Nothing too much happening here, just coasting along the first week after the holidays and prepping for the rest of the winter. We are tapping into some of our beans and grains.
The black beans from our CSA are divine. Look at that purple color! The weird looking thing next the beans is a piece on Atlantic Kombu, a form of seaweed, courtesy of Iron Bound Island. Inside tip of the week, adding kombu is a great way to decrease the gassy end result of eating beans. Soak the beans at least 8 hours with a piece of kombu, rinse and cook with the seaweed. It really helps and the seaweed adds a ton of trace minerals that we might not get. Not eating enriched foods is great, but we need to make sure we eat food from all soucres to get plenty of stuff like iodine, selinium and B vitamins. That slimy gray thing? Nutrient powerhouse. Even better, in pureed soups, it disappears completely!
This is the perfect bitterly cold day soup. Beans cooked with garlic and onion, dried pepper and tomatoes, all pureed to perfection when everything is tender and falling apart. Served with winter coleslaw and roasted squash, it was super. This was one occasion that the quality of the beans really elevated something simple to the next level.
Same thing with these corn fritters. They are mostly corn, held together with enough egg, yogurt and cornmeal that they don’t fall apart. Served with aged cheddar and apple butter we got as a gift over Christmas, it makes a great breakfast (and puts a dent in our freezer storage!)
Speaking of storage, we did an inventory to kick off the new year on the right foot.
It’s blurry, but this is the list of our food in both freezers. It is a LOT of food, and we are going to be putting a moratorium on shopping for anything besides cheese and apples for a while as we work through this mess and try to keep up with our Deep Winter CSA share. Maybe we’ll get some fresh greens here and there, but damn, we have a ton of food to eat. This list doesn’t include our canned goods (lots and lots, we put up more than last year) or our root storage (not quite as bad).
Luckily, we will have help eating it all.
Hope you are enjoying the strangely warm weather as much we are. The arboretum is still splendid to visit, and we are loving every brisk day we can go and enjoy the park. Enjoy it before mother nature drops the other shoe!
The Lovely Locavore Ladies of Boston 
Your bird friend looks like it’s loving your cooking. lol. How do you identify the right type of sea weed? Do you forage it, or buy it?
Hi! Sorry for the big lag in response. We buy our seaweed from Ironbound Island Seaweed. Just put in an order for a pound of kombu! A few stores also carry smaller amounts of seaweed from Ironbound Island, like Red Fire Farm’s farmstand.
Way to get organized (via inventory) in the new year! Very impressive. I’m eying my closet with some disdain– somehow low on basics and high on dresses I rarely wear? Will eventually take stock of what’s there and flesh out appropriately, but… procrastinating, and meanwhile the fridge and freezer here are brimming with good local veggies (one of the wonders of Texas in winter).
Made a black bean soup last week, too, and subbed in a Pho stock I had frozen for regular veggie or chicken broth. Was unsure whether it’d just confuse things, but actually turned out quite good. Seaweed seems an appropriate add-on if I’m leaning more Asian with the recipe, anyway. Gonna give it a shot. Thanks for the idea!
Happy New Year locavore ladies!
Wow, what a great looking sweater and Marion seems quite pleased with herself. Thanks for looking at my blog and the comments help motivate me. I want to talk to you … maybe Saturday (my new days off start). I have a smart phone now and want to know what apps you guys like(besides Angry Birds). Love you both, Dad