The fennel came from the Spring Hill farms booth at the Oct 4 Corvallis Farmer’s Market.
The honey (substituted for the agave) was also local.
We used lime instead of lemon, and that was probably not so good in this case.
Ginger: Well, if you place a ginger root in a pot of sand and keep it watered it will grow new shoots. Is that local?
We used shoyu for the soy sauce, which probably didn’t make any difference.
We used combo sunflower oil.
Post mortem: We made this salad right before the event so the produce would be at its freshest, and also we wanted it freshly made so the carrots and fennel wouldn’t be stained totally red. However, this salad really tastes better if you let the veggies marinate a bit. Sooooo….. the next time, we will keep the fennel, carrots and beets separate, but marinate them each for an hour, THEN mix them all together at the end. This will be the best of both worlds.
Here is the slideshow of the event:
And just for fun, here is the slide.com version of this event.
Last spring I posted about delicious and nutritious salad built from young red amaranth leaves. Well now I have tons of showy red fully mature plants loaded with tiny shiny black seeds. And I will give seeds to anyone free for the asking. If you want some, post a comment here asking for some. That will expose your email to me and I will email you where to send your Stamped Self Addressed Envelope.
The amaranth plants aren’t quite dry enough to harvest yet, but they should be in another two weeks or so. By the way, they also look terrific as the center of a fall flower arrangement. Just in case I didn’t make myself clear in the other post, these things grow beautifully in many soils and conditions. They like full sun and they need a bit of water, just a bit. They are easy to get rid of if you find them coming up where you don’t want them. Hard times are coming; this is a starter kit for a lifetime supply of free salad that’s very very healthy!
I do not wish to publish my physical address in a public blog, even a business address — I’m sure you understand. One of my blogging buddies was recently tracked down and stalked by some crazy who drove 300 miles to meet her and potentially kill her because of something she posted on a forum. Creepy, huh! Luckily she alerted the police and he was arrested immediately and she is OK.
My neighbor’s plum tree just gave me a gift. For dried plums firm-fleshed fruits with a stone that dislodges easily work the best. They are sometimes called prunes, even though to me “prune” implies a plum that has been dried. Find the “seam” of the plum and slice in half lengthwise along the seam. This usually gets you the plum open with the flat side of the stone exposed. Lay the plum halves cut side down in a dehydrator rack or on a tray. In a dehydrator it takes four to seven hours depending how thick the plums are. In the sun you need to protect from critters. In a warm oven it can take overnight. I toss the pits in the walkways between my garden beds. Mmmmm! Full of iron and great for the digestion. And they last a year this way.
As I mentioned earlier, Food Buzz had a contest where 24 blogs were featured in 24 hours. The winners were truly magnificent foodiferous events, most thrown by professional foodies with degrees in foodology, all kinds of connections in the supplier circle, not to mention matching china, mood decor and placemats, all documented by really awesome cameras — some of ‘em even take videos. My own humble little local consolation dinner can’t hold a candle to these folks but it was fun anyway, and normal people might actually be able to duplicate what I do. The 24 winners’ locations are depicted in the map below. Just click on any marker to bring up the blurb with a link to the site. Scroll around on the map too; not all of them appear in the initial viewing window. Spend some time on these, folks! These winners put a tremendous amount of effort into sharing their exquisite food creations with you.
Recently my day was brightened by a totally unexpected gift from the great folks at Food Buzz. FB had already surprised me with a batch of cool “Moo-cards” to promote this blog, and now I get this really awesome chef’s apron (modelled by my lovely green-haired daughter) and long handled green spatula, totally out of the blue, eh… I mean green. How did they know that all my old spatulas look like stiff ragged moldy rubber shreds on the end of a stick!! If you are into food, join FoodBuzz and get in on the fun. It’s a really clever very Web 2.0 site and they suck in and promote your food blog for you automagically. Psssst…… they also PAY you actual $MONEY$ based on how much traffic you send them. Like the sound of that, eh? How about a nice little mousie detour to the far right where it says vote for me! Doesn’t cost you a thing to vote, not even your email address!
If you have hard core carnivores among you, divide the fajitas up and put the mushrooms in one half and the chicken on the other half then everybody’s happy. Or if it’s just one hard core carnivore, throw a little canned chicken in theirs, microwave the plate for 30 seconds and they’ll never know the difference.
The purple bell pepper adds a unique look to this dish.
Foodbuzz had this contest called 24 in 24. You were to plan a big themed thing for 20 Sept, and they would pick 24 people and pay them to do their event and also feature them. Well of course I don’t know the right people or have enough resources to win anything like that, but I thought I’d throw my own mega-dinner anyway and blog the crap out of it. This was also the nomination dinner for my Dork for Pres campaign, where, as predicted, my friends nominated ME, since it was my party after all.
We basically went for lots of different local ingredients, but the preparations were pretty simple, not food porn material I’m afraid, way too down home for that. I’m not really about winning contests. I’m about good cooking, good friends, good food, and good fun. It was!
MENU
Fajitas modified to include grass-fed local beef, made with local onions, zucchini, and chiles.
local organic corn-on-the cob, boiled with butter & salt (I know it’s organic because every ear had a worm!)
local organic longbeans, steamed with butter & salt
traditional Midwestern cucumber fridge sweet pickle
The original recipe of this (from our local newspaper) said you should add the cumin and chiles after cooking the split peas, but I think serranos taste better when they are cooked, more good chile flavor and less throat choking picante. I also was trained to always saute cumin or any of the spices used in curry because heating them brings out their flavor.
My daughter and her teen aged friends were enjoying this after a long summer afternoon indoors playing Dance Dance Revolution. They were dipping raw zucchini strips (from the garden) and black olives, and I believe they eventually rigged up some toasted whole wheat tortillas. So much better for them than fried tortilla chips! I had mine mixed with some cooked quinoa (it seems to need something to give it a little body) and more tomatoes. I love it when we finally have our own garden tomatoes. YUM!
Colleen Dick 
Last spring I posted about delicious and nutritious 
Colleen Dick 
Recently my day was brightened by a totally unexpected gift from the great folks at
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