Broccoli, Celery- gotta be

After reading the previous meatless posts, you may be asking yourself,
Are these two folks vegetarian?

The simple answer? Hell naw. We love bacon just like everyone else.  I will tell you though, we do not eat much meat. It is hard to find good meat these days. You're probably thinking, "Why, I can go to Stop and Shop or Shaws or BJ's Wholesale Club and find some great chicken or steaks or fish." No. Wrong. No you cannot.

Factory farmed meat is not something I often want to eat. It is filled with hormones, additives, antibiotics, chemicals and loads of other things I would not normally put in my mouth. Not to mention animals are kept in crowded and appalling conditions of which I simply cannot support. They are disgusting and make me want to cry. I will not go into detail considering this is a foodblog and we want you to be hungry. But in short, because of the previous reasons, I don't buy it, and Valen and I rarely cook it.

 Last Saturday I stuffed my face with mussels, oysters, sausage and roasted chicken at my friend's barbecue. Why the flesh binge? The oysters and mussels were harvested right here in the bay and sold by my good friend Mason through the  Matunuck Oyster Bar. The roasted chicken and sausage came straight off the land I was standing on- a farm right off route 138 in Kingston. I knew where these animals/crustaceans came from, and I knew they were treated fairly and justly. Last November, I processed (yes killed) my own Thanksgiving turkey. That turkey had a sweet life- living on Pat's Pastured Farm in Jamestown just roaming the fields as it should, and was killed humanely in a quick, painless instant.  I will let you in on a little secret- it was the best turkey I had ever eaten in my life.

Alive turkeys.

 Dead turkeys ready to be sold. 

More photos on Slow Food URI.

So, in the mean time, enjoy our meatless posts. We might have a meat one soon- I do have some friends with cattle and chicken farms. Yet I think we as Americans can all use a little bit less meat in our lives no?

Okey dokey artichokey. Here is our dinner.

Appetizer: 

A recreation of The Garlic's garlic cheese spread mentioned in previous post. Valen went crazy for this, wondering if he could make a crap load of batches of it and save it in his fridge. Technically you could but I feel like it will always be better fresh. Bread is the 8-grain loaf from the Village Hearth Bakery in Jamestown where I work.

2nd appetizer/first coursey kind of thing:

Goat cheese filled dates, simply because we have fallen in love with them. I think if everyone tried these there would be world peace. 

Salad:

Swiss Chard and avocado with parmesan and roasted garlic dressing. Simple and delicious. 

Main Course: Sopa/Zuppa/Soup

A split pea and barley soup I concocted the night before. Pureed with leeks, onions, carrots and vegetable broth. Valen and I decided to add sauteed onions because we had one in the fridge. Topped with a dollop of creme fraiche, cilantro and a sprinkle of hot red pepper flakes. 

Dessert:

This was Valen's genius and it was delicious. Vanilla bean ice cream with dark chocolate shavings. thrown in were some of the goat cheese filled dates. If I were to recommend any of these one dishes it would be this one. So, so good. 

"Mmmmmmmmmm."

What a great meal. Probably one of our last soups too, because its SPRING and we don't need to eat soul-warming foods anymore. Daffodils!!

See you foodies soon.

-C&V

Gahlic

Killington Vermont.  My best friend Kelsey and I embarked on the journey in her father's Subaru wagon packed with snacks, skis and CDs. We were staying about 2 miles down the road from the mountain in a little place called the Butternut Pancake Inn (yes it was just as cute as it sounds). Each day as we drove up the long and winding road leading to the mountain, we would pass by a restaurant called "The Garlic". After our first view, each time we passed  for the rest of the trip, we would both exclaim in unison "Da gahhhhhlic. Mmmmmm".

Pardon the bad breath and you've got yourself one of the most simple and refined but yet most widely used and delicious flavorings of all time. I am a huge fan of the bulb and so is Kels. We had to give this place a try.

I wish I took more photos of this spot. Better yet, I wish I could have captured the smell and somehow shared it with you internet people. The place reeked of garlic, in a good way. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING on the menu had garlic in it. Instead of the usual bread and butter/olive oil, it was bread and a crushed garlic clove topped with parmesan cheese, oil and vinegar. Genius. Kelsey and I both ordered the creamy garlic soup and we were in heaven. I know I promised no more crappy pictures but all I had was my phone. I followed with a salad with garlic vinaigrette and garlic butter roasted vegetables. Kels got garlic chicken with sauteed spinach and tomatoes.

Here we had an entire restaurant devoted to this one ingredient, worshipping and savoring it and honoring it as though it was a food of the gods. Maybe this is how we should look at all we eat. We so often take food for granted, shoving it down our esophaguses in cars on our way to work- or maybe reducing ourselves to eating food that can't even really be identified as "food" (hello cheese puff and Twinkies).

Jump into your food. Savor it. Smell it. Talk about it with your friends. Have fun cooking it. Grow it. Save some for your neighbor. Worship garlic, or whatever food you love. 

"Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good." - Alice May Brock