Greenmarkets

I have been cooking at the green markets. On some Fridays, I will be cooking at Union Square green market and on Saturdays at Stranger's Gate on 106th and Columbus. Today at Stranger's Gate market I cooked a swiss chard stir fry with apricots and a peach, apricot and cilantro salad with sheep's cheese with stinging nettles. Pierre, the cheese guy has the most amazing sheep's cheese and a mix of sheep and cow's cheese. All his cheeses are raw and there was an amazing dry mozzarella which was to die for. I've never had garlic so fresh and the cippolini onions are fantastic as well. I made my stir fry with cippolini onions and fresh chopped garlic, a touch of olive oil, a bit of sesame oil and the apricots balanced out the bitterness of the chard. It was marvelous and not a drop left.

On Friday, I did a photo shoot at Union Square. My photographer was fantastic. My new website is currently under construction and going to be fabulous with wonderful pictures of me cooking at green market. Stay tuned. On the menu Friday a stir fry with swiss chard, summer squash and turkey sausage. I made some more of that tonight for dinner with the leftover sausage. I'm in the process of putting together a cookbook on tastebook (http://www.tastebook.com). I'll let you all know how to order it soon. I'll be compiling all the recipes I've been making up while walking the green market. I'm trying to take advantage of all the summer vegetables, between green market and my CSA (www.justfood.org) I am staying true to not shopping anywhere else. Although, in a weak moment where I felt I needed snacks, I went to the health food store the other day to buy some spelt cookies and spelt bread. I've been experimenting with spelt lately. I still love my quinoa (these days I've been eating lots of red quinoa, which does have a slightly different flavor from its white cousin). I've been having cravings lately for ice cream and tasti delight. I've been trying very hard to stay away, although the other day I did give into tasti - coconut mounds and butter finger, I swear they are using real candy bars to flavor that stuff. There's drugs in tasti delight, I am convinced. But I have noticed that white bean humus with garlic, olive oil and basil does fill my "creamy" craving. Trouble is, I ran out of it and either I have to make my own (always a possibility - but I have to go get some tahini) or go down to trader joes and get some more. I do have most of the ingredients in the house - so I should try to make it.

At union square green market on Friday I met with Duane from Trembaly Apiaries. I bought some bee pollen from him and buckwheat honey. Bee pollen is wonderful for staving off allergies (which I have been experiencing quite a deal of lately with some uncontrollable sneezing fits). I also learned about propolis tincture which is better than any antibiotic at fighting infections. The buckwheat honey is the color of Guinness and has a tremendous amount of nutritional value. I've run out of Greek yogurt or raw yogurt and I need to look into placing another order with Weston A. Price Foundation soon as I'm trying to avoid commercial dairy for a while. Truthfully, I'm trying so hard to avoid dairy in general, but it is extremely difficult. It is best for my system to do a dairy cleanse every so often (and yours too if you are experiencing any kinds of digestive problems!).

My dinner tonight was delicious:
leftover peach, apricot and cilantro salad
swiss chard, string bean (local) and turkey sausage saute with quinoa
spelt chocolate cookies for dessert
mmm mmm good

Tomorrow is not a market day and I'm going out for brunch...but looking forward to Monday and Wednesday. I might scout out some of the other markets in my neighborhood and see what else is available. I'm itching to try something with my short ribs, but not sure what in this weather...I've got some organic red wine I need to use up as my kitchen is about 90 degrees and that stuff isn't going to last too long.