Pssst...

Hello there.

I didn't expect to be gone quite so long. I've been up to a few things since my last appearance here.

I've been on a fabulous trip to Boston. Oh, how we loved Boston. It fit us to a T. And we rode the T. Ha! If you get a chance to go to Boston you won't want to miss taking a tour with this gentleman. He works for the Freedom Trail Foundation.



We ate A LOT of seafood. Here is the rundown for me (my goal was to have seafood for lunch and dinner every day):

cod
lobster roll x 2
swordfish
crazy good lobster bisque
clam chowder x 2
shrimp
crab
my first raw oyster (I don't think I get the appeal)
some whitefish

Yum! And The Girl discovered that she loves mussels. Who knew? I mean, she wouldn't try a hush puppy but she eats mussels.

I spent a lot of time volunteering at school.

I did quite a bit of cooking; here is a sneak peek. This was one of my proudest moments as a home cook. I even told my husband to 'be more effusive'.




I went to the farmers' market. I never got to take photos some weeks but here is my most recent trip:




Isn't that kale pretty? Too bad it went to waste. I never did figure out what to do with it (that my family would eat).

I did a fair amount of reading.

Last week I met my new best friend.



Come here, lover.

I also spent some time thinking. Thinking about this space and what to do with it. Thinking about what has been bothering me about blogging and the like. Being put off by the popularity-contest aspect of it all. You know what I mean.

In addition, I am not a writer. I don't want to be a writer and writing is not why I'm here. I'm here because I love books. I came across a brilliant post last week at Kiss a Cloud. I identified with so much of what Claire wrote, especially this:

I would really rather spend more time with my children, read my books, read your thoughts on your books, than write.

Ahhhh. So true.

So what to do? I decided I wanted to come back to this space but I think it will be in a slightly different way. I think most books I read will get more of a 'blurb' and less of a review, and the really special books that stand out to me will perhaps get a highlight post. Or something like that. We'll see. Most of all, I know that if I'm going to do this it needs to be for me, a journal for ME. Not to please someone or to advertise for anyone. Not to generate traffic or more followers. Just for me.

Farmers' Market - September 20

I had company again this week at the market. While there, she ate a doughnut and an apple cider popsicle. On the way home she ate a tiny apple that was gifted to her. Lucky girl!

Funny, this doesn't look as heavy as it felt! Peppers, corn, wax beans, leeks, spinach, garlic, meats, and fresh apple cider (!!). Last night we feasted on flank steak, corn on the cob and spinach. I can never believe that you can start with so much spinach and wind up with less than a cup when you cook it.

In exciting news, my new cookbook arrived today. It looks divine and after the first quick browse, I might do something from it tonight. More on Tender later. I see the price has gone up. Nuts.

Farmers' Market - September 12

You'll never GUESS who accompanied me to the market yesterday!!



Yes, it was The Girl. She picked out that giant purple blob which is cauliflower -it's gorgeous actually, and there was also orange cauliflower and a romanesco one which was snapped up under my nose. She also chose brussels sprouts (!!), banana peppers (what do I do with those??), honey sticks, and the chocolate sauce in the jar in the front. She goes for all the expensive stuff. She also wanted jams, honey, flowers, and apple cider in a special kids cup.

I also picked up beans, pattypan squash, corn, red peppers, heirloom tomatoes, eggs and a little meat.

So, you know how I cannot resist a cookbook about vegetables and seasonal cooking? Yeah. So I was just picking up a few things from Whole Foods when I spotted this:





I brought Tastes from Valley to Bluff: The Featherstone Farm Cookbook home with me and just from a quick browse I can tell you it looks fabulous. What a bonus that all the foods within can be grown right here in Minnesota! And, 2/3 of the book is vegetarian. Love it.

Back in the Saddle Again....(I think)

Today was the big day - the first day of second grade. There were some nerves on the walk to school, but as soon as the girl saw her best friend, I literally felt the pull of her body towards her friend as they embraced. They hadn't seen each other for 3 weeks after spending the summer together at day camp so there were big smiles all around. I can't wait to hear about her day.

So, I've been back home for a few days and when I wasn't at work I was making tomato sauce and doing laundry. I did go to the farmers' market on Sunday, but unfortunately there is no photo as I didn't have a camera here. I spent 8 hours on Sunday doing this with tomatoes. I don't really have words for how tired I was afterwords. I don't know how those pioneer women did it. This year I prepared 30 meals worth of sauce, unbelievable that I made dinner for one month, in one day.

Chicago was fun as always and it's great to enjoy old favorites as well as new pleasures. Highlights of our trip included the new German U Boat exhibit at the Science and Industry Museum - it's inside now - and yours truly got to enjoy the Harry Potter exhibit by myself there. There are many costumes on display and props from the movies. I even got to throw a bludger! The detail of the props is AMAZING and I would have loved to have brought home a replica of the Marauder's Map if only it hadn't cost $45. (!!!!!! for a piece of paper !!!!!!)

One of my favorite parts of the trip was visiting the Old Town Oil Shop. It's my idea of heaven - casks upon casks of oils and vinegar to try and bring home.



You can taste as much as you want, then when you decide what you'd like, your oil or vinegar is poured into a lovely bottle from these silver casks. That way you know exactly what you're getting. I brought home some olive oil and an amazing black current balsamic vinegar.

There's so much more. I've been reading so hopefully I'll get to reviewing books in the next day or so. There are also new books to share. But for now, I'm going to celebrate the first day of school by treating myself to a movie - Julie and Julia. Originally, I had quietly boycotted this film. While I loved Julia's book, I actively disliked the few chapters I read of Julie's. In addition, from what I've read and heard, Julia was not a fan of Julie - she had no interest in her project. So....is it a bit insulting to Julia that the film we now have of her life includes Julie? I'm not sure. But, now the reviews are so good, I've decided to go anyway. C'est la vie.

Photo from Seasoned Solutions Culinary Tours.

Farmers' Market - August 23

Why yes, yes I am planning on doing some cooking this week! New additions today include red peppers, golden beets, and a melon. I haven't had great luck with the melons at the market - they've tended to be mushy in the past - but I'm trying again.

I didn't make it to the market last week, but 3 friends gifted me with produce during the week. Plum-sized tomatoes (used for salsa), large heirloom tomatoes (used in tomato/mozzarella/basil salad -yum!), and corn and squash from the CSA box of a friend of a friend. That friend said I was the only person she could think of who would get excited about free vegetables. She was right, I did. My in-laws were pretty impressed when we received two deliveries on the same evening.

Are there any gardeners out there that can advise me about whatever this zucchini plant fungus/rot thing is? There were white spots on the leaves which then became white powder all over the leaves. My plants are done for, and I think they had this last year. Should I not plant again this coming year, or am I supposed to treat the soil in some way? Enquiring minds want to know.

Farmers' Market - August 9

I really cannot believe it is August 9. Nuts. Interesting purchases today include the really nice looking eggplant and bok choy. I have a recipe for a raw bok choy salad with an Asian dressing - sound good? I also bought some heirloom tomatoes. I think I bought some brandywine, Cherokee purple, something with valentine in the name...and something else. They all looked like they were grown with love.

Farmers' Market - August 2

Ahhh. Veggies.



Here are the goods from today. I think I'm going to cook that flank steak tonight with corn and the snap peas (not sure why there are still snap peas, but these looked okay), and tomorrow I will make potato and squash gratin with green beans on the side. Have you seen yellow shallots? I'm used to the red ones but thought I'd try these. I did see some tomatoes today, peppers, and eggplant. The weather has been cool, cool, cool. I hope I can make my tomato sauce this year -this is my summer wish. Enjoy the day!

Farmers' Market - July 26

Aren't I predictable? I buy the same things over and over, I suppose because those are the things we all enjoy.

It's pretty obvious at the market that we've barely had temperatures over 80 degrees this July. We're not seeing the 'hot weather' veggies yet, such as eggplant, peppers, sun-ripened tomatoes and the like. I'm growing a variety of small tomatoes in the garden and they are all still green and my zucchini are taking forever to grow. One great thing about this blog, is that I can go back see that for example, last July 10 I had tomatoes from the garden already. It's rather depressing.

Anyhow, tonight, I think we'll grill that rainbow trout you see. I'm not sure what veggies we'll have yet, I'm thinking mashed potatoes with shallots or corn or salad or broccoli. Hmm.

Farmers' Market - July 18

Oh Happy Day! Corn is here!

The market was packed yesterday, there was one vendor selling corn and the buyers were 5 deep. It was so busy that the St Paul police officer that monitors the market was breaking down boxes and bagging and selling corn. Nuts!

New additions for me this week were cucumbers (refrigerator pickles?) and leeks - yum!

We had friends over for dinner last night. I served:

*Barefoot Contessa's lemon chicken with satay sauce
*boiled corn
*a salad of halved roasted fingerling potatoes, blanched green and wax beans, basil, chives and a balsamic vinaigrette
*Molly Wizenberg's lemon yogurt cake with strawberries and blueberries (the recipe from the book for this cake includes a syrup that you pour over the warm cake before putting on the glaze - I think that puts this over the top)

Unfortunately I was too busy to take photos of any of it, but it was all delicious!

Farmers' Market - July 12

I was disappointed today not to find corn at the market, but now looking back, I see that I wasn't able to buy it until July 20 last year. We're having another summer on the cool side here so I'm sure that is part of the reason why.

Lots of lovely things today though. Besides the 'ususal' snow peas, green/wax beans, potatoes and scallions, I bought some broccoli, gorgeous spinach, shallots, late summer wildflower honey, strawberries, yellow squash and kabob meat. I had a heavy bag, I mean bags, today. I am going to make this squash and potato gratin today, it is an old favorite of mine and I make it a few times every summer. Not sure my family is as crazy about it as me, but oh well, I say.

Farmers' Market - July 4

I bought lots of good things yesterday. I was most excited to see green/wax beans and most disappointed not to find corn. I went to a BBQ yesterday and meant to make a salad from Sara Foster's book, Fresh Every Day (a fabulous book), which was supposed to contain arugula (stand-in for watercress), snap peas, corn, and a blue cheese dressing. Instead I made a huge salad with arugula, snap peas and wax peas that I blanched, raw summer squash, scallions and blue cheese with the lemon/red wine vinegar dressing. It was yummy and disappeared, always a good sign.

Oh! I almost forgot. I'm trying something new from the market I've been intrigued by for a while. Farm-raised, organic rainbow trout - it's right in the front. I bought some that is already seasoned and we're going to try grilling it.

Cheers!

Farmers' Market - June 28

The food wasn't the most interesting thing to come of this week's trip.



Though the food looks great! Not much different from last week. They are saying corn might be available next week - whee! And I am eagerly anticipating green beans. Would you believe I paid $2 for that lettuce?

So, the girl went with me to the market today. She remarked on and was curious about something that's fairly obvious at our market - the majority of the vegetable farmers are Hmong. So I asked her to wait until we got into the car where we discussed in a highly simplified manner:

* The Vietnam war and why the Hmong came to the US, particularly Minnesota.
* Why people have traditionally come to the US - freedom from oppression.

This led into:

* Freedom for women's rights and a book we read about "Elizabeth" who worked for women's right to vote and make laws.
* Another book she read about people coming to America on a boat and selling their jewelery so they could do so, and celebrating Thanksgiving when they arrived. (Not sure if this was all the same book.)

It was more than I bargained for, but was a really good chat. I think she 'got' it. And naturally I was impressed what she remembers from her reading. Good stuff.

Farmers' Market - June 21

Today the girl and I bought:

lettuces, snow peas, sugar snap peas, fresh onions, red new potatoes, strawberries, grass fed beef, and garlic. Garlic! This is amazing garlic. It has separated into cloves but hasn't dried and become papery on the outside yet. Oh! And flowers for Daddy. And honey sticks for everyone. Also available was broccoli, beets, bok choy, lots of greens and someone had hot-house tomatoes. It's getting good!

Happy Father's Day!

Farmers' Market - May 31

My family is going to be happy, happy, happy that peas are coming in and asparagus is on its way out. I could eat asparagus every day, them, not so much.

From the top left: beautiful lettuces, some early garlic (not sure what this will look like when I cut it open), radishes, pea shoots, asparagus, snap peas (cannot wait for snow peas), late summer honey, table onions, and some beef. Yum!

There were definitely more people shopping and selling today.

If you happen to have fresh snap peas, here's a really nice recipe I made several times last year - Green Peas and Sugar Snap Peas in Sesame Dressing.

Can we talk about rhubarb for a minute? I was going to write a post entitled 'Rhubarb: Friend or Foe?' but I never quite got around to it. I tried a recipe for rhubarb salsa- I thought it was going to be similar to a chutney. Here's a photo of my ingredient gathering.



Anyhow, I made it. I thought the rhubarb smelled funny when I was dicing it, then after it was cooked it was mushy and stringy. I threw the whole thing out which just aggravates me - I hate wasting perfectly good ingredients. There are very few foods that I really don't like. Rhubarb might have joined ranks with lima beans, for me. Maybe I just need to eat something with rhubarb that someone else has made properly, I don't know.

Farmer's Market - Week 1 of 2009

WHEEEEE!

Look at what I found today:



Spinach, green onions, radishes, asparagus, rhubarb, pork breakfast sausage and wild rice brats. For planting in the garden: basil, thyme, zucchini, and tomatoes - sweet 100's, yellow pear, red grape, and a small orange variety.

I have to tell you, I have never cooked rhubarb before. I'm not even sure I like rhubarb but I thought I should give it a try. Any recommendations for recipes? My husband and daughter are not really into the hot fruit dessert thing (I know, why not?) so I'm thinking muffins or a cake. Another idea I have is chutney.

Sunday mornings are calm at the market. It was cool at 44 degrees and quiet. There are going to be a couple of new vendors this year. One will sell ice cream (!), milk and butter, the other some cheeses and tilapia. I am thrilled to be in farmer's market season.

As an aside, I know I have been a very delinquent blogger lately. Posting, commenting and responding to emails are all taking a back seat to end of the school year activities, dress rehearsals and performances, recitals, picnics and the like. I'll be around more soon.

Farmer's Market - November 8

We are having Too.Much.Drama. around here. 3:30 Sunday morning found me rushing to the emergency room with a child who fell out of bed and had an enormous lump on her head. Since then we've watched the eye become swollen shut and a huge hematoma migrate to the area around her eye leaving her with a whopper of a shiner. We've also been carefully monitoring her vision and nausea for other unseen injury. This has wiped me out. As a parent, having a sick or injured child is terrifying.

I have more drama (and not the good kind) coming later this week, though this will be planned and will take me away from blogland for several days.

Despite the cold weather at the farmer's market this weekend, everyone was very upbeat. There are still plenty of vegetables available and the meat vendors could actually put their stock on the tables for browsing thanks to the freezing temperatures. This caused me to stock up on meat for the deep freeze. Some of it had just been packaged the night before.



My girl asked me why we had so many 'pumpkins'. I told her they were 3 for 5 dollars - she said 'That's a good price!' It sure is.

Farmer's Market - Sunday October 29

This past Sunday was the official end of the 'Summer Market' for the Saint Paul Farmer's Market. After that, the 'Winter Market' begins on Saturdays. The market was vastly different than the last time I was there. Since we'd had our first frost all the summer vegetables were gone. There were probably only 15-20% of the number of usual vendors and the crowd was quite sparse, though it was only 8 am. It felt like I bought one of everything, knowing this might be the last time until Spring.



Look at all that goodness! Spinach, broccoli, onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, apples, cranberries, potatoes, raspberries, eggs, carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, sage, baby gourds, buttercup squash, and that cauliflower - I wish you could see how gorgeous it is. How lucky we are to have so much good food here in Minnesota in October! But don't get too jealous - after the market it snowed most of the afternoon!

All this good food put me in the mood to cook.

I've made a wonderful roasted butternut squash and greens pasta dish from the How to Eat Supper book I posted about a while back. The ingredient list is a bit long, but this seriously took no time at all to put together.

The pasta recipe had half and half in it so I used the leftover to make a potato gratin according to Alice Waters' recipe in The Art of Simple Food.



She suggests the use of half and half as an option but mine separated in the oven, looking curdled but tasting fine. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Finally, I made Brussels Sprout hash with caramelized shallots from the November 2007 Bon Appetit magazine. Yum!

Farmer's Market - October 11

This was a lot heavier than it looks. I wasn't planning on buying much since we're going out of town later this week. This was the least crowded I've seen the market since early June. The regular market continues until the end of October, then the Saturday winter market begins. I've never been to the winter market but I plan to check it out. I understand there is meat, eggs, honey, breads - stuff like that.



What's new? Butternut squash - there's a great looking pasta and squash recipe I want to try from Lynne Rosetto Kasper's new book. This a great cookbook by the way, and would make a terrific gift. I'm a little wary of serving butternut as a main course. Afraid the natives will become restless and all that. I hope the sweetness of it will win my daughter over. There's some spinach and some ground pork there. I'm going to make a meatball soup with those, along with orzo and carrots based on a Nigel Slater meatball recipe and a soup recipe from Bon Appetit. By the time I'm done with it, it'll be a Tara original.

What else? I'm getting rather uncomfortable about the economic situation. I've heard of two co-workers whose husbands have lost their jobs....I'm pretty lucky to work in healthcare right now, but who knows what will happen. It makes me extra glad we've been eating less meat for many reasons, and now we have finances to think about. I make a great rice and black bean dinner from scratch, so I've got that to fall back on.

Farmer's Market - September 27

This is the most amazing time of year at the market - there's so much to choose from! It's too bad that it's only open one more month for vegetable sellers. (The meat, egg, and honey vendors come on Saturdays through the winter.)



I had a little helper with me this week which is why you see flowers, mini-pumpkins to draw faces on, and honey sticks. Those flowers are lovely - can anyone tell me what the cabbage-look-alike things are called? - but were wilting by Sunday so I wasn't too impressed.

Everything just looks so vibrant and gorgeous to me, especially the peppers and cauliflower - you won't find anything like that at the store. The green leafy stuff on the left is sold as Chinese broccoli, and I'm not sure if it's the same as broccoli rabe. It was a bit bitter so my family wasn't thrilled about it, though I liked it. If a person were really serious about buying good food for their family at low prices, the market is a great place. There is so much available for one dollar - the Chinese broccoli, bok choy, beets, green onions, kohlrabi, and lots of other greens as well. Certainly other items cost more, but you can do it on a budget. We've cut back on our meat consumption quite a bit, but I crave a good flank steak every month or so. The animals are grass fed and the meat is so tender you can cut it with a fork.

Farmer's Market - September 20

I didn't buy very much this week, though you wouldn't have known it by the weight of my bag. We have lots of evening events this week so I won't be doing much cooking. We've already eaten a fair amount of this! The best find today was those apples. Those are not just any apples, those are honeycrisp apples. Developed here in Minnesota they are quite simply the best apples I've ever tasted. They are widely available here and we'll be devouring them until the stores run out. Try some, if you seem them in your market.




A car accident (not involving me or the girl and everyone is fine) which will require a new car being purchased and a child telling lies (and I'm open to advice on handling this) has left me feeling not so upbeat this weekend. I'll be around to see you soon.