2-50 Carré De Cochon En Cocotte (Casseroled rack of pork)

Carré De Cochon En Cocotte (Casseroled rack of pork)
To all of you that got in the kitchen and experimented with me with the last dish I hope it opened up a new passion for you and you continue to follow along.

This week the dish will be Carré De Cochon En Cocotte, translated;
Carré De Cochon(Rack (ribs) or loin of pork ) En Cocotte ( A high sided cooking pot (casserole) with a lid).

The ingredients are

4 rib rack of pork ribs
4 onions, sliced
6 scallions, chopped
2 packages of frozen (locally grown if you can find them) English peas, thawed
1 lb fingerling potatoes
3 Granny Smith apples
2 cups of hard dry cider
1/3 stick unsalted butter
Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper

There, you have all the things you will need to make this great dish, we will cook it on Friday.

Comment on substitutions if you cannot find or use certain things contained in the recipe.

For those that are following from the wine club, comments on what wine would be best paired with this dish is always welcomed.

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1-50, Alsace Coq Au Riesling

Welcome to the beginning of a beautiful 50 weeks of awesome food.

To start off our passport adventure, the opening dish we cooked was Coq Au Riesling from the Alsace region of France. It is beautiful, healthy, and super easy!

The mushrooms were added to but not substituted, I added button mushrooms just for a little more texture. You could sub them if you wanted to with something flavorful like a portobello or maybe even say a shiitake.

This dish could go either light, like I did it here or it could go rustic and you could make it more hardy and add lardons and other ingredients and plate it more along the lines of French comfort food.

For those that cooked this dish let me know your feed back on how it turned out and what you would change or add.

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Alsace~Coq Au Riesling

This will start off out the 50 in 50, Our passport through France. Our first dish will be Alsace~Coq Au Riesling, simply chicken in a white wine sauce.

Here is what you will need;

3 lbs Air chilled chicken thighs and or legs
(Using meat that is on the bone is ALWAYS more flavorful)
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
(I ONLY use sea salt in my house period!! no iodine. You can use
multicolored pepper corns and they will give you more of a rounded
taste)
2 tbsp of duck fat
(You can order this on line and it can be frozen for months!!)
4 shallots, minced OR 1 small leek, sliced
(I personally like to use the shallots because the flavor is sweeter AND
they are easier to obtain)
1 clove of garlic, minced
(You can use the garlic in the jar thats already minced,it works just as well)
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp dry Riesling

1/2 cup chicken stock
(You can use boxed chicken stock for this because trying to make your own is pretty extensive)

3-4 cups of Texas oyster mushrooms, torn
(try your best to use these mushrooms because the flavor profile they
provide is necessary)

1/2 cup crème fraiche
(You can make this fairly easy. You will need 1 pint heavy cream, 2 tablespoons cultured buttermilk. Combine buttermilk and heavy cream in non-reactive container. Cover and allow to rest at room temperature until thickened to desired texture, about 12 hours. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks)

Chopped fresh parsley and tarragon for garnish

and we will serve this over buttered egg noodles that you can get from your local grocery store in a bag

First;
season the chicken with salt and pepper. Working in batches, brown the chicken on all sides in a sauté pan with the duck fat, setting them to the side on a plate. Add the shallots or your leek and garlic to the pan and cook for one minute; add the mushrooms and stir; deglaze with 2 tbsp of wine, place chicken back into the pan, add the rest of the wine and chicken stock; cover simmer for about 20-30 minutes turing once. Remove the chicken to a serving platter, boil the cooking liquid down to sauce consistency. Stir the crème fraiche. When hot, season to taste and pour over the chicken, sprinkle with the herbs and serve.

Now as you can see it is a fairly simple recipe. If there are questions or desires for substitutions let me know them.



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Le français 50 par 50” (French 50/50)

Ok people, I have been inundated with requests for recipes and tips on spices and a myriad of other things. Also my wife loves to be in the kitchen with me and learning different cooking techniques SO I discussed this with her and I will do a Passport to France, a “Le français 50 par 50” (French 50 by 50). That is 50 French recipes in 50 weeks.

I will post a recipe on a Monday and discuss it during the week, substitutions, ease of, preparation etc. and I will actually cook it on the following Friday and post pictures and highlights. For instance I will start with a classic French dish, Alsace~Coq au Reisling, which is chicken in a white wine sauce. Now note that I am not a classically trained French Chef and I can still perfect and tweak theses recipes to the point that you would not be able to tell much difference from my dinner table to that of a restaurant.

Here is the thing, I have my blog set to allowed anyone to comment but only those that are following will be given one on one interaction, so hit the “follow me” button at the bottom of the page so everyone can participate.  

Now I will open up and let you know that there are a few things that any cook should have in their arsenal and one of those things is duck fat!

Duck fat is a staple in my kitchen that imparts delicious flavor to any dish. Nutritionally similar to olive oil, it is low in saturated fat, with a good combination of poly and mono-saturated fats. In a lot of ways, duck fat is considered better than butter! Don’t tell any true southerners I said that!

Offering a rich, silky mouth feel that transforms whatever it touches, without an overpowering flavor of its own, duck fat is the darling secret of many chefs today. And the high smoke point means it can be cooked at very high temperatures without smoking or altering its flavor, which is good for a beginner learning to work with new and different things.

Partner duck fat with its natural ally: the potato. Nothing crisps potatoes quite like duck fat does, which is why frites in bistros are fried in a fragrant pot of duck fat. Try duck fat in place of oil in salad dressing, and for sautéing mushrooms and vegetables, where its light umami quality is noticeable. Try making a garlic confit, (ask and I will give you a recipe for it…super easy) a secret weapon in the kitchen--on potatoes, spread on a slice of thick country bread, or on a pizza. The duck fat mellows the punch of garlic

Unlike butter or olive oil, duck fat can be recycled. Duck fat stores in the freezer for a long time, which is why you should never be caught without it! Take it out an hour before cooking to soften, or use a hot spoon to scrape off a small amount. Stock up with a few tubs and watch your cooking repertoire be transformed by the magic of duck fat.

The other is a good variety of wine, not just to drink but to cook with.

How to Decide Which Wine to Use

Cooking with wine, like drinking wine can add another dimension to a recipe. Cultivating and enhancing flavors while accentuating textures are the main incentives for adding wines to recipes.

When deciding what kind of wine to cook with, many agree that your best bet is to cook with a wine that you would drink. Remember, it is only the alcohol that diminishes during the cooking process, NOT THE POOR QUALITY OR UNDESIRABLE FLAVOR. Wines designated as “cooking wines” tend to be cheap, salty and often incorporate additional spices or herbs. Bottom line - they will do little to enhance your recipe. You do not need to spend big bucks on a wine that you intend to cook with, save that for the wine you plan on serving and drinking with the meal itself. However, if you shoot for ultra cheap (less than $5) you will likely be disappointed in both the flavor and the overall contribution to your recipe, consider forgoing the wine addition altogether.

Using Wine as a Spice

Think of flavoring a recipe with wine in the same light as you would adding a spice. The flavors tend to mellow the longer you cook the wine in the dish and it is recommended that a young, strong red wine is allowed to cook for at least 45 minutes. The next question is typically “Should I use a red or a white wine?” Reds tend to bring color, clarity and a distinctly dry characteristic to the foods they flavor. White wines are known to bring an acidic quality with a bit of pucker power. Use reds for flavoring red sauces with red meat. For example, a bold red wine would be perfect for a meatball marina or stout stews with lots of heavy vegetables. Steer towards white wines if you are making cream sauces or emphasizing white meats or seafood. (Which is why a white is being used in the Alsace ~ Coq Au Riesling I will be preparing on next week)

Alcohol and the Cooking Process

Keep in mind that not all of the alcohol will evaporate from the cooking process. The concentration of residual alcohol that remains in your dish depends on the length of time and way in which it was cooked. For example, boiling a sauce for 25 minutes will remove considerably more alcohol than merely baking a dish for 15 minutes.

A Rule to Remember

Cooking with wine should be fun

If you are just starting out, keep it simple - try a young bold red (Zinfandel, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon ) in your Aunt Baby's family spaghetti sauce recipe or a dash of Chardonnay in your Creamy Alfredo Chicken recipe. Experiment with using wines in recipes, it is not rocket science and shaking recipes up with a splash or two of wine will likely make your favorite recipe that much better!

You can find a good sommelier at most upscale specialty markets and believe me they LOVE to help and give advice with wine parings!

 Join in, follow and “Allez Cuisine” …. Start cooking!

Ancho smoked Kobe steak and pasta with peas and pearl onions

Ancho smoked Kobe steak with garlic and herb mafalda pasta with a beautiful roux to cover and sweet peas and pearl onions.




This was a very simple and awesome dish to prepare. You will need a quality choice of meat to start. I used Kobe beef marbling grade 6 which would be like using a premium cut of New York Strip.

Generally speaking, the one common denominator to look for within all cuts of beef is marbling distribution. Marbling is the white fat that you see in all cuts of beef. Some cuts, such as rib eye, will naturally have more marbling than others.

Just keep in mind that a substantial amount of evenly distributed marbling is a good thing, which is why Wagyu (Kobe) beef cost so much. Sure this beef locally cost like $40 a pound BUT the steak I used was a lower marbled grade, less than half a pound and was around $13-$14!! Which when cut on a bias feed my daughter, wife and I!!

Wagyu refers to several breeds of cattle genetically predisposed to intense marbling and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat.

The meat from wagyu cattle is known worldwide for its marbling characteristics, increased eating quality through a naturally enhanced flavor, tenderness and juiciness, and a high market value. In several areas of Japan, beef is shipped with area names. Some examples are Kobe, Mishima, Matsusaka, Ōmi, and Sanda beef.

Highly prized for their rich flavor, these cattle produce arguably the finest beef in the world. These different breeds produce beef that range from expensive (by any measure) to extremely expensive (about US$ 50 per 150 grams of filet steak sold retail in Japan).

Always allow your steak to approach room-temperature prior to cooking. I seasoned my meat with dried ancho smoked chili powder, Yakima apple wood smoked sea salt and white pepper on both sides.

I cannot overstate how important this step is in achieving a perfectly cooked steak. Depending upon ambient temperature, always remove your steak from the refrigerator 30 to 60 minutes prior to the time you plan to actually cook it.

The reason for this is rather simple:

The colder the steak, the longer it takes to reach the desired serving temperature. An ideal steak will arrive on your plate as evenly cooked as possible. Now if you had an immersion circulator, this would be easily achievable. Sadly, most of us do not have an immersion circulator sitting in our kitchen. The best way to cook a steak as evenly as possible is to slowly raise the internal temperature prior to exposing the outside of the steak to a hot pan, oven or grill.

In order to achieve maximum flavor accumulation, the steak must remain undisturbed for a long enough period of time to allow a maillard reaction to occur.

Simply put, a maillard reaction is a process that allows meat to brown. It won't happen if you continually fiddle with your steak! So leave it alone until it's had a chance to brown, and then turn it over and leave it alone for another extended period of time. And NEVER, EVER, poke your steak with a fork while it's cooking. Always use tongs or a spatula when turning your steak.

Time and temperature vary greatly depending on thickness of cut and choice of heat source. I.e. gas range or electric range top.

I've found that the best way to determine when your steak is cooked to your liking is to simply look at it and touch it. Gently press your finger into the middle of the steak. If it doesn't bounce back at all, it isn't cooked yet. When it just begins to lightly bounce back, it's medium-rare. The more bouncy and firm it becomes, the more well-done it is. With a bit of practice, it'll become very easy to know exactly when your steaks are done.

I learned by using the”face method”, here’s how you learn the various levels of doneness:

With a poker face — no smiling or you’ll be eating beef jerky — touch your cheek. That’s how rare meat feels. Offering no resistance when pressed, it has a red center but should be warm all the way through.

Touch your chin. This is the feel of medium rare. The color should be bright pink to red when cut.

Now, touch the end of your nose. This will coincide with the texture of medium doneness. It has a pink center.

The area just above the bridge of your nose on your forehead is the tactile equivalent of medium-well. It has a thin line of pink remaining in the center. The bottom of your shoe is well done.

Some Chef’s prefers gauging doneness using touch also, but with their fist.
First, make a relaxed fist. The web of your hand between the thumb and forefinger on top feels like rare meat. If you slightly clench your fist, that same v-section of your hand is now medium. Clench your fist tightly, and the area will now feel like well done — hard, and in my opinion, inedible. As meats cook, the juices are drawn to the upper surface. That’s why when you cut into a steak, the juices rush out.

Never bind yourself by time when cooking steaks. They're done when they're done.

ALWAYS allow your steak to rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting!!
I can't overstate how important it is to allow your steak to rest prior to cutting into it.

Why go through all that work to cook the perfect steak, only to ruin it by cutting into it while it's steaming hot?

By cutting into a still-hot steak, you effectively allow a substantial amount of its internal moisture to escape in the form of steam and tangible juice. The same moisture you worked so hard to trap and protect. This will result in a steak that is undesirably dry.

When allowed to rest, a hot steak will retain the majority of its moisture. It's that simple.

When cutting your steak, always cut across the grain.

If you cut your steak with the grain, it will be noticeably tougher to chew than it would be had you cut across the grain.

The reason for this is that by cutting with the grain, you allow the natural fibers of the meat to remain intact. You'll wind up with a mouth full of still-intact meat fibers, which can be tough for the teeth to break down for further digestion.

When you cut across the grain, you immediately break all those tough to chew fibers into small pieces, thereby making each bite as tender as possible.

Once I removed the meat from the pan I deglazed it with a little water then added flour, Serrano infused sea salt, a couple of tablespoons of butter and a teaspoon of minced garlic to make my roux.

The garlic and herb pasta can be purchased in a box for cooking ease. You do not have to limit yourself to that flavor or shape of pasta, be creative and take this and make it your own!

That’s what creative cooking is all about.

The peas and pearl onions were canned which made it super easy because anyone that has had to peel pearl onions know that’s a task that a labor of love because there’s no fun in it!! Add your favorite seasonings to the pot with the peas and add a teaspoon of butter and bring the peas to a boil and then turn heat as low as it will go and simmer until you are ready to either plate them or bring them to your table.

What is "Cajun"

I have been asked this my whole life because I do not look "Acadian". There are a myriad of differences in the culture that makes up "What a Cajun" is.

Argue this...Culture, not blood, defines today's Cajun. We'll get more into it as we go along.

Experiencing the Cajun culture is like no other. The Acadians of today are a thrifty, hard-working, fun-loving, devout religious folk. They work and play with equal enthusiasm.

The word Cajun began in 19th century Acadie (now Nova Scotia) when the Acadians began to arrive. The French of noble ancestry would say, "les Acadiens", while some referred to the Acadians as, "le 'Cadiens", dropping the "A". Later came the Americans who could not pronounce "Acadien" or "'Cadien", so the word, "Cajun" was born.

The Cajun's pleasure-loving nature expresses itself in the community festivals, dancing and food that are integral parts of bayou life. Cajuns are known for their "joie de vivre" (joy of living), and to add excitement to their food they experiment with herbs, spices and ingredients to create some of the most flavorful dishes that people throughout North America now enjoy.

One of the traditional favorite Cajun pastimes is an old- fashioned crawfish boil. When the sacred "mud bugs" or "crawdads" go into the pot a breath of excitement fills the air. Before the great feast of the boiled crawfish, potatoes, onions and corn, youngsters make a mad dash for the crawfish tub poking the live crawfish with sticks while other family members participate in crawfish races.

Boiling crawfish is not the only way to enjoy the crustaceans. When crawfish go into the pot a number of delicious dishes result because there are almost as many ways to cook crawfish as there are swamps, ponds and ditches in which to catch them. Crawfish are served up in gumbo, bisque, étouffée, jambalaya, pies or patties.

When the Cajuns aren't eating crawfish, they enjoy other world famous cuisine of Louisiana such as oysters, shrimp, boudin, pralines, gumbo and red beans and rice.
What better way to experience Cajun food than at a festival? Any time is festival time in Cajun Country. Towns and villages throughout Acadiana celebrate every season with their special blend of music, food and the colorful Cajun heritage. Most festivals feature live music of all sorts, contests, native crafts and food and, of course, dancing.

Cajun music is also distinctive. It can be lively or melancholy, and sometimes both at the same time. The main reason why many attend festivals is for the unique Cajun music. Cajun music, once deemed as "nothing but chank-a-chank" has infiltrated radio, television and classrooms and is becoming world famous for its unique sounds of instruments like accordions, fiddles and triangles.

One of the largest festivals is our world-famous Mardi Gras. Celebrate an old-fashioned Mardi Gras at the Courir du Mardi Gras (Mardi Gras Run), one of the local traditions that makes Mardi Gras in Cajun Country truly unique. The spectacle celebrated in small towns and villages in Acadiana is a favorite of visitors interested in off-the-beaten-path experiences. With its roots firmly in the medieval tradition of ceremonial begging, bands of masked and costumed horseback and wagon riders led by the unmasked "Le Captaine" roam the countryside "begging for ingredients for their community gumbo. The day's festivities end with a fais-do-do and, of course, lots of savory gumbo.

In Cajun Country, a week hardly goes by without chants of praise to crawfish, rice, alligators, cotton, boudin, yams, gumbo and andouille, all the necessities of bayou life. Within the triangle of Acadiana's 22 parishes, you'll experience the "joie de vivre" of the Cajun lifestyle. Whether in food, music or fun, the Cajun tradition continues to live on in the hearts of Cajuns and visitors alike.

The 700,000 Acadians who live in South Louisiana make up the largest French-speaking minority in the United States. They are descendants of some of the first white men to settle North America, coming from Brittany, Poitou, Normandy and across France to establish their first permanent colony in what is now Nova Scotia. That was in 1604, three years before Jamestown, four years before Quebec, and 15 years before the Mayflower.

They were forced from their Canadian homes a century and a half later, and eventually settled in South Louisiana. Some settled along the Mississippi River above New Orleans. Others migrated to wetlands along Bayou Lafourche. Another group crossed the Atchafalaya Basin to the country of the Attakapas and Opelousas Indians, near today's cities of St. Martinville and Lafayette.

Each of these groups lived in relative isolation from the Anglos, and to some extent, from each other, and developed in different ways. (There is, for example, no single "Cajun French" language, but distinguishable - to the trained ear - regional dialects, all based upon the original Acadian French, alike in sound and rhythm, but often with distinctive phrases and modes of expression. And you can start a battle royal among different Cajuns over just which instruments are proper to "authentic" Cajun music.

The Cajuns were for several generations largely an unschooled and unlettered people, living simple lives, keeping to themselves, their families and their lands. Because of this, the Cajun was often, and mistakenly, portrayed as a likeable buffoon; an ignorant, French-speaking, backwards swampbilly, scraping a bare existence from his surroundings; a pleasant, easy-going peasant who has nothing and wants less, as long as he can go to the fais-do-do (dance) on Saturday and to Mass on Sunday.

Listen to Richard Ketchum, writing as late as 1974 in the American Heritage Book of Great Historic Places:

"(Cajuns) speak an ancient French dialect which few outsiders can follow . . . Mixing little with the modern world, they earn a living by fishing, boating, trapping, and by selling handwoven baskets and cloth. In a region of few roads, they live on simple wooden houseboats, dependent upon the waterways and the pirogue . . ."

In many places they were called "coonasses." Some of them call themselves that still. The bumper sticker, "Coonass and Proud", still bedecks many a pickup truck.
But times have changed, and so have the Cajuns. The shantyboat is no longer first choice for economical housing, and some of them live in real houses, on dry land, with paved sidewalks leading right down to paved roadways. More Cajuns have pickup trucks than pirogues. Few Cajuns sell handwoven cloth or homemade baskets anymore (or know how to make either of them), but lots of them are still fishermen. Some trap still, gathering more pelts in the wild each year than all the rest of the United States and Canada combined. Some Cajuns are boatmen - Louisiana operates the largest fleet of working craft in the nation. (Duffy St. Pierre, a Cajun captain, gained instant fame - or notoriety - in the summer of 1987 by towing unwanted barge-loads of New York garbage around the Gulf of Mexico for a month.

And lots of Cajuns are doctors, lawyers, architects, accountants, even college professors. You'll find Cajuns selling shoes at Sears, running gasoline stations, driving taxis, flying airplanes, working at chemical plants, operating computers, stringing telephone lines, raising crops and cattle, delivering the mail, running restaurants...doing the same thing that people do everywhere. Lots of them wear suits and ties. Some of them, the proud ones, still speak French from time to time - sometimes more often and more fluently than English. They feel sorry for folks who can speak only one language.

Some of them are beginning to object to being called coonasses. They say it's an ugly word that came into use after World War II by the commingling of sound with the French noun conasse, which means a stupid person or prostitute. Others say it is more innocuous, deriving from cunaso, a word coming from the Caribbee Indians, most likely via the Spanish, and meaning a fellow who lives simply, on and with the land.
And the standard Cajun caricature, as all of them are, is too broadly stroked to begin with. It was incorrect even in the old days. Acadians have played a healthy and wide-ranging role in Louisiana (And American) history. They fought the British during the American Revolution, and fought alongside Andy Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. An Acadian presided over the convention that voted Louisiana out of the Union. Other Cajuns helped the state back in. There were two Acadian governors and another served as lieutenant governor between 1840 and 1860. In fact, an Acadian, Alexandre Mouton, was Louisiana's first popularly-elected governor. (Before him, governors were chosen by the legislature.)
Acadians built their vacheries (cattle ranches) on the prairies, held fine river plantations, founded towns that became cities. They sat in Congress and the legislature and on the bench. (U.S. Sen. John Breaux is a Cajun.)
But it's true, too, that Cajuns often did - and do - things their own way. The scholars tell us:

"Certainly no one will deny that . . . numerous . . . Acadians . . . resisted acculturation until well after World War II, when improved transportation and communication brought mainstream America into the darkest reaches of the swamp"

More simply: The Cajuns thought it better to hold onto traditional values, to maintain their own identity. It was a passive resistance, more often a shrug of the shoulders and a perplexed chacun a son goût (there's no accounting for taste), than an active fight. But they resisted, nonetheless, and with good reason.

It may not be as obvious now, but the Cajun has always held a healthy distrust of his English-speaking neighbors? Why not? These were the people who exiled him from his homeland, and who, later, used wealth and numbers to push him into the hinterlands. But he usually went peaceably enough. He just wanted to be left alone. He sought the isolation to maintain his culture. In isolation, the culture sustained and reinforced itself, developed its own patterns.

But understand that the Cajuns aren't the only Frenchmen in Acadiana. There are a handful of French cultures here. The Creoles of New Orleans descend from settlers who came to Louisiana in the early 1700's. St. Martinville was called Petit Paris by aristocrats who fled there during the French Revolution. Refugees from Napoleon's army settled in Ville Platte and elsewhere. French-speaking blacks from Haiti and other Caribbean islands were here early on. It causes some confusion when we start talking about who is a Cajun and who is not.

By strict definition, we could limit the term Cajun to descendants of the Acadians exiled from Nova Scotia in 1755. In fact, however, the earlier French and other settlers mixed and married with Cajuns and, more often than not, adopted their ways - so that today, some argue, you can find Cajuns who aren't Acadian at all. (There's an old folk saying that you can become a Cajun in three ways : "by the blood, by the ring, or by the back door.")

You can make a good argument that it is the culture, not the blood, that defines today's "Cajuns."

That culture has certain obvious aspects: Not every modern Cajun speaks French, but his grandparents probably did. You'll find Protestant Broussards and Aucoins and Legers today, but they likely spring from Catholic roots. Even townfolks tend to hold some rural values and ways. The cuisine and the music hark back to old traditions. Latin blood shows through: Cajuns can be quick to anger, quick to laughter, and quick to change from one to the other. They play as hard as they work, but they work hard. The Cajun can still "make do" from the abundant resources around him. And he still wonders sometimes why anyone would want more.

And there are subtler aspects: The Cajuns are a tolerant people - perhaps to a fault. They sometimes tolerate a little too much drinking, a little too much dancing, some chicanery in their politics. Some outsiders cluck their tongues and wonder why. The Cajun suggests that some things just aren't worth the trouble to change.

There are those who would argue that a Chinese reared in Acadiana is more likely Cajun than an Acadian reared in China; that "Acadian" has to do with genealogy, but that the culture makes the "Cajun." Regional historian Revon Reed claims to count 15 different kinds of Louisiana Cajuns, including Anglos, Spaniards, even Yugoslavians and Filipinos.

He can start a good fight by arguing that in some of the wrong places. The back door to becoming a Cajun opens only so wide. But he's right about this: There's more to being a Cajun than just the blood.

Now let's be understood about this, I posses both the blood and the culture Mon Cher!

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Support your Local Farmers Market

I went to the Farmers Market today and finally found my stripped beets!!




It is so important to support your local growers and seeing as I had been looking for these beets for nearly a year and never thought to check the LFM I feel kinda bad! I also received the confirmation on the data I heard, and that is that the Scorpion pepper has now overtaken the Ghost pepper as the worlds hottest pepper!! AND I have my name on the growers list to get them fresh!!
I also found some great pesto's!




I WILL have a dish using these in the very near future! You can also get information there that you can't get from a culinary school on the local organic produce and grass feed beef and pork products. The people there are STARVING to share their knowledge and they do it with true passion!
If anyone has a dish that uses beets or have one they want to see! Let me know and let me see if I can work it and take it to the next level.
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