Why I love the Farmer's Market

In Washington, DC the farmers market runs at some locations all year round. This was an exciting development for my poor fresh veggie deprived body. I found out there was a vegan baked goods fundraiser at the Takoma Park, MD market and done. I would go and visit. Fabulous! I have to admit, I'm not used to the whole, you can go to the farmer's market all year round thing. But it was a real treat. I got lettuce, potatoes, pasta, baked goods, fruit, apple cider, spices, cheese, and tea. Now what to cook with all of the said food.


I've developed a fabulous way to make baked fries (in oil of course but I like to think its healthier). Erika's Yummy Baked Fries -- recipe is below.

Bake at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes turning once.

Directions:
Cut up some local potatoes, mix them with olive oil, some chipotle pepper, onion powder, salt, and freshly ground pepper.

Toppings:
I managed to find a nice goat cheese with chipotle at the Takoma market and pair that on the fries with some truffle oil from Cork market. They can both be applied after or in the last two minutes of the fries cooking. Its your choice!

PPS Cork Market is amazing! Go there now!

Pasta Risotto

Okay so I don't use abborio rice for this, but have taken up making an awesome pasta dish basically cooking it like risotto. This takes to thicker pastas quite well! I just throw some veggie broth in with white wine, bring it to a boil, throw pasta in, and lastly cook it until thickened (at least 15 minutes). A great different way to make pasta. PPS a line of pasta sauces I've discovered carries more garlic and potentially onion free varieties at Yes Organic Market in DC . I have to look up the name as it escapes me right now.

Cardamom Bread and a New Years Thought

I just could not resist posting what came out of the oven. I couldn't resist eating it either. Cardamom Bread Recipe


I'm enjoying all of this cooking so much. I'm hoping in 2010 to continue cooking up a storm and additionally to write more in this blog, and perhaps if we are lucky my roommate and I will make our way to an apartment with a larger kitchen.

Cardamom Spice and Cooking Up a Storm

Did I mention how I've been cooking up a storm lately?

I have a few fabulous vegetarian recipe books and this week alone I've made a lentil loaf, apple sweet potato soup, beer bread, vegan pumpkin bars, cardamom bread (via cooks.com), peppermint brownies, and guacamole. It has been an epic week for doing my favorite thing (aka cooking) until classes start again and I've been enjoying it. Much better than being out in the cold weather (brrr). The two main cooking books I've been using this week is the Vegetarian Bible (a short hard cover cook book) and Vegan Now. Although garlic is in many vegan recipes (they have to eat something for flavor, and I don't blame them), I've found ways around it in my vegan cooking, choosing instead asafotedia, onion powder, onions, or shallots. Sorry to all of you garlic and onion allergic folks, I thankfully can survive on onions and even the garlic looking shallot.

I finally put some of the weird asafotedia (garlic-esque spice) into my cooking and it came out quite well! I used the asafotedia in my lentil loaf recipe from Vegan Now, I also make the loaf un-vegan by utilzing real eggs instead of the egg substitute (sorry vegans :-(). The soup is great. The beer bread is only so-so (a bit salty to me for some reason), pumpkin bars came out weird (not recommended). The beer bread was super easy, I would recommend the recipe to anyone (from Vegan Now) -- just self-rising flour, beer, salt, and sugar. So simple and great for soup, but too salty to eat on its own.

It was my first time making cardamom bread, but being a Swede I figured it was about time. Cardamom is a spice I like to have around, great for a unique flavor in so many dishes. I just love it, and it reminds me of my childhood spent in the church rec room for coffee hour post church. There was always cardamom bread, and now I've made my very own homemade version. Fabulous!

The lentil loaf is great and can be made vegan or non vegan.

That is my update for now! Peace!