Author: Vintage Eats
Zucchini Fritters
Hey all, Summer is in full swing, farmer's markets are booming, and I am constantly bringing home too much veg. Anyone else have that problem? I see bounteous, beautiful bunches of carrots, celery, greens, onions - and I take it all home. Inevitably my overzealousness results in a pile of veg that I'm a little too lazy to process or cook. Or I'm uninspired because I've already done all of the usual things with it. Today was different. I had a summer squash in my fridge, and a zucchini. I had just bought some fresh eggs from the local market. I had some flour and some spices to play with. So with not so many ingredients and not too much time, I made some ridiculously yummy zucchini fritters. They're quick to make - it took a lit Read more
Strawberries Two Ways
Greetings, Fair Food Fighters, and Happy Summer!
Read moreBread Smackdown: Vanochka
It looks like I'm about eight hours too late with my entry for the bread smackdown, but I love this recipe too much to not share it with my fellow Fair Food Fighters.
Read moreGround Meat Mania! – Cottage Pie
Hey all, I just read Jennette's recipe for lamb meatballs with garlicky white bean sauce and must say - I think I'm going to have to try it! Her recipe struck a chord with me, as I too have been looking for inspiration lately for what to do with all this ground meat I'm using. Since grassfed ground meat tends to be less expensive (and less intimidating) than many other cuts available, I've been running the gamut of ground meat recipes. Cottage pie is one of my absolute favorites.
Read moreMashed Potato Smackdown: Bul’ba Belarusian Style
Hey all, Belarusian Eats here with her entry for the mashed potato smackdown! A little known fact about me: in my previous life, I worked as a linguist. My master's in Russian Philology is from Belarusian State University, located in Minsk, Belarus. If you can find it on a map, chances are you know that it's also the potato capital of the world. These people, colloquially referred to as "bul'bashi" (potato heads) consume 180 kilos of potatoes per year - far out-potatoing every other country in the world! Weeks after I arrived, a carb-shy American, I thought I could never look at another potato. They were fried, added to soups, boiled, and finally - and most importantly for this little competition - mashed. I ate them at practically every meal.&n Read more
Chicken: Break it Down
I'm giggling and picturing a dancing chicken "breaking it down". Piggy-backing on my previous post, I wanted to have a chat with you Food Fighters about how to properly break a chicken down into usable parts. As I mentioned, it's super cheap, and once you get good at it, you can do it in no time flat! Here's what you need:
A large cutting board
This should be a cutting board reserved exclusively for meat, otherwise you run the risk of cross-contaminating your veggies the next time you make a stir-fry.
A very sharp knife or kitchen shears
Eating Well on a Budget: Recession Eats
Hey there, Food Fighters! Vintage Eats here, who is now considering changing her name to Recession Eats. My day to day struggle, as is yours, I'd imagine, is to bring healthy and local food to the table in a way that is as economical as possible. It takes some planning, but if there's a will, there's a way..
Sure, it's easy to buy cheap food. It's everywhere. Our food system, in its horribly screwed up way, has made cheap, nutritionally-devoid food readily available, while maintaining local and organic food at a more expensive price point. So what's a price-conscious locavore to do?
1. Investigate Spring - Summer CSA options, where you can buy a share directly from a farm near you.
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Sprouts!
Hey everyone! I've just discovered something ridiculously cool, and bonus - the thing I discovered makes a food you eat all the time tens and hundreds of times healthier!
I'm talking about sprouts. Set your scepticism aside, if you can, and push the image of the crunchy hippie out of your head. Sprouting wheatberries and certain beans is super easy and adds a nutritional blast to your meals. Supposedly sprouting unlocks nutritients in the grains and beans that your body normally wouldn't be able to access in dried or cooked forms. For nutritional specifics and also, for a list of beans that you shouldn't sprout, see this Wiki article.
Read moreSensual Eats: My Top Five Local Aphrodisiacs
Fair food fighters! Vintage Eats here with some sensual eats for you and your sweetie, just in time for Valentine's Day.
A little known fact about me is that, in addition to fresh local food, I have another interest: aphrodisiacs. Aphrodisiacs are foods that incite passion. They can range from the mundane (potatoes and onions) to the bizarre and exotic (Tiger's penis and Spanish fly). Foods become known as aphrodisiacs not only because of their chemical and nutritive properties, but even simply because of their shape!
Read morePie
You wanted dessert, Food Fighters? - You got it. I have the easiest, most fool-proof recipe for pie crust, courtesy of my mentor, JJ Gonson of Cuisine en Locale. The following recipe is hers - so don't go giving me credit for it - and is the simplest way to crank out pie crust that I've seen. I used to find pie crust intimidating, but really, all you need is a food processor.
Sweet pie crust
1 c. flour
1/3 cup ice water
1 stick of butter
1 Tbsp. sugar
Saran wrap
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