Tomorrow is the last day of our local farmer's market. In the last couple of weeks I have fallen woefully short of my goal of cooking with only fresh, local produce. With my husband working longer hours, it's harder to get dinner ready without pulling out the last string of my unraveling patience with my two girls. So, these last two weeks I have opted for sanity rather than sustainability, using more frozen than fresh and making way too much mac 'n' cheese.
Even though I haven't eaten exclusively local as I planned, I call this season a great success. With a little extra planning, discipline and self-forgiveness, I was able to feed my family some spectacular food, support my community, and rediscover the excitement of cooking creatively.
In the morning I'll go to the market in the cold and say goodbye and thanks to the farmers and vendors who have fed us all summer, and I'll start looking forward to the spring, when I will undoubtedly start this adventure all over again.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Fish, Greens, and Rainbow Pepper Salad
I blew through much of my weekly veggie stash for dinner last night. I had frozen tilapia--I am not a true vegetarian. I think I might be a lacto-ovo-pescatarian, though pescatarian is about as proper a word as rage-aholic ... Anyway, I also had a drawer full of greens, green and plum tomatoes, young onions, and five beautiful bell peppers, all different colors. So here's what we did.
Tilapia over Tomatoes and Mixed Greens
Chop a handful of collards and a bunch of swiss chard leaves. Chop the chard stems separately, along with 2 or three young onions, whites and tops. Also chop two small green tomatoes and three plum tomatoes into 1-inch chunks. Melt 1TB butter and 2TB oil in a skillet. Add the onion, chard stems, and tomatoes and cook until chard is soft.
Meanwhile, season tilapia fillets with a little salt and pepper or lemon pepper seasoning. Spray a pan with oil and add fillets, then add enough white wine to cover bottom of pan and cover. I turned mine once during cooking, but I'm not good at this so they fell apart. They should cook through easily without turning in five or six minutes.
When onion chard mixture is ready - don't cook this so far down that the tomatoes get really mushy - add green leaves, cover the skillet, and remove from heat. Try to avoid letting the leaves get too wilted.
Serve tilapia over greens mixture, and don't skimp on the liquid.
Rainbow Pepper Salad
One farmer at our weekly market sells baskets of mixed gypsy peppers for $2 apiece. I buy these every week. Last week my basket had two greenish-yellow gypsies, an orange, a red, a green, and a gorgeous purple. The orange was the sweetest pepper I have ever had. This salad was the best way I could think of to show off the colors and the flavor.
Cut several peppers of various colors into matchstick slices and place in a seal-able container. Add olive oil (about 1/4 cup), cider vinegar (about 1/4 cup) and about 1 tsp sugar. Cover and shake to combine.
If you're tempted to add herbs to this, try them out before adding to the whole salad. I originally added fresh basil to mine and as soon as I tasted it I knew it was a mistake. Lost the flavor of the peppers. If your peppers are fresh and tasty, you shouldn't need anything else to make this salad delicious.
Tilapia over Tomatoes and Mixed Greens
Chop a handful of collards and a bunch of swiss chard leaves. Chop the chard stems separately, along with 2 or three young onions, whites and tops. Also chop two small green tomatoes and three plum tomatoes into 1-inch chunks. Melt 1TB butter and 2TB oil in a skillet. Add the onion, chard stems, and tomatoes and cook until chard is soft.
Meanwhile, season tilapia fillets with a little salt and pepper or lemon pepper seasoning. Spray a pan with oil and add fillets, then add enough white wine to cover bottom of pan and cover. I turned mine once during cooking, but I'm not good at this so they fell apart. They should cook through easily without turning in five or six minutes.
When onion chard mixture is ready - don't cook this so far down that the tomatoes get really mushy - add green leaves, cover the skillet, and remove from heat. Try to avoid letting the leaves get too wilted.
Serve tilapia over greens mixture, and don't skimp on the liquid.
Rainbow Pepper Salad
One farmer at our weekly market sells baskets of mixed gypsy peppers for $2 apiece. I buy these every week. Last week my basket had two greenish-yellow gypsies, an orange, a red, a green, and a gorgeous purple. The orange was the sweetest pepper I have ever had. This salad was the best way I could think of to show off the colors and the flavor.
Cut several peppers of various colors into matchstick slices and place in a seal-able container. Add olive oil (about 1/4 cup), cider vinegar (about 1/4 cup) and about 1 tsp sugar. Cover and shake to combine.
If you're tempted to add herbs to this, try them out before adding to the whole salad. I originally added fresh basil to mine and as soon as I tasted it I knew it was a mistake. Lost the flavor of the peppers. If your peppers are fresh and tasty, you shouldn't need anything else to make this salad delicious.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Soup, Soup, Soup
I am always on the lookout for great soup recipes this time of year. I'm not exaggerating when I say I could eat soup every day in the fall and winter. The secret is to have a variety of flavors and textures you know you love.
I have played around with a lot of soup recipes, but there's one standby I've been making for years that I never have to change. The recipe is perfect. It's called the ultimate vegetarian soup, and it lives up to its name. Friends and family who weren't crazy about vegetarian fare have eaten seconds and thirds of this bad boy. Plus, although it takes a good bit of chopping, it's really a pretty easy recipe. And it's really healthy.
I have played around with a lot of soup recipes, but there's one standby I've been making for years that I never have to change. The recipe is perfect. It's called the ultimate vegetarian soup, and it lives up to its name. Friends and family who weren't crazy about vegetarian fare have eaten seconds and thirds of this bad boy. Plus, although it takes a good bit of chopping, it's really a pretty easy recipe. And it's really healthy.
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