Crockpot specials

     Crock pot meals require a certain finesse, in my opinion. I've had amazing success and dreadful inedible failures. Some food, like chili, is perfect for a crock pot and cold weather comfort foods are the epitome of crock pot meals.
     Tell me your crock pot tales. Check out the Recipes page and post your favorite recipe.

Porcupine balls

A ONE PAN WONDER  

  Time to start thinking about what to have for dinner - ugh.

I don't plan my evening meals every week. Usually, I check what is fresh and seasonal and then I plan a few meals. Sometimes I make something, like roast chicken, and reincarnate the meat into different dishes until my husband and the kids scream "No more chicken!" A stir-fry is a great way to use up the lone carrot, 1/2 an onion or pepper, and the odd broccoli crown. I like to prepare something the night before and finish it when I get home from work the next day. That makes  me feel like I saved time even though I stayed late in the kitchen to prepare today's meal.

      One of my favorite things to do is to have a single pan meal. Skillet lasagna, rice cooker chicken biriyani, Indonesian nasi, or porcupine balls taste good and free me up to do more things. These dishes please kids and my husbands refined palate.  Tonight we are having porcupine balls.

Local Farmer's Market

     The Cascades Market Place Farmer's Market in the Potomac Falls, VA is small but has a good variety of products. Several stalls sell fruit and vegetables that fill your mouth with the taste of sunshine.  Grass fed animal products sell out quickly; the sausages are out of this world! A few bakers sell delectable cookies, cakes, and bread. There are a few unique vendors like the dog treats bakery and the shitake mushroom farmers Vera & Floyd Blethen from F & V Farm in Lovetsville, VA, fandvfarm@yahoo.com.
     Out of curiosity I bought a pint box of shitake. The price made me raise an eyebrow but I considered the purchase a privilege to support a local farmer.  When you eat a shitake from F & V farm prepare for a flavor explosion!  I think shitake have a flavor that is earthy and complex, but these shitakes revised my idea of what a mushroom is. Woodsy, earthy, firm and delicious, these mushrooms didn't need meat to shine. My children willingly ate these mushrooms. After eating them I was disappointed that I had to wait 7 days to get some more. Next time, I will let these mushrooms stand on their own in glory; sauteed in olive oil with garlic and shallot finished with a dry white wine and a pat of butter.
     Floyd told me that it takes a year to grow his mushrooms. He uses organic spawn (there must be a more marketable word than spawn) and grows the shitake on oak logs. The flyer he gave me states that shitake were reserved for Emperors only and guarded by the Samurai. Well, the secret is out and we can all eat like kings but only if we go to the Cascades Market Place Farmer's Market every Sunday, through November 1 and buy F & V Farm's shitake mushrooms. 

Eet smakelijk!

Tasty treats

I went to West Chester, PA on the 4th of July weekend and for the first time I ventured in the old section of town. This town is so charming! The wide streets and old store fronts reminded me of old-town Alexandria, minus the stuffy antique stores and money burning restaurants.
My two favorite stops of the day:

Honey Ginger Aged Balsamic Vinegar

1. The Amish market. This is what I bought homemade cheese, thick-cut bacon, beautiful hand-made soaps and sun-drenched veggies.
2. A Taste of Olive shop. What an incredible place! Flavored vinegars and olive oil. The quaint shop looked like something in Sienna, Italy. Metal casks of oil and vinegars artfully arranged in an antique building. Customers are encouraged to taste everything with chewy Italian bread or straight up in little cups. I got Honey Ginger Aged Balsamic Vinegar and Honey Balsamic Vinegar. If you order or visit don't forget to keep the keep the bottles. The store reuses the bottles and gives you a recycling discount! I didn't get the frequent buyer card, but I will next time. A Taste Of Olive

Fine dining

Paella in Barcelona - I thought I'd died and gone to heaven

How do you describe the best thing you ever ate or drank? Was it the glass of pruneau in eau de vie that burned its path down to your stomach and made you inebriated at the first sip? Or the lobster fresh from the sea, grilled by a fisherman on a Caribbean island? Could it be a chocolate chip cookie whose aromatic chocolate scent blooms in your nose? The rich brown sugar makes the cookie crunch between your teeth and the still soft chips that ooze sweet goodness on your tongue.