Food Gets EVER More Exciting!
I am reading a book that is becoming a life-altering event: 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' by Barbara Kingsolver. For serious. Requirements for my life now include the grand plan of someday having a vegetable garden like my grandfather's and I'm geared up for reaching my more immediate goals of making homemade cheeses, canning summer vegetables for the winter and shopping weekly farmers' markets (FarMs) near home. I want local foods in my life. I want to understand and appreciate seasons and the families that spend their time nurturing the food I'm buying - beautiful heirloom varieties that are being lost in our supermarket culture. I want to slow down, take a breath, and eat naturally without worrying about anything more than listening to my body (such high hopes!)
Today I hit up the FarM by work (Thursdays, North of the Penn Quarter Metro stop). It frightens me that I seriously forgot what a garden-fresh string bean tasted like - they were picked this morning and had a cool, satisfying crunch! I used to eat them by the handful straight off the vine in my grandparents' back yard. I may have gone overboard in my excitement today ... asian cucumbers, not-perfectly-shaped carrots and potatoes (not unnaturally HUGE and both still dark and earthy), the most beautiful plum and Sunsweet tomatoes (as sweet as candy). The dairy vendors didn't have fresh milk (it's ok, my cheese-making book hasn't arrived yet), but I did get some AMAZING marscapone cheese. The local baker gave me a free second loaf of his Kalamata bread for my excitement and I'm psyched for my free-range eggs!
Since I'm moving into DC proper next week, I'm quite excited to start journaling the produce available year-round at the RFK FarM. I'll have to work on my "everything in proportion" focus ... balancing the beautiful natural produce and meats around me with cost and quantity. Like my little-over-one-year-out-of-college life, I'm looking for proportion and balance in the things that I'm discovering mean the most to me. Get ready ... I'm already concocting recipes like savory Kalamata French Toast with mixed tomato and aged balsamic salad....
Speaking of mind-boggling food: I was visiting my love in Cali last weekend. While wine-tasting with friends the weekend before, she picked us up two bottles of wine to share. One is a favorite of ours - Harvest Moon's Late Harvest Zin. We knew the dessert-course was set, but there was a new Zin to try for dinner! Hanna Winery's 2004 Bismark Mountain Zinfandel is AMAZING. It was juicy, layered, extremely smooth and heavy on the tannins but surprisingly didn't leave your mouth puckered. (While I very rarely support the idea that a good wine needs to cost more than $25, at $51 we knew this wine could sell for $150+ at a good restaurant and was worth the price.)
We hit the grocery store and I hit up my dad in NY for ideas. J's recommendation of fresh rosemary and garlic marinated lamb shoulder cuts held their flavor beautifully next to the Zin. Rosemary, roasted, small white potatoes and garlicky green beans supported well. Even though I cleaned the lamb bones clean, the wine was really the star. Love + 2 bottles of wine + good food = more love. (I'll make a Hallmark card sometime.)
More to come...
