Local Tidbits

I have to admit that so far this season I have not cooked a single local meal, but there has been a little bit of local eating going on at the Oberoi house.

One of our local restaurants, The Capital Ale House offers a daily local meal so whenever we eat there I usually order it.

Some friends of ours went and picked peaches and brought me back a dozen. I have been enjoying fresh peaches on my cereal every morning and on ice cream at night!!!

Earlier this summer we all went to the Chesterfield Berry farm and picked our own strawberries! Not only did they taste good, but it was a really fun way to spend time together as a family.

Our neighbor has brought over two grocery bags full of veggies from his garden. So far I have made fresh salsa, had cherry tomatoes on my salads, and big red slices of tomato on my tuna fish sandwiches. Yummy. I have tons of banana peppers and I found a recipe for banana peppers stuffed with chorizo so that is on the menu for next week. We also have eggplants waiting to be made into eggplant Parmesan and bell peppers ready to be stuffed. Hopefully I have the energy next week to cook all these meals.

That has been part of my problem this summer, a total lack of energy and motivation. I have had all these good intentions of going to the farmer's market, but I keep forgetting to go. Being pregnant and chasing after a toddler has kept me pretty busy. I wanted to grow a garden of my own this year, but I was too busy growing a new little person instead!!

I have noticed that the grocery stores are catching onto the local eating phenomenon. Ukrops, a locally owned grocery store, has tons of local produce and their commercials even show the farms and farmers who grew it. Wal-Mart has even started to carry a few local options.