Fresh black trumpet mushrooms - the season is now!

From the chanterelle family, black trumpets result in the silkiest texture when cooked.  Wash the stems under a stream of running water, then saute in a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat.  A hint of salt is nice, followed by a splash of a good, deep red wine such as a zinfandel.  Finish with a pat of butter stirred in off the heat.

A trip north this past weekend resulted in a great visit to the Tamworth farmers' market, and an awesome score of freshly foraged wild mushrooms, deep green bunches of celery, and succulent red bell peppers as big as Italian eggplants -- perfect timing for turning a recent purchase of New Roots Farm grass-fed ground beef and Barker's Farm heirloom potatoes into a luscious, comforting Sunday night dinner!  Tonight's dish: Pan seared grass-fed beef burgers with a luscious black trumpet mushroom-zinfandel sauce, garnished with Sun Gold cherry tomatoes and accompanied by buttermilk mashed potatoes with leeks, red bell pepper, celery leaf and aged sheep's milk cheese.  Phew, I'm out of breath.

What can I say, we LOVE grilled flatbreads, especially those with succulently sweet, summer heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese!  Y-U-M!!

Bull's Heart, Valencia, and Black Prince heirloom tomatoes strut their colors on this grilled pizza made with local flour for the dough and fresh cheese from Vermont.  Basil from my garden certainly could have been treated a little more kindly and chiffonaded instead of torn wrecklessly in a fit of hunger furor!  :)  

 All that's missing from the above picture is the gorgeous and delicious salad made with all kinds of scrumptiously colorful local garden goodies: chopped radishes, purple carrots, sungold tomatoes, sweet red pepper, garlic scapes (the very last of the tender ones), red onion and cucumber.  Added in a bunch of crunchy chopped lettuce and a can of garbanzos just for good measure.  Light vinaigrette and you're good to go!

Who took a bite out of that slice!?!

Classic Eggplant Parmesan

Barker's Farm eggplant, homemade marinara, and cinnamon basil straight from the garden made this eggplant parmesan one of the best yet!  Modest amounts of thin slices of locally made, fresh mozzarella and grated parmesan (um, not local) in between two layers of lightly fried panko-encrusted slices of eggplant, seasoned only with salt and pepper, is a treat worth heating up the kitchen for!  Use just parmesan--the best your money can buy--for topping it off.  No cinnamon basil on hand?  Season your marinara sauce with ground cinnamon instead!  Another tip: for seasoning consistency, season the egg, not the flour, when dredging.

Food With Color

Click on any of the pictures to see them enlarged 100%.

Here we have grilled Beach Pea's rosemary batard, brushed with homemade garlic scape pesto, topped with grilled eggplant (New Roots Farm) smothered in provolone cheese,  8-ball and 1-ball zucchini (small, round, baseball-size green and yellow fruits from Stonewall Farm), grilled sweet Ailsa Craig onions (Touching Earth Farm), slices of luscious tomatoes (Barker's Farm), and, finally, mounds of arugula (Riverside Farm).  Now THAT'S a farmers' market sandwich!  Pass the chips, please!

An heirloom cuke, these White Wonders are heading for another batch of my Summer Herb and Cucumber Soup.   Their creamy white flesh is slightly sweeter than regular cukes.  P.S.  I used basil, parsley and fennel fronds in this batch of soup, and garnished bowls of it with borage and lemon gem marigold flowers.  Delish!  

Cute little flying saucers.

Can you guess what this is?

Awesome Gazpacho

What to eat when it's 100 degrees outside at dinnertime?

This could be called "kitchen sink" gazpacho, or "ohmygod, I don't care what you call it, it's delicious" gazpacho, or, "NH farmers' market" gazpacho, or "my mother would love this" gazpacho...."   No need to concern yourself with what you don't have -- just use what you do have, and don't worry about measuring!  At this time of year, surely your tastebuds are intune with the local produce, and you've got plenty to choose from!