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!

Prawns, Garlic, & Tomatoes

Prawns, Garlic, & Tomatoes 

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Tomatoes (4)

Salt & Pepper

Olive oil (6 tbsp/3 fl oz/90 ml)

Prawns (1 lb/500 g, peeled and deveined)

Garlic (1 tbsp, finely chopped)

Sherry vinegar (1 tbsp)

Fresh parsley (2 tbsp, chopped)

Cayenne pepper (dash)

*I served this dish with brown rice. I recommend you do as well or else it is just will not be hearty enough.

1. Preheat the oven to 450 F (230 C).

2. Cut the tomatoes in half and place cut side up in a shallow baking dish (I just used a regular cookie sheet. What exactly is a "shallow baking dish" anyways?) Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Bake for 15 minutes.

3. About 3 minutes before the tomatoes are finished, in a saute pan over high heat, warm 1 tbsp of the olive oil. Add the prawns and salt and pepper to taste and saute until pink and firm, 2-3 minutes. (I personally would give more for this step. More like 6-8 minutes.)

4. Transfer the baked tomatoes to individual plates. Place the prawns on top of the tomatoes.

5. In a small saucepan over high heat, combined the garlic and remaining olive oil and saute until the garlic turns golden brown, about 1 minute. Add the vinegar and deglaze the pan by stirring to dislodge any browned bits, about 30 seconds. Pour the contents of the pan equally over each serving. Sprinkle with parsley and cayenne. Serve immediately, nice and hot! 

(If you follow my blog, you may remember this step crashed and burned almost too literally. The garlic  burnt, the vinegar burnt into thin air, thus leaving me with nothing. So, if you find yourself in the same situation-or are too scared to even try step 5-just follow steps 1-4, then drizzle a little bit of sherry vinegar and spread a small amount of raw minced garlic or store-bought crushed Asian garlic on top of each dish evenly while food is hot, right before serving..)

Serves 4. (More like 3).

Quickie #2

Just finished eating midnight dinner. That's what happens when you work evening shifts. Made a quick-ie  pasta and was most impressed with results. Ingredients are as follows:

boiling water
kamut penne rigate
lean ground beef
chopped red peppers (equivalent of one big pepper)
minced garlic (three cloves)
chives (two)
olive oil (drizzle)
parmesan cheese (two tbsp. sounds right)

Nourishing and nicely filling. Inexpensive and quick. First real meal of the day.

Good night.

Dinner in High-Light & Low-Light

Pork Chorizo Sausage

Fried Mushrooms

Boiled Nugget Potatoes w/ Butter, Salt, & Pepper