Helloooo, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back! Our Farmer's Market opens tomorrow and I'm SOOOOO excited! Fresh, local food! FINALLY!!
Maria and Jose Martinez always have a great crop of sweet onions, garlic, and beets.
Fehrenbacher Farms has lamb meat and wool.
Our Daily Bread bakery and Zerba Farms have the bread and honey covered...
I'm so ready for some fresh, local food. It seems like this winter has been extra, extra long. We try to eat locally as much as possible after I read a book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" (the web site is
here).
This book changed the way I saw my family's eating habits, the way we planted our garden, what we bought at the grocery store, and made me aware of how my own eating choices changed the world around me.
So, YES, Farmer's Market, here we come!! But first... one last random dish. Locally grown chicken. Some spices. Some canned tomatoes. You know... DINNER.
Tikka Masala (I can't say it without thinking of the Lion King
song and if you want to have it stuck in your head, go ahead and click the video link. :)
Ingredients. Lots of jars and processed foods and *gasp* white rice. But that's okay, because the FARMER'S MARKET is tomorrow!! (In case anybody forgot and needed reminding.)
So, mix in a heated skillet
2 TBS olive oil
2 tsp garlic, chopped
1/2 an onion
MMMMMMMMMMMM! Smelling good!
Add
Chopped chicken breast into the skillet. Brown.
Mix in 1 tsp Garam Masala seasoning
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
2TBS lemon juice
Now it's REALLY smelling YUMMY!
One large can of tomato sauce, simmer and stir constantly for about five minutes so all the spices are mixed well.
Turn up the heat and add 2 cups rice and 2 cups water. Get it to a rolling boil, then turn it down to a simmer. You can either let the rice cook without the lid, or put on the lid. I prefer the lid-less method because I tend to forget about the food and it burns. Yuck.
Serve with fresh lettuce and tomatoes. That black stuff sprinkled on top? Red pepper. This is hubby's plate and it just won't have any flavor without some red pepper.
All right everybody! I can't wait to see what we find tomorrow. Something fresh, delicious, LOCAL. MMMMMM!
Stay tuned!
Until then, you can gaze at this lovely picture of one of my little guys. He was drinking hot chocolate and gave himself a uni-brow. I think it's quite charming. I might give myself the coffee version. I can be a literary Frida Kahlo.
You know she did a lot of her painting laying in bed? I think I'll start writing in bed. But I'm afraid my eyes will be closed most of the time, which might defeat the purpose.
Until next time!
How did I get to be first here. One of the benefits of writing late and checking in before going to bed. :) This sounds delish... I like anything with chicken in it. I might have to hold on the red pepper, however -- DH isn't big on it.
ReplyDeleteI'm not either. I swear he burned off his taste buds long ago because that tikka masala is TASTY!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping in, Carol!
Chicken, tomato, rice, and some weird not-Northeast-spice thingie!!!!
ReplyDelete:)
Oh my stars, I love seeing the pics and your farmer's market rocks! I need to get to the markets more often, but I won't give up my Saturday writing time except for my kids.... and I'm working all week so time is always an issue.
But having said that, I love swinging into Farm markets when I'm out researching with the girls because that feeling of folks coming together is exactly what I love about writing sweet romance.
Mary-of-many-names, I love this!
Our market is open 4-8PM on Wednesdays! We have one a few miles away that's open year round but it's on Saturdays and mostly has crafts and baked goods. THIS is what I love!
DeleteI'm as excited as you are about farmer's markets because I just found out that the one really close to me opened early this year as well. It started out as a trial run last year at the end of July and it was a smash success. It's a beautiful walk to it too. I just walk to the end of my street where there is this lovely green strip (used to be a street car line) and it runs for blocks. There's a bike path right along it and at the end a lovely grassy expanse where the farmer's market will be set up every Saturday! Yahoo. They have the usual produce booths but there's also a lady to makes gluten-free meals and baking, and an organic meat guy, and a vegan meals to go booth. Yum. Yum. Yum.
ReplyDeleteI love it!! See, the people are meeting the needs of the people! Instead of corporations meeting the needs of the people. Nothing wrong with that, we all love our Twinkies... Until they go out of business and we've all forgotten how to bake and grow veggies and boil water.
DeleteI love Farmer's markets too, but I don't go nearly enough. There is one that is held every week in the same park as the zoo (but far enough away from the animals). Your post is a reminder I need to go visit.
ReplyDeleteLove the chocolate unibrow! So cute!
hahaha! We let him wear the chocolate for about an hour. It had a matching Dali 'stache.
DeleteOur Farmer's Market opened a couple weeks ago, but I haven't been, yet :(
ReplyDeleteToo many other things crowd in on Saturday morning...
But starting in July it's a 3-day-a-week event rather than only on Saturdays, so I'll be able to go on my errand day (Thursday).
And the chicken/rice/tomato sauce thing sounds wonderful to me...we'll see how the family feels :) Of course, I'm going to have to hunt for some Garam Masala.
/quick trip to Google search.../
Oh, here's a recipe! I think I can do this... http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-garam-masala/
There aren't too many Hindi stores here in cowboy country.
And the uni-brow is too cute.
I got the garam masala at Safeway. They only had one bottle, a big one, for 5.99. I waited until it went on sale, because honestly, we don't eat tikka masala that much!!
DeleteI'll have to look at Safeway! Thanks!
DeleteI get my garam masala from http://www.myspicesage.com/ because I also order the HUGE bag of cream of tartar so I can make my own baking powder without aluminum. The little jars at grocery stores are too expensive.
DeleteJust the smell of Garam Masala makes me hungry!!!
If you need another thing to use with your Garam Masala, we eat this all the time once Melanie shared the recipe--cheap! http://makinghomeworkblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/when-less-truly-becomes-more-and-kidney.html
I think I'd get stuck at the bakery one!
ReplyDeleteSusanna
I do!!! They have amazing cinnamon rolls!
DeleteI guess I'm spoiled because our two Farmer's Markets are open year round. One of them usually moves indoors for the winter, but they still come. I've noticed I tend to head too often for the baked goods. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteI try to hit all the veggie stands first, so I've almost run out of budgeted money before I get to the real tasties!
DeleteActually sounds rather delicious. ;-)
ReplyDeleteOur local farmers' market opens TODAY and goes every Wednesday from 2:30-6 p.m. I know son and d-i-law are planning to go up, so out-of-work hubby and I might tag along; we'll see. The kids can buy stuff. and we'll look and greet people we haven't seen in ages. It's up around a couple corners from us in the parking lot at one of the churches, and it's a beautiful day for opening! Ours has veggies, fruits, plants, crafts, baked goodies, sometimes a petting zoo, and a special thing happening every week.
I know the feeling about writing in bed. Hubby is up there now, trying to do job searches and work on questions required for the second part of an application to be a Certified Christian Worker (his first step in working towards higher-up ministry--he doesn't want to be a senior pastor but he wants "something"--ask him to define what and he can't explain, poor guy...). I told him that's dangerous because he might fall asleep!
Going to share this post with daughter and d-i-law in case they might be interested. :)
Hey, he's got a vision! It all starts with vision...
DeleteLove everything about this post from the Farmers Market to Frida! Our market opened over a month or so ago. We are so in the South.
ReplyDeleteOh, lucky you!!
DeleteThinking of making this for dinner tonight, but confused about one thing. I see cornstarch in the ingredient picture, but didn't see it mentioned in the cooking instructions???
ReplyDeleteOh, hahaha! You're right! In the original recipe on the internet it said cornstarch to thicken the sauce. You would then put it OVER the rice. In the end, I just threw everything together. I never used the cornstarch...
DeleteGood eye, Jan!
Oh my gosh, I'm totally cracking up at the hot chocolate unibrow!!!! What a little cutie! Gorgeous eyes, by the way!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this recipe. I knew I bought that garam marsala for some reason! Now I know what to do with it. ;)
Enjoy the farmer's market!
Hooray! Missy's got garam marsala!!!!
DeleteAnd yes, those eyes. All my kids have brown eyes and brown hair and then... came this one. I'm waiting for the hospital recall notice...
Thanks, Virginia - I'll just skip the corn starch, too.
ReplyDelete