almost sustainable kitchen post 100

hey, look! 100 posts. good for me. we've had 1288 "unique visitors" (hi, friend!) and i've learned a lot about food and sustainability since just april. my next challenge will be one posed over at crunchy chicken:

Chapter 20: The Perfect Meal In the spirit of Local Food Month, I'd like to propose a meal similar to the one Michael Pollan enjoyed in this final chapter. The rules are a little looser than his, but the concept is the same - get to know intimately where all the food comes from that makes up one meal. Think of it as an über-local meal.Here are the rules for "The Perfect Meal":

1. Everything on the menu must have been hunted/fished, gathered (including U-Pick), or grown by you.

2. Everything must be made from scratch (this includes pasta, bread, etc.)

3. The menu should feature at least one representative of each edible kingdom: animal (vegetarians can skip this one), vegetable and fungus (only if still available and, since I don't want to kill anyone, just use local mushrooms)

4. Everything served must be in season and fresh

5. You have to cook the meal yourself

6. You have to invite at least a few guests to share this meal with you, preferably those that have helped you in acquiring the foods

You have a couple weeks to plan and work on this one. I'll have you post pictures and a report of this "Perfect Meal" by August 20th. I'll do a follow-up post in the intervening time.

geez, that's hard! i don't know if i'll be out hunting and gathering all my own food for a meal in the next week or so, but i will plan a menu with as much local food as possible, all homemade. and as much from my own garden as possible, but let's be honest here. the garden is not that much to blog about. we could have tomatoes and basil, which would be very tasty, but not a very full menu.

this weekend it should be cool enough to actually host some friends for dinner.

neat!

for the record, my mind is boggled by the chemistry of my butter experiment last night. soo...no buttermilk separated out. if you just shake cream, it turns into butter? that's it? if i want melted butter for a recipe, will this stuff work? what about regular butter? it's not as solid as a stick of butter would be. help?