Tag: eat local

Keisha Pittman McKinney: Local is the Flavor of Your Town {Foodie Friday}

My husband had a birthday at the end of last month.  And, as is customary on this occasion, he received several gifts and cards.  One card particularly intrigued me.  It held a wad of cash (wahoo!!!) and a note, “since you don’t really have anywhere to go out to eat in your town, buy a treat for yourself on us.”

In the moment I laughed, agreed and was also thankful for the sentiment.

But, as his birthday money kept burning a hole in my pocket (did you catch that!) I started thinking more about our new little town.

South Arkansas is full of towns like mine; places with few eateries, the usual suspects when it comes to fast food, and probably one or two sustainable optional varieties.  We look at the town, we assume its cookie cutter, and always default to our favorite spot. 

I’ve heard several people locally talk about their favorite  but usually it involves an eye roll, a deep sigh and a grunt.  So one day this past week, I did a little drive by during my lunch break.  While I was able to hit them all during my lunch break, I had to remind myself I am very efficient with time, and we do have lots of variety in this town of mine. 

TJs-foodie friday

I’ll begin at the red light by my house. There sits a busy gas station at the intersection by the high school.  And if you were to sit across the street beginning at 10:45am, you would see a full parking lot for 2 hours.  Business men, ladies, and construction workers; they come and go in the same pack in which they arrive.  Inside you find people who know your name, a lavish salad bar and a daily changing “hot plate”.  It meets the 1st requirement for local dive flair – if the parking lot is full, its gotta be good!

TacoTruck.Stillwells

 A shift from there to the town square will fill your culinary treasure box.  A Mexican street truck adorns one corner and shares the parking lot with Dish Network and the DeQueen Bee, our local paper. Flanking the opposite corner is Stillwell’s Restaurant. If you ever come to town and want to meet me for lunch, this is where we will be. Open for breakfast and lunch, the daily special is always on point. French Dip Friday, meatloaf sandwich on ciabatta, and that chicken spaghetti!!! If none of those entice you, their southwest panini with a cup of potato soup leaves a little room for the homemade peanut butter pie that will make you want to slap yo’ mama in the face!  The wifi always works, the iced coffee drinks flow til 2pm, and the people….they smile and ask your story.

Mexican Stops on Square

 The rest of the town square sits perpendicular to the Pilgrim’s plant and with it brings a slew of special local options.  A tortilla factory! 2 mexican supermarkets, 1 of which apparently begins slow roasting carnitas on Friday night and it is all gone by noon every Saturday.  Mary’s Gorditas is only open on the weekend (nuff said!). And, another famed taco truck that I can vouch for.  Even a gringo can order the hand patted sopas on a Saturday for lunch! If that’s not enough around the block is a local carniceria that has the best cut of steaks and in house seasoned taco meat. (you are wanting to come for a visit now, aren’t you!)

in town stops

 Oh, I’m not done.  We have a pandaria (Mexican bakery).  A Mexican ice cream shop.  A Baskin Robbins in the gas station (one of the busiest Tiger Mart’s in the state thank you Greyhound). An in town produce stand that runs year round with everything from the farm on the edge of town.  An Asian grocery store at a local flea market. Pruett’s, our local grocery store is the best place for bar b que; the smoke flavor just fills your nostrils as you walk in to get your groceries.  Simple Simon’s Pizza has an unusual menu (just give them an hour if you are planning to pick it up!). Then there’s the Country Girls Café that is a new Saturday morning tradition for @bigpittstop and her mister. Pancakes as big as your face and eggs that are light and fluffy.   

RanchHouse

 I’ll round out the tour with the Ranch House Café.  My parents discovered this place when they moved us in.  It has its own smoke house outside, the usual dinner plate with sides, the unusual handmade fried pies and homemade desserts.  I recently learned they make their own grilled veggies that you can substitute for any of the fried stuff.  And, if you don’t hear “how y’all tonight,” then you’re probably not sitting at the right place.  My dad prefers this place over my cooking and the hubs knows it’s where we will end up if I’ve had a long day.

And, I forgot a stop by NatiBCakes, Fat Chance’s Buffet, Sunrise Buffet, and the Tyson Family Store.

Variety we have.  Unique dining experiences pervade.  I mean I’ve been here 5 months and haven’t worn these places out yet.  Look around and don’t complain, the local stuff is what adds flavor to your town!

 keisha pittman mckinney

 

Keisha (Pittman) McKinney is settling in to her new married life in South AR after she #becamemrsmckinney.  A Digital Media Director by day for a church in Northwest Arkansas, Keisha is remembering what its like to plan ahead for shopping trips to “the city,” getting resourceful at her small town Walmart and creating online shopping personas everywhere.  She blogs @bigpittstop about daily adventures, cooking escapades, #bigsisterchats and the social justice cases on her heart.

 

 

Follow Keisha:

Blog –bigpittstop: new journey, new normal, new you –  http://www.bigpittstop.com/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/bigpittstop
Twitter – https://twitter.com/bigpittstop
Instagram – http://instagram.com/bigpittstop#
Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/bigpittstop/
Periscope – @bigpittstop

Dishin’ it with Chef Matt McClure: Watermelon Gazpacho {Foodie Friday}

matt mcclure

At the Hive, I often preach about celebrating the season. Here, we write ingredient-driven menus. This means that what is ripe and coming out of the ground is what we will be working with for tonight’s dinner. During the summer months, this philosophy is easy to manage with a great variety of produce coming in the door from our local farmers. The Arkansas climate gives us a long growing season and produces some of the most delicious fruits and vegetables I have ever tasted.  Going to the farmer’s market and seeing these foods inspire me. It’s a great season, with lots of opportunity to play with new ingredients and create fun, new dishes. We are also busy preserving the season by making peach butter, ground cherry jam, blueberry jam, pickled cucumbers, green tomatoes and green beans. I refer to it as building our pantry. Having these house made items on hand to pull from later in the season keeps our menu fresh during the winter months when there is not much growing. This kind of cooking gives us the opportunity to offer our guests a unique Arkansas culinary experience. 

I feel that the history of food and cooking in Arkansas is humble and honest. My grandmother had a garden, fruit trees and some livestock in her backyard. She would pick blackberries from wild bushes nearby. Eating local and preserving the harvest weren’t tag lines then. It was just life in rural Arkansas.  That sense of time and place has motivated me to cook the way I cook.

In developing the recipe for this Watermelon Gazpacho, we wanted to utilize several ingredients that can be found at the market at the same time. This recipe is completely dependent on the quality and freshness of the produce used. It is fairly easy to prepare, but does require a little planning ahead. Watermelons have a unique flavor– they are sweet with a crunchy texture. We balance this sweetness with a little red wine vinegar. The vegetables are all rough cut in similar sizes and seasoned with a little salt and vinegar. This is allowed to steep overnight to develop all of the flavors and “cook” the vegetables. Gazpacho isn’t supposed to be fancy salsa. Once the vegetables have marinated overnight, the sachet of aromatics is removed and the vegetables are pureed. This is seasoned with salt, olive oil and red wine vinegar. This is a soup that is great for summer’s hot weather. It’s served chilled and is very refreshing.   

matt mcclure

 

Watermelon Gazpacho
Serves 10
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Ingredients
  1. 1 1/2 watermelons, peeled and fleshed
  2. 2 cucumbers, peeled
  3. 8-10 tomatillos, paper removed, rinsed and quartered
  4. 3 Fresno chilies
  5. 3 pounds red bell peppers
  6. 1 red onion
  7. ¼ cup red wine vinegar (adjust to taste)
  8. 1 1/2 cups extra-virgin olive oil (adjust to taste)
  9. Kosher salt to taste
Sachet
  1. 5 sprigs basil
  2. 2 cloves garlic
  3. ½ Jalapeno, split
Instructions
  1. Cut and marinate all vegetables in salt and vinegar for at least 1 hour.
  2. Puree vegetables with stick blender.
  3. Add sachet and leave in soup for 8-12 hours while in refrigerator.
  4. After 12 hours, remove sachet and run through a food mill to remove seeds and large chunks.
  5. Blend in extra-virgin olive oil and adjust seasoning to taste.
Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/
Getting to Know Your ARWB Foodies

Matthew McClure
The Hive

What food reminds you of childhood?

My grandmother’s scrambled eggs. They had so much flavor and were so creamy. Finally, I learned her secret, which was Philadelphia cream cheese. Delicious!

What is your favorite international cuisine?
Mexican, Indian, Korean…I could never choose which one I like more. They all cook with inexpensive cuts of meat and spice them aggressively with their own cultural blends.

What is always in your refrigerator at home?
I always have some sort of pickled vegetable.

What is your most used cookbook?
The Flavor Bible, by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. Our menu at The Hive is very ingredient driven. I go to the farmers market, find the foods that I feel look and taste best, and then we change the menu. This book gives great suggestions of different flavors that pair well with each other.

What is your favorite kitchen gadget?
My Pacojet. It makes the smoothest ice creams and sorbets.

Do you have a favorite food indulgence?  
Many…fried chicken, an Indian dish called Bhindi Masala, which is an amazing okra dish. Last meal material.

What is your go-to ingredient that you use time and time again?
I love to use a variety of dried chilis. Guajillo, marash and Calabrian my go-tos.

What is your favorite food meal to cook at home?
For comfort food, chicken and rice is a house speciality. I also love making fresh masa tortillas and homemade Mexican food.

What is a cooking tip that you would like to share with beginning cooks?
Always taste your food throughout the cooking process. Also, make sure you have a sharp knife, brand doesn’t matter.

When you’re not cooking, what are your favorite pastimes?
Fishing, canoeing, hiking and cycling. I really enjoy being outside.

What else would you like us to know about you?
I’m on a mission to prove that Arkansas food has a place at the national leConnect with Matt and The Hive:

Twitter: @MatthewrMcClure
@21CBentonville
FB: The Hive
FB: Matt
Instagram: Matt
21C Museum Hotels

Matthew McClure, featured chef at #AWBU #Foodie Friday 14,  was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, where hunting, fishing and his grandmother’s cooking ignited his passion for food. After studying at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont, he settled in Boston working at a number of restaurants including Troquet, Harvest and No.9 Park under the direction of Barbara Lynch.

After years in Boston, Matt was eager to get back to his home state to reconnect with the ingredients and foodways of his childhood. He returned to Little Rock where he worked under Lee Richardson at Ashley’s at the CapitalHotel, developing strong relationships with local farmers and producers and rediscovering the agricultural resources of his home state.

In 2012, he was selected to open The Hive located at 21c Museum Hotel. His cooking is reflective of both the history and geography of Arkansas as well as new immigrant communities and their influence on the culinary landscape. His longstanding and outspoken commitment to support local farmers and purveyors has cemented his position as a notable champion for Arkansas’s burgeoning culinary renaissance. Matt was a Semifinalist for the 2015 James Beard Foundation Best Chef: South award and named FOOD & WINE The People’s Best New Chef in the Midwest region. He is also an active member of the Southern Foodways Alliance. 

 

About The Hive

The Hive featuresexecutive chef and Arkansasnative Matthew McClure’s take on refined country cooking, and seeks to articulate the unique culinary identity of Arkansas. McClure has developed a program that is true to the High South and showcases the region’s farmers and culinary landscape, highlighting local ingredients such as black walnuts, sweet onions, freshly milled corn meal, hickory smoked hams, peaches and melons. McClure’s menu is a contemporary take on the foods and ways of cooking that are familiar to the region such as pickling and preserving, making jam, and sourcing whole animals whenever possible.

The restaurant is located in the 21c Museum Hotel, at 200 NE A Street in Bentonville, Arkansas. Reservations are recommended and can be made by calling 479.286.6575. 

Farm to School and What it Means to McCool Farms {#Farm2Home14}

panelFarm2Home14 FarmerPanel From Left: Beth Eggers (Wye Mountain Flowers and Berries), Mark Morgan (Peach Pickin’ Paradise), Chuck McCool (McCool Farms) and Bob Barnhill (Barnhill Orchards)

 By Chuck McCool, owner of McCool Farms

Note: Chuck McCool was a recent panel participant in #Farm2Home14 sponsored by Arkansas Grown, The Arkansas Agriculture Department and P. Allen Smith.  He is an avid participant in the National Farm to School Network,  active in the Arkansas Division of Farm to School and  shares just a little of  his passion for the program with all who are willing to listen and learn.  He welcomes your inquiries and comments

Imagine if you will, students pressed together in lunch lines at a small country school, their eyes glancing up and down the steam table trying to get a glimpse of the menu being served. A smile fills their sweet little faces as they see their favorite item—watermelon. This day couldn’t come fast enough. This wasn’t any ordinary watermelon. This one was made possible through the Farm to School Program and was grown by someone they knew, a neighboring farmer.  This, they knew, was what it meant to “eat local.”

The National Farm to School Network links local farmers with schools in their communities. The program’s goal is to provide local homegrown produce to area children.  Produce harvested today is served on the students’ plates tomorrow.  Farm to School links children to nearby small and mid-size farms and ranches that produce fresh, healthy and minimally processed foods that are served at their schools.

McCool Farms, along with other participants in the Farm to School program,  believes that healthy eating habits are essential to an individual’s lifelong well-being. In particular, children should have access to fresh, healthy foods as part of a nutritionally-balanced school meals program. Studies show that students will eat more fruits and vegetables when they are fresh and picked at the peak of their flavor. Students are also more likely to try new foods when they are part of a Farm to School program.

Not only does Farm to School improve nutrition for school children, it strengthens local economies by expanding markets for small and mid-size agricultural producers and food entrepreneurs whose products have typically been unavailable at school.

It also enhances children’s “food literacy” by familiarizing students with foods grown nearby, teaches them how and where their food is grown, builds knowledge about how to prepare healthy foods, and educates them about the health, nutrition, social and environmental impacts of food choices. Farm to School can also be a great way to build positive relationships among students, parents, farmers, educators and other members of the community. (www.farm2school.org)

This program  has opened up a whole new market for the produce grown at McCool Farms .  “The National Farm to School Network (NFSN) is an information, advocacy and networking hub for communities working to bring local food sourcing and food and agriculture education into school systems and preschools.  http://www.farmtoschool.org/about

mccool pumpkin patch

McCool Farms is a family-operated farm dedicated to raising thirty acres of heirloom vegetables.  A goal of the farm is to provide its customers with the freshest, best-tasting produce and to ensure that children know they are the future of the farm.

As summer winds down most farmers are winding up our production.   But at McCool Farms, and other Farm to School farms, another round of crops is being planted  for the school season.  Our fall sales will more than double our spring sales and prepare us to supply area schools with fresh, locally grown , nutritious vegetables.  It’s a win for the schools and a win for the farm.

mccool collage

McCool Farms realizes that there is more to the Farm to School program than just selling produce to school. As ambassadors to the schools, McCool Farms has been blessed with the opportunity to teach children the source of some of their food . Students get to visit the farm and experience what farming is all about..  We get to experience a whole new joy when a small child runs up and  thanks us for bringing them a watermelon or when mother tells you that  her child who use to hate vegetables,  now cleans his plate. Or it might be when a father,with the encouragement and help of his children, now plants and harvests from the family garden. 

no food

McCool Farms believes we  are educators as well as farmers. By allowing schools to bring students to the farm, letting  them dip their fingers into the soil,  planting a seed, harvesting a tomato or a pumpkin, or even sitting on a tractor seatwe feel we are making an investment not only in the farm but in the lives of children as well.  Our  firmly believes that the more kids know about the food they are eating — where and how it was grown — the healthier will be their choices. Who knows? Someday one of those kids may be the farmer who is selling home grown produce to local schools, continuing the tradition begun at our farm.

It isn’t necessary to have acres and acres of produce in order to sell to schools. All that is needed is a small garden and a desire to see children enjoy the fruit of the harvest. Interested in selling produce to your local school?  Contact Chuck McCool at (479) 264-9182. If you live in west central Arkansas and are interested in the Farm to School program, there is an informational meeting scheduled Tuesday, July 15, 2014 at 6:00 pm in Danville, Arkansas.  RSVP Chuck via phone.  There will be experts there that can assist you learning about selling your produce.

 Sign up to receive The Arkansas Grow Healthy newsletter which contains information on farm to school programs from around the state, guidance on getting started, availability of  seasonal produce, policy information, and special event invitation.

What will you do today to support your local farm and farmers, Farm2Home and Farm2School?  

 chuckmccool

Chuck McCool is farming land that was homesteaded by his family in the 1800’s.  He is a farmer dedicated to providing only the best to his customers through safe, environmentally-friendly farming practices.  “If we don’t take care of our soil, water, resources and environment, we won’t have any customers.”  You can follow McCool Farms at:
Facebook
Twitter
Email: McCoolFarmsandPumpkinPatch@yahoo.com