You know we've settled in when we hit the farmer's market

Here we are, settling into our new little town.

And, it is little! Especially considering the size of Houston. Our new little town is only about 13,000 permanent residents. That number swells to 25,000 when the students get here. Which is in a couple of weeks. Making this a perfect time for us to settle in. JR is slipping into the small town life like a duck to water.

This is our second Saturday here, so of course, we didn't finish unpacking boxes, personalizing my office or cleaning house. No Siree! We walked to the farmer's market.

peaches and pears

The farmer's market is 1/2 mile from our house making it a very pleasant walk. The weather was perfect; sunny and about 55 degrees. We wore coats. The locals wore shorts and t-shirts. We stood out. We're okay with that.

The new county that we live in is a big agricultural center of Washington State. So all the fruits, vegetables and eggs that we purchased were grown organically within about 10 mile radius of the market. It also is one of the best wine regions in the state and dare I say country. Oh yes, I dare!

The farmer's market also has soaps, honey, yarn, art and baked goods. I fell in love with the hand spun yarn. Of course, I can't knit or crochet or hand other handi-craft that uses yarn but I really wanted some of these. I'm thinking next week I'll need to pick some up for an art project, just because.

I totally geeked out over the greens. Though I only bought lettuce today. The weather is getting colder up here. This morning the temperature was only 50 degrees. Does anyone else smell soup season coming?

I have dinner plans for everything I bought already in my head but you would expect nothing less, now would you. Here's how most of it will line up:

Peaches:
I plan to grill the peaches and serve with a caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. Probably tomorrow night since the Oldest Boy will be coming by to pick up his dog.
Pears: these will be sliced up on some of the lettuce with hazelnuts, blue cheese and a vinaigrette. I'm looking forward to that tonight.
Eggplant: This has eggplant Parmesan written all over it.
Carrots: salads and I may make glazed carrots as a side dish.
Corn: no brainer! Grilled tomorrow with the leftovers becoming spicy corn pudding with the jalapenos.
Raspberries: these will probably be eaten as snacks, tossed on salad or maybe cooked down to make a syrup.
Patty Pan Squash: These will be stuffed and baked. OMG! I can't wait for that night.

There you have it. I'll be posting much more frequently now that we have got the house in a place where we don't feel under the gun to unpack and where we can find the silverware. Finding the silverware seemed to defy us for a few days.

Farmers Market Finds this week

We are very seasonal eaters around here and since our farmers market is open year round it makes meal planning simple. We show up at 8 am, wander through the produce, cheese, bread and meat (We don't buy meat, of course but we do buy eggs at some of the meat vendors. They are the only ones with the duck and turkey eggs) stalls, pick out what looks good and make meals from whatever we pick up. This is one of the best ways to spend a Saturday morning and makes me very happy.

At this time of year herbs and lettuces are plentiful but since I grow my own herbs and I didn't need any lettuce I didn't pick any up. What I did get was all this:

Kale, two colors of beets, green onions, eggs, strawberries, purple cauliflower, three types of mushrooms (crimini, portabella and oyster), cherry tomatoes and green tomatoes. The avocados were not from the farmers market. They were from Costco. I buy them really green so they take a couple of days to ripen up. There is nothing I hate worse than too soft avocados.

First thing I did was roast up the beets.

Aren't they pretty? A little olive oil, some salt and pepper and a handful of tarragon. They were outrageously good. I served them with quinoa and fried green tomato stacks. If I could go back and eat Saturday night dinner again I would. I do have to say that it all made for some wonderful leftover baked eggs breakfast the next day.

These green tomatoes were ideal for fried green tomato stacks. I simply breaded them, fried them in olive oil, sandwiched a quarter inch slice of cheve goat cheese between two of them and let them stay warm in the oven while everything else was finishing up. Yum! I still have a couple of uncooked tomatoes left so I think those will become part of a pasta free veggie lasagna.

I used the mushrooms last night in a ragout. Something we love and is very versatile. The leftovers will make their way into the lasagna along with the kale also. Have I mentioned that I am a leftover aficionado? Leftovers, if there are any, rarely go bad in my refrigerator. They get used in creative ways. I have a thing against refrigerator science projects.

The cherry tomatoes are so sweet that we are eating them like candy. The strawberries are a little under-ripe but still good. By next week the strawberries will be perfect. So I'll buy more.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the purple cauliflower but it was so pretty I couldn't resist it. I thought about making Jan's cauliflower bisque but Jason (a commenter) tried it and says it turned out an ugly gray color. I think I'll just steam it up.


So that was part of my weekend. The other part I'll talk about tomorrow. How was your weekend? Anything exciting?

Love,
M

PS: It's Monday. Try to commit one day to eating meatless.

It seems I have a bit of an obsession

This time of year I seem to fixate on flowers. Maybe, because so many are blooming and I've had a low grade headache for weeks. 

Whatever. 

I love flowers. 

I love everything about them.

How they look.

How cheerful they make a room instantly feel.

I've been known to buy 2 or 3 bunches in the middle of winter just to brighten my house (I know! I'm such a spendthrift).

I love the colors

The many many colors. 

Purple is a favorite of mine. I think it is because I'm old of mature years. We look better in purple.

And, the smell!

OMG! the smell!

The stinkier the best.

I love to plant smelly flowers right near the door of any residence that we live in. It seems more welcoming to our guest to have a sweet smell right before they enter the, what is probably not nearly as sweet smelling, house. So buying and/or planting flowers is not so much of a luxury but a courtesy to my guests. If any of you come to Houston you can thank me then.

You know what does not grow here?

Lilacs!

and it makes me sad.

In fact, none of the flowers I took pictures of on Saturday last grow around here very well but if you saw yesterday's post you can see there are compensations. That fence full of jasmine and the magnolia trees? 

Too die for. 

Just the scent alone is intoxicating. 

Sort of like living in Phoenix when the orange trees bloom. Or in southern Indiana when the wild dogwoods bloom. 

Just goes to show that every place has its compensations if one just looks for them. 

Even the rainy Pacific Northwest.

I hope you enjoyed the flowers from the unusually sunny Portland, Oregon farmers market. I've got more Portland related posts coming up. Included but not limited to the biggest resale bookstore in the United States, Powells, and a picture of me on a camel. I bet you can't wait for that one (snicker)

Love,

M

PS: Pseudo has a Travel Thursday thing going so if you can find the time head over to visit other bloggers who either travel or visit their local sites and like to share.

Charleston, South Carolina Farmers Market

 My co-worker Kelli and I were scheduled to give a talk in Charleston on Saturday morning. I packed up my stuff on Friday morning, took a harrowing shuttle ride to the airport (that I will blog about later. I'm still not over the near fatal experience.), and caught a flight from Philly to Charleston. 

After a lovely dinner at Mercato, my favorite restaurant in all of Charleston. (Another blog post for Monday. The mushroom risotto is to die for.) I wandered around Charleston looking for Kelli. She was at some tapas bar on King street. (story for later but let me just say that Coast Guard men when on dry land can't find restaurants any easier then librarians after a couple of glasses of wine)

Saturday morning found Kelli and I at the farmers market. Oh how I love me some farmers and their markets. Let me show you the lovely stuff we can across.

 There was a glass artist that was selling his beautiful work. I couldn't afford the bowls and vases he had on display, (the dude wanted about $3500 for the smallest piece. I'm a librarian not a rock star. If I was a rock star that wasn't washed up I'd have bought the sea blue bowl in the back.), but I did take a picture. I plan to paint this. In fact most of the pics I took that day will becoming a painting of some sort.

 I love the look of cotton still on the stalk. It reminds me of clouds on a stick. Or divinity candy. (Yes, it does always come down to food for me.) Cotton and/or cotton picking has some bad memories for some in the south and rightly so, doesn't make it any less photographic and fluffy. Cotton is very fluffy, like Nessa after a bath. Historical note: South Carolina was more known for their rice crops than their cotton. (you knew I couldn't help myself with the history stuff.)

 Pie

Enuf said.

 I liked the look of the fur? hair? markings? (you can tell I've been around horses a bunch) This is another painting. I can tell you that the horse and the horses owner, not to mention Kelli thought I was a nut case for taking this photo. I like the play of light on each strand of fur? hair? Art is all about the light for me.

 Magnolia trees produce my favorite flower, leaves, and scent. I bought every bottle, bar, and jar of magnolia scented stuff from the homemade soap vendor 6 tents up from the flower vendor where these leaves were. Look at how glossy they are and green on one side and reddish brown on the other, Love it! Sort of reminds me of myself. Kinda staid reddish brown librarian sometimes and vibrant green goofy ball at others. The creamy scented white flowers are just our way of showing off for company.

 Round

Round again

 

And one more time with the round. It is becoming a theme for me.

Hand dyed silk scarfs. My mother is getting one for Christmas. (don't worry, she doesn't read my blog. She doesn't even know how to find my blog. It is bookmarked on her desktop. She still doesn't know how to find it. That's okay. She's pretty great anyway). I have to paint this. I think I'll tilt it to the right just a bit. Or maybe the left. Give it a bit of energy. 

There you have our trip to the Charleston Farmer's Market. We walked across the street to the hotel, gave our presentation then jumped in another airport shuttle, (a much less white knuckle trip then before) and flew home. 

The End

Love,

M

Summer Squash Frittata Recipe

JR and I went to the Austin Farmer's Market on Saturday. I was like a kid in a candy store.
I darted from booth to booth. Buying peaches here, eggplant there. It was terrific!

At one point I sent JR back to the car to feed the meter and put the first of my booty in the trunk. While he was gone, I bought a pound of green beans, four different types of summer squash, and a ginger cream scone. By the time, he finally caught up to me I had acquired a carton of peaches, three different types of eggplant, and some fine jalapeno goat cheese. Within 10 more minutes, I had picked up a dozen chicken eggs, a dozen duck eggs and a pound of the sweetest baby beets I've ever seen. In about an hour I spent $69 and had an embarrassing moment in front of the woman selling peppers but more about that in a few days.

Today I'll give you my go-to summer squash frittata recipe. This frittata is hearty enough to serve as a meal and easy enough to please those of us with a lazy bone the size of a Bruhathkayosaurus' thigh bone.



Summer Squash Frittata
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

4 cups summer squash, sliced thin (zucchini, yellow, mexican, you name it)
1/2 medium onion, sliced thin
4 or 5 sun-dried tomato halves, reconstituted and chopped
6 eggs
2 tablespoons milk (or cream or half & half)
salt
red pepper flakes
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Assemble your cast of characters.

Slice your summer squash and layer in a oven proof dish. I suggest a cast iron pan or a non-stick fry pan with a metal handle. Don't pack it down. You'll want all those little spaces for the egg mixture to creep in.

Layer the sliced onions and reconstituted sun-dried tomatoes on top of the summer squash.

Beat eggs, milk, red pepper flakes and salt together. Pour over the vegetables. Don't worry if the egg mixture doesn't cover all the veggies. It will as it cooks.

Top with Parmesan cheese.

Bake for 35 minutes or until the eggs are set and the top is all golden brown and yummy.

I usually served this with some homemade shredded hash-browns and maybe a veggie sausage pattie or two.

Served with a small fruit salad this would make a great meatless dinner. I know it makes a great brunch.

Love,
M