Kingfield Farmer's Market

Compared to other areas of the country, Minnesota has a relatively short growing season with most crops being available between the months of July and September. During the summer months, we enjoy shopping at local farmer's markets as a family. Fortunately there is an abundance of nearby markets to visit.

This past weekend we felt like visiting a small farmer's market that offers a bunch of organic produce, live music and yummy sustainable eats from a food truck. The Kingfield Farmer's Market is my favorite farmer's market. This week we picked up tomatoes, sweet corn, spaghetti squash, plums and pears.

We also shared watermelon tomato gazpacho and a greek salad from Chef Shack.

Minnesota State Fair

This past Sunday was my 27th birthday. Matthew, Allan and I spent it at the Great Minnesota Get Together. The Minnesota State Fair is all about the food, animals and people watching.



Here are some pics of the food that we enjoyed, the animals that we met and the crowds of people that joined us...

Lots of people

Pulled Turkey Sandwich

Roast Corn on the Cob

Enjoying my first beer since last year

Mister Matt in the Ergo

Pulled Pork Tenderloin Sandwich with Organic BBQ

First time seeing a horse

In the Horticulture Building

Checking out veggies and giant pumpkins

Enjoying local honey ice cream: sunflower and chocolate flavors

It was a long day for all of us, but we had a lot of fun!

Piel de Sapo Melon

Our family LOVES melon. It seems we always have diced melon in the fridge ready to devour. Usually it's a simple cantaloupe or seedless watermelon; however, recently we tried yellow watermelon - our conclusion was that it was good, but not as yummy as traditional red watermelon.

A couple weeks ago I picked up this bad boy at the local Kowalski's...

Piel de Sapo Melon

Piel de Sapo translated means toad skin, which is exactly what the skin of this melon resembles.

  

The interior flesh was very soft and delicate with the sweet smell of cantaloupe but the taste of an extremely ripe and flavorful honeydew melon. It kind of reminded me of the Galia melon that I tried last year, but with a much smoother texture - almost melt in your mouth.

In other news, we will be visiting Santa Monica because Allan is shooting a commercial in South Pasadena and would love suggestions on fun places to visit and great (healthy) places to eat - preferably within walking distance of the Miramar hotel.

What fun new Summer foods have you tried this year?

Valentine's Day

I know that v-day has come and gone, but I finally downloaded pictures from our camera  and these were too good to not share with you! Also, this was one of the easiest and most enjoyable meals that we have prepared in a long time! It definitely beat going out to eat. Date nights at home are always more romantic!


This is the amazing badge that Allan hand drew on the envelope to my card (have I mentioned lately how much I love being married to an artist!)...

The two dozen roses Allan gave me that decorated the dinning room table for a week (their scent was intoxicating!)...

This is what 2.8lbs of thawed cold water lobster looks like (that is an extra large Pyrex dish and Allan's hand)...

My new Rachael Ray pasta pot that we purchased specifically to make the lobster tails, as they were too large to fit in the stock pot that we own (I have been wanting this pot for a very long time and am super excited to now own it!)...

Boiling the lobster tails (they took about 20 minutes)...

The finished product (that is a large supper plate)...

We served our gigantic lobster tails with clarified organic butter and Potatoes Anna from Tosca's Eat Clean Cookbook (the dark pieces were super crunchy and tasted the best)...

Updates

Good Morning, Bloggers.

Allan's dad Mark, who stayed with him in the hospital last night, just called to give me an update on Allan's condition: he has been stable all night and is still improving. Allan's second surgery to repair the bullet's damage will be some time today based on the emergency surgery schedule. Please keep him your prayers, as he still has a long road ahead of him.

If you are interested in receiving updates on Allan's status, I will be tweeting updates that auto update my facebook page. I am making both mine and Allan's profiles on Twitter and Facebook private, as I do not want the news outlets using this information. So, please follow me or send me a friend request and if I know how who you are or if you explain to me who you are, I will let you follow the updates. I am hoping that this will all blow over and I can once again make my tweets/updates public.

Last night WCCO, a local news outlet, specifically Maya Nishikawa, one of their resporters, went against our wishes and used Allan's name and facebook profile photo on the lead story of the evening news along with:

• Giving an incorrect update on his status (the opposite of what was true)
• Recounting a false account of what ensued at our home
• Interviewing our neighbors
• Stopping by my HOUSE when my parents were there picking up some of my belongings
• Calling our family, friends and the hospital repeatedly

If the reporters and news outlets would really like Allan to get better and keep this sort of thing from happening to someone else, they should be respect our privacy and the delicate nature of this ongoing investigation. The hospital staff is not there to be give you an update on Allan's status every hour on the hour, they are supposed to be ensuring that sick people get better - let them do their job.