Farm Fresh Friday: Patty Pan Squash
It’s Friday, and I’m excited because it’s time for me to tell you all about my experience at the Williamsburg Farmers Market! The market takes place right downtown colonial Williamsburg practically on the campus of William and Mary, which is beautiful in it’s own right! It’s located on a quaint street commonly referred to as DOG, or Duke of Gloucester. The road was lined with venders on both sides and behind the vendors were little shops, and a few restaurants that I can’t wait to eat at! The middle of the street was filled with people. People with dogs, people with kids, and people with armfuls of fresh fruits and veggies!
Although, it isn’t too much larger than the market back in Mount Pleasant, it was a little bit overwhelming at first. Back in Michigan, I knew exactly which venders had the best stuff, and even knew some of them by name. Here at the Williamsburg market, I know no one. So I took a stroll. I walked up and back down the street, checking out every stand to see what they had to offer. There was a Chef’s tent with a cooking demo, some fresh seafood, homemade soaps, fresh baked goods, a stand for the “serious chocolate lover”, several organic fruits and veggie stands (yay!), homemade cheeses, and live music. The variety of things to purchase at this market is impressive. There was a great sense of community and culture and I soon felt right at home. I turned around and went back to make my purchases without any recipes in mind. The ambiance must have gotten to me because I just started buying everything that looked good! I picked up things that looked interesting, and pretty with no real plan for using them.
I brought home some green beans, colorful bell peppers, raspberries, 2 different varieties of eggplant, some super sweet orange cherry tomatoes and some patty pan squash. The raspberries were consumed almost immediately as I sat and looked over my ingredients and wondered what I would make with them. Wednesday, I posted about how I used the green beans in a vegetarian bean salad.
The cherry tomatoes were snacked on throughout the week. They were by far the sweetest tomatoes I’ve ever tasted! Eggplant is something that I’m not quite as familiar with. I opened up my On Cooking food/culinary bible to learn a little more about it. Turns out I purchased what is known as japanese eggplant. I flipped around a little more in the book and found a recipe for ratatouille. Basically, it’s just eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and bell peppers sauteed together. It was fantastic! But the recipe I want to share with you today is actually much more simple, and it has to do with those fun looking patty pan squashes I bought.
How cute are they? I only bought them because they were cute. I’d heard of them before, but I had no idea how to use them. After a little bit of googling I discovered they can come in different colors like green, yellow, or white (like mine!), they can be eaten raw just like you would zucchini, and you can eat the whole thing, no need to remove any skin or seeds! Since this was a new food, I wanted to serve them as simple as possible so that I could taste all of their flavor. So I decided to roast them with some fresh thyme leftover from the bean salad dish.
Roasted Patty Pan Squash
2 patty pans
olive oil
fresh thyme to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste
Wash the patty pan squash, and trim off any rough spots. Slice into bite size segments following the natural scalloped edge. Toss with a drizzle of olive oil, an herb such as thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Roast in a very hot oven until tender, and starting to brown.
So, are you ready to give patty pan squash a try? or is it already a staple in your summer diet? I’ve heard there are really really small ones too! Can’t wait until I can get my hands on those!! Maybe tomorrows farmer’s market will have some cool new finds…
Have a Happy Holiday Weekend!
Pattypan Squash
A Vegetarian Bean Salad
Back when I first started this blog, I mentioned my flexitarian eating habits in a post about cooking your own black beans. As the summer has gone on, I am maintaining my flexitarian ways, but am consuming much less meat. It could be because Jacob was out of town most of the summer and he is the big meat-eater around here, but I am finding my usual poultry meals to be much less appetizing than vegetarian alternatives.
I originally stopped eating red meat for mostly environmental reasons, and soon after I stopped craving it. Perhaps I am just burnt out on chicken and turkey, since they have been my primary source of animal protein for about 6 years now or it could be that I just can’t shake some of the images from books and films like Food Inc. The recent deli-meat recalls are not helping either.
Whatever it is I am leaning more and more towards becoming a vegetarian. Actually, I should rephrase and say pescetarian, I’m not quite ready to give up fish!
When contemplating what to make for dinner lately, I find myself craving whole grains, beans, greek yogurt and lots and lots of vegetables and fruit. Those are some pretty great things to crave, so no complaining here!
All of these healthy cravings, led me to the 101cookbooks blog, which if you have not checked out yet you need to! After looking through the recipe archives I discovered a bean salad that was right up my alley!
The original recipe called for 3 types of beans and garden-fresh green beans, which Heide of 101cookbooks replaced with romaine lettuce. However, I had just picked up some fresh green beans from the Williamsburg Farmers Market (which I will tell you all about this Farm Fresh Friday) I altered her recipe a bit to come up with this:
A Vegetarian Bean Salad
3/4 cup of chickpeas, rinsed
A 15.5 oz can of black beans, rinsed
A 15.5 oz can of pinto beans, rinsed
2 cups fresh green beans, washed and trimmed
1/3 cup chopped (or slivered) toasted almonds
2 tsps extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp Honey
2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
Juice from one medium sized lemon
Enough sprigs of fresh thyme for about 1 Tbsp
Start by steaming the green beans. You can boil them too, but I prefer to steam, so that I’m not loosing nutrients in the water. Cook until bright green and still a little crunchy. Immediately run under cool water to stop the cooking process.
Combine all the beans in a pretty dish. Set aside.
Whisk together the olive oil, honey, vinegar, and lemon juice. Stir in the thyme. Toss with beans in the pretty dish. Sprinkle almonds on top and serve!
I served this for dinner with a small bowl of rice on the side, and some cherry tomatoes.
Nutrition Notes
I spoke quite a bit about vegetarianism in this post. Being a vegetarian, or flexitarian, or pescetarian are all healthy ways to eat when done right, the same is true of being an omnivore. Whether you choose to eat meat or not, balance is key. About 10-35% of your calories should come from protein. Chicken, beef, pork, turkey and fish are all great protein choices as are soy products, eggs, lentils, nuts, dairy products, beans, seeds and quinoa. If you are consuming a vegetarian diet, it is important to consume a variety of protein sources. Other nutrients vegetarians may need to pay attention to are iron, zinc, vitamin B12, and calcium. For more tips see this My Pyramid handout.
Have you ever thought about being a vegetarian, or eating less meat? Do you already? What are your reasons? Do you have any nutritional concerns about this topic?
The American Dietetic Association says this of vegetarianism:
… appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle…
For more on the ADA’s position see their 2009 position paper.
Farm Fresh Friday: Peach Salsa + Grocery Shopping
Guess what?
MY FRIDGE IS WORKING!
Sorry, I am a little excited about it.
Monday, my landlord sent over a repair company to check it out. Turns out, the fan in the back was clogged… whatever that means. All I know is that I can go grocery shopping now! And that is exactly what I did Monday night!
We have a couple of grocer options here in Williamsburg, but I am most excited about two of them, Martins and Trader Joe’s. Martin’s is pretty awesome, it has a huge produce selection, a cafe, a salad bar, a sushi bar, and at least two aisles dedicated to natural and organic products. They also carry quite a bit of local food, which is great! It is where we will be doing most of our shopping.
I have always been curious about Trader Joe’s. I have heard good things about the one in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but never had a chance to check it out. The store here isn’t all that large, and the produce department isn’t all that impressive but they definitely carry some unique products. I’m currently obsessing over their Chipotle Pepper Hummus! I just wish I could buy an extra large container of it! It has a bit of a kick and is awesome on a veggie wrap.
Even with these great food options I have gotten curious about the local Farmers Market situation. I heard rumor that there is an awesome one downtown near Colonial Williamsburg, so I got online and did a little searching. I found out that this Market does indeed exist, that they have their own website, a Facebook page, and I can follow them on Twitter! Now that is my kind of Market! It sounds like the market occurs Tuesdays and Saturdays. Tomorrow is Saturday, and I can’t wait to go check it out!
So until then I’m going to leave you with a peach salsa recipe that I shared on Impact Dash. Martin’s actually offers quite a bit of local produce, so I haven’t been missing out too much! Read my article to learn more about Martin’s selection and peaches!
Hello Virginia!
Last Wednesday August 11th, Jake and I packed up all our belonging into a large Penske truck. You never really realize how much stuff you have until you have to move it. We have moved before, but we always had a bit of a layover between places, so we could take our time. Last time we moved, it was right across the street. Moving from Michigan to Virginia was a little different, to say the least.
We were very fortunate to have the help of my parents who drove a 26-foot Penske truck full of our things and pulled a trailer with Jacob’s truck behind it.. We spent two days driving, stopping to stay the night at a hotel. It was an especially long trip since we were following my parents in the Penske moving at about 55 MPH, but it was a beautiful drive! We arrived at our new place near Midnight Thursday August 12th. We definitely made some necessary starbucks stops!
The first night was spent sleeping on the floor and over the next few days we unpacked. My parents left us to get things organized on the second day while they explored colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown.
Now, Williamsburg is much different than the small town of Mount Pleasant, Michigan. For one, there are so many more people, which means more traffic! Secondly, the organization of the the roads is much different than the basic grid system I’m used to. There are lots of narrow twisty roads that lead to busier wider twisty roads. Nothing makes much sense right now but I’m sure we will figure it out.
Since we didn’t have much food around we went out to breakfast at the local Cracker Barrel. Jake loves it, but it’s not really my kind of food. At least the breakfast isn’t bad, you can’t go too wrong with eggs and pancakes. I got mine with blackberries! YUM! Plus, my mom took one of the best pic’s of us that I’ve seen in years!
Jacob and Michelle
Shopping-wise, we wont be disappointed here. There is a huge outlet mall that, as soon as I get a job, I will be frequenting. That was actually the nice thing about living in Mount Pleasant as a poor college student, there were no such temptations.
Since our new place is larger than our last apartment, I knew right away we would need to buy a few things, like curtains. Luckily, we found a Target and a Bed Bath and Beyond not too far away. Yay for my favorite stores!
I’m not sure I’ve mentioned this before, but the reason we have moved to VA is so that Jake can attend graduate school at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science. He is pursuing a degree in Oceanography. We are renting a condo in Williamsburg which is about 25 minutes away from his school and the Chesapeake Bay. I’m pretty excited about our new place. It is much nicer than anything we have ever rented before.
However, there is one minor problem. Okay, it’s a major problem if your a nutritionist foodie with a food blog. Brace yourself…
The refrigerator is broken!
Gasp! Yep, we have had NO refrigerated food for more than a week!
I know, terrible right! That means no Fage Greek Yogurt, no Soy Milk in my oatmeal, no leftovers, no fresh salsa, no fresh or frozen veggies ready to snack on, and no hummus.
So what have we been doing? Eating lots of carbs mostly.
I miss cooking.
I’ve also been spending a lot of time at Panera. Our internet was finally hooked up a few days ago, but until then Panera had become my home away from home. It was my source of coffee, veggies and internet. Since it wasn’t too far away, I spent at least three hours there everyday. The best part, was this new tomato basil salad they have. It is actually quite similar to my Panzanella Salad. The whole salad is pretty large, so I ordered half of it with a cup of low fat vegetable soup.
Our landlord is sending someone over Monday to fix the fridge, but I couldn’t wait that long to cook something. This beautiful kitchen was begging to be used!
So since the weather had been a bit rainy, and you know how rainy weather makes me want to bake, out came the flour, yeast, water and salt. I mixed them together following another King Arthur Recipe and just in time for dinner yesterday out of the oven came these wonderful baguettes!
I still need to work on my technique, but for a first time baguette I impressed myself! Went perfectly with a freshly sliced tomato and some olive oil!
I will most certainly make this recipe again! I used All Purpose flour instead of bread flour because it’s what I had. I would love to attempt making whole grain baguettes some time!
Next time I post, I’m going to tell you all about my new grocery store! I’m pretty excited about it! And if my fridge is up and running, you should be looking forward to some great food too! Until then, I want to know, have you ever been to Williamsburg or even Virginia? How did you like it? And, have you ever had to live without a refrigerator? What did you eat?
