Woo-hoo! Watauga Farmers Market to Reopen May 5th!

Woo-hoo! Watauga Farmers Market to Reopen May 5th!

I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the summer time, where the farmers markets brighten up the road sides with in season produce, fresh flower bouquets, and vending stations offering all kinds of goodies. As a cookbook author, it’s a chance to run wilder than the azaleas in bloom– and my favorite place to do it is the Watauga Farmers Market in Boone, NC.

I always load up on beets, blueberries, bok choy, broccoli, cabbage, collards, green peas, lettuces of all kinds, and loads of delicious strawberries this time of year.

My Kale Salad with Strawberries and Goat Cheese takes advantage of the freshest kale, sweetest strawberries and creamy artisanal cheese found in the market. There’s a cheese maker at the Watauga Farmer’s Market in the mountains of North Carolina that makes so many variations of goat cheese that it’s hard to choose. You can taste them all, if you are patient enough to wait your turn.

I also like to create super granola with the seeds and nuts I find at the market. Look for the super granola recipe at the bottom of this recipe. All kinds of possibilities lay in wait under those farmer’s market tents! See you around…

Kale Salad with Strawberries and Goat Cheese
& a Nutty Topper
Serves 4 to 6 as a side salad
30 Minute Cuisine

For Nutty Topper:
1 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
¼ cup roasted, salted and shelled pistachios
¼ cup roasted, salted sunflower seeds
¼ cup roasted, and salted Pepitas

For Dressing:
½ large lemon juiced, about 2 tablespoons
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoons honey
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon coarse black pepper
½ cup olive oil

For Salad:
1 bunch kale, stems removed, leaves chopped, about 3 to 4 cups
1 pint fresh strawberries, stems removed and sliced, about 2 cups
4 to 5 medium radishes, sliced thin, about 1 cup
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled, about ½ cup

Melt the butter and brown sugar in a medium skillet pan over medium-high heat. Stir in the pistachios, sunflower seeds and pepitas. Cook until the nuts are just beginning to toast, about 2 to 3 minutes. Pour the nuts and seeds onto a parchment paper lined rimmed baking sheet to cool.

Place the lemon juice, mustard and honey in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk in the olive oil. Place the kale into a salad bowl and pour the dressing over the top. Let the salad sit on the counter at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes to allow the leaves to soften.

Add the strawberries, radishes and goat cheese to the salad bowl. Toss with the kale and dressing and sprinkle the nutty topper over the top.

To make super granola: Just place nuts and/or seeds into a bowl with 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats, ½ cup dried fruit (like cranberries or blueberries), and a tablespoon of honey. Toss with a beaten egg white, a tablespoon of honey and a pinch of salt. Pour the granola mixture onto a parchment paper lined rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 350°until the oats are golden and toasted, about 10 minutes. Cool and store in an airtight container. Spoon granola over yogurt and berries for a fast and yummy breakfast starter!

 

There’s a New Shop on Main Street

There’s a New Shop on Main Street

There is now a Spice & Tea Exchange in Blowing Rock, NC There is now a Spice & Tea Exchange in Blowing Rock, NC

Last time I was in North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountain town of Blowing Rock, I had one of those “Sunday Best” excursions on Main Street. It was the kind of shopping trip that lit a fire in the oven as surely as it ignited my chef’s imagination. When I came home that day I baked cookies, and roasted chicken and fish; I could not wait to make these simple recipes because I had found exotic seasonings to spice them up: YUMM!! BUURRP!! It is your fault, Spice & Tea Exchange (TSTE)!

I was drawn in by their motto, “if you can’t find it here, it probably doesn’t exist!”  Care to challenge that, Sunday Best Cooks?? I was drawn in by their motto, “if you can’t find it here, it probably doesn’t exist!”  Care to challenge that, Sunday Best Cooks??

I have to hand it to Andy and Gayle, pictured above: it is the perfect time of year to open a tea and spice shop. All the Fall enthusiasts—and I know I have got more than a few Fall fanatics on THE NANA NETWORK—are out there looking to revel in cinnamon, apple and pumpkin-y aromas. I know that I am looking forward to posting some new dessert recipes that call for TSTE’s salted caramel sugar.

But you know me….

I could not stop at sweet, so I had to go for savory, too.  While at TSTE I picked up some Chardonnay Oak Smoked Salt, which I LOVE using to dress up my Sunday Best recipe for a beautiful Sunday Roast Chicken. Of course, I am not alone in my love of “Sunday Best” excursions. My future daughter-in-law, Colleen came to TSTE too, and was excited to use the store’s Peppermint Patty Sugar to rim martini glasses for her signature Chocolate Martinis.

Colleen’s chocolate martini is a 1:1:1:1 ratio of Starbucks liquor, Kahlua, vanilla vodka and half and half Colleen’s chocolate martini is a 1:1:1:1 ratio of Starbucks liquor, Kahlua, vanilla vodka and half and half

Here is the recipe! We jotted it down ; )

So try and find your nearest tea and spice shop! TSTE used to be “Old Florida Spice Traders” until it expanded into what it is today. If you like the look of an old trading post that has chests of drawers, steamer trunks and big glass apothecary jars spilling over with over 170 spices and probably as many (or more?!) teas, then you will love it as much as I did!