A Farmers Market Dinner, from beginning to end

Gosh golly gee. It has been over a month since I've posted on my blog.

As you can see, this post has to do with goods purchased by yours truly from the farmers market-the Main Street Station Farmers Market-to be precise, run by the Vancouver Farmers Markets, that were cooked and then joyously eaten by myself.

I'm toying with the idea of having a regular weekly or bi-weekly posting on the farmers markets. Thoughts?

For now, here is a photo of beautiful tomatoes from Celyddon Farms and my grocery list and farmers market dinner:

Location: Main Street Station Farmers Market

Groceries Purchased:
six organic Sunrise Apples; Golden West Farms
four-pack Tree Hophouse Butter Chicken Sausages; Beer Brats
one bag of salad mix, one head of Music Garlic, small bag of baby broccoli; Ice Cap Organics
one fennel bulb, two small sweet onions; Cropthorne Farm
two Pink ______ heirloom tomatoes; Celyddon Farms

Hole in the Wallet:
small, only $30 spent!

Farmers Market Dinner Made:
two pan-fried Beer Brats Butter Chicken sausages with fried Cropthone Farm onions and Ice Cap Organics Music Garlic, and lightly sauteed Ice Cap Organics baby broccoli! Delish!

Leafy Greens, In the City

I recently took a photographic journey at Cedar Cottage Community Garden at Hull and Victoria in East Van to see if I could capture any special urban agricultural moments in time.

The tomato photograph below is an entry that I have submitted to the Home Grown Photo Contest co-sponsored by Edible Vancouver, Vancouver Farmers Markets, and Farm Folk/City Folk. The grand prize winner gets some pretty cool stuff and there are four runner-up prizes.

I'm no pro photographer, or even a budding amateur, but I have always been deeply in love with powerful, raw photography and I figure this would be good practice for me.

I have yet to enter a second and last photograph in the contest, but I still have some time. I hope to finally! go to Avalon Dairy in South Vancouver and see if I can capture any beautiful moments early in the morning on the farm that would be worthy. But for now here is Cedar Cottage Community Garden captured by my digital Nikon on a summer's day in Vancouver. Perhaps one of these photos will be my last entry in the contest.

Take a deep breath and enjoy the peace amongst concrete. Better yet, go there yourself and take it all in.

Tomatoes of the Tiny Variety

Here's some visual goodies for you:
Conchita Cherry Tomatoes at the East Van Farmers Market. Courtesy of Celyddon Farms, Delta, BC. Fantastic people, great products, first and currently only tomatoes of the season! I highly recommend.

Something New, Something Blue

As is obvious, I have been absent from the blogosphere and DDF for just over a month.
I've been really busy with work, tired, and just generally flying at half-mast when it came to my ideas, enthusiasm, and committment to the blog. For me, it is a fledgling project, a hobby, not a business enterprise or a creative outlet I rely on for my sanity. Not that I don't appreciate those who do read my blog and the easy access to free speech and expression that it gives me. I've just been tired and busy.

But, I'm back! With a brand-spanking new design and template that I like much much more than what I had before. Thank you Blogger for giving me more to work with! I like the clean white background, the light blue text, and the welcoming open space of the blog. Perfect for summer. I hope that you will be able to find everything easier and more appealing and refreshing and fun to read!


Below is the reason for my post: a perfect omelette I made a few days ago. Free-range, organic two-egg omelette with local organic pea shoots, local Windset Farms hot peppers, and parmesan cheese. Mmmm good.

With sunshine and summer come smoothies

During the dreary time between October and April, making healthy fruit smoothies or eating fruit at all is about as familiar to me as the Antarctic. However, as soon as the sun starts shining and it is warm again in May, I want salads, smoothies, fresh food, and lots of it all.

My mum bought me a fantastic blender for Christmas and man has it been getting a workout the last week. I'm loving my fruit smoothies! It feels so good on the stomach, it's quick, it's healthy, and it keeps me regular. (Apologies for some major TMI there.)

I use milk, yogurt, frozen fruit, and ground flaxseed in my smoothies. There are, of course, endless options for smoothies: maybe you're more of a crushed ice person, or a banana lover, or maybe you add sugar (please don't do the latter for the love of God).

Here are the basic rules, quantities, and ingredients I follow per serving:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup thick Greek-style vanilla yogurt
1 cup frozen fruit
2 tbsp ground flaxseed

That's it! So get that Magic Bullet out and get blending. You won't regret it.

Roasted Yam Cream Soup

Roasted Yam Cream Soup

CARDAMOM CREAM:


Sour cream (1/2 cup/125 ml)
Ground cardamom (1/2 tsp/2 ml)

SOUP:


Unpeeled yam cut into 1/2 inch slices (1 lb./454 g)
Carrots cut into 1/2 inch slices (1/2 lb./225 g)
Unpeeled garlic cloves (4)
Olive oil (1 tbsp/15 ml)


Olive oil (1 tsp/5ml)
Chopped leek (white part only) (1 cup/250 ml)
Finely grated gingerroot (1 tsp/5 ml)


Chicken (or vegetable) stock (5 cups/1.25 L)
Salt & Pepper (to taste)


Half-and-half cream (1/2 cup/125 ml)

1. Combine sour cream and cardamom in small bowl until smooth. Chill until ready to serve.
2. Pre-heat oven to 425 F/220 C.
3. Put yam, carrots, and garlic cloves into large bowl. Drizzle with first amount of olive oil (1 tbsp). Toss until coated. Spread evenly on ungreased baking sheet. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes until yam and carrot are tender-crisp. Cool. Transfer yam and garlic to cutting board. Discard yam and garlic peels. Set aside.
4. Heat second amount of olive oil (1 tsp) in large saucepan on medium. Add leek and ginger. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until leek is softened.
5. Add stock, salt, and pepper and the roasted yam, carrots, and garlic. Stir. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, partially covered, for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Carefully process with hand blender or in blender until smooth.
6. Add half-and-half cream. Heat and stir for about 2 minutes until heated through.
7. Spoon chilled cardamom cream on individual servings.
8. Serve and enjoy!

Serves 6.


I halved this recipe exactly and it worked out beautifully. It is a truly delicious soup, and while it may seem slightly laborious, it's not that bad and totally worth the effort. Easy to make in bulk, healthy, and unique. Just be extra careful if you use a blender to process it. Make sure the top of your blender is secure and cover it with a cloth while you are blending to be safe.  I had no problems, but avoiding burns and catastrophic splatters is important. Don't rush this part. Enjoy it! Seeing the soup go from a chunky vegetable broth to a smooth and silky delight is quite rewarding.

Also of note: I forgot to roast and thus include the garlic in the recipe, and I didn't discard the yam peels. The soup was still delicious and autumn-like, so if you suffer from memory loss and laziness like me, don't fret. You'll still make the greatest soup ever.

Portland Series: Tonalli's Doughnuts & Cream

This is the third and long-time-coming review in my Portland Food Series, and we again find ourselves in the Alberta Arts District. You will notice that quite a few of the reviews are in that area and in the respect of full disclosure, I stayed just a few blocks off of Alberta Street while I was in town.

Tonalli's Doughnuts & Cream is located on NE Alberta Street at NE 28th. We went there for a post-breakfast snack and I was truly blown away by the sheer number and types of doughnuts on display and for sale. Cake doughnuts, fluffy doughnuts, sprinkled, chocolate, coconut, iced, with filling, glazed. You name it, Tonalli's has it. Yeah, it's pretty bare bones inside and qualifies as a hole-in-the-wall, but those prove to me time and time again to often be the best places out there.

I got a Coconut doughnut, which was a cake doughnut with white icing and flaky, sweet coconut piled on top. I also got a coffee as well. Both were fresh and complimented each other well. Unlike with the coconut cupcakes at Cupcakes here in BC, I did not feel sick afterwards, but rather delighted. It didn't come to more than $4 and was fresher and tastier than your average Timmy Ho fare.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm not dissing Timmy Ho joe and their double chocolate doughnuts. But, Tonalli's has a got a few important things on Timmy's: variety, quantity, freshness, and an actual neighbourhood feel (Tonalli's is not a chain).

If you want to compare Tonalli's to Voodoo, I don't think it's worth it because all they have in common is that they both sell doughnuts. Tonalli's does ice cream, cold drinks, coffee, espresso drinks, and the like, and has space to sit down. And while they may not have doughnuts with cereal on top or pieces of bacon, they do have a huge variety of your basics and your slightly fancy ones too.

If you're in the Alberta Arts District, you've got to stop by with a friend and be a cop for a day, coffee in one hand and doughnut in the other.