Fun With Food!!

[CalvinFish]

I don't know if thi is the correct place for this post, but what the heck, it's the weekend.

Induction has been a fun excersize in food for me. I have alway been adventurous when it come to food, so this new WOE has been fun. I went to the farmers market yesterday and spent over an hour lookin at all of the fun stuff. (The berries were beautiful for any of you reading in OWL.)

I came across one farmer who had almost nothing but garlic. If you recall, in the chapter "The Compexities of Carbohydrates" Garlic is "in a class by itself" when it comes to antioxidants/ carb ration. It tops the list at 23.2 of the Atkins Ratio. So here I was in an Atkins Ratio "candy store." There were many varieties. Some with purple heads, some red, some flecked with a mixture of both. There were little labels infront of each variety describing the nuances of each. Dicriptive words included spicy, hot, mild, mellow, creamy, sweet, peppery, firm, soft. The labels also gave indicaton on how well they stored. It was almost like reading about wines. I spoke with the farmer and he told me that many of his favorites are spicy, but didn't store very well because of high moisture content. (This is perhaps why we don't see some of them in our large chain food stores). I bought a bunch of different varieties and am now well stocked with garlic. I made a big mistake and threw them all into the same bag, so now I am not exactly sure which variety I am eating. I have cooked several cloves of the first type, a reddish purple flecked head with high moisture. The Cloves once pealed are yellowish white, not too unlike the common store variety. To not loose the subtle flavor characteristics, I sliced the cloves about the thickness of a quarter and sautéed them seperately in a bit of extra virgin olive oil. The galic was a very small side to my dinner. It was wonderful, pungent, but not overpowering. Very nice!

Another booth had all kinds of squash. Being still in induction, I avoided close examination of the winter varieties. They will still be around in the fall anyway. I was suprised at the number of summer squashes though. There were several varieties of zucchini. I bought three. One I had not seen before is the 8-ball zucchini. As the name implies, they are perfectly round. Some of them were about the size of an average head of iceberg lettuce. Knowing how "regular" zucchini gets when that large, I stuck with a couple that were about baseball size. I also had half of one of these last night, sautéed in butter and a bit of pepper. The flavor was excellent, better than the small ones I get at the grocery store. The disapointment was that the center, were the seeds are, did not hold up very well and got a bit soft before the outs side was cooked to just tender. Another variety, in regular zucchini shape, has green and white stripes. The farmer told me it was her favorite. I will try it tonight.

There was also a bunch of different kale that I bought, but haven't tried yet.

I don't know if this is of any use to anyone, but just wanted to share that I am having fun with my food in this new WOE.

cheers
Dave

[Terry]

Fun with food is one of the benefits of this woe when we give it a try. Thats why I dont understand when people say they get bored with the "limited" food list.

I love summer squash. It is on my grocery list every week. Although I have never had the opportunity to see an 8 ball zucchini. I will be on the look out for it now though!

[loser4life]

We have fresh squash out of the garden right now and man is it delicious! I am going to get burnt out on it though probably.... I have been eating it everyday!!!

[sidrah]

Go back and grab some spaghetti and butternut squash. I make soup from butternut with chicken stock. Good stuff. And I put garlic in EVERYTHING I make. Never can have enough

[tickletussler]

I love roasted garlic - the sting of it mellows into a sweetness that is addictive! LOL

[Moochiecat]

Butternut is not allowed on induction though, so be mindful of that.

I just LOVE this time of year for fresh produce!! We have a great farmer's market that we ride our scooters to and load up on stuff...and the prices are terrific as well.

[CalvinFish]

The Green and white striped zucchini is excellent!! Firm and delicious. I had it tonight with a local deli italian sausage (the only kind I can find without sugar and nitrates) and small spinach salad. It is a good thing I only cooked 1/5 cup or I woud have eaten just that! Look for them at the local farmers market!