June 21 Market - The Day It Rained (SUDDENLY!)

I shopped, I snapped, and I went indoors.

At home, we have zucchini from the garden, and a cabbage the size of a bowling ball which was a gift from a friend. Today we bought new potatoes, snap peas, and lovely blueberry muffins, bread, and buns from the market.

Plans?

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
This recipe works best if one person takes care of bun prep while the other one grills the veggies.

On the charcoal grill (and it helps to have a fine mesh grill screen over the regular grill top) ~

• zucchini strips - remove tops and bottoms, slice lengthwise about 1/4 inch thick, brush with olive oil & grill
• onion - cut into slices & grill; yes, they fall apart as slices, but no matter

Toast the burger buns lightly. Crumble cheese(s) on the bottom half of the warm bun, then spread the top half with horseradish mustard or your other favorite spread. I like to use a strongly flavored cheese like Maytag blue.

Assemble the sandwich by placing layers of grilled veggies on top of the cheese layer, topping with garden greens, and then the top of the bun. If you're quick, the heat from the veggies will finish melting the cheese.

When green peppers are available, they make a great addition to this sandwich; use cheddar cheese with peppers.

June 14 Market

We got more asparagus, which was a pleasant surprise, and another loaf of bread, two bunches of onions (from two different vendors), and a lovely bunch of broccoli (the Capt'n's favorite). We also tried the BBQ pork burgers and had some raspberry tea.

We still have half a bok choi left from last week, along with a handful of turnips. "Someone" bought two bunches of them! We make a delicious baked side dish of new potatoes, turnips, and onions, but forgot to take a photo until it was too late. Yum!
The bok choi went into a stir fry recipe once, into a salad once, and joined the carrots in a beef stew which turned out to be quite tasty. For the stew, we used only the stalks, though, sliced into bite size chunks.

I gave many of the vendors the URL of this site. It seems only fair, since we're trying to promote their products, that they are able to see what's happening, too.

May 31 Market

Our purchases this week include, from left to right, honey oatmeal bread, two turnips, basil plants, bok choi, one (the last!) kohlrabi, onions, one cucumber, and two bunches of asparagus.

Once I got home -- Ta-Da! -- Inspiration struck in the form of a turnip souflé.



Turnip (or other root vegetable) Souflé

Peel, dice, and boil two turnips, along with three spring onions and tops. Takes about 20 minutes. Drain.

In the blender, buzz up

3 eggs (be aware that the hot veggies can cook the eggs on contact, so add the other stuff first)
1 Tbsp. butter, or whatever you call it
1 c. milk
cooked turnips and onions
small handful of fresh dill leaves
dried up, worthless old heel of bread

Pour into a buttered 2 quart casserole dish. Stir in about a cup of grated or crumbled cheese - any kind. The dish pictured here has some cheddar and a little leftover feta cheese.

Bake uncovered at 400º. I'm guessing it was in the oven for about 40 - 50 minutes, but I forgot to pay attention.

The salad was made from garden lettuce and cilantro, half a can of black beans, and is dressed with roasted garlic pineapple salsa that we purchased while on vacation in Missouri, but which was locally made near the place we were visiting. Does that count? I don't care - it's very good!

On our scorecard; the butter is not local - well, who really knows? (It's not really butter either.) The feta cheese is far from local, but it was in the freezer so I used it. The eggs were probably laid in Iowa, but I don't know where. Likewise the milk. The heel of bread was the end of loaf I made two months ago, but which was made from ingredients purchased at the big guys.

First Market ~ May 10

Asparagus, more asparagus, a giant sweet potato, and a loaf of honey oatmeal bread will be part of the menu in the coming week.



I passed on a box of eggs because we have plenty at home, but I hope they keep bringing them. I heard there were some radishes, but I didn't get there in time. The radishes in the garden are not ready yet, but I picked another colander full of spinach. I'm thinking about making a pizza with mondo bizzaro sauce, asparagus, and ? ? ?

Anyone else?

Shoppers' Confessional

We've just returned from our Saturday shopping. The Capt'n was looking glum on the trip home - probably afraid that we'll slowly waste away. We were good, though, and planned the week's menus up until Thursday before we went shopping. MY goal was to use up foods that we already have on hand. With the garden providing spinach, asparagus, chives and parsley, and with some of last years home canned beans in the basement, the menus were designed to use those things along with the half cabbage, the broccoli, carrots, celery, mushrooms, etc. in the refrigerator.

This is what we bought at Fareway ~


While some items are self-explanatory, others are 'farewell' purchases. Maybe that's why my tomato man was so glum. If I can't (and don't know that I can't, just haven't found a source yet) buy certain things at independent merchants, at least I will buy products that don't have a lot of mileage on them. Hence the Shullsburg cheeses and Amana bread.

From the Stone Mill ~


Yes, this really is all we bought today. Watch for the olives and pine nuts in a future recipe. It involves eggplant, so it will be much later this summer.