md*intake

One Local Summer 2007, Dinner Menu 08

• Homemade whole wheat flour tortilla tower (McGeary Organics/Annville Flouring Mill - 94 miles). Nonlocal ingredients used: baking soda, salt, canola oil.
• First layer is lettuce (Blooming Glen Farm CSA crop share - 5 miles) and marinated and baked tempeh (Cricklewood Soyfoods - 28 miles). Nonlocal ingredients used: tamari, liquid smoke.
• Second layer is sauteed yellow squash brought home from Rhode Island (Fisherman’s farmers market - o miles), red pepper (Blooming Glen) and onion (Lancaster - 83 miles). Nonlocal ingredients used: olive oil, salt, cumin.
• Third layer is sauteed corn, green bell peppers (both from Blooming Glen) and onion (Lancaster). Nonlocal ingredients used: olive oil, salt, cumin.
• Topped with raw tomatoes (Blooming Glen and our garden - 0 miles).
• And drizzled with Jason’s homemade hot sauce (peppers from Blooming Glen and our garden). Nonlocal ingredients used: vinegar, cumin.
• A chilled salad of raw lettuce, blanched string beans, raw onion (all from Blooming Glen) and raw tomatoes (from Blooming Glen and our garden).
• Watermelon (Blooming Glen).
• Whirlwind Witbier (Victory Brewing Company - 45 miles).

This was by far the most time-consuming, though absolutely the most delicious, OLS meal I’ve done. From the time I started mixing the batter for the tortillas until we sat down to eat, over four hours passed. Because we’ve been away, I had lots of random veggies both from RI and from the crop share to use up. It felt good to be in the kitchen after a couple weeks away from home, though I can’t say I was thrilled to be spending such a large part of my Saturday cooking one meal.

I was trying to come up with a clever way to utilize the variety of produce when I started making the tortillas. This time, I borrowed my dad’s pasta maker to roll them out. It worked beautifully, creating rectangular, uniform pieces of dough that I quickly realized would lend themselves wonderfully to a tortilla tower theme - perfect for incorporating my many vegetables!

While I diced and chopped and stir fried and rolled, Jase decided to try his hand at homemade hot sauce. I must say, it was super-nice hanging out and creating this week’s meal together.

My next OLS meal will for sure be much lower maintenance. Cereal is sounding very good right about now :)