We’re a huge fan of local pastured eggs and we’re lucky enough to be able to get fresh eggs in our CSA box from Growing Washington. When we started going to the farmers markets, Skagit River Ranch was about the only vendor for chicken eggs (though Sea Breeze Farms occasoinally had them and they usually had duck eggs).

Now, checking the Ripe-N-Ready list for the University District Farmers Market and there are a whopping 7 egg vendors at the University District Market.

You can find them at the following vendors:

• Stokesberry Farm
• Stoney Plains Farm
• Sea Breeze Farm
• Skagit River Ranch
• Samish Bay
• Growing Things
• Mair Taki

Are you having a BBQ on the 4th of July?  Then how about coming down to the University District Farmers Market first thing in the morning and picking up some burgers from Skagit River Ranch or some sausages or pork chops from Sea Breeze Farms.

Pick up some potatoes from any number of vendors and some pickles from Woodrings to make a great local potato salad and stock up on cherries and raspberries for dessert. It is easy to have a local 4th of July in Seattle with the amazing amount of fruits and vegetables we have available locally this time of year.

Growing up, the 4th of July always required some sort of grilled meat, fresh, homemade ice cream, and a big bowl of mom’s potato salad. This year, we’ll be celebrating the 4th of July with my parents, so I decided that we’d stick to as much tradition as possible and grill up some meats, have some fresh ice cream, and make a local version of Mom’s potato salad. I adapted this recipe from the Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook.

4th of July Potato Salad

The first step in making this potato salad was making my own mayonnaise. I rarely use mayonnaise, so I don’t keep it on hand. The cookbook maintains that making your own is always best, so I thought I’d give it a try. This recipe makes enough mayonnaise for two large potato salads.

Mayonnaise

• 5 egg yolks (from Skagit River Ranch)
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• Salt

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks, salt, and the vinegar until the egg yolks lighten in color. The mixture might get a tiny bit frothy at this point and that’s ok.
2. While whisking constantly (this is key), add the oil a drop or two at a time. The whisking will emulsify the oil, thickening the mixture.
3. When about half of the oil has been incorporated, start adding the oil in a thin stream, continuing to whisk.
4. Refrigerate for up to a week.

Chef’s Notes: My mayonnaise was a bit on the thin side. I think it would have been better if I’d used the Kitchen-Aid mixer instead of hand-whisking. You can add any sorts of spices you want to the mayonnaise, including garlic. I might splurge at some point and try making some mayonnaise with some garlic flavored olive oil. If you’re worried about the cholesterol content of mayonnaise, make sure and use truly pastured eggs for the lowest cholesterol content and the highest level of Omega-3 fatty acids.

Olsen Farms Potato Salad, adapted from the Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook

Serves 6

• 2 pounds of potatoes (I used a variety of potatoes from Olsen Farms)
• 4 carrots (from Growing Washington)
• 3 stalks of celery
• 1 Walla Walla sweet onion (from Growing Washington)
• 2 purple bell peppera (from Billy’s Organic Produce)
• 3-4 dill pickles (Parker’s Spicy Pickles from Woodring Northwest)
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• Sea salt and Pepper
• Mayonnaise

1. Boil the potatoes until they are just tender. They will continue to cook a bit as they cool, so don’t overcook them.
2. Cut them into chunks and set aside.
3. Slice the carrots and cook for just a couple of minutes, draining and then plunging them immediately into cold water.
4. Slice the celery, and slice the onion, pepper, and pickles.
5. Mix all ingredients together, adding salt and pepper to taste and as much mayonnaise as you like.

Chef’s Notes: One of the things I love about potato salad is that it is very hard to screw it up. You can add just about any vegetables you want, or stick with only potatoes. I’ve always loved spicy dill pickles and sometimes I’ll even add some of the pickle juice in as well. The original recipe suggested cooking the carrots for a full 5 minutes, but I found that left them too soft. I love my potato salad to have some crunch. Next time I might not cook the carrots at all. The original recipe also suggested peeling the potatoes, but I prefer to leave the skins on. You can add or remove just about any ingredient from the potato salad (except the potatoes and mayonnaise) and still have a delicious salad.

A few weeks ago, we happily reported in our Queen Anne Farmers Market Preview that there would indeed be a farmers market at the top of Queen Anne this year. Well, now we can report that not only is there a market, but that market is thriving and just might be one of our favorite of Seattle’s many farmers markets.

Banners line the street

Apologies to all of the other farmers markets in Seattle. We love you all, we really do, but there is just something special about the Queen Anne Farmers Market.

First, let’s talk location. The market is at Queen Anne Ave and W. Crockett. It is between two large condo buildings, which might sound confining, but the space has extraordinarily wide sidewalks and feels very open and friendly. Pasta and Co., which occupies part of one of the buildings, threw open their large doors and windows and joined in the celebration. The market isn’t huge, but it is a decent size. There are vendors lining each side of the street and on two sides of the sidewalk. There is enough room to wander, and shop while others wander behind you. Dogs are allowed, and there is enough room for them as well.

Within a few blocks is much of what Queen Anne has to offer. Heading to the Farmers Market doesn’t mean you can’t also go to the grocery store or to the drugstore or to a nice restaurant for dinner.

Next we’ll talk vendors. Admittedly, on opening day, the vendor list was a tad bit thin. A couple of vendors hadn’t completed their paperwork and a couple of others weren’t able to make it. However there is a very nice mix of produce, cheese, meat, seafood, and other foodstuffs (like Secret Stash Salt). Skillet Street Food is there, serving up a nice chunk of their menu, including those s’mores that I’ve been looking forward to trying.

Fun for kids of all ages

Lastly, and possibly most importantly, we’ll talk atmosphere. John put it best. The Queen Anne Farmers Market is the essence of a farmers market. It is a neighborhood destination as much as it is a shopping location. People brought their children to meet Iris (also known as Hungry Monkey) and to listen to the music. This is a market where you can meet your neighbors for a lilttle shopping and socialization. It isn’t too big that it feels commercialized or daunting. It is small, sweet, and you can feel the hard work that went into planning the market.

We will definitely be back to the Queen Anne Farmers Market for our shopping needs as well as for live market reports soon!

If you’re a CSA member in the Puget Sound, you’ve probably either started receiving your CSA boxes.  Here’s what’s in our box this week and what we’re planning on doing with everything. We’ll try to post this list with recipes and menu ideas each week.

My CSA box this week

As a disclaimer, we’re members of the Growing Washington Local Choice Food Box and we’ve partnered with them this year to provide recipes to their CSA members. For this series, we’ll list out what’s in our box, but we’ll also try to list items that aren’t in our box but might be in yours.

Week 2 – June 29nd

• Salad Mix
• Beets
• Carrots (two types)
• Shelling peas
• Beet greens
• Radishes
• Spring onions
• Cucumbers

Even though I’m still in love with salads this time of year, I’ve discovered a new love. Wash off those carrots and dip them in some homemade or storebought hummus (plain or spicy). Not only does this make a great taste combination, but you get some excellent protein and fiber as well.

Beet greens are sweet and tender in pasta. Just slice up some Skagit River Ranch hot Italian sausage and saute until almost done. Add the beet greens, and some olive oil, and saute until just wilted. Serve over pasta with some crumbled feta cheese on top.

You can saute the radishes in some butter for our butter poached radishes, or you can grate them into a slaw.

Shelling peas are easily added to salads or pasta. You can even add them to omlettes.

How are you using your CSA contents this week?

Bok Choy is technically classified as a cabbage and is also sold under the name Chinese White Cabbage. You’ll also see it labeled bok choi.  The stalks are crunchy and white and the leaves are tender and dark green, making it a very striking vegetable. You can eat it raw in salads or slaws, or cook it in a variety of dishes.

Bok Choy Stir Fry

We picked up all of our vegetables for this dish from Growing Washington, but you can find them at a variety of farmers market vendors including Alvarez Farms, Stoney Plains, Oxbow Farms, Willie Greens, Full Circle Farms, and Nash’s Organics.

Bok Choy Stir Fry

• 1 head bok choy
• 3-4 carrots
• 4 small spring onions
• 2 Tbsp sesame oil
• 2 Tbsp rice vinegar
• Splash of soy sauce
• Sesame seeds

1. Slice the spring onions and chop the carrots into small pieces.

2. Chop off the ends of the bok choy and slice the rest of it (stems and leaves) into 1 inch pieces.

3. In a wok or large frypan, heat 1-2 Tbsp of sesame oil over medium-high heat.

4. Add the onions and cook for 2 minutes, stirring regularly,

5. Add the carrots and the thickest parts of the bok choy stems to the pan and cook for another 2 minutes.

6. Mix in the bok choy leaves and thinner stems and cook for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and continue to stir for another minute or two.

7. Add in the vinegar and the splash of soy sauce and stir to combine.

8. Serve, topped with sesame seeds.

Bok Choy Stir Fry Closeup!

Chef’s Notes: I don’t have a lot of experience eating bok choy. The flavor is mild, very similar to cabbage. It works well in a stir fry. You could also add broccoli, cauliflower, kale, or garlic to this dish easily. While it was very good and satisfying hot, we also used it as a topping for salad the next day. I added just a bit more rice vinegar to the mix and tossed the cold mix with salad. The bok choy (with the oil, vinegar, and soy sauce) served as plenty of dressing for the salad.

I have this problem. I hate to admit it, but sometimes when I buy rhubarb, it goes soft in my fridge before I get around to cooking it. The true problem is that when I go to the farmers market, everything looks so good that I sometimes get a little over zealous and buy more food than we actually need. Luckily we have weekends to catch up on cooking.

For the past few weeks though, our weekends have been occupied by SIFF and by trips to Joule for their Urban BBQ series. If you haven’t been yet, get there as soon as you can. They use many local ingredients and their flavors and dishes are wonderful.

So rhubarb has been going soft in my fridge a little more often than usual. So the other day, when faced

Buttermilk-Rhubarb Cake

with about 4 hours that didn’t require work, cleaning, or running, I went on a little rhubarb cooking spree. Three rhubarb recipes in just a couple of hours. Today I bring you: buttermilk rhubarb cake.

I’ve been hearing a lot about buttermilk cake lately. There’s this one rhubarb blueberry cake that really tempted me. But would it work with rhubarb? After all, rhubarb is really tart and blueberries are pretty sweet. Well, the only way to find out was to make the cake.

A few words about today’s ingredients. Sea Breeze Farm has some of the best raw milk I’ve ever had. In fact, they have the only milk I’ve ever actually liked the taste of. Well, sometimes they have buttermilk as well. I bought a pint last week because I wanted to make salad dressing. Buttermilk from Sea Breeze will last about 2-3 weeks in the fridge.

Buttermilk Rhubarb Cake, adapted from The Baking Bird

• 2.5 cups of flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar (more in that in a minute)
• 2 eggs
• 4 Tbsp melted butter
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup chopped rhubarb
• 3 Tbsp sugar

1. You can find superfine sugar at most grocery stores, but if you don’t have any on hand, just take half a cup of regular sugar plus a couple of teaspoons and process it in a food processor for 30-60 seconds.

2. Grease and flour a cake pan. I don’t actually own a cake pan, so I used a springform pan.

3. Preheat the oven to 400.

4. Combine the flour, baking powder, and sugar in a bowl and set aside.

5. In the bowl of your mixer, beat the eggs until combined. Add the buttermilk and butter and mix well.

6. Next mix in the dry ingredients and stir until just barely mixed in. Use a low speed on your mixer and don’t overmix.

7. Add the batter to the cake pan.

8. Spread the rhubarb over the top of the cake and sprinkle the rhubarb with sugar.

9. Bake the cake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean. My cake needed about 35 minutes in my oven.

Chef’s Notes: I don’t bake a lot of cakes. In part, most of them are too sweet. Sure, this is good in small amounts, but I can rarely have more than one or two pieces before I’m done. This cake was not overly sweet. The cake itself was on the dense side, but not as dense as a pound cake.

People have called us adventurous before, when it comes to our recipes. But, you know what, it isn’t really what we set out to do.

Battered Fish and Chips

Sure, we want to try things we haven’t tried; new recipes, a random new piece of vegetable or meat. But generally, we aren’t looking for adventure.

Case in point, last weeks Oysters and Cheese in a Pancetta Cup. That recipe was the result of a Google search on things we had in the fridge, namely oysters and pancetta. We didn’t set out on that to do anything wild or amazing, just come up with a tasty meal using what we had in the fridge.

But, admittedly, not everyone had oysters and pancetta in the fridge, so I guess that might make us a little more adventurous.

This recipe, however, was a little adventurous.

I wanted to make fish and chips.

We don’t really remember why. Maybe the fish was a little old. No idea.

But, seriously, if there’s anything to take away from what I’m saying here is: if you want to call this adventurous, call it that, but, explore. Just google for some recipes based on what you have in your fridge.

Beer Battered Fish and Chips

Pan Fried Battered Halibut

Adapted from Beer Battered Onion Rings
Serves 2-4

• Flour, 1 cup
• Chorizo Salt from Secret Stash Salts, 1 teaspoon (or 1 tsp of salt and cayenne pepper)
• Buttermilk, 3/4 cup
• Beer, 3/4 cup (see notes)
• Egg, 1 large
• Halibut, 1 pound
• Potatoes, 3-4 medium size
• Olive Oil (see notes)

1. Mix the flour and salt together, whisking in the buttermilk, beer and egg.
2. Let sit for 30 minutes.
3. Thinly slice the potatoes while letting the batter age.
4. Cut the halibut down into pieces no thicker than a half inch thick, and roughly one inch wide, two to three inches long, removing any skin. For an average fillet, you’re looking at a couple fingers wide and a finger tip thick. Depending on your fingers, of course.
5. In a deep, straight sided frying pan, pour olive oil to a depth of approximately 1/8 to 1/4 inch and set to high heat after the batter has aged.
6. Once the oil is hot, where a drop of the batter into the pan should almost immediately sizzle and bubble, dip in a piece of fish into the batter and lay into the pan. Add enough to the pan so that they do not touch. The batter will spread as you place them down.
7. Cook for approximately three to five minutes per side, or until golden brown. You can lift the piece of fish to see how it is progressing.
8. Once a piece of fish is finished, transfer to a paper towel covered plate to drain for a few minutes before moving to a plate/platter so as not to soak up all the oil they just shed.
9. You may want to put the fish on an oven safe plate and store in the oven at low heat, just to keep them warm.
10. On the last batch of fish, if you have just a couple pieces left, or after you have finished the fish, start dipping the potato slices into the batter and drop them into the oil. They will only need two minutes per side.

Note: Quite a few notes on this one.

Type of beer: Porter didn’t seem to work as well as an ESB, but, seriously, try beers you like.

Oil may need to be changed out during the cooking. If the oil gets dark and starts to smell a little over done, change it out. Also, pull out any batter bits as often as you can. It will make the oil need to be changed out.

An alternative chip recipe would be to just follow the root veggie chip recipe, except for using potatoes.

This recipe, obviously, would be far better in a deep fryer, and if I ever find one cheap at Goodwill, I’ll be sorely tempted. But just making it in a frying pan was still surprisingly good.

Edited to add: CB makes a really good point in the comments. Olive oil isn’t necessarily the best oil for this application. We used what we had on hand and what was affordable. If you’re going to be deep frying this, you definititely don’t want to use olive oil and if you want a more proper oil for pan frying, you might want to look at this table. All I can say is it worked for us for a quick ‘We need to fry something.’ Ideally, we’d be using lard (if we had enough) or hazelnut oil (if we had enough money) for the local aspect.

Halibut and Oved Baked Chips

We have an antique Wedgewood stove. We don’t know the year of the stove (it came with the house), but we love it. It

Our stove needs help!

is cool. It cooks well. But there are several problems.

1. The enamel has worn off in several places around the burners. This is mainly where the burner grates contact the stove.

2. The oven door and the broiler door have broken hinges.

3. The oven does not seal properly (likely at least in part due to the faulty hinges). So the knobs above the oven and the oven door handle get REALLY hot.

We would love to fix this stove. It belongs with the house. However, if we cannot get it fixed, we will have to sell it. Nearly burning my fingertips off every time I bake isn’t fun.

We found one company in Seattle who claims to work on antique stoves. They have made appointments three times with me so far and all three times have failed to show up, failed to call, and failed to show up to the next day’s rescheduled appointment. I am not sure how they are still in business, but I don’t think they should be any more.

If you have any knowledge about how to fix these issues, or know someone who can, please let me know. We love our stove and we would love to use it for many years to come.

If you’re a CSA member in the Puget Sound, you’ve probably either started receiving your boxes or will be receiving them soon. Here’s what’s in our box this week and what we’re planning on doing with everything. We’ll try to post this list with recipes and menu ideas each week.

My CSA box this week

As a disclaimer, we’re members of the Growing Washington Local Choice Food Box and we’ve partnered with them this year to provide recipes to their CSA members. For this series, we’ll list out what’s in our box, but we’ll also try to list items that aren’t in our box but might be in yours.

Week 2 – June 22nd

• Salad Mix
• Beets
• Carrots (two types)
• Butterhead lettuce
• Sugar snap peas
• Radishes
• Spring onions
• Green garlic
• Cucumbers

At the beginning of the season, I love salads. Slice up the cucumber, the carrots, the spring onion, and the radishes and make yourself a delicious salad. Try our cucumber dill dressing on top.

The butterhead lettuce has large leaves that can be used to make salad wraps with chicken, beef, pork, or fish.

You can turn the cucumbers and spring onions into our Cool as a Cucumber appetizers, or you can just slice the cucumbers and sprinkle some of Secret Stash Salt’s Bloody Mary salt on them.

If you have a juicer, juice the cucumbers. Cucumber juice makes a very refreshing summer drink when the weather turns warm, though we might not have much chance of that this week.

You can saute the radishes in some butter for our butter poached radishes, or you can grate them into a slaw.

I recommend eating the sugar snap peas raw as a snack, maybe with some hummus.

How are you using your CSA contents this week?