Good Eats.
I don't think that it's any secret that I love to cook. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it here several times... and if you know me- (Which lets be honest... all of you got here from my shameless facebook link to this blog. Even my blog stats say so.) you know that I have an undying passion for food. What I hate about food- is trying to decide what to make. My brain is full of all of these awesome ideas, and my refrigerator is typically full of amazing options- I just need someone to tell me what to make. I despise nothing more than the "Oh, I don't care.." response from L when I ask him what he wants for dinner. The world is your oyster, man. Just name your poison! On the other end of that, he'd eat marinated chicken every single day of the week if I let him choose- so, I guess I'm my own worst enemy.
We took a trip to the Toms River Farmers Market on Wednesday. It was a new market for me, I'd never visited it before, but had heard mixed reviews about the variety and cost of items that they had for sale. I'm sort of a Farmers Market snob. I don't like to see five booths- all farms with the same vegetables, fruit and wild flowers. That's no fun!! The more off the wall items, the better! I like to see cheese, and meats, and eggs... baked goods and other locally made products. The Toms River market did not disappoint!
While walking around, I was surprised when the man said, "Hey... that guy has fresh mozzarella... let's make Naan pizza!!" He proposed mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and garlic on Garlic Naan bread. So, we picked up everything that we could at the market including Buckwheat Honey from Herbertsville Honey, Rhubarb, Blueberries, Sugar Snap Peas, Zucchini, Summer Squash, Lemons, and Hank Sauce. (Which I will get to in a minute.)
Sadly, we have a really hard time getting Naan in the section of New Jersey we live in. We actually always have frozen Naan from Trader Joes in our freezer, because if we can't find the fresh stuff, Trader Joes is a good substitute. But I wouldn't use the frozen Naan as the base for a pizza.. so instead, we purchased two Stonefire Multigrain pizza Crusts from our local grocery store thinking it would probably turn out ok. It turned out AWESOME. I chopped up the cheese and the vegetables and the man put the pizza together the way that he wanted. He started with a layer of garlic flavored olive oil, spread on the basil, the tomatoes, and then the cheese and some smashed garlic cloves. We baked it for 12 minutes at 400 degrees- and then we slathered on some Hank Sauce Hot Sauce- the Cilanktro which is delicious- and devoured it. It was so good, we made another one last night. I have to take a second to talk about this hot sauce though. It is made in Cape May County New Jersey, and when we stepped up to the booth, the gentleman there said to us that we weren't going to find any super super crazy spicy hot sauce in the booth, they create all of their hot sauces to enhance flavor, not kill it. I enjoyed his description... because I like hot sauce! But I also like to be able to taste what I'm eating.. and I find a lot of hot sauce is more about the spice than it is the flavor. We purchased two bottles- the Cilanktro and the Camouflage.. we tried them both on the pizza and on some side shrimp we had with our pizza last night.. and I can't tell you enough how great it is. At $5.00 for an 8oz bottle it is also extremely affordable.
Ok- moving on- time for a confession. I've never had rhubarb. In fact, I called my mom to ask her a question about preparing the rhubarb, and she said she'd eaten it, but never cooked it. So, that partially explains why I'd never had it. (It's strange how much our food experiences are shaped by what we grew up eating. But I grew up in Maine eating Lobster. So I'm not complaining.) The man loves rhubarb.. so while at the farmers market, we picked some up. We came home, he peeled a stalk, and ate the entire thing. I tried a bite and was surprised at how tart it was. When I asked him what he would like for me to make with the rhubarb, I again got the "Oh.. I don't know..." He found some sort of mention of dried (like dehydrated, maybe?) rhubarb.. but I couldn't find a recipe for it online. He doesn't like Pie, Cobbler or Crisp... so that cut out a lot of the options that I was finding online. I eventually went to The Facebook and asked my friends for recipes and got a ton of REALLY great ideas. Most of them, however, called for more rhubarb than I had on hand... so when I stumbled upon this Rhubarb Coffee Cake recipe, I think I may have squealed. Who doesn't love Coffee Cake?? So, I thew it together tonight. The only change I made to the recipe was that I doubled the topping- because it didn't sound like what the recipe called for would be enough to top a 9x13 pan. I was right... and I was glad that I doubled it... it was perfect. The cake is cooling right now.. it's taking every ounce of restraint I have not to eat it. The man is at work... so I'm going to be nice and wait for him to come home before we try it. Next week... I'm going to have to get more rhubarb so I can try all of my friends' fabulous recipes!!
We took a trip to the Toms River Farmers Market on Wednesday. It was a new market for me, I'd never visited it before, but had heard mixed reviews about the variety and cost of items that they had for sale. I'm sort of a Farmers Market snob. I don't like to see five booths- all farms with the same vegetables, fruit and wild flowers. That's no fun!! The more off the wall items, the better! I like to see cheese, and meats, and eggs... baked goods and other locally made products. The Toms River market did not disappoint!
While walking around, I was surprised when the man said, "Hey... that guy has fresh mozzarella... let's make Naan pizza!!" He proposed mozzarella, tomatoes, basil and garlic on Garlic Naan bread. So, we picked up everything that we could at the market including Buckwheat Honey from Herbertsville Honey, Rhubarb, Blueberries, Sugar Snap Peas, Zucchini, Summer Squash, Lemons, and Hank Sauce. (Which I will get to in a minute.)
Sadly, we have a really hard time getting Naan in the section of New Jersey we live in. We actually always have frozen Naan from Trader Joes in our freezer, because if we can't find the fresh stuff, Trader Joes is a good substitute. But I wouldn't use the frozen Naan as the base for a pizza.. so instead, we purchased two Stonefire Multigrain pizza Crusts from our local grocery store thinking it would probably turn out ok. It turned out AWESOME. I chopped up the cheese and the vegetables and the man put the pizza together the way that he wanted. He started with a layer of garlic flavored olive oil, spread on the basil, the tomatoes, and then the cheese and some smashed garlic cloves. We baked it for 12 minutes at 400 degrees- and then we slathered on some Hank Sauce Hot Sauce- the Cilanktro which is delicious- and devoured it. It was so good, we made another one last night. I have to take a second to talk about this hot sauce though. It is made in Cape May County New Jersey, and when we stepped up to the booth, the gentleman there said to us that we weren't going to find any super super crazy spicy hot sauce in the booth, they create all of their hot sauces to enhance flavor, not kill it. I enjoyed his description... because I like hot sauce! But I also like to be able to taste what I'm eating.. and I find a lot of hot sauce is more about the spice than it is the flavor. We purchased two bottles- the Cilanktro and the Camouflage.. we tried them both on the pizza and on some side shrimp we had with our pizza last night.. and I can't tell you enough how great it is. At $5.00 for an 8oz bottle it is also extremely affordable.
Comments
Post a Comment