Veggies on the Grill!

It took me a few days to get time to make the Grill-Roasted Stuffed Peppers, take the pictures, get the article written and published - but I did it!

Most of the ingredients for our dinner of Grill-Roasted Stuffed Peppers with a Caprese Salad and corn on the cob can be seen here...

I cut up some yellow and red watermelon and a cucumber for us to snack on while we were cooking. The cheeses on the plate were from the farmers market. The wedge is a Habanero Monterrey Jack from Fulton Creek Jersey Cheese - you can find her at the Main Street Delaware Farmers Market on Wednesday and Saturday. She makes INCREDIBLE cheeses including a Parmesan that is out of this world. The smaller piece is the remains of a grass-fed Roasted Red Pepper cheese I picked up at the Mount Vernon Farmers Market on the Square. I'm drawing a blank on the name of the farm, but their cheese is also sold at the Sunbury Farmers Market.

I've got 2 kinds of tomatoes, Giant Marconi Italian sweet peppers, a Vidalia (really, I bought them before Brian told me about the bounty of Candy Onions and I needed to use them up!), garlic and a leek from the Delaware market and a medium-heat banana pepper.

Not the best picture - the sun was shining through the kitchen window. For my sausage and rice pepper filling, I've diced Vidalia Onion, the other half of the two tomatoes I used to make the Caprese Salad and minced some banana pepper, garlic and half a leek.

These Giant Marconi peppers might look a little funky for stuffing, but they hold their shape and don't fall over on the grill.

 Ready for the grill. I browned the Italian sausage, added the veggies and rice then simmered it until the rice was cooked. Use a spoon and get the filling into the nooks and crannies. Harry heated the grill to a medium heat and took over from there.

And it's supper time! Harry grilled the peppers just until a char started - not blackened, not burned. The peppers still have some "body" to them, not cooked to mush. I added the cheese and closed the lid of the grill for about a minute to melt.

You can find the complete recipe here...

Grill-Roasted Stuffed Peppers

The Weekend Veggie Haul!

Harry and I have different points of view about vegetables. There's a very rare vegetable that Harry will eat cooked, and I grew up eating religious veggies - turn the heat up and boil the hell out of 'em!

We're reaching a compromise. Fortunately, both of us will eat about anything raw. We cook the sweet corn just a few minutes to warm it up. He will tolerate sauteed green beans and permit me to indulge in my Southern-Fried favorites - green tomatoes and okra. We also use a lot of veggies, chopped fine, as filler for other things. Last night was "supposed" to be Vietnamese. Vietnamese egg rolls and a Garlic Beef Pan-Fried Noodle with a simple cucumber salad.

As always happens, the conversation and enjoyment of each other was a much higher priority than the actual food prep and cooking! So, we did finish the Vietnamese Egg Rolls, I made an awesome Spicy Lemongrass Dipping Sauce and Harry's Nuoc Cham has been perfected - recipes coming soon.

We collected quite a haul of veggies this weekend, between Dad's ninja raids of gardens, a generous donation of zucchini for The Wright Taste (Thanks Dr. Skip!) and some bartering at the farmers markets. We spent less than $15 on fresh veggies this week. I couldn't fit everything in one picture, but I got close:

 

A dozen ears of yellow corn from Richard and some long sweet peppers for roasting and a pint of jalapenos from my friend Brian in Mount Vernon (he also threw in a few tomatillos and some hot peppers). I have to go to Mount Vernon to pick up what was referred to as "scads" of Candy Onions from Brian - he can't sell them fast enough and they are absolutely delicious! I will start chopping and freezing them for winter.

The yellow watermelon (I shared half of it with Mom & Dad) is so sweet - the vendor shoved a piece in my mouth to taste and I was hooked! Also, the Yukon Gold potatoes and the two bowls of organic tomatoes, plus a couple of zucchini and the fresh garlic are from Delaware. I've never cooked with leeks before, so I bought one to try.

Dad raided his garden and my cousin's garden - zucchini, okra and tomatoes. The cucumbers are from our "garden". And, Harry got most of the red tomatoes in Pataskala on Friday night.

I'm a little excited about being able to take pictures again. Yes, I still suck as a photographer. Harry had a couple of studio lights and a tripod from his days of intense photography and video work. We've had them at the flea market and they hadn't sold and I realized HEY! We could use them to brighten up the kitchen to help with the pictures until I can afford a better camera (to replace the one that the thieving bastards stole in December!)


I've definitely got salsa on the brain with all the tomatoes and peppers.

That pile of okra will be tossed in a mixture of cornmeal, flour and seasoning and I'll "fry up a mess of okra" (Miss you, Gramma!) The little tiny yellow tomatoes - sweet like candy! - are about the size of Texas caviar. I'm thinking a cucumber, tomato and onion relish-ish type thing.

The long peppers are going to be stuffed with a Sweet-Italian Sausage/Rice/Tomato blend, then grill-roasted just until the peppers are perfect. We've had requests for Jalepeno/Cheese bread - I didn't quite get enough peppers in it last week, but now I've got plenty!

What are YOU finding in the garden or at the farmers market? We're in the midst of the best part of the Central Ohio growing season right now.

The Farmer's Market Book is a great guide to the history of local farmers markets. Robinson says it best when she describe farmers markets as "the other homeland security" - the sense of community that comes from shopping or participating in a farmers market can't be matched.

A Simple Supper, An Early Night

Saturdays wear us out!

For the first time since March, Harry had a Saturday night off work. YAY! No coming home exhausted from the market-short porch break-nap-choking down dinner-another nap-he goes to work kind of day. We had such grand plans for this rare event.

A relaxing, enjoy-being-in-the-kitchen-just-for-us EARLY dinner, watch the sun set behind the extremely tall corn, maybe a snack, some TV and then a good night's sleep.

Somehow, it didn't quite work out that way. Harry had a breast collar to repair and deliver. While he was gone, I chopped the veggies for the salad. Tomatoes, cukes, OUR green onions, someone else's candy onion, half of a medium-hot banana pepper, a green bell and a really awesome tasting chocolate pepper that the organic vendor just threw in with my other peppers.

Usually, I won't even dress this salad but I made the super-easy honey-lemon dressing with honey from the Delaware market that was harvested Thursday - so light and clear! I only buy honey from local producers but I keep my eyes open for special tasting honey for dressings and sauces.

I cleaned the corn, got the green beans ready to fry (yes, FRY) in bacon grease (yes, BACON GREASE) with onions and peppers so the man would eat them with me, par-boiled the country ribs we found on markdown and made a great barbecue sauce!

I sat on the porch while he grilled the ribs, running in to start the corn and beans right before the ribs were ready. We filled our plates, ate dinner...

and went right to bed. It might have been 7:30 or so.

I slept until 4:00 AM - like a rock, missing the storm that I think rolled through here last night. I've read dozens of articles, tweeted, FB and caught up on some of my blog reading.

I think I'll take a nap today.

Loving Farmers Market Season!

Central Ohioans really do get hosed when it comes to tomatoes!

When I was younger, I didn't remember the difference - the taste, the texture. I would go ahead and buy those picked-too-early red rocks at the grocery store, take them home, stick them in the fridge and add them to salads and sandwiches. Then, I remembered.

I remembered the taste of a warm tomato fresh off the vine, eating it like an apple in the middle of the garden.

And I became a tomato snob. Oh, I'll occasionally buy a package of cherry or grape tomatoes in the middle of the winter because I want those red things in my salad. I'm always disappointed. Other than that, I don't buy tomatoes unless they were grown close to me. Fortunately, there's a hydroponic tomato farm about 4 miles down the road in Sparta. Buckeye Produce's tomatoes are usually ready around the beginning of May and I stand on tiptoe when I'm at the Mount Vernon market, waiting for signs of life in their little spot on the square. Then, it's BLTs for dinner! In Columbus, if you buy tomatoes at Carfagna's or Hills Market that say "Ohio tomatoes" on the sign, you are eating these tomatoes.

When we pulled into the Mount Vernon market to set up last Saturday, I was shocked to see sweet corn! LOCAL sweet corn! I asked Richard (the farmer) if he sprinkled fairy dust on the fields because Knox County doesn't usually see sweet corn before July 15. We got a dozen to take to the river and it was summer in our hands. OK, it was 90 degrees in the shade but the corn was crisp, sweet, dripping with butter, salt and pepper. We also got our first local field tomatoes - even better than hydros.

With the visit to the river (and Mom's insistence on sending things back with us) I now have too many veggies! Not really, but I've got all I need for a few more days.

I will probably pick up a few more small summer squash this weekend to make a Farmers Market dinner Saturday night. So simple, all homemade and perfect for a hot summer evening! Try the honey-lemon salad dressing - the easiest thing I've ever made, fat-free and refreshing!

Simple Summer Farmers Market Dinner - ENJOY!