Farmer's Market

I had the best of intentions to work on my thesis this morning, until my lovely daughter, Brynn called and asked if I'd like to go to the Farmer's Market with her. I go to the market quite often in the spring, for plant starts and during the summer, but it usually isn't something that I think of in the Fall. There was quite a variety of inspiration: corn, heirloom tomatoes, basil, and of course, pumpkins and gourds. I bought some Anaheim Chiles that had been allowed to turn red (they are a little warmer than the green ones) that will be good on the grill, some fresh corn, and some green tomatoes. Brynn bought some basil, corn, an aloe plant and some Greek Focaccia Bread that looked very good. Snide comments were made about the times that I "made" my children eat fried green tomatoes. I like them dredged in a 50/50 mix of flour and cornmeal, along with whatever spices sound good at the moment, then pan fried in a bit of olive oil. Seems that they might be good dipped in a chipotle-sour cream sauce, but I will also do a little research on dipping sauces before I make them.

Saturday Breakfast

Have you ever tried Greek Yogurt? I picked up some plain, Greek-style yogurt at Trader Joe's last week. The first time I had tried it was at a retreat at The Sleeping Lady Resort in Leavenworth, Washington(http://www.sleepinglady.com/). The Sleeping Lady is a really cool retreat center and famous for their breakfast "buffet." It is quite good and they make good use of their on-site organic garden. At The Sleeping Lady, a bowl of greek-style yogurt was served with reconstituted dried apricots. It appeared that they soaked the apricots in water and perhaps added some honey or agave to thicken the resulting sauce. I doubt that it needed sweetening though. So, this morning I was going to have a bowl of lovely northwest blueberries and spied the greek yogurt container sitting there in the refrigerator. Put a couple of dollops in a bowl and added the previously mentioned blueberries. I can tolerate and occasionally even enjoy regular yogurt, but this stuff is great! I am also going to try it with some of the blackberry jam I made last month mixed in, and it might be good where we might typically use sour cream.

Grilled Pizza--the Experiment

I bought some fresh pizza dough the other day at TJ's, thinking that a grilled pizza would be a great way to use some of my end-of-the season garden bounty. I found several recipes and this helpful video on Allrecipes : http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Grilling-Pizza-Video/Detail.aspx

It makes it look easy, and even though I had my doubts, I proceeded to put things together for a grilled pizza tonight. Grilling pizza sounded like a great idea. A crisp, smoky, charred-just-a-bit crust. Mmmmm. But, let's get one thing clear. I'm a good cook, but I suck at most baking. Including bread. I even screwed up bread with the bread machine. So I was nervous going in, but watching the video made me confident that I could do it. The pizza dough was way too soft to attempt putting it on the grill, so I punted and put it on two baking trays in the oven. Made the kitchen very hot, since it was around 80 today. I made a fresh tomato sauce with oregano, marjoram and rosemary, a dash of sugar, and some mesquite grilling spice for a smoky flavor. I heated it a bit to give it a nice consistency before putting it on the dough. Then I added fresh mozzarella. I had a container of mozzarella "pearls," and used those. Then another addition from my garden, a bit of fresh basil. Toppings I used were shrimp, fresh mushrooms, sweet onion, and red bell pepper, but as you know, you can use most anything on pizza. Use your imagination. The final product was not what I had hoped for, but it was a passable homemade pizza. I think next time I will try grilling an already cooked Boboli crust.

Gorgeous Cupcakes!

Since I seem to be focusing on food, here's a picture of the cupcakes that Gabe's mom, Norma made for the wedding. They had a small cake for the cutting ceremony, but these were for the guests. The pansies on top were sugared and terribly yummy. Everyone was impresssed and the caterer even asked me who made them. So pretty!

Lots and lots of jalepeno ideas!

I did a little research today about what to do with all my jalepenos. I could: freeze them, can them, pickle them, dry them, make them into jelly, or any number of interesting and tasty alternatives. This website: http://www.pepperfool.com/recipe_home.html has enough pepper recipes to boggle your mind. Me? I'm either going to make jalepeno jelly or a fun sounding recipe I found for Green Apple-Jalepeno Chutney. Here it is:

Green Apple- Jalapeno Chutney
1 1/2 pounds ripe green or yellow apples (about 4)
1 large papaya, seeded -- peeled and chopped
2 medium onion -- cut up
1 medium sweet red pepper -- cut up
8 jalapeno (about 1/2 cup) -- cut up
1 1/4 cups white or cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wash, core & cut up apples. Use a food processor to chop the apples, papaya, onions, red pepper & jalapenos, processing the ingredients in about 5 batches. Or, finely chop with sharp knife. You should have about 6 cups total mixture.
In a 4-qt pot, combine the chopped fruits & vegetables, vinegar, sugar, raisins, mustard & salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes.
NOTES : Makes about 7 half-pint jars.

Food

I made a comment on Facebook today that I needed ideas for things to do with all the jalepenos I have in the greenhouse, and it occured to me how often I make posts on FB about food. In this case, I have an abundant amount of jalepenos growing in my greenhouse, and wasn't quite sure what to do with them. I got some great suggestions: oven-roasting, freezing, jalepeno jelly, drying them into chipotle... I think that I will follow up on those ideas and post what I learn, and any recipes I find here.

The Wedding

The wedding is over, my youngest daughter had the day of her dreams and is beginning her life with her new husband, Gabe. It's been an eventful few weeks. Brynn and Gabe got married at Hoffstadt Bluffs, which is a visitors center near Mt. St. Helens that the county owns and rents out for weddings. The weather here in SW Washington is usually pretty nice in September, but we had an exquisite day. Friends and family came together to celebrate and it really was a perfect day. Dwain and I even headed to the "after party" with the kids for awhile--that was fun.