Farmers' Market Feast

The Bounty

The Chopping Pattaps

The Delicious Dishes

The Smiling Diners


A great meal of locally grown produce with the Woofing Pattaps and friends on Saturday. Fresh Caraway Bread and Goat Cheese, Pickled Fiddle-heads, Hungarian Eggplant Tomato Paprikash, Roasted Crinkle-Cut Potatoes and Rutabaga, Brussel Sprouts with Shallots and Crimini Mushrooms, and Cassie's Fresh Baked Choco-Chippers - Yum!

I Grew a Cherry Bomb!

That cherry pepper was born on a farm, adopted at the Union Sq farmer's market and raised on my window sill. It was my most exciting plant of the summer and now it's chopped up and infused in some T-Jo olive oil.

I tried a nibble and it honestly wasn't so hot... but I chopped it up, threw it in a jar with some fresh Cayenne's from Spot's Pop's garden and some extra virg. Stay tuned for a tasting report...

Back to My Roots

Autumn is a wonderful time at the farmer's markets. Crunchy apples, juicy pears, and fresh-from-the-dirt root vegetables. Decided to whip up a roasted root vegetable medly a few days back, on a stay-at-home fall Saturday.

The recipe was quite easy aside from a solid half-hour of chopping. We cut half-inch wedges of pumpkin, acorn squash, turnips, parsnips, onions and potatoes -- enough to fill up a large Le Creuset 'French Oven'. All that got mixed up with a generous sprinkling of olive oil, salt, pepper, brown sugar, and cinnamon. We added fresh rosemary sprigs on top and a few garlic sections with skin left on.

Baked the whole thing at 400 for about 50 minutes, stirring once or twice. About halfway through, the delicious smells of the sweet pumpkin and the parsnip began to seep into the room... The dish was incredible. A variety of sweet and earthy flavors blended with a bit of spicy cinnamon tickling the tongue. The pumpkin and acorn squash became a rich orange mash that held the solid parsnip, turnip, and potato all together. We squeezed the roasted garlic out of their skins and stirred them through the mixture to add a little extra punch. Delicious!

This could be a meal in its own right, but I paired with my new favorite honey-glazed chicken breast recipe and a nice rich glass of red wine.

Only in New York: International Pickle Festival

What an unbelievable event. Crowds by the hundreds turned out for the NYC International Pickle Day at the LES summer home of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot (one of the absolute most surprising performances I've ever stumbled upon in the city). waiting in line to taste pickled stringbeans, beats, peppers, kimchi, kosher dills, new dills, garlic pickles, spicy garlic pickles, horseradish pickles, honeymustard pickles, thunder pickles and more.

Learned a few intersting things too:

Do you know what makes new pickles unique? They are brined in salt-water as opposed to vinegar.

Also - I never heard of these before: Physalis or "Husk Cherries". I bought a pound - they're fantastic. Like a tomato meets cherry with a juicy, nutty taste. Apparently there is only one or two farmers in the city that actually sell them. As Molly says, spread the word about the husk cherries so more farmers will grow them and bring them here for us to enjoy.