Living local in Eugene, OR
Posted in Grains & legumes, Soups on Dec 30th, 2008
Staying with the bean theme, we made ham and bean soup for dinner. Ham and bean soup has always been one of my favorite comfort meals.
My original intention was to make black-eyed pea soup for an pre-New Year’s Day good luck meal, but I couldn’t find any locally grown black-eyed peas, and opted for the [...]
Posted in Markets & farms on Dec 29th, 2008
I wanted to follow-up my last post, Pot Beans, with some more information on local beans and grains. I mentioned the Southern Willamette Valley Bean & Grain Project in that post, but thought such an exciting project deserves more than a mere mention.
I learned about the Southern Willamette Valley Bean & Grain Project through my [...]
Posted in Dark Days Challenge, Grains & legumes on Dec 24th, 2008
When we decided that we would eat as much locally grown food as possible, we started using mostly dried beans. There are sources for some dried beans (mostly black beans) in the Willamette Valley, but that will hopefully be increasing with the Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project that is focused on converting grass [...]
Posted in San Francisco on Dec 22nd, 2008
We were experiencing the typical holiday travel horror of missing our connection in San Francisco and being told that the next available confirmed seats would be two days later. They kindly offered to let us fly standby the following day, but after trying that once and seeing the number of stressed [...]
Posted in Dark Days Challenge, Soups, Vegetables - cool weather on Dec 19th, 2008
I have never thought that borscht looked like a soup that I would like to eat, let alone make. But our visit to Belly changed my opinion of borscht. Brian ordered borscht for dinner and kindly let us all taste it and it was delicious. I think the color is what turned me off. Its [...]
Posted in Breakfast, Dark Days Challenge on Dec 17th, 2008
Baked eggs, or eggs en cocotte, are a new dish for us. For some reason, I avoided French egg dishes because I thought they would be overly complex or fussy. Nothing could farther from reality with eggs en cocotte. They also make an attractive presentation, so would be a great breakfast/brunch to serve to company. [...]
Posted in Ramblings, Winter garden on Dec 15th, 2008
We woke up this morning to about 4 inches of snow. Here are a few photos from our beautiful, crisp winter day.
Posted in Restaurants on Dec 14th, 2008
This is the first non-Amy-written post of our blog. It’s by me, the guy frequently referred to as Matt. Here it goes…
To cap the work week and kick-off the weekend, we ventured out Friday night. Sam Bond’s Garage was the place and their version of Family Feud was the draw. Sam Bond’s is a small [...]
Posted in Dark Days Challenge on Dec 14th, 2008
A very exciting living local week indeed. We received our second order from Eugene Local Foods, went to a holiday party at a restaurant that features many local ingredients, made a yummy crab dip for our annual cookie decorating party, and I attended a class by the Master Food Preservers. What a week!
Posted in Misc on Dec 14th, 2008
Yesterday I attended a Gifts from the Kitchen class taught by the Lane County Master Food Preservers. I probably sound like a broken record, but I am amazed at the incredible resources available to us in the Willamette Valley. The class featured sections on jams and jellies, chutneys, pie fillings, vinegars, and liqueurs. I canned [...]
