I first saw this idea here who found it here who got it from this russian livejournal. So it’s making it’s rounds on the internet I wish I still babysat or had a niece or nephew because I think little kids would love this quick and easy meal. OK, perhaps not as quick and easy as spaghetti with sliced up hot dogs but a fun way to get the kids to eat dinner.

What you will need:

• Spaghetti:I think I used thin spaghetti. I would recommend using a spaghetti that’s tough enough to not break when you pierce the hot dog pieces. I bet whole wheat spaghetti would work too.

• Hot Dogs: I used turkey hot dogs but I’m sure any kind of hot dog/soy dog would do.

Slice up hotdogs in bite sized pieces.

Stab spaghetti noodles through hot dog pieces. It’s hard to get a specific pattern on both sides, I gave up pretty quickly on getting the spaghetti to be perpendicular to the hot dog piece.

In a pot of boiling water, follow the spaghetti’s directions for cooking the spaghetti A La Dente. Gently drain water and voila.

A masterpiece that can be eaten with or without a sauce. Although I would recommend that the initial presentation be without sauce.Perhaps someone will come up with a creepy name for the dish and it will become a halloween favorite.

Library

The Manchester Library is selling off some of their old stock on Thursday June 25th, 2009 from 2:30 pm to 6:30pm.

For $5.00, you will receive a paper grocery bag, at the entrance of the Winchell Room. You can fill the bag with as many items that you can fit into the bag from the materials available in the Winchell Room. Additional bags can be purchased at $5.00 per bag.

Farmer’s Markets

• Downtown Manchester’s Farmer’s Market starts Thursday June 18th, 2009
• The Seacoast Growers Association’s markets are open. (Durham: Mondays 2:15—5:30, Kingston: Tuesdays, 2:15—5:30, Hampton: Tuesdays, 3:00—6:00, Dover: (new location) Wednesdays, 2:15—6:00, Exeter: Thursdays, 2:15—6:00, and Portsmouth: Saturdays, 8:00—1:00)
• Deerfield’s Farmer’s Market website still lists opening day as TBD, but last year they opened Friday June 20th.

State Fairs

The first two fairs of the season are July 22nd – July 26th for the North Haverhill Fair and July 23 – July 26th for the Stratham Fair. Those who want to enter pictures or arts and crafts should get their entries in by July 15th.

This is one of my favorite meals to make with ground turkey. But you can use ground beef instead. For the breadcrumbs I crushed wheat chex because it was all I could find in the house.

1.3 lbs Ground Turkey (or Beef)
1 Large Egg Beaten
1/2 cup Bread Crumbs
1/2 cup Chopped Onion
2 Tbs Yellow Mustard
2 tsp Italian Seasoning, dried
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
1/4 tsp Garlic powder

Filling:
10oz Frozen Shredded Spinach, Thawed and drained
1/2 cup Fat free ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded (may be low fat cheese)

Topping:
1/4 cup Tomato Salsa

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with nonfat cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mix together ground turkey, egg, bread crumbs, and onion. Add mustard, italian seasoning, salt, black pepper, and garlic powder and mix well.

3. Place half the meat mixture in prepared pan. Make a shallow well down the length of the meat.

4. Defrost Spinach and drain well. In medium bowl, combine spinach, ricotta, and mozzarella, mix well. Place in well.

5. Cover with remaining meat mixture; pinch sides of meat together to seal well.
6. Cook at 350 degrees F for 1 hour. If liquid from vegetables seeps out of stuffing, that`s OK, just drain it off. Let rest for 10 minutes, top with salsa (it covers up the odd colour of the cooked ground turkey), slice and serve.

On Sunday I bribed my husband into going to the New Hampshire Maple Producers open house with me. We went to Folsom’s Sugar House in Chester. How did I bribe him? Maple Syrup Sundays… YUM.

We listened to the owner talk a little about how he produces the maple syrup but the place was packed so we didn’t stay long. I guess they had a good weekend because they were sold out of bottled syrup and packaged treats by the time we got there.

I did find the steam coming off the boiler to be a fun photography subject. I probably took 10 or 15 pictures of the ceiling. The owners probably thought I was crazy.

I really liked the rustic looking sugar house. It reminded me of stories my grandfather used to tell me about when he was a kid growing up in Gaspesie.

You may wonder why my husband is dressed so funny. Well it has to do with why I had to bribe him. I got him to agree to stop at the sugar house on our way home from the Eastern States 20-mile Race.

He ran 20 miles in the pouring rain along the cold coast on New Hampshire breaking his personal best. It was a little difficult for me to take pictures of him though. Between the wind and the rain I had a hard time keeping my camera safe. It’s usually such a fun race for the spectators because you can hop in your car from beach to beach waiting for your runner to come by. But it was a miserable day, and I wasn’t running around. But I’m so proud of him so I put up with it. I am glad that he finished almost 1/2 hour faster than last year.

So I’m still waiting for my seeds to get here so I can start more Tomatoes and Eggplants.  I’ve even already filled the peet pods to plant them.

I figure I would remind those in New England that this weekend is the New Hampshire Maple Producers Open House.  You can go to their website to find out what different maple houses are offering. Some are offering tours, serving maple sundays, crafts, wagon rides and other products.  Don’t tell the kids it might be educational.

I made banana bread today from a modified version of the 18 serving version of this recipe on Allrecipes.com.  If you have bananas that you are looking to mash and make banana bread out of I would recommend mashing your bananas and measuring how many cups of mashed banana you have.  Then find a serving size that works well with the quantity of banana.  You can add walnuts or chocolate chips to this bread to mix it up.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1-1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup margarine or softened butter
• 1-1/2 cups mashed bananas
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips (optional)

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter or margarine. Beat the egg slightly, and mix into the creamed mixture with the bananas. Mix in sifted ingredients until just combined. Stir in milk. Stir in nuts or chocolate chips if you use them Spread batter into one greased and floured 9×5 inch loaf pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until top is brown and cracks along the top.

Here’s a small collection of links of local resources and blogs for local foods in New Hampshire.  I’ll try to add stuff as I find it.  Let me know if you know of any resources I can ad.

Resources

• Seacoast Eat Local
• NH Made – Not just for food.
• NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food Publication – Restaurants, Farms by Category
• PickYourOwn Farms
• Seacoast Region Farmers Markets
• Seacoast Growers Association
• NH Cheesemaker’s Guild
• Granite State Dairy Promotion
• Local Harvest (a National Website of Local Resources)
• Culinate
• NewEnglandGrown.com
• NH Food Systems Locavore Groups

Blogs

• Seacoast Eat Local Blog – this one is often posts about events and news in the local food community.
  
• Yankee Food – A nice personal blog about some of the food that can be prepared with local foods.

This is one of my new favorite dishes, I’m excited for the excesses in the garden this summer of eggplant, tomato, zucchini and summer squash because it will be delectable with cheese and portobello mushroom.  Be sure to save this recipe if you are vegetarian or seasonally vegetarian like I sometime am.  I was quite proud of myself for making most of this recipe with organic vegetables, although at this time of the year they weren’t grown locally.

I found this recipe in the local supermarket, Hannaford’s, monthly Fresh publication.  They recommend several of their store brand olive oils and cheeses and suggest that the dish be served on a orzo pasta.  I like it as is.

Vegetable Gratin
*1 eggplant (about 1 lb.), ends trimmed & sliced into 1/8″ to 1/4″ slices
*1 Tbsp. Olive oil mixed with basil (divided)
*1 large sweet onion, finely chopped, divided
*2 large portabella mushrooms sliced into 1/8″ to 1/4″ slices
*1 cup shredded Asiago cheese
*2 medium zucchini (about 1 lb.) ends trimmed and sliced into 1/8″ to 1/4″ slices (I like to use one zucchini and one summer squash)
*1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
*1 Tbsp. Dipping oil optionally seasoned with garlic
*3/4 cup bread crumbs, divided
*3 large tomatoes (about 1 1/2 lb.), cored and sliced into 1/8″ to 1/4″ slices

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-13 inch baking pan with vegetable spray.
2. Cover bottom of dish with eggplant slices and drizzle with 2 tsp. Basil Oil. Sprinkle half the chopped onion over the eggplant.
3. Layer mushrooms on top of onions, sprinkle on Asiago cheese, and drizzle with remaining 1 tsp. Basil Oil. Layer on zucchini and top with remaining chopped onion.
4. In a small bowl, mix Parmigiano with Garlic Oil and 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs. Sprinkle over onions.
5. Finally, layer tomatoes on top and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup bread crumbs.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, until vegetables are tender when pierced with the tip of a knife. Turn on broiler and broil 2 to 3 minutes or until top crumbs are lightly browned – watch carefully to make sure gratin doesn’t burn.

Peep in Hot Chocolate, originally uploaded by mbarsalou.

I forget who’s blog I saw this on first, but I thought it was a great idea. In case you’ve never seen one peeps are Easter candies made of sugar covered marshmallows. What could be more perfect for a cup of hot chocolate?

So I’m big into supporting local farmers that practice sustainable agriculture and who treat their meat animals with respect before they become steak, so I try to buy some of my food from local farmer’s markets. My favorite is the Deerfield Farmer’s Market. Last year we got AMAZING strawberries there from a tiny little vendor and I was very impressed with the heirloom turkey I got for thanksgiving from Beausoleil Farm in Deerfield, NH.

Cultivate has a Farmer’s market finder for all over the country. It’s currently missing the Deerfield Market and I’m not sure why that is but it is a great resource for a start to a local food search.

Allow me to go on a brief tangent on Heritage Turkeys now. Over 95% of turkeys are of the same breed, bred for their huge turkey breasts. They are so unhealthy that they cannot even reproduce naturally. I find their flavor uninteresting as well, at least now that I’ve had a delicious full breasted tender heritage breed.

“Simply by virtue of having a flavor, this represented a completely different order of turkey. Now I understood what turkey was like before the triumph of the Broad Breasted White, and why eating turkey had once been considered a great treat”

-Michael Pollan