The Beet Goes on and On
Written by: Beth DooleyPosted on | June 29, 2010 | 1 Comment
You just can’t beat the beets this year. Gorgeous. Candy sweet, jewel tones. Both bulb and green leaves shockingly good for you. They will be around for a while, but the fresher, the sweeter, so delicious, you can eat them raw. Use all manner of beets in this salad. It will keep several days in the refrigerator (actually taste better as the flavors marry). Tote it to a picnic, take it to the lake.
How the Prettiest Veggies Make the Best Salad
Written by: Beth DooleyPosted on | June 24, 2010 | No Comments
Packed with peppery punch, radishes are rolling in to the farmers markets in ruby waves. Man are they zesty. Try them thinly sliced on open sandwiches of pumpernickel with sweet (Hope) butter sprinkled with a little sea salt. Pan roast them with a knob of butter until just tender, hit them with shaved Parm and snack on them with a bubbly watching the sun go down. They’re not here long and like the garnet rhubarb also shown here, they won’t be quite so tiny or subtle as they are now. They’ll get even zestier as it gets hotter.
Radical
Written by: Beth DooleyPosted on | May 14, 2010 | No Comments
Pepper packed, punchy, tiny radishes smack back at spring. There’s nothing delicate in these tiny tight orbs. They’re tough, fighting through the last crusty snows, standing up to the pounding rain. Baby it’s cold out there, but the radish, red and hearty pops through it all. Hell this is Minnesota and we’re all tough, right?
Color of Money
Written by: Beth DooleyPosted on | May 10, 2010 | No Comments
Payday at Farmers Markets this weekend;tables topped with sacks of cash — spinach. Talk about putting money in your mouth. New as spring, fresh as morning, this stuff sings with flavor, fills you with vigor, and needs little more than a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of vinegar, salt & cracked pepper, those tiny local strawberries, crumbled feta to make a meal. Don’t forget the crusty bread.
Written by: Beth Dooley
Posted on | April 30, 2010 | No Comments
It’s time to get those potatoes in, and the carrots and the beans and just about anything you want to get going in your garden. Most garden centers sell seed potatoes, and often CSA’s will include them in their share (you did sigh up for a CSA share, right?). It just takes one or two very fresh potatoes from your own garden to convince you that all potatoes are not alike. Forget the dusty brown orbs sold in plastic bags in most grocery stores. Freshly dug potatoes (especially the heirloom varieties) are slightly nutty, creamy, and their flavors are distinct. Plant them now and they’ll be ready around July, just right for potato salad season.
Dinner in a Box
Written by: Beth DooleyPosted on | April 28, 2010 | No Comments
Spring is galloping to summer and its earlier and tastier than ever. Already, the lettuce and herbs are on their way. You’ve signed up for your CSA share (right?). If not, hurry-up. There are still a few spots left in many of the farms around. Take a look at the list available through the Land Stewardship Project — www.landstewardshipproject.org/csa.html or call 612-722-6377. You’ll find a farm that delivers a weeks worth of field fresh food (and in some cases, eggs, milk, cheese, meat, bread, honey, maple syrup) to a convenient location.
Spring Pesto! Presto!
Written by: Beth DooleyPosted on | March 19, 2010 | No Comments
Hungry for spring and greens and all the glorious bright fresh stuff? No need to wait for summer’s basil. Pound together some pesto NOW. The term pesto refers to any fresh herb based sauce. Just about any flavorful green is up for grabs, watercress, parsley, cilantro, mint, alone or in combination. It’s easy to do. Begin by taking a handful fresh herbs, good oil (extra-virgin olive oil, hazelnut oil, walnut oil or sesame oil), and nuts for texture (pine nuts, cashews, pecans, walnuts) and garlic. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the herbs, nuts and garlic together adding the oil in a slow steady stream. Grate in a little sharp cheese if you like. You can also do this in the food processor, but pounding by hand releases all the wonderful herbal aromas and gives the sauce some texture. Then just cover it with plastic and store in the fridge. Spread on sandwiches, toss with pasta, swirl into soup or top off burgers, chicken and steak.
National Organic Coalition
Written by: Beth DooleyPosted on | March 17, 2010 | No Comments
For the most up-to-date information about your food, food-safety, organics, and the importance of sustainable agriculture, chec, out the National Organic Coalition — www.nationalorganiccoalition.org
TODAY!
My Big Fat Bundt Cake
Written by: Beth DooleyPosted on | March 15, 2010 | No Comments
Cake with the hole in the middle; the one baked in that fluted tube-shaped pan. The pan was created so to help the uber rich buttery cake rise evenly, not sink in the middle under it’s own weight (as it did when cooked in a round or square cake pan). The word “bundt” evolved from the German bundkuchen, to bundt. But it took the Pillsbury bake-off winner of the 1966 to make it a household name and the movie, My Big Fat Green Wedding, to award it symbol of Wasp suburbia.
Northern Comfort – St. Paul Farmers Market
Written by: Beth DooleyPosted on | February 18, 2010 | No Comments
The weather is frightful, but baby, cold as it is, the St. Paul Farmers Market is the hottest place in town. Come Saturday mornings, it’s an all out happening, even in sub-zero temps. Conversations heat up over how best to cook free range chicken (braised and low and slow) and when the duck eggs will come in. (Yes, duck eggs … they’re remarkable … big, luminous and very “eggy” tasting.) And, when your teeth start to chatter, head in to Golden’s Deli, where the cheese, chocolate, apple and assorted farmers and small food producers sell amazing stuff. I am hooked on Martha’s Joy Pickles (jars of Brussels sprouts, asparagus, beans … you name it, she pickles it) — her range of varieties and vegetables, sweet and hot and sour is astonishing … Find Shepherd’s Way cheeses and the best damn lamb sausages … raw cider … Love Tree farmstead cheeses …. who says you can’t eat local in the middle of February around here? Swing through and buy something from everyone the enjoy through the week and when you get home, cook up that chicken Here’s how:
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