Farmers Market Challenge - 7/11

It does no good to arrive at the Farmer's Market without a game plan, a few recipes in mind. That's what happenned to me this week. I thought I would just go by color or what attracted me. Overwhelming. Although shopping by a color a week could be fun. I ended up with asparagus, red carrots that are orange inside, white donut peaches and lots of yellow squash and zuchinni. In backwards motion, I looked for recipes after buying the ingredients. The thrill of tracking it all down was missing. The food was good, but the Top Chef challenge was gone. Definitely more fun to cook when you have great ingredients, only an hour to do it and a recipe that makes you stretch. Then what ever happens either tastes really great or spurs discussion.

The Weekly Farmers Market Challenge! - June 27

I cannot be dissuaded from my Summer Challenge of the Farmer's Market! This week, top colors of yellow summer squash next to deep purple tomatoes.

A chunky creamy soup recipe of
blenderized avocado,
one cucumber,
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
and a bit of red pepper!

A sliced carrot slaw of orange next to yellow raisins. A red beet salad with sunflower seeds. Somehow the sour cream showed up in another batch of cucumbers and tiny green onions marinating in the refridgerator.

Matisse in food form.

The Farmers Market Cooking Challenge

One of the reasons I am out in Los Angeles this summer is because of the colorful Farmer's Market on Third Street Promenade every Wednesday morning. REAL food.

Another indirect reason is because Top Chef just started a new season Wednesday night at 10 pm. Watching this show makes me so hungry. By the time the final dishes are shown or like Pavlov at 10:45 pm, I want to add 3500 calories to my intake and then sleep on it, dreaming of a full-time chef at my beck and call, my beans and cauliflower.

So I devised...a WEEKLY Farmers Market Challenge!

I run to the Farmer's Market on Third Street Promenade 2 blocks away from the Pacific Ocean with either ideas in mind or to be inspired by what's there, have my 20$ bill in my sweaty fist like a five year old, spend til there is no change left, and get on the Number 3 bus to arrive home, just in time to sit down at my at-home computer job, by 1 pm. After work is over, I have ONE HOUR to prepare my dishes (in order to accomplish it in Top Chef Real Time).

Whatever happens gets plated, and eaten up in front of the latest episode of Top Chef.

A Plate, a Glass of Wine, TV commentary, Food Discussion on preparation, politics, sustainability, creativity as offered up to an enthusiastic, high aesthetics but learning-as-we-go chef. Notice small caps.