This is not Spinach

So I have a housemate. He is male. A young 22 year old male. His name is Ben.

Ben is also an intern at my work. So today as I was rushing out the door to go to obedience class I asked Ben to get some Spinach for me if he went to the grocery store. After some discussion about how disgusting it was that I wanted to add spinach to my smoothie he agreed to pick some up.

What I didn’t realize was that Ben was not aware of what Spinach looked like. So he went to the individual working the produce aisle. The teenage male brought him to the greens aisle and showed him this.

This is not Spinach. It’s not even a regular lettuce. It’s a very bitter lettuce.

This is exactly why I think the slow food movement is important. Teaching children about what base ingredients look like.

Are all 20-something year old and younger males this ignorant of their veggies? Convinced that they must taste bad but unaware of what the produce even looks like in the store?

Vegetarian Greek Wrap

Once upon a time a young woman lived in the city. She ran on sidewalk, she walked to the store and she dined with her friends several times a week. Some of her friends were vegetarians so it was not unusual for the meals created to be vegetarian. And to this day the young woman still loves vegetarian food, despite the fact that the man she loves would never touch it. The end.

I went to the farmer’s market on Saturday. I came home with some amazing cucumbers and tomatoes that I couldn’t wait to eat. I came up with an amazing wrap sandwich to get the vegetables into my belly. I am now addicted.  I’m serious, I have had at least one every day for the last four days. At least it’s healthy.

So take a wrap (not only am I eating lots of veggies but on wheat wraps) and put some hummus on it. I’m partial to the garlic lover’s hummus, but any will do.

Sprinkle on some crumbled Feta.

Throw on some slivers or slices of cucumbers.

And some slices of tomatoes.

And as a final (optional) touch a little bit of tzatziki sauce. Because this wrap can use some yogurt, dill and even more cucumber.

And that’s it. Wrap it up and devour the tastes of fresh summer food.

In summary, the ingredients:

• Wraps
• Hummus
• Crumbled Feta Cheese
• Cucumber
• Tomato
• Tzatziki sauce (optional)

American or Processed

As a little girl I loved to cook, and I was good at it. Because my mother was such a terrible cook and wanted to encourage my talent she bought me a cooking book. Everything was going swimmingly until I hit a recipe that required American cheese.  In Canada, at least at the time, there was no such thing as American cheese.  In fact, I believe I did no know what American cheese was until I moved to the United States.  We generally just substituted American cheese with Cheddar cheese.

Well it turns out that American Cheese does exist in Canada, by another, more descriptive name. In Canada, it’s called processed cheese.

At first Adam hated when I called it processed instead of American.  I think he thought I was making fun of his country. No I was making fun of the cheese. Especially when it’s processed enough that it may as well be a slab of plastic wrapped in plastic. Honestly, I don’t understand why a country would want to claim a cheese that’s not really a cheese as their own.  But if people want to call it American I’ll do my best to call it American when I’m going to buy some to make grilled cheese with, or to give to the puppy in his Kong.

Our fridge pretty much constantly has American/Processed cheese in it lately. The pup thinks it’s gourmet treat. But we are still fans of wonderful, “real” cheeses. I mean, I’m sure the slow food movement is all for cheddars and frowns on Processed.

Spaghetti Hot Dogs

I first saw this idea here who found it here who got it from this russian livejournal. So it’s making it’s rounds on the internet I wish I still babysat or had a niece or nephew because I think little kids would love this quick and easy meal. OK, perhaps not as quick and easy as spaghetti with sliced up hot dogs but a fun way to get the kids to eat dinner.

What you will need:

• Spaghetti:I think I used thin spaghetti. I would recommend using a spaghetti that’s tough enough to not break when you pierce the hot dog pieces. I bet whole wheat spaghetti would work too.

• Hot Dogs: I used turkey hot dogs but I’m sure any kind of hot dog/soy dog would do.

Slice up hotdogs in bite sized pieces.

Stab spaghetti noodles through hot dog pieces. It’s hard to get a specific pattern on both sides, I gave up pretty quickly on getting the spaghetti to be perpendicular to the hot dog piece.

In a pot of boiling water, follow the spaghetti’s directions for cooking the spaghetti A La Dente. Gently drain water and voila.

A masterpiece that can be eaten with or without a sauce. Although I would recommend that the initial presentation be without sauce.Perhaps someone will come up with a creepy name for the dish and it will become a halloween favorite.

Local Events Worth Mentioning

Library

The Manchester Library is selling off some of their old stock on Thursday June 25th, 2009 from 2:30 pm to 6:30pm.

For $5.00, you will receive a paper grocery bag, at the entrance of the Winchell Room. You can fill the bag with as many items that you can fit into the bag from the materials available in the Winchell Room. Additional bags can be purchased at $5.00 per bag.

Farmer’s Markets

• Downtown Manchester’s Farmer’s Market starts Thursday June 18th, 2009
• The Seacoast Growers Association’s markets are open. (Durham: Mondays 2:15—5:30, Kingston: Tuesdays, 2:15—5:30, Hampton: Tuesdays, 3:00—6:00, Dover: (new location) Wednesdays, 2:15—6:00, Exeter: Thursdays, 2:15—6:00, and Portsmouth: Saturdays, 8:00—1:00)
• Deerfield’s Farmer’s Market website still lists opening day as TBD, but last year they opened Friday June 20th.

State Fairs

The first two fairs of the season are July 22nd – July 26th for the North Haverhill Fair and July 23 – July 26th for the Stratham Fair. Those who want to enter pictures or arts and crafts should get their entries in by July 15th.

Spinach and Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf

This is one of my favorite meals to make with ground turkey. But you can use ground beef instead. For the breadcrumbs I crushed wheat chex because it was all I could find in the house.

1.3 lbs Ground Turkey (or Beef)
1 Large Egg Beaten
1/2 cup Bread Crumbs
1/2 cup Chopped Onion
2 Tbs Yellow Mustard
2 tsp Italian Seasoning, dried
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Garlic powder

Filling:
10oz Frozen Shredded Spinach, Thawed and drained
1/2 cup Fat free ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded (may be low fat cheese)

Topping:
1/4 cup Tomato Salsa

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with nonfat cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix together ground turkey, egg, bread crumbs, and onion. Add mustard, italian seasoning, salt, black pepper, and garlic powder and mix well.

3. Place half the meat mixture in prepared pan. Make a shallow well down the length of the meat.

4. Defrost Spinach and drain well. In medium bowl, combine spinach, ricotta, and mozzarella, mix well. Place in well.

5. Cover with remaining meat mixture; pinch sides of meat together to seal well.
6. Cook at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. If liquid from vegetables seeps out of stuffing, that`s OK, just drain it off. Let rest for 10 minutes, top with salsa (it covers up the odd colour of the cooked ground turkey), slice and serve.

Maple Syrup Open House

On Sunday I bribed my husband into going to the New Hampshire Maple Producers open house with me. We went to Folsom’s Sugar House in Chester. How did I bribe him? Maple Syrup Sundays… YUM.

We listened to the owner talk a little about how he produces the maple syrup but the place was packed so we didn’t stay long. I guess they had a good weekend because they were sold out of bottled syrup and packaged treats by the time we got there.

I did find the steam coming off the boiler to be a fun photography subject. I probably took 10 or 15 pictures of the ceiling. The owners probably thought I was crazy.

I really liked the rustic looking sugar house. It reminded me of stories my grandfather used to tell me about when he was a kid growing up in Gaspesie.

You may wonder why my husband is dressed so funny. Well it has to do with why I had to bribe him. I got him to agree to stop at the sugar house on our way home from the Eastern States 20-mile Race.

He ran 20 miles in the pouring rain along the cold coast on New Hampshire breaking his personal best. It was a little difficult for me to take pictures of him though. Between the wind and the rain I had a hard time keeping my camera safe. It’s usually such a fun race for the spectators because you can hop in your car from beach to beach waiting for your runner to come by. But it was a miserable day, and I wasn’t running around. But I’m so proud of him so I put up with it. I am glad that he finished almost 1/2 hour faster than last year.

NH Maple Producers Weekend

So I’m still waiting for my seeds to get here so I can start more Tomatoes and Eggplants.  I’ve even already filled the peet pods to plant them.

I figure I would remind those in New England that this weekend is the New Hampshire Maple Producers Open House.  You can go to their website to find out what different maple houses are offering. Some are offering tours, serving maple sundays, crafts, wagon rides and other products.  Don’t tell the kids it might be educational.

Banana Bread

I made banana bread today from a modified version of the 18 serving version of this recipe on Allrecipes.com.  If you have bananas that you are looking to mash and make banana bread out of I would recommend mashing your bananas and measuring how many cups of mashed banana you have.  Then find a serving size that works well with the quantity of banana.  You can add walnuts or chocolate chips to this bread to mix it up.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1-1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup margarine or softened butter
• 1-1/2 cups mashed bananas
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips (optional)

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter or margarine. Beat the egg slightly, and mix into the creamed mixture with the bananas. Mix in sifted ingredients until just combined. Stir in milk. Stir in nuts or chocolate chips if you use them Spread batter into one greased and floured 9×5 inch loaf pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until top is brown and cracks along the top.

Some New Hampshire Eat Local Links

Here’s a small collection of links of local resources and blogs for local foods in New Hampshire.  I’ll try to add stuff as I find it.  Let me know if you know of any resources I can ad.

Resources

• Seacoast Eat Local
• NH Made – Not just for food.
• NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food Publication – Restaurants, Farms by Category
• PickYourOwn Farms
• Seacoast Region Farmers Markets
• Seacoast Growers Association
• NH Cheesemaker’s Guild
• Granite State Dairy Promotion
• Local Harvest (a National Website of Local Resources)
• Culinate
• NewEnglandGrown.com
• NH Food Systems Locavore Groups

Blogs

• Seacoast Eat Local Blog – this one is often posts about events and news in the local food community.
  
• Yankee Food – A nice personal blog about some of the food that can be prepared with local foods.