The 100 Foods Every Omnivore Should Try

I first read about this meme, The 100 Foods Every Omnivore Should Try, on digg, then saw it again on Suzanne Podhaizer’s food blog for Seven Days, Omnivore. Naturally, I feel compelled to put my stamp on this list, and you should, too.  Here are the rules for the meme:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue

Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge: Day 7

As you can see, I’ve come to the end of the Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge and I’ve run out of enthusiasm and inspiration:

Breakfast: Vermont Morning hot cereal with Domino brown sugar (duh, I should have used Vermont maple syrup, but I wasn’t thinking), half and half from Vermont’s Thomas dairy. Still drinking Trader Joe’s coffee.

Snack: NY state peach

Lunch: Leftover tuna casserole.

Snack: Maple cream sandwich cookie.

Dinner: Leftover tuna casserole.

Dessert: Maple sandwich cookie, milk chocolate non-pareil.

Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge: Day 6’s Dinner Dilemma

Boy am I glad this eat local challenge is almost over.  I’m HUNGRY.  You know what I’m craving? My mom’s tuna casserole made with Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup, Bumble Bee tuna and those french fried onions.  I’m very tempted to make this for dinner tonight. The alternative is McKenzie hot dogs, and I’m not really in the mood for a hot dog.  I am in the mood for a hot, hearty casserole.

This is a dilemma. I’m about to make dinner, and part of me really wants to stick with the eat local challenge.  The other part of me–my stomach and id–is saying, Screw the eat local challenge. You did your part. You gave it the ole college try. You’re free to resume consuming over-processed, corn-based foods that travelled hundreds of miles and consumed hundreds of gallons of oil to reach your dinner table.

Now I feel like a real shithead. Anyone else having trouble with the eat local challenge? Tell me I’m not the only one.

Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge: Day 5

What I ate on Sunday, September 21:

Breakfast: Granola and yogurt.

Lunch: I went to a friend’s house for lunch. She made a delicious carrot ginger soup, which she served with salad (her husband is a farmer with Burlington, Vermont’s Intervale community farm, and he grew the salad greens), Red Hen Bakery bread and local goat cheese.

Snack: Myers bagel (baked in Burlington.)

Dinner: Eric cooked chicken in San Marzano tomatoes with kalamata olives, served with leftover couscous (leftover from the week before) and arugula from Clear Brook Farm.  This was hardly a local meal, but it was tasty!

Snack: Milk chocolate non-pareils and maple cream sandwich cookies.

Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge: Day 4

What I ate on Saturday, September 20:

Breakfast: Poached egg from Someday Farm in Dorset Vermont, toast (Red Hen Bakery in Middlesex, VT) with Cabot butter and Cabot cottage cheese.

Lunch: Caprese panini with tomato from Clear Brook Farm, Al Ducci’s mozarella (made in Manchester, VT) and home-made pesto.

Snack: Granola (made in Manchester) and milk.

Dinner: Arugula salad with Green Mountain Smokehouse smoked turkey, pecans (not local) and a cinnamon vinaigrette (not local.) I thought I put something else in my salad, but I now can’t remember.  I remember it needed blue cheese, but I didn’t have any.

Snack: Milk chocolate non-pareils from the Village Peddler. Vermont Common Crackers.

Update on the Clear Brook Farm CSA

When I went to Clear Brook Farm on my lunch break on Thursday, I asked about my status on the farm’s waiting list for a share in its CSA.  Good thing I did because Clear Brook had space for me.  I am now officially off the waiting list and a winter shareholder!  I forked over 300 bucks (thank g-d I had gotten paid the day before), and the deal was done.  I look forward to awesome Clear Brook veggies from mid-October through mid-December.  It’ll be so great to just pick up my bag of veggies on the weekend and not have to pay a dime since I already paid for my share.

Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge: Day 3

Breakfast: 1/2 a banana crunch muffin. Trader Joe’s coffee

Mid-morning snack: cantaloupe from Clear Brook Farm, Castleton crackers and Cabot cottage cheese.

Lunch: Caprese sandwich with Al Ducci’s mozarella, home-made pesto, and a Clear Brook tomato on bread baked in Vermont.

Après déjeuner gourmandise: milk chocolate non-pareils.

Dinner: Prince spaghetti with Dale’s home-made spaghetti sauce (tomatoes, basil, oregano and carrots from her garden) and garlic bread.

Dessert: Wilcox ice cream and a maple cream cookie.

Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge: Day 2

I finally got to Clear Brook Farm and to the Village Peddler yesterday on my lunch break. At Clear Brook, I bought Honey Crisp apples from Scott Farm, NY state peaches, arugula, basil, tomatoes, smoked turkey and sweet Italian sausage from Green Mountain Smoke House, bread from a bakery in Middlesex, eggs from Someday Farm in East Dorset, granola made in Manchester and another package of Putney Pasta.  That haul cost me just under $50.

At the Village Peddler I bought “Old Fashioned Squares” crackers, Castleton Crackers (made in Castleton, VT), Vermont Common Crackers, Maple Grove Farm’s maple cream sandwich cookies, Vermont Morning hot cereal (a reader recommendation) and a small box of milk chocolate non-pareils. This small haul cost me about $26.

I figured eating local for a week would cost me a lot more money than I’d normally spend for a week’s worth of groceries, but yesterday’s tab came to about $75. That’s a lot cheaper than what I normally spend on groceries, which ranges between about $100 and $120.  I still have a few more items to pick up for dinners, so it’ll be interesting to see if eating/buying local costs me more or less for my weekly food supply than my normal Clear Brook-Price Chopper shopping routine.

(I’ve also been meaning to weigh myself to see if I gain or lose weight during a week of eating local foods.)

Yesterday was a much easier day once I had done this shopping.  Here’s what I ate:

Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge: Day 1

Technically, this is day three of the Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge, but since I was in Massachusetts on Monday and Tuesday, today is day one for me.

I didn’t fare very well in the challenge today because I haven’t had a chance to go grocery shopping.  Once I have a chance to hit Clear Brook, the Village Peddler and the Wayside, I’ll be in good shape, but I don’t expect to be able to go shopping until my lunch break tomorrow. Work is crazy, which is not unusual.

Breakfast: 1/2 a home-made banana crunch muffin washed down with Trader Joe’s coffee.  Even though the muffin is home-made, none of its ingredients are local. The bananas are grown in Ecuador. .

Mid-morning snack (consumed at noon EDT): The other 1/2 of the banana crunch muffin plus a  Stonyfield yogurt. Stoneyfield yogurt is made in N.H., so at least I’m getting closer to Vermont.

Lunch (consumed at 3 PM EDT): Teleion Holon hummus (finally! A local product!), Ritz crackers, Trader Joe’s corn chips and Cabot cheddar cheese. I have no bread in my house, therefore I couldn’t make a sandwich.

Dinner: It’s going to have to be Putney Pasta. We have a package in the freezer.  Otherwise it’s bacon and eggs.

Eat Local Challenge: A Strategy for Survival

Monday, September 15, 2008 — Framingham, Mass. — The Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge begins today, and I’m nervous about participating in the event: I’m worried I’ll starve. I just don’t know if I have access to enough local growers and producers to subsist solely on local foods for a week, so I developed a survival strategy.

Before I unveil my strategy, let’s look at what I typically eat on a daily basis to see the extent to which I’m going to have to change my diet.

Meridith’s Week Day Diet