Recipes for Farmer Market Goodness

Every weekend I visit my local farmer's market to supplement the vegetables and herbs that I grow in my garden with local specialties. There is the egg man, the pita and olives lady, the French nuns with their amazing homemade pastries, the knife sharpener and wonderful fruits from local farms including peaches and cherries. Last night I made a ridiculously simple meal for Paul and I and we enjoyed it with a cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Here is the recipe, enjoy!


Rosemary & Lemon Salmon
2 filets of salmon
Fresh sprigs of rosemary (I grow my own and used 2 sprigs)
Thin slices of lemon
Extra virgin olive oil

Lemon Basil Potato Salad
Small yellow potatoes ( I used about 10 small potatoes, enough for 2 people) 
Juice of 1 large lemon (You can also add grated lemon zest and more juice to taste)
1 tbsp prepared pesto
1/4 cup real mayonnaise (You can use less mayo if desired)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Fresh basil (Also grown in my garden, I used a handful of small leaves)

Roasted Green Beans with Parmesan Cheese
2 large handfuls of fresh green beans
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Extra virgin olive oil

To prepare the potato salad, make a few hours before dinner or the evening before.
Wash the potatoes and add them to a large pot of salted water, boil until just fork tender. Drain and shake off excess water. In a small bowl, whisk together the pesto, mayo, olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Taste and adjust accordingly. Once potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them in half or quarters and add to the dressing. Stir gently to coat and refrigerate for at least a few hours. Before serving sprinkle with fresh basil, julienned.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Tear off 2 pieces of aluminum foil, large enough to make a packet around each piece of salmon and place on a small baking sheet. Place salmon on foil, drizzle with olive oil, rosemary sprigs and 2 very thin slices of lemon. Salt and pepper can be added for taste. Fold the aluminum foil around the salmon and seal edges, the salmon will steam in the foil.

On a larger baking sheet lined with aluminum foil, arrange the washed and dried green beans in a single layer and drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper.

The beans and fish will cook in the oven at the same time. Approximately 15 minutes for the salmon and 15-20 minutes for the green beans depending on how much you want them to the brown. Once beans are removed from oven, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Serve the fish with juices from packet spooned over the top with a side of chilled potato salad and warm green beans.

Delicious and so easy. The salmon and potato salads are adjusted from recipes by Emeril Lagasse and The Pioneer Woman.

Monday List #15

In reference to my most recent post on Spain: A Culinary Road Trip, I thought I would make a list of my top 5 favorite tools in the kitchen. As the result of a New Years Resolution a few years ago I have been learning how to cook and loving it! When I recently moved into my new home I moved with 1 chair, my son's bedroom set, an armoire, a few lamps, artwork, my books, small electronics, some good china and crystal and personal items. That was it. In the 2 months since we moved in I have been slowly acquiring antiques and new items as needed. I'm finding half the fun is the search and if I don't have enough chairs for a dinner party we move outside to my garden where I have plenty of seating. So while I stock my new kitchen and experiment with what I am growing in my garden, what I buy from local farmers and recipes from all over the world I have found a few things I can't cook without. This is my very basic list of the top 5 tools I use almost every day.

• Whisk. I seriously use my stainless steel whisk everyday, usually for making my own salad dressings and scrambling eggs.
• Glass bowls. I know, so basic. I use them for everything, including storing food.
• Microplane zester. Lemons, parmesan cheese, garlic, chocolate. Great tool.
• Good knives. I use CUTCO. Good knives makes all the difference.
• Stainless steel food carriers. I have purchased mine online as well as in stores such as World Market and in Chicago's Little India neighborhood. These are perfect for taking food with you on the go.

Many cookbooks have a section on stocking your kitchen with essential pots, pans, etc...I find these sections helpful, I recently bought a cast iron skillet after repeatedly reading about the benefits of using one. Currently I am reading, Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook: Crazy Delicious Recipes that are Good to the Earth and Great for Your Bod by Kim Barnouin which has just such a section. Helpful tips and tricks.

P.S One thing I don't need and have lived without for 5 years is a microwave!

Summer Essentials-2010 version

Summer is within reach here in Chicago. Kids are playing baseball and soccer on Saturday mornings in the parks, pools are being cleaned and filled and dandelions are already changing from the yellow flower to a white ball full of wishes.

I spent yesterday getting my backyard deck ready for the summer season of barbecues, cocktail nights and dinner parties. On my large deck: new patio furniture, new citronella candles and hanging baskets full of ferns and herbs. My backyard is a beautiful oasis and I spend almost every minute of the summer gardening in my vegetable beds or lounging on my deck.

For this year here is my list of summer essentials:

A Good Book for Lounging in the Hammock. I am reading Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of a Marriage, a Trial and a Self-Made Woman by Chloe Schama. The true story of Theresa Longworth who married and then fought her aristocratic husband to acknowledge their marriage after he left her for another woman. This sassy Victorian woman became a world traveler and writer in an era when women weren't known for their independence or their brains.

Moisturizer with Sunscreen. Obviously a summer must. I use Aveeno Positively Ageless Moisturizer with 30 SPF. I love this product which absorbs quickly, is non greasy and has the loveliest smell.

Chilling Tunes. My music of the summer is Jamie Cullum and Amos Lee. Cool jazz mixed up with some pop and soul and you have the perfect chilling music. I love the music of Jamie Cullum so much I'm flying to Denver in July to see his concert at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Ya, he is THAT good. Now make a tour stop in Chicago please Jamie.

Farmers Markets and CSA's. Support local farmers and enjoy foods good for you and the environment. Looking for a market near you or interested in buying into a Community Supported Agriculture program, visit Local Harvest.

Ravinia For those of you in or near Chicago, Ravinia Festival the outdoor music park is a tradition as soon as the cicadas start buzzing. After years of lackluster musical acts, they finally booked a season worth getting excited about. I scored tickets to Sting and Sheryl Crow for under $30 each. Sure the parking is a nightmare, picnicking on the lawn might not be for everyone (so get pavilion seats) but most of the time it's worth the hassle to listen to great music on a warm starry Chicago night.

Reisenthal Bags. The perfect bags for the beach, hauling fresh produce home from the farmers market or carting books from the library to the house. I have the city shopper and it is my favorite summer bag.

Birkenstocks. Ya not just for tree huggers anymore. Absolutely the most comfortable shoes I own. Mine saved my feet last year with all the walking I did in Oxford. Worth every penny. Check out the collection here.

Hand Lotion. My hands look a little weathered by the end of the summer after months of gardening. The BEST hand lotion on the market in my opinion is Baume Du Jardinier Gardner's Hand Healer. I go through this stuff by the tube full. Love it.

Blackberry. I finally joined the crackberry cult. Disconnecting from my Blackberry for the summer...let's be honest, it's not gonna happen. On the boat, in my garden, I will be connected. Totally connected...everywhere. How did I ever live without?

What are YOUR summer essentials?

Favorite Thing-Mason Jars

Yesterday as I was putting together a library display on Going Green I found a couple of books with tips on reusing and reducing. 14 months ago I stopped using plastic grocery bags and have tried to cut back on using zip locks and other plastic storage containers. The books I browsed through had ideas for reusing milk cartons (dog food scoops), egg cartoons (earring compartments), shoe boxes (cleaning supply organizers under the sink) etc but not a lot of ideas for reusing glass.

Last year I started canning my own fruits and vegetables and became slightly obsessed with mason jars. Our local Home Depot and Wal-Mart (aka The Scary Store), stopped stocking them and I resorted to begging my gardening and cooking friends for their left over jars. A friend who owns a farm in Door County Wisconsin had her husband buy me a load of canning jars from Farm & Fleet on a visit north and I quickly used up my supply. This year I prepared a head of time and during a trip to their farm last month I stopped by Farm & Fleet and stocked up.

The best thing about mason jars isn't that they come in a variety of shapes and sizes but the uses I've found for them outside of canning homemade apple sauce, pesto and pickles. The taller mason jars are perfect for transporting beverages and liquids while on the go. I regularly use the jars for tea, soup, rice and yogurt and they make the perfect containers for leftovers at work. I've never been a fan of pouring hot liquids into plastic containers for storage so I've started using my jars for storing homemade marinara sauce, soups, risotto etc... I find the jars easier to clean (glass doesn't absorb stains like Tupperware), safer to store hot food in and easier to stack in my fridge and cabinets.

The uses for mason jars are endless, here are a few ideas.

Make:
Mason Jar Frappuccino
Cake in a Jar
Homemade granola, cereal, pancake mix, cookies, bread

Store:
Tea
Dried beans, pasta, rice, seeds etc
Change
Cotton balls
Office supplies
Small children's toys (Legos)

Grow:
A terrarium
Sprouts

P.S. Don't have access to a store that sells new mason jars? Reuse your jelly jars, Prego spaghetti sauce jars, olive jars etc. The great thing about reusing supermarket food jars are the variety of shapes and sizes. If they would just make it easier to get the labels off...

Oxford Day 6, 7, 8 and 9

My 6th day in Oxford was a busy one and particularly interesting to me. In the first session after breakfast Eric Meyer of the Oxford Internet Institute spoke about e-research at Oxford. After a tea break, Michael Popham, the Head of The Oxford Digital Library spoke about the partnership between Google and Oxford and the digitization of more than 300,000 items in the collection which are now available online. I love browsing through digital collections and it was fascinating to hear the behind the scenes story of how things make it from the archives to the Internet.
We then walked to the Bodleian Library and met with Clive Hurst who is the Head of Rare Books and Printed Ephemera at the library, absolutely one of my dream jobs. He had about a dozen rare items that represented the evolution of books in England that we were allowed to view, but not handle. Some of the items were the only surviving copies in the world. Amazing.

After lunch we had a private tour of the Oxford Botanic Gardens which are the oldest in the UK and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. Lisa Campbell was our tour guide and she is the curator of the Glasshouse Collections, a series of conservatories that house plant specimens from all over the planet. The Botanic Gardens are home to the "Tolkien Tree" a massive tree that was a favorite of writers such as Tolkien who based the Ents on this tree in his book Lord of the Rings. (See pic) After the gardens we were hosted for a private tea at the home of a former Oxford University librarian. Beautiful house and gardens and we were treated to a real English tea party.
Over the weekend we went to Windsor to visit Windsor Castle and to tour Eton College. It was nice to stay in a posh hotel (cable and down pillows!) but by Sunday I was ready to go "home" to Oxford. Windsor Castle was huge and very beautiful but touring Eton College was even better. Our tour guide was the Master of the buildings at Eton (over 400) and gave us a lively and historic tour plus details on the daily lives of the boys. Getting to Eton from Windsor visitors must cross a pedestrian bridge over the Thames which is picturesque and lovely and on the Eton side is a restaurant called the House on the Bridge where we had delicious "cream tea" which is tea with scones, clotted cream, jam and strawberries. Best we have had yet in England.

Monday was a bank holiday in England (no classes) so we went to Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill and one of the largest homes in England. The grounds were enormous and seemed to go on for miles with gardens designed by Capability Brown in 1764. The "Long Library" is one of the longest rooms in a private home in the UK and was full of books and priceless portraits. The 11th Duke of Marlborough lives most of the year at the Palace but was out of town for the long weekend so were were able to pay for a private tour and see the family apartments. Shabby chic is how I would describe the rooms they live in. Lots of books, magazines, newspapers and remote controls for the televisions laying around like any normal house. There was a wonderful art and music festival on the grounds of the Palace and we walked around and enjoyed a beautiful sunny day. When I closed my eyes I could picture the grounds full of horses and hounds and ladies in period dress enjoying garden parties and gentleman on the hunt. It was such a mix of the old and new, totally fascinating glimpse into the aristocracy.

Gardening Bliss

The weather here in the Chicago area has been beautiful for the past few days. I spent all day Sunday in my garden cleaning out my raised vegetable beds, pots and containers, cleaning all the patio furniture and starting my herbs and vegetables by seed. The home we bought in 2006 was previously owned by a couple who had transformed the front, back and side yards into English gardens. We completely redid the backyard last year by adding a wrought iron fence (for the beagle), had a large deck built, added sod and paved walkways and replanted many of the perennials. The side yard contains 4 raised beds of which 2 are full of established raspberry bushes (the previous owner made her own jam), the remaining beds I have been cultivating vegetables and herbs.
On Sunday I planted:
Green beans
Onions
Cherry tomatoes
Beef tomatoes
Chili peppers
Sweet yellow and red peppers
Cucumbers
Mint
Basil
Rosemary
Lettuce
Arugula
This year I will stagger what I grow and will start more herbs, eggplant, squash, radishes, carrots and possibly potato next month.