Filed under: Guilty Pleasures | Tags: britney spears, crystal hot sauce, food, white trash snacks
We all have our weaknesses. Being from the South, mine are often of the white trash variety. This morning, lacking the motivation to brave the overtaxed Muni system, I walked down to the liquor store to pick up what I call my “Britney Spears Breakfast”. This consists of ruffled potato chips, sour cream, and Louisiana’s own Crystal Hot Sauce. Those of you who are familiar with the awesomeness that is sour cream and potato chips will understand. The rest of you, try not to judge me too harshly. And you don’t know what you are missing.
Filed under: Farmers Market Finds | Tags: cookies, cooking, food, local, mushrooms, organic, produce
Unfortunately, I lost my camera battery charger for a few days, so I wasn’t able to document most of the scrumptious meals I made from my farmers market purchases this week. I was able to get a picture of my peanut butter cookies, which are the only things I made with nothing from the market. They did contain Oregon’s Tillamook butter, so at least one ingredient was local.
Here’s a quick list of what I cooked/ ate over the weekend:
Saturday Breakfast:
Bruschetta with creme fraiche*, heirloom tomatoes*, garlic and olive oil on slices of a French style baguette*
Saturday Snacks:
Veggie dip with sour cream*, fresh dill*, and salt
Carrot* and lemon cucumber* slices
Chocolate bread* with marscapone* and a sauce I made with fresh raspberries*
Pesto cheese curds*
Saturday Dinner:
Spiral Pasta with Chanterelles* cooked with butter* and olive oil
Sunday Breakfast:
Eggs with goat cheese*
Pancakes with marscapone* and homemade raspberry*/blackberry* syrup
* locally grown/ made, pesticide free
A few weeks ago I bought a bottle of cachaca for use in the delicious caipirinha, Brazil’s national cocktail. After a few tries, I have come up with a recipe that I believe is pretty darned tasty. There are different ways to put it all together, but I will provide what I consider an easy method for someone without a professional bar setup at home.
Muddle 2-3 large spoonfuls of sugar with half a lime (sliced) and a handful of berries (optional).
Add muddled mixture to an 8 oz glass, fill to overflowing with ice, then add cachaca until almost full.
Either stir thoroughly or pour entire glass into a closed container (or bar shaker) and shake until thoroughly mixed and chilled. Pour back into glass.
Garnish with a lime slice.
Turn on some Os Mutantes, dim the lights, and dream of tropical paradise.
(I used blueberries in the above caipirinha.)
In my early experiments, if the taste was off, it was usually because I didn’t add enough sugar. The sugar I used was an organic, hippy dippy one from the local co-op. A common variation is to take out the lime and add condensed milk. A variation I came up with is to serve this in a taller glass and top off with soda water, (otherwise, the caipirinha is a deceptively strong drink that is quite easy to imbibe too quickly.)
Filed under: Farmers Market Finds | Tags: farmers market, local food, organic, portland, watermelon
Last Saturday I bought my first heirloom watermelon at the farmers market in downtown Portland. The variety is Red Sweetie, and it is not only delicious, it fits easily into the fridge. I had considered using it for one of the watermelon recipes in this month’s Saveur magazine, but I couldn’t resist chomping into this beautiful melon right away. I especially love the pink swirls you can see in the flesh:
