Thursday, August 30, 2007

Eating REALLY local

Thursday, 30 August

My husband had a play date in the park tonight, so I was on my own for dinner. Instead of another bowl of cereal, my menu was food that was very local. Potatoes, beans, and herbs from my garden, and eggs from some hens who live two blocks away. I had been hoping for tomatoes too, but they didn't get the memo and were still hard green pellets.
It took me a while to figure out that these were the perfect ingredients for a frittata. But to be entirely local, I couldn't use salt, pepper, butter, or cheese. Fortunately, a well-seasoned cast iron skillet is pretty nonstick. It would've been better with tomatoes sliced on top just before it went under the broiler, and it definitely would've been better with a little cheese. But it wasn't bad (better than corn flakes, that's for sure!).
Dessert was applesauce from the tree in the backyard (okay, it's an apple tree, not an applesauce tree...). It is an off year for apples, so it took a while to find these four. Again, nothing added.
Eating local would be a great diet, unless you happen to have cows down the street. I didn't miss salt, but I learned the flavor that a little bit of fat (cheese) would've added to the frittata and how a little bit of sugar brings out the flavor of fruit.


Tomorrow I think we'll be back to things from faraway like rice and soy sauce. And tomorrow I'll post about my new lucky-colored glasses!

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