peppers, pork, and plums

I have been delighted to occasionally find shiseido peppers at the local Farmers' Market. We like to pan saute them in olive oil with garlic. Here I had them as a side dish with pork scallopine that has a plum-port sauce on top. Keeping with the plum theme, I made a sweetened mixture of vanilla, plums, and blackberries served over shortbreads for dessert.

grilled lamb and a summer salad

I have been using quite a bit of ground lamb this summer - this is a spiced lamb patty that is grilled. I made a great summer salad of baby greens, blue cheese, almonds, and nectarines to go with the lamb.
 

pasta with artichokes and pancetta

Prepping and slicing the baby artichokes can take a bit of tedious time, but I like doing it. I just saute some diced pancetta and then add the sliced artichokes to poach in a bit of white wine. Toss with pasta and parmesan for a delicious meal. I also had some of my first garden tomatoes to make into a simple sliced salad with a caper vinaigrette.

shrimp for dinner, puff pastry for dessert

For our main course I sauteed shrimp in a hard cider sauce and served it over rice. For dessert I baked up some sugar-crusted puff pastry "pillows". Then I split them open, spread with mascarpone cheese, and topped with ripe apricot and plum slices.

summer dinner and dessert

This one is a turkey cutlet - pan sauteed with a green chile and brie sauce atop.  I paired it with some ricotta-spinach 'dumplings' and then couldn't resist making a caprese salad with freshly picked tomatoes from our garden.  Dessert was a beautiful and tasty plum-almond galette - we thank our neighbors for sharing their bountiful plum crop with us.

squash blossoms and enchiladas

I grow a few squash plants mainly to harvest squash blossoms - here I fried them in a tempura-type batter as an appetizer. Dinner was Beef and Black Bean Enchiladas with an Ancho Chile Sauce - using a recent recipe in Cooking Light magazine. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/beef-black-bean-enchiladas-50400000120717/

apricot abundance

We harvested apricots day after day.  This dinner was a scallop-watercress salad, garlic scape pesto pizza bread, and apricot cobbler.

enjoying red chile & tortillas, while working with apricots

We had a bumper crop of apricots from a large tree in our yard so I spent many hours making jam and baking cobblers.  This night we had some red chile (we make ours with ground pork in it) and I made some flour tortillas too.  For dessert we had fresh apricots in a mint syrup while another pot of apricot jam bubbled away.  After I made 'regular' jam for a few batches, I switched it up to make Apricot-Ginger-Lime jam.

bbq chicken sandwich

This sandwich recipe comes from the April 2012 issue of Cooking Light magazine.  It is made super fast by using a cooked rotisserie chicken.  I made ours open-face and topped with some flash pickled red onion.  http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/barbecue-chicken-sandwiches-50400000120689/

The side dish of is lemony sugar snap peas.  I just quickly sauteed some shallots in olive oil, added the peas and cooked briefly before adding some lemon juice. 

santa fe, nm farmers market

The colors, scents, and sounds of the vibrant Santa Fe Farmers Market are great to experience!  It feels like a concentrated bit of summer in the railyard.

summer market fresh salad & dessert

Taking advantage of the wonderful fruits and vegetables available at the local Farmers Markets, I flash-pickled some red onion to strew atop a Bibb lettuce salad.  I also included chopped tomato in the vinaigrette dressing and crumbled blue cheese on top.  For dessert I made a fresh peach upside down cake - basically just substituting peaches where I would normally use pineapple. 

pasta with garlic scape pesto

I really enjoyed the garlic scapes from the Farmers Market this spring and made some pesto to freeze and enjoy later.  For this dish I pan sauteed some chicken tenders, red and yellow bell peppers to toss with pasta and some of the garlic scape pesto. 

black bean enchiladas

These are time intensive but oh so tasty.  First I cook up a pot of black beans and then make them into a sauce - basically like thin refried beans.  Then I dip corn tortillas into the hot bean sauce to soften and coat; fold in quarters and place on the plate.  I pour a bit more of the bean sauce on top and garnish with white onion, parsley, chorizo, tomatillo salsa, and crumbled queso fresco.

pork soft tacos

I did a dry rub containing cumin on a pork tenderloin and grilled it, mixed sour cream with chipotle for a topping, and also made a black bean & corn salsa so these were delicious Cumin-Coated Pork Soft Tacos with Chipotle Cream and Black Bean/Corn Salsa.  The side dish was a sugar snap pea salad - just raw sugar snap peas thinly sliced on the bias and dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. 

margaritas and tacos, with a twist

We started with blueberry-basil margaritas, then grilled chicken & veggie soft tacos (with a side of slaw to add some extra tang), and finished with blueberry mousse.