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Showing posts with label produce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label produce. Show all posts

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Grill Up Bonanza


Market goodies
So...

This is the some of the produce I bought
yesterday at the market.
We did a grill up today with a sirloin steak, ribs, a small pork loin,
dogs, (no, not the pet kind) those beauties, Ý cantaloupe and bananas.

Here's the run down/method.

Hubby marinated the steak and pork loin in olive oil.

He also pre-cooked the ribs in the slow cooker with French's
Worcestershire sauce, (try to spell that without the bottle in front of you)
soy sauce, Louisiana hot sauce and some water.
When they were ready to grill he took them out of the cooking liquid
and put hickory smoked b-b-q sauce on them.
(I saved the cooking liquid in freezer containers for later use
in soups and stews this winter).

 
Dogs and cantaloupe
He cut and peeled the cantaloupe, cut into crescents and marinated 
one half (about 6 slices) in some juice from our canned jalapeños.
The other half of the melon, (also about 6 slices) 
were sprinkled with lemon pepper and chili powder.

I decided to cut the bananas length wise and douse them with maple syrup.

Maple syrup bananas
A couple packages of the dogs were coated in hickory smoked b-b-q sauce,
the others were left plain.

The tomato and colored bell peppers were sliced and grilled plain.

The critique...

Meat....
The steak, ribs and loin were good,
although,
 if I would have been grilling them,
I would have taken them off sooner.
I'm more of a medium rare to medium person.
Dogs were perfect!

Cantaloupe...
EXCELLENT!!!
I liked the jalapeño ones best!
You'll just have give them a go, they won't disappoint.
Easy to grill in the fish griller with no sticking.

Veggies...
Veggies were perfect, slightly crisp and sweet tasting.
No sticking in the fish griller.

Bananas...
OMG, so good you just can't imagine.
When I do bananas again I'll buy them a little more greener/firmer.
It was tricky getting them out of the fish griller whole.
Maybe oil the fish griller also?

The hubby did most of the work and I was so appreciative.
He's a pretty good cook.
The "pet" dogs were also appreciative for the rib bones :-)

I was otherwise occupied with making jelly.
I'll let you know how that turned out.

Till next time, grill,
it'll keep your house cooler/ save electricity.
Bonjour

P.S.
Twice, during this post when I clicked enter
to go to the next line, blogger posted instead of
moving to the next line.
I've been having nothing but problems
since they updated.
How about you?

Saturday, August 27, 2011

No Rain, No Problem! Farmer's Market To The Rescue!!!

So....

Since we had to quit the garden
 due to the  no rain issues/fines for using too much water,
a trip to the farmer's market on Friday was in order.

There was no arm twisting involved, I love to go,
only,
 I would rather not have to buy my produce.

Oh well,
the bright side is,
 I'm helping out a south or East Texas farmer.
(Gotta take the positive notes where you can)!

Anyway...

We scored about 20 lbs of roma tomatoes for $8.00
4 giant, red bell peppers for $1.00
okra @ $3.oo a pint (got 2)
green beans @ $3.00 a pint ( got 2 also)
new potatoes @ $2.00 for 2 pints
and, 2 fairly large cantaloupe for $5.00

Some of the goodies

Not too bad, especially compared to the supermarket!

We canned some of the okra yesterday for Steve's mom
and saved the rest to fry.
We'll do that on Sunday.
My Steve does enjoy his fried okra!
He also enjoys green beans and new potatoes,
Sunday on that one also.

Today I got started on or meals for the week.
First up was spinach/lasagna roll ups from Rachel Ray's kid cookbook.

Rachel Ray's cookbook
Naturally, I put my own spin on the recipe using ingredients I already had on hand.

Here's my take!!

Mince, mince, chop!

Ingredients:
1 small onion, minced
3 ribs celery, with some leaves, minced
1 red bell pepper, minced
1 roma tomato, seeded and minced
1 package spinach, drained and chopped (about one lb.)
(I had a package of blanched mixed greens in the freezer, swiss chard, spinach and beet greens)
about a 3/4  lb. of queso fresco, divided use (fetta or ricotta would work)
medium thick rue, about 1 and 1/2 cups  divided use (made with turkey broth)
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
6 lasagna noodles, cooked, rinsed and drained
olive oil for sautéing

Directions:
Sautee first 3 ingredients in heated olive oil about 7 minutes.
Add spinach/greens, 1/4 lb. queso fresco, 1/2 cup rue and nutmeg.
Stay with the skillet at this point.
Cook, stirring until queso fresco starts to melt.
Remove from heat.
Lay out your cooked lasagna noodles on a cutting board.
With a rubber spatula coat the noodles with your spinach/queso fresco mixture.
I added extra, crumbled, queso fresco at this stage, a little for each roll up.
Fill and roll up all noodles and place seam side down in a casserole dish.

Time To Roll!!!


Spoon extra rue over the rolled noodles, sprinkle with extra queso fresco or parmesan cheese.
Bake in a 350 degree oven till cheese melts and noodles heat through. About 15 minutes.

When I make these in the summer I stop at the baking step. I just cover the casserole dish with plastic wrap and pop in the fridge. When ready to eat just spoon out a noodle or two and microwave.
Great for gourmet, lunch box treats !!!

Yummo!!!

I'm curious...
Have you been restricted on your water usage,
fined for using too much?
Do you  recycle your water when possible?

Tomorrow we'll be canning the tomatoes,
frying okra and making the green beans and new potatoes.

Till next time,
Bonjour


Saturday, July 10, 2010

Our trip to The Dallas farmers Market

Sooooooooo.
Today I left my safe & secure comfort zone & ventured out into the world. We, as in Steve, Nate & I drove into Dallas (YIKES)  to visit the farmers market. (No, not on the tractor.)
I wanted to can some tomatoes & our garden just wasn't producing the amount needed for this project. (About 25 lbs). We found the wholesalers shed & went to town, well sort of.
VIOLA


We also bought a case of pineapples. (Steve cut them up before I could get a picture.)
Canning to commence on Sunday, Stay tuned.

Well after we took care of business we just kinda wandered around taking in the sights & posing for photos.


                        
Posing works up an appitite so we stoped for some tamales at La Popular Tamale House, MMM bueno!!!
We hung around people watching for a while, then it was back to the homestead.
It wasn't near as scarry as I thought it would be. (The traffic, not the market.)

I'll have to get out more often!!!
Bonjour