Photo courtesy of Jill Steiner

ICYMI: Pittsburgh favorite Wigle Whiskey is opening Threadbare Cider later this year and we can’t wait. Jill Steiner has been leading Wigle’s marketing through the company’s phenomenal growth the past few years.

She created her best meal last week at home, using fresh ingredients from Pittsburgh’s local food purveyors and artisans.

 I cook a lot this time of year and one of my favorite things to do is visit farmer’s markets and local vendors. One of my favorite local gems is the Saturday Farmer’s Market Cooperative in East Liberty which doesn’t close in the winter. I live in Highland Park so Saturday mornings I’m always excited to go to the market.

This past week, I picked out some heirloom squash from Zang’s Greenhouse, roasted it with some of the apples from Kitsaco Farm, a couple of carrots, garlic and flavored the whole soup with cumin and chili powder. I paired it with what I think is Pittsburgh’s best bread right now—Driftwood Oven’s bread—which I have been getting through Penn’s Corner’s new ordering system. Their bread lasts for days—its comes to you very fresh, very fragrant, and you can use it right to the end when it’s dry by making croutons or bread crumbs.

Bread and soup is something I can eat all the time. It keeps me very warm, very happy and makes me feel good about supporting local farmers even in the dead of winter.

Leah Lizarondo is a food advocate, writer and speaker. She is also the co-founder of 412 Food Rescue, an organization that seeks to eliminate food waste to make an impact on hunger and the environment. She is the Chief Veghacker, recipe creator and curator at The Brazen Kitchen, where she writes about food and food policy. She writes about the intersection of food, health, innovation and policy.