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I’ve inadvertantly commenced a national tour of farmer’s markets. This Saturday Banana and I visited the Charlottesville Farmer’s Market in Charlottesville, VA. When we arrived, we were almost immediately surprised by the availability of strawberries in the market – at least four stands were carrying them. It is almost June here in Virginia, and high summer is the time for strawberries. I guess it’s just that I wasn’t expecting them, as they won’t be in season for another month or so in Colorado. In addition, there were the remnants of beets and winter greens, as well as lots of lettuce this week at the market, and some gorgeous flowers.
Hope you enjoy your nearest farmer’s market! Local food is almost always the cheapest and most fresh for your money.
At exactly 11:59 on Thursday night, I arrived in Virginia for a whirlwind 10 days of bachelorette parties, beach-hopping, and weddings. I’m staying with my BFF of all time/partner-in-crime “Banana” for a few days, and we decided to celebrate my return to Virginia with a meal fit for a king. And by celebration, I mean… Banana unleashed her most powerful recipes on my jetlagged butt. It was totally awesome, if I do say so myself. Included in her Collection was this gem.
Potatoes are held on a pedestal in my family – seriously, it’s one of those favorite foods that I don’t have very often – so in my opinion, the hit of the night was this delicious recipe for mustard potatoes. It’s fast, delicious, and made with simple ingredients. Roast the potatoes long enough so that you get nice crispy edges on the potatoes. In my opinion, that’s the best part!
I made this salmon the same night as I made the Wild Rice and Mango Salad. It’s one of my favorite salmon dishes because it’s fast and very light. When I’m shopping for fish, I try to find wild-caught salmon at the grocery store if I can find it. If I go clubbing, CostCo has a bag of individual servings of frozen wild-caught salmon that’s $20.00 for probably 4 pounds or so. That’s a great deal for the wild-caught stuff, which runs $15-18 a pound at Whole Foods. You might as well ask me to sell my soul… I can’t afford that!
If you can’t find plums, peaches or pluots or any type of stone fruit would be good here. Also, the original recipe calls for rice wine vinegar, but I swear I looked high and low all over the state of Colorado, and found zilch. I’ve used white wine vinegar here, and it’s delish. I think any white vinegar would work. This salsa would also be great over chicken or another fish like mahi-mahi or tuna.
My newest obsession (besides cooking magazines and spinach, of course) is whole grains. I’m loving the renewed interest in whole grains and the way it’s showing up in magazines and in my local grocery store. That said, I love a good cold grain salad. Quinoa, barley, farro… bring it on. I love it all. There’s just something about whole grains, you know? They’re high in fiber and protein, and I like knowing that they’ve gone through minimal processing.
In my neck of the woods, mangos are on sale right now, so I made this yummy salad over the weekend. It keeps well in the fridge for a few days, so if you see mangos at a reasonable price, hopefully this is at the top of your list of what to do with them! Trust – you won’t regret it.
Definitely check out the linked website above and make sure you’re trying out all the new grains to hit your local grocery store!
So this weekend, I inadvertantly wasted 30 minutes of my life watching Sandra Lee’s new show on the Food Network. It’s called “Money-Saving Meals.” It really should be called “Sandra Lee’s Trying-to-Make-Cheap-Meals-But-Really-If-You-Made-These-You’d-Be-Even-More-Poor-and-Probably-More-Fat Meals.”
Whew! Sorry. The people who know me, know that I am not particularly fond of Sandra Lee. I mean, seriously, the word “tablescape” never made its way into the English language until its unfortunate introduction on her show. And Sandra, I don’t care what you say, I’m not going to serve guacamole out of a miniature lawn chair. I. Just. Can’t. Do. It.
However, my beef with this show has less to do with her and more to do with the message of the show. Seriously, she didn’t make one single vegetable - unless you count potato chips as a vegetable. Also, her “cost” of each recipe is clearly calculated assuming that the average at-home cook is able to purchase 2 tablespoons of sweet pickle relish at the store for $0.32… this entire time I’ve been buying the whole jar! HOW COME NO ONE EVER TOLD ME ABOUT THESE OPPORTUNITIES?
So, in the spirit of Recession-Friendly Recipes, I am sharing this pasta dish with you. It’s cheap, it’s good for you, and it’s quick. It’s made of win!
Since I’ll be missing out on next week’s farmer’s market here in Denver (due to bachelorette shenanigans on the East Coast), I decided to hit up the farmer’s market up in Boulder this past Saturday, to see how that one compares to the Cherry Creek and City Park markets. 
Needless to say, the Boulder market kicks ass, particularly the ass of the Cherry Creek and City Park markets. Admittedly, for those not well-versed in Colorado cultural groups, Boulder is basically ground zero for hippies in our great state. It fits that their farmer’s market would be kind of off the hook. However, what surprised me is that it is so off the hook so early in the season!
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So, I have kind of an addiction. And no one really knows about it. Well, I mean, other than my addiction to cooking magazines. Everyone knows about that one; it’s well documented. I’m talking about my recent obsession with spinach – which comes at a very convenient time, since spinach and other salad greens are in season RIGHT THIS MOMENT (depending on where you are, of course).
This addiction comes at the hand of my friend Kristen J – hey girl! – who brought over a really delightful spinach salad for our Twilight DVD release party waaaaaaaaay back on March 21st. (Yes, we had a DVD release party. Yes, I am 25 years old. Yes, it was totes awesome, and admit it, you’re jealous.)
Anyways! She brought over this really, really good salad with spinach, red onion, cherry tomatoes, and slivered almonds. I was originally disappointed because, as far as I knew at that particular point in time, I didn’t like spinach salads. The spinach can be a bit bitter on it’s own, and is it just me, or is every single spinach salad served with a raspberry vinaigrette? And I don’t know about you, but I have yet to taste a good raspberry vinaigrette. Raspberry vinaigrette is the bane of my existence. Along with lemon zest. But that’s another post.
But then the next morning, I ate the same salad… for breakfast. And dinner that night, too, if I remember correctly. And I think I ate spinach salad for like, 3 days straight. And then I subtracted ingredients, because I had no food in my house, and then I added things when I had random things around the kitchen… and now I have this masterpiece. I may or may not have eaten large portions of this salad out of a mixing bowl. Trust. It’s that good.
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The Players:
- Spinach
- Dried Cranberries
- Mandarin orange segments, drained (I prefer the kind that come “in a light syrup”)
- Feta cheese
- Red onion
- Balsamic Vinaigrette
The Game:
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1. Slice and ice the red onions. (Note: I like to soak red onions in ice water if I’m going to eat them raw. The ice water helps to take the “bite” out of the onions. I have no idea how this works. Perhaps if we get a Chem major reading the blog we can figure it out. Anyways, it works, so try it if you don’t like raw red onions because it really does help. Five minutes usually does the trick.)
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2. Add spinach to bowl.
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3. Add mandarin oranges to bowl.
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3. Add dried cranberries to bowl. Yes, I know these instructions are quite difficult. Please try to keep up.
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4. Drain the red onion slices and add to the bowl.
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5. Add the feta cheese.
6. Dress with balsamic vinaigrette. Serve immediately.
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Yesterday I got off of work a little early, so I went clubbing. You know, Sam’s Club-bing. The suburban version of clubbing.
I was making this balsamic chicken, which I tend to make in large quantities, because I will eat it on anything and everything. So I went out to Sam’s and bought 10 pounds of chicken. For $22 dollars. Who doesn’t love Sam’s Club? It’s like recession-proof grocery shopping.
Anyhoodle, this chicken is the best. Like I said, I will eat it on anything and everything. It freezes well, so I tend to have some on hand at all times. It’s just that good, so much so that I don’t seem to get tired of it.
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These onions are my favorite. My absolute favorite recipe in the whole, wide, world. True story.
What’s not to love? It’s a simple dish, and it’s fairly cheap, because most of the ingredients are pantry staples. And even though it incorporates only a few ingredients, the flavor is amazing. This dish is a true testament to the fact that simple food can be delicious. Plus, it takes like 5 minutes to make and you don’t need any fresh veggies. This is your go-to dish for middle-of-the-winter blues.
This is one of Ina Garten’s recipes, and it’s generally safe to say that anything Ina makes is going to be pretty freaking delicious. However, I’m posting this recipe the way I make it – The Flip-Flop Contessa’s style, if you will. First, I only use about half the olive oil that she uses. Even though I would kiss Ina’s feet if I ever met her in person, I generally think she uses too much olive oil in her recipes. I also use twice the amount of mustard. And I generally prefer the red onions in this recipe, so I use 2 red onions to 1 white onion.
I usually serve these onions as a side dish, but they are also delicious as a condiment on sandwiches. Seriously – these, on a hamburger or a turkey sandwich with a bit of mayo? SWOON.
So I urge you, break out the onions right now and make this immediately. Even if you’re reading this at 7:08 am on Tuesday morning. Even if you haven’t done your hair or put on your pants yet. Trust.
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Herb-Roasted Onions
Adapted from Ina Garten
Serves 6
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Ingredients:
- 3 onions, mix of white and red
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic (1-2 cloves, depending on size)
- 1/2 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1/8 cup olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon minced fresh parsley leaves
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PS. That is totally a prop lemon. I use lemon juice from concentrate in this recipe. GASP! I know, Ina is going to sneak up on me while I’m making this and STRANGLE my sorry behind because she only wants to use freshly squeezed lemon juice. Sorry, Ina, but some of us have lives. And don’t want to waste a whole lemon for the sake of 2 tablespoons of juice.
PPS. If you’re wondering what that bottle of wine is doing in my ingredients pile, I’m not a wino who puts Chardonnay in everything. That’s what I keep my olive oil in. I have the wine bottles already (but let’s not discuss why I have so many) and the dark glass keeps the light from turning the oil rancid. You can get spouts from Sur La Table for $1 each. Plus the bottles are prettier and you can buy the olive oil in bulk.
Whoops, tangent. My bad. Back to the recipe at hand…
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut each onion into quarters or eighths, depending on the size of the onions. Ensure that the stem end is still intact so that the onions stay in wedges.
For the dressing, combine the lemon juice, mustard, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil.
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Pour the dressing over the onions and toss to coat. Transfer the onions to a baking dish or sheet pan.
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Bake the onions for 30 to 45 minutes, until tender and browned at the edges. Toss the onions as necessary during cooking. Remove from the oven, and sprinkle with parsley and season to taste.
Serve hot, warm, room temperature, or cold, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or midnight snack.
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This morning when I woke up, it was 43 degrees, overcast, and raining. Why would one venture out into the world on a morning like this, you ask?
Because I LOVE ME SOME FRESH VEGGIES, that’s why.
So that’s how I found myself at the City Park Esplanade Farmer’s Market at approximately 8:12 am with a coffee the size of my face. Because this was what I was up against:
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I swear, I think I was the ONLY person at the farmer’s market. I probably would have stayed in bed, too, if it weren’t for the fact that I set a goal to go to a farmer’s market every weekend this summer. Have you looked up “dedication” in the dictionary lately? It reads, “dedication: ex. The Kitchenette.”
Shannon’s stand was the only stand offering produce today. Let me wax poetic about the fact that she was offering so much more then she was last week. This week there were potatoes, red and white onions, tomatoes, a few bell peppers, asparagus, cauliflower, and broccoli.
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I picked out 3 red and 2 white onions, as well as a head of cauliflower. I have a recipe in mind for the onions (update: see recipe here), but nothing so far for the cauliflower. I’m going to browse through my recipes for a good one.
Because Shannon is amazing, she explained to me how to pick out the best cauliflower. She said to look for heads that are bright white and firm, because apparently cauliflower bruise very easily. She said not to worry if the heads have smudges of dirt, but to pick ones that have tight florets and are heavy for their size. Thanks for the info, Shannon!
Voila, the delicious-looking cauliflower I bought:
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And because I was the only person at the market and could annoy the you-know-what out of poor Shannon, I asked her what she expected to have available next week – she said nothing new for next weekend, but that the week after (5/23/09) she would have parsley, spinach, cilantro, and lettuces available. Bring it on, Shannon. I can take down the entire Whole Foods spinach bin in three servings of salad, so bring your A-game.
If you visit your local farmer’s market, what is available at this time of year?
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