Dinners from the Farmers Market

Hi everyone! It's the weekend, time to relax, make some delicious, fresh and healthy summer suppers straight from the farmers market!
August is harvest time for small vegetable farms....

Each week I stock up on heirloom tomatoes.

I can't get over the colors.

And inside! So sweet, so red and juicy....very little seeds, just warm rosy beefsteak for slicing thin.

Corn is a must-have too. I always want to buy dozens of ears, to celebrate one of my favorite treats! But actually corn is best fresh picked and so I restrain my enthusiasm, buy a few fresh ears each time.

Too perishable to be photographed in the hot sunshine...here on the counter I have fresh ricotta, from Brooklyn!

...homemade cheese ravioli, French sourdough loaf, more tomatoes, lemons....

One lazy weeknight I just made classic grilled cheese sandwiches with this amazing chewy tasty bread---thinly sliced tomatoes, American cheese and mozzarella, all layered with Dijon mustard, and gently grilled in a non-stick pan. Yum! Serve with a fresh greens salad and homemade pickles....

Another night I made Chicken BLT salad for the late comers-home-from -the beach: This salad is just what it sounds like. NOT for diets or lo-cal.
Shredded chicken breasts (I poach Traders Joe's or BJ's frozen chicken breasts in the microwave); diced Farmers market tomatoes, crumbled bacon, chopped romaine lettuce and mayo. Grind some fresh black pepper. Toss lightly. Serve it with the French sourdough bread or on a bed of more romaine.

And last, Friday supper, yummy yum yum!

The homemade Italian market ravioli...boiled for 4 minutes, drained well. Toss with juice of 2 lemons; a little butter; two yellow summer squashes, sliced very thin, steamed ahead in microwave; toasted walnut bits, a dash of Riesling, lots of pepper, herbs from the deck garden, shaved parm. Dot with a few teaspoons of the ricotta and serve hot and perfect. So good.

(So we don't waddle on down to the beach, I serve a large plain dark green salad and small portions of the ravioli dish. And the rest of the cheapo Riesling, lol.)

Oh! What did I do with the rest of the ricotta?

First let me say fresh handmade ricotta is a food for gods!
I whipped it gently with a fork, added a LOT of Splenda, vanilla extract, a dash of vodka (or rum or brandy); stir in  a few chocolate chip bits, fresh but frozen raspberries/ blueberries (if you freeze them after washing and blotting dry, they don't disintegrate when stirred into the heavy cheese...). Sprinkle more toasted walnut bits on top. Chill. I serve this dessert in tiny cups  witha few berries and a sprig of mint on top.
Very rich, a little goes a long way!
For dinner parties/ fancy, you can tuck a small fragrant sugar cookie in the side of each bowl.
Any summer favorites cooking in your kitchens? I hope so! Enjoy!

love

      lizzy

          

........ gone to the beach

Weather Alert: Coastal Flooding and a Poem

Full moon, high tide....

It behaves
toward the permutations of novelty—
driftwood and shipwreck, last night's
beer cans, spilt oil, the coughed-up
residue of plastic—
with random
impartiality, playing catch or tag
...turning the same thing over and over,
over and over.
For the ocean, nothing
is beneath consideration.
The houses
of so many mussels and periwinkles
have been abandoned here,
it's hopeless
to know which to salvage. Instead
I keep a lookout for beach glass—
amber of Budweiser, chrysoprase
of Almadén and Gallo, lapis
by way of (no getting around it,
I'm afraid) Phillips'Milk of Magnesia,
with now and then a rare
translucent turquoise or blurred amethyst
of no known origin.
The process
goes on forever: they came from sand,
they go back to gravel...


    Beach Glass by Amy Clampitt


A few days after the Big Rain the beach is still quite flooded!

More erosion cuts have formed...

Some quite deep...

The Lifeguard stand is perhaps eight or nine feet high?

The sand is waterlogged, the skimmers love it.

note the dive-bomber chasing me!
center above

They hated my intrusion! It's blurry because they are so fast (and scary!) (and big!)...

Post-prandial gulls, below,...oh garbage, yum! they all squawk, happy not to eat that gourmet artisan bread I bring them,lol.

The weatherman says it rained less than an inch! This is a flower crock on my deck. The Mandevillea vine (pink flowers) floated right out! It's a six gallon pickle crock...full to the brim.

I think we got the "locally heavy at times" segment of the storm?

Food and flowers here tomorrow!

      love

 lizzy

gone to the beach.....

Rain in August

Yay! Hooray! A rainy day!
Rain at the beach and everyone has stayed away!
Hooray, hooray!

Most summers, mid-August brings a few days of rain to the beach. Maybe it's the tail end of a hurricane far out to sea, or tatters of storms wandering east from the Great Plains.

Not to be inhospitable , but by August I sometimes feel like I am running a resort...without pay!
And so I treasure that break in the sunshine, just a few days, of rain and grey.
I deserve a vacation too, don't I?
The beach was, again, mine, all mine.

The waterfront itself was inaccessible. I waded through flooded areas thigh deep to get this far.

 

This is an erosion cut, quite extreme. In a few weeks we may find old bottles or sea glass dug up by the waves...


looking west



looking east



Here is how the same views normally look! {below]

 

looking west



looking east



And look! the swales are finally full! (a swale is a seasonal pond that forms in upper dune areas, caused by heavy rain &/ or high tides. The water can  remain for months, drawing birds and wild creatures, or it can disappear immedialtely. The water here is usually less than 8" deep.)

This summer has been so dry and hot, no blackbirds nesting by the dunes ponds, no spadefoot toads, no pippits, no dune rabbits. Just too dry.

Perhaps now Ratty, our washashore muskrat will return...?  His den was in that smaller dark spot on the upper left, to the right of the white line of sand.

He has not been seen since he danced under the full moon in April. I miss him, but fear he moved across the island to the wetter side and now lives at the golf course.

Hope you are all feeling fine and have the weather you enjoy, be it rain or sun. Have a lovely week!

love

lizzy

....gone to the beach

PS for those of you who asked if my beach ever has people on it, below is a pix of a hot Saturday afternoon in August. After the flag far right is a town beach so more people are there....This is as crowded as it gets! Shhhh....



Saturday, Aug  13, 2011, 3 PM