Concord Park

Photos from Porter's Creek (3)

Random snaps from the trail, and yours truly!









And since you've been so patient, here's a showy orchis.

CSA Dinner: Cajun Chicken with sauteed Swiss Chard

Sauteed Swiss Chard:

Ingredients:

• 2 Rashers bacon (mine was from the farmer's market)
• 1/2 white onion (CSA)
• 12 or so leaves of swiss chard (CSA)
• Olive oil
• Garlic
• Salt & pepper
• Water, 1/4cup

Steps:

• Cook bacon in a little olive oil until crispy
• Add onions and swiss chard stems, cooking until onions are translucent
• Add garlic, cook for another minute or so
• Add swiss chard and sautee until wilted
• Add water, cover, cook for another 2 minutes

The swiss chard was ok - really need more for the amount of bacon and water I used.  Enough to make 2 smallish portions.  I forgot to add the black pepper and salt, but I really meant to!  I really couldn't taste much chard coming through, although maybe that's a good thing?  Either way, I ate me some green stuff. Huzzah.

The chicken was just chicken breasts, halved, liberally dosed with cajun seasoning, and fried until cooked through.

But I know you're really just here for pictures!

Just starting:

After adding the onions and chard stems to the bacon.  I really like how colorful it is:

Chard leaves have been added:

Mmmm, blackened chicken!

Need better plates....

Almost forgot my ciabatta rolls!

One more

Pretty!

First ever sighting of Faygo in the wild

Third Creek

Photos from Porter's Creek (2)

More photos from Porter's Creek.

More wild geraniums (there were bunches out that day):



Large-flowered trillium:



Yellow trillium:



Aging Large-flowered trillium.  They turn pink as they get older:

Photos from Porter's Creek (1.5)

Just to tide you over, here's a rock.  With some water.  In black and white.

Rare flower

Saturday at the Farmer's Market

Yesterday was the first chance I got to get out to the Market Square Farmer's Market.  Great morning for it, too!  Upper 60s, clear sunny sky.

But there was a problem.

2 problems, really.

The first problem was the International Biscuit Festival.  The second were the Destination Imagination Global Finals.

Ok, so they weren't actually problems at all.  I think it's great for Knoxville to host events like these.  I just misunderestimated the sheer number of people that would be out!  I did try to make my way around the Biscuit Fest, but it was shoulder-to-shoulder people.  Not my idea of a jolly good time.

The view 50 feet away from the Biscuits:


Further into the insanity:


Biscuits!


While wandering the festival, I did take the opportunity to try some sorghum.  Amazingly, I've never had the stuff.  I think it takes like a cross between a very dark honey and maybe molasses.  Not bad, but not sure what role it would have in my cooking.  I also had some apple butter, again a first.  To me, it was essentially apple sauce.  Again, not sure what I'd use it for.

Bottles and bottles of sorghum:


And the nice gentleman who gave out the samples:


Here's one of the Biscuit Fest signs.  I found it a bit funny, since it was on the opposite side of the Farmer's Market from the all the Biscuits!


The next set are just some random photos from the Market.  The first two are from Mountain Meadows, purveyors of my CSA fruits and veggies.  The last is Spring Creek Farm.  They had some tasty looking meats.  I picked up some italian sausage and bacon, both highly recommended by the dude behind the coolers.  They get some bonus points from me for offering up free greens with the meat purchases.  I didn't take him up on it, simply because I have tons of veggies I still need to eat here :(

Photos from Porter's Creek

So, um, yeh, here are some photos from Porter's Creek in mid-April.  I'm slow.

I don't know what they were up to, but these butterflies were crazy!



Just a bee-like thing on a flower:


Unidentified wildflower.  It almost resembles periwinkle, but the petals look wrong to me.


Wild geraniums:

CSA Week 3!

Yes I'm late in posting.  I HAVE NO REGRETS!

Anyway, here's the week 3 box from the Mountain Meadows CSA.



Contents:

• Italian Kale (I think)
• Japanese Turnips
• Either yellow beets or rutabagas (TBD)
• Raspberries
• Peas
• White onions
• Yellow squash
• Zucchini
• Arugula (I think)
• Cauliflower

More pictures:

SPIDER CABBAGE!!!!!

In case you didn't see it yesterday, notice that my cabbage, when split in half, CONTAINED A SPIDER!!!!




that is all.

CSA week 2!

I'm late in posting this, but yesterday was the second box of this year's CSA from Mountain Meadows Farm.  Our delivery featured:

• Strawberries
• Swiss Chard
• Japanese Turnips
• Cabbage
• Sweet onion
• Spinach
• Lettuce mix (seems to be spring mix type thing)
• Romaine lettuce

Tada!

A better view from above-ish:

And this is what my share came out to be:

Not too bad!  This is going to be a tough week though.  Most of these foods I don't like (or at least don't think I like).  But I guess that's what this is supposed to be about.  With that, last night's dinner:

The entree was a sausage sandwich featuring mild Italian sausage on Pane Toscano (both from The Fresh Market)  along with some sauteed green bell pepper, sweet onion, and some sun-dried tomatoes.  Sadly, none from the CSA box, but I needed to use up some leftovers.

The "salad" as I'm choosing to call it was simply some of the spinach leaves from the CSA along with some freshly grated carrots.  I also got a fancy shmancy vidalia onion and tomato dressing to top it with.

I wasn't a huge fan of the spinach flavor, but I think it went well with the dressing, and wasn't terrible.  I just need to get used to it a bit more.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with the rest of it.... *sigh*