Week 8-The Latecomers

This week Kristin rejoins the group after a few hectic weeks. Including dessert!

Carmen enjoyed fresh bread in a sandwich with some goat cheese she made herself! Jealous!

Faith and her clan had some hamburgers with fresh buns. Fresh buns are the best!

If you've been reading Karl's blog you know his family have been enjoying a lot of tomatoes. In fact, I'm wondering when they will just turn into tomatoes. :-)

Karl's enjoying OLS that he keeps doing extra credit. You're an overachiever Karl!

Keep it up ya'll!

Could I have any more exclamation points?!!

OLS West Week 8

I'm super sad to report that Chez Gnome didn't have a complete local meal at all this week. We've been getting ready for fair this next week and I couldn't pull it off. Please accept my lame excuse and check out what wonderful things everyone else created.

Homesteaders In Training made a wonderful meal of an iced melon concoction(think melon sherbet), cucumber salad, and rhubarb crunch.

Cookiecrumb made a lot of wonderful meals this week. I'm going to pick her last as the OLS. It's a beautiful pasta and tomato dish from Nora Ephron's 1983 "novel" Heartburn. It looks amazingly delicious.

Sarah at Sarah's Homestead Blog made Vegetarian Shepherd Pie. Doesn't that sound yummy!

Krystle and Hans-Peter at Taste the Seasons had a busy week making Rolled Eggplant Tapas, Corn Chowder w/ Chilis, and Chiles Rellenos. And recipes are included!

Turtle made a delicious soup and salad. She even made her own soup noodles!

Lauren at Urban Hennery made two meals this week. 8.1 was Ling Cod, broccoli and tomato and 8.2 was London Broil, green beans and tomato.

"We’ve really been enjoying the fresh tomatoes now that we can get them in quantity - and to me nothing is better than a fresh warm tomato drizzled with vinegar topped with salt and pepper."

For sure!

Great job everyone! If everyone else's farmers markets are like ours, next week's meals should be spectacular!

The South, week 8

This is the time of year when my garden turns into a Little Shop of Horrors and I just stop giving a darn. But I have to admit the food is good. We are taking special note of the vegetables that are surviving the drought and heat wave. (For those keeping score at home: Green Zebra and Sungold tomatoes; Fairytale eggplants; and all the hot peppers.)

E-mailer Molly and I are in the same boat: Both cooking a lot of local food, but too frazzled to keep track. “I don't even know what week it is now!” she laments. But she managed to make a delectable tomato pie, with sides of edamame (ooh, my favorite!), mashed potatoes (my other favorite!), and vegetable sauté.

Meanwhile, I copped out big time and only made peel-and-eat shrimp, which I ate messily while watching an episode of CSI. But you should go read about the shrimp; they’re pretty special.

Gazpacho, grouper fritters, and apple crisp with local ice cream? I don’t know about you, but I’m going to Amy’s house.

Jasmine used an astonishing array of local produce in “a meal that is in [her] regular rotation”: the filling for roasted vegetable enchiladas. What would we do without local feta cheese, eh, Jasmine?

Joyce, not wanting to continue her summer Tacopalooza, went rummaging in the freezer and found a forgotten package of stew beef. With summer vegetables and Southern Biscuit flour, it became a beef pie that fed her and Jeff for two whole meals.

The Purloined Letter is back from North Carolina, and has made two OLS meals. I love the idea of cooking banana peppers into hamburgers. I’m going to have to try that as soon as humanly possible.

Maggie’s ducks are laying! She used one of the eggs to bind the meatballs in this week’s spaghetti dinner.

Laurie continues to cook with the most intriguing heirloom tomatoes. This time it’s Pineapple toms, which accompanied pan-fried pork chops and her own homegrown butterbeans and field peas.

Lucky Lastewie happened upon an untended fig tree--which, to me, ranks as one of the all-time great local eating pleasures. The figs were dessert after a meal of pork chops, stuffing, long beans, and summer squash.

Paulette notes, “I know it seems that our One Local Summer meals always center around some form of our beef.” Well, when you have your own herd, that’s fair enough! This time it was T-bone steaks with peppers and onions, cucumber salad, and vegetable fritters.

And last, but perhaps most beautiful and haunting, Pattie’s eggplant parmigiana with orange cherry tomatoes evoked memories from her childhood.

Week 8 ~ New England & International

Frances showed her visiting friends how they roll in Western Mass. (it sounded cooler when she said it), first by hiking on the Appalachian Trail, then grilling up a plethora of local veggies. And what would a visit with good friends be without dessert of peach & strawberry sorbet?

Korinthe made a big dish of Macaroni & Cheese with veggies and sausage.

Lisa enjoyed her own home-raised, home-butchered, beer-marinated chicken for dinner, along with corn on the cob, roasted red potatoes, refrigerator pickles, and red cabbage slaw. If that wasn't enough, they had blueberry ice cream for dessert.

Us New Englanders must have had the chicken harvest on the brain, because James and I also spent part of our weekend dispatching our meat chickens. Along with baked chicken, this week's dinner consisted of new potatoes, coleslaw and a baked tomato, all from the garden.

Leslie is a lucky one with a friend who is a fisherman. Gordon supplied the Bonita, and Leslie's garden supplied the rest.

Between her farm share and her Boston Organics box, Magid had a ton of veggies to get through. In order to make room for all of it in the fridge, she roasted some, made a couple of salads, and enjoyed it all with scrambled eggs with greens. She says she couldn't get herself interested in "figuring out a dessert", but I don't see how she had the room!

Wendy's having a tough week on her homestead, and a simple pizza was an easy thing to make for her girls. I don't think they thought it was boring!

Laurie enjoyed a swiss chard & potato torta, summer squash, and a cuke and tomato salad.

Cheryl in Vancouver got the kids involved in a very involved dinner: baby portobello mushroom ravioli. No one cared that they didn't eat until 9pm, because they were having SO MUCH FUN!!

Moonwaves in Ireland had a very special omelette with her very own peas and tomatoes in it. Three cheers for home gardens!

Mary in Ontario finally got her hands on some local peppers, and made some lovely vegetable fajitas.

Only two more weeks of One Local Summer to go. I know some of you are dealing with record heat, but we're starting to wake up to some CHILLY mornings! It's hard to believe summer is ending already.

Midwest, Week Eight

Just hand me the salt: Hillbilly potato leaf or Flame heirloom tomato, 2.5 pounds of goodness

TWO MORE WEEKS OF ONE LOCAL SUMMER!

I made a lot of meals. It's easy with so much available, but I also wished to show that even busy people can make good food.

Matt agrees that it is easy cooking at this time of year; he's a cyclist so he calls it a "no chain day" to demonstrate how untaxing things can be. He didn't even need to cajole his kids to eat, they readily did!

Lucette thought ahead and froze the dough for this week's pizza. What she really delighted in, besides the good food? The way the house smelled! "Like someone Italian who was a brilliant cook." Brava!

Ang is also thinking Italian with her meal. She made an eggplant bolognese. I keep forgetting that Eden Organics is a Michigan company, so thanks, Farm Mom! I can now slurp pasta local-style too!

Stacie ate a meal that tasted just like chicken...because it was! The veggies were hers, the meat was local...and THEN just take a look at what she had for dessert. YUM.

Kelly sometimes wishes she had some help in the kitchen, and as the solo chef in my house, I hear her on that. But there's so much going on in the background of her meal preparation! Luckily, things are just jumping out in the garden to help her.

Linda, bless her, went foraging for her meal. Lamb's quarters are a...weed in most people's parlance, but in actuality they're a vitamin-rich spinach substitute; I've certainly served my share, especially since it's hot and lettuce isn't available. But she even went out and caught herself some bluegill! LOVE those pan fish!

Debbie made a really yummy-looking stew, complete with local quinoa. It looks both delicious AND healthy.

Poor Becke's air conditioning has been on the fritz! Considering she loves to heat up her kitchen, this is quite a predicament. She made a lovely cold dish this week, though; go wish her a happy birthday.

Manerva has had water woes (her well pump went out), but that hasn't stopped the tomatoes. Big fans of the red stuff, her household...but this week was pizza. Delicious. (And M: I'll clean a messy kitchen over folding laundry any day, won't you?)

The Mid-Atlantic OLS Week #8

With just a bit if a chill in the air this weekend, we offer the meals of the Mid-Atlantic rich in tomatoes and the garden's bounty

Jasmin NY (just outside Manhattan) posted a Week #7 meal that I missed because it was posted after six last week. It was a carrot, ginger and beet soup complete with recipe. Doesn’t it look scrumptious?

Naomi from Philadelphia’s contribution this week was a beef stir fry with tomatillos as the star ingredient.

Nicole channeled Grandma Aurora this week for a squash blossom recipe and added a zucchini basil cream sauce to pasta.

Bezzie from New Jersey made a black bean and corn salsa

Peg from New York posted our first ratatouille of the season. WE ought to have an award for the first person to put together a ratatouille.

Mikaela from PA made this impressive tortilla tower out of veggies from her CSA share and tempeh. A salad side and a slice of watermelon rounded out the plate.

Seedling in NJ’s dinner this week featured her own vine ripened tomatoes over a locally made pasta.

Using Bob’s Red Mill recipe Christy in Delaware made tortillas from scratch and then used them for yummy looking quesadillas

Rabi from NY used her left over veggies, some tofu and local buckwheat to make a tempting summer salad.

Great work everybody. Let's keep the good news coming her ein the last two weeks.