Mountain View, CA & Strawberry Arugula Salad

When I found Jess's blog CookSmarts I instantly loved what she was doing. Her recipes are fresh and easy, the directions are clear enough that anyone can cook (yes, YOU!), and her graphics were eye-catching. The more I followed her and tried her recipes I knew I found something great. What I didn't know was that we were neighbors awhile back... until I got her farmers' market post! This market that she is sharing today was the one I used to visit in my neighborhood. What a small world! Enjoy a glimpse into OUR Californian market :)

Hi there! Jess from Cook Smarts here, and I was lucky enough to be asked by Tiffany to contribute to her Farmer’s Market Friday series. I’m not gonna lie. I don’t get to the farmer’s market nearly often enough. Weekends are often packed with travel and social plans, but on the rare occasion when I’m home and free, I have the hard decision of choosing from 4 different markets. Luckily, the largest and most vibrant one also happens to be the one closest to me, the Mountain View Farmer’s Market.

This last visit to the market was at one of my favorite times of the year when summer produce is just arriving. Every fruit stand vendor is handing out samples of their sweet harvests. Tomatoes, asparagus, and strawberries blanket the market stalls. The sun is out and an outing to the farmer’s market feels more like a trip to the county fair than grocery shopping.

My typical approach is to take one lap to soak it all in before making any purchases. Once I’ve gotten my share free samples, then I get down to business and start coming up with menu ideas. We just launched a new meal planning service over at Cook Smarts, and it’s always fun to use the market to inspire our menus.

On this last trip after a few laps, I picked out:

• A pint of strawberries ($3)
• A bulb of fennel ($2)
• Basil ($2)
• Arugula ($3)
• Fingerling potatoes ($3)
• Lacinato kale ($2)

When I got home with the bounty, I got to work on making one of my favorite salads - mixing strawberry, fennel, and arugula with a balsamic vinaigrette. The pepperiness of the arugula combined with sweet strawberry and fennel and tart balsamic is one of my absolute favorite combinations. Here’s the recipe below:

Strawberry Arugula Salad

{serves 4}

Fennel, sliced - 1 small bulb

Strawberries, sliced - ½ pint

Basil, sliced - A few leaves

Arugula - 4 oz

Pecans - ¼ cup

Balsamic vinegar - 1 ½ tbs.

Dijon mustard - 1 tsp.

Salt & pepper

Olive oil - 3 tbs.

Clean and prep all salad ingredients. Mix together vinegar, mustard, and a good pinch of salt & pepper. Whisk in olive oil, and toss everything together

------------------------------------------------------------------------

See what I am talking about with the fresh and easy recipes?!  My favorite dish right now is Jess's sweet potato tacos, and the chances are if you come to visit that is what I will be serving :)  Make sure you stop over at CookSmarts or find Jess with one of the links below to see what goodness she is cooking up today!  Thank you Jess, for sharing your/our bit of the globe with us and maybe we can hit up the market together one of these days!!!  And to the rest of you, I hope you get out and enjoy your farmers' market this week!

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PB&J Milkshake

I am a snob.

A peanut butter and jelly snob, that is.

This was told to me by a friend a few years back as we were shopping for PB&J fixings.  He reached out for wheat bread, I wagged my finger and said, "No."  White bread was what was called for.

He grabbed some Jif, and I put it back.  Creamy Skippy, no questions asked.

He didn't even bother getting jelly, but let me peruse the shelf until I found Smucker's Seedless Strawberry Jam.  It's how I roll.

And then he told me I was a PB&J snob.  I just nodded and smiled.  Because I knew it to be true.

So when it was time to make Joy the Baker's peanut butter and jam milkshake and I read the ingredients that said 'natural peanut butter' I shook my head no.  Which might be odd, seeing as almost everything else I eat is under the 'natural' category.  Ok, so maybe I have given up the white bread.  And maybe I used soy ice cream and coconut milk in this shake instead of the dairy stuff.  But don't mess with my Skippy.  There are some things I don't think I will ever change.

Because I am a peanut butter snob like that...

This is actually two shakes in one.  The peanut butter shake (ice cream + milk + peanut butter + a teeny bit of vanilla extract) is layered with the jam shake (ice cream + milk + a bit of jam + fresh fruit blended in).  When they are brought together they make the perfect milk shake combo.

Farmers Market Friday -- Strawberries

Watsonville, California.  It's the very same place my Multi-Cultural Education in the Classroom textbook that I used back in college said is also known as "Little Mexico".  I laughed.  Not because it wasn't true, but because I knew it to be very true, as a place where several of my teenage years were spent very close by.  I knew of the fiestas that took place on Cinco de Mayo (NOT Mexican Independence Day as many think) and more importantly -- September 16th (the actual Independence Day for Mexico).  I saw the cowboy hats and boots as I walked through the downtown.  I practiced my Spanish all day long while I worked at Target.   So when I read this in the textbook, I laughed.  At the truth of it and how cool it was that some place I knew so well would show up in my studying one night.

But Watsonville is more than "Little Mexico", as the book described it.  It is a town that is located in a fertile valley close to the beach, keeping the climate pleasant and the produce delicious.  Strawberry fields abound, as do artichokes, apples, and mushrooms.  And a trip to the Farmers Market in Watsonville provides you with all this fruit, plus SO MUCH MORE...

Stalls of food line the market.  From papusas (what you see above), a typical food from El Salvador to chunks of barbecued meat, fresh corn on the cob to horchata, a cinnamon-rice drink popular throughout Latin America, and of course every type of homemade Mexican food you can think of... it's all there, the smells beckoning you to drop a few dollars here or there.  

It is totally worth it.

And then, to the sounds of Mariachi bands playing in the background, you can pick up the produce you need for the coming week.  Or, if you are like me, you can bump into family friends of yours who saw you go through those awkward teenage years... 

End the end, I wound up with cauliflower, an artichoke, some excellent apricots, fresh peas, and some garlic.  Plus a belly full of deliciousness. 

Another successful day exploring farmers markets!

Being Watsonville, with its miles and miles of strawberry fields, I thought it is only fitting to have strawberries as our find of the week.  Link up your strawberry recipes below so we can share in the juicy-red-goodness that these sweet 'berries' provide.  (Yeah, they aren't berries.  Did you know that?  Fun fact of the day, Friends!)

And then go hit up your local farmers market and let us know what you got :)

The 'link-up' tool isn't working, but if you drop your strawberry recipes in the comments I will come visit, for sure! :)

Chocolate Strawberry Fudge Pops -- Sundays with Joy

Alright, I fixed it.  My super-failed pops from the other day can now just be considered a stepping stone to the real stuff, because this time I actually followed the recipe.  Following the recipe leads to good news -- real fudge pops in my freezer.

So now that I have fudge pops waiting to be eaten (which, btw, make my day even if it is cold outside for some odd reason...) I am thinking of all the other summer stuff I need to start doing.  I made a bucket list for the season but I have yet to cross anything off.  Been too busy doing other stuff, good stuff no less, but other stuff.  Time to get to work on that.

This recipe was pretty simple: make a chocolate custard out of milk, sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, and cornstarch, adding a bit of butter, some heavy cream, and teeny bit of vanilla when cooked.  That cooled and I mixed in my add-ins: strawberry chunks and white chocolate chips.  The original recipe called for raspberries and dark chocolate, but I decided to change it up a bit. 

I didn't have popsicle molds, but Dixie cups and spoons were found in my cupboard.

Totally worked. 

Fudge pops in hand, I can say, "Viva Summertime!"
 

Let me know what's on your Summer bucket list.  How are you doing with checking those items off? 

Strawberry Chocolate French Toast

Normally I wake up at the crack of dawn (or before), schluff off to the kitchen, pour a bowl of cereal and milk, and chomp down, just trying to wake up.  Then about 30 minutes later my husband wakes up and does the same thing.  It is one of the things that just is what it is.  When you have to head out at 7:10 in the morning -- and you are not really a morning person -- that is as good as it gets.

But not during summer!  Whenever I have time off of work I get to sleep in until 7:10 (yes, I try to wake up at that time even though I have nowhere I need to be) and I can enjoy my breakfast. 

So.

Much.

Better.



Surprisingly, that "All I need for breakfast is cereal, every single day, nothing different ever, please" man of mine was down for this, as well.

Really, who wouldn't be?

Nutella (or in my case, cocoa almond spread) sandwich fried into french toast, with strawberries and powdered sugar on top...  Even though he does not believe bacon and eggs are breakfast food, this counts.  Ok, ok... we can save bacon and eggs for dinner.  But this is a new breakfast favorite for us!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 lb. of strawberries, tops cut off and sliced in half

3 T of white sugar, divided

8 slices of bread (white, preferably)

Nutella or Cocoa Almond Spread

3 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

a few dashes of cinnamon

2 T butter, divided into for parts

powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix strawberries and 2T of sugar together.  Set aside.
2. Make four chocolate sandwiches. 
3. Mix eggs, milk, cinnamon, remaining white sugar, and vanilla together.  Dip on sandwich at a time into mixture, putting on non-stick skillet with butter melted, medium heat.  Make sure to get both sides eggy.
4. Fry each sandwich until light golden color on each side.  Top with powdered sugar through fine mesh seive (if you have one) and put strawberries on top.

Cost: $3.80   Cost per serving (4): $0.95

Sundays with Joy -- Strawberry Cookie Dough Ice Cream

I made ice cream.  Again.  Two times, both really good, both without an ice cream maker.  I feel like I am starting something good here...

But let me back up for a moment.  This week the group I am a part of had the task of making Joy the Baker's strawberry cookie dough ice cream.  Like I do at the beginning of every week, I skimmed through the recipe to see what new/different ingredients I would need.  Nothing too unusual... except for the fact that I would need an ice cream maker, which I do not have nor do I plan on buying anytime soon.  So I scratched the entire recipe, looked at this other ice cream recipe I did a few weeks ago (sans ice cream maker) and came up with my own version of strawberry cookie dough ice cream.

Four simple ingredients, and yes, I cheated.  That is Pillsbury up there.  And yes, I know the package says, "DO NOT EAT RAW".  And also yes, I am aware that there are raw eggs in there.  But I also know that my college roommate and I ate this stuff by the spoonful and we are still alive to tell about it.  However, if you are uncomfortable with that, have no fear -- just check out this link to learn how to make cookie dough egg free, perfect for cookie dough chunks in ice cream.  Or you can be like me and just buy it from the store ;)

The last time I made ice cream I figured out a simple equation:

sweetened condensed milk blended with fruit 
+ heavy cream whipped up
+ something yummy to mix in
= scrumdiddlyumptious ice cream when frozen

Taking that simple mathematical formula, I set out to make this happen.

First part of the process: mix up 1/2 of your fruit and sweetened condensed milk.  Simple.

Then make whipped cream by beating the heavy cream with a cake mixer on medium for about 2-3 minutes.  I added a tablespoon of sugar because my strawberries were a little bit sour.

Roll chunks of cookie dough and chop remaining strawberries quite small.  They will get hard when frozen and you don't want to suck on strawberry popsicles while eating your ice cream.  Or maybe you do... 
Then you just mix it all together.  Easy as pie.  Or ice cream.  Something like that.

Dump all that into a sealed container (I used a large cheap-o Ziplock tupperware dealio that you can get from any grocery store for about 3 bucks) and place in freezer.  Go to sleep, dream something wonderful, and then when you wake up you can have ice cream for breakfast (or whenever else you might want to eat it...).    ;)

Recipe inspired by Joy the Baker.

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb. fresh strawberries
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 pint heavy whipping cream
cookie dough, however you make that happen.

Follow the steps above and enjoy :)

Cost: $12.80                 Cost per Serving (8): $1.60

SUCCESS: Chocolate Covered Strawberries

This time I got it right.  Woo-hoo!  Without further ado, I give you my chocolate covered strawberries :)

I tried to do the double-boiler thing, which I can do no problem with a pan, but the glass dish I was using was not working well.  So I just grabbed a smaller glass dish, threw the chocolate (a chocolate truffle bar... yummy) in there, and let the water lightly boil around it.  It worked :)

Sooooo much better than last time.  This totally made my day.  Well, this and the great fish and scalloped potatoes we had for dinner last night.  Overall, good food day for the little family of two!

FAIL: Chocolate Covered Strawberries

As I mentioned before, I am not much of a fruit person.  For some odd reason I like veggies better than fruit.  It isn't because they are sweet, because everything else sweet I adore, but fruit for some reason is OK to me, but nothing I crave. 

Except berries. 

Oh how I love berries!  Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries... yum yum yum!

Every so often there is a guy selling strawberries on a street corner on my way home.  I have never stopped and bought any because I am always longing to be in my house instead of in my car.  Today, however, we were both in the car together driving home from the beach, relaxed and unconcerned about time schedules.  So we decided to get some strawberries.



Paulo used to hate strawberries.  I guess in Brazil they are really sour.  Both my husband and my sister-in-law declined strawberries here in America when offered but finally gave into the pressure and quickly changed their tune to, "Oh, they taste so good, so sweet!"  (I think in Brazil they pick them early so when they export them they will be sweet.  Good for us, but bad for the Brazilians who have to eat the sour strawberries.)  So now we are able to enjoy this treat together.  And what a better way to eat strawberries than turn them into chocolate covered strawberries?

I looked up the recipe online.  Hmm... I needed chocolate chips.  I don't have any chocolate chips.  So that wouldn't work... But wait!  I thought.  I have cocoa powder!

Yes, you heard me correctly, cocoa powder.  (All of you real cooks out there are moaning, I know.  But remember -- my blog is called A Clove of Garlic, A Pinch of Salt  NOT  A Spoon of Sugar, A Dash of Baking Powder.)

So cocoa powder it was.  I had just been looking at a recipe the other day that used butter, cocoa powder, sugar, and some other stuff, so I figured I would just see what I could whip up.  It went something like this:

(That would be mixing my ingredients, then realizing it was way too bitter so adding more sugar, and then melting it all together.)

But then I faced another problem:  I needed more sweetness but the more sugar I put in the more grainy it got.  And then I got my second great idea:

That's right, honey. 

Think about it for a moment: it is sweet AND it is already ready smooth, not grainy.  Really, I thought this move was quite brilliant.  I added a bit, stirred, and tasted.  You know what?  It didn't taste that bad!  SCORE!

Except, this is what I got:

I don't know about you, but really, I don't want to eat that.  I know what some of you are going to say, though.  Yes, maybe it doesn't matter what it looks like as long as it tastes good. 

Well, it didn't taste good. 

It tasted so bad that I spit it out in under a second and quickly jammed a clean strawberry into my mouth to take away the awful, awful taste.  Luckily I was smart enough to only coat three with chocolate before I tasted them again.  (That taste test from the pot must have been the one good spot!)

So, you live and you learn.  Now I know to trust the experts and know if there is no recipe that says make chocolate covered strawberries with cocoa powder, there is probably a reason why. 

At least I have some good, fresh strawberries waiting for me.  And you know what?  Plain sounds just fine.