Santa Monica Farmers Market

Every Wednesday and Saturday, Santa Monica hosts a farmers market on Arizona Avenue. For the past two days I've been hold up inside, buried in my computer on a project for work. So today it was a MUST that I get out of the house. I got SB to go with me for a walk down to the market. I love doing this on a weekly basis, if I can make it happen. I use to work next door to this and went every Wednesday, sometimes for breakfast and dinner. It's a feast for the eyes, spurs on the creativity for what to make or photograph. Plus you get to sample all the produce.

Usually I walk down here myself and listen to a podcast, like KCRW Good Food, which always gives a break down of whats in season and a little extra from Jonathan Gold, LA Times food writer. Recipes are usually included. Here are a few gems from my iPhone on what we saw and bought today. Enjoy!

Brussel Sprouts, which we ate tonight.

Sweet Satsuma, one of which was sliced and dropped into my Old Fashion tonight.

Seriously the Frisee and Radichio looks like a tide pool full of sea urchins.

Persimmons for days. Can't wait to try a recipe with these.

FLowers are always part of a Farmers Market journey.

Mindless Monday

Today my mind is jumbled AGAIN. I have so much going on I can't focus at all. So I'm moving from one thing to another. I gave myself a computer break this weekend and I probably should have just sat down and hammered out what needed to be done. Today I am finally making me a list of what I need to do. I have a few friends that love LISTS and love to cross off what they accomplish, I'm more of check the box kind of girl. I find that writing things down is super helpful. For one it organizes my mind.

Sunday was National Coffee day and well I barely had time for a cup of coffee. I did manage to have some over the weekend, visiting my usual places Groundwork in Santa Monica for a Mocha and a Machiatto and then Emilia's for a Cappucino and that was all on Friday and Saturday. 

Over the weekend I really took advantage of living on the Westside of L.A. county.  Went to the local farmers market for some food inspiration, met the harpist above, who was such a happy soul. Produce right now is very transitional. I was on the hunt for figs, cause it sounded so good, but didn't find any.  Apples are in and although I didn't get to apple picking with my friend Deborah at my.life.at.playtime, I hope to reap the bounty of what she picked and make something fantastic.

This is the third year for Glow in Santa Monica that showcases few art installations on the pier and beach. Some things were pretty cool. Like the beautiful light filled nets above which came with it's own audio, and mounds of sand to climb around. NYT wrote an interesting review on it. Other things were plain out weird and cosmic, not my thing. Great time for walking and biking as most of the downtown streets were closed. We choose to walk and boy my feet felt it.

After that we tried a new place called Bar Pinto, felt like a trip to Spain, followed up by watching Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown episode on Spain , which really made me visit Granada, Spain. On my list of things to do in this lifetime.

Last thing for the weekend was a quick jaunt to the Abbot Kinney festival. I went early, 10AM just to get myself a tote from Urbanic and buy a t-shirt for my friend in the UK. It was already hot and looked like it was going to be a fun day full of food, music and amazing locally created arts and crafts. I had, had enough of crowds so getting there early was key for me, get in and out and take a quick look. Plus all the road closures and parking were not ideal.

October starts tomorrow. I hope to have a few more Fall focused posts and can't wait for a busy fun month of activities. Enjoy your week! 

Stone Fruit Crumble

On one of my farmers market runs I went to get peaches and came back with not only those, but quite a few other stone fruits. This included nectarines and pluot's. The later I had never had, but wow were these sweet and juicy, bursting with flavor. I had to get a few.  I came home right away sliced and ate em. 

Every once in a while I find a new blog, to me, or a new food show, this time I found both. The Pioneer Woman. Ree Drummond is just so REAL, I would love to meet her in person. She has a great recipe for what she called a "Crisp." Only she made hers with peaches. I decided to combine my farmers market peaches, nectarines and pluot's that I still had on hand and put them in a baking dish below.

Zest 1/2 a lemon and squeeze the juice too over the stone fruit and if you want more sweetness add in 2 tbsp's of maple syrup (the good pure kind)

Have I ever mentioned that I someone how always pick the HOTTEST most HUMID day to bake and at the time of day that the sun is beaming into our little apartment. Well I do, at least the house always smells good, that's my excuse to SB. 

To make the topping, in a separate blow mix 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of light brown sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp salt and cut in 1/2 cup cold butter. Either do this with a pastry blender or a good old fashioned fork. I've done both, but prefer my pastry blender I got from Sur La Table a while back, this one.

Fully cover the fruit and pack down lightly. Cover with tin foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 20-30 minutes until crunchy on top. I have gone the full 30 minutes to make sure it's nice and crunchy.

You can serve this with vanilla ice cream or vanilla Greek yogurt. I've done both and was happily content.  It's a great recipe, tested on myself and then on my friends three kids, it's a hit. Use whatever stone fruits you have on hand. Peaches are everywhere now, so take advantage of the deals and the amazing juicy fruits.  Enjoy!

Tomato Caprese Salad

A few years back there was a tomato scare in California.  For some reason this didn't stop us from buying tomatoes.  I believe there wasn't even any foundation on what the scare was.  It's a distant memory.

We love tomatoes.  Believe me this is not how it always was.  I use to HATE them, passionately.  But taste buds change and we make lots of Bruschetta with tomatoes these days.  I use to work right next to a farmers market and every Wednesday morning I would go down and buy what ever was in season.  This was how I got turned on to Heirloom Tomatoes.

SB loves heirloom tomatoes so we got the great idea of taking a big terracotta pot on our 3x9 balcony and growing our own tomatoes.  I of course like the romance of planting the seed and watching it grow.  Comes from my grandmother's green thumb and letting me plant my own radish garden in her vast yard as a child. Incidentally I don't really like radishes either but I loved this project with grandma.  So to make this long story longer, I bought two packets of Heirloom tomato seeds, Cherokee and Brandywines, and I planted them in the pot.

The packet said in 8 weeks we'd have some shoots, well more than 8 weeks went by and not a glimmer of anything.  So I put the seeds in a little bit of water and put them on the window seal.

Eventually these little roots grew and I planted these seeds.  Finally shoots appeared. Did I tell you we only have a 3x9 apartment patio. Well our friend gave us an Earthbox that you supposedly can grow anything in. SB nurtured this box and we had a Jack and the Giant Tomato Stalk...only NO tomatoes. When any appeared the bugs got to it. I think we eventually got ONE good tomato out of all that effort. We sliced, salted, olive oiled and ate it, all in one bite. That was the end of our tomato garden. I think we'll wait for that Farm we dream of, that way SB can get his chickens too.

In the meantime, I make weekly walks to the local farmers market and gather whatever is in season. I gathered these luscious heirloom tomatoes, in every color available.

This is the easiest recipe for fresh tomatoes. All you need is basil, tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, olive oil, salt, and balsamic vinegar.

Ingredients & Directions:

Heirloom tomatoes (slice)

Salt

Olive Oil (make sure it's quality oil and drizzle it over the tomatoes) 

Buffalo Mozzarella (slice and intersperse with the tomatoes) 

Basil (rough chop and sprinkle on top) 

Balsamic Vinegar (drizzle)

Serve with toasted crusty bread drizzled with Olive Oil and rub with a garlic clove for extra flavor.  I prefer La Brea bakery bread, it just taste and toasts better.

Simple and flavorful. Enjoy!

Stuffed Squash Blossom

I love going to the Farmers Market, more in the summer than any other time.  It seems like the produce changes out every two weeks.  This day I ran down at the very end and saw these amazing squash blossoms and had to try them out.  The farmer gave me two full baskets for the price of one. Tip: go at the very end for good deals. Go at the beginning if you need the best and lots of it.

So I texted SB to look up a recipe for stuffed squash blossoms, I was bound and determined and knew I'd need more ingredients when I got home.  So I gathered the filling ingredients, cheeses, Ricotta and Parmesan were top on my list.  To be honest I had to look up a YouTube video to figure out how to put this together, especially taking out the innards.  YouTube it away or Bing it and you'll find the perfect tutorial.

Here's what the inside looks like of a squash blossom.

Gently pull out the stamen inside, you'll see it when you try to open the blossom.

Here's what the empty squash blossoms looked like with out the stamen.

Here's what the innard stamen's look like. No use for them, accept I thought they were pretty.

Filling had ricotta and Parmesan cheese, pinch of salt and chopped parsley.

Fully dip or immerse them in the tempura batter.

Quick fry em up. I would use grapeseed oil in the future, only thing I didn't like was the canola oil taste.

These were delicious.  Rich and cheesy and I loved the green zuchini, I would definitely leave them on when you make this.

Here's the recipe: 

Stuffing:

1 cup Ricotta Cheese

1/2 cup parmessan

pinch of salt

chopped parsley

Tempura Batter: 

Canola Oil (I would use Grapeseed oil next time)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1  teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup Chilled Pilsner, lager-style beer, or club soda (I used Hanger 24 Orange Wheat Beer) - You may need more to get the right consistency.

Zucchini blossoms (stamens removed; about 16)                                            

Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients together for the tempura batter. Chill for a few minutes.

Mix all the ingredients for the stuffing and set aside. I like the flavors to meld.

Gently pull the stamens from the blossoms and you can either cut the green zuchini off or leave it on. I prefer the green it was delicious. 

Gently put in about 1 tablespoon of cheese per blossom. More if it fits and delicately twist the blossom so the ingredients stay in.

Heat oil in a deep pan about 1 inch deep, needs to be really hot about 350. Test with a bread crumb. If it fries quickly then your good to go.  

Take batter out of refrigerator and mix well, may need to add more beer or club soda to get a good consistency for coating. Dip each stuffed squash blossom and fully coat in the tempura batter and start frying them up. It's a quick fry.

Make sure you turn them over to get it all fried up.  Do this in batches to make sure the oil stays hot.

Drain on a paper towel, salt and serve. Enjoy!