The farmers’ market was wonderful today. I got romaine, asparagus, and more strawberries! Also some pretty radishes! Yay!
Tonight: Leftover chicken, roasted potatoes and garlic scapes. It looks promisingly delish!
And it was! I doused the chicken in a light dusting of flour and pan-fried the crust. It made the chicken look and taste different, but it was still the amazing marinated chicken from the dinner party. Then I sliced up 3 well-scrubbed Idaho potatoes and cut my garlic scapes into pieces. They were tossed on a cookie sheet with EVOO, sea salt, and pepper and roasted at about 450 for 25 minutes. Delicious. The garlic scapes came out a bit more cooked than I liked, but they were still delicious with that hint of garlic flavor, not as strong as a clove of it but still lovely. Apparently garlic scapes are delicate little beasties. I should have added them halfway through cooking time.
I also had some market fresh strawberries. Strawberries aren’t good for long. They turn from lush and tangy to mushy and moldy lightning fast, so I ate them tonight for the good of mankind. They were great. Not super crazy sweet. A little tart, and even a little earthy. They were delicious. I ate them while reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which is an awesome book, btw). Nice!
Tomorrow I will broil my asparagus! I think I will have it with some kind of rice, probably brown because I don’t think I want to fuss with meat. I usually gobble up my farmers’ market finds in a couple days, which is good. Limp asparagus and mushy tomatoes are sad things to have. Better to eat a less-meat produce-rich diet now, while these lovely bounties of God’s earth are in season, than in the dead of winter. These delicious finds have really turned me off of grocery store produce. Farm-fresh stuff has more complex and lovely flavor. And less danger of contamination, which has cropped up all over even those nice organic farms. This contamination is now in my delicious tomato friends, further reinforcing my decision to stick to local produce.