What We Spent and What We Ate: If you need another reason to shop at the farmers’ market . . .

It was pouring rain on shopping day.  Phoenicians are always grateful for rain because we live in perpetual drought conditions.  Rain, however, makes us drive badly and complain a lot.  I was grumpy on the way to the farmers’ market and even grumpier when I got there and the whole parking lot was flooded.  I made the kids wait in the car while I waded through the muck and hurried to buy what I could for $25.  Due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to cut our food budget for the week in half.  I thought I had $6 left, so I stopped at my favorite vendor to pick up a couple things I needed for the boys’ lunches.  I hurried to the line with my baby carrots, a head of lettuce and the first pepper I’d seen in months.  She rang me up and the total was $6.50.  I looked in my purse and realized I only had three dollars.  “I only have enough for the carrots, ” I said, mentally refiguring the week’s lunches and wondering what I was going to do with so little food.  “Don’t worry about it.  You can give me the $3.50 next time.  You’re a good customer.”  I thanked her and shuffled away, a little embarrassed.

It seems like such a little thing, but on a bad day, it can change everything.  While I hate the idea of being a consumer, when she said I was a good customer I felt like I do when my boss says I’m a good teacher or my mom says I’m a good mom.  Yay!  I’m good at something!

I’ve heard a lot of people talk about “community” at farmers’ markets.  For me, community has always been a little abstract.  Sure, I chat with people in line, and say hi to people I know, but I’d never really considered it a community.  But when my farmer saw I was having a rough day, she helped me out and made me feel better.  The community part of a farmers’ market isn’t just socializing in line and swapping recipes, it’s about personal transactions versus business transactions.  Plenty of nice people work at Safeway and many of them know my name, but they’re not invested in the products they sell and, quite frankly, much of what they sell is unhealthy and even dangerous.  If they were acting on their concern for their customers, they’d tell them not to buy cigarettes and cured meat.  It’s a business transaction–a friendly, pleasant one, but a strictly commercial one nonetheless.

I got to the car as fast as I could, envisioning a screaming toddler, a fight and maybe a little blood.  I got there and they were cuddled in the back seat listening to music on the iPod.  This is when I told myself that everything is going to be just fine.  And I really believed it.

This week I was pretty conscious of making dinners that could be worked into lunches the next day.  It was also a busy week, so we stuck to mostly quick, simple dinners.

Saturday: pho!

I had two huge packages of spare ribs from our steer.  Spare ribs are disgusting and I didn’t know what to do with them, so I threw them in a pot and simmered them gently for about 8 hours.  I went to Whole Foods and had the guy slice sirloin paper thin and then went to Lee Lee Market and got Vietnamese rice noodles.  Then I made Pho!  It was fun and delicious.  I forgot the sliced lime . . . and have vowed to never do that again.

Next time, I’m going to get a whole wheat baguette from Frogs Organic Bakery (in Tucson) at the Downtown market.  It’s the best whole wheat bread I’ve ever had.  It would be lovely with the soup.

Sunday: hot dogs and hamburgers from Double Check Ranch on brioche buns from  , purple cole slaw, arugula and roasted beet salad with candied citron.

I found out the trick to great red cabbage coleslaw:  after you shred the cabbage, put it in a huge bowl and sprinkle it with a decent amount of salt.  Then you let it sit an hour or two and press out the water.  Red cabbage is a little too crunchy, so this method makes it the perfect texture.

I got a buddha’s hand at Whole Foods last week and, since the rind is especially fragrant and flavorful, I decided to candy it.  I left much of the inside of the fruit, which is an only slightly bitter pith.  There was a little bit of fruit in there, but not much.

Here’s a buddha’s hand pic from chefeddy.com

I used this recipe, but added Grand Marnier to the syrup.  If you don’t have super fine sugar, just put it a grinder for a couple seconds.

We have a lot of oranges from the front yard, too.  I’ll juice them and candy some more peels.  At an Afghan engagement party we went to last week, they served Persian rice with little slivers of candied orange peel.  It was heavenly.

I peeled the oranges with a potato peeler and then squeezed them for orange juice (they were squirty).  I made candied orange peel using the same syrup.  Instead of tossing these in sugar and drying them, I’m storing them in the syrup to use in everything.  I made mashed sweet potatoes with butter, cream, brown sugar, and about a 1/4 cup of the orange peel with syrup.  I thought it was amazing, but the boys disagreed.

Monday:

For the boys, I threw together some leftover pasta, tomatoes and spinach and served with grated parmesan.  They were quiet and they ate it, so it must have been okay.

For Pat, I just threw some garlic, shallots and pancetta (from Trader Joe’s because it’s in little tiny cubes) in a skillet with some olive oil, then added several chopped tomatoes and then some spinach.  I ladled this mixture over some hot polenta (very easy to make).  I put the leftover polenta in a rectangular tupperware so I could slice it the next night and fry it.  My favorite thing to do with leftover polenta, though, is to pour buttermilk over it and sprinkle it with lots and lots of pepper.

For dessert: low carb pana cotta adapted from Alice Waters recipe which is the best and easiest ever in the world.

I’m trying to lose a few pounds, so I’m avoiding sugar like the plague.  I was dying for something sweet, though.  I made the panna cotta with Splenda (I know, it’s probably really terrible for you, but you don’t know my desperation).  They were lovely–especially with a little candied orange peel on top, of which I only took a microscopic bite.

Tuesday: roasted pumpkin tartlets and shaved fennel salad

I have taken to roasting big winter squash whenever I have the time and storing it in tupperware in the fridge.  I used about three cups of pumpkin mixed with about 1/2 cup of minced shallots, 8 duck eggs and a cup of cream to make these little tarts.  I seasoned it with a little nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Since I used frozen pie crust, it only took about 5 minutes to throw together.  I made mine with no crust, and it was so good I hardly missed it.

They were perfect for lunch boxes the next day.

Alice Waters’s Shaved Fennel Salad from the cookbook Pat got me for Christmas, The Simple Art of Food:

It was a pain to get the fennel shaved thin.  She recommends a mandoline, but that wasn’t getting it thin enough, either.  Her mandonline probably works.

2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and sliced as thin as you can get it

2 tablespoons  lemon juice and zest from 1/4 lemon

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

3 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

Whisk the olive oil into the other ingredients and toss with fennel.

Wednesday: shrimp seasoned and baked (in bacon drippings), fried polenta, spinach and bacon salad

I made the best banana bread of my career for dessert.  I always use this Cooking Light recipe that I’ve adapted to make it higher in fat and higher in deliciousness.  They use a brown butter glaze if you’re interested.  I decided just to make the bread taste good and then put ICE CREAM on it!!!!!!!

Banana Rum Bread:

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed high quality dark brown sugar
• 3 medium/large ripe bananas, sliced
• 1/2 cup sweet cream buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons walnut
• 3 tablespoons amber or gold rum
• 2 large eggs
• 6 ounces all-purpose flour and 3 ounces cake flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Baking spray

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Melt 5 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add brown sugar and bananas; sauté 6-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; cool 10 minutes. Place banana mixture in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth.
3. Combine buttermilk and next 3 ingredients (through eggs). Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately to banana mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat at low speed just until combined. Scrape batter into a 9 x 5-inch metal loaf pan coated with baking spray. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs clinging. Cool for 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Remove bread from pan, and cool on wire rack.

Thursday: two ten minute dinners

For the boys, I boiled some einkorn pasta and tossed it with two cans of tuna and 2/3 of a jar of tomato sauce.  They love it and it takes 12 minutes to make.  For Pat, who didn’t get home until 8:30, I thawed some black eyed peas from New Year’s Day.  Also ten minutes.

Friday: sausage, scarlet runner beans and candied butternut squash (I replaced most of the sugar with good dark brown sugar)