So far so good! I had to explain my way out of a breakfast invitation today. She's a good friend so took it well and after a nice porch visit, she and her Mrs sent me on my way with some gorgeous squash from their garden that I can have now and a jar of jam for after the challenge. Cool!
I made spaetzle today to stretch the last of a soup (local squash, local onion, my garlic, my herbs, salt and pepper exotics, potato from a neighbor). Spaetzle is going in my regular rotation! I got a spaetzle maker from thrift a year ago and have finally figured out how thick the batter can be. You put egg, water and flour in the tumbler shaped shaker, put on the lids, and little metal balls mix it up as you shake. Take off an outer lid to reveal the squeezy holes in the inner lid. Squeeze into boiling water or broth and voila! Spaetzle. Clean up is mostly shaking soapy water in there and a good rinse. The local whole wheat pastry flour I had worked well. We'll see if the freebie all purpose flour I got as a gift a while back also works. But it's not local flour so will have to wait.
The soup also had the remnants of a jar of chicken. Added some flavor.
I am finding I need the grain and honey inputs to keep the calories up. A largely veggie and lean meat diet was meaning I had to eat more than I could hold to get a days worth of calories. I don't need to lose weight at the moment so I'm boosting a bit with more carbs. Honey doesn't seem to make me hungry, but flour does. Interesting.
Anyway, I also did a bannock type bread with some of my vinegar preserved berries and honey. It was pretty good! The berries and honey were in the bread, not on the bread. Tomorrow possibly apple pancakes. Pancakes made with water instead of fake milk (or real milk) are a bit tough textured but not terrible. Growing some hazel nuts or other things to make a fake milk out of would be nice.
I'm ending up with more local food than I'm going to be able to eat during this. Good to know.
Since I bought food ahead and have brought my lunch to work consistently, even though the groceries were more expensive, I'm saving $$. I don't run to the store for something which means I also don't impulse buy. Candy is not locally grown so no candy. The free garden produce really helps as do the things I've grown myself.
I am spending a ton of time cooking compared to not trying to eat locally grown. Convenience foods and even the local baked bread, are not made of local ingredients. So they are out right now.
Anyway, enough for today. 4 days left! Tomorrow might be a lentil and wheatberry pilaf for the lunch and dinner options, with some summery squash fried up on the side. Keeping up with dishes is a bit of a pain because the weather is crap right now and I can't use my little rocket stove to heat a bunch of water and wash dishes outside. Oh well. Just need to adjust to the winter routine of eating out of the same plate and washing it immediately after the meal in the pan I cooked in.
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