Local, Seasonal and... Ethnic?

For a long time, I have wanted to become proficient in Middle Eastern cooking-- beyond falafel, tahini and tabouleh. I almost never follow recipes, though, so I've been stunted in my abilities to learn from cookbooks, and usually just try to replicate flavors from restaurants. But I have decided to devote myself for the next couple of months to a really wonderful cookbook about authentic Arab food. So far, I have made a couple of the recipes, and it has been really exciting to cook using different techniques than I have tried before.
Tonight I made a meatball and rice soup, and it was really nice.

There are a lot of types of cuisine that are counter-indicated for eating locally in the Northwest-- especially Asian food, with all of the tropical produce, and special ingredients. But Middle Eastern food, I have realized uses lots of fresh herbs that are growing in my garden as we speak, plus lots of other staple grains, legumes and nuts that can be bought locally. Even feta cheese is made locally, and California isn't too bad of a source for olives. Extra bonus: it's my very favorite kind of food.

My plan is to make every effort to blog about the Arab foods I'm cooking, and if there is interest, I'll share recipes. I am really a terrible food-tographer, but I'll keep trying. I am always so curious about what other people eat. I'd like to blog a solid week of dinners, and I'd like to encourage anyone else that wants to, to do it with me-- I'd love to see and hear about everyone's meals and kitchen activities.

Tonight it was Shorabat Ruz Bi Lahim, or Rice and Meatball Soup. I had to make beef stock, which of course was more effort than usual for a dinner, but now I have a couple extra quarts for the week. Besides the stock, it was really pretty simple, attractive, and very very tasty. We have a lot of ground beef in the freezer, the remnants of a portion of a grass-fed cow-- we preferred the steaks and roasts-- so now we need to come up with some great ways to use the ground beef.
I added chopped kale to make it a more complete meal, and it was a really nice, light but satisfying dinner.