The Greenmarket Challenge: Day 2

Rather than supplementing my Greenmarket purchases with purchases from the supermarket as I usually do, I bough all of my purchases from the Greenmarket this week. I set myself a budget of $110, which is only slightly more than what I normally spend for two weeks of groceries. Keep in mind that this budget will cover my breakfasts, lunches, and dinner for the next 12 days; that's $11 a day, a fair budget considering my average lunch in midtown Manhattan is $8. I have allowed myself some leg room to use ingredients such as grains, sauces, and garlic that I already had on hand, but other than that necessary allowance, my entire diet for the week will consist of local foods. Follow along with me as I document local my meals over the next twelve days of my Greenmarket Challenge.

Day 2:

Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with Tonjes Farm Dairy ricotta, Cherry Lane Farm strawberries, and local honey

Lunch: Salad with Cherry Lane spinach Flying Pigs Farm chorizo and Knoll Crest hard boiled egg

Dinner: Grazin' Angus Acres beef sliders with Rick's Picks Slices of Life and Rancho Gordo baked beans

On Day 2 of my Greenmarket Challeneg, I turned the locavore movement low brow by making sliders with local, grass fed beef from Grazin' Angus Acres. I seasoned the tiny beef patties with salt and pepper and seared them in a very hot skillet for two minutes per side. They were very rare in the middle, but that's the way to eat such fresh grass fed beef. I served them on Parker House roles from a local bakery. I topped the sliders with Rick's Picks Slice of Life pickles which were amazing; high praise coming from a non-pickle lover.

On the side, I baked Rancho Gordo yellow eye beans using the recipe from his book Heirloom Beans. Grown in California, the beans aren't quite local, but I did already have them on hand, so they are allowed by my Greenmarket Challenge rules. Plus, if any food should be allowed break the rules of the challenge, it would be beans from Rancho Gordo, who's farming practices are locavore in philosophy if not by geography. His baked beans recipe, I should add, was unbelievable, making the my slight breakage of the rules well worth it.