Gardenburgers

Tonight: Gardenburgers, mac & cheese (soy), dill pickles, and roasted kale.

Tomorrow: Gardenburgers, cole slaw, baked beans, mac & cheese, and dill pickles.

Remind me that I like Gardenburgers brand veggie burgers better than Amy's or Boca or Sunshine. Gardenburgers are sweet and mustardy.

(I didn't take that picture, it's from Google.)

Clark Park and cherries

Clark Park Farmers' Market was in full summertime glory today. I got....

broccoli
red russian kale
sweet potatoes
summer squash
zucchini
cucumbers
white button mushrooms
cherries (sweet and good!)
cabbage (going to make slaw)

And at Mariposa Coop....

mixed salad greens
almond-milk yogurt
white flour (going to try biscuits again)
bagels
hummus

Clark Park is open again, for the past week or so, after being closed since last fall. Instead of having all benches, they have conversationally-arranged gatherings of orange chairs.


The grass is baby grass, with straw still on it....
And you're asked to not walk on it if you can keep from it....

Fruity Thursday

There is so much fruit in my house right now.

Thursday Shopping List

1 pint blueberries

1 pint blackberries

1 pint raspberries

6 peaches

6 green apples

1 lb. baby spinach

1 bunch curly kale

1 bunch mustard greens

1 quart green beans

3 ears bi-color sweet corn

6 tomatoes

Total: about $30 (berries are pricey but worth it)

The apples are perfect. I don't remember seeing these last year. They're smallish and green. They are very crisp, both in texture and taste. They have a tartness but are not at all sour and with a sweetness to balance it out. They seem like they would be great for pies. Now I just need to try actually baking a pie. I got them from Fahnestock Fruit Farm, the same people I get the peaches and tomatoes from.

I got the mustard greens specifically to try roasting them, as I usually do with kale. I made a bunch of roasted kale and mustard greens when I got home, and there wasn't much difference between the two, except the mustard greens had more of a bite to them. I think this makes them slightly superior for roasting. Again, here's how you roast greens: coat them with olive oil, sprinkle liberally with sea salt, place in a cast iron pan and into an oven preheated to 350, for 30-35 minutes. Greens should be browned (actually, I like to blacken them a little bit) and super-crisp and dry, like very thin, green, misshapen potato chips.

Incidentally they're great for a hangover.

Here comes the summer (squash).

You should have seen how happy I got when I saw the summer squash at the market yesterday. Actually, I saw golden zucchini first and got excited because I thought it was summer squash, and even after noticing it wasn't, I still bought a bunch of it, cause who doesn't love golden zucchini? Then, on down the line a few tables, there was the real summer squash. Got some of that as well. At this point in the summer, I can fry this stuff in thin slices and eat it like candy. I don't get sick of it until at least late July. I found green zucchini at Milk and Honey last week, got a couple of those and threw some slices in with my vegetable roasts, along with shiitake mushrooms. Delicious. Last night, Mark made us a stir-fry, to be detailed below.

Saturday Shopping List

5 summer squash
5 golden zucchini
4 large sweet potatoes
1 lb. chickpeas
5 tomatoes
1 quart strawberries
23-oz jar of home-made apple sauce
1 pint shiitake mushrooms
1 large portobello cap
1 head buttercrisp lettuce
1 head green leaf lettuce
1 bunch curly kale
2 bulbs garlic
1/2 loaf sourdough banana bread
1 loaf multi-grain bread

Total: $36 and change

I'm happy about all the fruit I got. Strawberries are expensive; most people have them for $4 a pint or $7.50 a quart. One of my favorite vendors yesterday had them for $5.50 a quart, so I bought a quart from her. It's an indulgence I just decided I would indulge in. You can only get fresh local strawberries for so long (which doesn't make sense, because it seems like you could grow them in a green house pretty easily - am I wrong? Does anyone know?). Over the winter, I crave fresh berries, think about them, dream about them. When it's summer, I intend to eat as many fresh, Pennsylvania strawberries as I possibly can. Just wait until the blackberries and raspberries come in. And cherries. And blueberries. I'll buy them all.

Now, about this stir-fry that Mark made. It was asparagus, zucchini, squash, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, onion, garlic and red beans. I never think of putting beans in a stir-fry, but it's great. It's a great way to eat beans if you're tired of beans, and it's a great way to make a stir-fry more substantial. It's like you can feel the iron fortifying your body as you eat the red beans. Plus, it's delicious. We had it with multi-grain toast with jelly on the side.