Our First Dinner

So it is official, Dave is going through coffee withdrawal and all the lovely headaches, nausea, fatigue that go along with it. Though he is admirably trying to play it down by blaming the weather, we both know better...
Today proved to be a true test of wanting what you can't have. Mairin never, ever, throughout her entire University career had any desire to eat anything from the food trucks parked along St.George Street, but today was a different story. As we headed over to Hart House to pick up our 1st CSA share of the season, the wafting scent of grease from the fry trucks became unfortunately seductive. Looks like there is so much truth to the idea that you always want what you can't have!
Other than Dave's coffee hangover and Mairin's musing cravings, things have been going well. Since breakfast and lunch were prepared the pervious day, dinner proved to be the greatest "challenge".
Here are some things we learned this evening:

Red Fife Wheat Flour is a strange beast. Red Fife is the major wheat source in Ontario and is considered a heritage crop. That's all fine and dandy and doesn't mean very much, what it does boil down to though is a texture difference. This became highly apparent when we tried to bake a pie with it. Instead of being powdery like regular white flour, it is flakey and becomes a little mushy when you add water. Due to its flakiness though, it rolls out really easily, so it was a boost of confidence to our dough making skills. When cooked, though, it remains very dense and doesn't develop the buttery lightness of regular flour. The flavour was great, nutty, a little sweet and earthy, but it was definitely a heavy pie. We both agree it will make great pasta, but we may be on the hunt for some white flour very soon. Anyone feel like a road-trip to Peterborough?

Now without a heavy selection of condiments, spices and sauces available to douse all over our food, we really taste our food for what it is. Meat tastes like meat. Mashed potatoes with sour cream and chives from our garden taste like just that and nothing more. There is no subtly to our food now, it is what it is. This is not a bad thing in many ways, the potatoes were great, it really just speaks to quality of ingredients. It was a few months ago, actually, that we started eating Hewitt's Dairy yoghurt (a family dairy from Hangersville, ON). It is plain, skim, cows milk yoghurt, but after trying it for the first time, we never went back to big brands. It is creamy and smooth and has a brightness that we have never tasted before in yoghurt. Its not as widely available, so we have to make a point of getting it, but it is so worth it for that taste (and it's cheap)! But it proves the point that you don't need to disguise your food, if it is good quality and prepared with care.

So as the sun sets on our 1st 130 mile day, we remain hopeful about our success in the future. We are starting to realize how much time we are actually going to have to spend thinking about what we are going to eat, but that necessity is so much more appetizing with a fridge full of beautiful, fresh, green, spring produce...