Dark Days ahead

The past week was the beginning of the Dark Days of Winter Eat Local Challenge, organized by Laura at (not so) Urban Hennery. The challenge, which runs November 15 – March 15, has these “rules”:

1. Cook one meal a week featuring at least 90% local ingredients.
2. You define local – the standard definitions range from 100 to 150 to 200 miles. (I consider local to be within 150 miles of Seattle.)
3. Ingredients can be things you grew and preserved yourself, sourced from local farms and markets, or purchased at the store.
4. Write about the meals you cook, your challenges finding ingredients, why you’re eating local or whatever else strikes your fancy for each recap. Photos are optional.
5. Include friends and family in your sourcing and eating as possible.

The first week of the challenge was busy; we were out Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights! Other evenings, we were eating not-entirely-local leftovers, so I didn’t manage to document a local meal until today.

At the Ballard Farmers Market this morning, I was seduced by River Valley Ranch’s fresh ricotta cheese. Cheesemaker Julie told me that she’d made the creamy, slightly sweet ricotta last night, from yesterday’s milking. I didn’t know what I’d do with the fresh cheese, but I knew that some was coming home with me.

While browsing ricotta recipes on epicurious, I noticed scrambled eggs with fresh ricotta and chives. I love breakfast for dinner, and scrambled eggs on toast seemed about right for the time I wanted to spend cooking tonight. I’d been lucky enough to score 2 dozen Skagit River Ranch eggs today, so I knew we’d have plenty for the coming week. I had no chives, but I had a beautiful little sweet red onion, bought at last week’s U-District market. Tall Grass Bakery’s French-style Campignon bread, which I’d also picked up in Ballard this morning, toasts up beautifully. We were out of homemade local butter (I haven’t yet found unsalted local butter, so I’ve been making my own), so I used what we had. The ricotta-laced eggs were deliciously soft and creamy. After finishing the eggs, I sliced up one of Rockridge Orchards’ Empire apples — a little bit of sweet apple nostalgia for dessert.

Where’d it all come from?
Skagit River Ranch: eggs
River Valley Ranch: fresh ricotta
Willie Greens: red onion
Tall Grass Bakery: Campignon loaf
Rockridge Orchards: empire apple
USA, probably Northwest: butter
Far, far away: black pepper