Just Another Tuesday

Oh yeah, tacos.

I Have Officially Started Taking Pictures Of My Food

It's real, you guys. It's real now. Photos, photos everywhere.

Okay, so maybe not that many but ARGH stupid formatting.

It won't let me just drag them around. Oh, well, I suppose I'll survive. Lots of walking last Saturday and tromping around the Square. A co-worker of mine had dropped off a giant bag of hand-picked asparagus so we set to work making a menu around that: Asparagus Soup!

I...don't like it. Emmy does, at least, I think she does. So, that's good.

 Stupid FORMATTING.
why...why am I center now instead of right?

let me

 

see

 

about...

 

THERE WE GO.

 

ahem.

 

 

As I was saying...

 

Seriously, those onions are enormous. I like to take photos of food before I cook it. Presentation is easier that way. I line up all my ingredients, in this case onions, asparagus, and butter, and snap away. Oh well. We may be getting the gift of (HURRAY, sort of?) more asparagus this coming weekend, and river trout...soon. Apparently you strip them, gut & bone them, stuff them with a rice mixture and bake them. Mmmmm.

 

We also bought little seedlings. I couldn't resist! Lemon Thyme and Chocolate Mint. It'll be great to have them with us in the car on the drive east. I love the smell the lemon thyme leaves on my hands, sharp, almost acidic, like dish soap but with a deepness to it that I just love. The stuffing of the peppers from last week was really awesome, even if I discovered I'm not much of a fan of raw peppers. I'll reproduce the recipe below, and stuff a bird with it next chance I get!

 

 

Brown Rice Stuffing:

 

~Oil for cooking (we used local sunflower oil)

~2 cloves garlic, minced

~2 onions, chopped

~3 cups raw brown rice

~6 cups water, chicken or veggie stock, or tomato juice (we used chicken stock)

~1/2 tsp allspice

~1/2 cup almonds, chopped (I put them in a plastic baggie and beat it with a meat tenderizer)

~1 cup chopped tomatoes

~3/4 lb cheddar chez, grated (just get the stuff that comes already grated, 1 lb is 16oz, 1 C is 8oz)

~salt & pepper, to taste

 

Heat oil in a large skillet/saucepan; add & saute garlic & onions. Add rice & brown about 5 minutes. Add desired liquid and allspice. Cover and cook until rice is done, about 40 minutes. (It says toast the almonds here, but I didn't bother.) Stir in tomatoes, cheese, almonds, & salt & pepper to taste. You can stuff into peppers (9) & bake at 350 for 30 minutes or you can eat it plain, stuff a bird with it, what ever you want! It was great!

 

We're living out of boxes now in anticipation of the Great Migration, but it's not that bad. I'm super excited, are you?

 

Don't know what we'll eat this next week, we'll see, won't we? :) With the Farmer's Market, every week is a surprise!

 

xoxoxo,

Kim & Emmy

 



Outdoor Farmer's Market Anyone?

Wow. It's been a while. So Emmy and I are officially moving out East, to the resounding joy of both of us. Our eating local experiment has, I'm sad to say, trickled down to "we'll do what we can". We plan to leave at the end of June, to be home by the 4th of July. Sooner, if work comes along before then. Half the apartment is in boxes and the other half is lingering in a state of in-between-ness.

But I digress.

Food! Glorious food!

With the first outdoor farmer's market of the year a new weekend pattern has emerged. Usually I would lay out a recipe the night before and then we'd shop at the market, then head to the co-op, and thensly on to the grocery store for toilet paper, toothpaste, etc (the things we're not hippie enough to buy organic. Yet.). The first week of the market I said, "Let's wing it!" and we did. Unfortunately this:

Turned into mush. I mean it. Really really gross mush. You wouldn't think it possible, but aparently I don't have the chef-instinct I thought I did.

Oh well.

We persevere! To combat the Mush Travesty of 2013 I, well, okay I confess! I bought a new cookbook: From Asparagus to Zucchini, A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce. Now, I thought, now we will succeed! Mwahahaha.

ahem.

The plan has shifted, now. We get downtown, stroll the market, take stock of what vegetables or fruit there is to be had and then take refuge at Starbucks while I make the grocery list from there. We'll use whatever we can find as the centerpiece of that week's dish, and go on to the co-op from there. This way we'll try new foods and new combinations, but not end up frying the cauliflower and turning out the mushiest soup to ever mush the Mush Train. It was baaaaaad. Like, emergency mid-week run to the co-op for more pasta and mac & cheeze kind of bad.

Last week we had Portuguese Stone Soup starring: CABBAGE and Sweet Corn Cheddar Pancakes starring: CORN.

I... I just need to stay away from cilantro. I mean really. We're not friends. At all. Emmy ate the pancakes, I stuck with the soup. No recipes good enough to share from last week, at least in my opinion. And this might be sad but I really like Johnsonville brats. Yes, bad for the enviornment. Yes, endorsed by the Koch Brothers or whatever else people hate them for. But I am at a loss for a comparison in taste & spices at the co-op. I guess I'll just have keep looking...

This week, however, isn't quite finished with the cooking.

We were a bit late to the market so we had to cruise by without a stop to Starbucks or Fromagination. Sadness. But on the bright side we found a stand selling greenhouse-grown tomatoes and bell peppers. Finally, some color! It was gloomy and rainy, like it's been for the past quarter or so, but all the flower-sellers and bakeries did a good job of lighting up the Square. We tipped out a $20 for 9 bell peppers and 3 tomatoes to make Stuffed Peppers (will finish cooking today!) and won an aparent bet the stand kids had going on. Who-ever spent $20 got a free cucumber.

It's as long as my arm.

So we decided that would be our second dish of the week: Cucumber Moons Sauteed w/ Fresh Dill. Mmmmm. Little crunchy-shalloty snacks.

2 large or 3 medium cukes
3 Tb butter
3 med-large shallots, chopped/minced
2-3 pinches fresh/dried dill
salt & pepper to taste
 
Peel cukes, scoop out seeds w/ a spoon, chop like celery into "C" shapes. Chop shallots. Heat butter on med or med-high until completely melted. Sautee veggies until beginning to get crisp. Add seasonings to taste & cook (stirring constantly) several minutes longer until desired crisp-ness. Enjoy immediately.

 So that's all for now. I'll post again once the peppers are done!
Love and veggies,
Kim & Emmy
xoxoxo