Farmer's Market Fresh

It is my habit that I try to use most food available from our local farmer's market, so as today is Saturday I had to go to this mornings market. One vendor from the coast sells her lettuce and other winter and fall veges another from our area sells Asian veges.

I like to buy baby bok choy, chinese broccoli and carrots from the Asian stand. Another stand sells all the peppers you can fit into a little basket so I always pick up my bell peppers, anaheim, and others. From a stand run by two older women I buy my eggs and today picked up some yams.

A hint for rice; I like to buy the frozen brown rice from Trader Joe's. It cooks in 3 minutes in the microwave.

Sauteed greens Over Rice

½ bunch of Kale

5 small Dark Green Baby Bok Choy

1 bunch of Chinese Broccoli

1 light green chili pepper chopped up

½ C of Tofu or to taste cut into bite size pieces

Chop the greens. You can add them to the skillet as you chop them. Add just enough olive oil to coat the pan, then start heating it before you add the greens. Add the greens, then make a little hole in the center and add your chili. Cover the pan and mix every once in awhile. This cooks in about 15 to 20 min. Add your tofu and let it warm up.

Heat your rice and then serve the veges over the rice.

I sometimes add some raw shrimp that I've cut up into thirds and cook with the greens until cooked thru.

Crock-Pot: Coq-au-Vin

Thank goodness for crock-pots; my oldest boy and his wife had indicated that they would come in time for dinner last night. I was also going to be taking care of their nearly 2-year old granddaughter for the day while they worked. I ran to the store and picked up a whole chicken so that dinner would at least be tasty and easy.

I looked up chicken in the little crock-pot's cookbook and found a couple of recipes that looked good so decided to combine them making a sort of Coq-au-Vin. I was so glad that I'd chosen to do a crock-pot dish, the chicken fell off the bone and was so moist, plus I was able to spend the afternoon chasing after my granddaughter.

Chris's Version of Coq-au-Vin

1 whole Chicken

2 chopped up carrots

several chopped ribs of celery

3 or 4 cloves of garlic chopped

5 small potatoes cut into bite size pieces

1 C of sliced mushrooms, I used crimi and white.

¼ to ½ C red wine, I used Indian Creek “Pinot Noir”

You are suppose to put in chopped onion but I forgot. I put the chicken in the pot then put the veges all around the chicken. If your pot is small then put the veges in 1^st and then add the chicken. Grind some pepper on the whole thing and you can add salt, I rarely add salt and didn't here. Then pour in some wine Cook on high for 4 hours.

Gluten Free Eating

For several months now I've been unmotivated to write about cooking. The almond cookies need new packaging, I've stepped away from the almond business and my son has now taken over it entirely, plus my oven quit working so there have been no baking experiments.

Today I was reading a blog about someone who has celiac and it gave me the idea to write more about what I do for my family. I also have celiac which means I cannot use gluten from wheat or oats. Now some people may not have an intolerance to oats but I do. Celiac destroys the small intestine over time and is linked to cancer so it is much easier to just do without the gluten.

In addition to leaving out gluten I also try to prepare low fat and mostly vegetarian meals. My dad suffered a major hear attack at the age of 53 so I'm always conscious of eating to save my family members lives.

Now my love for cooking has not diminished while living without an oven, just the preparations have been modified. So I will start writing about the meals I cook and include the recopies.

Yesterday I was so hungry for Beef Bourguignon but had already put a pot of beans on the stove. I did need to buy a couple of things so went to Von's where I prefer the Ranchers Reserve Beef when I can't get grass fed. I always look at the clearance items as they are marked way down and there was the Rancher's Reserve stew beef that needed to be sold by that day so was marked down 30%, this was on top of being on sale. I picked up 3 packages, put 2 in the freezer and one for tonight's dinner.

Since I don't have an oven I dug out my 35 year old crock pot, found the recipe book for it and looked up the recipe in Julia Child's “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. I compared the recipes and have modified the recipe to be gluten free and lower fat as follows:

Chris's Beef Bourguignon

Olive Oil

1 # lean, and good quality stew beef,

2 carrots sliced

1 onion sliced
1 large hand-full of white mushrooms and 1 large hand-full of Crimi mushrooms

3 cloves of garlic chopped

1 sm can of tomato paste

1 tsp thyme

red wine, I used Kenwood Red Table Wine as it was open already

a little water

Saute your stew beef in a little olive oil, just to brown then add it to your crock pot. Add a little more olive oil if necessary and saute your carrots and onion and after a bit throw in the mushrooms then add to the crock pot. Deglaze your skillet with some red wine, about ¼ C or a little less. Mix your paste, thyme and garlic together in a bowl and then add to your skillet mixing with the wine. You may add water, about ½ of the can of paste in order to make a thick sauce. I added about ½ C or so of wine to the crock pot then added the paste mixture. Cook on high for 4 hours and serve over some potatoes or rice.