Farmer's Market

Mark and I have been frequenting the local farmers markets where we live for a little while. Last year, the one by the Food Lion in Columbia was our preferred location, now it is the one under the 83 viaduct. (Saratoga St. between Holliday and Gay) It's from 8am to 12pm, running until December 21st.
The bigger question is probably why do we go to the farmer's market? Honestly, the main reason is not because we want to support locally grown produce or organic farming. The main reason is because our local grocery store's produce section sucks.
The relative difference is obvious - the farmer's market in Columbia was small - usually three or four produce stands, a bread stand, and one or two flower stands. There were usually about 10 customers at a time, more in the spring. The Baltimore farmer's market is huge - probably at least 10-15 produce stands, plus that many or more food vendors, local artisans, handmade dog biscuit sellers...it takes up an entire parking lot and is filled with people. The Baltimore Farmer's Market is like the Riverdale Farmer's Market on crack. There is a donut vendor here too, but the line was way too long - there is an advantage to a smaller farmer's market, sometimes.
I highly recommend checking out the Baltimore farmer's market, and if you don't live in the city, check out this - http://www.mda.state.md.us/md_products/farmers_market_dir.php - to find your nearest one.

Political Buffalo Chicken Dip

From the famous Mr. Redline, now of Real Life on the Red Line, the recipe for buffalo chicken dip. I don't eat chicken, so I can't really speak to it's deliciousness, but I'm pretty sure Mark likes it more than he likes anything I cook, and he was looking more forward to the dip than the election.

Buffalo Chicken Dip:

2 packages cream cheese
2 cups cheddar cheese
2 cans of chicken
1 bottle of Frank's Red Hot Sauce
1/2 cup Ranch Dressing

1) Heat cream cheese in saucepan
2) Add chicken, Red Hot Sauce, and Ranch
3) Add 1 cup of cheddar cheese
4) Serve hot with chips, sprinkle cheddar cheese on top.

*Note: You can substitute low fat cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and ranch dressing.

Thanks Mr. Redline!

Election Night Tricks & Treats

You may have heard that last night was election night. Apparently that elitist-terrorist-muslim guy won. While the relief I'm feeling should be much greater, the way it is for most people, and my sense of history and finality should be tingling, I am nervously waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm waiting for something. I don't know what. It seems unreal that an election can be resolved, these days, in a single night.
My good friends Mama Awesome, Baby Awesome, Papa Awesome, Mr. Redline, and my nonblogging friends, watched the returns and enjoyed Spinach and Artichoke Dip, Buffalo Chicken Dip, and baked brie in crescent rolls. For dessert, there was the best pumpkin pie ever and chocolatey-peanutbuttery-cookie bars, which were amazingly chocolaty.
I will hopefully get a guest blog post from Mr. Redline and DNA as to how to make their election night foodery. For now, here is a recipe for brie wrapped in crescent rolls. Because brie is the food of elitists, terrorists, and winners.

Ingredients:

• Brie cheese (I used a 6 ounce wedge, you can use any size. For a larger party, use a round.
  
• Crescent roll dough (if you are using a full round of brie, you may want to use 2 loafs)
• Optional - cranberries, chopped nuts, or apples
  

Equipment:

• Cutting board
• Rolling Pin (I made this at the Awesome's, so I didn't have access to one of these, but I wished I had had the foresight to bring my own. I spent very little time at home yesterday. I spent 23 hours out of the house.)
  
• Baking dish - I used an 8x8 pyrex dish, but I think I probably will go with a regular aluminum cookie sheet in the future.
• Oven at 375 (I will experiment with the temperature in the future)
  

Procedure:

1. Roll out crescent dough. Do not cut into little triangles. Instead, roll into a large rectangle or oval. (Probably about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch thick
   
2. Place brie in the center of dough.
3. Add cranberries, fruit, or nuts.
   
4. Wrap dough around brie. Imagine wrapping a gift, but instead of wrapping paper, you are using dough. Everything should be covered.
5. Bake for 20-40 minutes. I don't know how long it actually took to cook, because I had to leave the party.
   

I had it cold, which was less good, because I like cold brie less. But I was told that it was decent. It could have been by people trying to stoke my ego, but really, I think they generally think that I think highly enough of myself and my cooking that they don't need to do that.

Slowcooker Curry

I don't like Indian food. Some of my friends from college claimed that our mutual dislike of curry made my roommate and I racist. I dispute that by pointing out that I have a number of Indian friends, and that I dislike as many American foods as ethnic dishes. That being said, I dislike spicy food. Like, a lot. It burns my mouth and I find it uncomfortable. I don't like the sensation of having my mouth set on fire. Some people apparently do. So I don't go out for Indian food.
However, making it myself? So I can adjust how much curry goes in? Yum.
Here is the recipe for a simple "No Hurry Vegetable Curry" based on the recipe in "Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker." It is adapted slightly for our mondo-normous six quart slow cooker.
Ingredients:

• Potatoes - 2-4 potatoes, diced
• Onion - 1 medium, diced
• 2-3 carrots, sliced on a diagonal
• garlic, minced
• curry powder
• cayenne pepper
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
  
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  
• 8 oz string beans, sliced into 1 inch pieces
  
• frozen peas - half cup
• half cup of coconut milk.
  

Equipment:

• Six quart slow cooker
• Pan (I've renamed my 2 inch deep frying pan/skillet/cooking dish the "always pan" because I use it daily.)
• Spatula
  

Procedure

1. Put onion and carrot in pan on medium high heat in some olive oil to soften
2. Add garlic, curry powder, and cayenne pepper (this is where your personal spice tolerance comes in). Allow to coat and heat.
   
3. Put in slow cooker stoneware.
   
4. Add potatoes, chickpeas, green beans, tomatoes, and anything else except the frozen peas and coconut milk.
5. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. (If your crockpot is defective like ours and runs too hot, go for 5-7.)
6. Add coconut milk and green peas 1/2 hour before serving. Stir into curry.
   
7. Serve over naan bread or basmati rice. (I love the Trader Joe's Na'an bread. Its amazing.)
   

Upside-down pie

I made this pie last night and I call it upside down pie because the topping, which uses applesauce, winds up as more of a dough spread loosely on top, and the graham cracker crust ends up being the crumbly part.
Why make a graham cracker crust pie? A variety of reasons. First of all, its easier. You can keep a graham cracker crust for awhile in the pantry, without losing freezer real estate, having to roll anything, and without people judging you for not making your own crusts. It is also healthier, especially because you can get a low-fat graham cracker crust. My main deciding factor was that I had one on hand and I don't make pie crusts. Personal policy. I just don't do it.
I found this recipe here and I tried it with the apples we picked last weekend. I used Granny Smith, although they are actually still a little tart for the pie. I might try it with a milder apple. I have made some other modifications.
Ingredients:
3-4 apples, sliced thinly (I don't peel them, because its more interesting and healthy if you include the skins.)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Graham cracker crust, prebaked in 9-inch pan
***
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup applesauce (if you want a more crumbly crust, use 1/4 cup butter, softened but not melted)

Procedure:
1. Combine all pie ingredients in a bowl. Stir to combine. Pour into a graham cracker crust.
2. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes, until crust is hard.

Blog Action Day 2008

This is my first time participating in Blog Action Day. This year's topic is poverty, and I decided to educate myself more on the issue of Fair Trade Products. I couldn't get this up yesterday because my internet was down, so a day late, here it is:
The major fair trade industry, in which the fair trade product is only a little more expensive than the conventional, is coffee. I don't drink coffee, so this has always been a nonissue for me.
Fair trade coffee supports local farming coops and helps eliminate the middleman. Fair trade other-products achieve the same thing (including in your cosmetics). Ultimately, you pay very little more and the people on the other end of the spectrum get a lot out of it.
So what are some of the most common products that you can buy fair trade?
Coffee, tea, sugar, honey, bananas, cocoa, wine, as well as cotton and handicrafts.
I try to eat organic, as well as local. Eating local is also very important for alleviating poverty, as well as helping the environment, because when farmers don't have to pay for shipping costs or try to expand their farms to compete with big midwest farms, they are able to live off their farms. But I think now I am going to start trying to eat/consume more fair-trade products.
So I'm wondering, what can I buy fair trade?
Sugar, for example, is something I don't buy frequently. And while the bone-white sugar at the local megamart is cheap, buying a bag of fair trade sugar elsewhere might cost only a little more, and only sting once.
My options for fair-trade bananas are limited, because Shoppers only carries one kind of banana. I buy wine local (Basignani Riesling - best wine ever.)
Fair Trade Certified, the organization that certifies fair trade, offers a list of helpful shopping locations. They also tell you the logo to look for on packaging that is fair trade certified.
Another important thing to consider is buying fair trade cosmetics. Body Shop cosmetics are purchased via "community trade" which is the same concept (as well as cruelty free), and while they are more than you probably currently spend on shampoo, they are still cheaper than buying organic cosmetics. (And buying organic does not mean it is fair-trade certified.) And again, will paying a couple dollars more for shampoo or coconut scented body lotion really hurt that much at the end of the month?
While there are many ways to use food to eliminate hunger, there aren't a lot of ways to eliminate poverty through food. So consider harnessing your consumer power and supporting people around the world. If you still can't get your head around paying a little more for products, consider it a charitable contribution to working individuals in the third world (or as John McCain would say, "countries that don't like us very much"). It may not be tax deductable, but instead of paying for the overhead and operating costs of a nonprofit with your $20 donation, you are paying for working families to be in their villages and not in exploitative garment factories. You are helping people to empower themselves. And yes, you are helping to end poverty.

PYOP - Pick Your Own Pumpkins

Yes, dear readers, it is That Time of Year - pumpkin patching time, that is!
This weekend, hopefully, I will be out picking pumpkins with the boyfriend and his family. I am also cautiously optimistic that we will be able to pick apples and butternut squash. Hopefully I will have my camera charged and assembled for this event, and then can take pictures.
I hope its just slightly cool so we have to wear jeans and ruggedly outdoorsy jackets and look like an L.L.Bean ad. Weather.com says rainy :-p and 58. But its only a few showers.
I am determined to try making a pumpkin pie from scratch this year. Mark, his family, and my family don't like pumpkin pie, so I'm not sure who is eating my pie.
I am debating whether I will tackle the crust of the pumpkin pie myself. I usually use store bought crusts, for a variety of reasons, the biggest one being that I can't handle rolling the crust dough myself. Also, the amount of butter I have to put in a crust makes me uncomfortable.
I'm considering experimenting with a graham cracker crust for both pumpkin and apple pies. Especially if I use those cinnamon-covered graham crackers...
What is your favorite kind of pie? (And if you don't like pie, what is your favorite thing to do with pumpkins and/or apples?)