The Craft Begins

It seems likes summer is rapidly coming to a close, so it’s time to revisit this list of recipes for easy and simple summer salads.

Time to get your fix of fresh fruits and veggies before it’s too late!

When I lived in Colorado, I had a Saturday morning routine.  I would wake up really early and start hitting the garage sales around 7am.  I had a typical path I would follow, and started to learn which people were there every weekend.  We made friends.  After that I would go to the Farmer’s Market before it got too crowded.  If you got there much after 9am it was a zoo (it was not a town of early risers).  That was definitely one of my favorite things about where I lived.

After I moved down to Arizona, I was a little sad that the only produce I could find was grown nearby across the border in Nogales.  People, this is where the majority of your produce in the store comes from, it’s amazing!  We just have sweet little Mexican guys bring up what’s left over in the back of their pickup trucks.  I figured that you can’t grow much here, as we are in the middle of the desert.

How wrong I was!  There were not too many booths but there was a lot if interesting stuff.  There’s lots of ranches and farms down here, so you could get all sorts of delicious meats.  I bought some ground lamb that was FANTASTIC – look for a recipe soon involving it !  There were also lots of little cute veggies that I think the retirees grow in their backyards.  The best find by far was a jar of pickled dilled garlic cloves.  I know that it sounds weird, but they were SO GOOD.  They’re like potato chips.  You eat one and you just can’t stop.

I’d really like to try to eat a whole week with only stuff found at the farmer’s market (plus staples).  I’d also like to go to these farms and talk to the farmers and take lots of pictures and really get to know them.  That might still happen.

What’s your favorite thing at the farmer’s market?

At the flea market a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a great deal – 20lbs of freshly picked grape tomatoes for $5.  I love tomatoes, but I love a deal even more, so I dutifully lugged them home and was presented with an enormous problem – what on earth do you do with 20lbs of grape tomatoes?

I froze a lot of them (which really works well – you get little tiny tomato ice cubes) but still a ton remained.  I got some recipes from friends that I have yet to try out but that I’m really excited about.  My main focus was on preservation, and finding a way to store them that would work well in the freezer and be pretty versatile so I could use them on everything and thus use them up.

I’m going to experiment later with some of the recipes that I received but I’d like to share a few of the ones that I came up with.  They’re just sauces, but they provide a great burst of flavor for just about any meal.

Provencal Tomato Chutney

I call this Provencal tomato chutney because it’s got a lot of the yummy herbs and spices found in Provence.  I imagine it in a lot of different applications – served as a topping for roasted meat, or accentuating a lovely plate of white fish and potatoes (believe it or not, I can something of this sort in Italy and it was divine).  Or even with a pile of homemade pita chips – yum.

1 onion, diced

4-6 cloves garlic

1 qt. grape tomatoes

1 tbsp. rosemary

1 tbsp. thyme

1 tbsp. basil

olive oil & vinegar

salt & pepper to taste

Dice garlic and onions, and saute in olive oil until soft.  Add rosemary, basil and thyme (fresh or dried, though fresh is a bit stronger) and cook an additional 2-5 minutes.  Add grape tomatoes, whole, and let the mixture warm up a bit (5-10 minutes).  I add a little bit of water to get the whole thing really cooking.  Continue to cook over medium-low heat covered, stirring occasionally.  The tomatoes will naturally pop, but you can hasten the process by smashing them with a wooden spoon when they get soft.  Cook until the mixture has reduced in volume by about half, or about an hour.   The texture should be thick and not watery, but still liquid.

Flea Market Salsa

This is so named because it was entirely created with ingredients that were sourced at my local flea market (mostly out of the back of pickup trucks).   It might be a little unconventional, but you can’t beat the freshness.  I like to make it in huge vats, since salsa seems to disappear quickly, but if you’d like a little less, just halve the recipe!

6 c. grape tomatoes

4 small/3 medium white onions

2 small cans V-8 (optional but it gives it some depth)

2 tbsp. vinegar

2 bell peppers (any color, though orange, yellow and green add color)

2 tbsp. ground cumin

2 tsp. chili powder (use your common sense on this – chili powders vary widely)

6-10 garlic cloves

2 large/3 small limes

dash of olive oil

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor.  You might have to do it in several batches, as it ends up being quite a bit of salsa.  I like to blend mine until it has a fairly even, liquid consistency, but a food processor works much better if you like your salsa chunky.

If you’ve got a delicious recipe that you’d like to share, please let me know at thecraftbegins@gmail.com!