Mostly Glorious Food

I'm a little shocked by my newest role as a "great cook."

I've always done more mixing than cooking. Pour something out of a box and add water or cream of mushroom soup. Heat. Stir occasionally.

With the bulk of my shopping taking place at farms and farmer's markets, I find myself not only cooking more real food — I also have to be creative. Luckily, as my knowledge builds, the pain-in-the-ass factor diminishes a bit. I love it. In fact, I have to force myself to go to the grocery store now.

Wait, I always had to force myself to go to the grocery store.

Because it's not fun. Shopping at farmers markets is fun, even at 9 a.m. I love going out in the pre-unbearable Austin heat to buy my produce for the week. I go to the downtown farmers market on Saturday morning. If we need more for the week, I go to Boggy Creek Farm on Wednesday morning or the East Austin farmer's market on Thursday evening.

This Saturday, for a party celebrating my one-year wedding anniversary, I made roasted pepper lasagna with herbed goat cheese, a recipe from the Joy of Cooking. Nearly everything was organic and local, except for the olive oil, the lasagna noodles, and the parmesan cheese. Oh, and the pepper and salt. The basil, oregano, goat cheese, and gypsy peppers were all from the farmer's market. The tomatoes were overripe bargains from Tecolote Farms. In a grocery store, the tomatoes would have been discarded. They were absolutely perfect for making the marinara sauce for the lasagna. By the way, gypsy peppers are similar to red bell peppers, but flatter. Perfect for roasting, according to the woman working the Tecolote Farms stand, because it's easier to scrape the skin off.

The lasagna was a hit and was completely devoured. Everyone wanted to know how it was made. I described the process (roasting the peppers on the grill until they were black all over, the amazing goat cheese from West Wind Dairy Goat farm that I mixed with fresh oregano, basil, and parsley, the marinara from scratch, etc.) and I was surprised to see eyes glazing over as I talked. I'm such a good cook, I can overwhelm people merely by describing the process!

There were several meals over the past few weeks that have been a hit. There were also a couple that could use some tweaking.

Parsnip Soup

While browsing the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market, I happened upon a tiny stand that offered a variety of herbs, and some strange white carroty-looking things. Parsnips, I thought, as if recalling a dream. I've never once cooked with them, and I can't even say for sure if I've seen them before. Yet I was intrigued.
I can't for the life of me remember the name of the vendor, but she had long white braids and her farm is located in Wimberley. I bought about two pounds of parsnips, which according to the owner is more of a summer veggie in Austin, where it is picked early. She told me to boil it with an apple and an onion and puree it for a soup. Some British guy told her about it.

"Let me know if it's any good," she said. "I'm always looking for new recipes."

Well, I didn't make it that way. Apples are a bit hard to come by in Austin right now. Instead, I boiled the parsnips with some chicken broth and rosemary, loosely following a recipe I found on the Internet. I boiled them until they were tender, then pureed them.

It had an interesting kick to it, but it didn't blend well, and was a bit overwhelming. A friend said it kinda tasted like when you rub cocaine on your teeth.

Don't worry, he's clean now. As far as I know.

Rump Roast

I've been trying to branch out and buy cuts of meat that I'm not used to cooking. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a rump roast from Bandera Grassfed beef. I threw it in the crockpot with some water and a lot of salt and pepper. I expected it to be super tender and fall apart when I got it out, but it was more like roast beef. I had to slice it up.

It was surprisingly tasty (I was worried it would be too dry), and it was complemented very well by tomatoes and potatoes from the farmer's market. We also had some butternut squash (the Playgirl-looking thing pictured at the top of this post), which is my new favorite vegetable side.

To prepare the squash, I usually slice it in half, scoop the seeds out with a spoon, and place the halves in a baking dish (cut side down) with about a half-cup of water. I bake the squash at 375 for a half hour or so, until a fork pierces the flesh easily and the skin is brown and bubbly. Then I scoop out the flesh and mash it up with butter and pepper. Then I spoon it back into the shell. Pure concentrated yumminess.

Brownie Meat

Some of you may remember that Chickenman recently had to process his bull, Brownie. I was fortunate enough to be able to get some of Brownie's meat. E. Ho and I cooked up a couple of T-bones, which were incredibly excellent. We served it with some sliced tomatoes and grilled zucchini.

It was strange, knowing that I'd seen that bull several times, knowing the mixed feelings Chickenman had about processing him. Indeed, I even knew the madcap story of getting Brownie into the trailer to get processed. If you go visit Chickenman, you must ask him to tell you this story.

On Sunday, we marinated the short ribs Korean-style. I'm not sure why, but they were a bit tough. It could be that I cooked them too long, although they were still pinkish on the inside. I think they would do very well in the crockpot. The meat tasted very good, especially the next day.

At this point, I've managed to largely avoid the grocery store. About 80% of my shopping is at the farmer's markets and the Food You Can Trust farm. It's going to be difficult this winter. Because I'm such a "newb" to this sole food business, I have not prepared food for the lean part of the year. I can still eat turnips and beets, but I'm going to miss all of these delectable veggies.

Especially the tomatoes. The tomatoes at the grocery store should be forced to give up their name. Picked green and ripened by gases, they hardly qualify as the soft, juicy 'maters I've been eating all summer.

They should call them "fauxmatoes."

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