eat make read

Look at that! My tomato plants have turned into beasts and my little pepper plants are finally plumping up. I’ve gotten over my anger of buying the pots and dragging the dirt up my stairs and have now moved on the delight each time I look out our window and see my lush landscape. Oh, and check out the cute little blossoms popping up on my tomato plants:

Awww. They just make me happy.

Just to keep up on the tradition of asking you questions, do you think I can still put one of those cone things on my tomatoes even though they’re pretty big? I bought some special stakes to hold them up but the almost immediately shot past them by about 6 inches.

Just when you thought I couldn’t possibly use rosemary and honey one more time, I’m back with a finger-licking snack. Yup, I did it, I poured honey butter with a little rosemary over my popcorn and it’s basically awesome, albeit a little messy.

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It’s that happy time of year when each time I visit the market a new berry or fruit is there to welcome me. The sucker I am, I scoop up little bundles left and right, not sure what to do, just sure that they’re pretty and I’ll figure something out. This week’s big score was sweet cherries. I brought them home, popped a few in my mouth then started thinking about what they might become. Weekends in our apartment usually include one fancy breakfast, and by that I mean something requires me to turn on the stove or oven, so I immediately started thinking about muffins. I found a recipe that sounded different than the usual muffin recipe because it included jam, so I was sold. Only one problem, I didn’t have any jam.

I got resourceful though and used a handful of raspberries I had tucked away from last weeks fruit spree, combined them with about a third of my cherries and cooked them down to get a sort of compote. Perfecto! Oh, and here’s a hot tip. I don’t have a cherry pitter, so instead I used these reusable plastic straws to poke the pit out. It worked like a charm and kept my cherries in tact.

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Last year I did a little experiment that I called market week where I bought all my groceries including milk, cheese, meat, vegetables and bread at the greenmarket. It was really fun and I’ve found that in the year since, I do about 75% of my shopping at the market, which makes me really happy. I love seeing the farmers and people who make the food that I put in my body and knowing how much they care about what they’re doing.

This year I wanted to do market week again, but there needed to be something bigger and better about it. That’s where YOU come in. Please join me in market week 2009, a week where we buy everything from the farmer’s market, a farm stand, a local CSA or even grow it in our own gardens and create delicious meals. Maybe you can’t do a whole week, maybe you can just commit a day, whatever it is, I’d love to have you participate.

I realize this is quite a heads up, but I’m hoping to get people excited and thinking about what they’d like to do for market week. We all love delicious, fresh food and hopefully this little experiment will allow everyone share their goods and see what’s in season across the country (and hopefully around the world).

How it works:
Buy your groceries
Make a list and visit your local farmers market to buy your groceries for the week.

Photograph your goods and upload to our flickr group:
Whether it’s at the market or in your kitchen, photograph what you’ve purchased and upload the photos to out market week flickr group right here. I can’t wait to see what’s in season around the country.

Make delicious meals and upload to our flickr group:
Now here’s the fun part. Create a week’s worth of meals and upload your photos to the flickr group.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at kelly(at)carambula.com or ask questions in the comments section.

Please let me introduce you to my favorite cookie ever. This, my friends, is my mom’s recipe for the sugar-coated, molasses based ginger cookies that rock my world. I’ve been sneaking seconds of these ginger cookies since I was a little girl. Until recently, they actually contained no ginger at all, but you know me, I found a way to sneak some in and might I say, actually improve them! I’m still not sure what it is about this exact recipe that is so good, but as someone who jumps at the chance to eat a ginger cookie, these are most definitely the best I’ve ever had. Read more

Get your tote bags ready because market week is coming soon! I’m super excited about this year’s challenge and I’m hoping to get YOU involved. So start thinking of tasty seasonal recipes and I’ll start getting my act together so I can tell you more. More information to come next week! Woohoo!

Check out last years market week here.

Oh how I love Fridays. It’s such a relief to have a week behind you and free days to do fun stuff ahead. This week’s happy hour is a simple one that uses fresh raspberries (the first of the season) from the market. A few muddled berries, a little simple syrup and some gin are mixed up and topped off with a little seltzer. It’s fresh and refreshing, the perfect way to start off the first official full weekend of summer.

Cheers to you my friends!

raspberry gin fizz
makes 1 cocktail

6 raspberries
1 oz simple syrup
1 1/2 oz gin
ice
seltzer

1
In a cocktail shaker, muddle raspberries, simple syrup and gin. Add ice and shake.
2
Pour everything into a glass and top off with seltzer.
3
Cheers!

Well, I’m just going to say it. These meatballs aren’t going to win any beauty pageants. They are ugly little suckers, but man oh man are they tasty. I’m a big fan of ground turkey because it has nice flavor but also lends itself to other flavors so well. When I saw this recipe for chipotle meatballs in Simply Organic I was instantly intrigued and ready to whip up a batch.

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If you missed it the first time here on eatmakeread, please check out my guest post for black rice with edamame over on The Kitchn. Thank you to Faith and the folks at Apartment Therapy & the Kitchn!