Eighth of an Acre Bounty

Gary has been out of town since Friday, celebrating a belated Christmas with his family. I’ve been here, holding down the fort – cuddling with cats and dog and letting the chickens in and out as they please. With only one person to cook for, meals have been pretty simple around here consisting mainly of giant salads or some New Mexico green chile brought up by my cousin last year. The chile is too hot for Gary so when he goes out of town I usually load up on all the spicy meals I can.

This weeks Dark Days highlight is perhaps the simplest meal of them all, certainly the meal with the fewest ingredients (I get carried away with things to put in my salads). A very late breakfast/lunch today of a sauteed leek and chevre omelet was just the thing to fit my mood, and completely local. I went to the West Seattle Farmers Market this morning. Pickings were scarce in terms of fresh produce, everyone’s fields seem to have been as decimated as our garden was by the snow and freezing temps. Nevertheless, I did get some more sunchokes from Whistling Train Farm ( I’ve got a hankering to turn these into some sort of gratin). A few bulbs of garlic and a sweet little package of made-yesterday chevre from River Valley Ranch.

I got home and picked a leek from the garden, sauteed it while cracking the eggs and in a short time had a simple, rich and tasty brunch. Two of the eggs came from our girls (they think spring is coming too). One egg came from Stiebrs Farms. I had a camera at the ready to take a picture, since I’ve been rather remiss lately in keeping the photo montage going for Dark Days. However, a omelet flipping incident rendered the product decidedly unphotogenic. Flavor however, was unaffected.

Local Ingredients: Leek, Butter, Eggs, Chevre.

Non Local Ingredients: None!