A Change of Seasons

As a frequent shopper at farmers markets, one can't help but noticing the change in seasons by the veggies that are for sale. On the Saturday before Easter, this was my experience.




Spring is in the air here in the Southwest. Flowers have been blooming and the desert is alive right now. The birds and bunnies are active around my house. My little garden has been growing as well, especially the heirloom tomato plants.

Tomatoes taking over

Lots of tourists and locals

A fresh green juice because of Poker Night the night before

Flowers anyone?

 
















The changes in seasonal veggies can be subtle in a sea of organic local veggies. The farmers I shop at must have huge fields of beets, radishes, carrots and all other types of veggies as these seem to always be available. There are an amazing amount of different fruits and veggies all grown locally. Must be the mild winter weather here in Phoenix.





It started a few weeks ago with the first asparagus for sale. Then sweet snap peas and artichokes.





Today these fava beans seemed brand new. If you have never had fresh young fava beans I suggest that you do. They won't be around for long. Yes they are labor intensive to prepare, but the reward is well worth it.











And these little strawberries are so sweet... Yum!



Looks like I will be making lots of spring veggie dishes in the very near future.

I got a little glimpse of the next season when I heard a farmer saying how the last few weeks have been ideal for the lettuces but that will change soon as the weather heats up.

So enjoy the fresh produce that spring brings and Happy Easter!






Note:  I ended up making an Easter salad similar to this with snap peas, fava beans and English peas.

Drinking 'o the Green

Green smoothies and the #flushot. Any one that follows me on instagram has seen these pics. Whether I post a pic or not, they have become an almost daily ritual for me. So for St. Patrick's Day, I'm going to tell my experience with green smoothies plus show some of the various mixes I have come up with.

I think there are a couple of reasons first of which is my wife bought a VitaMix blender. She had gone to some blending and juicing deal with some friends and they all became quite interested. I had made many fruit smoothies in the past and I figured our old blender was good enough. I even tried to stop her because I knew how much they cost. Well she bought it and with my cooking obsession I have become the one that uses it the most.

Secondly I am not much of a breakfast guy. It's tough when you don't eat eggs. Cereal gets old quick with me and I prefer variety over the same old thing. I had heard of these smoothies with veggies in them and it seemed interesting. The mrs had even bought a certain Green Machine bottled green juice before but that didn't interest me much. My kids even liked it. I guess I wanted to make these by myself with ingredients I can see. Not processed in a big plant.

Well I threw myself at Google and discovered a whole world of green smoothies and their health benefits. I even signed up for a 3 day smoothie challenge deal at terawarner.com that emailed me many facts and recipes for smoothies.

A lot of people shy away from the thought of a green smoothie. Spinach, kale, lettuce etc blended together with fruits. Eww! That's what I thought also until I began making them. They can be very fresh tasting plus you can always experiment with new combinations of ingredients. They don't always turn out great but at least I know what's in there and can adjust for the next one.



Of course the farmers market is a great place to get the freshest, organic ingredients for smoothies. But don't let the supermarket stop you from trying. I just use my best judgement and pick the freshest looking stuff and I have even used prepared kale mix in a bag before in a pinch. If you do green smoothies very often, remember to vary your types of greens.

Could I recite what these health benefits are? No. Can increasing the amounts of fruits and veggies we consume be bad for us? I really doubt it. But as I look back at my first green smoothie pictures that started back in September, there is one fact that is very apparent to me... I have not been sick this winter.

I have watched as everyone around me at work and home has been sick for at least a few days. Some for weeks at a time with a lingering nasty cough. I'm usually good for at least 1 upper respiratory/nasal/sore throat/coughing type illness per year and that hasn't happened. I didn't get a flu shot this year. Even my seasonal allergies were no big deal. I've even heard that my skin and hair appear to be healthier.


         Don't believe that I just eat healthy all the time. I don't take pics of the late night munchies we all have some times. Chips, cookies, candies you name it. I'm normal and I like to eat all sorts of things, healthy or not. These smoothies and recently a foray into juicing and prepared fresh juice have merely increased my veggie intake.







Does increasing veggies and fruits in your diet help us to be healthier? I can't say for sure. But judging by how I have felt though, I know that it is true. So maybe give green smoothies a try. You may find yourself moving on towards a healthier lifestyle...










I might even have to work in some 'sick' days for myself as a reward for trying my best to take care of my health. After all of these natural #flushots, I just might deserve it.

1st cookbook

I mentioned in my first blog post how I started cooking when I was away at college. I had begun to get tired of eating fast and frozen food way too often. I remember getting a wok as a birthday present and I bought this book to go along with. Well the wok is long gone but the tattered book still remains.

I leafed through it many times thinking of exotic Chinese food and locales. Pickled Szechwan Vegetables started sounding like something I would like to try. Spicy Sprout and Cucumber Salad. Sure. Fifteen Minute Chicken. Yes. I began to go to the grocery store so that I would have the various ingredients on hand. I would look for dried mushrooms, bean pastes and hoisin sauce. I was becoming obsessed. Various Chow Meins, egg rolls, and all sorts of stir fries slowly began to happen.

I even filled in the title for this recipe from the index because it was not printed.

Through the years, this Almond Chicken has become a family favorite.

I think we all can tell I've made this before.

It has become the base for many different stir fry dinners since I learned the basics. Cutting up and marinating the chicken, making the crisp almonds, prepping the veggies and making the sauce. Next I cook the chicken in the wok and remove. Then stir fry the veggies until crisp tender, add in the sauce, then the chicken. Serve with some rice and it's a nice dinner.

I now like to change up the veggies for variety. Carrots, celery and snow peas are natural choices. Broccoli and cauliflower florets can work well. Bean sprouts or Shishito peppers? Why not. I even swapped out the bamboo shoots for these kohlrabi 'bamboo shoots' last year.

The family didn't seem to mind. So feel free to take this recipe and change it up with whatever you have in your fridge. I guess at some point it isn't Almond Chicken anymore, but something slightly different and usually pretty tasty.

I guess I owe Rose Cheng, Michele Morris and Chinese Cookery a big THANK YOU for helping me get started with my hobby of cooking!

Weekly Ramblings...

This blogging is certainly new to me. I am trying to keep something new out here for my few readers.
So this will be my rambling blog report from the last few days.

Last Tuesday I received a text from a friend asking if we would like to be in on their reservation at Restaurant FnB. Well I said yes not even caring what my wife said. This small restaurant is probably my favorite right now. They were even donating a portion of proceeds going to the Kidney Foundation of AZ that night. I jokingly texted that I would donate a kidney if needed.  I even had people on Instagram giving me ideas on what I needed to order.

Here is the menu. Most diners might need to google up what some of these things are, but my thought is just go and eat some of the best veggie-centric dishes you will ever have. We started with the Fried Cauliflower with Fish Sauce Vin, peanuts and mint. Shut the door! So Good! Also we had the Swiss chard falafel and their famous braised leeks with mozzarella and a fried egg on top.








I even took a bite with the egg! Here is a blurry pic, but I did it. I don't eat eggs by the way. My entree here was the pasta with hedgehog mushrooms, dill, roasted lemon and creme fraiche.

I have read peoples comments that say "I am a situational vegetarian. That is as long as Chef Charleen is in charge of the veggie situation". It is so true.

We also had this swiss chard with polenta croutons, parmesan and rosemary, and an order of the spicy grilled broccoli. The friendly gals at the table next to us even gave me a taste of their rutabaga dish! Finished up with this Blood Orange cake. So good! It is a must go if you live here or a plan ahead if you are visiting. I will be back soon FnB.

Jump ahead to The Day of the Purple Brussels Sprout Stalk. Here is my 9" chef knife next to it.

I came home and the Mrs had bought this beauty at a grocery store. I went into food geek mode for a bit and had to take pics and think of what to do with all these sprouts.

I came up with this salad of shaved purple brussels sprouts with lightly marinated kale and beet greens, shaved carrots and small radishes with a Meyer lemon/green garlic vinaigrette. Too strong on the green garlic was the answer from the Mrs. but I thought it was tasty even if this pic looks a little too foofy. Maybe if I was at the beach...





I even had a local chef suggest a different way to cook these sprouts. This is so cool because I have like 2 ways I cook them. Looks like I will be trying my hand at deep frying these very soon!









Forward again to Saturday and I am at the farmers market, like usual. I bought a lot of veggies and fruit (big surprise) and I also found these hidden metallic kachinas I'm guessing. #publicart

But I have a friend who brought up the idea a week or so back that I ought to start a garden.
Now I've got a bit of room in the back yard and I started thinking this was a great idea. No matter what color thumb I may have. I only grow a few herbs now.

So at the farmers market I decided to talk with Carl Seacat of Seacat Gardens. If you haven't met Carl you should. He grows some of the best tomatoes I have ever eaten. He only was selling plants at the market today because his crops are busy growing right now. 

                                                                                                                                                                  

So I now own 3 heirloom tomato plants and 2 sweet pepper plants plus I have a project going on. 

                     

I picked out a spot and assembled this small raised bed and noticed the sunset on one of my trees. How will this all turn out?






I don't know, but I do know this will give me plenty of things to blog about.

Farmers market Saturday

Here's a little look into my trip to the farmers market Saturday..
It  has become my thing these days.

It started a few years ago just due to the fact that I live too darn close to several great markets. The ability to get farm fresh, local produce is so cool I think everyone should do it. I usually hit the market pretty early on a mission for unusual veggies but that's not the only thing there. Old Town Scottsdale is loaded with tourists these days and people watching is hot right now. I even met some friends this week.

There is artwork, pretty flowers and you can just walk around and act like a tourist.

                                                                     

At the market you can get breakfast pastries to go or a hot breakfast made for eating now. I've had a locally made brat on a fabulous roll and lamb chops over hummus on separate occasions before. 

I (and the family) have fallen hard for several local pastas and sauces, BBQ sauces and rubs, pickles, homemade potato chips etc. The list goes on and on. I hope to include a list of my favorites, but I'll get to that later. But for now. Veggies.

Today I bought 3 types of kale, a flowering kale, romanesco, mixed colored carrots and radishes, watermelon radishes, chioggia beets and green garlic. I'm forgetting some others I'm sure.

I get to work when I get home. I've had to teach myself a bit about storing these for use, especially the various greens that I love. They should be cut off quickly because they continue to draw nutrients from whatever root was below ground. Carrot tops seem the
most fragile so use the feathery tops in a salad or sammie at lunch.
                                                           

Here are my greens wrapped in paper towels and ready to go into plastic bags and into the fridge.
The veggies themselves go into separate bags and into the fridge as well.

After all of that work, I made this nice salad of flowering kale, beet and carrot greens, green garlic, carrot and tomato with a light vinaigrette. Not the best picture but I am hungry for this fitting finish to my farmers market Saturday.