Sunday Snow Day

We woke this morning to find that the sun was out and the snow had finally stopped falling.
Because the back porch door had stayed closed, we had snow piled against the outside of it. Look at that height!
I started to cook and to prep for baking. While I was in the warm kitchen, my honey worked his way to the garage, got the shovel and cleared, first the back walk, then the front walk. He was pretty pleased with himself.
He had lots of layers and said that he didn't feel the cold at all. Hmmm, okay, but to me 21F is quite cold, no matter how many layers I have on.
The Carrot Cheese cake turned out really nicely. Here's a picture of how a small slice looked. Very moist and cheesy. Last night's potato soup turned out good, too. Today, I made a tomato sauce and am making chocolate chip cookies right now. I added pecans and dried cranberries to them. I like being my own prep chef, using all my little bowls to set up my ingredients. It's like: make believe I'm doing a TV cooking show. I'm going to bring some of the cookies around the corner to my little neighbors. Yes, I plan to step outside! With enough layers, I think I can make it around the corner and back home without feeling too arctic.

Today's lunch.

Two kinds of spreads, stuffed grape leaves, tiny tomatoes, Comte cheese, cherry yogurt, and organic bread with sesame seeds...Add some wine...and Voila, today's lunch!

Market Day

Three new produce items, or at least new to me, were available at our stall today. Celeriac, kabocha squash, and Chiapas tomatoes. The first is a root vegetable very popular in Germany and France. It used to be well known here but for some reason, fell out of favor. How odd? The tiny tomatoes as the first tomatoes. They're what existed before the little fruit went off to Europe to be cultivated and hybridized. I took a picture of the spring onions because they looked so lovely with all that white fringey-ness and it's fall and we have "spring" onions. Pretty cool. I'll put some recipes up on my Vox blog, in case you're in cooking mode and happen to have some celeriac or kabocha handy.

Market update

Yesterday was a slow day at the market. It was nice weather, sunny but not so humid, a nice change, but not so many people. Maybe it's vacation time? We had gorgeous eggplants, radishes and tomatoes, plus lots of other veggies. We had a young helper, who was a very good worker. I'm wearing a blouse made by Mayan women in Chiapas, Mexico. Amy, the organic farmer whose stand is across from ours, buys them directly and sells them at the market. I never wear this much color, but I really liked this shirt and thought it was perfect for being a veggie vender.

The wooden bowl was a gift for Chuck. It's walnut wood and made by Tom Lowe, who does really beautiful wooden pieces.

Bonnie is also across from us and brightens our view with her great tie-dye items. She's so good at this. Have you ever tried to do more than one color? I can only do single dye but she does really intricate multiple colors.

These lovely Asian eggplants reminded me of my favorite recipe. It tastes just like a dish I had in a restaurant in NYC many years ago.You can see the recipes on my VOX blog.
We had heirloom tomatoes, lovely green zebras, which many people think are the kind of tomatoes that fried green tomatoes are made with, but their not. They're green and they're ripe. The orange one, which don't show very well in this image, are called Valencias, and I forgot what the red ones are called, but they're all delicious. We had a small helper yesterday. Anna from Arizona! I'm glad that I did some cooking yesterday as today I have NO cook top. We were replacing our old one and had some problem with a) measurements b) electrical connection. The new one has an electric starter...duh...did we think, "Oh, one needs electricity." No, we didn't, SO the plumbers were here at 730 a.m. and discovered they couldn't do too much but did the new gas regulator; now we need 1) a carpenter 2) an electrician. I was laughing on the outside but, you know what on the inside, as the plumbers left. Happily, our neighbor is having work done on his house and his friend came by and can do what we need. Whew! Maybe I'll have a new cook top by Monday. Oh dear, cooking meals, hmmm, well it's summer so cold food is better anyway.

Fruits and veggies

Last week, I got some Tongue of Fire beans. Aren't they beautiful? I simmered them with some garlic and they became a nice beige color. I've been snacking on them or tossing them in my salad. Though there are fancier ways to use them, I've enjoyed them plain. The okra was lovely, though I personally don't care for it. Lots of people seemed excited that it was available. As usual, the Sun Gold tomatoes were delicious. Last summer, during the tomato festival, our farmer's Sun Golds won an award. This year, we didn't have the festival at the market. I'm sure they'd have won again. This evening, Chuck picked up our fruit share from Agriberry CSA (community supported agriculture.) We got some blueberries and LOTS of peaches. I put the water bottle next to the box to give an idea at the size of the fruit. REQUEST: please send me a link to any good but easy recipes using peaches. (not with Bisquik, however, as Chuck is trying to bake from scratch.)

The farmers' market

I've been enjoying working at the Farmers' Market on Thursdays. I really get into selling the produce, which is an easy sell in that it's local and organic and everyone wants it, but I love telling people about the CSA Sprout, how it works and all. I love talking about our farmer, Charlie (Victory Farms of Hanover) and how he grows great produce. I love talking to people who love food and share recipes with me. We have many chefs who stop by and one Saturday, the chef from the restaurant across the street came and bought all the French melons. We knew what would be on the menu that night! This past Thursday was monstrously hot, we drank lots of iced water and stood in the misting tent once. There were fewer customers at the market but our share holders came as early as they could. By the time I'd been there for 4 and a half hours, I was pretty giddy, and was so happy I was headed home. Here are some of the images I took that day, basil, arugula, red onions, German stripe heirloom and Roma tomatoes. Charlie grows all of these lovelies on a small amount of land in Hanover county, Virginia. I'm loving photographing his veggies.