Tagged: WFAEats

Listen to Charlotte Talks on Friday morning at 9:00am for a conversation about growing and cooking veggies from your own back yard. Recipes below for Roasted Corn Salsa, Oven "Fried" Okra, Stuffed Poblano Chiles and Buttermilk Ranch Dressing.

A twenty minute drive south brought me to the home of Raul Alatorre and his wife, Alicia, a newly transplanted couple of Mexican origin. The Alatorre’s moved eighteen months ago from Albuquerque, New Mexico to their suburban home in Ballantyne. Raul’s job of 22 years brought the couple here. He works for Mission Foods, the largest tortilla manufacturer in the United States.

I bumped in to Nan Chase at the Blue Ridge Book Festival last May. The Asheville author was discussing her book, Eat Your Yard.

Riding the crest of the Eat Local movement, she has produced an attractive, helpful book to help backyard farmers. But instead of ripping out the sod to grow squash and beans, Nan takes an aesthetic approach—mix food-producing plants into the landscape.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I despise it.

Lumps of low-fat cereal afloat in a sea of soymilk. Goopy, gelatinous oatmeal. Protein shakes the color and consistency of mulch - and every bit as appetizing.

Recently I vented about this on Facebook. And thanks to the wonders of virtual communication, my longtime "friend" Kym Motley responded right away with an offer to help.

  Few things excite me more than morel mushrooms. Hunting them is a rite of spring where I come from. My hometown, Shelbyville, Illinois, holds a mushroom festival Spores ‘n’ More, with a contest and auction. That’s serious mushrooming.

There’s something about that delicate nutty taste, the crispy-fried texture that makes my mouth water. Morels are the epitome of eating local, in season. If they were available every day, I wouldn't care so much.

Sound Clip: Pharaohs Slaves