The cold has seized both sides of the country...
and almost 6 months have passed since the last post! In that time, much has happened, including a new market to visit weekly and get inspired by. As the year draws to an end, sharing snapshots of time that flew by quickly once again.
Early summer greeted us with a great selection of herbs, the sweetest melons, most flavorful strawberries (welcome to CA!), carrots and squashes.
Squashes and carrots ready for ...
a quick week-day ragu with fresh mint...
The most colorful and vibrant squash blossoms...
beautiful to watch...
delicious in a fresh salad with wild arugula, early girl tomatoes simply seasoned with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper...
Sunday morning GF waffles for the fresh strawberries...
The summer continued to deliver on its promises weekly...
adding the most amazing purple beans ever tasted, japanese eggplants, bok choys, sweet small grapes and buttery avocados (no longer sold to keep in season)...
Simple salads of market bought (amazing!) brown rice, herbs and veggies became an easy go-to lunch option...
Here a more sophisticated market fresh salad with delicious smoked duck breast (more on that later!) and radishes...
Until the first Fall squashes appeared.
Our new market friends have the most amazing offering of Fall squash varieties!
Some of which I was glad to discover for the first time...
Lunga al taglio!
Fall also saw us eating Market fresh cod (incredible flesh), with simply steamed baby potatoes and quickly sauteed chard, using duck fat from those smoked duck breasts from the market...
By the way:
- The skin of the smoked breasts I buy at the market is amazingly flavorful so I regularly use it to render fat for sauteing and other uses. For more on duck fat and ideas there is a good post on The Kitchn.