Food and cooking tips

Buy Local Food : Strawberries, blueberries and many other kinds of fruit often are available from farms that allow you to do the harvesting (or not, if you prefer to pay for the cost of picking). Many fruits are easy to freeze, and apples will keep all winter in a cool corner of the garage.


If you're eating foods out of season, it's likely that they have come a long way - try to eat food that is both locally produced and can be found at that time of year, locally!


Buy Local Food : Cultivate an awareness of how far your food travels. When Rich Pirog, Food Systems Program Leader for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, tracked the miles traveled for 16 types of produce, he found that locally sourced fruits and vegetables such as apples, lettuce and tomatoes traveled an average of 56 miles, compared to 1,494 miles — nearly 27 times farther — for the same fruits and vegetables delivered through conventional retail channels. Things get stickier with combination foods, strawberry yogurt for example. Pirog came up with 2,216 miles by adding up the distance traveled for the yogurt’s milk, sugar and strawberries. That figure could be slashed by 90 percent if you buy plain yogurt and stir in some locally grown honey and fruit.












Blueberry-And-Walnut Pie Recipe
Blueberry-And-Walnut Pie Category Dessert Recipes 
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Ingredients And Procedures

-----------------------------SWEET PASTRY DOUGH----------------------------- 1 c Unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 c Sugar

1 pn Salt

1/4 ts Baking powder

4 tb Butter

1 lg Egg

-----------------------------BLUEBERRY FILLING----------------------------- 2 pt Blueberries

3/4 c Sugar

3 tb Cornstarch

3 tb Water

1 tb Grated lemon zest

3/4 c Walnut pieces

- toasted & coarsely chopped ----------------------------WALNUT CRUMB TOPPING---------------------------- 4 tb Butter

1/4 c Sugar

1/2 ts Cinnamon

3/4 c Unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 c Walnuts, coarsely chopped

MIXING THE PASTRY DOUGH: Stir together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut up and add the butter; toss gently to coat. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks sandy. Beat the egg and toss into the flour and butter mixture. Press the dough together, wrap and chill it. FORMING THE PIE SHELL: Lightly flour the work surface and dough. Roll the dough to a 14-inch diameter disk, 1/8-inch thick. Fit the dough into a 9-inch

oven-proof glass pie pan and trim away all but 1/4-inch of the excess dough. Turn the excess dough under and flute the edge of the pie. Chill while preparing the filling. MIXING THE FILLING: Rinse and pick over the blueberries and drain them on a paper-towel-lined pan. Combine one third of the berries and the sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer the berries in the juices that accumulate about 5 minutes. Strain the juices into another pan. Pour the water into a small bowl and stir in the cornstarch to dissolve it. Return the blueberry juices to a boil and beat about one quarter of it into the dissolved cornstarch. Return the remaining juices to a boil and beat the cornstarch mixture into it. Return the juices to a boil, beating constantly, and allow to boil about 1 to 2 minutes, beating constantly. Stir in the remaining blueberries, the cooked berries, lemon zest and walnuts, and cool. MIXING THE CRUMB TOPPING: Cream the butter until soft, add the sugar and cream until soft and light. Beat in the cinnamon. Mix in the flour, then the walnuts. The mixture should fall into large, soft crumbs. Pour the filling into the prepared pan and smooth. Scatter over the crumbs and bake at 350F until the filling is set, the crumbs have colored and the crust is baked through, about 40 minutes. Cool on a rack. Makes one 9-inch pie.



 
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