she went into labor and delivered a healthy baby daughter! She has submitted that meal of local pork chop, potatoes and patty pan squash as her this week’s offering. Golly I feel like a grandmother ;-)

Christy in Delaware made a meal of maple glazed pork chops, royal purple beans and corn. Makes your mouth water.

The most colorful meal of Week #7 was had by Linda from New York . She complemented her home grown frozen chicken with beets and peaches and blueberries and corn

Nicole is upping the ante. She posts two meals this week. One a meal inspired by other OLS posters Tortilla Espanola with Swiss chard and the other meal a gazpacho with cornbread.

Rabi from NY used local peaches to make two different all local desserts. Don’t they look great?

While I imagine the drop off in participation is directly related to summer travels, I am sure that all of us are enjoying the rich local bounty that is available in August. Thanks to everyone who made time to post this week. Only three more to go … keep them coming!

The Latecomers-Week 7

Faith and her family enjoyed Monte Cristo sandwiches this week, and she put up the recipe for cantaloupe juice.

Carman enjoyed some local fried potatoes and a salad.

Karl is enjoying the bounty of fresh, local tomatoes.