Saturday Market

Today I took an early trip to the Hillsboro Saturday Farmers Market with the goal of watching the Chef Live demonstration, getting some berries, and a bunch of cut flowers for our house.  We had a visitor coming to our house at 10 am and it was necessary that be back by that time, so I arrived at the market around 9 am.

I walked the length of the market reviewing the offering of fresh berries and their mentally noting the prices.  I looked at the pre-made bouquets offered at the four different flower stalls checking out the colors and types of flowers available.  As I walked to the area where the Chef Live demonstrations take place, I met Ellen that performs the Chef Live demonstrations.  She noted that I was very early today, and that she was just heading out to gather the ingredients for her demonstration of making fruit salad in seconds.  Ok, scratch my first goal of seeing the Chef Live demonstration.

I walked back through the market to pick a bouquet of flowers.  After considering all of the options, I chose a vendor where we have purchased flowers in the past because she offers hardy flowers in a wide variety of colors.  The woman who operates the stand was also kind enough to let me come in to her stand and get down on my hands and knees to take some of my favorite type of photography: close-up photos of flowers.  I am glad that wore shorts to the market, as once I finished taking my photos, I just quickly wiped the flower stems and petals from my knees and I was off to continue my shopping.

With my bunch of flowers in hand, I was headed to purchase some berries, but I was sidetracked by the stand where we occasionally purchase fresh Oregon cherries.  I tried a sample cherry and found it to be very sweet and plump.  Now I headed to my car with a handful of flowers and two pounds of cherries.

Once I dropped off my load, I headed back to the market to pick up a flat of berries.  As raspberry season is just about over, I decided to pick up ½ flat of raspberries and ½ flat of blueberries.  That should hold us over until next week.

I see on the Chef Live blog site that there will not be a demonstration next week, but the last Saturday of the month, Ellen will demonstrate Super Veggie Wrap, so I plan on stopping by and sampling the wraps.

In the end, I was very satisfied with what I accomplished at the market.  I purchased flowers, cherries, raspberries, and blueberries.  I took some excellent photographs of the flowers, but I missed seeing the Chef Live demonstration.  I did make it home in time to store all my purchases and to be ready for the meeting.  I have learned that the best selection of fresh produce is available earlier in morning when the market opens, but to see some of the demonstrations, plan to arrive after 10 am.  Now I must wrap up my writing for today because I have quite a few blueberries to freeze.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Hillsboro Saturday Market – Yellow Cauliflower

Last Saturday I attended our local street market and purchased a few items.  I usually don’t visit a large fresh produce stand because it is always busy.  I attended the market a little later in the day and most of the crowd had left.  I saw the produce stand had some great prices on red potatoes, so I stepped in to look around.

I was very surprised to see yellow cauliflowers, so I had to buy one to try.  We don’t eat a lot of cauliflower because it is kind of bland tasting and when steaming, I usually overcook it and it gets a little mushy.  I figured that any cauliflower that was yellow in color was worth trying.  I also purchased a fennel plant and rounded out my haul with some green peas.

Last night I looked in my How to Cook Everything cookbook and didn’t see any recipes for cauliflower that interested me, so I decided to steam the cauliflower florets’.  I separated the florets’ and put them in the steamer until just cooked.  So far so good, they are not mushy.

For dinner, we had some leftover barbecued chicken thighs, brown rice, asparagus, and the steamed cauliflower.  The yellow cauliflower didn’t seem to have any more taste than the white variety.  Both my wife and I detected a slight smoky flavor, but we think it was a stray flavors from the chicken (the smoky flavor off the chicken was very strong).

I may try another cauliflower recipe, but next time it will have some other ingredients to add a little more flavor.  Anyone have any favorite cauliflower recipes?

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Hillsboro Saturday Market – Chef Live

A few weeks ago, my wife and I attended our local Saturday farmers market in Hillsboro.  We enjoy walking through the various vendors’ displays and seeing what products are in season.  We will usually purchase bouquet of flowers for our house, as my wife likes the added color.

We were surprised that weekend to come across a display called Chef Live where some of the market vendors’ products are available to sample in an easy to make recipe.  We were even more surprised to see the Chef in the display was Ellen, a high school friend of our son.  She and her husband live in the area and she has a crepe cart that she pedals to some of the weekday markets and offers crepes for sale.

For the last three weeks, we have made it a point to visit Ellen’s booth and sample some of the local products.  This last weekend she made waffles from her scratch mix and was sampling two local products: Auntie Jen's Apple Pie Jam and Boyco Raspberry Honey.  Both the sample products were very good as were the waffles.

Ellen also writes a weekly blog about the products she demonstrates and her recipes.  Ellens Chef Live blog: http://hillsborocheflive.blogspot.com

To visit Ellen’s Crepe blog: http://crepesalacarte.blogspot.com/2010/04/inroducing-buckwheat-dinner-crepes.html

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell