As it turns out, there is a severe lack of Easter recipes on this blog! I have no good reason for this…next year, I’ll see if I can work on things a little in advance.

Here’s another recipe from the archives – packed with vegetables and whole grains. Now I am off to finish planning the Easter menu…..with one more cupcake recipe, for real this time.

It’s going to be a busy few weeks as I look to finish out my first semester as a full time student and keep up with the rest of life. But there’s a lot of recipes here, and even I need a reminder of the good ones…

Before we get to today’s topic of rice, the answer to yesterday’s question was cranberries, which account for 17% of the revenue of Massachusetts farms. Good job, Kelly P.!

My cooking club’s theme this month was rice. To be honest, the recipe I brought just isn’t “blog-worthy”. I made an avocado and rice milk salad dressing, with fresh chives and lemon juice and lemon zest. But the flavor fell flat, and the recipe wasn’t anything I’d make again.

So instead, I’ll share what the rest of the group put together, including peppers stuffed with Portuguese sausage and rice, a Mexican dish with chicken, beans, and rice, and an Indian rice dish which was slightly sweet and flavored with cardamom. It was a fabulous meal, and I wish I brought my real camera so the pictures would shine! Plus I forgot to take a picture of the amazing rice pudding that we had for dessert….

My friend Lee is always on the lookout for fun events where we can spend time together and catch up, and it’s even better when we can learn something along the way. I was excited when she suggested we attend a lecture sponsored by BU called “Marketing Massachusetts Agriculture”. And the title of the post is the state’s slogan: Massachusetts Grown….and fresher!

David Webber from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources spoke about the great diversity in Massachusetts farms. Of course, I always think of fruit and vegetable farms first, picturing rows of cornstalks, apple orchards, and pumpkin patches. But there are also nurseries, and dairy farms, and aquaculture. (Yes, that’s the farming the shellfish.)

The good news is that the number of farms here is growing, and the amount of land dedicated to farming has stabilized, in part due to state programs to preserve farmland. Farms in Massachusetts are also conveniently located near densely populated areas which provide an excellent customer base for direct sales. This includes 221 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, 233 farmer’s markets, plus many farmstands and ‘pick your own’ operations. Direct sales also include the growing area of agri-tourism, which encourages visits to all types of farms in the state. There is a cool map of the state which highlights all the place you can go!

One of the big challenges in marketing local food is the cost. Consumers often complain about the price of local food, and can’t understand why you have to pay so much more. One reason is the cost of farmland in Massachusetts, which is among the highest in the nation at $12,000 per acre. Of course, other costs are higher here as well, including energy and labor, and that all factors into the food prices. Yet many people feel that local foods are worth paying for because of the quality of the products and impact to the environment.

David talked a little bit about the Boston Public Market which has been in the planning stage since 1996. It’s a wonderful concept to house several local vendors under one roof in the heart of Boston, and be open year round. As you can imagine, there are also a lot of logistical issues that need to be resolved. But stay tuned, because this would be a great accomplishment! In the meantime, one change you can look forward to right away is that due to recent state legislation, local wine can be sold at farmer’s markets and agricultural events.

If you’ve made it this far, let’s play a game. According to data from the USDA, what single agricultural product comprises 17% of the cash receipts in Massachusetts? You can guess in the comments, and I’ll give you the answer tomorrow!

Remember the recipe for beet and onion pizza that I submitted to the Somerville Winter Market recipe contest? Well, it WON! I was so shocked, but very honored. Really, this isn’t about winning a contest, it’s about a great local organization that supports a way for city dwellers to access fresh local produce, even in the winter. And it’s about us, the consumers, supporting the farmers who grow the produce and getting our servings of fruit and vegetables at the same time. I have so much more to say on the topic, but this week has been pretty crazy so I’ll leave it at that. What are you looking forward to when the spring farmer’s markets get going?

I made it through the first 8 weeks of being a full time student, and now I get to enjoy spring break in sunny Florida! As you can see, I also reduced the inventory in my refrigerator this week. The peanut butter will be applied to whole wheat bread in the freezer for breakfast, and that blue container on the right side of the second shelf contains my lunch for today, while I am at my internship. The Yo Crunch yogurt on the top left was on sale last week, so I bought it for a treat, and it will make a perfect afternoon snack. I’ll be travelling at dinner time, so I’ll need to get food at some point. I wish I could say that I prepared something good to bring on the plane like last year, but I didn’t.

I am not sure exactly when I’ll be posting next week, but stay tuned!

I know that at least some of you are familiar with Mark Bittman, a food extraordinaire with the NY Times. I tweeted about this yesterday, but wanted to make sure I shared it on the blog as well. Bittman wrote an excellent piece which is a roadmap of sorts for making soup. There are 4 basic varieties of soup: creamy, brothy, earthy, and hearty. Each of those has a million variations, it’s just a matter of what you like and what you have on hand.

If you are the kind of cook who likes a little inspiration and/or guidance but doesn’t need a concrete recipe, this is an article for you! And it’s the perfect weekend to whip up a few more batches of soup to see you through the end of winter. I am not sure which one I am going to try, but I’ll be back Monday to share….

So I just heard about a really cool recipe contest being run by the Somerville Winter Farmer’s Market. This hasn’t been my best week of cooking, but I have a 3 day weekend ahead of me with some free time to experiment with new recipes. There are many vendors at the market, selling fruit, vegetables, bread, cheese, meat, seafood, wine, and chocolate. The goal is to use the market ingredients creatively. That’s a lot of good stuff to work with! Any ideas? Tell me in the comments, and I’ll be back Tuesday to report some preliminary results. Contest entries are due February 28, so I don’t have much time.

Image Courtesy AllRecipes.com

I am not going to do a Valentine’s Day recipe roundup, although those are certainly trendy in the blog world. But I will mention a few of my very favorite chocolate recipes, just in case you’re looking to celebrate your love for chocolate sometime soon.

You might try these molten lava cakes, which are nothing short of amazing. Or, you could make these chocolate ricotta rolls, a spin on traditional cannoli. Keeping with the Italian theme, how about some tiramisu? You don’t need to buy truffles when you can make your very own. And if that leaves you wanting more, try this Death by Chocolate dessert. No matter what you pick, it’s the love you put into making the recipe that really counts.