November came and left....

I have no idea where November went.... It was a great month and I had some many things to blog about but I was out there living it and not finding the time to blog.... The end of October I spent a lot of time going to different farmers markets, the last Saturday of October I went to four markets in one day. I took lots of pictures and I had so much to say, but no time to blog about it. I think the second weekend in November I went to Cleveland for the weekend. The reason for the trip was to go to their big Food Show, this was the second time I went. It was pretty good. We got to see Guy from the Food Network do a food demo. We did wine and beer tastings. The beer tasting was amazing,it Belgium Beer and they give you pretty much the whole bottle for a tasting, needless to say I had a pretty good buzz. So this Food Show is a bunch of vendors selling their stuff- pretty much a revolving around food. A lot of rubs, hot sauces. The local grocery store had a potato leek soup and sweet potato pancake food demo. The soup was pretty good. They had a little farmers market as part of the show too, that was pretty good I bought some tea. The show is huge. So the really strange part is that... Cleveland has this really big food show every year in November and now they are going to have the show twice a year... one in Spring and one in Fall, but we couldn't find a good place to eat the entire time we were there. A friend of my told me that there were no good places to eat in Cleveland over the summer. Now this was my second time there and the as much as I wanted this friend to be wrong - he was right. I watched the Food Network one day a few weeks ago and they had a polish restaurant and a soul food place that they featured. Both places looked great-but we had no luck. We went to the polish restaurant and the line was out the door and there was not a seat to be found, so we tried the soul food place. Mind you, I did my research before I left Buffalo. We put the address in the GPS and Booth (GPS) took us through the ghetto to a place where the restaurant was closed and looked like it has been closed for sometime. I think it might be hard to please people from Buffalo when it comes to food- we have some many great places to eat. The best thing about this trip was a visit to the market place, wow this place was so cool... It reminded me of the Broadway market but 2000 times better.They a ton a vendors selling produce although none of the food was local. The really great part was the other section- they had a ton of meat butchers, homemade pasta, favored popcorn, ethnic food, olive oils, cheese and bakery's.We bought lots a great fresh and tasty beef jerky and Kishka ( a polish type of meat). The place made me think a of much larger and nicer Broadway Market. The market was located in the downtown area across the street from Penseys Spice ( which is going to be a topic of an upcoming blog posting).

So before the trip to Cleveland, I hosted a buy local wine and cheese event with a local farm family. So I am Pres. of this committee called Erie Niagara Nutrition Committee and we need to have a fall event, so I thought hey lets have a potluck night where everyone brings either local wine and or local cheese. We have so many winery's in Western New York- Finger Lakes, Lockport area and Fredonia area. I only know of two local cheese makers in the area- Yancey Cheese in Corfu and Blasdell Cheese in Blasdell. There are others but not as close.The guess speaker was one of the farmers from the Grider Street Market and the Clinton Bailey Market.

The Farmers had a great time speaking and brought some items to sell. I think it was fun night !

Just before the trip to Cleveland I received this phone call- to do a cooking demo with this other Kelly for 25 people at Mt. Olive Baptist Church, it sounded like a challenge but I was to eager to take it. So the flyer went out... Cooking Healthy with Kelly and Kelly ! So my caller bought me and Kelly a chef hat and it went from there. So the plan was to have 5 tables with five people at each table with all the cooking supplies and food to make four dishes. Everything the group made would go home with them. After they are finished cooking,we would serve the same dishes they made, but I made them the night before. This was a big project for me, I would wake up in the middle of the night on many occasions trying to think how I was going to make this work. I was working with a good group and that is why I think I took the challenge- or maybe I need my head examined...Friends and Family would say that I need my head examined ! So the dishes were :

Okra and Tomatoes

3 slices of turkey bacon- cut into small pieces

2 garlic cloves minced

1 small onion diced

2 cans of diced tomatoes 14 oz. cans

1/2 of water

1 teaspoon of salt

2 cups of frozen okra

1/2 teaspoon of red crushed pepper

1 tablespoon of sugar

Cook bacon,then add onions and garlic and cook until onions are translucent.Add tomatoes, sugar,water, salt and crushed pepper.Stir well and simmer for 20 minutes. Add okra and cook for 10 more minutes.

Serve over brown rice

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black eye peas and Kale Soup

INGREDIENTs

· 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

· 1 large onion, diced

· 1 large carrot, sliced

· 1 stalk celery, sliced

· 5 cloves garlic, (4 sliced and 1 whole), divided

· 1 teaspoon. thyme

· ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper, or to taste

· 4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

· 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes

· 1 small bunch of kale leaves tough stems removed ( can use collards)

· 1 15-ounce can black-eyed peas, rinsed

· 2 slices cooked turkey bacon, finely chopped

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PREPARATION

1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, carrot and celery and cook, stirring, until just tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Add sliced garlic, thyme and crushed red pepper and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add bacon and cook for about 5 minutes. Increase heat to high and add broth, tomatoes and their juice. Bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Stir in kale, reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the greens are tender, 5 to 10 minutes. .Stir in black-eyed peas and cook for 5 minutes longer.

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TWICE-ROASTED SWEET POTATOES WITH CHIPOTLE
Twice-baked sweet potatoes get mixed with a spicy-smoky chipotle butter that balances the sugar. Look for similar-sized sweet potatoes so they'll cook at an even rate. To make ahead, stuff the potato halves, cover, and refrigerate up to one day. Set out at room temperature as the oven preheats to take the chill off.

Ingredients
6 medium sweet potatoes, unpeeled (about 3 1/2 pounds)
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 finely chopped chipotle chiles, - do not add the juice from the can
1 teaspoon adobo
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 small onions diced in very small pieces

1 teaspoon of salsa

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Pierce potatoes with a fork; place on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until done. Cool slightly. Cut each potato in half lengthwise; scoop out pulp, leaving a \-inch-thick shell. Combine potato pulp, butter, chiles, adobo, salt and onions, salsa, paprika and mix well.. 3. Arrange potato shells on baking sheet. Spoon potato mixture into shells. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until hot.

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Winter Salad

( serves 4 People)

2 heads of romaine lettuce

¼ chopped walnuts

½ cup dried cranberries

1 small container of crumbled blue cheese

Blueberry balsamic vinegar

Clean, cut or tear apart lettuce. Put lettuce on four salad plates, sprinkle nuts and dried cranberries to each plate. Pour a small amount of vinegar in each plate. Sprinkle crumbled blue cheese on each plate and serve.

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For the most part everything turned out great... the only problem we had was we kept blowing fuses with all five electric frying pans, five crock pots, coffee maker, microwave and a speaker system. This event was the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I tried each recipe and made changes before the event. The Friday before I made all the dishes for 30 people and prepare the food for all the demos- such as opening cans of soup stocks, tomatoes, measuring out spices , cleaning produce. This was all after Thanksgiving ( Thank God , my mom only asked me to make a apple pie for Thanksgiving). and I did go to the Bonton at midnight for Black Friday. I have been shopping Black Friday for about 25 years ! ( wow I am getting old).

I think all the guests from the Cooking Demo-had a good time and enjoyed themselves and all the great food. I do know I am not going to answer my phone when a certain person calls me, at least until the year is finished ! After completing the class, a friend of mine asked me if I am an outcome person or the process person.At first I thought I was a process person- thinking about all the things that happens along the way with this challenged. The process is where all the lessons are learned- where we laugh cry and scream, but I think I am a outcome person, because the end product was the part that drove me to work through challenge and achieve the goal.