Friday, July 18, 2008

Bounty, beets and balls.

Ahh...Summer.
It may be hotter than the underside of Satan's nutsack outside, and the humidity may be making it so my hair takes 3.5 days to air dry:


But I'll be damned if I'll let a bad hair day stop me from hitting up the farmer's market.
Today's bountiful booty:

A ton o' pickling cucumbers (coming tomorrow: Pickles, pickles, pickles!!), homegrown broccoli, local tomatoes, a quart of amazing homegrown strawberries, fresh dill, pretty purple onions, kettle corn (!), just-picked beets and purple potatoes. All for around $22.

Where to begin?

The strawberries were so good I gust rinsed them off and stood over the counter hulling them and popping them into my mouth like, well...kettle corn. Exactly what strawberries should be: ripe, sweet and smelling so good that just having them in the car on the drive home makes you crazy to eat them. Getting these beauties in the summer is why I hate grocery-store strawberries so very, very much. Why eat styrofoam when you can have magic little nuggets of love?

I decided to roast the beets and figure out what to do with them later. I love me some beets. I think I'll save some for salads and make chilled beet-orange soup with the rest. I'll post a pic when it's done.

I roasted off the golden beets that I got at the co-op earlier this week as well.

And, since the beets were so fresh, the greens were nice and pristine, not like when you get them in the store sometimes and the greens have disintegrated into some sort of biohazard/composty kind of grossness.
I'm going to braise these for dinner tonight with some bacon and lemon.


Next up: purple taters!

I'm kind of copying a salad I learned to make from a caterer I worked with, with a few tweaks. It is basically sliced, cooked purple taters, crisp-tender green beans, edamame and finely chopped red onion tossed in a dill/basil/mint vinaigrette with lemon and mustard.

It is so very pretty and so very delicious.


Yummy, yummy, yummy I'll soon have love in my tummy.

Happy Friday, my fresh-picked homegrown little nuggets of farmy goodness. Happy Friday.

XO

Oh! Gosh! I almost forgot! I totally had a dream last night that I was pregnant and that I had to have it (for whatever reason. Maybe we needed to repopulate St. Paul or something and they'd take whatever they could get, even my potentially "wrong" baby) but I knew that it would come out all messed up on account of me liking box wine and prescription medication more than I like breathing, so I kept punching myself in the stomach while I was getting ready to go to the Emmy's. I picked out a nice gown, sucker punched myself and was on my way.
I woke up sweating and hungry for pickles.

But I'm not pregnant, in case you're wondering. Or thinking about calling the authorities. It was a dream, people. A dream.

29 comments:

Moe Wanchuk said...

Enjoy. Those purple potatoes kinda look like blue balls, eh?

btw...we're going out to eat at El Meson in Mpls tonight. The reason I'm so excited is because it's FREE! We're finally getting a meal outta my cheap-ass Mooch of a friend.

Did you know that FREE...is my Favorite 4 letter F-word?

Kate said...

You just reminded me that I should not mourn the loss of Simon when it is FARMERS MARKET SEASON. Gah. I'm a tool.

YUM!!!!

Suze said...

So I'm going to check my answering machine right now for the invitation to come over for dinner. I'm sure it's there. We're friends right? It better be there!

kirby said...

Beets are the world's most under-appreciated vegetable. Get down with your bad beet self.

Fran said...

You love beets, I love beets. Oh golden beets.

I was kinda hopin' to get to the end of the post and see the recipe for the purple potato salad. That way I could wow the suburban housewives and their husbands when the We Are Family goes a-visiting on Sunday.

So spill sister or that pregnancy rumor goes viral!

Perfectly Shelly said...

Hey...I went to the farmers market today too.....jalapenos (lots of them), onions, cucumbers (for my cucumber/onion pickle-ish stuff), blackberries--3 qts, and oh, a head of fresh garlic.

BTW, I tried to e-mail you about 'Lil Miss Shitthrower, but it bounced........is your email different than what's on your profile?

it was nothing but a funny shitthrower story, but still......I TRIED.......:)

Since you are a chef, you probably know all this, but me as a reasonably decent cook still feels the NEED to pass along recipes....

FIRST:

thinly sliced cucumber and onions. Equal parts of sugar, vinegar and water, salt & pepper to taste. Let sit and YUMMY!!! Very old school and stuff my grandma made. mmmmm

blackberries, nectarines--just a sprinkle of sugar topped with sweet whipped cream. It's gonna be GOOD.

Let me know about your email....if it's okay and not stalkerish to try to send you an email and all.....

toodles!

Whiskeymarie said...

Moe- I LOVE El Mason. I think I'd love it even more if it were free.

Miss K- I know tools, and you my dear are no tool.

Suze- Dinner is in an hour. Dress up.

Kirby- get down, I shall.


Fran- Just what I listed for the veg (About 1&1/2# potatoes, 1/2# green beans, 1c. edamame- don't cook the edamame- just dump 'em in frozen a little early).
The dressing:
*About 2-3T. each Chopped fresh dill, basil and mint
*1T. coarse mustard
*2T. pesto (from a jar, storebought- don't tell! shh...)
*2T. Orange juice
*Juice of a lemon (You can use the zest too if you want it extra lemony)
* 2T. white wine vinegar
* About 1/2-3/4c. olive oil (depending on your taste)
* Salt & Pepper, to taste.

I always say, use the recipe, but make it taste good by any means necessary. I once added maple syrup to soup- it was delicious.

Perf. Shelly- Did you try
candycanewhiskey@yahoo.com?
E-mail away, my dear!

Fran said...

Oh thank you thank you- this is going to be good. Nowheresville USA will never be the same.

It won't be the same as a key party in the 70's, but trust me the blue potatoes will invite some and repel others.

Cannot wait.

P.S. - wait a minute, you give your email address to other bloggers????

I thought that was just between you and me????!!!!

Frankly I am taken a little aback with this development!

Christa said...

i'm envious of your farmer's market. i went to one here about three weeks ago and it was one guy going apeshit on a uke, a glass blower, frozen meat from the back of a truck, and some herbs.

sucko.

i don't think i've ever eaten a beet. i need to do that soon. i hear it rips the scars off a liver. that sounds perfectly disgusting, just how i like it.

Stella said...

Fresh strawberries are just the greatest!

Gwen said...

1. I just had my first beet the other night. It was good, we were at a classy joint, but very Earthy, which I'm not sure i'm a fan of. (Sentence ended in preposition, I'm drunk.)

2. I made my first batch of pickles last summer. They were AWESOME. Thanks for the reminder to do it again.

3. Call me at 8:30 tomorrow to go to the Farmers Market. I need green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, fingerlings, tuna, and a kitten.

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

Mmmmmm, purple taters and beans.

Lollie said...

That's what I'm going to nickname my kid when he/she comes out, "my homegrown little nugget of farmy goodness."

Freida Bee, MD said...

I would be worried about the promiment display of that gorgeous knife, but I'm too busy drooling over all those fresh veggies for only $22 to run.

Whitey McCracker said...

Your post makes me feel guilty that I don't make better use of the succulent fresh fruits and veggies I've got going on here (nearly every market in Mexico is a Farmer's Market)...I did have fresh strawberries and real Mexican blueberries last night though. I think the obvious solution is that I become disturbingly wealthy and hire a cook.

gorillabuns said...

i have never seen a purple tater!

Dr Zibbs said...

Did I ever mention that you're hot? OK yes, I will accept the invitation to eat that dinner with you. Please send a car.

Christy said...

You are making me extremely jealous w/all this amazing cooking. I think my husband's a little jealous too...and Fran is not one to talk! I thought I was the only internet friend she gave her email & phone number to, but I've since learned that I'm not the only one...LOL

Renaissance Woman said...

You have inspired me to go shopping at the market! I want those purple potatoes. Can't wait for update on the beets.

kilax said...

I know exactly what you mean about the strawberries in the car. One night I ate a whole lb. of strawberries. My husband was astonished, but I wanted more! :)

Jon said...

This must be what it's like for you when I post about sports: confusing at first, then strangely arousing.

Chiada said...

I have been doing the same exact thing with strawberries from our farmers market too for the last month now. Oi. We're leaving in about 10 minutes to go get more bounty. Yay!

Mel O said...

That salad looks amazingly beautiful (and yummy!)! I love getting ideas from the recipes you post... thanks, lady!

H said...

Where did you find strawberries??? I looked everywhere and the only berries I could find were raspberries.

The Lady Who Doesn't Lunch: said...

Your colon is probably very excited.

metalia said...

Okay I totally lost my shit laughing with "underside of Satan's nutsack" but recovered enough to read the rest of the post. Which had me drooling.

*scampers off to find something to eat*

Stefanie said...

I have no idea what it means to braise greens, and I didn't even know there was such a thing as purple tomatoes. Oh, the things I could learn from you, WM...

Katrin said...

I just posted a pretty similar post (i.e. Hail to all farmer's markets!), if I just had gone here first... Now it'll look dumb, compared to what you got. :(

Lara said...

Mmmmm fresh homegrown strawberries! They are indeed the best, even though they totally ruin those Driscoll's ones in comparison.

Also, if you get an urge to give us a tutorial on how to cook beets, that would be awesome. Damn, I'm needy.