Farmer's Market -1st of the season!

This is a picture taken from their website. Don't you just love how pretty everything is???

Anyone who has followed my blog for the past year knows how excited I get about Farmer's Markets. I love to be able to buy locally and I also love to be able to save money on my grocery bill. You also know that I live in Southwest Florida and that my growing season here is completely opposite of the majority of the country.

Today was the very first day of the all organic, sustainably farmed and local Worden Farm Farmer's Market at Fisherman's Village!!! I have been planning a trip there now for about 7 months (hehe that's when they closed for the summer!). This was a thrill though. Myself and one of my girlfriends' who shares a love of good, fresh food and cooking, hoped in the car and headed north to the Farmer's Market! It was a beautiful day. Sunny and warm with an nice breeze that managed to keep it just slightly cool. We were so not disappointed! This market is gorgeous. Not only is the setting nice. Right on the water of Charlotte Harbor but the fresh vegetables, the beautiful fresh vegetables!

My haul - Tat Soi (Asian Spinach), Arugula (see those bags? $3 for organic arugula!!!), lettuces, radishes, shitake mushrooms, cucumber, squash blossoms and a big beautiful loaf of rustic bread!!!

Dinner last night was hectic as T. is working on a deadline and wasn't able to help out with dinner while I did Karate, so it was a big happy bowl of pea soup, with that incredible loaf of bread and some beer battered squash blossoms!


Deep Fried Squash Blossoms (recipe by Mark Bittman-How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

Heat 2 inches of oil in a heavy bottomed pot to at least 350 degrees.

1 Cup all-purpose flour, plus 1 Cup for dredging
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
3/4 Cup beer or sparkling water (I stole T.'s beer for this one)
Coarse salt for finishing

• While the oil is heating mix the batter ingredients until just combined. This batter should be the consistency of pancake batter.
• Dredge each blossom lightly in the plain flour and then dip into the batter and place gently in the oil. Do not crowd the blossoms in the oil, you may have to cook in batches. Cook turning once until a nice golden brown.
• Drain on a rack or paper towels and serve immediately

I LOVE MY FARMER'S MARKET!!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Okay so it's been a while...

Peter - (Kalofagas-Greek Food and Beyond) and I at his secret favorite food spot!

We are currently on vacation as I said in my last post and boy have we been having fun. We spent 4 days with T.'s family in the Pittsburgh area of PA and we are now in Toronto spending some badly needed time with my family. Has it ever been a blast.

Toronto is probably one of the best foodie towns in all of North America!!! Go ahead challenge me on this... I make this incredibly bold statement with authority! Here you don't have to rely on Whole Foods or any other type of chains to get yourself good, healthy and fresh food. We have Markets throughout the whole city. My favorite has always and will always be the St.Lawrence Market but yesterday I had the opportunity to explore another great foodie market that I had not been to in years (probably about 25 but hey who's really counting?) with a fellow foodie that I had the great opportunity to meet up with while I was here.

This is the rear parking lot for the St. Lawrence Market

Some of the deliciuos fresh produce that we got at St. Lawrence Market. I'll post some recipes when I get home.

This was T. buying some Proscuitto and Serano ham to go with the cheese we bought for dinner!

See the delicious ham and the homemade Portuguese sausage that we got from a bakery that I used to go to when I was a little girl?

Nice dinner huh?

Just a small portion of the produce that is for sale at various different vendor's throughout the market!

T.'s favorite thing at the whole market and one of his favorite Canadian foods. Peameal Bacon Sandwiches. Peameal is a sweet pickled pork shoulder rolled in peameal. Fried up and put on a nice tender bun with some mustard...Yummmm!

We got to spend yesterday afternoon with Peter from Kalofagas-Greek Food and Beyond. He very graciously agreed to meet T., myself and the 2 children at one of his favorite food sites in the city. It truly was a hidden gem and someplace that I would probably have walked by a hundred times without ever stopping in. Good thing we were in the know...the food was incredible!!!! We very wisely went with the daily specials that they were offering (on Peter's recommendation!!!). The food was incredible. I am not sure if Peter wants his hidden gem being made public so if you are in the Toronto area and want the name of this place send me and email and I can give it to you.

We are going to be leaving here on Monday so I am not sure if I will have enough time to post between now and then but I have a ton of recipes to post!!!

Peter's lunch of Lamb Shank on a bed of braised lentils!

T's lunch of Osso Bucco with fries and poutine!!!

My lunch of shitake encrusted halibut on a bed of asian noodles!!!

Peter also very kindly took us for a tour of Kensington Market which is in an older area of the city but was incredibly wonderful. He took us to his favorite Greek fish store and we were able to buy 7 nice sized yellow tail snapper to cook up for our dinner tonight!!! Thanks again Peter and Happy Birthday!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy

www.nofearentertaining.com

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Farmer's Market and dinner last week!

Red Leaf Lettuce, tomatoes, onion, yellow beans, zucchini, scallions, radishes, cilantro, cucumbers, tomatillo's, cucumbers and a huge honkin' eggplant!!!

My week is all messed up now. I am no longer going to the Wednesday Farmer's Market but am now going to a Thursday one that is just in downtown Fort Myers. The location is much closer and the produce is good but not great like the other one...I can't wait until the fall. See everything is completely opposite here! In our hot, hot, hot summers nothing can grow so all of the Farmer's Market close up and we don't see them until the fall again! I am not even finding any of the bitter greens that I was making soup with. I guess it is salad time! I am really loving the nice, tender leaves of the red leaf lettuce. We planted some in a planter box so we'll see if this box planting is successful!

On Sunday T. decided to cook dinner for us. This used to happen all of the time but now I am doing all of the cooking so it was kind of nice just to chill with my wine while my meal was being cooked for me!


He had decided to make Spinach and Cheese Ravioli's (from Costco - picturing me hanging my head in shame!) with a creamy pesto sauce. Yummmm. How could I argue that!

He used up the last of the frozen basil pesto that I had made and added heavy cream and at the end added fresh tomatoes. He topped it with purple and green basil (from our planter boxes) and fresh Parmesan. The raviolis were incredible. If you have a Costco near you need to look for these! Normally I never use processed foods but these were made with organic spinach, eggs and semolina flour. As for the rest of the ingredients I could pronounce and identify everything listed!

This made for a nice quick no mess meal! Great for a Sunday!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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The Last Farmer's Market Day!!!!!

Cucumber, zucchini, summer squash, patty pan, lemons, cilantro carrots, lettuce, green bell pepper, grape tomatoes (the explosion of flavor in these is incredible. They pop right in your mouth and explode with the first bite!!!)

Today was the final day of the Worden Farm Farmer's Market in Punta Gorda. They will be gone until next October...I know you are wondering how I am going to survive? Well I am looking into other options. They will probably not be organic but they will at least be local. Geographically they may even be closer so this may be easier on me.

My posting is short right now as my oldest daughter will be home with me for a bit. She had a really bad hive outbreak and until they heal she is not at school. We are working on school work etc. during the day!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Farmer's Market Day and our small little garden!

Malta garlic, basil, tomatoes, green beans, shitake mushrooms, bell peppers, jalapenos, zucchini, summer squash, patty pan squash, long and skinny eggplant, cilantro, spinach, onions, red scallions, lettuce, and finally swiss chard!

Pretty, Pretty, Nasturtiums for our salad!

A couple of weeks ago we decided that we were going to plant a small garden to help me get over the upcoming ending of the Wednesday Worden Farm Farmer's Market at Fisherman's Village. I decided that if I could at least get the herbs to grow through the summer I would be so very happy.

We ended up doing 3 small containers. 2 with herbs and 1 with tomatoes. But while we were getting all of this at Home Depot (they actually had heirloom plants available) I saw something really cool! They had a Praying Mantis eggs casing that they were selling for less than $5!!! Just the cool factor of this was great but to think that they may eat all of our bad vegetable and herb eating critters was even better. We have been waiting and waiting for these to hatch and finally today as I was walking out of the house to go to the farmer's market I saw them!!! I am so sad that the girls didn't get to see them but at least I got pictures and they didn't have to see the lizards that were feasting on them as fast as they got out???!!! (Speaking of lizards-one just scared the SH** out of me by jumping onto my computer tower???!!! I yelled at it to leave so I hope I have another minute or two before he comes back!)

See the size of the pod?

Baby Praying Mantises

Tomatoes, basil, purple basil, Greek oregano and parsley

Everything seems to be growing well and we can move them around as the days get hotter. I have some blooms on the tomato plants so that's a good sign!


****I am cutting this short because that freaking lizard is in here somewhere-not that I don't like them. I like them just fine but OUTSIDE!!!!!!

Well of to decide what to have for dinner...bet it will contain a lot of vegetables!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Raspberry Marinade for Lamb Chops

Last night we wanted something different but staying true to my food philosphy if it was to be meat it had to be from a sustainable, all natural, no antibiotic or growth hormone, small farmed meat. We choose lamb chops. Most lamb is farmed in Australia or New Zealand, and while this doesn't fit into the local profile I am still an omnivore and need meat. Lamb is an all natural meat. The New Zealand lamb that we ate last night follows all of the other restrictions that I have. The animals are raised in pasture. Eating only the grass that is grown. They practice sustainable farming and healthy slaughter. To read more check out the New Zealand Lamb website.

Anyway I had developed a recipe last week for a raspberry sauce to go with my Spring Themed Menu that was in my newsletter for this month and still had some left over in the fridge. Tony was making dinner so he decided to make it into a marinade and to use it to marinade the rack of lamb.

Click here for recipe for Lamb Marinade!

Turned out delicious and we served it with a fresh salad using the left over salad ingredients from last Wednesdays trip to Worden Farms Farmer's Market. As usual the ingredients were amazing. Leaf lettuce, white onion, red radishes, and grated Parmesan cheese!

It doesn't get much better!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Pasta with Fresh Tomato and Basil ...and Squash Blossoms!

Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes, Basil and Roasted Garlic

This is one of my most favorite dishes ever and I have no idea why I haven't posted it before now??? It is fast, fresh tasting and simple!

Garlic ready to be covered for roasting

Pasta With Fresh Tomato and Basil

1 head of garlic and 2 Tbsp olive oil
3 ripe plum tomatoes (I just use whatever is tasting good right them)
1/3 C fresh basil (chopped)
1 Tbsp capers
1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1 box of long thin pasta (angel hair, linguine, spaghetti)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

• Peel of most of the paper from around the garlic head. Slice off the pointy top of the garlic. This should expose all of the cloves a bit. Place in an oven proof pan (I use a pie plate). Top with 2 Tbsp of olive oil and coarse salt. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes. Allow to cool then remove the cloves and mash with a fork.
• Dice the tomatoes (if the have a ton of seeds squeeze them out).
• Add the garlic, basil, capers, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
• Let stand for at least 20 minutes.
• Cook pasta.
• Mix sauce with pasta and serve warm or at room temperature. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  

This thing that I love the most about this is that it is incredible served at room temperature so I can concentrate on other things while this is sitting.

I also decided that we were going to have the squash blossoms because I know (I think) they have to be used right away. I found some great recipes for stuffing them but I really wanted to keep this meal simple and fresh tasting so I opted to batter them and fry them. Yeah, I guess that isn't that light is it? Any way they turned out to be incredible tasting. They even still tasted like squash!!! I found the recipe in my absolute favorite cookbook by How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food (How to Cook Everything) by Mark Bittman. This book has proven to be my best resource for all of the fresh produce I am bringing home. If you were to have one cookbook and one cookbook only this is the one I would tell you to buy!

Anyway I found a beer batter recipe (Batter, European Style) and this worked perfect for the nice delicate flowers!

Squash Blossoms

Deep Fried Squash Blossoms (recipe by Mark Bittman-How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

Heat 2 inches of oil in a heavy bottomed pot to at least 350 degrees.

1 Cup all-purpose flour, plus 1 Cup for dredging
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
3/4 Cup beer or sparkling water (I stole T.'s beer for this one)
Coarse salt for finishing

• While the oil is heating mix the batter ingredients until just combined. This batter should be the consistency of pancake batter.
• Dredge each blossom lightly in the plain flour and then dip into the batter and place gently in the oil. Do not crowd the blossoms in the oil, you may have to cook in batches. Cook turning once until a nice golden brown.
• Drain on a rack or paper towels and serve immediately

Squash Blossoms fried to a nice golden brown!

You can use this versatile batter for frying other vegetables but the cooking time will vary. I love it because it was a nice light batter that still allowed for the delicate flavor of the squash blossom to come through!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Farmer's Market Day...Yeah!

Strawberries, Asian spinach, tomatoes, radicchio, lettuce, radishes, summer squash, zucchini, patty pan, red chard, onions, green beens, basil, garlic, and zucchini blossoms!

It is Wednesday and true to my routine I went to the Worden Farm Farmer's Market. I look forward to this all week. I am able to go and get a whole pile of vegetables that are organic, in season, and grown locally for a very reasonable price. All of the food that you see about has cost me $39. This is food that will feed my family for a whole week! Yes I supplement it with other things like shrimp and chicken but the majority of our food is bought at the market. Pretty sweet deal huh?

Every week I buy one thing that I have never used before. This week it is the zucchini blossoms. They look so beautiful but I have never tasted them before so this should be fun! Last week it was the fennel which we cooked up last night.

They looks so nice...now to figure out what to do with them!

Coconut stolen from my neighbors yard in preparation for this months Royal Foodie Joust!

Off to figure some stuff out for dinner!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Creamed Leeks with smoked Gouda - As promised!

Do you ever get the feeling that your life is just going way too fast? I really need it to slow down so I am going to spend the day searching for the slow down button (yeah in all of my spare time!). I have my oldest daughter home with me today. She seems to be really tired and says she is not feeling well. I really don't want a repeat of the last time she said that and I sent her to school anyway! I'm sure they don't want that either!!! So she is going to have to tag along with me all day!

I have to drop my youngest one off at the new school that she started yesterday (we don't mess around here-things happen fast!), run to the dr's office and pick up the form that I dropped off yesterday to allow her new school to inject her with an Epipen is she starts to swell all up from an ant bite (I guess I should have considered this earlier???), drop that and her Benadryl (for the same thing) off at her school and then I have to go to my girlfriends house and help get her packed up and moved, then come home and make dinner so that when we go ice skating tonight T. can come home and just cook all of the prepped food! God, just typing it all has exhausted me!

Anyway onto the Creamed Leeks with Smoked Gouda!

This is one of T.'s favorite things. It is one of the reasons that he loves Truluck's so much. It is on their regular menu! I had gotten some fresh leeks last week at the Farmer's Market and he had just been dying for me to make this. Click for recipe!

Smoked Gouda, Cheddar, jalapeño, garlic and shallots

Cooking the leeks in butter

Stirring in the cheeses and the cream and milk

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Farmer's Market Day!

Romanesco, fennel, radicchio, golden beets, purple kohlrabi, celery, red swiss chard, baby Asian spinach, shitake mushrooms

I am so going to miss the Worden Farm Farmer's Market when the season ends here but at least I have it nice and fresh right now!

Waiting for the Eggplant to be served!

It has been a couple of really busy crazy days here. Yesterday we had company come. T.'s Aunt and Uncle were visiting Florida for their vacation and were able to squeeze in a day to come and visit with us. This was so nice because as the girls have gotten older and our lives busier we have not spent our vacations visiting the families like we should. This gave us a wonderful chance to reconnect with some of our favorite people!!!

We served garlic bread, salad, and T. now famous Eggplant Parm! You can believe everyone left full and happy!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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What is this????

What is this? At the Farmer's Market they told be it was cauliflower and I would hate to use it in something that I wanted cauliflower in when it was broccoli????

Looks like broccoli to me????

When I went to Worden Farm Farmer Market yesterday I bought a ton of stuff but every week I try to buy one thing that I have never cooked with before and will have to challenge myself and family (by eating it). This week I bought Leeks. I don't think that I have ever even tasted a leek but T. was really excited and told me that I need to make creamed leeks with smoked Gouda. So I bought everything that I need to do this so now I just have to find a minute to do it!

I also bought this purple cauliflower. Does it look like cauliflower to you? It looks like broccoli, acts like broccoli and strangely enough, it even tastes like broccoli...but they told me it was cauliflower!!! Any ideas?

Yogurt

Blackberries cooking down for the blackberry yogurt!

Boiling the milk for the yogurt!

I started another batch of yogurt today. The bad thing about this is that it takes about 11 to 12 hours to incubate the yogurt so I am finding that I have to either make it first thing in the morning or late at night for it to be done at a good time for me. This time I made 2 jars plain (my oldest daughter keeps telling me that she likes it plain) and the rest I made blackberry (yummmm!). They should be done around 11 so that isn't too bad and the girls will have fresh yogurt for breakfast in the morning! I need to figure out how to make granola so they can have some of that to mix in!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Farmer's Market and what I am going to make!

Turnips, onions, savoy spinach, purple cauliflower, red swiss chard, leeks, arugula, baby asian spinach, potatoes, shitake mushrooms, and from the U-Pick I got carombola fruit, tomatoes, strawberries and Italian fresh garlic!!!

I had a great time at Worden's Farm Farmer's Market. I went with a friend and that always makes it so much more enjoyable!!! It sure does seem like a ton of food but it all gets eaten by next Wednesday so I can start all over a again!

I am going to finally get my entry to the Royal Foodie Joust today. Heather from Gild the Voodoolily choose the ingredients this month as Pork, Pink Peppercorns and Citrus. Your killing me Heather...it took all month and a flukey trip to the grocery store to come up with this one. Usually I just try to make everything into a brownie but this time it was impossible!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Farmer's Market and a great pasta dinner!

Onions, zucchini, shitake mushrooms, basil, cilantro, red swiss chard, spinach, potatoes, romanesco, eggplant, tomatoes, and jalapeños!

Yesterday was my Farmer's Market day and I had my oldest one home with me because she had been sick on Tues. Yesterday she was doing well enough to go but I thought she needed a good day to recover and I have also really wanted her to see the Farmer's Market but with it being in the middle of the week they are always in school! So yesterday she finally got to see it. She made friends with a Great Blue Heron that waits beside the shrimp boat, where I get my fresh boat shrimp, waiting for the guy to peel them one and share!!! But she also loved seeing the beautiful fresh produce and helping to pick out the ones that we would have and eat this week!

We were able to get onions, romanesco (yup, Heather you can't scare me with your little critters), spinach, red swiss chard, zucchini, shitakes, cabbage (for Jenn's Cabbage Rolls), basil and cilantro!!! On out way home we stopped at the local U pick farm and got some tomatoes, strawberries, jalapeños, and a really pretty eggplant! Turned out to be a great haul this week as well! We also bought a couple of pounds of the sweetest freshest shrimp I have tasted since living in Daytona and eating the shrimp right fresh from the boats there!

Rigatoni with Squash and Prawns

I needed a plan for dinner though and as luck would have it I was able to find one on a fellow blogger's site! Peter over at Kalofagas - Pursuit of Delicious Foods had posted a recipe last week that I was dying to try Pasta with Squash and Prawns. This recipe was taken from Giada DeLaurentis I already had all of the ingredients but was waiting for the fresh shrimp and basil. Now that I had it it was all a go!
This was an incredible recipe. So simple, yet the flavors all blended beautifully. Peter tossed his shrimp in some seasonings but I just left my plain...both ways would be great! Peter's pictures look great so go and check his out as well!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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Sunday was Soup Day...

Egg Drop Soup the Chiappini Way!

First off Mom - Happy Birthday to you! I love you and wish I could be there to share this day with you (I would have baked you a great big huge delicious cake as well). Enjoy your day! P.S. took care of the flower issue and they have made it better! Glad you like them!

So around here Sunday has become Soup Day. I think because it is near the end of my produce week and I have found that this is a great way to get rid of all of the leftover things that I have so I can be nice and cleaned out for Wednesday when I go to the Farmer's Market again! This Sunday though I had no bones to make a stock from so I used some organic free range chicken stock that I had bought at Costco (gotta love Costco) and tossed in some onion and onion tops, celery, carrots, garlic, parsley and a tsp of thyme. I turned my pot on low and off we went for the day!

I had been looking for some other Farmer's Markets in my area and I was coming up with nothing. I love the one that Worden Farm's holds on Wednesday but, human nature - we always think that there might be a better one out there! I found one that sounded kinda neat but it was in Tampa which is about 2 hours from here. We had nothing else going on other than tidying up the house which I will find any excuse to get out of...so to Tampa we went!
It was a true hippie type thing. I am really not so into all of that. Personally I am not out to change the world by eating organic and free range this and that. I want to feed my family the best tasting and safest food products available. Amid all of the recalls I think that this is almost becoming a necessity as opposed to a choice! So for me this was a little over the top. But I was able to get some duck eggs!!! The woman who was selling them had already ran out of chicken eggs so I got the next best thing I could! I was also able to get my hands on some heirloom seeds to start for the fall. Other than that the produce that I get from Worden Farms was far superior to theirs and this place smelt very strongly of patchouli and other herbs! Would I go again...probably not but I am glad that I went and saw that the grass was definitely not greener there!

My happy, fresh, duck eggs!

Note attached to the egg carton

So with my eggs in hand we drove back home and were going to stop at Ada's (like a Whole Food's but local) or Publix and grab some chicken to cook into the soup I had started at home. T. then suggested that we use the eggs to make egg drop soup. What a great idea that turned out to be!!!

We added some of the swiss chard and potatoes I had left over and then broke 3 eggs into a bowl, scrambled them and then dropped them into the soup through a strainer.

Would I make this again? Most definitely and if you can ever get your hands on some duck eggs I would highly recommend them!

I was going to tell you about the delicious goat milk pudding I made for dessert last night but I have my oldest daughter home from school today (apparently they don't take to kindly to your daughter vomiting throughout the classroom) so my post is shorter then I had wanted it to be! Tomorrow will be pudding!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

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