Blueberries in Winter

The wind whipped through our neighborhood last night so strongly we lost power for a few hours. Luckily the extra down comforters and fireplace kept us toasty as the first proper winter chill plunged the temperature to 16. When the thermostat kicked back on, I reached into the fridge for a piece of blueberry greek yogurt banana bread. Again, mad props to Daily Garnish.

There's something immensely satisfying about this recipe. Moist and full of the familiar banana bread taste, the fresh blueberries put this baked treat over the top. I certainly can't claim they are locally sourced in January, but they are organic and fair trade (baby steps). The recipe says frozen would work as well.

I'm rather particular about my banana bread you may recall, so to say this one is worth making is high praise.

Fresh on the Doorstep

Our first haul from Arganica.

Being more conscious of where our food comes from can be a taxing effort and I'm not even close to pinning down the source on every item I ingest or purchase. However, in an effort to eat more local and support our local/regional farmers we've joined Arganica. A bit of a spin on a CSA, this group gives us what we loved about the easy organic delivery from Washington Green Grocer with a commitment to buying local. 

Oh, and did I mention an awesome list of additional items we can add to our order every week? We did a four week trial run and we're definitely hooked. Yes, we're paying more for vegetables than if we just went to the store. I've read and referred to this myself as a "yuppie tax."

Here is my justification. If we can't increase the demand for locally sourced foods, the supply isn't going to increase and we can't achieve any economies of scale to impact the supply chain in our markets. In addition, it forces me to plan our weekly menus around fresh, seasonal vegetables. This has required me to be open to researching and cooking some veggies I would not readily purchase. No it's not all kale.

In fact there's a delicata squash waiting for me to figure out how to cook next week. Luckily it has a long shelf life so I can tackle the familiar butternut squash this week.

Also, having a magic delivery person leave a box on your front door step on a Sunday morning is a great way to kick off the week. The double smoked bacon, Belgian chocolate milk and local butter we added to our order last week didn't hurt either. It may just be the best bacon we've ever had. Full stop.

Quinoa Risotto

For awhile DH has talked about the "super grain" quinoa and wanted me to cook more of it. For whatever reason the super bag sat in our pantry for a good while half used until I had to put together a vegan-friendly dinner. Enter one of my new favorite sites, Daily Garnish. I hit her up for the veggie burgers I made over the summer as well.

The asparagus and mushroom quinoa risotto is delish and not in a "this is pretty good for vegan" kinda way. I mean like, make this instead of a regular cheese-filled risotto good. Yeah, I know that sounds crazy, but I promise it is worth passing on the dairy.

Yes, it was the first time I've purchased earth balance, and no I'm not putting it on my toast in lieu of the yummy local butter that was delivered last week by Arganica, but it totally does help finish off the risotto.

So in honor of 2012 and more healthy cooking, I give you Emily Malone's (love her recipes and story) Asparagus and Mushroom Quinoa Risotto:


Ingredients (4 servings)

• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 small yellow or white onion
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup dry quinoa
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1 tablespoon Earth Balance (or butter)
• salt to taste

Instructions

1. Start by pouring the vegetable broth into a sauce pan and bringing it up to a light simmer. Having hot stock or broth is an important step in making risotto!
2. Next, dice the onion and mushrooms and sauté in olive oil over medium heat. This is one instance where you definitely want to use stainless cookware rather than something non-stick. You want the onions and mushrooms to create some fond and browning on the bottom of the pan. Color = flavor!
3. One the onion and mushroom are browning, add the dry quinoa and stir to coat in the olive oil. Continue to stir and cook over medium high heat for about 3 minutes – just enough to coat the quinoa and toast it a bit.
4. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to deglaze the bottom of the pan, and then begin adding the hot vegetable stock to the quinoa one ladle at a time.
5. Add stock and stir continuously over medium heat until most liquid is absorbed. Once absorbed, add another ladle full of stock, and continue to do so for 25-30 minutes total, or until quinoa is cooked and risotto is creamy.
6. In between ladles and stirring, cut asparagus into bite sized pieces. Make sure to trim the woody ends!
7. When you only have 3 or 4 ladles left, add the raw asparagus to your mixture and stir to combine and cook. Continue to cook and stir until almost all liquid is absorbed. Finish by adding 1 tablespoon Earth Balance for a touch more creaminess, and season to taste with salt.