First, a confession. I ate bread for dinner Monday night. Organic Grains bread from Provence with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a little ground pepper. Bread for dinner. But I ate healthy food all day, so I figured I deserved it. I just had no energy. Sidenote: the bread was $5.39 instead of the usual $4.55, which makes me unhappy. I'll still pay it but that seems like a rather dramatic increase. But just about everything I bought at the grocery was more expensive. Finally seeing those increases in food costs I keep hearing about. Anyhoo.
I did better last night, though. This past weekend, I finally made it out to McNeil's Produce Stand on Highway 100 to get some good (local) stuff. I got zucchini, squash, a cucumber, blueberries, lima beans, and purple hull peas. They also have peaches from Chilton County, Alabama (though I'm lucky enough to have a co-worker who lives down there and brings baskets of them to us) and an assortment of jellies, jams and sauces from southern Kentucky as well as local honey. I got some strawberry jam (very tasty) and some honey from Fairview, Tennessee that is delicious. Not sure what the bees were working from, but I like it. I don't think it's helped me with my allergies, though.
So last night, I cooked the beans and peas (I add just salt to the limas and a little Liquid Smoke to the peas for seasoning) and then roasted slices of the squash and zucchini after tossing them with olive oil and a few dashes of dried Italian herbs. I wasn't feeling adventurous, so I just used the Weisenberger's cornbread mix and had a really great dinner. I'm going to miss these fresh veggies when the season's over, for sure.
Note: the truck of goodies from the Mennonites in Kentucky arrives at McNeil's on Friday mornings, so be sure to arrive early on Saturdays (if you can't do Fridays) to make sure you get the good stuff (including the delicious Baby Bradley tomatoes). Or you can make arrangements with them to hold some stuff back for you. They have fried pies that go pretty quickly, but sadly, the pies are fried in lard so I don't eat them. They had loaves of really great bread last year (sourdough, wheat, cinnamon raisin, etc) but I don't know if they're getting them this year or I was just too late to see them.
2 comments:
I think I'm going to head out there Saturday morning. I've never had them so I'm curious about how you cook purple hull bean or what you make with them.
I can't get past the name Weisenberger when it's attached to a cornbread mix. If it were a good ole redneck name like Shiflett, Suddarth or Cagle that'd be great, or even a run-of-the-mill Southern Anglo name like Wilson. But Weisenberger? We'll have to get together and bake some so I can be convinced, because I really trust your taste in food, but likeI said, that name...
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