Burger, Revised

The time has come to move my food musings to a new home, Andrew Zahler Eats. Please stop by.

I came to page you’re now visiting to archive my posts from my obsolete vegetarian blog (I’m an omnivore these days).

Then I used this platform to record my progress in the 7vs7 100-mile Challenge.

Now, with a new food challenge on the horizon, I’ve decided I need a permanent, generically titled place to post my updates for this and future competitions. I may post more frequently than that.

Thanks for updating your bookmarks.

Yeah, I know I’m out, but I just couldn’t resist sharing a photo of these beauties. I roasted them following directions here.

Enjoy.

Breakfast: Cooked rolled emmer with milk and blueberries (yes, I’m mixing it up); hard-boiled egg.

Lunch: Leftover everything I’ve eaten in the past three days, including mashed taters, ground beef, corn-onion-tomato saute and broccoli

Snacks: Hard-boiled egg; filberts; nectarine.

Dinner: Last of the ground beef; corn on the cob; tomato salad (yellow pear tomatoes, green onion, jalapeno, garlic, parsley).

Dessert: Blueberry-huckleberry smoothie.

The evening’s entertainment included the free music at Pig Out in the Park with a friend. At about 9:30 I got texts from Remi and Geneva, who wanted to meet up after watching the film “Fresh” at the Magic Lantern. They wandered over, and the three of us proceeded to polish off a plate of Azar’s hummus and gyro meat.

Cough.

This is an example of what we call “burying the lead” in my trade. I’m out. And so are Remi and Geneva. We went out en masse. And we don’t regret it.

Suffice it to say I’d had my fill and had convinced myself that being a pure locavore is a challenging, albeit fun, business. When I heard that two of my competitors would also fall on their swords in the interest of salt and exotic ingredients (tahini!), I really didn’t have much resistance to put up.

As I write, I’m roasting locally grown tomatoes, garlic, potatoes and onions with locally grown rosemary and oregano – and a luscious sprinkling of olive oil and kosher salt. I plan to eat my regular breakfast of rolled emmer in the morning and polish off the last of that smoothie. I think I’ll eat some of these roasted veggies for lunch, and in the evening I’ll make myself a nice all-local scramble with the addition of a little olive oil and salt. And then I’ll enjoy a beer or two on the  FBC Spokane Full Moon Fiasco ride. Thus it will be a mostly local day. Not because I have to, but because I can, and, with a couple crucial additions, I know everything will be delicious.

This has been a fun, challenging week. This contest has drawn a lot of queries from my co-workers – skeptical journalists to the end – and I’ve enjoyed talking about it with them. Several have graciously given me items from their gardens, and I will enjoy them no less for the addition of salt and oil.

A few other competitors fell by the wayside today as well. Keep your eye on Spokane Food Blog to track the remaining five.

No strange concoctions today, and fewer caffeine withdrawal symptoms. I’m writing this after seeing Band of Horses at the Knitting Factory, and I’m a bit tired, so I’ll keep it brief.

Breakfast: Rolled emmer flakes (Marlin), soaked overnight in Spokane Family Farms milk (Spokane), with huckleberries (Ione). Glass of cider.

Lunch: Leftover mashed taters (Clayton) with chives (Spokane); left-over ground beef mixture from Monday night; corn on the cob (Clayton).

Snacks: Apple, peach, filberts.

Dinner: Leftover taters topped with a saute of corn, onions (both Clayton), garlic (Spokane; thanks Kat!) and basil (Spokane); scrambled eggs with a bit of milk, onions, basil; broccoli (Fresh Abundance).

At the show: One serving of Dry Fly vodka, neat.

After-show snack: Green Bluff nectarine and a glass of milk.

I went to the downtown Spokane Farmers Market this morning and picked up some lamb and chard from Olsen farms, some Deer Park tomatoes and some Springdale blueberries. These will be worked into my meals in the coming days.

Update (12:15 a.m.): I guess I’m not that tired: I just read up on how others are doing in the competition. As of tonight, Bart (shocker) and Crystal (actually a shocker!) are out for reasons of time and flavor; Brightspirit might be out; some person named Brandi is being threatened with being ousted; and the always creative Monique has admitted to feeling weak, but she’s still in it. Frankly, I’d be on the edge if I hadn’t pulled out my secret weapon on Day One: Make a lot, and live off the leftovers. Sure it gets old quick, but the time I’ve saved on meal prep has kept my energy up. Good luck to the remaining contestants.

This may be the post that has some of you questioning my sanity, but so be it.

Tonight I brewed pine needle tea. I was talking to Bart, who mentioned it in passing, and then I couldn’t get it out of my head. I’m not a milk drinker, and I was getting bored with cider and water. So I strolled down the street and plucked some needles off a neighborhood pine. (A little like tickling a sea urchin. Don’t ask.)

I brewed it up following these directions and, with a little honey, it wasn’t half bad. I know it doesn’t look too good up there.

Here’s how my meals for the day went. (Hint: Pretty much the same as yesterday.)

Breakfast: Rolled emmer flakes (Marlin), soaked overnight in Spokane Family Farms milk (Spokane), with huckleberries (Ione).

Lunch: Oven roasted purple potatoes, garlic (both Clayton area) and baby onions (Green Bluff); steamed summer squash (garden, Clayton); left-over ground beef mixture from last night.

Snacks: Peach, apples with honey, filberts (all Green Bluff). If it seems like overkill to put honey on an apple, let me just say I bought Gravensteins and forgot how tart they are.

Dinner:

• Stuffed peppers (Clayton): ground beef (Addy), onions, garlic, tomato (Spokane), sauteed with fresh oregano and thyme (Spokane).
• Mashed potatoes (Clayton) with chives (Spokane) and garlic.

That’s right, I didn’t eat my vegetables. But I drank pine needle tea, so I’m calling it good.

At this point, Friday and the end of this contest seem like a mere stone’s throw away. I think I’ll hit up the downtown Spokane Farmers Market tomorrow before work for a little variety.

Breakfast: Rolled emmer flakes (Marlin), soaked overnight in Spokane Family Farms milk (Spokane), with huckleberries (Ione).

Lunch: Oven roasted purple potatoes, garlic (both Clayton area) and baby onions (Green Bluff); hard-boiled eggs (Reardan).

Snacks: Nectarine, apples, filberts (all Green Bluff).

Dinner:

• Stuffed peppers (Clayton): ground beef (Addy), onions, garlic, tomato (Spokane), sauteed with fresh oregano and thyme (Spokane).
• Mashed potatoes (Clayton) with chives (Spokane) and garlic.
• Summer squash (garden and Clayton).
• Salad of spicy sprouts (Bonner County), yellow pear tomatoes (garden), basil (Spokane) and apple cider (Green Bluff).

A few observations:

1. When you make stuffed peppers without sauce or cheese, they pretty much unstuff themselves as soon as you try to eat them.
2. I have Remi right where I want him, thinking caffeine will be my downfall. I almost feel sorry for him and his hopeless plans of sabotage.
3. Big thank you to my co-worker Gina, who gave me a bounty of fresh herbs today. But like almost everybody else participating, I really missed salt.
4. My food was really dry today. Apparently Fresh Abundance carries camelina oil for about $17, which would help. But I don’t think I want to fork over that much given the other cooking oils taking up space in my cupboard.
5. Spicy sprouts sort of hurt my tummy. Anybody want ‘em?
6. I’m not really enjoying the ground beef. Let’s recall that I am, to borrow a phrase, a recovering vegetarian. Opening up the butcher’s paper to see blood-soaked plastic (sorry Becky, Crystal and other vegetarians/vegans) nearly took care of my appetite. Wish I’d researched ahead and ordered some Wallace grains and legumes for my proteins.
7. Finally, my thoughts go out to John of Cycling Spokane and his family. Unforeseen circumstances forced him to drop out of the challenge today.

By my calculations, Remi, Geneva, Becky and I drove about 70 miles today collecting food raised within 100 miles of Spokane. At least we were carpooling.

Let’s put aside questions of energy efficiency for the moment and get to the haul.

From the Clayton Farmers Market: Honey, garlic, onions, summer squash, sweet corn, purple and Yukon gold potatoes.

From Green Bluff farmers: Apple cider, nectarines, peaches, green peppers, jalapenos, Anaheim pepper, hazelnuts (in shell), more onions, apples.

From Fresh Abundance: Ground beef raised and slaughtered in Addy, Wash.; milk from Spokane’s Family Farm; rolled spelt and emmer flakes from Marlin, Wash. Yeah, I’d never heard of emmer either. We’ll see.

From the Rocket Market: A dozen eggs from Rocky Ridge Ranch north of Reardan, Wash.

With tomatoes and squash from my garden plus 100-mile safe items from my most recent Fresh Abundance box, I think I’m set.

My menu at this point includes only a couple dishes and lots of leftovers, but I did get a jump on the week tonight, shelling my hazelnuts (hammer time); roasting some of my purple tomatoes, onions and garlic; and hard boiling a couple eggs. That will be lunch for Monday.

I’ll let some of those emmer flakes soak in milk in the fridge overnight (to be topped with honey and frozen Ione-area huckleberries) for breakfast, and my ground beef should be defrosted by the time I get home to cook up a medley for dinner. At this point I only have fresh basil and garlic to add as seasoning.

Continue reading An epic grocery-shopping trip

No small degree of bravado and swagger has marked the previous 7vs7 challenges. This element seems to be much less significant in the runup to this latest contest. I owe it to a new slew of contestants and the more serious nature of the experiment.

And so, in that more sober spirit, let me expose some weakness: I’m worried about my chances of finishing.

It’s not the variety of ingredients I fear; I did seven days with just seven ingredients last summer. And it’s not the extra work that goes into preparing or even researching this food, as I went six days with only unprocessed foods this winter.

It’s caffeine. I know it’s too much, but I probably drink about five cups of coffee on the average weekday. And there is caffeine-bearing plant cultivated within 100 miles of Spokane. Sure, we’ve got coffee roasters, but the beans come from more tropical climes.

In a last-minute effort to wean myself before the contest starts at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow, I decided to forgo the joe this morning. Instead, I had two cups of green tea. And I was doing just fine until a ran into a wall at noon.

So I brewed up a cup of coffee.

This does not portend well for the remainder of the week, when I must be fully alert for work. But I will try as hard as I can to fight the temptation.

I realize that I’m opening up myself to added torment from Remi, Unknown Neva and certain colleagues, but so be it. May their taunts double my resolve!

In the tradition of 7vs7 and 7vs7 2, my friends over at Spokane Food Blog have come up with a new food challenge. For five days, we only eat things raised within 100 miles of Spokane.

Courtesy of John Speare

I’m not going to rehash the rules and participants (there are more than 15); SFB has covered that extensively. You might also call this challenge “Putting the Loca in Locavore.”

The contest starts Monday, so my weekend homework is learning what I can eat and acquiring it. I’m planning to make trips to Fresh Abundance and Green Bluff for sure. The former has staff who know where stuff comes from, and the latter is home to more than a dozen farms that sell their own produce. Also, I’m going to check with Eggers on the South Hill for meat ideas.

My initial list is a bit short and riddled with question marks. But here it is.

Protein

• Chicken
• Eggs from FA or Green Bluff
• Lentils? Oats/barley/quinoa?

Fruit and vegetables

• Fresh corn
• Potatoes
• Cucumbers
• Summer squash (my garden)
• Tomatoes (my garden)
• Basil
• Onion
• Nectarines
• peaches
• basil

Other

Honey

Things I cannot eat and which may ensure my downfall

• Coffee
• Salt
• Cheese
• Alcohol

If anybody wants to trade fresh herbs or donate produce from their garden, leave a comment below.

Let me get right down to business: it’s time to kill this blog.

Why?

Mostly a question of credibility. I’ll let Spokane Food Blogger Remi do the explaining.

I started this as a summer 2008 project for inventing vegetarian things to grill. Hence the name. With that summer receding, I branched out to vegetarian stuff in Spokane and beyond. But the above link should explain why that topic is sort of a wash now.

It’s been fun, and in the interest of preserving all these fond memories, I’ll park these posts over at andrewzahler.com. This URL will redirect there in a day or two.

For now, I pass the torch to future burger revisers and guides to the Inland Northwest’s vegetarian pickings.