Our Home Works

Well, I finally bit the bullet.   I have wanted to do this for a long time, but was too chicken.  I have been skulking away on your blogs for months, admiring how clever you are, and just generally getting inspired.  So thank you to the many eat local, food, and gardening bloggers out there that I read religiously.  I will be adding you to my Blogroll over the next few weeks.

My first post is my Dark Days Challenge post for the week.  I probably should have cooked a really fancy local meal to impress you all and lure you back for inspiration.  But then you would have been disappointed as you return to hear about simple meal after simple meal.

Our first Dark Days Meal was inspired by a Deborah Madison recipe called Braised Mixed Greens and Garlicky Beans on Toast.  The ingredients and respective sources include:

• 1 small onion (Groundwork Organics CSA)
• 2 cloves garlic (Groundwork Organics CSA)
• 1 pound greens - Collard greens, kale (Groundwork Organics CSA)
• 1-1/2 cups cooked beans.  (I used cannelini beans from our pantry & can’t remember where I got them)
• 4-6 slices of Ciabatta Bread (local bakery)
• Shaved Parmesan cheese (Italy, not local)
• Olive oil (California, not local)
• Salt, pepper (not local)

First, cook the diced onion and 1 clove of minced garlic in 1-2 Tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat for a few minutes and then add the chopped greens.

Greens braising

Add 1/2 cup water or bean broth and cook partially covered until greens are tender.  Add the beans, and taste for salt and pepper. I added a little more bean broth at the end to moisten up the mixture.

While the greens are cooking, toast the bread and rub it with a clove of garlic cut in half.

Put the toasts on plates and spoon the greens and beans on top of the toast.  Shave generous amount of parmesan over the top.

Voila!

The meal was good, but the recipe needs some tweaks for it to stick around.  I normally love braised greens with carmelized onions and typically wouldn’t follow a recipe, but was somehow unconsciously lulled into Deborah Madison’s world tonight.  Next time, I will probably use Gorgonzola instead of Parmesan.  Not only would that add another local ingredient (Oregonzola from the Rogue Creamery), it would also balance the bitter greens.  I would also add more onion - probably 1 to 1-1/2 large onions instead of just 1 small onion for 1 lb. of greens.

In addition to cooking our first Dark Days meal, we spent some time in the yard this afternoon.  Matt finished raking the leaves for the compost pile and I weeded the winter garden.  With any luck, the sun will be out again tomorrow and I will post some photos of the garden.

Tags: beans, Dark Days Challenge, kale