Late Spring Farmers Market Hauls

I somehow lost photos of my mid-May Greenmarket shops and resultant dinners, but in summary this exercise has got me experimenting with new dishes, and I've learned that:

* Quiches are not a quick and easy dinner, especially if you make the crust from scratch the same night. Your hungry boyfriend will get angry, even if the final sauteed greens quiche, nibbled at hours later, is tasty.
* If you do not have a pie pan, quiche crust can be baked in a cast iron pan, though it may look a bit misshapen.
* Grilled squid is a revelation. Spear large squid pieces onto skewers and lay over a hot grill for a few minutes until charred. Let rest until cool enough to handle, and chop into small pieces to scatter into a spring salad like so, only better this time with a deep smoky and fishy flavor enhanced by the grill. I will never snub at grilled calamari on restaurant menus again.
* You do not need soy sauce to prepare a peanut sauce - peanut butter, hot pepper, olive oil, and molassess will suffice.
* However, marinating beef kebobs in peanut sauce for half an hour will only lend a subtle flavor to the final grilled kebob skewers, and it is ideal if you can reserve some of the sauce for dipping.



May 29: Carrots and radishes for snacking. Asparagus for grilling. Spinach for sauteeing and combining with beans in empanadas made using leftover quiche dough (see below). Lettuce for salad. Potatoes and onion for storage in the crisper drawer. Wilklow Orchard pork chops for storage in the freezer. Leeks and Lynnhaven goat cheese feta to go perfectly with next week's garlic scapes. Artisan whole wheat bread made with local flour for bagged sandwich lunches for dayboat fishing. Red Jacket cranberry apple juice to quench thirst. STRAWBERRIES for freezing, which means it's finally smoothie season! I like to blend a handful of frozen strawberries, a few splashes of milk, and a spoonful of honey in the food processor for my semi-daily dose of fruit and dairy.




June 5: eggs, milk, Baker's Bounty whole wheat bread because it's too hot for baking, asparagus, GARLIC SCAPES! for pesto (more on that to come), (hot house?) Kirby cucumbers to make refrigerator pickles, RHUBARB for baking before it goes out of season (turned into almond-lemon-rhubarb cupcakes that I'll share soon), swiss chard, more carrots for snacking, stocking up on Wilklow ground beef while it's on sale. No radishes this week - will I see them anymore this season?