This week, with Father’s Day on Sunday, our one local summer “day” was spread out throughout the week. For Father’s Day, the husband and I went out to an Italian cheese and meat course at Cheesetique, followed by dinner at Rustico. Rustico is a great neighborhood restaurant that sources a lot of their products from local farms and producers, and has a massive beer selection. I managed to have a fairly-local meal there, with Chesapeake (Dragon Creek) oysters, asparagus salad with FireFly goat cheese (MD, 173mi.), and the most local beer they had on tap, Southampton Ale (NY, 330mi.). (On tap = less packaging, which offsets some of the miles, right? That’s my story, anyway.)

I visited two farmers markets this week, Alexandria’s West End and Penn Quarter in DC (photos), plus had the CSA bag. We still have a fridge full of veggies to use up before the next CSA delivery on Wednesday as I just can’t pass up all the great summer produce that’s coming into season! Here’s what we cooked this week:

Dad’s Day Brunch: Pattypan squash and Virginia spicy beef sausage hash, chocolate-strawberry stuffed french toast, topped with strawberry red wine sauce. (Non-local but organic chocolate, bread from local bakery.) This squash hash is a great way to lighten the traditional potato-based dish for summer.

Recipe: Squash and Sausage Hash

Ingredients:

• 1 large pattypan squash, diced (any summer squash would work really)
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 2 sausages, sliced
• 1 t olive oil
• 2 T parsley, chopped

Heat oil over medium high heat. Add sausage and brown. Reduce heat to medium and add onion and squash. Cook about 5-7 minutes until squash is tender and golden. Remove from heat, add fresh parsley and serve.

(Toddler tried to like this, but the spicy beef sausage was just too spicy! Will make sure to get a sweet sausage for him next time.)

Dinner 1: garlic scape pesto-marinated flank steak and golden zucchini on the grill (non-local brown rice).

Dinner 2: leftover steak and zucchini salad, with a side of roasted asparagus, egg, and shaved Everona Stony Man cheese.

Dessert: previously mentioned Summer Solstice Shortcake with Basil-Infused Berries. (non-local flour, baking soda and salt)

So far my only local grain find is Maryland corn meal. I need to find some other grains, but I have a feeling whole grains like brown rice are not going to be possible.

Farmers/Producers:

• Parsley, scapes, lettuce – Potomac Vegetable Farms CSA, VA, 23mi.
• Asparagus, berries – Westmoreland Berry Farm, VA, 71mi.
• Stony Man (aged sheeps milk) cheese – Everona Dairy, VA, 83mi.
• Squash, onion – J&W Valley View Farm, VA, 84mi.
• Organic eggs – Hilldale Farm, VA, 111mi.
• Sausage, flank steak – Fauquier County, VA, 67mi. (via Let’s Meat on the Avenue, 1.1mi.)

This was an easy pasta dish made easier with a few Trader Joe’s favorites – cooked, peeled frozen shrimp and Ginger Soy Broth, plus my own prepped and frozen broccoli and garlic scape pesto from last week. I also used TJ’s flax seed pasta to fulfill my Whole Grains Challenge quota for the day. (OK, so it was 1 of 3 meals, but every small step counts, right?)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 bag flax seed fusili
• 3 c ginger soy broth (added to water to boil pasta)
• 1 c frozen broccoli
• 1 bag shrimp, thawed and tails removed
• 2 T garlic scape pesto* (or whatever kind you have on hand)
• 1/2 T olive oil
• 1 t roasted sesame oil
• 1/3 c cashews

Instructions: I added the 3 c of ginger soy broth to the pasta water. Cook pasta as instructed, adding broccoli for final 2 minutes. Reserve cooking water for later. Heat pesto and oils in skillet over medium heat. Add shrimp and cook just a couple minutes, about 3-4, adding cashews for final minute. Toss with cooked pasta, broccoli, and about 1/4 c of the pasta water. Enjoy!

* Recipe: Garlic Scape Pesto

Take one bunch of garlic scapes (3-4) and chop into 1 inch pieces. Add to food processor with 1/4 c olive oil, 1/4 c nuts of your choice (I used cashews, pecans and pistachios are also great), and 1/4 c parmiaggano cheese. Chop till fine. This is pretty potent, so use with care!

Toddler Notes: I believe this was the first time we really served shrimp to the toddler. He wasn’t interested the first night, but ate one bite the second. He ate all his broccoli first and then stole every last piece off the husband’s plate, before getting to the noodles. Hooray for broccoli!

Submitted to Presto Pasta Nights, created by Once Upon a Feast and hosted this week by Closet Cooking.

I thought up this dish after reading about this week’s Root Source Challenge subject, chives, and thinking about how to use all the veggies I bought at market last weekend. But the recipe, improvised on the fly while the husband and I took turns doing prep work in between reading to, holding (”up! up!”) and pouring “more Os!” for the toddler, needs a little more work. (The oh-so-helpful toddler also said, “No No NO” upon seeing the food processor. He still has an on-again off-again terror of it.) So instead I’ll just post the pictures and a general idea of what I’ll do next time, and if anyone attempts it I’d love to hear how it goes.

Recipe: Carrot-Chive Pesto Pasta

Mix up one batch of pesto using 2 garlic scapes (or garlic cloves), 1 bunch of chives, olive oil, parmigiano cheese and your choice of nuts (didn’t use them this time, but I’m thinking either almonds or pecans next time). Steam one bunch of peeled, sliced baby carrots. Puree half and mix into the pesto, then toss with remaining carrots and pasta of your choice. Top with chive blossoms if you have them. Not sure if that qualifies as a sufficient recipe for Presto Pasta Nights, but what the heck.

Oh and the toddler? Wouldn’t touch it. But he had filled up on Cheerios by the time it was ready.

In an attempt to establish a dinner routine in the FoodieTot house, I have decreed Tuesdays as pasta night. I had a container of ready-made green garlic pesto sauce (Smith Meadows, Va.) which made this meal even easier. (I would’ve made my own, but there was no green garlic to be had at the market, only this sauce. We’ll be getting our own as soon as our CSA begins delivering, I’m sure.) Simply cooked the fusili as instructed, tossed with about 1/2 c of the pesto sauce, sliced tomatoes and diced Italian salami. Yum. The spiciness of the salami held its own against the intense garlic flavor. The pesto was made with pecans instead of the usual pine nuts, which gave it a slightly nutty taste as well. (If you don’t have green garlic handy, I’m sure this would work equally well with a traditional basil pesto.)

The pasta was accompanied by the previously-mentioned strawberry, kale and mozzarella salad.

I’m submitting this to Presto Pasta Nights hosted by Once Upon A Feast. Just discovered this event and already see a lot of ideas for future pasta nights!