A food post!?! SHOCKING, I KNOW.So, last Saturday Matt and I hit the Farmer's Market on Market Square again, in search of local meats this go round. And we found some! Overwhelmed with our choices, we ended up going for some fresh spicy country sausage, and got so excited about farm-fresh eggs we bought a dozen instead of any other meats, and headed home discussing the kick ass breakfast that was in our future for Sunday morning. Next week for the beef and chicken, perhaps...
In addition to the gorgeous fresh eggs (Katie, I'm seriously envious here. And the going rate for cage-free, local, fresh, organic eggs here in K-town? $5.00 a dozen!) and sausage, we picked up a huge loaf of rye bread (possibly my favorite bread ever), and recently I had ordered a 2lb bag of stone ground grits from a rice plantation in South Carolina. Y'all, the menu made itself here...The rest of the story, I will leave to the pictures. More in the cooking set on my Flickr.
So, today has been a rather food-centric day already, too.
I've been making holiday plans, because, come on!, this week is nothing if not a celebration of classic American foods. Tonight we're having hot dogs with some spicy mustard and a homemade pickled red onion relish (I can't keep from sneaking a bite or two of this stuff since I made it this morning, it's SO FREAKIN' GOOD), a nice vinegary sweet coleslaw, and I'm breaking out the cast iron dutch oven to deep fry some sweet potato chips. Also this morning I made a spicy chile rub for the Boston Butt that is now chillin' in my garage fridge--I'll be smoking this baby on my grill on Friday for some authentic pulled pork (what is more 4th of July in the south than that?), and cooked up the rest of my amazing sausage for a casserole of grits, sausage, cheese and eggs that will be Friday's breakfast. My in-laws bestowed a huge bag of fresh picked blueberries on us yesterday, and these are destined for Blueberry Peach Cobbler. And I'm thinking later that I'll make good on my promise to Matt to make the Dr. Pepper Peanut Brittle from Homesick Texan. I'm pretending that I didn't see her latest post on Blueberry Fried pies (I'm trying not to die, here). Also, lately I can't stop thinking that I want to learn to make freezer jam. Any of y'all ever made it before? Have you ever made and canned regular jam? And what are YOU making for the 4th?
5 comments:
I made freezer jam last week! For the first time! Exclamation point! Cort, it's so easy it's ridiculous. I did the no-boil version and it is LOVELY.
AND, $5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for eggs!!! Holy fish. Dude. There's no reason for them to be that much. Free range and organic means they don't have ot feed them ANYTHING... and that they're happy, free chickens! Just grab the eggs and go! Seriously. When you retire to TexasNorth for 6-months out fo the year (I'm picturing when your 55) you can have all the eggs you want.
I did freezer jam too, with strawberries. Very successful, although I think I boiled them. Can't remember. But I DO remember it was a hit; I gave away several jars. Go to it!
Freezer Jam it is, then! I'm thinking I want to try strawberry and peach.
Katie, I think summers at Texas North sounds like a perfect retirement scenario ;)
yeah i agree, $5 a dozen! you are getting robbed. at our farmer's market they are like $2 something. the meat from farmer's markets are out of this world. i am not sure i know about freezer jams. explain more! also i am going to have a ton of tomatoes and i want to use them for my spaghetti sauce but not sure how? how do i make them into a paste, or just into sauce? i am def. going to make the hummus, which i have already made twice and it is a huge hit. i am also going to make a sheet cheese cake that will look like the American flag! how wonderful.
Okay, sheet cheese cake that looks like the flag ? You win, that is AWESOME.
For freezer jam, you don't really cook the fruit, just mash it with pectin and sugar and store in plastic freezer jars. Because it's not cooked and canned, it won't stay fresh indefinitely, so you have to store it in the freezer and then once you take it out to use, it will keep in the fridge for 3 weeks or so. Supposed to make great yummy fruit jam but 1000 times easier than heating up the kitchen and cooking fruit, sterilizing jars, etc. We'll see how it goes, I bought the stuff last night and I'm making a batch of strawberry and one of blueberry peach jam.
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