It’s no secret to regular readers of this blog, or regular readers from the summer of 2009 at least, that I get pretty excited about going to the farmers market, especially Minneapolis’s Midtown Farmers Market. When asparagus, tomatoes, or sweet corn show up on vendors’ tables that excitement is easy enough to understand, but I’m […]
6 comments
| Beer, Brewing, Garlic Mustard Greens, Homebrew, Hops, Midtown Farmers Market, Produce, Radish, Radish Seed Pods, Seasonal, Unique
I’m sorry, bitter melon, but I don’t think it’s going to work out between us. No, hush, just listen. I remember when I first saw you at the farmers market. You were so different from all the other vegetables, all rough around the edges. I admit I was afraid to approach you, and I had […]
6 comments
| Apologia, Bitter Melon, Midtown Farmers Market
To paraphrase Sara Bareilles, I’m not gonna write you a ratatouille recipe. (I promise that will be the last Sara Bareilles reference – ever – on this blog.) I’ve done it before, and with farmers markets overflowing with more zucchini and eggplant than a blogger knows what to do with, you can be sure you’ll […]
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| Cabbage, Eggplant, French, Green Pepper, Leeks, Seasonal, summer, Thyme, Tomatoes
I buy zucchini blossoms exactly once per year, and not because I want to. Sure, they look pretty, and I love the concept of fried zucchini blossoms – crisp and airy, redolent of fields of flowers – but I’ve never been able to deliver on that idea. Instead of light and crunchy my fiori come […]
5 comments
| beer battered, Deep Fried, fiori di zucca fritti, Italian, summer, Zucchini, zucchini blossoms
26 June 2011 in: Recipes
It all started with an acute lack of pickles. As in, I had not a jar of pickles to my name, not even in the deepest back recesses of the middle shelf of the refrigerator. But golf-ball sized potatoes from yesterday’s Midtown Farmers Market were demanding to be made into potato salad and if there’s […]
6 comments
| Cilantro, Cucumber, Midtown Farmers Market, Pickles, Potato, salad, summer
I make as much an effort as anyone to feign enthusiasm for ramps, but the real excitement of spring and the produce it brings doesn’t begin for me until I see the first spears of asparagus at the farmers market. Asparagus is a bellwether crop, like the late summer tomato, that signals the arrival of […]
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| Asparagus, Braising, Broiling, Green, Midtown Farmers Market, Simple, Spring, Steaming
This bright Saturday morning marked the fourth consecutive week of the Midtown Farmers Market 2011 season. May is a month of many market openings, but it never quite feels like real farmers market season since the crops aren’t quite growing and the weather is inconsistent, even for Minnesota. May 7th, opening weekend, was beautiful: sunny […]
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| Asparagus, Garlic Mustard Greens, Green Onions, Herbs, Midtown Farmers Market, Rhubarb, Season, Spring
As I was biking through downtown Minneapolis on my way home from work yesterday, I noticed the new exterior at Solera, a tapas restaurant that I have enjoyed many times. I didn’t enjoy the new look. I find the Spanish flag awnings are a bit garish – not to mention nationalistic – compared with the […]
19 comments
| Language, Marketing, Solera, Spain, Spanish, Tapas
As I was wracking my brain trying to come up with a Saint Patrick’s day post for this blog that wasn’t corned beef and cabbage – because I had to post something, right? – I kept coming back to bangers and mash. I’ve never been to the Emerald Isle, and while like many Americans I […]
4 comments
| Bangers, Britain, Cumberland, Cumbria, Ireland, Mash, Mashed Potatoes, Pork, Potatoes, Saint Patrick's Day, Sausage
In a world where many people don’t get enough to eat, the fact that Americans waste nearly half their food represents a moral failure. What’s more, with the economic crisis in this country family food budgets are stretched tighter than ever; American families can ill-afford to waste so much. A lot of this waste results […]
2 comments
| Appetizer, Chicken, Fried, Schmaltz, Skin, Snack