A Girl Named Timi

Support Your Local Farmer!

and

More Kitchen Mayhem

I love summer and everything that goes with it. I'm always a little sad when Labor Day comes knowing that it's really kind of offically over. Then I'm soon reminded that I LOVE FALL! I'm a fall food girl! I get giddy over the flavors that are available from the garden or your local farmers when fall starts rolling in.

After reading Farm Road Farm Girls blog I got all jazzed about going back (I do try to support my local farmer and small business as much as possible) to my local farmers to see what they had. So I fired up the car, put the top down and went to see what a couple of the many local farm stands in my neighborhood had fresh. I stopped at Stocker Farms in Snohomish where I was soooooooooooooooooooo excited to find the first picking of Honey Crisp Apples. It was all I could do- to not start jumping up and down peeing my pants with excitement. I'm pretty sure those young girls working the stand are still talking about the crazy old bat that came in for apples. I DON'T CARE! I also don't care that these apples are $1.99 a pound, they could be $5 a pound and I would still buy them. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these apples. I cry when I can't get them anymore and I jump with excitement when they appear in the stores again. I'm going to show you a recipe in a few days that The Hubs and I love on weekend mornings that we have with Honey Crisp Apples. It's FANTASTIC!

OK, sorry back to my trip to the farms..............I also got some new red potatoes, and an onion. I would love to have bought some green beans but they probably wouldn't have been as good by the time I got around to using them. I'll have to go back and get some along with some peaches in a couple days.

After Stocker Farms I was off to Bob's Corn to get some...you guessed it... some corn. I also wanted to see what fabulousness he had for produce and homemade cheese.

There it is.....Fresh from the farm! I'm so excited. Now what to make for dinner out of all this goodness??? These veggies always make me think of being a kid during the summer and remind me of my Grandmothers.

Let's start with cutting up all those potatoes in bite size chunks and boiling them in a little salt water.
While the potatoes are cooking, I sliced that sweet onion up, put it in a pan with a little olive oil and turned them on medium heat. A few caramelized onions will be nummy. These keep in the fridge so you can use them for a few days on sandwiches, eggs, meats, or veggies.

I like to add a little bit of brown sugar to my caramelized onions while they are cooking down. This takes quite a while, so just let them cook while your doing other things.
So my potatoes are done, I drained off the water and threw in a half a bag of frozen peas and covered on low low heat. Keep your eye on them. You just want the water off the potatoes to cook off and thaw your peas a little. DON'T COOK the peas before you add them. They will just get super mushy and you'll hate them. Fresh peas work great too if you have them. The frozen peas and carrot mix is my most favorite. I didn't have any this time.
Next in a microwave bowl I'm going to make a basic white sauce. It works just as well in a pan on the stove but I only have two burners on my stove so I have to cook it in the microwave.

Melt butter

add a little flour to make a paste
Add some milk and whisk together

Cook on high with stirring occasionally until it's thick. Then I like to add some salt, pepper, parsley flakes, a little onion powder and my secret ingredient......

A couple dollops of sour cream.

WAHLA!!! Old fashioned new potatoes and peas in cream sauce. If you have never had this..............Oh boy howdy you're missin out! Let them simmer on low heat while your getting everything else ready and those peas will be perfect!

This was a dish that Grandma Beach introduced to me while visiting her home when she lived on Samish Island when I was about 10 years old. My Mom started making it and it's been a family favorite ever since. One of my Dad's most favorite dishes and now The Hubs asks for it too.

Grandma Beach is my friend Lori's Grandmother. Lori lived across the street from me growing up and going to Grandma Beach's house (also known as Wanda) was a huge treat in the summer time. Grandma Beach now lives across the street from my parents in the cutest little house and my niece Princess Spoiled Brat likes to go visit her for nummy treats. Some of my best recipes came from Grandma Beach and Lori's Mom Polly. These 3 women are some of the most talented women I know. I probably should have hung out at that house a little more or at least paid attention when I was there!

Next up I'm going to put together some sliders for The Hubs. He loves these and what goes best with new potatoes and peas??? BBQ'd burgers!

This is what I use to season my hamburger. Montreal Steak Seasoning and Worcestershire Sauce.I shake the seasoning all over, drown it in Worcestershire Sauce, flip them and do it all over again. Then let them sit for a little bit, while The Hubs gets the grill out and heats it up.I also made turkey sliders for myself (Some days I just can't stomach ground beef, yesterday was one of them) but I forgot to take pictures. I got pictures of my spices but I forgot the rest of the pictures. Sorry, guess I forgot what I was doing. That happens sometimes. Anyway I made my turkey burgers like this............Ground turkey, some parsley flakes, onion powder, poultry seasoning, salt, pepper, and a pinch of garlic powder. Mixed it all together and made it in to patties to grill. Easy!

While I was waiting for The Hubs to get the grill going I sliced up one of those tomatoes and sprinkled it with a little Paula Deen's seasoned salt. Let it sit in the fridge for a little while and NUMMY NUMMY NUMMY!

We had tomatoes fixed like this for the first time at Uncle Bubba's Oyster House during our trip to Savannah a couple years ago. They were fantastic!

Last week The Hubs and I went to Ruby's Diner for dinner. I noticed they had sliders on their menu (everyone does now) and they served them on Hawaiian Sweet Rolls. I thought "mmmmm that sounds good" I didn't have them but it sounded good. So I decided to buy some Hawaiian dinner rolls and try it.

Beef patties with cheddar cheese, caramelized onions on a Hawaiian Roll. The Hubs put a little mayo on his burgers. He said they were fabulous and he took a couple for lunch today.
Turkey burgers with provolone, caramelized onions on a Hawaiian Roll. I put a little mayo on one and a little BBQ sauce on the other. They were both delicious!
So put it all together..............Here's dinner!

Call your mother, aunt, grandma, or friend for a recipe or look through old cookbooks. Then go to the farmers market for the ingredients and have fun! If you enjoy this type of cooking check out Hobby Farm Home. It's one of my favorite magazines.