Caramelized Onion Breakfast Burritos and an Experiment in Avoidance

An Experiment in Avoiding the Grocery Store

This is Clark Fork Organics, one of my new "grocery stores."

When we joined the Western Montana Growers Co-op and started receiving baskets every Friday, we started adding on extras at cost and direct from local farmers, dairymen and ranchers. 

This week we ordered two gallons of milk from a local, biodynamic dairy, cheese curds and "Montana Jack" cheese from the same dairy, flax seeds from Timeless Seeds and pastured eggs from Mission Mountain Organic Eggs. 

We are trying, very hard, to eat locally and locally only. With three little boys, it is very, very hard. We are trying to do good things for the environment and to save money, so instead of buying bananas last week, I bought five pounds of pitted, frozen Flathead cherries from our co-op. Instead of buying lunch meat, I bought an extra dozen eggs. 

This has pushed us to be very creative and absolutely delicious in many of our tasks. Tonight I'll later share a recipe for the breakfast burritos we made. But for now, I have a confession to make.

Unlike in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kinsolver, the most inspirational book on eating locally I have ever read, we do grocery shop still. I still buy peanut butter, brown sugar and maple syrup. I still buy yogurt instead of make it. To prevent over reliance on these staples, though, we only grocery shop twice a month now, and spend less than $100 each time doing that. Otherwise, our food comes from the co-op.

Tonight our mostly local dinner (mostly because I did not make the tortillas) was:

Caramelized Onions Breakfast Burritos

Every good meal should start with a cast iron skillet, butter, and an onion.

Ingredients: (* means its a local food)

1/4 cup salted butter *

1 onion, sliced into rings

1/2 pound pork sausage *

5 pastured eggs *

1/2 cup whole milk *

1/2 cup corn kernals *

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese *

2 large flour tortillas

Pull our your cast iron skillet and heat it to medium heat. Melt half your butter in the pan and slice your onion into rings. Start to saute and let them go for 20-30 minutes, occasionally stirring and adding butter as needed so they don't burn. They will turn sweet and oh so delicious. 

After they are caramelized, scoot them over to the side in the pan and add the sausage, sauteing and stirring the sausage, leaving the onions alone, until the sausage is cooked through. Add your corn (mine was left over from my parent's garden last summer) and stir it all together. Then, use a fork to whip the eggs and milk together then add to the pan. Cook until the eggs are done, melt in the cheese, then serve into tortillas.