CHORIZO STUFFED DATES WRAPPED IN BACON

There's this great restaurant in town, that I love, because they serve food that's Farm To Table.  Meaning, they shop at the farmer's market like me and they buy locally, they call that a locavore. That's me, that's this restaurant.  5 Stars, in my opinion. Sontes. And they also have my art hanging up in there. : )

So when they first opened 6 years ago, they had on their menu Chorizo Stuffed Dates.  They were wrapped in bacon and served with a simple tomato sauce.  They took them off a few years ago and brought them back on on their anniversary date this year.  Well, since I had some left over dates from the Date, Goat Cheese, Proscuitto and Caramelized Onion pizza and some Chorizo and Enchilada Sauce from the Chorizo and Bison Enchiladas, I thought I would try my own version.

CHORIZO STUFFED DATES WRAPPED IN BACON

8 oz chorizo
8 Medjool Dates
8 slices of bacon
1 cup leftover (or not) enchilada sauce

Cook chorizo in a frying pan.

Cut dates in half.

Remove pit and separate.

Fill date with cooked chorizo.

Wrap with bacon and secure with a toothpick.

Place a little sauce in a baking dish and place filled dates in.  I put some sauce on top and then after baking it realized it would be better to pour some heated sauce over the top after broiling.

Broil in the oven for 5-10 minutes or until nicely browned.

Enjoy!

 CHORIZO STUFFED DATES WRAPPED IN BACON

8 oz chorizo

8 Medjool Dates

8 slices of bacon

1 cup leftover (or not) enchilada sauce

Cook chorizo in a frying pan

Cut dates in half.

Remove pit and separate.

Fill date with cooked chorizo.

Wrap with bacon and secure with a toothpick.

Place a little sauce in a baking dish and place filled dates in.

Broil in the oven for 5-10 minutes or until nicely browned.

Pour some heated sauce over the top after broiling.

Enjoy! 

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE

It's been a long winter, not as harsh as the terrible -20 degree days of last winter but long anyway.  As I feel the approaching spring air and see the sun shining out there, all I can think of is - the garden!  How fun this is gonna be this year, we have so many new plans and so many possibilities out there!

But for now, I resort to my fellow farmers out there and buy their wonderful beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and meat from the Farmer's Market.  Don't know how I could survive a winter without it!

So last week, a few days I go I took the night to do the Dark Days challenge and make an all around, if not perfect SOLE meal:  Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Chicken Thighs with Whole Grain Pasta and a Garden Salad.

I took all the ingredients for the salad that I bought at market; cucumbers, tomatoes, spicy greens, onion and carrots, then chopped, sliced and diced and made a wonderful Garden salad.

I took the chicken thighs and stuffed them with home made ricotta cheese form our goat's milk.  Topped it with some homemade pasta sauce that I whipped up this last October from our plethora of tomatoes, sprinkled some homemade mozzarella cheese I made from that wonderful goat Ezzy's milk.  Baked it in the oven for about 40 minutes at 350*.

Add a side of organic whole wheat pasta and top with some more homemade sauce and walah!  a good meal!

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE - VEGETARIAN!

If anyone knows me they know that a meal without meat is, well, a meal that is lacking in one of the most important things in life ( I live by Basset mentality).  But I was challenged this week by our team at the Dark Days Challenge: to produce a fully SOLE (sustainable, organic, local, ethical) meal that was VEGETARIAN, one that  lacked that all important ingredient - MEAT!  Ask Louisa, my hound dog, and she will tell you - no meal is complete without ~ meat! (She prays every day that meat will fall from the sky - she does!)

So  I did it.  I went and looked at what I had in that there cupboard and found some sweet potatoes (our fav!), some salad greens and homemade herbed goat cheese and local walnuts.  What to make, what to make?!?!?

Well, here ya go - I did it!  I made a vegetarian meal that was to die for!

SWEET POTATO LATKES WITH GARLIC AIOLI AND A CRISP MIXED  GREEN SALAD

Oh baby!

 I took a couple sweet potatoes and shredded them, added some seasoning, egg, flour and mixed it all together, placing them on a cookie sheet and coking them in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Next I made some homemade aioli with garlic to top off the latkes.

Next I took the greens I got from the Farmer's Market a week and a half ago and topped it off with some home made herbed chevre, some local walnuts and added a bit of balsamic vinegar.

Add a slice of homemade bread and life is good!

Yeah, you wish you would've thought of this one yourself, didn't you?

SCORE! WHY WOULD YOU SHOP ANYWHERE ELSE????

This is my score of items from my last two trips to farmer's market.  Tell me - if you can get this great, locally grown, no pesticides, hormones, nastiness and know the farmers who grew/raised it?  Why the heck would you go to a supermarket???

The other week I even went into the local co-op/health food store, with all it's organic items, I thought I could find items more organic and local for the Dark Days Challenge I am doing.  I was looking for similar things I could buy at market but couldn't even find what the market had to offer, not even close! and it was considerably more expensive. I bought just a few things and it came out to $40!  not to mention only about $15 was from a local farmer.  Not good enough for me!  So look at this score:

Jan 2012:
1 lb beef, mushroom and swiss brats
4 lbs bacon
5 onions
2 tomatoes (yes - TOMATOES in Jan, in MN)
1 very large cucumber
2 lbs sweet potatoes
1 lb beets
3 lb pork chops
6 beef sticks
2 lbs carrots

all for - are you ready for this???     $52!  yes, I said $52!

Feb 2012:
2 lb carrots
3 tomatoes
1 lb green beans (yes - green beans in Feb - in MN)
1 1/4 lb beets
2 lbs sweet potatoes
2 lbs onions
2 cucumbers
1/2 lb salad greens
1 1/2 lb grass-fed beef steaks
2 1/2 lb bacon
1 lb ground grass-fed beef
1 lb hamburger patties
1 lb free-range lamb for kabobs
1 lb beef, mushroom, swiss cheese brats (they were soooo good last month I had to buy them again)
4 lbs pork chops
1 1/2 lbs chicken thighs
1 lb summer sausage
6 beef sticks

all for - are you ready???   $83!  yes, $83!  Now why - I mean why??? would you buy from a grocery store?  Soon, i am going to the store and try to purchase all these same items, albeit they will be nasty, factory farm meat and veggies, which is NOT the same, but see if they all cost about the same or cheaper.  I'm on a mission…. from farmers.

WHAT IS A PROCESSED CHEESE FOOD PRODUCT? AND WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO EAT IT?

Just a question I put out there on Facebook and this is some of the answers I got:

• Tracy van Eijl I know it is NOT cheese.

  53 minutes ago ·  ·  1
• 

  Lindsey Danger Hobbs it is a synthetic product that has the main qualities of cheese : mouthfeel, meltableness, spreadableness, taste with an increased shelf life. depending on how you view food, this can be a good or a bad thing. :-/

  45 minutes ago ·  ·  1
• 

  Taylor Huston A waste of time and brain space. Just say no

  42 minutes ago ·  ·  1
• 

  Dawn Sanborn My cat Cheeto - is named after a processed cheese food product!

  38 minutes ago · 
• 

  Becca Stiles-Nogosek What's cheeto made of?

  11 minutes ago · 

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Now this is what more people should be concerned about!  What really is their food made out of?  Why can't you just buy FOOD?  Food is grown not made. 

  
  

  
  

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE

more info here

I've been kinda ignoring my Dark Days Challenge with being gone so much and all this work coming my way, I decided last Thursday night would be the challenge for me, but the problem was: I was running low on items and because I missed the last market due to my birthday celebration and the "day after the night before syndrome" caused by one thing: sake bombs! (I don't want to talk about it!) I failed to get up and get some more items from market to sustain us through these dark days of winter. So needless to say, there wasn't much in the freezer/cupboard to choose from.

I dug through the freezer anyway looking for some type of local meat, and ransacked the pantry to find what ever I had left for veggies.  Luckily I did find some leeks in the bottom of the crisper drawer that I had picked up a long time ago that were still good (see? you buy locally and the food doesn't go bad in two weeks - I think I bought these back in December!)

I also had some beets I found buried under some potatoes in the basket and found some pork chops in the bottom of the chest freezer in the garage.  I decided to fire up the grill (nice weather this winter) and get them cookin'.

Not only do pork chops taste better in the winter when you grill them, but they look good too!

GRILLED PORK CHOPS WITH 

SAUTEED LEEKS AND BEETS SEASONED WITH ROSEMARY

 Nummy, nummy, nummy! (and all grown within 20 miles of my house!) 

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE

More info here.

Work has been plentiful this month and I am really enjoying it! So needless to say, bloggin' gets put on the back burner.  Honestly - I think I could post 4 times a day with all the things that happen here, but I'm lazy sometimes. Ha!

So here's the Dark Days challenge I missed a couple weeks ago.  Since I was gone to Illinois that week and the challenge of the month was Valentines Day Treats (and if any one knows me - I shy away from cookies, cakes, pies, etc as much as possible - my thighs jiggle enough)  - I passed on that challenge.

We had a couple of good friends over for dinner that night, Kari & Ryan, and in exchange for me taking an image for my Ryan's next play poster, he made me dinner! Ryan is a very talented writer and actor and I am always willing to help out a friend, and yes, ya know I am a sucker for food, you can pay me in food anytime!

This is what we produced out in the studio!
 of course with some help from a great graphic artist.

We made a fine dinner of grilled local pork chops, with a sweet potato mash made by Kari with local carrots and raisins, and served with a colorful salad of spinach, local tomatoes and cucumbers.  Nummy, nummy!

The pork chops were from Hidden Stream Farms - Elgin, MN.

Sweet potato mash made from local sweet potatoes from Whitewater Gardens and included local apples from Seekap Orchards, Rochester.

Spinach salad with cucumbers and tomatoes from Whitewater Gardens as well.

We had a fine Chilian Carmenere, although not locally made - locally bought and from an organic winery.  Does that count?

We were having a good time with locally grown, excellent food and fun, wonderful friends, what more could anyone ask for?

She loves him, really she does!

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE

Here's another one!  

SPLIT PEA SOUP WITH HAM

There is nothing more satisfying then a big pot of hot soup in the winter, I think!  And Split Pea Soup always seems to hit the spot, and fill it too.

I took the leftover ham from the other night and got some dried peas and celery from the Good Food Store Co-op.

 Added in some chopped carrots and onions from the farmers market and wallah!   Split Pea Soup!

Soak the peas for about an hour

Put everything in the pot and simmer for about an
 hour and a half or until peas are tender

Enjoy!

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE - WEEK ?

Not sure what week were in, I think 8 but oh well, I'm just here for the fun of it.

More info

We have been presented by our administrators with some challenges!  Yay!  I love a good challenge.  This week:  One pot meals

Easy schmeezy, lemon peezy.

OVER ROASTED HAM, SQUASH AND BEETS
Ham from Huneke Farms
Kabotcha squash from Many Hands Gardens (Theilman, MN)
Beets from Merril's MerriBees, Chatfield MN

Take a large 6 lb ham from a farm not more then, hmmmmm - 10 miles away from yours.

Place in a roasting pan, set quartered squash and peeled beets in pan. Add a cup of water and sprinkle some cumin, black pepper and chili pepper on top, cover with foil  and roast in 350 degree oven for about 1 1/2 hours.

I made a little sauce from the juices by adding a little flour mixed with goat milk to top off the ham (guilty!  I can't eat meat without a sauce, I am a pure mid-westerner).

Crazy good, and easy, local, sustainable, organic, ethical and just darn right.

I'm tellin' ya - I am on a mission to prove to people this really is possible!