First and foremost, I owe an apology to myself and to those who read this blog. I am sorry for not blogging for almost 10 days, despite cooking and eating some yummy food. I felt inspired to write posts, yes, and took photos which are included below, but I was too distracted by needing to watch yet another episode - or four - of Sex and the City. It is my guilty pleasure and I discovered that my roommate owns seasons 1, 2, and 3, after I watched season 6 and the movie (part 1 only; part 2 is SHIT) again. So I started over from the beginning. But no more procrastinating! Here goes.
I DIDN'T BURN IT! Last weekend I successfully cooked brown rice and black beans without burning anything. I almost always burn rice and beans (and eat them anyways). Thank God for Steve Pavlina whose instructions finally worked. I also have to give some credit to my new friend Tomato who said that cooking beans is like having a child; you can't just put it on the burner and walk away. You have to watch it. And see how nice and fluffy the rice turned out? For the past few days I've been eating rice and beans with Creole tomatoes, Tony ChaChere's Creole seasoning, and cheese. Can't you just taste how yummy it is?
At church on Sunday we had a potluck, so in a pinch for supplies and time, I looked in my pantry and found the two packages of clearance Jell-O I'd bought ages ago and brought with me from Philadelphia. I knew their time had come. I wound up skipping the strawberries I would normally buy for the dish and picked up two 8 oz. packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I strive to buy local but I don't believe there's a cream cheese that tastes better. Once I had my ingredients I made my grandmother's famous cheeseball Jell-O.
Imagine these:
floating on top of a sea of strawberry Jell-O, surrounded by chopped walnuts. That is a cheeseball Jell-O and it is delicious. Totally not vegetarian or vegan due to the gelatin but decadent and my favorite summer dish. The cheeseball is a delightful combination of cream cheese and walnuts that, when paired with the sweetness of the Jell-O, is really refreshing and tasty. I've tried the same recipe with raspberry Jell-O and fresh raspberries and black cherry Jell-O with Bing cherries, but no combination is better than the original. Thank you Magy! (My dad's mother, thanks to my mother's nickname for her when my parents were dating. They were originally spelled Ma G and Pa G for Ma and Pa Grosslein, but they eventually morphed into Magy and Pagy; often mispronounced as Magee and Pagee. The name stuck and now everyone in the family calls them Magy and Pagy to my mother's delight.)
If only I had bought these a week ago... I signed up for the Eat Local 2013 challenge and was a little worried about where I'd get my produce. Would I have to give up dairy for a month? Could I get everything I needed? Walking through Rouse's I worried that I'd be living off of potatoes, cabbage, hydroponic lettuce, Creole tomatoes, and hot-house thyme. Then I went to the Crescent City Farmer's Market and all my fears evaporated.
They have beautiful lettuce, kale, cucumbers, beets, leeks, onions, potatoes, red, yellow, and green tomatoes - everything you could ever want, all at good prices! And food stamp eligible! There is also a seafood vendor; a woman who sells whole local chickens in addition to fresh vegetables (and some of the most beautiful onions I've ever seen); a group of men who sell eggs, milk, yogurt and other products out of coolers in the back of their van; a man who makes fruit Popsicles and juice; and a farmer that sells fresh produce as well as the soups made out of that fresh produce in huge Mason jars (and they deliver!) If I'd been worried, consider my fears erased. I told myself I was just going to look this week, but then I saw a flat - read: 12 pints - of Louisiana strawberries for $16 (see photo above). That's less than $1.50 a pint! I now have almost six quarts of sliced strawberries in my freezer, including strawberry ice cubes.
We'll see how those turn out. I imagine they'd be delicious in a glass of white or rose wine!
I think this post more than makes up for the dry spell. I'm in heaven with all of this produce, literally five minutes from my house. It's almost like delivery! And the vendors/farmers are so friendly! Two of them gave me their business cards so that I could call and ask them to hold specific things for me, since I told them I don't get out of work until 5:30 and the market closes at 7:00. Heaven is a farmer's market. <3
I look forward to a summer of bounty - and to sharing it with you!
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