I remember when I started really getting into cooking that I would either crave an ingredient or have the urge to try a particular technique.  I wanted to braise something so I would search for recipes and go buy the necessary ingredients.  I wanted to try cooking with coconut milk so I would find a recipe and go buy the remaining ingredients.   Things are different now that I’m eating more local food and focusing on seasonal produce.  I don’t set the menu and then head to the store; I head to the market and let the day’s offerings create the menu.  The food has to be in control.  Eating locally changes everything…for the better.

I’ve kept my commitment to eat only local meat, produce, and dairy this week.  Last weekend I picked up my CSA box and some bison meat (love Gunpowder Bison) at the Silver Spring Farmers’ Market.  On Sunday I headed out to Lewis Orchard in Dickerson, MD to get more produce.  I loaded up!  Between the CSA stuff and my trip to Lewis, my kitchen was overflowing with corn, white peaches (the greatest fruit on Earth), tomatoes (no less than 3 varieties), cucumbers, peppers (sweet and hot), sweet onions, lettuce, zucchini, apricots, blackberries… is that everything? Cantaloupe!  Don’t forget the cantaloupe.  I literally had produce all over my countertops.  It was awesome.  So… what to make!

Having this kitchen full of delicious, beautiful yet extremely perishable produce means I have to use as much as I can in each meal.  Plus, the more produce in each meal, the more flavor from healthy ingredients.  Now let’s get cooking…

Lunches: Salad with the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, and zucchini.  Sliced peaches, cantaloupe, and blackberries.  Some mixed nuts to fill in the hungry times mid-morning and mid-afternoon.  Sound good?  It is.  I promise. 

Monday: I picked up some wonderful dried pasta from Lewis Orchard (the same stuff I get from Heyser) – tomato basil, Mike’s favorite.  Sautéed some of the sweet onions, a few minced cloves of garlic from previous CSA boxes, and, at the last minute before tossing, some outstanding cherry tomatoes.  Tossed with the pasta.  Tossed with some chipotle infused olive oil from Lebherz Oil & Vinegar Emporium in Frederick… voila!  Quick, simple, healthy local meal. 

Tuesday: Remember those stuffed tomatoes I made a few weeks ago?  That recipe will probably never be followed again.  Why should I?  I learned how to do it the first time…and by “do it” I mean that I learned that you really can’t mess up that dish.  Now I can wing it with whatever flavors and ingredients I have on hand.  Tuesday I had bison sausage, tomatoes (duh), onions, garlic, basil, and barley.  Easy peasy.  I know how to cook all of those things and so do you!  That means you can do this on the fly too.  Don’t like tomatoes?  Use peppers.  Don’t like peppers?  Just make the filling.

First – sauté the onions.  I put them in a hot pan with some hot oil and let them do their thing.  Stir occasionally and don’t let them burn.  They can cook for a while so don’t worry about them too much.

While they’re cooking – remove the casing on the sausage (if you’re using sausage with that sort of casing) and break it up into little bits.  Remove the cores of the tomatoes (I used 4 big guys) and scoop out the centers.  Save the stuff you’re scooping!  You need that.  Mince the garlic.

Next – push the onions to the perimeter of the pan and add a little more oil to the center.  Add the sausage to brown.  Get a good crust on those little balls of deliciousness.  Then add the garlic and stir it all together. 

Next – add ½ cup barley and toast for a minute or two with the other ingredients.  I know that barley cooks in a 1:4 ratio of barley to liquid.  I don’t want that much liquid, though… I don’t want it to get soupy and I don’t want the barley to get mushy.  Plus I’m going to add the tomato centers which is more liquid.  So… add twice as much water as you have barley.  In this case, add 1 cup of water.  Stir.  Add the tomato center goop.  Stir. 

Let that simmer, stirring occasionally, until almost all of the liquid is absorbed by the barley – maybe 15 minutes.  Season with a little salt, pepper, and some fresh basil.

Put the tomatoes into a baking dish and fill with the sausage barley yumminess.  Add just a little water to the bottom of the dish.  Into the oven at 400 degrees (I increased the heat a bit from last time).  This time, I covered it for the first 20 minutes and removed the cover for the last 15.  This time, the dish only took about 35 minutes.  Everything is cooked, you just really want the flavors to meld and the tomatoes to cook.  You decide when you think it is ready.  There is no wrong way here.  I love this dish…and Mike does too.

Wednesday: Leftover tomatoes.  Score!  They were actually very good cold.

Thursday… well, you’ll have to wait and see.  This is going to be a good one.

Eating local doesn’t have to be hard.  As April mentioned in the comments on my last post, everything you consume in a day isn’t going to be available from a local producer.  You do what you can.  How is your Buy Local Week going?