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.

7 Deadly Challenges

Seven weeks of summer left. If you don't count a few weeks from Mid-August on where:

a) everyone in California goes on vacation. It's the deadest few weeks of the year, for those of us who are in an "on-call" type business.
b) anyone left behind in New York City is sitting in front of a fan, dripping wet. (Because if they are in NY, they are not on vacation).
c) something deeply stirs inside each of us to make the most of what was, and get ready for what is to come.

Before that time, however, I have 7 weeks of:

a) a painting class,
b) an attempt to rewrite and send out two children's stories to publishers,

and most important -

c) the Weekly Farmer's Market Challenge!