Eye Level Pasadena

Artichokes growing in Houston’s herb and vegetable garden

Blue potatoes from the Pasadena farmers’ market

Blue potatoes with slivered garlic

Adapted from the Fingerlings with Slivered Garlic recipe on p. 411 of Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Olive oil
1 pound small All Blue potatoes scrubbed and sliced into about 1/3-inch thick rounds
6 big garlic cloves (or more small ones) sliced thinly
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Oil a small shallow baking dish (with some of the olive oil). Layer the potatoes in the dish with the garlic. Drizzle with oil. (About 3 tablespoons in addition to what was used to oil the dish — I don’t really measure, I just rub a little oil on the bottom and sides of the dish and then pour a little more oil down each row of potatoes for flavoring.) Season with salt and pepper.

Add a few tablespoons water to the dish, then cover and bake until tender, about 40 to 50 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for about 20 minutes longer until the potatoes brown on the bottom.

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Gavin and I think they might be caramelizing when they brown underneath in this recipe. They taste pretty amazing. If any food bloggers out there can confirm or deny whether or not it is possible to caramelize blue potatoes, please let us know.

The tomatoes and basil are from Pasadena’s Saturday morning farmers’ market, and the buffalo mozzarella is from Roma Italian Deli & Grocery.

Caprese salad in the making, 1

Caprese salad in the making, 2

Caprese salad in the making, 3

The organic urban homesteading family at Path to Freedom here in Pasadena is posting how-to and informational videos on YouTube.

O, Pioneers in Pasadena – A recent L.A. Times article about the Dervaes Pasadena urban homestead (the family’s website is at PathtoFreedom.com)

Russian banana fingerlings

We found these Russian banana fingerling potatoes at the Pasadena farmers’ market last Saturday morning, too. They were sweet. I usually toss baby potatoes with olive oil, capers, dill and salt. These didn’t need capers, and the dill was good but not quite right. If I can find these again next week, I want to try them with sage.

After reading Cook and Nifty Wench’s post about crosnes, we bought some at the farmers’ market on Saturday.

Crosnes

About crosnes

We sauteed them in butter…

Crosnes sauteing

…and added lots of salt and pepper and oregano from our garden (still following Cook and Nifty Wench’s lead).

Oregano in my garden

They tasted like very good french fries, but they felt crisper and crunchier, like little carrots.

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Update: erin’s kitchen has a post on crosnes, too: Crazy, Crispy Crosnes

Tableau Vivante has great coverage of local farmers’ markets – especially the Saturday morning market here in Pasadena.

Lemon in the rain

South Pasadena farmers’ market

Ginger

Thursday night, Erin, Superspark and I went to the South Pasadena farmers’ market and then to Firefly for their farmers’ market night sangria and tapas. Is anyone out there a regular at this market or Pasadena’s Saturday morning market? I like them both, but for different things. The Saturday morning market has more variety, but the Thursday night market is a good after-work place to go and relax.

erin’s kitchen: Farmers’ Market, Firefly, and Friends
Superspark: Tapas at Firefly Bistro

South Pasadena farmers’ market
Thursday nights, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. (in winter, it ends earlier at around 7:00 p.m.)
Meridian Avenue & Mission Street