Author Archive

Despite a cool gray morning the farmers were out and it was a joy to be at the market.  There was a lot more variety than I expected, but as I predicted there was an abundance of kale.  In fact one booth was only kale, mounds of it.  Next time I must remember my camera, there we many visual delights.

When I got home I thought what a pretty Easter basket I could create with everything I had purchased.  Clockwise we have dill, baby bok choy, arugula, and claytonia.  Claytonia is new to me.  It is a salad green, is pretty and delicious.  In the center is a bag of sprouted grains.  If I were planning on baking bread soon I would incorporate them in the bread, but I have no bread plans so will send them home with my daughter in law tomorrow and she can put them in her bread.  They are good on a salad or cottage cheese or in a sandwich.  In the middle of all that crunchy stuff are three iced sour cream cookies.  One of the sweetest farmers makes these himself.  Last year he shared the recipe with me, but his are always better.  I love the way he sells them 3 for a dollar, how the icing is always pink and the pride he takes telling me how, in the summer his 16 year old great granddaughter helps him bake.

For the past few years there has been a young couple at the market selling amazing breads and granola.  Chris and Lucy.  There table was set up today in it’s usual place, and Chris was there, no Lucy, no bread.  Instead, was a beautiful photograph of their newborn, Julia Augusta Jane and a sign, “Dad is taking the day off”.

Buckets of daffodils, stalks of cherry blossoms, little mossy rock gardens, organic honey and eggs, it’s all happening at the farmer’s market.  I would love to hear about your marketing.

The opening of the Farmer’s Markets are something to really cheer about.  It is a delightful experience to meet the people who have grown the food you are going to enjoy all week.

Of course it won’t be the glorious array shown above from last August yet, but there will be something wonderful this Saturday, and new things every week.  Shopping the Farmer’s Markets keeps us in tune with Mother Nature, and living from the ground up.

The opening of the Farmer’s Markets are something to really cheer about.  It is a delightful experience to meet the people who have grown the food you are going to enjoy all week.

Of course it won’t be the glorious array shown above from last August yet, but there will be something wonderful this Saturday, and new things every week.  Shopping the Farmer’s Markets keeps us in tune with Mother Nature, and living from the ground up.

The change of seasons always comes along at just the right time.  Trading hot dinners for cold, soups for salads, hot cereal for more fruit and yogurt revitalizes my interest in meal preparation.

These in between days are really a fun time to mix it all up.  Not long ago I had the best ever oatmeal in a restaurant.  Not what many people would order when our for breakfast, in the middle of Manhattan to boot!  At Sarabeth’s http://www.sarabethscps.com/ I say, order the oatmeal.  Mine was called the Big bad Wolf, I guess all the oatmeal dishes had a Goldilocks theme, do not be put off!  Go to Sarabeth’s, order oatmeal.  It was January, and my steaming bowl arrived with brown sugar, milk, a plop of wheat berries and lots of fresh fruit. It was  sublime experience!

I set about coming up with my own version.  For the first time ever I cooked myself some wheat berries.  I also whirled regular long cooking oats in a mini prep for a few seconds.  This enabled me to get the oatmeal to a creamy consistency with some oats remaining whole, rather than my usual, oat flakes and  oaty water. I also totally upgraded to fruit rather than a sprinkling of raisins.  I know, they are fruit, but I’ll take a strawberry over a raisin any day!

These days, that start cool and warm up,  are no longer really hot cereal days to me.  Yet, it seems a bit early to transition,  I am cooking a small portion of oats and topping with a large portion of fruit.  I guess you could say the oatmeal has become the topping.  Something about the hot and cold together fits the time of year in a very delicious way.

I happened upon these bagel thins the other day while gazing at all the bread in the grocery store. There are different flavors, but everything bagels are always my favorite. The clerk at the store and I agreed, what a great idea! The very top and the very bottom are my favorite parts of the bagel, so why not cut out the middleman and the calories? Toasted, spread with hummus along with a slice of tomato, sprouts and lettuce was what I fixed for lunch. Yum! Smoked salmon is going to be my next decadent treat. They are made by Thomas and I found them near the English muffins.

When I was growing up one of our family traditions was to have a fancier dinner on Sundays than the other nights of the week. I carried on this tradition as we raised our family. Cooking a roast of some sort or a turkey or ham seemed festive and provided leftovers for another meal or sandwiches.
We no longer enjoy that heavier food and I prefer now to only cook that way on holidays and maybe not even then! I began to define Sunday night dinner in a new way. Yes, I wanted it to be more special, I wanted to punctuate the week, light the candles and linger over a delightful meal. I did not want to spend lots of my Sunday cooking, have lost interest in leftovers and did not want to begin a new week feeling weighed down.
The festive feeling I am looking for comes from a pretty table, ingredients for the dinner that are a little more unusual and a bit more of a treat for us, and having everyone at the table relaxed because no one was overextended preparing the meal!
A recent Sunday night dinner was Chilean Sea Bass, oven roasted sweet and white baking potatoes and a combination of steamed baby bok choy and broccolette.
In thirty minutes, a memorable meal. …read more on Reinventing Sunday night dinner

I was about to head out for a walk late this morning and realized I was slightly hungry. I did not want to stop my walk plans for lunch so decided to make a quick snack. Why would I set out for exercise without fueling my body? I topped 1/3 cup of skim milk ricotta cheese with a handful of blueberries, one lone sliced strawberry and a sprinkling of almond slivers. It was delicious! I got my sweet and fresh from the berries, creamy and tangy from the ricotta and the thing I crave the most…crunch, from the almonds. I was satisfied all around and really enjoyed my walk.