Montrose Farmers Market – The Beginning

The Montrose Farmers Market is located in the parking lot of La Strata on Westheimer and is open from 9 -2 every Saturday. Today was their first day. Katharine Shilcutt Gleave wrote up a nice description of what was to come last Friday on Houstonist. Keep in mind it is their first week.

Here is what I found at about 9:30 this morning.

After driving into the side parking lot of La Strata:

322 Westheimer Rd
Houston, TX 77006
(713) 523-1014
Get directions

I was starving because I had come straight from my exercise class and had not eaten. Lucky for me there were plenty of samples of the preparded foods.

The first vendor I saw was Affordable Organic Produce, which had a small but nice selection of organic produce. They also sell shares.

Opposite them was this vendor that sold beef, honey and vegetables.


Next I saw Pampered Sisters who sell soaps and candles and adjancent to them was Café Netties’ seasoning and sauces, which I seen at other markets, but have never tried because I am a devoted fan of Penzeys Spices.

By the way, Penzey's has a retail store on 19^th Street in the Heights. If you haven't gone there, I strongly suggest a visit.

As you can see, both ladies had wonderful welcoming smiles.

Across the way was Shirley Ann selling sweets. If the rest of her baked goods taste like the carrot cake I sampled, you are in for a treat. It was moist and just sweet enough with a wonderful spicy overtone.

Inside of La Strada were prepared foods.

The first vendor I went to was Vanille. I sampled their toasted almonds dipped in chocolate and covered with powdered sugar, wow is all I can say, you will just have to try it yourself. Then I tried the cheese crackers, which were crunchy with a nice spicy bite to them. Lastly I tasted their sandwich cookies with dulce de leche filling, verdict - sweet and satisfying. I would recommend everything I sampled.

Freshly made aromatic soaps. Okay technically not a preparded food.



Freshly prepared and frozen Indian Food - I have seen this vendor at the Bayou City Market and the one on Shepard on Sunday afternoons. I like everything I taste of theirs.


In the front of this table you can see three different types homemade pastas. I bought the homemade jalapeno fettuccine, but they did have two other less spicy but equally interesting sounding pastas for sale.

Behind the pastas are three salads made by Sage Salads. There were three salads today two quinoa (the ancient Inca grain that is an excellent protein source) and one kale.

One of the quinoa salads was made in a Chinesey style and the other had avocados in it, the third salad was made with kale. (I need to start cooking with kale.) They were a different style than then the ones I have tasted and enjoyed at Bayou City Farmers Market from Marian Bell’s Healthy Kitchen and Yaya's RAW Rah, which you maybe familar with already.

The market has potential and the location is good, we will just have to wait and see how things progress. I remember when Bayou City Farmers Market was this tiny and now look it. I definitely recommend you make this part of your farmers markets rounds, as it has enough unique things to offer with none of the crowds yet, to make it worth your while. It is also between the Bayou City Farmers Market and Midtown Farmers Market at T'afia.

Postscript

This is a photo of the jalapeno fettuccine I made with scallops and a cream sauce. The jalapeno pasta with its somewhat subtle peppery taste worked well with the scallops.

I Love My Bread + Some Recipes

I once weighed forty more pounds then I do now. I gained all that weight after I quit smoking. It took me six years to take off thirty pounds and then I was stuck. I tried every sort of diet and nothing seemed to work, until I added bread back into my diet and then the extra ten pounds disappeared. Go figure. It is good news for me, because I love my bread.

Delicious Pastries and Bread at Tous Les Jours

Normally I eat very healthy bread, made from whole grains, preferably baked by me with very little sugar or honey. If it is going to be store bought, I buy the multigrain bread at Costco. But I really love croissants and crusty French bread.

This morning I got up early and swam. Afterwards I went over to H-Mart http://www.hmart.com/ on Blalock to have a chocolate croissant and coffee at the bakery there called Tous Les Jours http://tlj.co.kr/ . Check out the website it’s interesting, even if you do not know Korean.

At Tous Les Jours it is only $1.75 for the chocolate croissant and $1.55 for regular coffee, I was in heaven. The croissant is flakey with enough chocolate to be distinctive without being overly chocolate or to sweet. The coffee was excellent as well. Before I discovered this Korean / French bakery my favorite chocolate croissant was at kraftsmen bakery http://www.kraftsmenbaking.com/ on Montrose and cost $2.95. Quite frankly Tous Les Jours got it down pat. I have tried their apple pastry and a cheese one, which were fine, but nothing compares to the chocolate croissant. I also like their banquette at $1.99.

Recipes Made from Recent Purchases

I frequently buy things that look good and are on sale, and then I am tasked with figuring out what to make them with the ingredients. From time to time on this blog I will put a picture of something I made and give you a brief outline of the dish and how I put it together. Please do not expect that I will measure out the ingredients – it just is not going to happen.

Farmer’s Market Arugula

I bought arugula and cremini mushrooms at the farmer’s market on Saturday. I made a pasta dish with it. Ingredients For Pasta & Arugula:

• Chopped garlic
• Sliced cremini mushrooms
• Pignoli nuts
• Diced cherry tomatoes
• Arulga
• Cooked bowtie pasta
• Virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Sheared parmesan cheese.

I sautéed the garlic with the mushrooms in olive oil, then added the pignoli nuts and salt and pepper. When the pasta was done, I tossed it with the garlic, mushroom, pignoli nut mixture and the tomatoes and arugula, sprinkled it with parmesan cheese and added some fresh ground pepper. I drank a Pinot Noir with it.

Trip to H-Mart: 21-25 Count Shrimp on Sale $3.99 a Pound

The shrimp looked delcious and the price was right, so I picked up a little over a half a pound and brought it home. Now I had to figure out what to make. I decided on making what I am calling: Houston Black Bean Shrimp Salad.

Here are the ingredients:

• Zest of lime
• Lime juice (same lime I zested)
• Black beans, one can rinsed
• Cilantro
• Peeled and diced tomato
• Poblano pepper diced
• Diced scallion
• White Wine vinegar
• Cooked shrimp, peeled and deviened then cut lengthwise and in half again
• Salt and pepper

I mixed the cooked and sliced shrimp and black beans together. I mixed the remaining ingredients together and poured that over the black bean and shrimp mixture. I chilled the salad in the refrigerator for about an hour. It was yummy, but I bet the leftovers will be even better tomorrow.

Farmer's Markets in Houston

I went to go swimming this morning only to discover the pool at St. Thomas was closed until Tuesday, so off I went to the farmer's markets. I wanted some cheese from the Houston Dairymaids , therefore I headed to the Midtown Farmer's Market located in the parking of Tafia, but I was disappointed by the slim pickings for produce. Next stop - The Houston Bayou City Farmer's Market located off of Richmond on Eastside (they are moving in a couple of months) and picked up some vegetables and a chicken. I also ran into friends there, which is always nice. I'll let you know if I create anything special with my purchases.