A Weekend with Uncle Frank

Last weekend my baby brother, who lives in Pennsylvania, paid me a visit. He arrived on Friday afternoon and departed after breakfast on Sunday. Whooosh.......a whirlwind !

The first place he wanted to visit was the Mini Cooper showroom. He drove up to NY in a used Mini Cooper that he purchased a couple months ago. In my imagination, I thought he wanted to visit the Mini Cooper showroom to, perhaps, buy a new set of floor mats. But, lo and behold, he wanted a whole new car.

I spent the next couple hours reading all the magazines in the showroom while he dickered and doodled about prices. Finally a deal was made and we were to return the next day to pick up the new car.

The new Mini

We came home and had dinner of the leftovers from my cooking class of the day before.     http://sammysgrammysneedlin.blogspot.com/2014/08/cooking-with-cousins.html#comment-form    Watched a little TV before retiring in preparation for a marathon tourist Saturday.

Saturday began with breakfast at the Rochester Public Market. We purchased breakfast at a Hispanic Bakery at the market. We brought our take-out breakfast of bacon, egg and cheese on a grilled, buttered hard roll, to the coffee bar a few door down the road where one of our cousins is a barista. We enjoyed breakfast with that whole family of cousins (4) plus husbands.

Chatting over breakfast, I mentioned that I planned to venture by the market stalls to get some local fresh whatevers when a cousin said "come on over to my house - I have lots of whatevers from our own garden for you to take home.

This is what I gathered up from cousin's garden 

Artichoke growing in cousin's garden

Cousin's Veggies prepped for ratatouille

After breakfast, we wandered through the market for a bit, then went to cousin's house to gather what she had for me.

Next on the agenda - off to visit a favorite niece. Here's her garden. She actually built it all herself out of pallets. While there, I did a little photo shoot for a few hats I just knitted up for my etsy shop.

Niece's garden

Hat photo shoot

Then off to pick up the new Mini. And to top off an "energizer bunny" type day - dinner at P.F.Changs - with even more relatives.

Chang's

On the gloriously sunny and bright Sunday morning, we had a date with two of Uncle Frank's childhood friends and their wives at yet another bakery.

He returned to PA and I collapsed on a chair with my feet up to recover from a weekend with Uncle Frank.

A TRIP TO THE MARKET

All year long, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, my town has a public farmers market 3 times a week. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Tuesdays are pretty sparse, both people-wise and product-wise. Thursday is the day I like to go because I can actually walk through the market without getting my toes run over by someone's shopping cart and there are plenty of vendors. Saturdays are pure chaos, with vendors hawking everything under the sun (it seems). 

There's a vendor that has a huge stall and sells hundreds of one dollar items (your traveling dollar store). People sell clothing, plants, fresh fish, fresh meat, handmade designer ravioli, perogis, knock-off purses, oils, vinegars, honey, eggs, cheese, baked goods, in addition to fruits and vegetables (some exotic). 

You can get ready to eat breakfast, lunch, snacks, and wonderful coffee. Some ready-to-eat stands are outdoorsy, some are brick and mortar. There's a B/M Spanish bakery where I always treat myself to a pastry called a casita ( I don't know if I'm spelling this correctly). It's a long cylinder of puff pastry, filled with a sweet cheese filling and dusted with powdered sugar. They are always warm when I get one. They cost $1.00♥

It's fondly called "the market". Everyone will know what you're talking about even though there are many seasonal  farmers markets spread all over the metroplex.   This one has been in the same location since 1905. Most of it is covered against the weather. But often (on Saturdays) it spills over. In winter, many vendors bring heaters. 

This was my latest haul. There was even more but I had put some things in the fridge already  when I snapped this picture. I actually went to the market for lemons for my iced tea. They never made the picture nor did the head of escarole.

From the fruit and vegetables in the basket, I've been feasting for a week. With the tomatoes, I always make Caprese salad, slicing up the tomatoes in a bowl, adding as much fresh mozzarella as tomatoes, a bit of very thinly sliced red onion, and a chiffonade of basil leaves. Salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. I eat that with a mini baguette, dunking it in the awesome juices.

I did add avocado (from the basket) to that Caprese salad one time. Another time, I smashed the avocado in my BLT. 

I stuffed the peppers. I'll share that recipe with you. From the eggplant, I made caponatina. This is an Italian ante pasta. You eat it room temperature, spread on bread or crackers. 

STUFFED PEPPERS: This is for 2 peppers. Wash the peppers, cut off the stem end. Remove all the veins and seeds from inside. Set aside. For the filling: ( I measure with my eyes, therefore, all amounts are approximate) I used 1 cup of cleaned and cut coleslaw from the supermarket salad section (contains just cabbage and carrots), 3/4 cup of unseasoned breadcrumbs, 1/3 cup of grated Romano cheese, 2 Tbs. of fresh or dried parsley, salt and pepper. Mix this all together and add 1 beaten egg and a drizzle of olive oil. If the mixture seems too dry, add a bit of white wine or chicken broth to it. Fill the pepper cavities with this mixture, press it down so you can get optimum filling into peppers. Put the stuffed peppers into a covered casserole with a bit of white wine or chicken broth in the bottom of the pan. Liberally sprinkle olive oil onto tops of stuffed peppers. Bake in 350 for 1.5 hours. To serve, drizzle with pan drippings.