One Local Summer, week 2
Remember last week when I said I needed to plan better to be sure to get in a truly local meal? Three unexpected little league games this past week, plus a ton of rain, foiled my plans to plan. Pizza was served three separate nights this past week. So while lots of local ingredients got used this week in the few dinners I did create – local beef and Jersey Fresh canned tomatoes in my meatballs and sauce; zucchini, yellow squash and onion from the farmers market sauteed for a side dish to chicken on another night, and tons of strawberries picked at Sprindale Farm eaten every which way, I didn’t get to an entire local meal.
Last night was the closest I got. I bought fresh sea scallops at Wegmans that were caught off the Jersey coast and bacon from the farmers market to make an appetizer of scallops wrapped in bacon. I’d never made them that way before and after reading several recipes for marinades for the scallops and sauces to drizzle on top – I chose to just pre-cook the bacon a little and wrap it around the scallops that were seasoned simply with salt and pepper. I cooked them in my grill pan. They were delicious prepared that way.
We’ve had our friends’ three kids for the weekend so hamburgers and hot dogs were the easiest thing to do for dinner last night. Same burgers as last week – the local beef made the burgers but the rest of meal was from the grocery store. I had a fleeting thought that I could reheat some of the leftover zucchini and yellow squash and put it on a plate with the scallops, take a picture, then say that was my meal last night, but why? I didn’t succeed 100% this week, but I’m incorporating local more and more. I’m not going to beat myself up, and I’m not going to pretend I’m doing more than I am.
School ends this week and there is definitely only one more little league game left of the season so I hope to have more time to plan. I know what I’m making this upcoming week – I bought all the ingredients at the farmers market yesterday morning. I will cook a local meal this week.
