What I ate Wednesday 21

Well another week has flown by.  I came inside just  as a huge Midwest thunderstorm came along to write this post.  As much as I love the summer sun it is good to have some rain so I can get somethings done. I've really been enjoying all of the fresh market produce; I think the only supermarket produce we have at the moment are a few avocados for my girls who are hooked on them. I like to see how many weeks I can go without grocery store produce, the longer the better.  

Breakfast: Soft-boiled egg, 2 slices of homemade sourdough bread topped with ricotta and apricot jelly, a peach from the peach truck, strawberries and coffee of course.  

Lunch: Lightly cooked zoodles, cucumbers, tomatoes, radishes and sardines.  A lot of our farmers have been using hot houses to extend the growing season here.  I'm very happy with that.  I also love sardines; they add so many good things to a meal.

Dinner: Pasta with oven roasted shrimp, snap peas, spinach and fresh herbs. Wine to drink of course. I made my husband fettuccine Alfredo (He's not a fan of shrimp.)

Dessert (not pictured) vanilla ice cream with a bit of hot fudge from our ice cream social/graduation party for my middle daughter.

I hope you had a pleasant week and found many good things to cook.

As always with love from the Midwest, 

Beth 

Farmers' Markets Galore

Well it's been a busy week.  I've had extra curriculum writing work this week and next; along with my oldest having hip surgery. Needless to say I've been thinking of other things than writing posts.  However this past weekend we were blessed to get to 2 farmers' markets and the fruit truck (Tree Ripe Citrus) finally came. I thought I'd share some of my pictures from the day. It was definitely unseasonably cool, but there were some delicious local things to buy.

The peaches from here are delicious.  I look forward to them every year. 

This was the first weekend of the Appleton farmers' market.  Strawberries were really expensive, but they were the first local fruits of the season - I couldn't resist.

Next up the same morning was Green Bay's market.  There were some beautiful plants and many other delicious treats - local cheese and of course the fruits and veggies.  

But one of my favorites is Susie-Q fish.  They have fresh caught white fish - a delicious dinner on Saturday night. 

The day's haul.  The blueberries were from a farmer  in Michigan with indoor growing - so if I drew a circle around the area, most likely within a 100 miles.

Please enjoy your local farmers' market.  There are so many treasures to be found, plus maybe you'll get a hug from your local farmer like I did.

As always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

What I ate Wednesday 20

Wow have the weeks flown by with this weekly post.  Summer vacation has started and of course I change my eating habits a little bit.  I have more time to relax and to cook for all of my meals.  We are starting to get food from our CSA, farmers' market and a little bit here and there from our garden (more like micro greens from our radishes).  

Breakfast: Huevos rancheros toast, plum and coffee. 

I had black beans, that I made the other day in the Instant Pot, in my fridge and thought they'd be a great breakfast.  I also had really good homemade sourdough bread.  So I thought I'd put a little together and do a toast not a tortilla.  I wilted some local spinach and topped with local hothouse tomatoes.  This was a delicious way to start my day.

Lunch: Clean out the fridge salad.  

As the name of this salad implies, the fridge needed to be cleaned out. I sauteed some local shiitake mushrooms and warmed up grilled onions and used the last bits of lettuce from our CSA to make this salad.  I topped it with thinly sliced grilled lamb from the other night and sunflower micro-greens.  

Dinner: Firecracker salmon, potatoes dauphenois and steamed broccoli and of course a glass of wine to drink. 

This was a quick and easy dinner.  I marinated the salmon about 3 hours ahead and substitued 1/4 canola oil and 1/4 sesame oil for the peanut oil.  The potatoes take about an hour to cook, but once they are in the oven you don't have to do anything but relax. 

Dessert: Coffee and vanilla ice cream with a little chocolate sauce.

Hope you had a delicious food week.

Bon Appétit!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth 

Pizza Part 2

About a month ago I became a proud owner of an Ooni pizza oven. I posted my messes and successes here.  I must say my mess has been due to the crust.  Over the past month my husband and I have experimented with several crust recipes.  I first used my pizza crust from Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  While the crust tasted great it was very sticky; even when I worked quickly on the large metal spatula.  The next crust I tried was from the Ooni company.  I ordered the OO flour from Amazon, but the crust didn't have the flavor I liked.  So I went back to my old tried and true crust from Martha Stewart.  I've been using this recipe for years, and it makes 4 individual pizzas. Perfect.  I can make the crust a few hours before dinner, so after school, let it sit and relax while I do other things and then have perfect pizza dough.  This dough also worked well for me and the Ooni.  Here are some updated photos from Friday night's pizza dinner.

Sausage pizza for my husband

Sausage and pepperoni for my son

Mushroom, Spinach and fresh mozzarella for me. 

Here's the recipe. Enjoy!

1 1/4 cup luke warm water

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 T olive oil

1 c whole wheat flour

2 c white flour

Mix yeast and water in mixer.  Add salt and olive oil and mix.  Add flours one cup at a time.  Mix until dough comes together.  Kneed until dough pulls away cleanly from the sides for the bowl.

Allow dough to rest for 1 hour in a greased and covered bowl.

Form into 4 individual pizzas and top as desired.  

Bon Appétit!

And as always with love from the Midwest,

Beth