Local Food Resources

Summer may be a distant memory, but eating fresh, local seasonal food is what memories are made of. We wait all year for juicy, succulent tomatoes and the crunch of Ontario corn. They are great on their own but also compliment each other perfectly. The Challenge for September was to come up with a recipe using fresh Ontario tomatoes, or corn, with a bonus for using both.

Ontario's first annual Local Food Week was a delicious success! To celebrate the end of Local Food Week, I wanted to share a seasonal recipe that is simple to make and guaranteed to please. The star of this recipe is Ontario-grown asparagus, one of the first vegetables of the season, bursting with colour, nutrients, and flavour. Check out a local farmers' market this weekend to find ingredients, and cook up this delicious recipe at home.

Hardly a recipe, more of a serving suggestion. The combination of eggs and asparagus on toast is completely classic; I like to throw in a little cheese too. I only had a baguette when I made this, but a more standard sized slice of bread is a better choice in my opinion.

And if you don't want a Mousse Pie, you can just put it in a bowl or bowls, and call it Mousse. Either way, this is a nice tart-but-not-too-tart rhubarb dessert.  I do like mousses etc, that are set with a firm meringue rather than whipped cream - so much lighter. The egg yolks do give it some more substance and help tone down the sourness of the rhubarb. Very nice!

Custard pie is one of those things that seems to have fallen out of fashion. It's more subtle than flashy, I guess, with the contrast of the smooth custard and crumbly crust, delicately flavoured with a little vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon; definitely not in the death-by-chocolate catagory. On the other hand,  that's what I like about it. Best served with a good cup of tea.

This is a nice simple pudding for fans of tapioca - but don't forget to stir it! I did, and ended up with a horrible black mess the first time I tried to make this. I don't think it was even boiling properly before it was burnt. Stir, stir, stir! Otherwise, this is very easy and the maple flavour comes through well. I served mine with some of our canned cherries from last summer - delicious.

Seville oranges, also known as sour oranges, or marmalade oranges, are really only available in December, January and February. They make a fine, slightly sour-spicy sauce which balances the richness of a leg of lamb beautifully.

We planted our parsnips late this year; so when we went out and pulled up a bunch of them (during last week's deep-freeze, no less) we were surprised to find what a good size most of them were. They were also amazingly delicious - the freezing temperatures having done them nothing but good - and surprisingly tender considering how large they were. Success! This was a very simple treatment for them, but very well received. If you wanted them a little fancier, you could season them with a bit of finely grated nutmeg or orange zest before forming and baking the timbales.

I'm not sure what the pepper situation is out there if you have to buy them. I am STILL trying to clear all of ours off the counter, although they are finally dwindling fast. (Admittedly a number of them are going to the compost.) Good thing this turned out to be quite tasty, as I made a big batch to freeze.

Yes, I made that word up. The technique is the same as for making risotto or orzotto, but the end result here is not creamy, as quinoa is a sturdy little seed without loose surface starch. Nevertheless, we thought this was very good. It was certainly quick and easy, and I will definitely do it again with other leftover poultry. The nice thing about leftover turkey though, is there does tend to be a lot of turkey stock sitting around at the same time; this makes good use of some of it.

This is a slightly streamlined version of a traditional Mexican soup. The original is made with meatballs, but sausage makes the whole procedure so much quicker and easier, and is really just as good as long as you use a good quality sausage. If you can get a Mexican chorizo so much the better, but around here it's Italian sausage or Italian sausage

I have given instructions to can these for long-term storage (up to a year in a cool, dark place) but if you just want to can a couple of jars for consumption within a month, you could just put them in clean jars then store them in the refrigerator. They should sit for at least a week, in that case, before you open them.

I have made this cake a couple of times this month and it has been a big hit. It's a little understated, yet somehow very luxurious. Beautiful fresh summer fruit helps! I've made it with peaches, as shown, but I think it's even better with blueberries. 

This is sort of a gloopy vegetable hash, which I have made a couple of times this week already, as we have dug up our first potatoes and the beans are still churning them out to the point that we are at a loss as to what to do with them all. Next year, I think we will plant one-third as many. The pole beans are crazy compared to the bush beans. Normally my go-to bean dish is this one, but our tomatoes are just starting to ripen, and I don't have gobs of them to throw around so I had to come up with something tomato-less. But with potatoes, which we now have in abundance.

This past weekend Mr. Ferdzy's clan gathered for our annual "Christmas in July" - a birthday party for everyone! Mr. Ferdzy is practically the only member of his extended family who wasn't born in July or August. Too bad, he has to get his presents in the summer like everyone else. What I'm getting at though, is that this is going to be another fairly dessert-heavy week on this blog. This is one I've posted before, but it's good enough to post again. It looks pretty different this time, doesn't it? But it's really the same thing, with a couple of key ingredients swapped out.

It's bean season around here! I think we've picked more than 3 bushels of beans so far... more to come. Many of them are now residing in our freezer waiting to be added to winter meals, but we're still eating lots. I had some rice left over from another meal when I made this, and that's a good plan. You will need to cook about 1 1/3 cups extra rice to end up with approximately 4 cups.

There was some interest in the recipe for these, but they were somewhat experimental and I'm not sure this is really a finished recipe. They worked out quite edibly - in fact they were good! - but I do feel I will need to fiddle with the recipe some more. Hmm, that won't be painful, except to my waistline. Try to keep the cherries fairly dry. Excess juice will cause parts not to cook through. 48 squares 1 hour - 30 minutes prep time Make the Caramel: 2 cups dark brown sugar OR 1 cup Sucanat and 1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup butter