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Weekly Check In

For the second week in a row, we've been well behaved and stuck to our plan. This may just be a record.

Meal 1 - Carrot and cilantro soup, pickled pepper and goat cheese sandwiches
We had a bunch of cilantro on hand and I had soup on my mind. A quick internet search pulled up this link to a recipe from Alice Waters. This soup was a-m-a-z-i-n-g! In fact, the next day I went online and bought Chez Panisse Vegetables. It's a beautiful book and I really like her style of writing. I don't yet have any additional dishes planned, but you'll be the first to know when I do.

Meal 2 - Roasted cabbage and bacon with couscous
This is one of my favorite winter dishes - it seems decadent yet healthy and comforting all at the same time. And it's pretty quick and inexpensive for a mid-week meal. I'll be posting the recipe later this week.

Meal 3 - Greens with Italian turkey sausage and green salad
About half of the farmers at our market are gone for the winter, but there are a handful that are sticking with us throughout the season, or at least for as long as they can. One of the farms, Lucky Dog Farm, is new to our market this year and they've said that as long as they have product to sell, they'll be making the trip down to Brooklyn. But, pickings are getting pretty slim (it is January after all). When we got to the market last week, they only greens they had left were collard greens. We grabbed a couple of heads and then headed over to the Di Paola Turkey stand and bought about a pound of loose spicy Italian turkey sausage. I sauteed the sausage, added some home canned tomato sauce along with the greens, and threw in some cooked penne at the end.  It was a delicious and filling winter dish.



Meal 4 - Smoked pork chops with apple chutney, roasted red potatoes and green salad
I've mentioned Wilklow Orchards in the apple picking post and the peach jam making post. What I haven't mentioned is that they also offer a wide range of meat. We've bought bacon, canadian bacon, ground beef and stew beef from them. But our absolute favorites are the smoked pork chops. Ridiculously good, they taste like bacon chops. Wilklow doesn't always have them (meat is seasonal too), so when they do, we buy as many as we can afford and put them in the freezer. Last week we ate the last 4 chops. Our freezer is sad now.


Well, that's that. We almost have the plan for this coming up week wrapped up. Check back soon to see what's cooking at Chez Gallo-Escalante.

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