Back to School--Still make time to buy and eat fresh, local food

Back to school—Still make to time to buy and eat fresh, local food

It’s back to the Fairgrounds as usual this Saturday for the Farmers Market.  Our brief annual hiatus downtown was fun, but it will be good to be home and to once again have meat and other vendors with us.

            Since I have a second job at a school, I know how most of you feel going back to school this week.  Trying to figure out how to juggle new schedules and get back into routines leaves much less time for gardening and cooking.  Of course, this occurs right at the peak of produce season.  Don’t use back to school as an excuse to stop coming to market.  With so much available right now, it is really the best time of year to eat fresh, local food.    

            I have a lot of canning accomplish.  I know that if I want to enjoy some of this abundance in the winter I will have to bite the bullet and put in some late nights to get it done.  If you are shopping at market for bulk quantities of produce to put up you have to take advantage of it while the opportunity is available.  Just because a farmer has a ton of one vegetable or fruit one week, doesn’t guarantee it will be available the next week.  If you have ever raised a garden, no matter what the size, you know that a lot can change in a week.

I am a member of a book club, but as you can imagine, as soon as my head hits the pillow I am out, so reading is a challenge for me this time of year.  However, I realized that this is the 21^st century, borrowed an ipod from a friend, downloaded the book, and have been listening to it while picking.  Our meetings are pot luck and, as I mentioned last week, most of my friends are great cooks.  Therefore, I always feel like I have to step up my game with the food I take to book club.  My lack of time already being established, I decided my best bet would be to simply cut up a cantaloupe (how can you go wrong with that) and to also make the following stuffed hot pepper recipe.  The fact that it is very quick and has only three ingredients, all of which were on hand, made it the best option for me.  I can’t say I got this recipe from anywhere specific.  It’s just one that you throw together, changing the quantities based on the size group for which you are cooking.  Also, you don’t have to only use jalapenos; Hungarian hot wax would be good as well.  I also did a couple of really hot habaneras just to see who was brave enough to try one.

Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Jalapenos

12 jalapeño peppers, halved and seeded

1 package cream cheese

1 package bacon (I used pepper bacon because that’s what I had)

Fill the cavity of each pepper half with cream cheese.  Wrap with a piece of bacon and secure with a toothpick.  Place on a broiler pan and broil for 6-8 min. until bacon is crisp.