farmer's market lunch. farmer's market salsa

I've been making my own salsa recently. I use it sometimes as salad dressing and sometimes when I make a couple corn tortilla chips for a midafternoon snack. I've used canned diced tomatoes because I had tons of them, but it's obviously great with higher quality tomatoes, especially those that are about to be a little too ripe to enjoy on your salad. 

The farmer's market today was crazy with peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and of course peaches. One stand was giving away cucumbers! Sliced salted cold cucumbers is one of my favorite summer snacks so I will certainly be enjoying that this week...

I had a little over a pound of tomatoes in my bag so they threw in a handful more to make it at least 2 pounds, though I'm sure it was more, and gave it to me for an even $2. I will be baking them in big slices, maybe attempting a summer tomato feta tart similar to this one, this one or this one, and of course eating them raw with salt and pepper and enjoying them in this salsa I just made. Yessss.

Salsa is flexible. Throw in whatever you have. I had onions and tomatillos already so I used:

the ripest tomato in the lot + one and a half tomatillos + a fourth of a large white onion. I also seeded and added half a jalepeno + a half a serrano pepper + fourth of a poblano pepper. Plus a dash of white vinegar + a dash of lime juice + a few generous sprinkles of salt. 

Process it all in a food processor. Eat.

It turned out pink! I really like the taste of tomatillos in salsa, Chuy's uses them. When I asked about cilantro, they said it's dried up in the heat, as had mine. So no cilantro in my salsa.

 

If you've never shopped a farmer's market, you're missing out! If nothing go for the experience. It's really fun to see and talk to the people who live and work around the food they produce. Oftentimes families are there selling their goods. You'll find great fresh juices and baked goods such great breads and baked goods handmade soaps, cheeses, herb mixes, candles. Samples of it all galore and of course great produce. I think a gentleman literally gave me the equivalent of a loaf of bread in all his variety of samples he was enthusiastically explaining and handing out. So fun. 

Some of it may be more expensive than the grocery store, cantelopes and watermelons were today, but a lot of it isn't and it's all much better and more fresh, my huge $2 bag of tomatoes, $5 bin of peaches and $2 bunch of kale for example. Plus it's fun to support the people who grow food locally and now that it's moved right down the street from me, I need to go more. I'm suuuuper excited about my farm fresh eggs! They were $5 a dozen, though, so part of me hopes I don't like them too much...

french baguettes

I made bread and it was heavenly. It made my house smell great. It was killer straight out of the oven, with butter and honey, and now I'm hooked. I can't figure out what website this recipe came from, but I just printed nearly every bread recipe over at pete bakes and can't wait to try them all. I've come a long way and so can you! Do not be scurred.



{french baguettes}
adapted from artisan breads every day by peter reinhart
INGREDIENTS
5 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
2 tsp salt or 1 tbsp kosher salt
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
2 c. lukewarm water {about 95 degrees. Tap water that feels just warm to the touch is fine}
DIRECTIONS
{prep day} combine all ingredients in bowl of mixer with paddle attachment and mix on lowest speed for 1 minute until well blended and smooth. Dough should form a coarse, shaggy ball. Let rest uncovered for 5 minutes. Switch to dough hook and mix on medium low speed for 2 minutes. Dough should be smooth, supple and tacky but not sticky.

Knead dough by hand on lightly floured work surface for 1 minute, then transfer to a large, clean, lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and immediately refrigerate overnight or up to 4 days.

{baking day} remove dough from refrigerator 2 hours prior to baking. Gently transfer to lightly floured work surface. Divide dough into 10 ounce pieces for baguettes. Just divide the dough in fourths if you don't have one but Yes! I bought a $7 kitchen scale for this. I had four 10 ounce balls and then a little 5 ounce one leftover.

Form baguettes: by batting each piece of divided dough into a thick rectangle. With the long end facing you, fold the bottom half to the center and seal the seam. Fold the top half to the center and once again seal the seam. Roll the top half of the dough over the seam to create a new seam on the bottom of the loaf. Rock loaf back and forth with hands moving out toward and increasing pressure at the ends, to slightly taper the loaf until baguette is length of your baking sheet (or baguette pan if you have one).

Mist top of dough with spray oil, loosely cover with plastic wrap and proof and room temperature. Make a "couche" by placing baguettes on a clean towel dusted with flour, bunching up fabric between each loaf to create walls for support. Proof for about 1 1/2 hours or until they have increased to  1 1/2 times their original size.

Prep for baking: About 45 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place a rimmed sheet pan which will serve  as the steam pan on the shelf under which the baguettes will be baked. Remove plastic wrap from the dough 15 minutes prior to baking. Gently roll dough onto baguette pan or baking sheet. Just prior to baking score the dough 1/2 inch deep with a serrated knife. Transfer loaves to oven, pour 1 cup hot water into steam pan. Wear an oven mitt & be careful, the steam will be steamy in the hot pan. Warmed the water in my stovetop kettle and poured it in so there was some distance.

Bake for 12 minutes, then rotate pan and bake for another 15-25 minutes until the crust is rich golden brown and the loaves sound hollow when thumped, and the internal temperature is about 200 degrees. Coll on a wire rack for at least 35 minutes before slicing or serving. good luck with that. Store wrapped in a dish towel to maintain crust's crispiness.

roasted shrimp

Umb. I'm dumb. Where has this been? I'm sure I own the Ina Garten cookbook that it's in. As in, for the last three years this recipe {or rather this simple 8 minute interaction between a hot oven and four household staples} has been sitting in my kitchen, in painfully close proximity to the freezer which houses an old, colossal and overly ambitions, never ending bag of frozen shrimp.

Le Sigh. Despite the time it took, I'm so glad cute Little Kitchen could bring it to the forefront of my Google Reader so that at least, albeit feeling like an idiot, I could at least come out of the cave I've been living in, begin to enjoy this and make some more room in my freezer. Or maybe not since I'll probably go to Costco for an elephant sized bag later today.

This. Is. So. Good. So versatile. So stinkingfrikinannoyingly simple. Be generous with your oil, salt and pepper and use good olive oil. Eat these babies alone, chopped up on salads, thrown into summer pastas, make little ceviches.

Roasted Shrimp

via The Little Kitchen that Could {to whom the pic belongs} from Ina Garten

{Ingredients}
2 lbs. large shrimp (15-20 count), peeled and deveined with tails left on

3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon coarse kosher or sea salt
1-2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon Old Bay blackening seasoning is also good if you have it
{Directions}

If your shrimp were frozen, as mine were, easily thaw them by running them under lukewarm water in a colander or setting them in a bowl of lukewarm water for 5 minutes or so. They are then easy to peel if they aren't already.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with foil. Toss shrimp with olive oil, salt and pepper and spread in one layer.  Roast for 8 minutes or just until pink and cooked through.  Set aside to cool.  Serve warm or at room temperature, on top of salads, mixed in pasta, or even in warmed corn tortillas with some fresh pico de gallo, cilantro, maybe some chopped mango, cabbage, and a little chipotle mayo.

blackberry fage

Operation Clean Out Freezer and Pantry is in full force.

After the pasta frozen fruit is next on the hit list. I have frozen cranberries, peaches, blackberries and strawberries. Since this stuff isn't in season anyway, now is a great time to start using it!

{blackberry yogurt}
heaping 1/2 c. frozen blackberries
1 c. greek yogurt
2 T. granola (or Grape Nuts - if you're in OCOF&P)
2 t. honey

Heat blackberries in a coffee mug for 1-2 minutes in the microwave until thawed. To thawed berries (and resulting liquid that I kept for sweetness) mix yogurt, granola & honey.

a match made in heaven

one tablespoon

+

one to two cups

=

{love}

toppings? toasted pecans, diced peaches, cinnamon granola...

banana nut bran muffins

So sometimes my cooking tends to be a little haphazard.

frozen banana vs. knife: knife - 0 banana - 1

Oh! there's a glimpse of the oft maimed Vittles herself! My friend Kristen came to visit and play and brought her out-of-this-word camera. Don't get used to these pictures, friends. Because the Elph is loyal and has no hope of being replaced anytime in this decade.
... keep sifting. Savor the image quality.I added some banana and nuts to a basic bran recipe, I think next time I'll do a whole banana and cut the sugar to about a fourth of a cup.

banana bran muffins
yields 12 muffins
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup wheat bran
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg
2 tablespoons dark molasses {I substituted brown sugar... but will do molasses next time}
1/2 ripe banana
1/3 cup crushed almonds, walnuts or pecans
DIRECTIONS
Oven to 400. Prep a muffin tin by spraying with cooking spray or lining with cups. Sift flour, bran, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar together until. smooth and light, about 3 minutes. Whisk milk, egg, molasses. Gradually add egg mixture while mixing and continue mixing until smooth. Stir flour mixture, banana and nuts into creamed butter mixture until batter is evenly blended, but do not overmix.

Fill muffin tin. Bake 16 - 18 minutes.

Great shots. Don't you think? Check her out on my side bar under "kwwisten's pics."

parsley pesto

I've been making a few recipes recently that call for parsley. Please tell me I'm not the only one to have noticed this issue. A recipe calls for, oh maybe a couple tablespoons chopped parsley so I head to the store (NOT out my backdoor....which is another lamentation all together) and buy a formidable BUSHEL of parsley. Granted, it's like 65 cents. But still. I mean, if I put three tablespoons of parsley in three meals a day for a week, I still wouldn't use it all. Good thing it's biodegradable because surely 1 in 3 households across the nation are chunkin' out loads of parsley like it's going out of style.

Then to add insult to injury. I went to the store and utterly forgot that I already had a bale of perfectly good parsley pining away its fate in my vegetable drawer. Oh boy.

So I get home and begin to struggle with two issues: 1. I have parsley coming out my ears. 2. I have tortellini (good and SO easy, by the way) that lacks a sauce. Now granted, tortellini is sometimes eaten without a sauce, or just with an olive oil drizzlish thing, but I thought my skeptic of a husband would be more inclined to try a new pasta if it wasn't just sitting there staring him in the face without some savory looking sauce.

Enter parsley pesto. Taylor likes basil pesto (though he doesn't know it's made with basil) and it's good on everything from sandwiches to pizza to obviously pasta. I thought, well, if there's a pesto looking substance on there, he will probably eat it. AND parsley is an herb so surely I can make pesto out of it. Really, more people should do this because, golly, parsley at your local grocery is very cheap and very .....ominous in quantity.

parsley pesto
{special equippment alert: food processor needed}
INGREDIENTS
5 cups parsley leaves
1 cup to 1 and 1/4 cup finely grated parmesean cheese
1/3 cup pine nuts {see note}
1 garlic clove {see note}
2 T. cracked pepper
1 T. salt
2/3 to 3/4 cup olive oil
DIRECTlONS
Mix it all up in your food processor. Add more olive oil if needed. Will yield about one and fourth cup pesto. I have a small food processor and just added everything incrementally, pulsing in between addtions.

{note}
I do not care for the taste of raw garlic. Also pine nuts are MUCH better toasted. If you want to invest a little extra time, I think this will be worth your while. Mince the garlic. Heat skillet on medium heat and add the pine nuts. Cover if your skillet has a lid. Stir every two or three minutes until toasted and delicious smelling. Remove nuts, though I don't think it matters if they stay, and add 1 -2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the garlic and stir often until slighly changed in color and fragrant, about 4 minutes. ...And then start pesto instuctions. If you cook the garlic first, I bet it would be good with two or even three cloves. Raw, I'd say one, or even a dash of garlic powder instead.

So ingenious. Put it on this pizza or make this penne pasta or even this stuffed chicken or cook it on this salmon!

{image belongs to sweetfineday}

chex mix

This is another family tradition, straight from the side of a cereal box. The original recipe can be found at Chex.com. Never satisfied with the amount of seasoning, I've upped the seasoning mixture a bit, in proportion to the cereal. I suggest being generous with the seasonings, especially the Worcestershire sauce, but that's your prerogative. In my pictures you can see I omitted the bagel chips and nuts, the former was purposeful, the latter was accidental. I think it's good with nuts but found I didnt have the stash I thought I had when I bought the ingredients. I don't like the bagel chips so much and think it's a hassle to make them bite size or find some that are.


Chex Mix, also known as "Trash"
INGREDIENTS
3 cups Corn Chex® cereal
3 cups Rice Chex® cereal
3 cups Wheat Chex® cereal
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup bite-size pretzels
1/2 cup garlic-flavor bite-size bagel chips or regular-size bagel chips, broken into 1-inch pieces
8 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 250°F In large bowl, mix cereals, nuts, pretzels and bagel chips; set aside. In small microwavable bowl, microwave butter uncovered on High about 40 seconds or until melted. Stir in seasonings. Pour over cereal mixture; stir until evenly coated. Pour mixture into roasting pan or large casserole dish. Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool, about 15 minutes. Store in airtight container.

I've almost always made the doubled version of this recipe, and you almost have to triple it in order to use up all the cereal you've purchased for the purpose. Or you can make Muddy Buddies!

tex mex summer salad

Wondering what to do with that avocado now, since you only used 1/6th of it for your sandwich on Saturday? Make a scrumptious little salad! Depending on how generous you feel like being with that avocado, and whether or not you want to add black beans, this could even be a meal.
Cast of characters, minus a few of the flavorings.

tex mex summer salad
INGREDIENTS
1 large avocado
2 roma tomatoes
juice from one lime
1 1/2 cup corn kernels (I used canned)
1 1/2 cup cooked black beans (I'd use canned...but had none)
2 tsp. yellow mustard
1/4 to 1/3 c. finely chopped cilantro
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
3 tsp salt or seasoning salt
2 tsp chili powder
DIRECTIONS
Dice avocado and tomatoes and add to medium sized bowl with corn and black beans. Add lime juice, cilantro and spices and mix well. Cover with plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes to a hour before serving.

Perhaps you can tell that my avocado was quite ripe. Great for below sandwich, still tasty but a little mushy for this salad. Chilling this before serving not only enhances the refreshing aspect of the salad but also allows the flavors to blend. Obviously this is quite flexible and I suggest you taste it as you add spices... diced peppers like red or jalapenos would be another great addition. Squeezing a bit of orange into it would probably be really good as well. This could also be a yummy topping for fajitas or grilled shrimp tacos or even salmon. So easy, so versatile, what's not to love?

scones! scones! scones!

Once upon a time I spent a summer in England and fell in love with British, or perhaps, truly Scottish scones. They are a shortbread biscuit served with afternoon tea, or in my case, served for lunch with a banana and a diet coke in the market each and every day. I'd never noticed scones in the U.S. before but when I returned, and began looking for them I discovered that they had been lost in translation on this side of the pond. They'd been turned into a cookie. A dry, crumbly cookie, coated in coarse sugar and served with burned coffee. But not to make this dismal...my story turns out well because I no longer have to lament the abysmal atrocity of the American interpretation. I can now make my own. Taylor nearly burned his fingers trying to get at these this morning. You'd think he never got any good vittles.

Just. Scones.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 t0 1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen
1/2 cup sour cream
1 large egg
{recommended variations}

DIRECTIONS
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Grate butter into flour mixture on the large holes of a box grater; use your fingers to work in butter (mixture should resemble coarse meal), then stir in nuts or any other desired dry additions.

In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and egg until smooth. Add any wet ingredients. Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form. Use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball. (The dough will be sticky in places, and there may not seem to be enough liquid at first, but as you press, the dough will come together.) Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7- to 8-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick. I will dutifully note that at this point many American recipes will recommend that you sprinkle the top with 1 tsp. of sugar. However, since this is not a Starbucks cookie scone, rather a brunch or afternoon tea biscuit, I will make no such recommendation. Carrying on. Use a sharp knife to cut into 8 triangles; place on a cookie sheet (preferably lined with parchment paper), about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden, about 15 to 17 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature. With strawberry preserves or whipped lemon custard.I leave you with a close up of that perfect moist crumbliness.

Cinnamon Wheat Banana Bread

I have a substantial vat of wheat germ since I bought it for Aunt Elaine's hearty pancakes and with the health freakish intention of putting it my morning oatmeal. (However, that is less than savory). My wheat germ wealth being what it is, I'm throwing wheat germ into my baked goods. It's great once baked into muffins, breads or pancakes. Good source of fiber, gives a grainy heartiness....and is very crumbly. So I think the inclusion of wheat germ may warrant an additional egg, or maybe some olive oil? I'm not sure. Taylor agreed this bread was pretty good. And it doesn't even have sugar in it! All the bananas don't need added sugar but the original recipe called for it. If you're more interested in the sugar than in the mountain-man-esque wheat germ, substitute the 1/4 c. wheat germ for sugar.

Cinnamon Wheat Banana Bread
INGREDIENTS
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs, beaten (I recommend 3)
1/4 c butter, melted
1 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c all purpose flour
1/4 c. wheat germ
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
DIRECTIONS
Oven to 350. Grease or butter a 9 x 5 in bread pan. Add eggs and butter to mashed bananas in large bowl and mix. Combine all remaining dry ingredients separately and mix into banana mixture until completely moistened. Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour.

Modifications: 1/2 c. chopped walnuts or pecans would be extra delicious!

chex muddy buddies

Family traditions! We made this at home growing up and usually gave (give) containers of it away to friends. Logan and I ate it non-stop once we'd made it. In college I made it with my roommates who called it "Puppy Chow." That name weirds Taylor out and he refuses to try it. ...that and the involvement of peanut butter. Typical.

Chex Muddy Buddies
INGREDIENTS
9 cups Corn Chex
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
DIRECTIONS
Into large bowl, measure cereal; set aside.
In microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Do not overheat. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.
Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Add more powdered sugar until well coated and white. Store in airtight container.
Hello, heaven.