Last week, since Mr. Wonderful was going to be out of town, I picked up a package of Spinach Artichoke dip from Hot Tamale Mama (he’s not much into green things). I knew that I’d have lots of roasted chicken leftover and I wanted to do something different with my chicken salad. I added about 1/3 of the package to chunks of chicken breast and mixed it together. Whaaat?! It can’t be that easy! It sure was and my chicken salad was extraordinary! So now I have 2/3 of the package left and (no, I did not make pizza with it …although…..) I decided to treat myself to an extra special omelet. I guess you could call it an omelet; basically I scrambled a few tablespoons of the dip into my eggs and cooked them over a low fire to make sort of an egg pie. Egg pie, omelet – doesn’t matter, what a breakfast! The rest of the package went into a pound of ground beef (Justin Pitts, Jubilee Farms) with a pinch of salt and a smidgen of Olé Southwest Seasoning (yours truly) for 4 incredible hamburgers. Hey…I’ll bet that would also be great mixed into ground lamb or goat from Farmhouse Dairy. I had a thought to try it as a sauce over fried eggplant, but that will have to wait until another day. After all, I already had more than enough food.
Slowly but surely, the greens are sneaking onto the tables. Jessica (Two Kids Farm) managed to harvest the season’s first mustard greens. She didn’t have a lot but just the sight of them was a promise of future goodness. Robin (Rockin’ Pepper Jelly) has a recipe for asparagus using her Lemon Pepper Jelly as a sauce. I’m thinking that sauce would add awesome flavor when drizzled over wilted mustard greens. Cleckler Farms and Bardwell’s still have tomatoes and there is nothing like freshly sliced tomato with splash or three of Basically Basil’s Basil Vinaigrette. Better yet, let the tomatoes marinate in the vinaigrette for half an hour then place them onto freshly sliced bread (Windfield Farms, 7Grain) for the quintessential tomato sandwich. Call me biased but tomato sandwiches are the absolute best – especially with thinly sliced onions.
I know I come up with some unusual (some may say wacky) recipes for the variety of flavors and ingredients we have at the market. Why limit your meals to the mundane? After all, avocado Popsicles and pepper jelly cream cheese ice cream were just a whisper of an idea at one time. And now they are as much a part of the market as Tabasco! Do you have a favorite recipe using market ingredients? We’d love to hear about them.
photo credit Grow.Farm, Covington Farmers Market
Lots of love,
Charlene LeJeune
Abundant Life Kitchen
The Covington Farmers’ Market is open each Wednesday, rain or shine, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Covington Trailhead, 419 N. New Hampshire and every Saturday from 8a.m. to 12p.m. on the side lawn of the Covington Police Station, 609 N. Columbia St. Call (985) 892-1873 for information or visit www.covingtonfarmersmarket.org
