I'm not like some of my blogging friends -- Dr. Monkey and Sacred Suzie, for example -- who can cook fabulous meals and document the process in lovely photographs. I am usually running around the kitchen like a chicken with my head cut off because I started preparing dinner later than I wanted to and everyone is hungry. Still, I'm a pretty good cook, I almost always cook from scratch, and this time of year I love the availability of wonderful, locally grown produce. Yum.A few days ago I bought a nice baguette intending to make garlic bread, but I forgot that I had it and by yesterday it was as hard as a baseball bat. What to do? I know -- make Tuscan bread salad!
I used this recipe adding steamed string beans (yellow and green), red and yellow carrots, tomato, LOTS of garlic, plus diced cheese and salami. It was kind of like a sandwich all chopped up in a bowl, now that I think about it. Colorful, tasty, and I believe that everything was locally grown/made.
Organic Valley is a good source for recipes and their UHT milk in single servings is a godsend on camping trips. However, I was very disappointed with the revelation last month that they were purchasing a portion of their milk from a corporate "organic" "farm" in Texas. The CEO of OV was largely unapologetic. It reminded me a little bit of how the CEO of Urban Outfitters went from being a counter-culture "hippie" type to one of Rick Santorum's biggest supporters. Hope that's not what's in store for Organic Valley, which has been a boon to the little town of LaFarge, Wisconsin.
