Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Local Party Food

We hosted a game night at our house last night and I challenged myself to make the snacks as close to 100% local as possible- Here's how I did:

Our burritos were made with homemade flour tortillas (flour from MN and soymilk from IA), homemade refried black beans (beans from MN, peppers from the garden, green garlic from MN/WI), lettuce from the garden, and homemade pico de gallo (tomatoes from MN, green onions from WI, japaleno from garden, cilantro from MN/WI).

The chips were from Whole Grain Milling Co. in MN. The cookies are my Sunny Oat Maple
Cookies (local except for the oil, salt, and vanilla). Our beverage of choice for the night was Rhubarb-Ade. I think I posted before about the Rhubarb Lemonade recipe that my friend Sarah gave to me. I tweaked it just a bit-

Rhubarb-Ade

6-7 cups chopped rhubarb
7 cups water
1 cup maple sytup
a small handful of fresh lemon verbena leaves
additional 1-2 cups cold water

Boil the rhubarb, maple syrup, and water until the rhubarb is very mushy (maybe 10 minutes). Then strain the liquid in to a pitcher with a fine mesh strainer. In a smaller cup, smash the lemon verbena leaves with a cup water to release the flavor, then add to the rhubarb liquid. Taste the rhubarb ade and add more cold water if it need to be diluted or more maple syrup if it is too sour. {If it's too sweet, you can add some lemon juice, but my rhubarb was tart enough} Refrigerate pitcher for at least 4 hours, until thoroughly chilled.

Here's a great bagel sandwich I had a few nights ago- made with a St. Paul Bagelry "everything" bagel, MN tomatoes, MN made pickles, my homemade pickled radishes, and Wisconsin dill mustard. Yum!

6 comments:

Sarah said...

Fantastic spread! I can't believe how successful you are with eating local.

Unknown said...

That bagel sandwich looks so delicious. Your game night snacks look fantastic (homemade flour tortillas! eek!) and that's awesome that everything was local!

Alicia said...

I'm trying to switch to local food as well, but it's so difficult! for example, I cannot find a single bag of beans where the origin of the beans is stated. They just say they're organic, but no idea where they come from!

Liz said...

Sarah- Thanks! I just don't post on the days I break down and eat chocolate chips.

Ashley- Thanks! I wish I had about 6 of those sandwiches right now.

Alice- That's too bad, because a girl's gotta have beans. Do you have a co-op nearby that might be able to source some local beans? Perhaps in the bulk aisle?

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

those burritos look fabulous, (especially the beans), and yes on that bagel. just yes.

congrats on all your local eating, too - I'm starting to become more and more aware of it in my end of the world. maybe I'll try to have a local meal? it's a start!

Erin said...

That bagel sandwich sounds killer! All those flavors together...