FamilyFood

Scenes from a Sunday dinner

We had my brother's family for dinner tonight while he attended a work thing up in SF. It was the perfect night for grilling up a Sunday night dinner. On the menu: Meeeeeat (New York Strips and Top Sirloin) and grilled veggies.

My favorite part of the dinner was the vegetables. J. was in charge of the meats and I have to say, I am a die-hard rib-eye girl. Once you go rib-eye you never go back, and the strips and sirloin, though flavorful, were no match for the buttery tenderness that I'm used to. I'll be buying the steaks from now on.

I call this: "Duke" (our nickname for our grill) and Cecil Brunners.

Potatoes and peppers.

setting the table.

grilled fennel and buttergold potato planks

a whole mess o' grilled veggies

just a drizzle of olive oil and they're done.

grilled asparagus

the steaks.

Ristorante Ideale, San Francisco

There are fancier and better known Italian restaurants in San Francisco, but none reminds me of my Roman roots more than Ristorante Ideale (ee-day-AH-lay). This is true comfort food for me in every sense of the word. When I eat the pastas, I am immediately taken back to my aunt's kitchen in Rome where I spend most of my time sitting by her stove whenever I visit.

Though there are restaurants in San Francisco that get more attention for their "authentically Italian" pizzas, if the chef/owner of the restaurant isn't Italian that's a big strike to start. The pizzas at Ideale are incomparable. The thin cracker crust is just what you would find on the streets of Positano or Rome. Pizza has to be in your blood to have it taste like Italy (in my opinion), and this is the only pizza I will happily eat.

We had a lovely dinner at Ideale last night (until Wallie's meltdown caused us to have to leave), and the best surprise of all was seeing the owner's wife and her two girls. We used to be part of the same playgroup before we all moved away from San Francisco, but even though I know her, I would rave about the restaurant just the same. It truly is one of San Francisco's gems. You should go.

Grissini aren't on the menu, but my mom asked, and out they came, fresh from the oven. So good.

My favorite salad ever: raw zucchini with truffles and shaved parmesan.

What's left of the pizza margherita (simple, with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil).

Eat Local Challenge: Pasta with Meyer Lemon, Spinach and Walnuts

Towards the end of the week we were ready for some pasta. The lemons, spinach and walnuts were local, and when added to the pasta and cheese, gave this dish a substantial bite. The slight bitterness of the toasted walnuts (which I toast in my toaster oven) was offset by the creamyness of the feta.  And the addition of fresh spinach leaves made it seemed like you were getting a salad along with!

Toss the ingredients below (feta, chopped, toasted walnuts, spinach) with hot pasta, the juice of two Meyer lemons, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Roasted Cauliflower, Fennel, and Garlic Soup

Soup is the favorite way my husband likes to eat cauliflower, with roasted running a close second. That inspired me to create this soup for dinner last night. The normally pungent fennel goes all sweet and creamy in this soup.  Roasting mellows its flavor just as it does garlic. I served it with warm, whole grain bread and local butter.

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER, FENNEL, AND GARLIC SOUP

1 head cauliflower, remove core, break into florets
1 fennel bulb, white part only, trimmed and cut into chunks
6 unpeeled cloves of garlic
olive oil
unsalted butter
6 cups of water or broth
2 waxy potatoes scrubbed and chunked (I never peel them for soup)
heavy cream, milk, half n half or unsweetened soy milk (about a cup)
salt and pepper

Place cauliflower, fennel, and garlic in roasting pan. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 375º for about 45 minutes until fragrant and lightly browned.

Peel garlic and then transfer squeezed garlic and veggies to soup pot and saute in olive oil and a little butter for about 10 minutes.

Add water or broth and potatoes. Bring to a simmer and cook until potatoes are soft skimming any foam as needed. Puree with a stick blender (see side bar) then add cream to taste until soup is silky. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

Eat Local Challenge Weekly Menu (Finally)

A little late, but this morning I took the girls to the park, sat in the sun, and made my menu. 

Note: breakfasts have been mainly cereal (an exception) and local milk or toast with jam and butter. I did pick up some local bacon and eggs but haven't made those yet.

Tuesday

Lunch: Pesto and provolone sandwiches, Raw English Shelling peas, apples (exceptions: provolone, bread*)
Dinner: Roasted Cauliflower, Fennel, and Garlic Soup, Crusty whole grain bread + butter (exceptions: bread*)

Wednesday

Lunch: Pasta with Spinach, lemon, and feta (exceptions: pasta, feta)
Dinner: Chicken Paillard (California, may not be within 100 mi), roasted asparagus, fennel/orange salad

Thursday

Lunch:  Zucchine frittata or cous cous (an exception)
Dinner: Either Gypsy Soup or Local Sausage and Yam soup, sauteed English peas, crusty bread

Friday

Lunch: leftovers of some sort.

My mom is coming into town for the weekend so the challenge for us will have to end on Friday. Since we are staying with her in San Francisco for the weekend, I'm hoping it won't be too hard to find locally grown/made ingredients  in our restaurant meals.

P.S. Saturday night's dinner is at a super-fancy and yummy restaurant and I am too too excited.  I will report back, for sure!

*bread is locally made though not sure where flour is from

Eat Local Challenge: Monday night dinner—Artichokes & Snow Peas

I'm still working meal-by-meal without a menu plan for the week and I'm going a little nuts as a result.  I haven't had time to think about what to do with all my produce yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

Tonight I steamed some local artichokes (Watsonville, CA) and served them with Meyer lemon butter. Usually we're mayo folks, but the jarred stuff wasn't local and I didn't feel like making any. Along side those we had quickly stir-fried snow peas with garlic and baguette with a nutty, spicy spread made by a friend (our exemptions). We also had some leftover potato salad from lunch.

Hopefully, by tomorrow morning I will have my menu-planning act together...and will also have time to run out for fresh fish.

Eat Local Challenge: Monday Lunch—Potato Salad Two Ways

Today I did potato salad two ways.  One with a basil-raw walnut-garlic-olive oil pesto. The other was a tangy German-style potato salad with local vinegar (Sebastopol, CA), dill, onions yellow carrots, and salt and pepper.  I served this with local navel orange wedges.  Even Bunny who isn't wild about potatoes but is wild about pesto ate it. Wallie, of course, ate everything.

All the ingredients in this meal were local except for the salt (from Hawaii) and pepper.

Making the pesto. Bunny "helped" and took the photos:

Eat Local Challenge begins

Here's just some of our Farmer's Market haul.  This is most of the vegetables plus some dried fruits and nuts for snacks this week. I also bought some navel oranges, apples, and strawberries, two loaves of locally-made whole grain bread (the ingredients are one of my exemptions), artichokes, eggs, local butter, olive oil, and wine (not pictured). I haven't bought any meat, poultry, or seafood yet, and so far, I spent about $70.

I'm still thinking over this week's menu and am too tired to post anything now.  I do know that tomorrow we'll have toasted bread with butter and jam and maybe some orange juice.

More tomorrow.

Gearing Up for the Eat Local Challenge

Last night I went to bed thinking about what I would be cooking next week and what our exemptions would be.  I pulled out a note pad and pen and made some notes.

Local foods/products:

• fruit
• vegetables
• cheese (Sonoma County)
• fish/seafood (Half Moon Bay, Bodega Bay)
• beef (Niman Ranch [beef only] Prather ranch—not within a 100 miles, but still California)
• rice/wild rice (Lundberg)
• honey
• dried fruit/nuts
• eggs
• olive oil
• other dairy: butter, yogurt
• wine/port
• beer (Anchor Steam etc.)
• spirits (Junipero gin, Hangar One Vodka)

From my pot garden:

• herbs (basil, thyme, marjoram, oregano, parsley, mint)
• meyer lemons
• limes

Exemptions (things crafted/made locally but may not be made from local ingredients:

• Bread
• Pasta
• Coffee
• Cereal
• Sugar

Can't wait to hit up the Farmer's Market tomorrow. Once I see what's there, I'll make my weekly menu on the spot and come back and share.

If you are thinking about doing the eat local challenge, what are you going to buy, what are your exemptions?

Penny-wise Eat Local Challenge: I'm doing it

More and more I've been thinking about the notion that it's not so much eating organic that is the best, most healthful way to feed my family, but to "eat local" (within a 100-miles radius of where I live). Or try to, anyway, at least for fresh produce, fish, meat, and poultry. I've been a long-time supporter of CSA's and have always received produce from local farms are part of our grocery intake, but when money is tight, it seems that expense is always the first to be cut.

We stopped our CSA deliveries about 8 months ago when we moved from one San Francisco house to another. I love farmer's markets as well, but negotiating the crowded SF markets with two children under the age of 5 is no fun. Produce deliveries offered us a way to bring the farmer's market to our door. Since we just moved again and now are settled, I've been thinking of starting up deliveries again. I've just heard word that perhaps a year-round weekly farmer's market will open a five minute walk away from our house and if that happens, that's how we'll get our fruit, veg, and flowers. Finger's crossed!

Today's San Francisco Chronicle had a great article about eating locally on a budget and highlighted next week's Penny-wise Eat Local Challenge. The purpose of the challenge is to raise awareness about reducing the energy used to transport and process foods but also to try to debunk the notion that eating locally is expensive. Of course, to eat everything locally is more expensive, but I'm going to take the locavore challenge to see if it can't be done. Since I am a bargain shopping, coupon-clipper, I love the fact that this challenge will require us to spend no more than $144 for the week on groceries for all our meals. This is roughly what we spend now on a mixture of groceries purchased at farmer's markets, Trader Joe's, and Costco, the places where I normally shop.

The bare-bones details (check the website linked about for more details):

• April 23-29
• Eat only foods from within a 100-mile radius from where you live. This includes the ingredients that go into the food. (For this reason I'm lucky to live in California. Hello Sonoma County wines!)
• Spend about $10 per person per day.
• You can have some exemptions like coffee, tea, or salt.

This Sunday you'll find us at our local farmer's market. I usually go alone, but I'll need to bring my husband to help carry all the things I'm planning on buying. Our little market has everything from produce to eggs to fish so this should be fun!

Why don't you join me in the challenge, and we can compare notes and share recipes along the way?  If you think you might do it, let me know in the comments!  Go locavores!

P.S.  I found my camera.  Guess I'll have to hold off on that DX2 a little while longer...