Chilie Rellenos

I am stuffed! Today was one hell of a day of eating for me. I think almost everything I ate came from the Farmers Market. The day started with a cup of coffee made with freshly ground beans from Valhalla. Then I made a salted bagel from The Daily Bagel, topped with Bacon Hummus from Sound Bites and Spinach from Terry's Berrys.

When I got to the Broadway Market today it was lunch time, I was hungry but nothing really sounded good. Then I wandered by The Last Bite's booth and spotted a giant piece of carrot cake. I knew instantly that was lunch! It was fabulous, so good I only shared a bite with Alana and ate the entire rest of the piece. When I cruised by Rolf's booth he suckered me into sampling some of his to-die-for smoked salmon. I after it melted in my mouth I had to buy a piece of the smoked Alaska Salmon to bring home to share, then went onto Willapa Creamery to sample some of the most divine cheese I have ever had. I couldn't walk away empty handed and got a round of the Fresh with Ewe, a soft sheep's milk farmstead cheese. To complete the meal or snack...I got a couple pounds of organic apples from Tiny's.

When I was done collecting my goods for my afternoon snack, I went back up to see Ann at Cottage Gardens. She had a recipe and all the goods for me to make it, because she loved the blog and wanted to share...I feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in my life and to be able to share my love of food with others. Ann is a farmer, she and her husband Jim own Cottage Gardens, a small family farm in Graham, Washington. Ann is also a foodie, she makes all of her food from scratch and loves to share recipes and the incredible food that she grows.

I got really lucky today because she shared her Chilie Rellenos Bake recipe with me and even gave me some Anaheim chilies that she grew and some fresh eggs from her chickens! Nothing could have made me happier! Thank you Ann, you are so sweet!!! Not to mention that the recipe rocked! I had to stop myself from eating the entire pan of chilie rellenos. The only thing that stopped me was reminding myself that I could eat it for breakfast tomorrow. Here is a picture of the eggs and peppers..the eggs were so beautiful they reminded me of Easter. They were light green, brown and white. I think if we got back to the real stuff we wouldn't need to dye eggs for Easter because they are so beautiful on their own...

Chilie Rellenos Bake

Courtesy of Ann O'Neill - Cottage Gardens

Recipe From - Better Homes and Gardens

6-8 Anaheim Peppers Split, seeded and blanched 2 minutes

6 oz Monterey Jack Cheese

4 Beaten Eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup milk

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Cut montery jack into strips to fit inside peppers. Place in a greased baking dish. Combine eggs & milk. Beat in flour, baking powder and salt until smooth. Pour over peppers, sprinkle cheddar cheese on top. Bake at 350 until golden, about 30 min. Enjoy!

The recipe was super easy and as Lucas said, it looked like a cake when it was done! I actually grilled the peppers before I stuffed them and used cheddar and queso fresco because it was what I had in the fridge and forgot to stop and pick up the jack cheese on the way home. I served the Chilie Rellenos with some brown basmati rice and a spinach salad. And I had two servings...so it wins the double helping recipe award! My step-mom Crystal always makes stuffed anaheims. She stuffs them with pepper jack cheese and brown rice and then has Dad grill them. You could even brown some ground beef with spices and stuff the peppers with the ground beef and cheese. So many possibilities....I am so lucky I get to eat so well!

Tomatillos

The other day at the Market Isela from Bautista Farms gave me some Purple Tomatillos. I have never cooked with the purple tomatillos before, I have only used the green. I am actually trying to grow some tomatillos, I have a purple plant and a green, but nothing is growing too well in my garden this year and the tomatillos are still not ready.

I think I got about a two pound bag of both types of tomatillos to try out. I was told by someone or possibly just assumed that the purple tomatillos were only purple on the outside and would be green inside and cook-up green. They are actually more special than that. They are a luminescent purple on the inside. When you blend them up raw they turn into a deep purple, as you cook them they transform into a dark forest green. I made some enchilada sauce with the purple and green tomatillos and when it was done cooking it looked just a little darker green than the normal tomatillo sauce. I poured it lightly over my hand rolled chicken enchiladas and baked until warm and melty with a little crispy edge on the tortilla. The coolest part was when I took out the cooked enchiladas and the watery part of the sauce that melted into the tortillas was purple. I had green and purple enchiladas, super cool! And the sauce had a nice rich tomatillo flavor. Here is the recipe that I use. It is really just something I kind of made up. I have tried other ways to make Tomatillo Sauce, like roasting all the ingredients in the oven first, or cooking the tomatillos down whole and then blending up. But I find that blending the raw ingredients first is just easier. Though roasted tomatillo sauce has a nice smokey flavor if you want to make the effort of roasting all the ingredients first.

Quick Tomatillo Sauce -

Tear off the husks and rinse well - Chop in Half - Pound and a half of Tomatillos (Purple or Green or Both)

Quarter an Onion

Peel four cloves of garlic

Wash Seed and dice - two mexican peppers or however many you want for spicyness

Wash and de-stem - two bunches of cilantro

Then throw everything into the blender in batches. I usually put the tomatillos, onions and peppers in the bottom of the blender so that it blends the watery items first then chops up the cilantro. I don't have a food processor, so this seems to work best. If I had a food processor I would just throw everything in at once.

Pour the sauce into a medium sized pan or small pressure cooker. Cook on medium heat for about 20 to 30 minutes. The sauce will change colors from a bright florescent green to an army greenish color when it is cooked. Add some salt and taste the sauce after it has changed colors. Cook to desired doneness. You can use this sauce for salsa with chips, enchilada sauce, chili verde or whatever you like to have green sauce on. If you are using it for chips and salsa, I would refridgerate to cool and then add some more fresh cilantro to perk it up a bit.

Tortilla Soup

Flipping through the pages of a cookbook today at the library I came across a new recipe for Tortilla Soup. This soup always reminds me of my mom and my aunt Fay, two beautiful, sweet and loving women who are no longer on this earth to cook for our family.
Anytime I see Tortilla Soup on a menu I have to try it. Everyone has their own way of making it. Some start with a tomatoey thick soup topped with tortilla strips, avocado and cheese. Others make it with a rich chicken soup, with tortillas, mexican oregano, cabbage, radishes and lime wedges to garnish. It is a basic soup with many variations and many memories.
In our family Tortilla Soup was made with a hearty chicken soup, a giant bowl of homemade salsa, crispy tortilla chips, chewy queso fresco and creamy avocado fresh off the tree from Aunt Fay's backyard. We would start by filling the bottom of the bowl with chips, a heaping spoonful of salsa, cheese and avo, then ladel the soup over the top. The warm soup melts the cheese and softens the chips to meld all of the wonderful flavors. One bowl is never enough!
This is the recipe I made tonight...I modified it a bit, of course. But it was a very simple and tasty recipe.

Tortilla Soup with Pasilla Chilies, Fresh Cheese and Avocado

The Pleasures of Slow Food by Corby Kummer

6 Corn Tortillas, sliced into strips

Canola Oil for frying

4 Cloves of Garlic, peeled and left whole

1 small white onion, sliced

2 Pasilla chilies or 1 ancho chile, stemmed, seeded, and torn into several pieces

One 15 ounce can whole tomatoes in juice, drained, or 12 ounces tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped

6 cups unsalted chicken stock, perferably homemade

1 large sprig epazote (optional)

1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste

6 ounces queso fresco or other crumbly fresh cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1 large avocado, peeled, pitted and cut into 1/2 inch dice

1 large lime, cut into wedges

In a medium saucepan, heat 1/2 inch oil over medium heat until it shimmers. The dege of a tortilla strip inserted in the oil should sizzle vigorously. Add half the tortilla strips. Stir until they are golden brown and crisp. With a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.

Pour off all but a thin coating of hot oil and return the pan to the heat. Add the garlic and onion and cook, stirring frequently, until golden, about 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, press the garlic against the side of the pan to leave behind as much oil as possible, then transfer the garlic to a blender or food processor.

Add the chile pieces to the hot pan. Turn quickly as they fry, toast, and release a delicious aroma, about 30 seconds in all (Too much frying/toasting will make them bitter) Transfer to a paper towel to drain. Set the pan aside.

Add the tomatoes to the blender or food processor and process to a smooth puree. If using fresh tomatoes, strain the puree to get rid of the pieces of tomatoe skin. Heat the same saucepan over meduim-high heat. Add the tomatoe puree and stir until it has thickened to the consistency of tomatoe paste, about 10 minutes. Add the stock and epazote, bring to a boil, then partially cover and gently simmer over medium to medium-low heat for 30 minutes. Add the salt.

To serve, divide the cheese and avocado among warmed soup bowls. Ladle a portion of the broth into each bowl, top with a portion of the tortilla strips, and crumble on a little of the toasted chilies. Offer wedges of lime. - Serves 6 as a first course, 4 as a main course.

When I made this, I couldn't fins pasilla chilies, but has some sort of spicy red chilie left over from farmers market that I used. And I didn't have any canola oil, so I had to use olive oil for the frying. Lucas wanted chicken in it, so after I toasted the chilies I threw in two chicken breasts to sear. Then I put everything into my little pressure cooker to finish it off because it cooks the chicken perfectly. I just throw the breasts in whole and when they are done I shred them up and toss them back in the pot. The only thing I think I didn't do right was forgetting to cook down the tomatoes. But I think that just created a little bit lighter of a broth. I did add a dash of cumin and a few more shakes of salt, just to enhance the flavors a bit. And I finished it off with the usual toppings plus some fresh cilantro and I didn't have any limes. I think if I make the soup again I might toss in a chipolte with the tomatoes for a little smokey chilie flavor.

I give the recipe a two bowl approval rating, as did Lucas (he may have even had three bowls), so I call it a sucess! Yum! (My version still looked pretty close to the picture in the cookbook! :) )

A Note From a Farmer

This post is courtsey of Jay at Full Circle Farm - he sent it out to his email list and I thought I would share. Enjoy!

Hi folks,

It’s all so fine now I’ve got to tell the tale. Feast. Feast on late summer bounty. Autumn is almost here. This is when we make festivals of harvest. So many things that are rich and sweet come ripe now. Beautifully flavored tomatoes, green beans, and sweet corn. Dark Poblano peppers and Pimientas de Padron. Sweet little Pixie Cantaloupes and Golden Dews and Canary Melons. Vibrant Nappa cabbage, Baby Bok, Collards and Mustards and Kales and Chards. Salad tasting of long summer with Frisee and Radicchio. Fat Red Beets. White carrots two fingers thick and still sweet. New Yukon Gold potatoes and Chieftain Reds. Last Friday I saw a sample dig of Ozettes. They’re stunning. Even in this economy we’ll charge a strong price on these. Great heritage and nutty flavor and fine-grained texture and skin that roasts to perfection. There will be Larattes and Colorado Rose and Peruvian Purples and more. All the spuds look to be the best Full Circle has grown. All the tomatoes look to be the best Full Circle has grown by leaps and bounds. Great, great food folks. But the Parsnips are almost ready, too. In 12 weeks you may already miss the light.

Time to fatten up for winter.

Feast now.

Best regards,

Jay Moritz

Full Circle Farm

Farmers Market Manager

e-mail: jaym@fullcirclefarm.com

cell: 425-830-9451

Farmers Market Tour - Sept 12th

It is September, month of great harvest for all farmers and great eating for those of us who love food. There are so many good things to cook, bake, freeze, can and EAT!

So this weekend I decided I needed a little more inspiration to help drive me through the end of the market season. And I wanted to see what other markets were doing, who the vendors were and what kind of tasty treats they had. :)
Saturday I got up early-ish (not so much a morning person anymore), made a pot of coffee and threw Lucas and the dogs into the car for a little farmers market adventure. My goal was to visit 4 Saturday farmers markets, Gig Harbor, Proctor, Federal Way and Puyallup.
Gig Harbor Farmers Market was the first stop. We arrived around 10:30, time for breakfast. Lucas and I needed a treat to get our adventure going. Morning Side Bakery to the rescue. A cinnamon roll is the traditional breakfast for Lucas on market day. When he was a baby and we lived in Ventura, Ca, it was hot and steamy tamales and fresh pressed apple juice, with a side of kettle corn. So back to Morning Side Bakery, they are amazing! Yum. We ordered a cinnamon roll slathered in butter cream frosting and a pizza bagel, to make sure we got our protien. Then it was onto Jake's Brew for a cup of iced coffee to complete the meal. We cruised around the market munching on our treats, checking out what Gig Harbor had to offer. It was a quiet morning at the market, a few customers floating by. Gig Harbor is unique in the fact that they offer pony rides for the kids for $5. Not just any pony rides, no boring riding around in a circle, they actually get to walk up and down a path right outside the market. Pretty sweet idea. There were lots of crafts at the market, some really creative bird houses made out of driftwood, quilts, beautiful pottery (I really need on of those coffee mugs I saw, good reason to go back!) and much more. There were a handful of farmers, mostly local small farms, I didn't see any of the big boys like Tiny's or Martins out there. All in all it was a nice well rounded market, fresh produce, flowers, bakery, fresh fish, kettle corn, crafts and a couple of hot food vendors. With bellies full and caffine flowing through our blood it was time to move on down the road. Next stop Proctor Market in Tacoma.

It was Kid's Day at Proctor! Complete with kiddie music, a bouncy house, little crafty things for the kids to make and a cooking demo by Europa Bistro. It was a perfect sunny afternoon. I brought the dogs down with us thinking it would be nice to stroll down the market with the dogs. We wandered through the market and after getting distracted talking to vendors, Chloe (our golden retriever) started getting weird. Having to walk two dogs at the market, while talking and trying to shop was a little much for me. So I moved the car to the shade and put the dogs back in the car for a little nap. Back at the market, it was time for a snack. Martins Family Orchards nectarines were calling to me. I bought just one for eating while I shopped around and chatted with the vendors. Mmm...it was juicy, sweet and amazing! Kids day was fun the market was beautiful and it was warming up. I bought some honey and chatted some more, then decided to keep the adventure going. So it was time to move on to Federal Way. I had decided to pass up the Puyallup Farmers Market because I was reminded by Kathy at Great NW Popcorn in Gig Harbor that the Puyallup Fair had opened this weekend. The Puyallup Market is right down by the fairgrounds and I wasn't really into dealing with crowds today. So it was Federal Way Farmers Market for lunch!
The Federal Way Farmers Market is in the parking lot of The Commons Mall in Federal Way. It was around lunch time when we got there and were ready to see what Federal Way had to offer. They had two hot food vendors, Lumpia World and Miro's Secret of Europe. Miro's makes classic Eastern European dishes and Lumpia World make Filipino lumpia. I had never heard of lumpia until they applied to be a vendor at my market. To me Lumpia sounds like some sort of fish, but it is not fish at all. Lumpia are spring rolls deep fried, filled with meat or vegetables or fruit. Sounded like a nice light lunch to me. We ordered two chicken and two vegie with a little rice on the side. They are super tasty and slathered with sweet chili sauce is the way to go. They also make a dessert lumpia that is filled with plantains and topped with chocolate sauce, killer treat! As we ate we chatted with one of the volunteers at the market who told us all about the Chili Cook-off they have at the end of September. The Federal Way Police Department and the Fire Department compete to see who makes the best chili. They bring out all the police motor cycles, cars and fire trucks, have a band and even battle it out with sirens from the cars and trucks to see who is the loudest. Sounds like tons of fun! And all of the funds raised from ticket sales go to local charity. We cruised around the market after we filled our bellies with lumpia and found many great vendors. Organic farmers, flowers, crafts and more. It was a great market and in such a commercial area it was great to see all of the farmers out there providing a great selection for the community. Next it was onto supposedly our last stop for the day, Duris Cucumber Farm Stand in Puyallup. We cruised on down the highway and a few yards up the road from Duris I noticed Terry's Berries Farm. They had a cute little farm stand so I decided we better check it out. Terry's Berries is an amazing organic farm and they attend my market so it seemed like a good idea to stop and see what the farm looked like.

Terry's Berries has a CSA and members can pick up vegies and fruit or go out and pick their own on the farm. It was nice to get to be on a real farm, it's been a while. When I lived in Portland I used to go out to Sauvie Island all the time and visit some of the farms when I was needed to get in touch with the earth and settle down a little bit from the city life. Just being at a farm gives me a sense of peace and makes me feel at home.

The day was getting shorter and the dogs needed a break from the car so we made the stop quick, walked around a bit, took a bunch of pictures and moved on down the road to Duris Cucumber Farm Stand. I had heard that Duris had a pretty neat farm stand and that it was completely dedicated to canning and pickling. It was so cute! They had decorated the inside with old farmy cabinets and cupboards and it was definitely Canning Mecca. They had every canning supply you could ever need, including jars, spices, cookbooks, cheese cloth and every type of fruit and vegetable that you would ever want to can!

I bought some corn and decided to head home. I had a camera full of amazing pictures, a brain full of wonderful ideas, and I knew dinner time was right around the corner....time to eat again! HA!
As we were leaving we noticed on the other side of the highway people were fishing in the river. It was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen! People were standing waist deep, in the middle of the river, in a row that stretched about 200 feet. I have never seen that many people standing in a line fishing next to eachother. I wish I would have gotten a picture of that!

It was a good day! We had fun!

Planting the Seed

"There are those who eat to live and those who live to eat" I am definitely the latter of the two. I not only live to eat, I love to eat! And I love all food related adventures. I come from a family of great cooks, artists, musicians and farmers. Great meals, and fresh, homegrown food have always been a part of my life. I was born to two young hippies in the late 70's in the pool house at my Aunt Fay and Uncle Doug's house in Ojai, California. My mother's midwife had only delivered baby goats before my birth. A few years later my parents moved up to Humboldt County to become farmers. They bought a small piece of property on the Eel River. On the other side of the river was the redwoods Avenue of the Giants! What an amazing place! My parents started a small organic farm. My mom, my sister Camille and I moved back to Ojai when I was in kidergarten. And for the next 8 years I spent my summers on the farm and at farmers markets with my dad and step-mom and the school year in Ojai with mom.

So I think that is where it all started, this crazy obsession I have. Or is it an addiction? Or is it Love? Or maybe both? I love farmers markets, and I love good food. I spend so much time thinking about food, reading about food, learning about food and visiting places where good food comes from. I have been shopping at farmers markets for years. And more recently I have become a farmers market manager. I have started a collection of photos from all of the farmers markets I have worked at and visited. So I decided it was time to share. I want to share all of the funny and crazy stories about my parents, the farm, the farmers markets and the food that I get to eat.

The mission with this blog it to capture the memories before I forget them all (because I have a terrible memory) and to share my love of food, farms, farmers markets and farmers. I hope to entertain and educate. I will include lots of great pictures, recipes and stories from the past and present.