Farmer's Market Finds September 6

Yummy! Yummy! I'm excited!

Watermelon ($2.50 people!!)

Cucumber

Nopales

Okra

Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes

Onions

Basil

Thyme (Im going to dry some if these out so I have some fresh organic stuff with my dry spices)

Raw Honey! Its always a pricey trip when I buy honey, but guys, its really REALLY good! And it lasts about two months or so if I don't do tons of baking. 

I made some broth a few days ago, I see a tasty onion and potato soup in the future...

Maybe I should make a fresh mix of nopales, tomatoes, and basil with cooked barley or wheat berries too...

And a cucumber, tomato, onion, and butter sandwich... 

Then fried okra? I haven't ventured to play with these little guys before, but I want to try. Maybe with a sweet and spicy type dipping sauce? With rice?

I also bought walnuts awhile back, maybe I'll make PESTO! Mmmmm, pesto!

Whole wheat, oatmeal, flax flour, raisin, chocolate chip cookies

I was craving a cookie, so I made some with what I had at the house

This made 24-28 medium sized cookies (about 1 1/2"-2" circles once pressed out a little). I wouldn't make them any bigger, they might be too crumbly if they get too big. They're a perfect amount of cookie in the medium realm anyway.  Mmmm, coooookie. 

Co-Op

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour*

2 cups rolled oats*

1/2 cup flax flour ( I have organic flax seeds, but I had already ground, non organic and wanted to use them;)

1/2 cup butter* at room temperature 

1/2 cup raw local honey (my favorite brand is only sold at the farmers market, but they have good raw honey at the co-op too)

1/2 cup raisins*

1 egg*

Regular Grocery store 

1tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

1/4 cup chocolate chips (I only added these to half the batch, make it 1/2 cup if you want them in the whole thing)

Cream together honey and butter, then mix in egg, spices, and baking soda/powder. Mix the flours, oats, and raisins/chocolate chips in a separate bowl until combined and then gradually add, 1 cup at a time, of mix into wet mixture with a wooden spoon. 

If your dough is too sticky, add more wheat flour, 1tbs at a time, until it looks like this.

 It should pull away from the bowl more than stick to it.  I live in the desert and usually don't have the problem of too wet/sticky of dough, but I know it might happen in more humid climates, so be warned. 

Scoop out dough either in balls like this 

squashing  them down a bit to widen them out, these cookies do not spread when cooked, or just use a regular spoon to grab some dough and place in a clump on the cookie sheet (which is what I did for the finished cookies pic at the top). 

Bake at 350 degrees, in a pre heated oven, for 7-8 minutes. The edges will be a nice golden brown. Take them off the pan after giving them 30seconds or so to cool, cook just enough to move them to a cooling rack.  Allow them to cool for a couple minutes before you eat 'em. 

Just an FYI: these cookies PRE chocolate chips are not super sweet, they're really good with just the raisins, but totally get sweeter for obvious reasons once the chips are added. 

Fresh Nopales Tacos

Simple, fresh tacos! Mmmmm. It made 2 servings of 3 tacos each.

Farmers market

1/2 diced medium cucumber

1 diced medium sized nopales pad

2 diced Roma tomatoes

1/2 diced yellow onion
1 minced clove of garlic

Co-Op

1 diced medium avocado

6 corn tortillas

Kosher salt to taste

Olive oil to fry tortillas

Add everything together (natural gel will come out from the cactus, it's good, and will coat everything in a spicy, sour, coating which keeps the avocado from browning), add salt to taste.

Fry up some corn tortillas in a little oil on the stove top.

Slap some fresh goodness on a tortilla, pray and give thanks for the great food, and enjoy!

 

Creamy Kale and Potato Goodness

So the pic isn't my favorite, but the food was freaking tasty, which calls for a quick jot down of the recipe. Ready, go! Serves 2-4 (depending if you choose to eat it with a grain of some sort)

Co-Op

1 bunch of purple Kale, cut/torn into 1"x2" pieces (only tough bottom stems were removed)

1/2 Red Onion, medium dice

1 Cactus Pad, large dice (I tried leaving it whole, without trimming the thorn spots off and it worked! You couldn't even tell they were there! Less prep time, aka laziness, is amazing!)

1 medium Red Potato, medium dice

2tsp Dill

1/4tsp Red Pepper Flakes

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/2 cup Whole Milk

1/4 cup Heavy Cream

2 tbs Olive Oil

1 tbs Butter

Farmers Market

1/3 of a Squash (I have no clue the name, it looks like a UFO, but tastes like a zucchini :),medium dice, about 1/2 cup worth. 

2 cloves Garlic, minced

1tsp dried Rosemary (I got it fresh and then dried it myself)

Once everything is prepped, get a large sauté pan with the olive oil on medium high heat. Once heated, add onions and garlic, sauté until softened, then add in the other veggies except kale. 

Cheat trick: to get the potato cooked at the same time as the faster cooking veggies in the pan, I threw it in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes to get the cooking started on it BEFORE I even diced it :) it makes it go faster and I was hungry ;)

Also, I add salt in stages to taste, once to all the veggies pre kale, and then I check the flavor an add more if I need it after I put in the kale and it cooks down a bit. 

Once the veggies start to brown and soften, I add the kale, whole milk, dill, rosemary, and red pepper. Let that cook down about 5minutes or until kale is tender. Once kale is tender add in the cream and butter! Mmmm, cream an butter! Turn down the heat and let it thicken over the next two minutes or so. 

Then its done any your ready to chow down. 

I ate is "as is" and it was delish, but I realized that it would be super tasty with crusty bread or even as a soup. To turn it into a soup I would add a couple cups of vegetable or chicken broth at the time the milk/kale is added and continue all the other steps the same. Quick tasty goodness. 

Granola Simplified

2 cups Rolled Oats

1/2 cup each Buckwheat, Millet, Flax Seed (any combo of your preferred grains will work. You can also sub out a grain for a nut. This quantity is what works with the honey/oil amount though)

1/3 cup each Raw Honey and Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1tsp kosher salt (not pictured)

Toast your grains. 

Pre heat oven to 350 F. Place all grains, mixed together evenly in as close to a single layer as possible, on a large baking sheet (divide in two if baking sheet is smaller causing grains to be piled to much on each other). 

Place pan on middle rack, set timer for 8minutes. Check and stir edges to center and center grains to edges. Toast an additional 2-4minutes checking for browning and nutty smell in grains. Once toasted put grains in a 8cup capacity or greater sized bowl. 

Combine honey, olive oil, and 1tsp of salt in a medium sauce pan and place burner on high. 

Until it does this... Which is about 3minutes here in Tucson. Let it be bubbly for another minute after it starts to originally boil, then pour syrup on grains and stir to evenly coat. 

If you want a crunchier granola, place mix back on the baking sheet and place in a 250 F oven for 15 additional minutes. This will help dry everything out again. 

This is where you now add dry fruit if you would like. I went with 1 cup of raisins. 

Stir everything together, then...

Enjoy! It was super tasty on plain yogurt, tomorrow I'll eat some for breakfast like cold cereal with spiced tea instead if milk. 

I. Love. Cooking. 

I. Love. Food. 

Mmmmmmmm. 

Whole Wheat Rotini with Kale and Spinach in a Garlic Caper Sauce

This dish was inspired from a recipe found in an older copy of Bon Appetit I got from the library and was flipping through today... I used rotini instead of another noodle, capers instead of sardines, greek yogurt instead of parmesan, and a mixture of spinach and kale instead of just kale for my creation. I used my homemade 10grain bread for breadcrumbs too :) this recipe also made enough for 6, I know, I know, I'm still working on smaller servings, but I was going off a recipe here which I normally don't do :D It made for great left overs that's for sure.

Farmers Market

4 small cloves garlic, minced

Co Op-

1 bunch purple kale

2 cups baby spinach

1tbs capers, rinsed

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/4tsp red pepper flakes

5tbs olive oil

1/2 bag whole wheat rotini (cooked to al dente per package instructions in the water you cooked the kale in)

1 cup of fresh bread crumbs (I made the bread, but all the grains were got at the co-op)

Kosher salt, enough for kale/pasta water and to taste

Start off by getting a 4qt pot of water boiling on high with about 1tbs salt (While Im waiting for the water to boil I usually do all my veggie prep [rinsing, chopping, etc] so its ready to go). Once water is boiling put in whole leaves of kale (trimmed stems to get off thicker bottoms though) and cook for 4minutes or until leaves darken and stems soften. Once cooked remove from water and let cool. Once the kale cools, chop the leaves, leaving them bigger, and chopping the stems finer. Now you can get a boil going again and start the pasta. 

While kale is cooking you can get those bread crumbs in a seperate pan with 2tbs olive oil on medium high heat for 2 minutes, they should darken and look toasty, add in 2 cloves minced garlic stir and cook another 2-3 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside. 

In the breadcrumbs pan place remaining olive oil, garlic, capers, and red pepper flakes, cook until fragrant and garlic softens. If the pasta still needs time to cook, set this pan aside, if not go right into finishing the sauce and adding everything else. To finish the sauce, add 1/2-3/4 cup of pasta cooking water and yogurt to the garlic, caper mix. Taste it. Once you adjust spice flavor to your preference, add in the pasta, 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, chopped kale and spinach leaves (turn the heat off now, the residual heat from the pasta, sauce, and pan should wilt the spinach perfectly). Stir it all together and let it sit a minute to allow the pasta to absorb all the flavors.

Finally dish it out, top it with some bread crumbs and viola! 

 

The BEST Veggie Fajitas

No joke, these were the best flavored veggie fajitas I've ever made. The combo of veggies and spices worked so well that I wanted to keep eating more... but I got full after the two! Left overs with eggs in the morning? Yes!

I'm also learning to cook for two instead of twenty, so this recipe feeds one-two :) Add some spicy brown rice as a side if feeding two. 

Farmers Market-

1/2 nopales (cactus pad) trimmed and sliced into 1/4"x2" strips

1/2 small bell pepper sliced into 1/4" strips 

2 cloves garlic, diced

Co-Op-

1/4 large red onion sliced into 1/4" strips

1/3 small eggplant sliced into 1/4"x2" strips

3 medium crimini mushrooms thinly sliced

2-4 corn tortillas

2 tbs olive oil

Salt to taste 

Misc

2tbs water

1tbs of Spice mix*

*SPICE MIX: I don't actually measure out all the spices when I mix this lovely gem of spicy goodness, I go off of smell and taste, but I'll try and give ya ratios. I do vote you change it up to suit your favorite flavors, that's what's so great about mixing your own spices, mix ratios you like. My mix goes something like this:

2 parts cumin powder

1-2 parts green chili powder (a friend got me a stash from the Hatch chili festival in NM, I know Im super lucky!)

1/2 part red chili powder (same Hatch goodness)

1 part celery salt ( I would prefer just ground celery, but I haven't adventured in making my own yet, so I gotta go with store bought)

1 part garlic powder

1 part onion powder

1 part ground dehydrated carrots

(Optional, but it adds a richness that's pretty amazing)

Once mixed store in an airtight container. I use mine frequently enough I just keep it with my spices in the cupboard. If you won't use it as often, throw it in the freezer :)

To cook: 

Once all the veggies are sliced get a medium sauté pan heated on medium high with 1tbs olive oil. Put in garlic until you can start to smell it, then place in all the veggies except mushrooms and sprinkle on the spice mix. Stir together, adding more oil if needed. Once eggplant starts to soften, stir in mushrooms and water. Once mushroom soften, about a minute, you're done. Taste it now and add salt if desired. 

With remaining oil fry up corn tortillas and stuff the with the veggie goodness. Taddah! 

This recipe took me literally 10 minutes from start to finish which makes it even better! I love fast cooking super tasty meals!