Farmers' Market Glory

This week's buys: asparagus (the most delicate stalks yet this season), kale, 2 quarts of strawberries, a boule of chocolate cherry bread, and small seedlings of lemon thyme, basil, and Italian parsley. The seedlings have already been potted and the bread nibbled. This bread would make to-die-for bread pudding, along the lines of one of my mom's favorites--croissant bread pudding with chocolate chips and dried cranberries--but letting this loaf get stale seems like a travesty. Thinking about strawberry soup or strawberry pie...the eternal struggle between the new recipe and the tried and true.

I might have gone a little overboard, but it's better than buying shoes I don't need, right? This fresh local fare will nourish my body and spirit. (The shoes only work on the spiritual level.) I frequently suffer from buyer's guilt (variation on buyer's remorse), but never when it comes to my farmers' market purchases!

Stroganoff Struggles

A few months back I concocted a mushroom and chicken stroganoff after perusing a handful of recipes from epicurious.com. Though traditionally this dish includes beef and sour cream, my version had neither of these, but it was hands-down the best of its kind that I've ever tasted. And, since preparing and eating this dish drained me of all the weeknight energy, I never bothered to take notes or photos. With the passage of time, all memory of this event are gone...this was one of those dishes that I have repeatedly referenced in dinner-planning conversation since; "Remember that stroganoff I made? Man, that was good. I wish I'd written down a recipe."

I gave it another shot this week, but was sadly disappointed. Attempt #2 lacked the creaminess and the depth of flavor of the first one. I used onion, white button mushrooms, white wine, nutmeg, garlic, and dijon mustard. Next time I will not skimp in the cream department.
Stroganoff tips greatly appreciated!

"Digital Meal Planning": A Smart Money-Saving Idea

This is a fabulous idea!

If you're too lazy to follow the link...it's an article about a subscription service called E-Mealz that provides a week's worth of dinner menus based on that week's grocery store sales. They currently only offer menus based on Wal-Mart, Kroger, ALDI, Ralph’s and Publix grocery chains. And only $5 a month (less than many other similar services). In a family context, I'm sure the service would easily pay for itself. There's even a forthcoming "app"!

Looking for something new to do with Asparagus?

I was. So was Mark Bittman. Like two peas in a pod, we are, but he's the more inventive and famous pea.

I made a half-recipe of Bittman's Asparagus Pesto and ate it on pasta (ridges a-must!) with peas. It was tasty enough to be eaten three days in a row: dinner, lunch, lunch again.

Plus, using my Cuisinart is fun! Isn't the pesto a beautiful color?

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

My first ever solo pie endeavor was a success!

The rhubarb and strawberry combination is one for which my mom is infamous, at least in my family. So in addition to rhubarb and strawberries being in season, Mothers' Day was the appropriate occasion for taking my own stab at it. And boy did I eventually stab at it!

I followed Mark Bittman's (all butter) pie crust recipe in addition to some over-the phone advice from Mom. My mom uses shortening but Bittman's recipe is all butter. I have no regrets about straying from the family tradition on this one. She coached me on the water ("very cold, with ice cubes!") and urged me to include some orange zest in the fruit, which surely makes a difference. With mom's blessing, I stayed true to Bittman and used the food processor to incorporate the flour and butter. I love my Cuisinart!

Ok, I'm going to get one little critique in before I rave about my success...
I didn't use enough water so the dough was a bit crumbly when I tried to roll it out. And maybe the recipe was scant or my pie plate was too big. Ok, enough of that.

I'm a pie-spert! (or will be someday if I continue at this rate)

The Farmers' Market is open!

Wooohoo! My neighborhood farmers' market opened last weekend.

Last week I bought rhubarb (my hands-down absolute favorite VEGETABLE masquerading as a fruit), asparagus, and beautiful Russian kale.

Asparagus is very spring-y and delicious roasted and grilled, but I was looking for a new platform and I found it in the Simply in Season cookbook: asparagus soup, which is not very photogenic, so I'll spare you. Unfortunately I made what seemed like minor revisions to the recipe, but they had measurable results.
1) I cooked the veggies (celery, potato, onion) in too much water and then included all this water when pureeing. The soup ended up much too thin.
2) Used too much celery, which--I read somewhere recently--has a tendency to make dishes bitter.
3) Substituted yogurt for dry milk. The recipe called for yogurt in the bowl when serving, but I blended it into the soup in place of dry milk. This last misstep was probably trivial, but since I’m splitting hairs…

My beloved rhubarb found its way into muffins, also a recipe from Simply in Season. These moist muffins contain no butter, some oil and a good bit of yogurt so it doesn't take much convincing to believe they are healthy. I will make them again, and photograph next time!

I received this beautiful cupcake Teacher Appreciation day on Monday.
As I took my first bite, the pleasure-seeking area of my brain was confused because rather than butter and chocolate and...well...flavor, I only vaguely tasted anything; maybe it was oil and corn syrup. No human made this cupcake from anything resembling real food. I suspect a chain grocery store was behind this unfortunate mislabeling of the food "cupcake." Without much of a second thought, I exchanged the cupcake for a muffin, my second of the day. This speaks very highly of the muffin, because anyone who knows me knows that I will eat just about anything that someone else gives me especially when I'm at work and especially when it's baked goods. Disclaimer: I am by no means ungrateful for the cupcake!

When I stayed home sick with a cold the next day, I ate at least three muffins. I can’t say they healed me, but they did prevent me from the fate of a frozen burrito.

This week's farmers' market finds were more rhubarb and asparagus and strawberries. I just pulled a rhubarb-strawberry pie (my first solo pie ever!) out of the oven! Stay tuned!