Category Archives: farmers markets

improving martha

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chesterHappy 2013 to one and all!   Let’s start the new year with a recipe!

So this holiday season I broke in a new hot crab dip recipe.  Not everyone in my house like artichoke hearts, so I had to find a recipe without them.

I received Martha Stewart’s cookbook Martha’s American Food as a Christmas present.  Truthfully it is a cookbook well worth purchasing or giving, but I have a habit of fiddling with recipes (even ones uniquely my own).  And I hate to say it because some giant hand bearing a whisk might pop out of the sky and smote me, but I improved Martha…or one of her recipes I should say.

She had a hot crab dip recipe, but looking at it I felt it needed some tweaking and additions, so I did that.  My friends have all been asking for the recipe, so here it is.  Note that my tweaks/additions appear in RED ink:

crab dipHot Crab Dip

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter PLUS 2 Tablespoons

1 RED onion finely chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (NOT whole wheat)

1 1/2 cups of HALF AND HALF(Martha calls for plain milk)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons dry mustard

few dashes of Tabasco sauce

6 oz shredded mixed cheddar (some cheese companies offer a shredded blend of mild and sharp cheddar. Martha calls for 4 oz)

6 oz of soft cream cheese (from the tub but not whipped)

Grated zest of one lemon and juice of that lemon (Martha calls for 2 Tablespoons, I just use a small lemon and call it a day)

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce(Martha calls for 2 teaspoons)

16 oz lump crabmeat, checked for shells (Martha calls for 10 oz, but most crab I buy comes in 16 oz containers, so that is what I used)

4 Tablespoons rough chopped Italian Flat Leaf Parsley (Martha calls for 2 tablespoons)

2 Tablespoons fresh dill rough chopped no stems

2 Tablespoons minced FRESH chives

4 Tablespoons minced celery

Salt and pepper (fresh ground)

8 oz loaf of rustic bread sliced into small bites  crust removed

English cucumber slices (for serving with dip when finished)

Flat bread or thinly sliced French bread baguettes. (for serving with dip when finished)

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

In a generously sized saucepan (medium to large) melt the 1 stick of butter over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic, celery stirring occasionally until soft and translucent (4 to 5 minutes)

Whisk in flour and cook while whisking constantly (or it will stick and burn) (about 3 to 4 minutes – Martha says 4, I found it took a little less. (medium to medium low heat)

Whisking constantly slowly incorporate half and half in a steady stream (I am not Shiva so I don’t have 8 arms or whatever so I did put my measuring cup down occasionally – Martha of course doesn’t do that). Stir and simmer over medium-low heat until thick and smooth (about 4 minutes).

Incorporate cheddar cheese, stirring well so it melts all evenly and then repeat with cream cheese. Stir in Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, Tabasco, and Mustard powder. Incorporate well.  Add a little salt and pepper to taste. (you won’t need much). You don’t have to over think or over cook this – you just need cheese completely melted and incorporated.

Remove from heat.

In a large mixing bowl combine crabmeat, fresh herbs**, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Stir in the cheesy-oniony mixture and fold together, check for salt and pepper (to taste – I cook with less salt these days so I found little adjustment necessary).

Pour this creamy and goopy deliciousness (it does taste good even at this point) into a buttered one quart oven proof dish.

Set aside.

In a small fry pan melt that 2 tablespoons of butter remaining.  Toss in bread you cut up as per ingredient list, add salt and pepper and cook a little bit (couple of minutes tops) – bread will be goldeny and butter with a light coat of salt and pepper.

Arrange bread bits on top of crab dip in the casserole dish and bake in your pre-heated 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes – keep an eye on your oven because this stuff can boil over at the end.

Remove from oven and let stand at least ten minutes before serving because when it first comes out of the oven it is like molten lava with a crispy golden crust on top.

Serve with flat breads, crackers, or thinly sliced French bread baguettes.  Place a cucumber on top of cracker, bread slice, or flat bread and then dip on top of that.

I do not think I forgot anything, hope you enjoy this.

**Please note that if you like Cilantro, when you add your herbs to the crab as above, you can add 1 tablespoon of finely chopped fresh cilantro too.

 

 

 

 

 

east goshen farmers market holiday market – thursday december 20!

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**NOTE*** MARKET LOCATION FOR 12/20/2012 IS EAST GOSHEN PUBLIC WORKS BUILDING 1580 PAOLI PIKE FROM 3:30 PM TO 6:00 PM

(Don’t forget to like their new page on Facebook!)

the kris kringle of it all

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ornamentOk, I admit it: I have been watching waaaayy too many holiday movies.  However, in my own defense, sometimes human kind is just so crappy to each other that the escapism in a movie where people are kind to their fellow-man and Santa Claus is just a nice way to get the warm and fuzzies.

So Chester County, here is what I am after: I would like to know what local charities and churches are doing what between now and Christmas.

Who is collecting toys?

Who is making care packages?

Who is collecting warm coats?

Who is collecting food to feed the hungry?

Who is collecting to help homeless animals during the Christmas season?

Who is accredited and collecting funds for various programs?

Please leave a comment and tell me.  I would like to be able to share that information via the blog.

‘Tis the season of goodness and good tidings, so let’s pay it forward. Tell me who has the Christmas spirit in Chester County. (And yes, it is Christmas in my neighborhood.)

Thanks!

pumpkins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Ask anyone who knows me – I love pumpkins.  I was at Sugartown Strawberries yesterday….so I photographed what else?  PUMPKINS.  Rows and rows of pumpkins, dozens and dozens of pumpkins piled in a jumble of orange. They tell me hay rides start next weekend!  Sugartown Strawberries is located at 650 Sugartown Road Malvern, Pennsylvania 19355.  Their phone number is (610) 613-0525 and you can find them on the web and on Facebook.

And on your way back and forth next weekend, also don’t forget to check out the fall fun at Woodlawn Landscaping & Nursery on Paoli Pike (they are right there at the intersection of Paoli Pike and Sugartown Road).

 

pudding 101

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This morning the breeze has started the fall rustle of leaves.  Don’t know how else to describe it.

Fall means the start of comfort food season.  What people don’t realize is there is something to be said for the basics.  Basics include foods we grew up with, comfort foods.

Last night I made an old-fashioned pot roast.  Mine is different because I use a little lemon or orange peel in mine and toss in a small can of crushed tomatoes and wine along with a few kinds of mushrooms (fresh not those rubberized canned things). To make a perfect pot roast you need a heavy dutch oven large enough to comfortably cook your roast and you must dredge the meat in flour and brown up a little before putting in a low and slow oven and ignoring for a few hours.

What I made the other day also falls into the category of old-fashioned comfort food: rice pudding.  I never wrote my recipe down before, so I hope the proportions are right.

Here it is:

Start with turning on the oven to 350 degrees to pre-heat. Next grab some unsalted butter  for greasing baking dish

 Ingredients

3/4 cup white sweet rice cooked and cooled (sweet rice is an extra sticky rice used in Asian cooking and you can buy it at an international grocery or specialty foods store)

3 cups whole milk (you can also use the canned Carnation milk you use to make pumpkin pie)

1 cup fat-free half and half

1 cup light cream

6 egg yolks

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground mace

1/2 teaspoon ground green cardamom

1/2 cup shredded coconut

3/4 cup white raisins

Directions

Grease well a  round baking dish (I use  Pyrex 2 or 2 1/2 quart baking dish – not sure which one – it has a lid which makes for handy storage of leftovers)

Into the bottom of the baking dish first add rice. Smooth out evenly on bottom. Sprinkle raisins evenly on top.  Sprinkle coconut on top of that. Set aside

Combine egg yolks, vanilla and salt in a bowl. Add sugar.  Beat until sugar is dissolved, incorporated, not grainy on the bottom of the bowl

Add  cornstarch, lemon zest, spices.

Slowly add milk, half and half and light cream.  Beat until frothy . Pour over rice/raisins/coconut in round baking dish.

Take your round baking dish and place in a Bain Marie – a Bain Marie is literally a water bath.

I take a larger rectangular pan, place my round baking dish inside it, and then pour hot water inside the rectangular pan AROUND the baking dish (DO NOT get the water into your rice pudding mixture)

Bake until the rice pudding is no longer liquid – at least an hour.  When I made a few days ago, my oven may not have been properly pre-heated and it took about an hour and 20 minutes to cook.  Your baked pudding will be caramel and brown colored on top when cooked and a knife inserted will come out clean. You just have to watch it.

Take pudding out of oven and place baking dish on a trivet to cool.  I like serving the pudding still slightly warm.  Some people like putting whipped cream on top to dress up the pudding when serving.  I do not – I think it is overkill.  You can have fun with this dessert and serve in red wine or martini glasses (wide rim).

Pudding variations include:

  • You can tweak recipe and remove just the rice and add a can of DRAINED cream corn to make a sweet corn pudding.
  • You can also substitute cubed day old brioche and make a bread pudding.  You can omit the cardamom and mace and raisins and coconut and add chocolate chips and it becomes a chocolate chip bread pudding.

Puddings are fun.

 

 

down on the farm activities 9/29/2012

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So I was looking on that West Vincent website today (I am a glutton for punishment) and I noticed they seem to be advertising a community event that I have heard people talk about (which is truthfully very neighborly they should do that for ALL community events) .  Anyway this event  is always partially crossover time to other fall events – Maysie’s Farm Fest 2012  – it is a big WXPN event day with folk music and stuff.  I checked the acts and nothing I want to listen to in particular, but still thought it might be fun to check out.

Only I can’t figure out what kind of a non-profit they are.  WXPN says they are a non-profit, they say they are a non-profit but they don’t say what kind.  So are they like a 501(c)(3)?

I called up the Department of Charities in Harrisburg because I could not find them in the searchable database. And I was told that they did not renew their registration in November 2011?  What does that mean?  Why? Do they make below that threshold of $25,000 or whatever? Maybe they now piggyback off of someone else’s non-profit status?

Anyway this Maysie’s Farm seems to do great stuff, so I would say check it out if you are looking for fall fun tomorrow. Maysie’s does all sorts of cool stuff like this folk music day and CSAs .

The Mill at Anselma is a place to buy advance tickets for this until 6 pm – $15.00. At the gate before 6 pm on Saturday tickets are $20.

east goshen farmers market light coming to malvern in 2013

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File under taking the farmers market show on the road.

I love the East Goshen Farmers Market .  It is far better run than the Farm to City Markets I used to patronize because although not inexpensive, the price points at East Goshen’s market are a lot more attractive than the pricing I see some of the same vendors do in Bryn Mawr.  And there is a far greater variety of farms to choose from.  Also, the vibe is so awesome each week.  As someone settling into a new community after 30 plus years in another community, this is one of the little things that has helped my transition because although I do not know a lot of people out here yet, going to the market has helped be become comfortable with my new community.

East Goshen Farmers Market has so many terrific farmers, and I patronize all but one farm – the farming folk known as the Millers and Birchrun Hills Farm. Given the treatment people I know in West Vincent receive from Farmer-Supervisor Miller and the other supervisors in West Vincent, it is so unfortunate, but I just can’t patronize them.  To me it would be morally wrong to put jingle in their pockets. And that pains me, because no matter what I like to support local farmers whenever I can.

Mind you that opinion cost this blog being linked to the East Goshen Farmers Market site  (at their original request, not mine) and for the market manager Lisa O’Neill to treat me like I had a disease any time I tried to say hello.  She and her co-market manager Donna Levitsky are trying to be politically correct and  face it, I am not your average PTA mom…. and I am a blogger who doesn’t just blog about recipes and homemaking projects, so I get that, it’s cool.  I just don’t bother to say hi any longer. It is easier and makes them more comfortable – they are so busy on market days, I wouldn’t want to detract from what they have to do by saying hi, you know?

Anyway, Lisa has in all honesty produced a most fabulous market for East Goshen (I featured it in an article I wrote about farm markets and community gardens for Philly.com this summer) , and she is apparently taking her show on the road for 2013.  Malvern Patch is reporting that East Goshen’s market will be giving birth in the spring of 2013 to a mini version of itself in Malvern on Saturday mornings.  That is awesome, even if it is the exact same time and day I believe as the West Chester Growers Market which is quite simply amazing, as well as the market that is the original of all these local farm markets.

I am glad local farmers will be getting more exposure – this will be another producers only market.  That means to be there and sell, you grow it/you raise it.

One question, however.  East Goshen Farmers Market is sponsored by East Goshen Township and The Friends of East Goshen – and part of the money they say in their mission statement goes back to East Goshen Park.  So will part of the monies here go back to Burke Park in Malvern Borough where this will be held?  Who is sponsoring this market? Is the borough or is there another non-profit sponsor?  Or maybe they will start their own company or non-profit at this point? And what do Lisa O’Neill and her co-manager Donna Levitsky (one of the owners of Shellbark Hollow Farm which is a participating farm at East Goshen Farmers market) get out of this monetarily?  Not being mean, just being realistic.   A former neighbor is the market manager of the Bryn Mawr Farmers Market and I know the lady who manages the Collegeville Farmers Market. I know the incredible amount of time they put into running just one market.  Will they receive a salary for this Malvern market?  A profit-sharing slice of market profits?  Or is this all done in a volunteer capacity?  Either scenario is fine with me, I am not judging – I am merely curious how it all works.  Most markets I have come across, pay their market managers something for all their efforts. And running a Saturday morning market will sure mean more effort as they will be up with the roosters to ensure the market is set up by 9 a.m.

Here’s the update from Patch and I am looking forward to this market and Kimberton Whole Foods coming to Malvern!  I am still not a fan of the development occurring on East King Street, however, outside of Kimberton Whole Foods coming to town.  I think the development in the end will prove to be too dense and too much for the borough of Malvern to handle.

New Malvern Farmers Market Begins in Spring 2013

About 25 growers and vendors will set up shop in Burke Park on Saturdays.

ByPete Kennedy  Email the author  5:30 am

Local communities do indeed benefit HUGELY from things like farmers markets.  It brings people to town who might never otherwise visit.  And Malvern is cute.  The Bryn Mawr Farmers Market (albeit expensive) has greatly benefited Bryn Mawr by giving it foot traffic on Saturdays, and things like First Friday Main Line and Clover Market have also similarly benefited main street Ardmore.  (and if you have never been to either First Friday Main Line or Clover Market, you should check them out!)

Final note – today’s photos are of the veggies from Balsam Farms in Amagansett, NY…a little slice of heaven much like Sugartown Strawberries around here.

Hey, it is the end of September so what farms are doing the best corn mazes and hay rides and pumpkin things this year?  Let me know!  You know how I love pumpkins!!!