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Not gonna lie: I was ridiculously excited Wednesday about Green City Market’s Apple Fest, which featured over seven different uncommon varieties to taste as well as delicious prepared foods from well-known chefs in Chicago! But moreso than just apples, I was thrilled to find some unique products at the market that I am sure you will love!
1. Oscar’s Hairy Balls. I thought the name was a joke, too, but it isn’t. Oscar’s Hairy Balls are the catalogue name for the above seed pods on a stick that actually produce a lovely near-white bloom. Of course, once news broke of my discovery, many a joke was made.
2. Cherry preserves from Seedling Farms. Sweet and tangy with whole cherries in it. It’s like pie without the crust…on a croissant!
3. Peppers from Leaning Shed Farm. You can see Serrano, Jalapeno and Banana peppers in the picture above, as well as a big, shiny candy red onion! Cannot wait to fry it up! Mmmm-mmm!
4. Bosc pears, with a sweet, gritty flesh, from Mick Klug are just gorgeous. Honey Crisp apples are MASSIVE from Ellis Farms and the little red apples are a gift from Gabe, so I could make caramel covered apples with his perfect caramel sauce!
5. Hugging carrots and curly-q eggplant from Granor Farm. Jesse and Tim were kind enough to let me bring tons of little school children to their tent to show off their deep violet eggplants! Thanks, guys!
More to come…
Dev xx
Do you like apples? How about apple butter, apple cider, hot caramel apple drinks, caramel covered apples and other apple-related recipes?
Courtesy of The Sun Blog
Then you will LOVE Green City Market’s Apple Fest being held tomorrow at Clark and Menomonee.
The event will start at 9.30 am and will also feature chef tastings with Patrick Sheerin (Signature Room), Alex Cheswick (May Street Market) and Sarah Levy (Sarah’s Pastries & Candies).
See you there!!
I love autumn weather. Before I go to sleep at night, I open all of the windows and throw extra blankets on the bed. That way, in the morning, I can feel the crisp morning breeze wrap around my sleep-warmed skin. If I am lucky, my skin will get cold enough to produce steam when the hot shower water pours over it.
After a few 75 degree days, you can imagine my excitement one morning when I felt extra cold air swirling through the half-open windows. Indeed the temperature was 46 outside and the high would be in the high 50s. I threw on a sweater and made my way to Green City Market (it was Wed.) and stocked up on the gorgeous gourds you see above (from Leaning Shed!). Although I will miss tomato season, there is so much to be thankful for with the autumn harvest. Apples, pears, carrots and eggplants are just a few of the highlights.
Here is a list of my favourte new things popping up at Green City Market, as well as a few items you should grab and freeze before they stop making an appearance!
1. Seedling’s hot apple cider with caramel: Gabriel hand-makes the most delicious caramel that he adds to the already amazing apple cider. If you are really nice to him, he may even add an extra spoonful. :o)
2. Seedling’s apple butter, blueberry lavender jam and peach vanilla jam: The two jams are complex and sophisticated while the apple butter is sweet, creamy and is dying to be paired with a buttery croissant from Bennison’s!
3. Floriole’s Sea Salt Caramels: I almost ran into a pole while walking down the street because of this confection! Generous squares of gooey caramel are enhanced with coarse sea salt, bringing out the buttery, sweet flavour and enhancing the already gorgeous texture.
4. River Valley Ranch’s Tomato Soup: The perfect fall food and complement to grilled cheese sandwiches. The best thing is that this soup is made from heirloom tomatoes.
5. Leaning Shed Farm’s garlic
6. Stoney Run Field’s Bittersweet: You could be like everyone else and pick up an icebox “fall bouquet” from Jewel, or you could head over to Jerry and Jill and let them wow you with their autumn country flower collection. The Bittersweet is charming with little orange berries studding every slender branch.
7. Leaning Shed’s gourds and pumpkin selection
8. Smit’s Mums: hardy, colourful and the perfect flower to decorate your front porch or window box.
9. Granor Farm’s carrots: They are crisp, sweet and perfect for a carrot-apple cake!
10. 1st Orchard and Greenhouse’s Honey Crisp apples
11. Oriana’s Oriental Orchard’s asian pears
12. Heritage Prairie’s flours: Milled by Ted’s Organic Grains, you have to arrive early at GCM to score some of this amazing flour. My personal favourite is the whole wheat. It is a courser ground flour that is delicate enough for pancakes and hardy enough for cakes and breads.
13. LAST WEEK for Nordic Creamery’s summer butter!!!! Freeze it and have delicious grass-fed cow’s butter the whole winter!
14. Seedling’s cinnamon apple cider
15. LAST WEEK for peaches!!! Grab some Flamin’ Furys
16. Pumpkin-on-a-stick AND the adorable wreaths from The Flower Garden: Because adorable comes on a stick. In pumpkin form. Get on that!
If you have a favourite autumn item, let me know and I will post it up!
Rich injecting pig parts with juices. Sounds appetising, no? :o)
Of course, the highlight of last week was when I helped out at Mado, a restaurant in Wicker Park run by Rob and Ali Levitt! There I got to see what goes into butchering pigs and I picked up a ton of useful skills like how to cube bread, follow a “hero”, slice beets, etc. It was an invaluable learning opportunity and I really enjoyed myself. It is so cool to see what goes into preparing a kitchen for dinner time.
Sous chef Chris was hilarious, picking on me for taking FOR.EV.ER to cut things into tiny pieces, but finally rewarding me with some of his corn chowder that was perfect. Where do these people come from?! I will be joining the Mado team again this week! I wonder what we will be butchering?
More photos below!!! Click link to see more butchering! Mmmm-mmmmm!!
Dev xx
While volunteering for Green City Market at Chicago Gourmet, we had a lot of people come by to try the market gazpacho and rave about the taste. The secret? Fresh, local, sustainable fruits and veggies that can be found within 300 miles of Chicago!
The ingredients: heirloom tomatoes, onions, garlic, cucumbers and fresh herbs. GCM tries to keep it less spicy to make it more appealing to a wider audience. All of the ingredients are raw and then pureed down to a smooth, cold soup. Delish!
You can find it at Abbey’s Crepes at the market tomorrow if you really liked it!
Now for a look at GCM’s tent at Chi Gourmet. See if you can make out who is on that closest billboard in the red shirt:
It’s yours truly!!! Imagine my shock and delight when I saw my silly self on a blown-up picture! What an honour! In this picture I was giving a tour to elementary school children who stopped by the market on a field trip! LOVES!
Dev xx
Who said a local breakfast had to be boring?
Well my Locavore friends, we have come to the end. Sadly, the Locavore Challenge for Green City Market ended today (Wednesday) but that doesn’t mean that a Locavore Challenge for you has to end. You can keep incorporating local, sustainable foods into your every day menu.
This does not have to be hard. It can mean using Blue Marble cream in your coffee for breakfast, salad greens from Granor Farms for lunch and Heartland Meats beef hamburgers for dinner. Easy. Delicious.
Simple, right?
Today, to mark the end of the LC, I bought a crisp and sugary sweet sticky roll with pecans from Floriole.
For lunch, I had a burger (so did Ruthie!) from Sunday Dinner! In case any of you have had these heavenly burgers, I thought I would take a picture of the SD menu board for you. PS, the cheese used on the burgers is a cold packed horseradish cheddar cheese spread from Brunkow ($6)!
In order to be as Locavorish as I can, I stocked up groceries for the rest of the week. Gee, who said eating locally was hard?! Is it so hard to buy fresh croissants, chewy ciabatta bread, sweet cream butter, Michigan peaches, creamy horseradish cheddar cheese spread and sticky buns?! No. And I bet the stuff you buy at Green City Market will taste better and be better for you than anything you can buy at the Jewel.
Yesterday, I also had the pleasure of giving tours to kindergartners from St. Monica Academy. They were too adorable and believe me, as they were at our tasting table munching on Asian pears, grapes, pineapple ground cherries, purple carrots and cilantro, they made eating local look easy.
….And they were 5 years old!
For dinner, as a final hurrah, my friends and I ate lamb bratwursts with fresh, whole wheat bread from Bennison’s. As lamb grease dribbled down our chins, we both spoke excitedly about the amazing local dinners to come.
I can almost taste them.
I have decided to update this blog to include a section of recipes and meal ideas from local chefs and Chicagoans. Keep on reading Making Chicago Home for more updates on what to eat!
Dev xx
My post for Sunday is going to be pretty bland because I forgot my camera and do not really feel like reporting much! I ate a delicious Bennison’s croissant for breakfast and then headed to Arlington Heights with Tim to celebrate his 25th birthday with his family!
We watched the Bears play (what can be more local than cheering for your local team?!) and munched on Brunkow’s dill and garlic cheese curds and Brunkow garlic cheese on crackers.
For dinner, Tim’s mom fixed a delicious crown pork roast with green bean and sweet potato casseroles. Probably not local, but you cannot deny it was a tasty dinner.
Tim wanted a vanilla cake with Oreo frosting that I made from scratch. Ummm, it was not a local cake. Sorry!
Day 13 was spent catching up with this blog and the only thing I have really eaten is a Honey Crisp apple. I guess we all have to have a break day!
I have pictures…somewhere…but to tell you the truth, I probably will not post any.
Told you this would be bland.
Dev xx
I know I should have updated yesterday, but I had such a fun, full and busy day that I just had to take a break and put it off until today (and I still will have to post more tomorrow about Day 8 AND 9!!!
In honour of Melon Fest, there were chefs and mixologists at Green City Market handing out samples of melon salad with goat cheese and melon soups. Sound good? Yes. Sound safe? Yup. But then there was this renegade chef who was handing out samples of his goat cheese and dill ice cream in a watermelon corn soup (picture above)! Goat cheese dill ice cream!? Come again? After I took my first bite, all I could think of was that my tastebuds were confused but happy. I thought the dish was perfect.
Can anybody identify the chef in this picture (the man on the left!)
Ten points goes to the reader who can identify the chef on the left in the picture above. Someone needs to give this man props for his weird and wonderful creation!
The inside of Cafe Brauer
On Wednesday, I was incredibly honoured to give a Green City Market tour to the chefs who attended Chefs Collaborative’s Summit. I am so thankful to the amazing and hard-working Laura Watkins, marketing and communications coordinator at GCM, for letting me give the tour!
Before the tour started, Rich Hawley, another awesome GCM employee, took me around to each vendor and I found out some interesting and fun stuff that makes them unique! Since this is stuff I did not know before, and information that really impressed the chefs on the tour, I thought I would share it with you!
I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time Wednesday afternoon and am very, very thankful that Mark, who works with Green City Market, invited me along to the Chefs Collaborative lunch at Cafe Brauer.
Cafe Brauer, as I learned, is an example of Prairie style architecture that originated in Chicago!
Sauteed swiss chard with shiitake mushrooms
Goodness help me, there has been so much going on that I almost plum forgot to post up my recipe for last night’s dinner! I had sauteed swiss chard with sauteed mushrooms and this delicious Pappardelle’s Southwestern pasta I scored from the Arlington Heights farmers market.
Sauteed swiss chard with shiitakes
- Coarsely chop 4-5 leaves of swiss chard (no worries, it will sautee down!)
- Chop up shiitake mushrooms into bite size pieces
- Heat up olive oil in a pan for about a minute on high heat
- Throw in your mushrooms and cook for about 2 minutes
- Then toss in the swiss chard and cook for another 1 1/2 minutes.
- Salt and pepper your mixture while it is in the pan
- Serve hot!
The pasta is so delicious and flavourful that all it really needs is to be cooked properly then tossed with some of Nordic Cream’s sweet butter and topped with freshly ground pepper – enjoy!
Dev xx
WAIT! Don’t reach for the Bisquick! Instead, splurge for something local and tasty. Raspberry whole wheat buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup and vanilla whipped cream! Too much? Nah! This is the best way to use the LAST of the season’s raspberries (mine were from Mick Klug and were very tart!).
Here is the recipe:
Raspberry Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup of Ted’s Organic Whole Wheat Flour (avail. at Heritage Prairie’s booth at Green City Market!)
- 1 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 c. buttermilk
- 2 Tbsp. veggie oil
- 1 of Mary’s eggs!
- 1/2 c. of raspberries
DIRECTIONS (makes 4 large pancakes!):
- Whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
- Mix in the oil and buttermilk
- Whisk the egg until fluffy; add to the mixture and whisk until egg has been incorporated
- Stir in raspberries
- Add veggie oil to a pan and heat on medium
- Cook pancakes!
FOR THE VANILLA WHIPPED CREAM:
- 1/3 cup heavy cream (mine is from Blue Marble!)
- 1 Tblsp. sugar (or 1 Tbslp. maple syrup)
- 1 tsp. Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract
Whisk together until the heavy cream thickens!
What a great way to start the day! In other news, tomorrow is GREEN CITY MARKET DAY! I am volunteering from 9-11 am and hope to see you there! It will be a HUGE day for GCM because it is Melon Fest and Chef’s Collaborative National Summit. The latter includes book signings, chef demonstrations, tastings and a discussion on how farmers markets strengthen local food systems!
More to come… stay tuned!
Dev xx
Fight the temptation, Locavores!
These delicious pumpkin doughnuts are from Bennison’s Bakery but they are not local quite yet: the pumpkin used in the recipe is (gasp!) not local!!!
They are, however, absolutely to die for and are available now at Bennison’s location in Evanston! If you have to cheat for something sweet, cheat for something good! Like these puppies!
Dev xx
