This morning, and last Saturday AM, I went to the farmer’s market to buy local, fresh, delicious ingredients. Which I still think rival organic ingredients any day of the week. If you want to learn more about this topic, I’d suggest reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle or there are lots of web resources -here’s one for instance.

We have the unfortunate convenience of being able to buy any fruit or vegetable year round from our grocer. The sad truth about this is that it was shipped, many many miles in cold trucks to make it to your grocery store in perfect condition – the impact of the food miles spent to get that fruit or veggie into your hands has offset any benefit of organic. That produce has no doubt been comprimised.

Being down at the farmer’s market this morning, talking to those vendors, really made me feel like this is it – this is the heart of America, the local farmer, the small tent with veggies and fruits all laid out in baskets and galvanized buckets. The sweet smell of basil, fresh flowers in mason jars, and beautiful plants for $5! You just can’t beat it.

I bought organic (YES, local & organic) peppers – to make Hannah & Jake’s spaghetti sauce! And lots of roma tomatoes for salsa and even some peaches & a ginormo cucumber.

I love summer food life!

I always love finding new recipes. In fact, it’s so fun to me to get cookbooks from the library to broaden my recipe selection.

A few days ago, I made stuffed acorn squash. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures to go with this, and therefore no proof that I actually made it, so I’ll be making 3 more recipes. The recipe though, was delicious.

Today, I made a pasta salad, with a few ingredients I had sitting around, cucumber, basil, pepperoni, olives, and some delicious roasted garlic & parmesan dressing.

It turned out deliciously, and will be a good item to take on our trip tomorrow.

So, this is one of three, pasta salad, catch all, it didn’t have a recipe, but it didn’t need one. It was delicious with a few cracks of fresh pepper.

And so it is, I am 1/3rd complete with #7 on my 30 days to 30 list, make 3 new recipes.

There are a few things that taste better than homemade salsa. (other than cheesecake and caramel machiattos, of course).

The secret here, I believe is in getting the freshest tomatoes you can find, and stocking it full of locally grown produce. It’s like a farmer’s brag bag jar.

As you know, I’m reading Animal Vegetable Miracle and have been so very inspired to grow my own food & live off the land. Since that can’t fully happen yet, because well, let’s face it – I live in an apartment. I’ve decided to shop for locally grown foods as much as possible.

But since August was tomato month, it was very easy to get delicious, juicy, red orbs. So many, that I’ve made 9 jars of salsa so far (& counting).

So, I set out to make salsa with this deliciousness.

I mean who can disagree, these things are delicious!

I’m pretty sure I could eat it just like this, not blended, one bit. But just as delicious and colorful.

Into the blender she goes..

that, my friends, is what 4 jars of salsa looks like.

jar it, pose it, photograph it.

A beautiful thing about this post is that I can check off 2 things from the 30to30 list.

27. Make homemade salsa. &
28. Food blog.

These are now checked off & the benefit of checking these off is that I now have 4 jars of salsa in my fridge. Yum.

A few days ago, Jeremy brought home a gallon bag full of fresh blueberries. What else was I to do, but to make a blueberry tart and blueberry muffins. I still have many more recipes I’d like to make with these wonder-berries. Here are a couple of the recipes that I made and a picture of the finished product. I don’t claim to be a food blogger, but maybe that will soon change!

Now this here y’all is a blueberry tart, from Paula Dean’s collection of delicious recipes. The recipe itself calls for blueberry pie filling, but I wanted to use fresh berries, so I did a little somethin’ somethin’ to ‘em, which means, I put them in a pan, with some lemon juice, cinammon and powdered sugar, turned up the heat and let ‘em simmer. I didn’t let them break down too much, just enough to let them soak up the flava flav of the sugar. Oh my goodness, it was so delicious. I took it to small group on Monday, so it could be enjoyed fully without adding damage to my hips.

Another delicious recipe was these blueberry muffins, the name says it all, browned butter blueberry muffins, oh good gracious, they were so delicious. I enjoyed one with a glass of cold milk. The topping really makes them over-the-top delish.

Anyone up for brunch?

Although, coupons have been a struggle for me for quite some time, I’ve been researching it, and finally put the effort in this past week for Harris Teeter triples!

Here were the results. In 3 shopping trips, using around 50 coupons, including items that we did not have coupons for…

Total saved: $155.56

Total spent: $62.56

I’m sure you might want to know if this is items that we would normally buy. Admittedly, some of the items are NOT, but most are, we racked up on items like turkey bacon, reynolds wrap, household cleaners, croutons, hot sauce, frozen fruit, french fries, canned fruit, jello snacks, mustard and more. Some of these items I will donate to the food bank. And others I will find creative uses for!

I’m still going with the “best of 2009′s” but I’m a few days behind. So here is my attempt to catch up!

Best restuarant moment; Would have to be any time I go to Osteria Chicetti, I mean, this place is incredible. The atmosphere, the food is sensational, and the price isn’t so bad either! The italian salad is to die for, the Parma pizza is a delicious combination of flavors, and my friends and I swoon over their white bean dip.

Best Article: Pretty much, I’ve searched and I’ve looked and I guess the conclusion is that I didn’t keep track of articles very well. I did love this article. An article about “how to be happy in business” the venn diagram shows off where I am and where I’d like to be – I like the article for delivering practical perspective. [Dear Kelly in 2010, please keep track of articles better.]

I believe that recipes are best when they are shared, so here is the recipe I used for the chicken chili at the Pumpkin Party on Halloween! Enjoy!
Ingredients

* 1 1/4 lbs boneless skinless chicken

* 2 (15 ounce) cans great northern beans or navy beans

* 1 (15 ounce) can hominy or white corn (I used hominy)

* 1 (1 1/4 ounce) envelope taco seasoning (I used spicy taco seasoning!)

* 1 (4 1/2 ounce) can of chopped green chilies

* 1 (10 3/4 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup

* 1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth
* 1/2 cup sour cream
* chopped green onion (optional)
* monterey jack cheese (optional)

Directions

1. Place chicken in a 4 quart slow cooker.
2.Top with beans and corn (or hominy).
3   In a medium bowl, combine taco seasoning, chiles, condensed soup, and chicken broth. Pour over top of ingredients in the crock pot.
4. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours. (I cooked it on high for 5 hours due to time)
5.Before serving, stir gently to break up chicken, then stir in the sour cream. (At the same time I took the chicken out and shredded it, then put the chicken back in the mixture)

6. Serve topped with green onions and jack cheese, cilantro (delish) and sour cream, if desired (and you should desire it!)

Serve and enjoy!

This morning I was fortunate enough to catch Healthy Apetite on Food Network, and discovered a few new recipes that I tried out today. Delicious roasted red pepper & mozzerella stuffed turkey burgers (recipe) and baked onion rings (recipe). Then, I was craving key lime pie, so I went ahead and made that of those too.

The finished results are tasty so far, although I’m waiting on a friend and her mom before I dive into the key lime pie. Pie is meant to be shared.

It’s been a delicious day so far.