The Next Dinner

I am very quickly learning several things about myself and the Hubby during this challenge. The most important of which is the variety of fruits and vegetables I will eat versus the very limited starch-only vegetables the Hubby will eat (point number 1). He is an odd one I tell you. He doesn't like fruit.--ASIDE: What kind of weird person doesn't eat fruit?!-- Making it very hard to find and eat local produce which both of us like.

I also hate making dinner, while loving to cook (point number two). So the idea of going shopping for raw produce to make dinner...well lets just say I often find reasons to skip that particular errand. This makes it very difficult to START dinner, but once I get going it's actually rather fun.

Thankfully, we have other hobbies involving food, which help bridge this gap (point number three). We brew our own beer, which I don't drink, but have fun helping. Here it is chilling before we transfer it into the second bucket for a week long siesta, i.e. fermentation period.
Believe it or not the house doesn't really smell while making this India Pale Ale.

It rather fun to locate nearby retailers and brewmasters to share experiences and ideas. And as an added bonus, we often find out about local suppliers for the foodstuffs. So, OLS has a way of showing up in our lives without a meal! (point number three, a.)

We also like to make our own blackberry jelly and picking the wild blackberries around our house, at the park where we walk the dog, or at work on the school grounds allows us to enjoy the same activities we did when we were little. Although, this time we aren't putting the berries directly into our mouths...Without knowing it we have been supporting one of the biggest producers of all time* before I even understood what it meant to eat local. (point number three, b.)


However, today I made a very exciting breakthrough on point number one. I love fried squash, fried okra, steamed broccoli, raw carrots, fresh spinach, creamed corn, red smashed potatoes, green beans practically any way you serve them, and peas especially with water chestnuts...well, just about any veggie. My husband as I stated earlier eats-baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, french fries, hash browns, and the occasional sweet potato. Pretty much he eats starch. So as a *compromise* we pretty much only have things he'll actually eat for dinner. But today was different.

Today he ate squash. And he liked it!

I am very proud to present: Squash (incognito) Fritters with chilled peaches and blackberries. Also known as dinner number two for my One Local Summer challenge.


Fresh Squash: 0 miles, a coworker brought some in from her garden to share.
(Fritters include, grated squash, 1 small onion, eggs, flour, cornmeal and seasonings.)
Blackberries: 0 to 1 miles depending on where and when we got them.
Peaches: not locally grown and I have to say not at good as the rest.

I'm learning that weather, I choose to eat local or not, somehow you find yourself eating locally anyway! (Point number 5.)
*Mother Nature, of course silly!