Forest Grove Farmer's Market Part 4

Another trip to the farmers market yesterday and there were a lot more booths there as well. Before I go into what my wife and I got there, I want to update from the last post of what I cooked. If you remember I got sugar snap peas, some of them were snacked on but the remainder were used in a stir fry with rice noodles. The potatoes were uses just as I stated, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted in the oven until tender. The onions I used in a batch of homemade chili, the recipe of the week.

Everybody has their own chili recipe, if you don't, start with this one and build from there. I focus more on the flavor and not so much on the spice. Granted I eat incredibly spicy food, to the point of inhuman levels but I can always spice it up after it's made and that my wife doesn't eat spicy food. She is getting better now, when we first met she found oatmeal spicy (just kidding, please don't kill me dear if you read this) but now she can handle small amounts of spice. Ether way its good to know how to make chili, its a good dish to serve to a bunch of people or cook up a large batch and freeze for yourself.

Home Style Chili
1 to 2 medium onions
8 or more cloves of garlic
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 lb chopped meat
28 oz can whole tomatoes
14 oz can beans
chili powder
Italian seasonings
season salt
lemon pepper
Balsamic vinegar

First fry the chopped meat and drain most of the fat. Cut up onions, garlic and peppers to saute in the pot that you browned the chopped meat in. Cook for a few minutes to get the mixture tender. Add the can of tomatoes, juice and all, and chop up with a knife or your hands until it resembles small pieces. Add the meat back and the spices, use as much as you want according to taste, a few shots of vinegar is always nice. Then the controversial issue of adding the beans, I'd add them now but my dad used to add them in the last hour of cooking. I usually use kidneys or black beans but this time there was a special mixture for Southwestern style with red beans, some other beans, corn and Southwest spices which usually means extra salt and sugar. It tasted good and I think it helped this batch. Pinto beans, chili beans, pretty much any type of bean will work. Cook at a low temperature for two to three hours stirring occasionally, like every thirty minutes. I served it with rice or just eat it plain. If you can, cook a day in advance, it is so much better if you let it sit in the refrigerator overnight then reheat it. Chili is one of those few foods that taste better the next day, like cold pizza.

Now for this week, first grabbed two cucumbers from where I got some a few weeks ago. They were really good and they seem to be the only booth selling cucumbers. When I went to buy them the guy selling them asked if I would take the last one in the bin and all three for two dollars. I agreed and I now have three cucumbers. My wife then got a small container of white and red raspberries. The guy selling said he didn't have any more change and for the additional fifty cents offered another cucumber from a different bin, so now I have four cucumbers.

That night with dinner I got lettuce from my garden, the first batch pulled out of which I am so proud, and added one of the cucumbers. This was a terrific cucumber, one of the best I have tasted in years. Usually the ones you get at the supermarket taste like water, this one tasted great. One down, three to go.

As my wife and I continued to walk through the market I was stopped by someone from Oregon Environmental, or something like that, they are the new name of OSPRIG. He started to talk to me about cap and trade of which I then explained to him why it doesn't work and the only way to solve pollution problems is through the free market. After about five minutes talking to him he realized and said that you have to use capitalism to trick businesses into doing what's right for the environment. I'll accept that as a minor victory.

While I was talking my wife was busy getting other stuff. When I ran back into her she had already got a gluten free chocolate cookie, some baking mix from the same gluten free vendor, a pint of strawberries, and some more small red potatoes. We then went to the booth where I got the sugar snap peas from last week and before we left a big bag of garlic Parmesan popcorn of which we will take down this weekend when we go visit our friends. We both realize that we would finish it by Friday but since there would be enough salt to kill us, it's better to have other people to share it with. Not that I am trying to kill people with salt, at this moment in time, but popcorn is much more fun when it's shared with friends. And of course less kernels stuck in your throat. I'll update what I cooked after the next visit, may use the fruit in a pie if I have the time and energy.