What’s in Your Market Basket? September 27, 2012
Posted by Toy Lady in Cooking, Food, random stuff, Rochester.comments closed
Long-time readers are well aware of my love for the Rochester Public Market. We’re so fortunate to have such a well-established, varied year-round venue – not everyone is so blessed, I know.
I’ve got to admit, though, that I think fall is probably one of my favorite times to shop the market (along with with spring, summer and winter, I guess!) – I love when we’re in full harvest season! And I’ve been visiting the market for long enough now that I know who my favorite vendors are, so it’s almost like visiting friends and giving them money!
And while we’re generally pretty structured about planning meals during the week, I usually like to see what’s going on – and what I’ve picked up at the market – and do more of a seat-of-my-pants sort of dinner on weekends, which is definitely what we did this weekend.
I started with a few slices of bacon – Peeps-cured bacon, of course, using pork belly from the meat guy at the market. He’s very nice – I also buy bags of dog bones from him, and sometimes we stop and chat about our Jarly and his St. Bernard.
Anyway, we chopped that bacon and started browning it.
When the bacon was browned, I added a chopped onion, bought from one of the older gentlemen at the market – I can always count on him for fresh (not last year’s!), reasonable sized onions – I HATE peeling and chopping a bunch of little tiny onions! And they were cheap too – I bought a ten-pound bag for $3!
I also added garlic – nothing but garlic from the garlic guys at this time of year! They’re only around for a couple of months – they usually set up a stall in late August, and they’re sold out of garlic by about the beginning of October. These guys have the biggest, most beautiful garlic I think I’ve ever seen! I buy a pound or so (yes, a pound!) of garlic every time I see them, in the hopes that it’ll last as long as possible into the winter.
That’s also the garlic we plant in the fall – I’m willing to sacrifice one bulb of my precious garlic – knowing that’ll mean I’ll be able harvest it just a little earlier , and thus, enjoy second-generation Garlic Guy garlic sooner!
After we added a half cup or so of rice (random, supermarket rice), I then added a bunch of something new – field peas.
I’ve never had field peas before, but, of course, I’m always up for trying new stuff! Honestly, if I’d ever given it much thought (which I haven’t), I’d have assumed “field peas” were something like “field corn,” that is, a crop grown as feed for cattle, and not for people to eat!
I picked these up from the Bean Guy – first, because I do want to try new things, and second, because I wanted to find out when I can expect to start seeing his dried beans! You wouldn’t think there’d be much of a difference between packaged dry beans and “fresh” dried beans, but believe me, there sure is!
The Bean Guy said to prepare them “just like black-eyed peas” only not to soak them because they’re fresh – which didn’t help me a lot, since I’ve only cooked black-eyed peas once!
After I added a partial jar of chicken stock (again, random, storebought chicken, but market veggies did go into the stock!), I added half a jar of tomato sauce.
You got it – the tomato sauce was made from tomatoes I picked up from the tomato-and-corn guy. He’s always got the best prices on tomatoes for canning – they’re “roma” tomatoes – much less juicy than what you’d slice for a BLT, which is perfect for canning (and saucing!). I think he should also have some nice winter squash later on, which I’m looking forward to, as well!
I let everything simmer, partially covered, until the beans were tender (about 45 minutes) and the rice was done.
Then we cut the corn off a couple of ears and stirred that in, simmering until that was just hot, but still a little crunchy.
I love love love buying corn from the Back-of-the-Truck Guy! As soon as corn season starts, he’s out there, and he is SUCH a salesman! After corn season, he’ll be back, too, with sweet potatoes (last year I bought a bag that, when I got home, weighed 20 pounds). There’s just something, I don’t know, farm-stand-like to be buying veggies off the back of a truck, you know?
And that was pretty much it – I seasoned to taste (of course!) and, once all the veggies were done and well blended, well, we served it.
While it wasn’t earth-shattering, it was warm and filling and tasty – it was, basically, a vegetable stew. And, like any other stew, it’s much better reheated – I’ve actually been enjoying a bowl for breakfast the past couple of days!
Peeps found it a little bland (he likes to spice things up), and I had just the thing for him – a little dab of our homemade sriracha – made from market peppers and garlic, of course!
Monday Musings: 09.24.2012 September 24, 2012
Posted by Toy Lady in Musings.Tags: monday meal plan
comments closed
Ah, fall! The harvest time for so many things is awfully short this year – we had such an odd spring, so warm so early, and then so hot all summer! If I want to catch in-season produce, I’ve got to be prepared to move fast!
I did find a couple of things we’ve never tried before field peas and wasabi greens. I cooked up the peas Saturday evening (and I plan to tell you about them later in the week), and the wasabi greens, well, they seem very much like a very tender mustard green. The farmer at the market said I could either use it as a salad green or cook it like “regular” greens. Since it’s such a huge bunch, I guess we’ll try it both ways!
I also picked up a basket of honeycrisp apples. I had intended to pick them myself, but I got an e-mail from the farm warning that the season was very, very short, and that there were about 3 days left to pick.
I could not get out there to pick in time, so I ended up just buying them at the market.
So Peeps and I chopped up a mess of apples, and right now they’re sitting in the fridge, just chilling out for a few days, when, hopefully, I’ll cook them up, then strain them, and we’ll have some nice apple jelly! I plan to use the same basic technique that I used for the peach preserves a few weeks ago, only straining the fruit out after cooking instead of before. I think.
Wish me luck!
I guess this is what you might call a “slow news week!”
When I sat down to writ this entry, I realized that I had really done not very much of note this week – even less than usual!
One thing we did do, though, was a pretty nifty breakfast pizza!
Peeps has taken to cooking potatoes in a foil pouch on the grill whenever we’re grilling something, which is nice. It means one less pan to wash (yay!), and, frequently, a pile of leftover cooked, well-seasoned potatoes.
Well, those leftover potatoes always end up as homefries, which is never a bad thing!
This weekend, though, we also had an extra pizza crust and a mess of shredded cheese to use up.
And do you know, even without bacon (I didn’t have any cooked) or scallions (forgot), a cheesy-homefry pizza makes quite a respectable breakfast!
Our supermarket has whole roasting chickens on sale – I mean really on sale! Although we have a few whole chickens in the freezer already, we just couldn’t pass up 50 cents a pound!
However.
A whole, 6-7 pound roasting chicken means at least half a chicken leftover, and that’s accounting for dog and kitty treats! Obviously, we’re going to stretch our $3.50 chicken into at least a second meal – but we just can’t decide (or agree on) what we want to do! Here are our choices:
- Dakota Chicken-and-Dumpling Soup from the current (October/November) issue of Cook’s Country.
- A big pot of Chicken Mexican Soup to enjoy now and try canning for later lunches, too (still trying to get that freezer under control!)
- The ever-popular Moravian Chicken Pie, also from Cook’s Country magazine.
- Cook’s Illustrated‘s Chicken Pot Pie with Savory Crumble Topping – they claim it’s quick and easy to prepare.
Hey, you wanna help me out? Which you would pick? Thanks!
And once again, it’s time for the weekly menu plan. Fall truly is in the air – we’re back to checking the weather forecast, not to see when it’s too hot to use the grill, but when it’s warm and dry enough to!
Monday – The infamous roasted chicken – we’re simply going to butterfly it and roast it on a pile of baby potatoes (what do you want to bet some will find their way into a frying pan for home fries?) and roast some butternut squash alongside.
Tuesday – We stocked up on wild salmon when it was in season – we’ve pulled a couple of fillets out and will very simply grill them. I’ll serve them with a salad made with the wasabi greens, dressed with a lime vinaigrette (needed to juice and use a couple of naked limes from the fridge!) and probably some brown rice. I like brown rice.
Wednesday – I got the September 2012 Cooking Light and marked Shrimp and White Bean Cakes, then realized that I’d already printed it from the internet in early August! Obviously, we’re going to make this sooner or later, so it may as well be sooner. Plus, it’ll go nicely with some of the broccoli I picked up this weekend.
Thursday – Peeps has been itching to braise something since, I think, the first night the temperatures dipped below 60! He’s pulled some lamb shanks out of the freezer and will be braising those to go with some white beans. And probably salad.
Friday – With fall just about here, pizza night will start to change again – but for now, I’m holding on to my fresh tomatoes and herbs!
Be sure to click on over to The Organizing Junkie’s Monday Menu Plan post for loads and loads of other ideas.
Eggplant: What’s not to love? September 20, 2012
Posted by Toy Lady in Cook's Illustrated, Cooking, Food, random stuff.comments closed
I love eggplant.
There, I said it. I don’t tolerate it. I don’t humor people who think I should like it – I love it.
Yes, it can be kind of squishy and slimy and the skins are, well, skins. But I just adore it.
It may have something to do with the fact that some of my favorite dishes – the ones that are kind of labor intensive, and, therefore, I don’t make them often (ratatouille, moussaka and parmesan) are kind of eggplant-heavy, so I guess there’s the absence-making-the-heart-grow-fonder factor, too.
But regardless, I’m a huge fan of the huge purple berry. But sadly, Peeps? He has had bad eggplant experiences, evidently. He’s Not A Fan. I set out to change that. And if that didn’t work, well, we had meatballs in the freezer, so he could at least play along.
I decided to go to my favorite need the best recipe go-to, Cook’s Illustrated, and make eggplant (and meatball) parmesan!
I started by salting the eggplant – I sliced it into 1/4-inch slices, which I tossed in a colander with a couple of teaspoons of coarse-grained kosher salt, then just walk away and let it drain. After about 3/4 of an hour, you’d be absolutely amazed by how much liquid oozes out of those buggers!
Meanwhile, I combined what amounted to 4-5 ounces of fresh bread crumbs (take some nice, crusty bread and toss it in the food processor) with 1/2 cup of grated parm, a pinch, maybe 1/8 tsp., of salt, and 1/4 tsp. black pepper in a pie plate.
And I beat a couple of eggs together in another pie plate.
Oh, and I took 1/2 cup of flour and mixed it in a ziptop bag with 1/2 tsp. black pepper.
We’re setting up an assembly line!
In the meantime, I also preheated to 425 degrees, not just the oven but a sheet pan, as well.
We want that pan nice and hot – we’re going to basically oven-fry the little buggers!
And once I’ve got the assembly line set up (the flour, eggs, breadcrumbs, and then another sheet pan with a rack), then it’s time to squeeze the stuffing out of the eggplant slices.
Or at the very least, squeeze any stray liquid out of the eggplant, anyway. I laid them out on a towel, covered them with another towel, and just pressed down until I saw towel-marks.
And then, really, it’s just standard breading technique. Just like you’d do for fried chicken – shake a few slices in the bag o’ flour, then dip in the egg, shaking the excess off, then roll in the breadcrumb mixture until they’re covered, lightly kind of pressing the crumbs into the eggplant.
And then each eggplant slice goes to “rest” on the rack set over the sheet pan. They’ll kind of set a bit while they’re waiting for the oven.
And speaking of the oven.
Once all the eggplant is breaded and resting (and you’ve combined any remaining egg and cheesy breadcrumbs and divided them between the cat’s and the dog’s dinner dishes!) carefully pull the (really) hot pan from the oven and dump about 3-4 tablespoons of vegetable oil right on that pan, then swirl it around (carefully!) so the entire pan is coated.
Then lay the breaded eggplant slices on the pan in a single layer, and stuff it back in the oven for half an hour, flipping the eggplant over after 20 minutes.
Mmmm. . . toasty.
I’m going to admit this, but only to you. At this point is when I LOVE to sample the eggplant. No sauce, no cheese, just breaded and “fried” – I could stand there and eat it all evening! But I do burn my tongue when I do that.
Next, and here’s the good part – we’re going to start layering the eggplant (and random meatballs) in a pan. Since there was no guarantee that Peeps was going to not hate it (as if!), I put the meatballs right next to half of the eggplant slices.
Everything got covered thoroughly with a nice layer of marinara sauce – I used about a pint altogether, and used a bit more than half on the first eggplant layer.
Oh, and, of course, some mozzarella cheese! I had some shredded parm, as well, that I added.
After that, the rest of the eggplant, then the rest of the sauce.
But here’s the cool thing – we don’t completely cover the eggplant with the sauce – remember how hard we worked to get it so nice and crispy and toasty?
Yeah, bury it in sauce, and you lose that, don’t you? So I just left some bits peeking out from under the sauce – that’ll stay crispy, while the stuff under the sauce will soften, and it’ll be a whole textural adventure!
But you’ll probably want to put cheese on top of everything though. I mean, it’s cheese, right?
Stick the pan in the (still hot) oven just until that cheese is nice and melted, and, if you’re me, that means melted AND slightly browned, because if there’s anything nicer than melty cheese, it’s melty BROWNED cheese!
Of course, just like lasagna, you’re going to want to let it rest for about 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven.
Now might be a good time to cook some pasta or slice some bread, I guess. Oh, and go out and pick some fresh basil (and maybe a bit of parsley) to chop.
And then, finally, plate it up, sprinkle with your just-chopped herbs, and watch your husband realize that eggplant really is good stuff!
Monday Musings: 09.17.2012 Edition September 17, 2012
Posted by Toy Lady in canning, meal plan monday, random stuff.Tags: monday menu plan
comments closed
We’ve had a busy busy weekend!
First off, I started chicken stock Saturday – I absolutely HAD to get some of the chicken, um, stuff out of the freezer – it was taking over! We decided to can it this time around in pints rather than quarts – mainly because I had 3 empty quart jars and 2 and a half cases of pints!
I had also intended to make my lovely, lovely kale and bean soup and try canning that, and would you believe, there is apparently not a wide-mouth pint jar to be had in Rochester!
I gave up in disgust, came home and tried canning just the beans (fingers crossed!) and ended up ordering some jars online. Maybe next week we’ll try again . . .
Although the garden seems to have pretty much pooped out on me, I’m still picking a bowlful of those little Juliet tomatoes every few days.
I’m of two minds about these tomatoes – they’re too small to want to peel and can, but they really don’t have a nice, vibrant flavor like a cherry tomato.
However, I’ve found that if I halve the little buggers, toss them with some garlic, shallots and olive oil, with a bit of salt, then roast them, the blend into a sauce that’s not bad at all. In fact, I’d say it’s pretty darned good – especially on pizza!
I decided that it might be a good idea to take a sock-knitting class. I’ve got the basic hang of it, but I just can’t get my heels to look nice. And I can’t seem to work an actual class into my schedule – either they’re in the afternoons when I’m at work, or they’re in the evenings and run past my bedtime. Then I came across the idea of an online class – something I can access whenever I want to.
I’ll let you know how it works out!
Poor old Jar!
He had his obedience class Saturday, and this is pretty much how he spent the rest of the day. Why yes, I do need to vacuum those stairs!
Even though he knows most of the material we’re covering in class (sit, down, stay, heel), it’s still awfully hard for him to be the same room with 6 or 7 strange dogs.
But he’s doing very well – I think the combination of his medication, and better consistency and handling techniques on my part is actually helping!
Of course, the sheer volume of treats he’s getting is staggering!
Lest anyone think the dog is the only one getting treats, though, I assure you, that is not the case!
Whenever I make chicken stock, I always make sure to pick out a few tasty morsels for our kitty!
I find the best time to lure her out into the Real World is about half an hour before her dinnertime – then she’s STARVING and doesn’t care if there are dogs around or not!
And once again, it’s time for the weekly menu plan. We’re still trying to hang onto as much summer as we can, though the cooler weather is certainly welcome.
Monday – We are STILL trying to get stuff out of the freezer – we’re so used to shopping and cooking for 3 plus leftovers, that it’s really hard to just cook for two! We’re finishing up some tilapia – since it’s looking to be such a stellar day, Peeps will grill it, and we’ll serve with some polenta and a nice tossed salad.
Tuesday – I did pick up some chicken on sale (though none went into the freezer!), and we’re going to do one of our all-time favorites – pan roasted breasts with rosemary. I think it’ll be quite nice with some barley (we NEVER have barley, and we both love it!) and I’m going to roast some butternut squash that my mother gave me from her garden.
Wednesday – We had planned to test our freshly-canned kale soup, but since we were unable to find the proper jars, we’re probably going to wing it. Maybe we’ll try some sort of bean burgers or something. Ideally it’ll be something mostly meatless.
Thursday – We realized that we hadn’t had those fancy French pork chops in a while, and it’s still grilling weather! Since I have neither fennel pollen nor fronds on hand, I may try making the rub with salt, pepper, and just a little bit of ground fennel seeds. Could work. Peeps has taken a real liking to foil packets of baby potatoes on the grill (not to mention homefries made with any leftover potatoes!), so we’re going to do that, along with what’s sure to be leftover squash from Tuesday’s chicken.
Friday – See, now I’m torn pizza night – I adore my fresh tomato-herb pizza. But I’m also not hating the roasted tomato sauce. And a gal can only eat just so much pizza. . . it’s rough, let me tell you!
Be sure to click on over to The Organizing Junkie’s Monday Menu Plan post for loads and loads of other ideas.
Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em September 14, 2012
Posted by Peeps in Cooking, Food, random stuff.comments closed
Summer is almost over and opportunities to fire up the smoker aren’t going to last forever. So any excuse will do.
A year or so ago, my wife read somewhere on line about some guy who takes slabs of spare ribs and makes what he calls Bacon on a Stick.
Now, anyone who has ever been to a county fair or a Renaissance Faire or anything like that knows perfectly well that just about any food will be improved by being on a stick. It’s just one of those laws of Nature.
Things fell into place when a local butcher shop had ten pound boxes of rib trimmings for dirt cheap. Just before Labor Day. When we had to bring something to the in-law’s house for the holiday.
Since we couldn’t remember where we had read about this idea, and we didn’t feel like searching for it again, we decided to just go for it.
The rib pieces went into three bags and each got about a quarter cup of the same cure that I use when I make bacon. It’s a mix of Kosher salt, sugar and pink salt. I also added some pepper, because why wouldn’t you?
Normally, when I’m curing bacon, I leave it to cure for a week. But since these were such small pieces of ribs, and not much meat was involved, I decided on letting them cure for just three days.
Once the meat is cured, you simply rinse off the ribs and try to get them as dry as possible. Then they go into the smoker.
I used the small smoker. It’s cheaper to heat a much smaller space. Besides, it was already out, and I’m lazy. We just had room for the ten pounds of rib pieces. Barely. But we made it.
Fortunately, because they were such small pieces, they didn’t need to spend a lot of time smoking. I let them smoke for about three hours, which left them tender, but not falling off the bone. I like having a little bit of chew when I make ribs.
After coming off the smoker, we put them in the fridge until the next day, when we went down to see the family. When it was approaching time to eat, they went onto their gas grill on low direct heat for about ten minutes to get warm and crisp up a little.
The verdict? We plan to do this again. The ribs were quite tasty. They didn’t exactly taste like bacon. But they somehow reminded you of it. They were easy, too. Always a plus. And it was nice to see the family keep grabbing another one to nibble on as the afternoon went on. All in all, I think we have a winner.
Dark Side of the Fridge 