Information and resources for eating only food locally produced in Whatcom County
Category : Breakfast, Main Dishes, Recipes, September
Here’s a beef sausage recipe I created as a substitute for chorizo in a recipe for Caldo Verde from the Winter Harvest Cookbook (see my review of the book). While this does not make chorizo, the spicy flavor makes a good alternative. It’s really quick and easy to make from locally grown grassfed beef. Continue Reading
Category : December, Menu Ideas, November, October, Whatcom Locavore Products
We’re so excited! The first Whatcom Locavore Kindle book was just published last night! We took one of our Holiday Menu Plans (the beef version), removed some of the specific geographical information, and formatted it for the Kindle reader. As of this morning, if you search the Kindle Store for “holiday menus” we’re coming up first! The salmon and vegetarian versions will be coming next!
The book appears to be the only one available that is a complete plan for preparing a holiday dinner. Most holiday meal books are collections of recipes, but our book not only has recipes but a complete menu with shopping list and recommended preparation schedule. It’s the details for a stress-free holiday dinner, all in one package.
Purchases from Amazon by clicking here. These small books are a great gift idea, too!
Recipes have been fully tested and are guaranteed to deliver the “wow” factor in flavor, especially if you start with farm fresh locally grown ingredients. Cooking methods used are easy, and the suggested preparation schedule leaves plenty of time to visit and enjoy your guests.
Best of all, these recipes can be used together or individually anytime during the fall and winter when the ingredients used are readily available from Whatcom farmers at the Farmers Market.
Happy holidays and a ho ho ho from our home to yours!
Holiday Dinner Menu Plans for 2012 have been created to help make it easier for you to serve local foods to your family and friends this year. Three five-course menus are available, one with a beef entree, one with salmon, and one vegetarian (lacto-ovo-vegetarian to be precise, since eggs and dairy are used).
The five courses include an appetizer, soup, salad, main dish with side, and dessert. (The vegetarian entree needs no side dish.) Serve them formally one at a time, or family style with some courses combined.
You won’t find “turkey with all the fixin’s” on any of these menus. Instead, the recipes have been selected to help you discover exciting new holiday flavor combinations using locally grown, seasonal ingredients. Continue Reading
“Organic” is a term used to describe some food and farming techniques, but the meaning can be confusing. Let’s try to sort out some fact from fiction. Continue Reading
Category : Appetizers, Holidays, Recipes
A lot of appetizers are served cold, but sometimes it’s nice to have warmer options, especially during winter holiday entertaining. These meatballs with a creamy wine sauce make a heartier offering, but still are bite-sized to keep them easy for your guests to eat. It’s also a simple recipe to prepare. Continue Reading
Colorful leaves, a chilly bite in the air, howling gales and horizontal rain–ah! Fall in Whatcom County, just the way we like it! And at the Farmers Market and farms all around the County, what says “Fall is here and winter holidays are coming!” more than beautiful orange pumpkins? Continue Reading
Category : About Food Sources, CSAs, January, Main Dishes, Menu Ideas, Recipes
When I think of classic comfort food, I think of meatloaf. When I was a child, meatloaf was my favorite main dish. Top with a little Worcestershire sauce and ketchup, serve mashed potatoes and green beans on the side, and I was a happy kid.
Others must feel the same way. “Meatloaf” is one of the top five recipes people search for on the Food Network web site, and it’s categorized there as a “Comfort Food.” Continue Reading
Category : Main Dishes, Recipes
One of the advantages of buying beef by the “side” (half a beef cow) is that you can get cuts that would be difficult to find (or afford) in a retail grocery store. The cow’s tail, or “oxtail”, is one of those parts that are typically missing from the store’s meat case. Continue Reading
There’s nothing like the taste of the first fresh apples of the season! We have an opportunity to taste a remarkable array of literally hundreds of apple varieties every year at the Cloud Mountain Farm Center’s Fall Fruit Festival.
Apples can be eaten and enjoyed in dozens of ways ranging from raw as a snack to cooked into delicious apples pies or tarts. A quick and easy way to add intense apple flavor to cooked dishes is to use fresh apple cider. Continue Reading
Sauerkraut and sausage are a long-time favorite flavor combination. Apples and sauerkraut* are an equally familiar and frequent combination. What if they were all combined, I wondered. Continue Reading
Category : Main Dishes, Recipes, Sauces and Dips, Vegetarian
Some sauce recipes have become “classics” known to everyone. For example, experienced cooks learn how to make an Alfredo sauce, a buttery bechamel, and an herbed tomato sauce.
One reason these sauces are classics is their versatility. They can be used in many ways with many different ingredients. For example, bechamel sauce can be used as is over potatoes, or as the basis of a mustard sauce for chicken or a creamy herb sauce for steamed vegetables. Herbed tomato sauce can be served over pasta, grilled meats, or spread on toasted bread as a crostini appetizer. Continue Reading
Fixing a meal that takes awhile to cook just doesn’t sound inviting on hot summer days. A nice aspect of our Northwest climate is the occasional cool rainy days which give us a break from warmer weather.
A rainy day is a good time to take a look in the produce drawer of your refrigerator (and in your garden, if you have one). What needs to be used before it spoils or gets too ripe? Continue Reading
Category : Main Dishes, Recipes, Vegetarian
Cooking a perfect stir-fry dish requires careful planning as the ingredients are being chopped and prepared. Especially important is to group the ingredients by cooking time. Continue Reading
