Farmer's Market Eating

Hey gang!  I had a really nice weekend, and I hope you guys did too.  Upon reflecting on the weekend, I'd say there was a common theme- picking up Farmer's Market/local food, and EATING it!

Saturday morning I joined some friends at a new-to-me Farmer's Market- The Mathews Farmer's Market.
Matthews is a little town located on the south east side of Charlotte. 

This Farmer's Market, is on the smaller side, but upon closer inspection, the stands had everything you would need at any large Farmer's Market, bread, herbs, tons of veggies, fruit, flowers, even goat cheese.

We only lasted about a half hour outside in the nearly 100 degree heat before taking cover in a local coffee shop (I had iced coffee, not hot!). 

I made out well at the market though, check out my loot!

I ended up with a variety of green beans, assorted colored cherry tomatos, a green and yellow cucumber, a cool looking eggplant, two golden zuchinni, and some goat cheese.

Since I had almost two pounds of beans, I figured I should have some of those for dinner Saturday night.  I also decided to try my hand at something that had intimidated me forever- cooking shrimp at home!

A while back my mom had brought me some local Hilton Head shrimp and put it in my freezer for me.  I decided last night was my night to use it, and decided to make lemon pepper grilled shimp with my steamed beans.  I marinated the defrosted (precleaned) shrimp in lemon juice, olive oil, lemon zest, salt and pepper, and a little red pepper flake.

Then I skewered and grilled em up for about 2-3 minutes each side.

Ok, I admit it, this was riduculously easy.  Why I've been fearful of cooking shrimp at home, I don't know!

Paired with my Farmer's Market green beans (with a little butter, lemon, and salt), this was an excellent dinner.

Today I pretty much followed the same formula as yesterday.  After running some errands, I stopped by a local stand to pick up some awesome summer peaches.

I was only home about 3 minutes before this happened.

HEAVENLY!

There may be some peach pie or cobbler in our future if I can restrain myself from eating all the fresh peaches!

I also noticed some corn while at the peach place and ended up with 6 ears of corn since they sold them in bundles.

I knew I wanted corn for dinner, and also decided to make a black bean burger salad to go with the corn.

I actually made my own black bean burgers with some leftover canned black beans I had in the fridge.  I sauteed red and green pepper, onion, and some cumin and chili pepper in a little oil.

I added the cooked onions and peppers to a food processor with the black beans, some whole grain bread ends and supplemental bread crumbs to bind.

Pulsed it a couple times, but not too much because you want some texture in the consistency.

Then I formed patties (I made them little- slider sized) and cooked them in a little oil in a pan.

I melted a little cheddar on each, and put a few on a salad consisting of:

Romaine

Spinach

Roasted Red Pepper

Farmers market tomatoes and yellow cucumber

freshly cooked corn

tomatillo/green salsa

With an extra ear of corn on the side.

I'm kind of a corn snob.  I firmly maintain that the best corn anywhere is from a little farm stand called Pelloni's in the town where I grew up.  It's so buttery and sweet and delicious, I've never tasted any other corn as good.  This corn was pretty darn good though, and it came from a South Carolina farm.  I will be back for more!

Have you been eating local this summer?



Cooking Class At The Liberty

Hi all!  It's been a busy little weekend here, and I'm hoping to have a bunch of down time today and relish in it :)

I have done some fun things this weekend!  First off, yesterday I took a cooking class with my friend Sarah at The Liberty. 

This was the third class like this (Upstream in Charlotte and Michael Anthony's in Hilton Head)  I've taken and I really enjoy learning the techiniques and of course eating the delicious food the restuarant chefs prepare!

The class was held in the bar area at the Liberty.  The seat configuration was slightly awkward, but they made it work.

Our class theme was French Country Cooking, a Taste of Provence.  French cooking class?  Yes please!

The first course prepared was a wild salmon salad with beets, avocado, potatoes, egg, and mustard dressing.
The chef was knowledgeable and personable.

Working the huge slab of salmon...

I've mentioned before that cooking fish at home intimidates me, but the chef made this dish seem pretty easy and accessible.  I feel like I could successfully make this.  The chef grilled the salmon with the skin on, but when he flipped it, the skin peeled right off.  Neat!

The finished product...

The tangy mustard/dill dressing was so good. 

The recipe for the dressing:

1 small garlic clove

1 TB Dijon mustard

2 TB olive oil

1 TB fresh dill

2 TB lemon juice

1 TB capers

1/4 teaspoon salt

fresh ground pepper

I also learned a good beet roasting techinique I want to try: roasting the beets, skin on, with herbs and olive oil on 375 for an hour and 10 minutes.  I'm really into beets right now, especially the golden ones.

Sarah and I really liked this dish.

Next up, was the Bouef a' la Nicoise, or country beef stew with red wine, tomatoes, olives, and buttered noodles.

I'll admit, and you've probably noticed, I'm a little lazy as a cook.  I don't like horribly labor-intensive recipes (that means yours Martha Stewart!), and this one was kind of complex, so I'm not sure there's much chance I'll ever make this at home, but it was FANTASTIC, so maybe I should!  You're supposed to cook the meat in this dish three different ways- braise it, slow cook it, then carmelize it.  That's probably just too much work for me...hehe.  Also, the tomatoes in this dish were fantastic, but they were also slow roasted in an oven for like 3 hours. 

Anyway, it was off-the-chain good.

The meat was so tender and flavorful, and it was served over pappardelle noodles (I love those!).  So, so good.

The dessert course was a Country French Blackberry Galette.  This was kind of like a lazy man's pie.

As we know, I do make a mean pie, but this was actually an easier version of pie, yet still beautiful and tasty.  My mom makes a similar version of this with apples and pre-made pie crust when she's in a hurry.

The most interesting thing I learned on this dish, was that you can use your hands to blend the butter and flour mixture into dough instead of a food processor or pastry cutter, like I usually do.  It actually seemed to work pretty well for the chef, so I may give that a try sometime.

Anyway, it was delcious and very filling!  This easily could have fed two or three (or four) people.  I got about 2/3 of the way through mine and was stuffed!

Following our awesome class, Sarah and I wandered over to nearby Atherton Mills, for their Saturday Farmer's Market.

I really wanted some greens, and also some beets after being inspired to try roasting them by cooking class.

I got both from this stand, which is local to Charlotte.

I also picked up a grass-fed filet mignon for my dad as a father's day present, and we explored the other booths, before heading out.

It was a wonderful Saturday morning and early afternoon in Charlotte.  Hope yours was just as fun!