Wait, no pasta? What did I get myself into....

Today is only day two of thirty. Day two and I'm already looking for pasta. I mean, yes of course I have gone more than two days without eating pasta, but I guess just knowing that I can't have it unless I make it means I'm thinking about it...and if I'm thinking about it then I want to eat it.

Technically, since I did join in at the Beinville level, I can have "limited" amounts of flour. So I had this crazy notion that I could use limited amounts of my not so local wheat flour and half it with some corn flour. That'll work, right? Wrong....um gross....and lets just leave the failed pasta experiment at that. I'm sure by the end of 30 days, I'll have just used the dang flour to successfully make pasta (the way its meant to be, with delicious all purpose, gluten filled wheaty flour). I mean, using local eggs has to count for something, right?

However, after the failed experiment, in my crap!-what-the-hell-am-I-going-to-eat-now moment, I actually ended up making something quite glorious. Basically I just winged it with what was in the veggie drawer and it was awesome. Vegetarian and totally yum. I'll definitely try recreating it, maybe with the addition of a bit of chicken.

Anyway, here's the breakdown for day two:

Breakfast: fried egg, grits, corn bread and of course, coffee. That's right, in your face stinky husband of mine (who is convinced its impossible for me to wake up early on a work day)...alright so maybe that's mostly true, but today was different. I actually woke up early enough to bake corn bread muffins from scratch, take care of the pets, get ready and get to work on time. :D

Lunch: uh....so I ate it and didn't even think about taking a picture until I had cleaned my plate dry, but it was just left over crawfish etouffee and corn bread. The baking powder free corn bread actually came out pretty decent. I just separated the eggs and whipped up the whites and folded them in at the end.

What's for Dinner? Deliciousness, that's what! (okay, I'll admit, I say this probably more often than necessary...but it was!) Summer squash, shitake mushrooms, heirloom tomatoes sauteed in a bit of butter with garlic chives, sage, thyme and shallots all served over my new favorite rice, Jazzmen.

Magical Revelation of the Day: Garlic Chives!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I thought about using some of the garlic I bought at the berry farm, but I used a whole head in last night's etouffee (they're pretty tiny) and I only have two more heads and who knows where or when I'll pick up more. I decided to just dress up the veggies with some herbs from the garden and used a good bit of the garlic chives I picked up at Rouses. WOW. I took that first bite and I couldn't believe I hadn't put any garlic in there. According to Wikipedia, "the flavor of garlic chives is more like garlic than chives." I can now attest to the validity of that statement.

Ugh...now I have to go do the damn dishes. I hate when my dishwasher is out of town. :(

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.

Taking the Plunge: Eat Local Challenge

My husband thinks I'm insane. Yes, okay I know I'm nuts, but we're actually talking about something more specific right now. Today is June 1, so that means it's day one of the Eat Local Challenge I signed up for.

I've been doing lots of prep work including working in the garden de-weeding and planting some extra herbs and what not. Which thankfully made me realize how boringly green the garden had become, so I also treated myself to some happy colorful zinnias, pentas, salvia, mandevilla and lots of other pretty blooms.

Anyway, I've been scouting and stocking local goodies to get ready. I went out to Ridemore Berry Farm to pick my own blueberries, garlic, onions and other goodies. By the by, they're real nice folks. It's a small farm, but their pickles are AWESOME and they even gave me a free horse riding lesson since no one else was around. Rouses is one of the sponsors, and now that I've actually been looking for local items, I've noticed my Rouses on Tchoup actually has an okay selection of local goods--wine, dairy products, meats, produce. The selection might be limited, but they at least carry a good bit of items to get me by if I can't make it out to the farmers markets. 

I also finally stopped by Hollygrove Market & Farm for the first time and I'm really impressed by their selection. The box for the week was quite a steal for $25 and I even picked up some eggs and milk. They have a good selection of local cheeses and they had beef and chicken too. I didn't grab any yet, but I definitely plan to this coming week with my 10% discount. 

Anyway, I've got a couple dessert recipes up my sleeve and the rest I'm just kinda winging it...but I'm as ready as I gonna be to take the plunge. I'll post tonight after dinner the rundown of what I ate today. 

Finally something over the fireplace.

I actually painted this back around March/April-ish but it is really growing on me. I probably had the canvas sitting around the house for months. I just couldn't decide what to do with it. I don't remember exactly where the idea for it came from but I knew I wanted to do something about broken glass...keeping the pieces together...how things can be broken but still beautiful and interesting. I don't know that's kind of where my head was, but colors and actual design I just couldn't figure out what I wanted to do.

I've also had this picture frame laying around my crafting crap since I can't even remember. I just remember having it in the house. Maybe it came with the house? Maybe it was my husbands? Who knows. I just had it and didn't know what to do with it, so it just sat there for a long time.

So when I finally decided to do something with these, I just sat and it must have taken about an hour. Spray paint, acrylic, epoxy...Broken glass pane...black and white....bam there we go. Sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I love it. Most of the time, I'm just glad I finally made something to hang above the fireplace instead of having another blank wall staring at me. I hate blank walls.