Low Mileage Food

We just got our first snow of the year.  (I say first as if we’re going to get more.  Winter in North Carolina is unpredictable.  Some years we get no winter weather at all.  Some years, we get quite a bit.  This may be all we get this year.  But 3 to 4 inches mid-December is pretty unusual, and I’m guessing we haven’t seen the last of winter weather around here for the season.)  It started Friday afternoon, and continued through mid-day yesterday.  It was cold, and wet, and we mostly did what smart people in this part of the state do when it snows:  stayed home.  We did venture out to the Homeland Creamery Store – we were out of eggs, the roads had started to clear, it’s nearby (just a few minutes, in good weather) and we have snow tires.  (We obtained two dozen eggs, 3 pounds of sausage (there are sausage balls in our future for Christmas, noms), 3 pounds of cheese (and we’ll have cheese straws too), a half gallon of chocolate milk, and a half gallon of eggnog.  Damage was 39.30.  Local food, for the win.)

Anyhow, we made it out and back in one piece.  That was in for our snowy adventures, however.  (I know this is heresy, but I hate snow.  Living for a winter in Utah ruined me for winter forever.  Working for an educational institution where we have to make up snow days has done it too. I prefer spring break to snow days.  Right now, we’re on holiday break, so I didn’t grouse much.  )

So, last night, we were in the mood for something warm and filling.  I put together a pork stew, and made a quarter batch of my favorite rolls (they’re dead easy, and really good.  But I got 12 yesterday out of a quarter recipe, so be warned, it makes a ton.)  Ingredient breakdown as follows:

Stew:

• pork chops:  Rocking F Farm, purchased at the Farmer’s Market (farm is 6.6 miles from the house, though they went into town to sell it and we went into town to buy it)
• flour to coat the pork with:   self-rising, from Midstate Mills (Southern Biscuit brand), probably purchased at Food Lion or Harris Teeter (105 miles)
• tomatoes:  bought local or grown by my dad (hard to know at this point), canned by my mom (3 miles, if home grown)
• beef broth:  organic, Harris Teeter brand (bob knows)
• spices:  bought in bulk at the co-op (ditto)
• cheese:  Sweetwater Valley Farm, purchased from the Homeland Creamery store  (350 miles)

Rolls:

• flour:  regular old Gold Medal bread flour, because I need to restock on non-self-rising AP
• yeast:  purchased in bulk at Earthfare
• salt:  purchased in bulk at the co-op
• milk:  Homeland Creamery, purchased at the farmer’s market (4 miles)
• sugar:  organic, purchased in bulk at the co-op
• oil:  purchased at the co-op

So, mostly local, mostly organic, mostly purchased in a sustainable way, and all very tasty.

(Oh, and leftovers rolls?  Work nicely the next morning with a couple of soft-boiled local eggs [Ward’s Happy Chickens, up in McLeansville, purchased from Homeland Creamery], and some local sausage [Phillips Brothers Country Ham, down in Asheboro.)