Weekend in Pictures

8:35 AM Edit This 11 Comments »
Saturday morning, I went to the Farmer's Market. This is what mine looks like. Just last year, they built this huge open air pavillion down by the Falls. Did you know Sioux Falls has falls? Ha! The inside. They always have a chef doing a demonstration with produce from the farmers. Saturdays was a chilled eggplant, cauliflower, onion thing with lemon and orange zest. It was okay. I didn't take the recipe.
And just so you know. I DID talk to Cute Farmer. I asked him where his farm was. He told me. Then he asked me if I knew where that was. I said no. He explained. Then he gave me his website address and I fled. He actually stopped and looked at me though. Even though there was a long, long line and I was obviously taking up more than my share of time. Next week I'm going to ask him if he ever gives tours of his farm. I may or may not get that out of my mouth before I blush and bolt.

Here's my haul. Leeks. Heirloom tomatoes, corn, eggplant, kohlrabi. A zucchini and a summer squash because mine aren't producing as fast as I want them to. Dax was gnawing on the corn. He doesn't understand about photo shoots.
The Eggplant was first up. I'd never bought one before, but when I was in the shower after running club I had an idea. (Oh! I did the WHOLE workout without stopping. Run 5 minutes/walk 2.5 minutes and then we did it 5 times. And when I finished, I was jumping up and down and high fiving everyone. I DID IT!!!!!)
I decided to make pizzas! First, I sliced the eggplant into rounds, salted it and left it to sweat for about an hour. After that, I rinsed it and wrung it out. Seriously. Wrung it out. It was weird and porous. Cool stuff. And look! Those are onions from my garden and pizza sauce from the food co-op.
The closest to fresh mozzarella that I can find around here.
I sauteed the eggplant sliced in olive oil and put a bit of pizza sauce on top.
Then the onion.
Then I put on grated mozzarella and covered it so it would get all melty.
Added dried oregano from last year's garden and I ate every single one of those suckers. I'm serious. They were AMAZING! I don't think I've created anything quite so delicious from my shower thoughts before.
And then I went to bed at 8 p.m. Because seriously? After getting up at 5:30 in the morning, marketing, doing my part time job, going to Tallgrass for a local band festival and coming home and cooking? I was exhausted. Sunday was Cowgirl's "Last Day Pregnant" girls' party at her house. We broke the kiddie pool a couple weeks ago, so I hunted and hunted and even went to the dreaded *al-Mart and found a $6 pool. It's not big, but it's wet. One of the rings decided to deflate AFTER we started putting in the water, so here's an oh-so-gracious picture of me, blowing it up. There is no shame on my blog, people.
We cooked up a feast, but all you get is pictures of the heirloom tomatoes. I found out that the green ones I like so much are green sausage tomatoes and the dusky red ones are Purple Russians.
After WAY too many hours in the sun, a lot of laughter and many hugs, we called it a day. I went and had coffee with an old friend and it was like no time had passed. Don't you love that about true kindred spirits? It was lovely.

But apparently I wasn't done with the day, because I bought some Red Meat Radishes at the market a week ago and well? I've been waiting to experiment. Mark Bittman showed me the way. He did not disappoint this time.
Because Mark Bittman likes butter. Melted with some olive oil.
The rest of the wet ingredients included 1/4 c. chicken broth. (I LOVE that better than bouillion. LOVE. IT.) a Tablespoon of vinegar (called for balsamic but I didn't have any, so organic white is what you get) and a teaspoon of sugar.
Look at these pretty, pretty radishes! I've never seen such a thing!
Just as an aside, my goal this summer is not to go to the mega grocery chain if I don't have to. And well - you all know about my butter emergency from last week, so I picked some of this up at the food co-op. And I tell you what. It was a bit spendy, but my goodness, was the flavor amazing! Simply changed the dish. I can't even describe it. So try it sometime. That's all I'm saying.
Bread from the local bread shop. Yummmm. Slathered in butter and toasted while the radishes did their thing.
Look at them! So pretty. You sauteed them in the butter/oil for a minute or so, then added the broth and other ingredients and covered for 5 minutes on low, then lid off and heat high until the liquid got syrupy.
With the toasted bread and even MORE butter. I'm serious. I love butter. Oh my goodness! I'm not kidding. It was to die for. I had no idea that radishes could be cooked. They were so tender and flavorful and well? I have two more slices to eat for lunch today at work. I can't believe I didn't know this about radishes! If I did it again, I might leave out the sugar because I think these were a bit too sweet, but for a first try, I think they were pretty amazing.
And Dax says "Hello. Stop taking pictures of me, you freak."
Cowgirl is getting induced tonight at 7 p.m. She's ready. I'm nervous! I've never seen a baby be born before. But I can't wait. I was so excited, I think my hands were shaking this morning. Hopefully, there will be pictures of Munchkin Number 3 on the blog tomorrow. Gahhhhh!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those eggplant pizzas look amazing!! And yay for talking to the farmer!! He looked at you and thought: Mmm-Hmm. Like that.

lacochran's evil twin said...

He gave you a website address! That's an invitation to stalk if I ever heard one. :)

Non Sequitur Chica said...

Your food pictures are making me hungry for lunch!

Great job keeping up with your running! I'm about to go for a run during my lunch hour myself!

Malaise Inc said...

Umm, that picture of you blowing up the kiddy pool? You are aware of Rule 34 of the Internet, right?

Rebecca said...

I totally want the cheesy, saucy, eggplant!

Nilsa @ SoMi Speaks said...

You made eggplant pizzas? What a great idea! I mean, if eggplant Parmesan is so yummy, why wouldn't they be able to double as pizza crusts? Love it!

artemisia said...

Well, I was hungry before, but now I am positively ravenous. That all looks so yummy!

I am sending good thought to you and Cowgirl!

Anonymous said...

My cat always eats my flowers and then vomits them back up on the table next to the vase.

He has no aesthetic.

Also, he's a total prick.

Lemon Gloria said...

Kate, 1) you are ADORABLE and I want so badly for Cute Farmer to ask you out! Assuming he's Cute Single Farmer, that is.

2) I've never seen anyone blow up a pool quite that way. I myself lift the side rather than getting down to ground level.

3) Maybe you could work up to inviting CF over for some of your deeeeelicious cooking? Because oh, yum!

Lemon Gloria said...

Yikes- almost forgot...also, Cowgirl! I hope all went wonderfully!

Sue Ellen Mishkey said...

If you do eggplant again, wash them in egg first, then lightly coat them with bread crumbs and romano cheese and fry in oil. Voila. Mini eggplant parmesan. It also works well for cauliflower, but you have to blanch those bad boys first.