Just Like the Song...

Seriously!?! I'm subjecting you all (that is... "all" 2-5 of you) to a post about the Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager-written, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross and Whitney Houston-performed song that we all used to know by heart oh-so-many years ago?

What follows is worth it, trust me.

So what's all the fuss about? A few short days ago, my new food-blog and long-time Deacon friend, Christie, found, made, and posted this recipe, aptly entitled "Tasty Turkey Burgers" by Southern Living. After seeing her delicious post, she and I chatted and it was decided that my frozen lean ground turkey meat would indeed be put to use this very week - it was urgent.

I now understand why. And, well... if it's within my control, I don't believe I will ever... EVER prepare another recipe for turkey burgers (you can check me on this, but I don't believe I've ever made that kind of statement about another recipe... maybe guac, but I am at least tolerant enough of others' guacs to try it).

I changed a few things from both Christie's adaptation as well as the Southern Living version but only because of what was in my pantry, and we all know how happy I am when I don't have to visit the grocery store to complete a recipe.

The. TASTIEST. Turkey. Burgers... EVER.

1 pound ground turkey
1/2 c Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 c finely chopped (defrosted) green, red and yellow bell pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 TBSP minced onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 TBSP Fresh Herb Marinade
4 whole wheat hamburger buns
Herb-Grilled Onion Rings
freshly shaved Parmesan cheese

1. Combine first 7 ingredients. Shape mixture into 4 equal-size patties.
2. Grill 5 to 6 minutes on each side or until no longer pink in center, basting each side occasionally with Fresh Herb Marinade.
3. Grill buns, cut sides down, 2 minutes or until toasted. Serve burgers on buns with Herb-Grilled Onion Rings and a few slices of the freshly shaved Parmesan.

*Don't skip either the marinade, grilled onions, or the fresh Parm - it absolutely makes the entire burger.

Prepare yourself once you pull the burgers and the onions off the grill. You are in for a treat. Oh, and go ahead and make all 4 patties even if there are only two of you... I came this (picture me with my fingers VERY close together) close to eating a second burger last night, but if not, the left-overs are just as delicious the next day.

And, if anyone's still interested in our side after hearing that glowing recommendation... I made us a side of fresh string and wax beans with our burgers and for once, I think even without a recipe, it was pretty good.

I guess these are really no-fail, but just in case you need the pointers... I washed and trimmed our beans and then dunked them in a pot of boiling water for 1-2 minutes. I quickly drained that pot and added about 1/4 TBSP of butter and some diced onions to the beans to quick-saute. Once they were slightly sizzling, I added some garlic powder, salt, cumin (only because I add that to everything) and a drizzle of olive oil. I let it cook for another minute or two and then turned off the heat after covering the pot.

A great light addition to the perfect burgers.

Enjoying the Bounty

Thanks to our exciting first real farmers' market experience, the stage was set for our big Sunday night meal.

It must be said, if quickly, that Sunday nights have become one of the only nights (aside from entertaining) that I find the time to really put together a full meal for us, so they are eagerly awaited each week. This time, it seemed that our stock of frozen salmon cut into individual fillets and some deveined shrimp was just begging to be included in this weekend-ending fest.

Allrecipes was the winning source providing two great recipes for grilling our salmon and shrimp. I had all of the ingredients in the pantry (or in our herb garden), which undoubtedly made these recipes a cinch, so for once, I actually followed them to the letter... which leads me to think that I might just be heading back down the road of being a loyal recipe-follower. The marinade carmelized absolutely perfectly on the salmon and the mustardy shrimp marinade had a wonderful flavor; admittedly, a soy-brown sugar and mustard marinade on the same plate isn't conventional but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

Since I'd been adventurous with new recipes for our seafood entrees, my creativity waned in the preparation of our market bounty, my cute red potatoes.

This is a recipe that everyone probably knows in some form and is certainly not from a reputable source (except my head and palate), but I thought it might be helpful to record it somewhere... for posterity if nothing else. It seems, however, that there is delicious-ness in simplicity! Thank goodness for that.

Fresh-from-the-Market Red Potatoes (this is easily adaptable to your quantities so be flexible!)

Handful of medium to little red potatoes, cut into equal sized portions (no smaller than halved or quartered)
olive oil
2-3 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder (can substitute fresh, minced garlic)
kosher salt to taste
1/2 TBSP cold butter, cut in pieces

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Wash and scrub your potatoes carefully (so as to not scrub off the skin). Drizzle olive oil over your potatoes. Sprinkle chopped herbs, garlic powder and salt over potatoes and toss with your hands so all pieces are equally coated. Bake for 10 minutes and then quickly add pats of butter to the potatoes (will make a nice buttery skin on the potatoes) and bake for 15-20 more minutes until desired doneness.

Part Deux

To market, to market...

Off we went this morning in search of my second/our first farmers market - and besides the fact that I have no pictures documenting our trip (thanks to me throwing our camera across the floor in response to the beautiful loaves of freshly baked bread and piles of fresh produce everywhere), it was a success.

We walked away the proud-owners of some amazing-looking string and wax beans and a small container of some red potatoes. I used utter restraint in not filling our canvas bags of the homemade baked goods (10-grain bread!), local crabcakes (lots of crab, not so much cake!), onions and cucumbers (that's a short list of my favorite things that I saw there and will no doubt be back to get another weekend).

Sadly our next trip will either be an out of town market or one maybe sometime in late July but I'm hooked, either way. Even though I've quickly learned the prices are not the reason you join the masses at local markets, just the experience being around so many people with deep appreciations for great-looking produce and other homemade tasties has been enough for me... and absolutely a fantastic way to spend a summer morning.

Local Produce 101

Eating locally seems to be all the rage lately... and if you know me, you know I'm not normally one to jump on the bandwagon... but with the weird diseased-veggie outbreaks recently and the mounting costs of well... everything, farmers' markets have quickly become intriguing to us, though if I'm honest, I've always loved the idea of carrying my canvas tote to my neighborhood market and buying super fresh, in-season produce (feels so European to me... plus, if either this or this is what these markets have in store for us, who can resist?!).

With that, welcome to what I hope will be the first installment of (probably only 2-3 in total) our adventures in local markets. Follow us through a few of the markets here in the DC metropolitan areas... what are the advantages and disadvantages of shopping and eating locally, and anything else fun, inspiring, or otherwise about all of the farmers' markets around us these days.

For my first half-experience (it was impromptu and only a very brief stop so I refuse to give this a full review), I decided to quickly walk through the weekly Foggy Bottom FreshFarm market on my way to the Metro this afternoon. It was a little underwhelming, to be honest... though I think my point of comparison is a little unfair. I sadly didn't have our camera but I did catch glimpses of beautiful (but little... and expensive!) baskets of fresh cherries, blackberries, raspberries, snap peas, fresh garlic, huge scallions, and all sorts of tomatoes (the prices of the tomatoes made me OH-so-happy that we have at least 3 out-of-control tomato plants in the backyard). There was also a stand with fresh dairy products such as goat cheeses and another vendor with homemade jams and jellies.

As in any review, the review is only as good as the reviewer is honest... so my final word is that this particular market was small and the prices were high, but I was energized to seek out more markets after this initial attempt. I wouldn't necessarily send anyone to FreshFarm (at least in Foggy Bottom) though I may be back here in a few days telling you that their prices were very comparable to other DC-area markets, but I am at the very least hoping for some more selection and even some unusual fruits, vegetables and other products that will broaden my admittedly limited chain-grocery knowledge.

Onward!