I'm a locavore...one down twenty-nine to go.

So I got through the first day of the eating local challenge.

Here's the breakdown:

Breakfast: corn grits, coffee. I used locally grown and milled grits, some butter I made from Kleinpeter milk, Avery Island salt. Exceptions: obviously coffee isn't locally grown, but I did use locally roasted coffee and local milk and sugar. I used a dash of fresh ground pepper in my grits.

Lunch: Fruit and Mixed Green Salad. Ingredients: local kale and other mixed lettuce, peaches, berries, pecans over a bed of Jazzmen rice with pecan oil and Meyer lemon dressing. (Lemon juice came from my stash of frozen juice.) Exception: dash of pepper.

Afternoon Snack: Local blueberries, pecans with a small drizzle of honey.

I'm starving and I'm still at my mom's and not home yet snack: homemade pickles from Ridemore Berry Farm.

Dinner: Crawfish Etouffee. Ingredients: local crawfish, garlic, butter, red onion, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, corn flour, parsley and salt. Exception: dash of cayenne pepper. I used this Emeril Lagasse recipe as a guide and just kind of made it work with what I had.

Magical Moment of Reflection: I must have consumed copious amounts of etoufee during my lifetime in New Orleans, but this is the first time I ever actually made it myself. Even if I don't make the 30 days or have to bend the rules a bit here and there, branching out and making new things and having new experiences will make this experiment a complete success, regardless of if I use items that aren't strictly local.