Colorado

While the week after Thanksgiving is usually devoted to austerity, our Colorado meal only continued the holiday binge!

We opted to recognize some of Colorado's major agricultural products: beef, beets and potatoes. I can't say that we support the current system of meat production, in Colorado or anywhere really. It's an unhealthy system that promotes quantity over quality. Cattle are fed subsidized grains that are grown only with high inputs of fossil fuels and synthetic nitrogen. At the grocery store, we pay remarkably low prices for our meat, largely because the real environmental and social costs are externalized--water quality is degraded, soil is eroded, and animal health suffers. There are alternatives, however. We could all probably stand to decrease our meat consumption, to the benefit of our health and the environment. In our home, when we eat meat, we primarily consume products that are local and sustainably produced. Hopefully, by supporting an alternative system, we make it more viable and broadly affordable in the long run.

This meal aims to celebrate Colorado's cowboy past and the early systems of grass-fed meat in the west.

We grilled steaks, two ribeyes for the grown-ups and a New York strip, split between the younger two. On the side, we served roasted yellow beets and purple potatoes--a colorful way to start the month of December! All of these products came from our favorite local farm.










I diced all the vegetables and roasted them separately. The beets went into a 425 degree oven for about 30 minutes. The potatoes were done in a cast iron pan on the stove, then finished in the oven. In both cases, the goal is to get a nice crust on the outside, and maintain a tender interior.


Colorado also boasts several excellent breweries! We especially like New Belgium, but also recommend Left Hand, Tommyknocker and Avery. (note, I did not include Coors!). We've recently been enjoying New Belgium's Ranger.

Everyone was pretty happy with this meal, though the girls avoided the beets. Lucy likes her steak with a little Heinz 57 sauce, but Maia saws into it plain. We had a long conversation about the "right" way to eat your steak. You could choose "rare" (juicy and edible) or the strangely named "well done" (dry like shoe leather). You can see which our household prefers!


Next stop: Nebraska

Missouri

It took us a while to decide what to eat for Missouri. I grew up near the Lake of the Ozarks, far from Kansas City and St Louis, each of which get a fair amount of attention for their food. Barbecue reigns in Kansas City and St Louis gave us toasted ravioli and some pretty tasty frozen custard. In the rural part of the state where I grew up, many people (including my family) regularly hunted. Wild rabbit, fried squirrel, dove and frog legs were not uncommon at our table. Now that I'm a city girl, these things are harder to come by.

We're always up for smoking a hunk of meat, so Kansas City barbecue it was. We had a brisket in our freezer from our favorite local grass-fed beef producer that was about 4 lbs. Marc smoked it for about 6 hours on a Saturday morning on the charcoal grill, keeping the temperature at around 225. The night before, he coated it with a blend of 2 T brown sugar, 2 T paprika, 1 T black pepper, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder and 1/2 tsp celery seed.


It turned out beautifully--the outside "bark" was nicely charred, but the inside was tender and juicy.

On the side, we served our now standard rosemary potatoes and this outstanding cole slaw from Rick Bayless:

Hickory House Sour Slaw
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1 T dry cooking sherry
1 T sugar
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt

1/2 medium head of green cabbage
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Combine the first 6 ingredients along with 2 T water in a food processor and blend well. (Or, just chop the garlic very fine and blend well with a whisk). Thinly slice the cabbage. Blend cabbage, parsley and dressing in a large bowl. Refrigerate for about an hour before serving.

Lucy and I opted to construct sandwiches, Marc and Maia ate theirs on the plate with sauce.




I deviated from our state and built a "Carolina style" sandwich, with the coleslaw and sauce right on top.


Marc and I enjoyed this meal quite a bit. The girls, less so, but they powered through! Lucy said that the flavor wasn't too bad, but she didn't like the texture. We had quite a bit of leftovers, which were excellent both as thinly sliced, cold sandwiches and cubed and heated up with sauce.

Next stop: Ohio

Virginia

Virginia is for lovers, so they say. Certainly, lovers of rich, salty, delicious foods would be quite at home!


Ham seemed the most logical choice for Virginia, even though the traditional country (or salt-cured) hams are harder to find in the Midwest. I went with a Beeler Ham, a naturally cured ham produced in central Iowa. Interestingly, if you get a naturally cured meat--meaning it was cured without nitrites--it will say "uncured" on the label. This isn't exactly true, the meat is cured using salt and spices (celery seed in particular). Labeling requirements don't allow a "naturally cured" option, though, so the label will state uncured.

On the side, we served collard greens and cheddar biscuits. We had a nice fresh bunch of collard greens from our CSA and cooked them up Southern-style for this meal. In a large skillet, brown 4 strips of bacon until it's nice and crisp, then remove and crumble. Add chopped onion and garlic and cook in the bacon grease until the vegetables are soft and aromatic. Then, add the collard greens, salt and pepper, and about a cup of chicken stock. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes, until the greens are nice and tender. Then uncover and continue cooking until the juices (pot likker) thicken and coat the greens. Finish with a splash of vinegar.


The cheddar biscuits are from Ina Garten and are one of our favorite recipes. These are great for a weekend breakfast or a dinner side. The leftovers, if there are any, make handy snacks or lunch additions. I don't use a mixer, but blend the butter in using a pastry cutter; and I don't roll out the dough, just pat it into a rough circle. Too much handling will make the biscuits tough.

The only new item for the kids was the collard greens. Lucy adamantly refused to taste them. Maia agreed only after I pleaded that I needed a reviewer for the blog so she agreed to taste a tiny bite. When we asked if she liked them, she said, "no....they're just...gross."

The rest of the meal was a hit. Lucy likes her ham with honey-mustard--which I make by mixing, shockingly, honey and mustard. Diced ham and a leftover biscuit will serve as a fine lunch-box addition tomorrow.


Next Stop: Missouri

Iowa

I'm going to start here:

because these are the only ingredients in our Iowa meal that did not come from within about an hour's drive of our house.

Iowa gets a lot of attention as the home of industrial agriculture. We have the dubious distinction of being the largest producer of corn, soy, laying hens and hogs. Michael Pollan, while visiting our fair city, called Iowa a "food desert." I take issue with that, because the seemingly endless rows of corn and beans exist alongside an ever expanding system of food production. Real food, that doesn't require processing and that people can eat as soon as it's harvested.

Our meal highlights only a small portion of that real food. This meal was remarkably easy to source and prepare. None of these are strange, specialty foods, they're available in abundance this time of year. It was a feast of grilled pork chops, tomato and mozzarella salad, rosemary roasted potatoes, fresh organic micro-greens, and sliced apples.

Tomatoes from Friendly Farm, Iowa City IA

Our usual procedure with this project has been to think of foods that are culturally relevant to each particular state. Meals introduced by immigrants, for example, or those traditional to the native people of the area. This meal is based on geography, but it also reflects some of Iowa's heritage and incorporates some of the products for which the state is known.

The pork chops came from our favorite local pork producer, Dennis Rehberg from Walker Iowa. His Hampshire hogs are an heirloom breed valued for their tender, marbled meat. In addition, his genetics (the line of hogs that he has bred for nearly 30 years) are some of the last available. No one in the state, possibly in the country, has this particular line of hogs. We like bone-in chops, which we rubbed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper before grilling. Marc used a new brand of charcoal, which was hotter than he expected, giving them a nice, dark char.



The rosemary potatoes have become a standard dish around here. Simply cut potatoes into wedges, toss in olive oil, salt, pepper and chopped fresh rosemary and roast at 425 degrees for about 40 minutes, tossing once half way through. They are consistently crisp outside and tender inside.

Lucy took charge of the tomato salad, one of her favorite dishes. She sliced the tomatoes, picked and sliced the basil and added fresh mozzarella cheese curds, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

We didn't have to drink water, either (believe me!). Iowa now boasts many excellent local beverage options!




We were all happy to eat this meal, in part because we would get to brag about our state to all of you! Here are the producers:

Pork: Dennis Rehberg; Walker, IA
Tomatoes: Friendly Farm; Iowa City, IA
Mozzarella curds: Acoustic Farms; Springville, IA
Basil: Our garden
Potatoes: Oak Hill Acres; Atalissa, IA
Rosemary: Grinnell Heritage Farm; Grinnell, IA
Micro-Greens: Organic Greens; Kalona, IA
Apples and Cider: Wilson's Apple Orchard; Iowa City, IA
Pale Ale: Peace Tree Brewing Company; Knoxville, IA
White Wine: Cedar Ridge Winery; Cedar Rapids, IA
Rye Whiskey: Templeton Rye; Templeton, IA

Iowa, You Make Me Smile!


Next Stop: Virginia

Kentucky

Marc and I had big plans for Kentucky--specifically, Texas toast piled with cheesey, bacony turkey; otherwise known as the Kentucky Hot Brown. The children, however, had other plans and we experienced our first all out mutiny. They were determined to have fried chicken. They didn't care that we've already had fried chicken, there is a Kentucky Fried Chicken right down the road from us and clearly that's what you should eat for a Kentucky dinner. Period. They won.

We consoled ourselves with the knowledge that fried chicken with biscuits was the favorite dinner of Kentucky native and Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe. While we hoped not to repeat any meals, I think we've done pretty well. This would be our 27th dinner, more than halfway done with no repeats so far!

For this meal, Marc managed the chicken and I handled the biscuits. He salted the chicken pieces and dredged them in white flour seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder.


Marc even went so far as to go out and buy a reliable fry thermometer, so he didn't have to guess at the oil temperature! In a large, enameled cast iron pot, he heated 8 cups cups of peanut oil to a full 375 degrees before adding the chicken pieces. The temperature dropped sharply right as the meat went into the oil, but it quickly recovered to about 350, where it stayed for the duration. He removed the breast pieces after about 25 minutes and left the dark meat for 30.

For the biscuits, I decided to use the lard that was leftover from our Navajo Tacos a couple weeks back. Usually, I bake biscuits and pastries with butter, but using lard was a revelation. It blended right into the flour and immediately created the perfect crumbly texture. The dough was soft, tender and easy to work with. Here's the basic recipe:

Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter or lard
3/4 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Blend the fat into the dry ingredients using a pastry cutter. Slowly add buttermilk and mix briefly until a soft dough forms. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead once or twice. Pat (don't roll!) dough out into a circle 1-2 inches thick. Cut with biscuit cutter, reblending scraps only once. Bake for 10 minutes, until just barely done.

Coffee was apparently Bill Monroe's preferred beverage, so we made a pot for the grownups.



No one had any complaints about this meal. The chicken was perfectly done, with an even, crisp crust. The biscuits were remarkably tender--butter seems to give them a bit of a crunch, these were soft and delicate.

Mine!

Next stop: Oklahoma

Washington

I visited Seattle for the first time this past spring, and spent three days eating my way around the city. Not only is Seattle a great beer town, the variety and quality of the seafood is outstanding. We here in the Midwest have access to good catfish, walleye and other river dwellers but lack the overwhelming supply that you find on the coasts.

For our Washington dinner, we chose the state's official fish: the steelhead trout. Steelhead are a "migrating" variety of rainbow trout--meaning that they leave the ocean to spawn in fresh water. Unlike salmon, they don't die after spawning, but may return to salt water. The meat of the trout was a lot like salmon, fatty and a rich pink color.

Our substantial fillet got a simple olive oil, salt and pepper treatment before heading to the grill. The fish went on the hot grill, skin side down, and we didn't flip it; instead, we put the top on the grill and let it cook mostly through. This gave the skin a nice char and reduced the risk that the entire thing would fall apart if we tried to turn it over!

On the side, we used up some of our favorite CSA vegetables: dragon tongue beans and purple potatoes.

The dragon tongue beans are similar to a green bean in flavor, though a bit milder. When raw, they have these lovely purple stripes, which fade after a quick blanch.

We roasted the purple potatoes in a 425 degree oven for about 35 minutes. They cooked up nicely, crisp on the outside and tender inside. After they came out, I sprinkled them with chopped dill and lemon juice.

We also included our "impulse buy" of two salmon sausages from our local co-op. These were made with a blend of salmon varieties, with onion, bell pepper and lemon.


This dinner was a hit with everyone. Both kids like salmon sushi, and were happy to try a cooked version. It was also quick to prepare. This project has taught us a lot about food--but I think the best discovery so far has been that we all like fish!

Next stop: Kentucky