It’s that time of year – dust off the grill and get it fired up!!  With so many great fresh, local veggies and fruits from Central Market, it’s hard to decide what to make.

Last night’s dinner was so simple and so delicious!  This time of year is all about asparagus.  It can be cooked and eaten in so many ways.  For this meal, we tossed asparagus (from Barr’s) lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper and put it in a foil pouch.  Our protein was a beautiful piece of salmon from Mr. Bills and for starch we added some quinoa from Green Circle Organics.

The salmon was treated the same way as the asparagus – lightly coated with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Place the salmon on the grill, skin side down and you don’t need to worry about it falling into the grill.  Put the asparagus pouch on the grill shortly after the salmon and they should be done about the same time.  For extra flavor and color, we grilled some lemon slices.

The quinoa was made on the stove – not quite adventurous enough to try this on the grill.  But, we made it with a little bit of a twist.  Mary, at Linden Dale Farms, told me to save the brine from the goat cheese mozzarella and to use it to make brown rice.  Guess what?  It tastes great with quinoa, too!  So, save the brine – too much flavor in it to just toss it away.

And for dessert – from the newest stand at Market, Steeplechase Jack Deli – rugelach.  Just enough sweet to finish off a great meal.

Central Market will be open our regular hours this week – Tuesday, April 3rd from 6:00 AM till 4:00 PM, Friday, April 6th from 6:00 AM till 4:00 PM and Saturday, April 7th from 6:00 AM till 2:00 PM.  Come on in and get everything you need to make your holiday special.

Ever want to have a great burger, but can’t decide which protein to use?  Why not make sliders and have three different kinds!  That’s what we did.

Our dinner combination is a turkey burger, beef burger and a goat burger.

The turkey burger starts with ground white meat turket from the Turkey Lady.  We added some chopped fresh peppers, onions and parsley (courtesy of Market Street Produce), and some salt and pepper.  The cheese we selected for this burger comes from Green Circle Organics – Monterey Jack Habenaro Goat Cheese.

The middle burger is a beef burger using ground beef from Country Meadows simply topped with lettuce and tomatoes from Barr’s Produce.  We kept this one pure beef – not even any cheese.

The final burger we made used ground goat meat from Linden Dale Farm.  We added a bit of lemon zest and chopped mint to this one – sort of treated it like we would lamb.  Lemon and mint from Meck’s Produce.  And to top this burger we used another product from Linden Dale Farms – their Feta Cheese.

The rolls are both wheat and white dinner rolls from Ric’s Breads – hard to decide which I like better!  The side plate carries some horseradish pickles from Long’s Horseradish – you have to ask for them – Mike keeps them in the refrigerator.  And I finally learned the trick to baking french fries.  After cutting the fries let them soak in water for about 15 minutes, rinse them and pat them dry.  Toss the dry fries in olive oil and salt and pepper.  Spread them out on a cookie sheet, bake at 400 degrees.  Flip them once and cook till they reach your desired “doneness”.

This is a great meal to do for a group – the sliders are small enough that you can eat two or three and your guests and family can choose their favorites.

Enjoy!

This breakfast has become part of my Sunday morning ritual – along with the newspaper and the morning news shows.  It starts with a multi-grain English muffin from Ric’s Bread.  Split it and get it going in the toaster.  Get your bacon out – this Sunday I used the thick cut from Riverbound: A Heritage Deli, but sometimes I’ll use turkey bacon from The Turkey Lady.  Cooking the bacon in the oven saves some of the stove splattering and it’s easier to capture the fat (for future cooking).  I like my eggs over easy – egg is from Thomas’ Produce and butter from Maplehofe.

Put it all together and you’ve got a great breakfast sandwich.  I have a glass of orange/pineapple/grapefruit juice from Lancaster Juice and decaf cold brew coffee from Market House Coffee and Snacks with skim milk from Maplehofe.  If you’ve never made cold brew coffee before, you really ought to try it.  I find the flavor to be much improved with no bitterness.

A roasted tomato on the side would be great with this!

Every once in a while, the perfect dog comes along and mine is Doris Day.  She is from Lancaster’s Humane League and she has lived with me since she was about 4 months old.  So for her 9th birthday we wanted to do something grand – a great cake from Lancaster Pet Bakery.

This cake is made of all kinds of wonderful things – frosting is yogurt and cream cheese – cake has carrots, turkey bacon and other ingredients that your dog will love and could be eaten by you.  But let your dog enjoy!

In addition, Doris had a “candle”.  Actually it was a biscuit shaped like a cupcake with a candle on top.  After a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday”, Doris ate her candle.  We saved the cake for later – too much of a good thing can be a bad thing!

So, all in all, I think Doris had a pretty great 9th birthday – what will we do to top it for her 10th birthday?

       Doris before cake                                                                       Doris after cake

So, even our friends are into this “buy everything from Market and make a great meal” thing.  Very dear friends of ours invited us to dinner and to my delight everything used to make our fabulous meal was purchased at Central Market.

The first course was a delicious Lemon Caesar Salad.  It was so good that I inhaled it before I remembered to take a photo!  But the dressing was made with garlic, lemon juice and zest (courtesy of Meck’s Produce), coarsely ground black pepper from the Herb Shop and some anchovies, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and olive oil.  The salad was a combination of romaine hearts (Barr’s Produce), fresh grated Parmesian cheese (from S. Clyde Weaver) and croutons from Ric’s Bread.

The Shepard’s Pie had a wonderful base of cubed beef chuck roast (Country Meadows Grass Fed Meats), with onions and carrots (Barr’s), celery (Sweethearts Celery), garlic, Swiss chard (Green Circle Organics), bay leaves and thyme (Herb Shop) and diced tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken and beef broth. 

The top layer was a delectable mash of potatoes and parsnips (Barr’s), squash (Meck’s), and butter (Maplehofe). 

And dessert – Lemon Pudding Cake – to heaven!!

Butter and milk from Maplehofe’s, eggs from Thomas’ Produce, more lemons from Meck’s and berries from Barr’s for garnish.  Oh, my word – the recipe was from a Cook’s Illustrated Magazine.

Thank B & S for a fantastic Market meal!

It’s a Market Wedding!

Last May, Joel Shenk and Christina Stoltzfus, owners of Riverbound:  A Heritage Deli, got hitched.  In part, their love of Market brought them together, and in turn, their love of Market found its way into their special day. 

As standholders and longtime customers, they wanted to support Central Market by using items sold at Market for both their wedding ceremony and reception.  With an intimate knowledge of all the great products available from a variety of standholders, Joel and Christina had a hard time picking and choosing who would supply them with their wedding needs.  Finally, the couple narrowed it down to the following vendors:  Rohrer Family Farm Flowers, which made the bouquet, corsage, and floral arrangements; the Goodie Shoppe, which created an amazing selection of tasty dishes and a beautiful wedding cake (The Goodie Shoppe sourced Linden Dale Farms and Barr’s Farm Produce in order to craft some of their scrumptious fare.); Riverbound:  A Heritage Deli, which provided cubed cheeses; and Susan’s Secret Garden (now Forever Friends), which provided the wedding favors. 

As fate would have it, the wedding became even more connected to Market this year. The owners of the venue where Joel and Christina got married purchased Susan’s Secret Garden and became a part of the Market family. 

Looking back, Joel and Christina are thrilled that they were able to support so many vendors and provide their guests with an amazing experience thanks to Market.  Truly, Market has so much to offer and is a great resource for all of your party and event needs!

One of our favorite meals is a simple salad with a protein of some kind on top.  This meal features pork tenderloin from Stolztfus Fresh Meats.  If you go to The Herb Shoppe, ask Jim for some of his garlic herb blend.  There’s no salt in this so it’s a good blend for those of you watching your salt intake.  I rubbed a generous amount of this blend along with some fresh ground black pepper and a little kosher salt all over the tenderloin.  Roast it until it reaches temperature – USDA recommends an internal temperature of 145 degrees with a three minute rest after you pull it from the oven.

The greens for the salad came from Tulip Tree Hill Farm – I got a bag that contained mixed greens and a wide variety of sprouts.  Everything from this stand is locally grown – Kathleen has a minimally heated greenhouse.  I had some leftover arugala so I threw that in too.  I also sliced a couple trumpet mushrooms (from Lancaster Farm Fresh) and some grape tomatoes from Stoner’s Veggies.  Toss this with a light vinegrette and top with a few slices of the pork tenderloin. 

Delicious and good for you.

This pizza is made with all toppings that are ready to eat – so all you need to do is assemble and heat through.

Start with a pizza crust from Ric’s Bread – I like the wheat, but they also have white.  Next, I spread out a handful of arugula (this bunch was from Meck’s produce), you could also use spinach.  Then I took a tomato (from Thomas’ Produce) and chopped it up and put it in a bowl.  I added half of a red onion – chopped (from Barr’s Produce) and a little bit of balsamic vinegar.  I let the tomato, onion, vinegar mixture sit for a few minutes to “come together”.  The next thing to add to the pizza is pieces of smoked chicken breast.  I got this from Carr’s and although it didn’t look like a big piece of chicken – we got three meals out of it.  Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and spread out on pizza.  Then add the tomato mixture and last put on the goat cheese – I used the plain chevre from Linden Dale Farms, but I bet the garlic or chive would be great, too.  Bake at 350 degress for about 13 – 15 minutes.

So yummy!

If your Sweetie is more into fish than beef, try this wonderful fish alternative!

Start with a great piece of fish from Mr. Bill’s – we got a pound or so of flounder – fresh and clean – beautiful.  Then we went to Carr’s and got one of their fantastic crab cakes – these things are as big as your head!  We cut the flounder in half and stuffed it with the crab cake – kind of spreading it out a little bit.  Sprinkled with salt, pepper and and some fresh lemon.  We baked it in the oven along with some sweet potatoes we got from Stoner’s Veggies.  These we just washed, coated with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  Last thing we had with this great meal is some lightly steamed broccoli – today we got this from Market Street Produce.  Plate up your meal and then add a little fresh lemon squeezed on the fish and broccoli.  Fantastic – and easy!