Just outside of San Diego’s northern city limits, north of the city of Escondido is a resort that offers the only Farmers Market operating on a Monday. After a quick call to double check with one of the Welk Resort’s operators that yes, indeed, there is such a thing as the Welk Resort Farmers Market, I made the drive north to see what goodies were available.
This is a nice little Farmers Market with about 60 vendors, and I walked away with some superb tomatoes and lovely caramels… even though the lotion and music stalls were giving passers-by the hard sell of their products. They were one step from pushy, really.
But the main goal for this week has already been accomplished: tomatoes like this for dinner! Tomatoes have been strangely absent around here recently, I didn’t grow any and didn’t find a neighbor to mooch from this season… and let’s face it- if a tomato doesn’t come from your back yard, your neighbors’, or a reputable local grower, it just isn’t worth eating.
Heaven…. I’m in Heaven! These are “Pineapple Tomatoes,” I am told. Very sweet and VERY delicious.
When my kids were younger, we frequently went to the local Farmers Markets. For them, Kettle Corn was the reason to be dragged along. For me, the local pork patties and bratwurst, grass-fed beef, fruits, and vegetables were the draw. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten corn on the cob so fresh that no cooking, salt, or butter is necessary; and Indiana’s pork patties are not to be missed. No grocer has ever been able to provide tomatoes or peaches that can compare to what you can purchase from a local supplier, and if your neighbor isn’t sharing, the Farmers Market is your next best bet.
Here in The Southland, we have the treat of multiple Farmers Markets open nearly every day. Next week, I’m going to take a mini mental vacation and visit a different market every day… I can’t wait! I’m hoping to pick up something for dinner a few nights, some locally produced meats, and other end of the season produce to put up in my freezer. Maybe I’ll find some completely new food to try?
…this is the time of year that everyone’s love affair with spices catch up with my year-round favorite flavors. I love all the warm spices that make the rounds every Autumn. Pumpkin spices in my coffee? Thanks a latte! Cinnamon spiced cereals? Yes, please. Throw it all into my grocery cart. May I have one of everything?
Ready for the oven…
I bought the Trader Joe’s jar of Pumpkin Butter… always wanted to do something with this stuff. A little web searching came up with a blog that crossed the Williams Sonoma “Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Bars” with the Trader Joe’s ingredient at 1/6th the price.
And The Husband Sayeth: “It is good.” Good, my foot, these bars are GREAT. Thank you Sheila at SweetBakedLife.com for your Pumpkin Butter Dessert Bars– a delicious dessert that is too good to be served only one season of the year. Sheila made a few changes to the original recipe to the ever popular Williams Sonoma dessert so the proportions work with the slightly smaller jar of pumpkin butter from Trader Joe’s. Thanks for doing the work, Sheila, your recipe is dee-lish!
All done!
I followed her recipe nearly exactly, substituting a spice cake mix for the standard yellow butter cake. I also omitted the cinnamon in the topping… good call. The cake mix could stand on its own spices. The bars took less than 20 minutes to mix, layer up, top off with crumbles, then only 45 minutes to bake.
Served warm topped with ice cream or eaten out of hand, these are going to be in my regular rotation- any season, any occasion, any time.
Pumpkin Butter, $2.29, cake mix $1.25, 3 eggs, a stick and a half of butter and little more… delicious.
I picked up a bag of Cabo Chips at a grocery store near the beach recently, and broke them out last night for a taste testing.
Taco Bell remembers…
Cabo Chips, Churro flavor… made me think of that side served by Taco Bell back in the 1980’s. I used to work at a Taco Bell in high school and one of my jobs was to fry all the tortillas for the taco salads and those fabulously cinnamon-y Cinnamon Crispas. If you think that they were not worth remembering, just do a search on Facebook and see how many people would like to see these cinnamon-dusted fried flour tortillas make a glorious comeback.
What does The Boy think?
Honestly, I was hoping that the Cabo Chips would taste like the Cinnamon Crispas I used to fry up… but, it was not to be. While the bagged treat tasted nice, Cabo missed the boat with these by not using flour tortillas.
Too bad!
With corn tortilla chips the flavor just isn’t quite right.
Not bad, but not quite right.
It’s perfect for illustrating all the reasons why a recipe can go wrong… like, if someone feels like swapping ingredients and decide to not follow certain/most instructions, for instance. Experienced cooks, comfortable in the kitchen, should be able to monkey around with ingredients and directions. Experienced, comfortable cooks also get to botch things up, too. Also, someone would have liked to have posted this yesterday (New Menu Monday), but someone’s son monopolized the desktop all evening for an “I swear, I’ll be done in ten minutes, mom, it’s easy” assignment.
Let’s take these simple ingredients:
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (6 oz.) package stuffing mix for Chicken
1/2 cup water (or broth)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1/3 cup prepared basil pesto
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
If you decide to use four enormous whole chicken breasts, not chopped, swap a different kind of stuffing mix instead of the typical national brand, add the cheese in the wrong place and you will have to cook everything for twice as long as the directions, you might have some issues.
Oops!
But, these are good flavors that go well together which stand up to Scattered Home Chef Syndrome… something I seem to suffer from. Yep.
Here’s what I did to mess up this recipe:
1. Use waaaay too much meat.2. Pesto on top, no problem here.3. Mix tomatoes, garlic, water, stuffing… check. (see that cheese? Yeah, forgot to put it on the chicken at this point)4. Stuffing mix on chicken……and cheese on top. Oops.Try to flip the stuffing and cheese… succeed in mixing them instead.5. Bake 375 30 minutes …one hour. Worry that stuffing is too dry and chicken is under cooked.6. Enjoy the flavors of tender, pesto chicken (not under baked), and cheesy stuffing even though it is in the wrong spot. I would use more cheese next time.
Just outside of San Diego’s northern city limits, north of the city of Escondido is a resort that offers the only Farmers Market operating on a Monday. After a quick call to double check with one of the Welk Resort’s operators that yes, indeed, there is such a thing as the Welk Resort Farmers Market, I made the drive north to see what goodies were available.
This is a nice little Farmers Market with about 60 vendors, and I walked away with some superb tomatoes and lovely caramels… even though the lotion and music stalls were giving passers-by the hard sell of their products. They were one step from pushy, really.
branching out... on a limb 