Monday Menu: Beef Tenderloin

 Tenderloin on the grill (ignore the pork cutlets, I am working on another grillable recipe for them.)

A quick marinade of soy sauce, EVOO, vinegar, maple syrup, garlic powder and onion powder - applied under refrigeration for 3 hours.

On to a hot grill for 10 minutes per flat side, plus 2 minutes per side-side because the filets were over 2 inches thick.

After a good sear they were removed from the grill, covered with foil and a heavy towel for 10 minutes.

Paired with steamed vegetables; the meat was buttery smooth.  It's rare:) that we get to eat high end cuts from our own steers.  It was a real treat.

On The Side: Potato Salad

As promised, the recipe from Memorial Day.

Prepare a mixture of 1/4 cup of vinegar and enough sugar to balance the sweet/sour flavor, 2-3 Tbs.  Stir until dissolved.

Boil 2 pounds of new potatoes and cut into bite-sized pieces.

While potatoes are hot, add the vinegar dressing and stir.  Allow to cool, stirring them up every ten minutes or so.  The vinegar will absorb into the potatoes and season them. Chill in the refrigerator.

Mix together:

1/8 tsp of Celery Salt

1/2 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tsp Onion Powder

1 tsp Black Pepper
1/4 cup Sour Cream
1/4 cup Mayonnaise

Optional: Bacon, four slices, fried and chopped

Combine with potatoes and salt to taste.

(Radishes from Half Pint Farm)

The sweet/sour element of the salad goes very well with grilled chicken.

Weekend Cook: Tiny Chicken on The Big Green Egg

It was Memorial Day, and we had no chickens in the freezer!  I went to Bob's Meat Market in St. Albans to get hooked up with a traditional cook..

Small fryer-sized chickens cook quickly on the Egg.  Almost too quickly, I'm not used to grilling wee birdies.



Honestly, it took more time to make the potato salad than it took these to cook.  They were grilled on the cut side (cover down) for twenty minutes. The probe registered 161f, the temperature I would normally pull a large 7 or 8 pound bird.  (The dome temperature was 300f and rose to 350f near the end.)



I reasoned that there wasn't enough mass for the temperature to rise in the resting phase to finish cooking, so I turned them and let them be for 10 additional minutes.



Asparagus drizzled with EVOO and sprinkled with salt went on for about 7 minutes, rolling them around every two minutes or so.  I love asparagus on the grill.



Nice and moist, perfect for serving two people.  The (new) new potato salad recipe is coming!  Another is found here.

Burlington Farmers' Market #4: Foaming Fountain

(Got a new pretty tablecloth for the booth.)

Last week, vandals made the fountain foam; there were new vendors, new products, new foods, and loads of flowers.  It rained, the rain stopped.   There were no people at all, and suddenly loads of them - so many we couldn't hear the entertainment just twenty feet away.



And many cute dogs - but, this one was the best!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.


Dan had a sausage roll from Jericho Settler's booth that he was supposed to be holding so I could photograph it.   I was busy with customers, and reminded him after I spied that it was 1/2 gone - then, (camera in hand) inquired as to where it was.  Guess where?

See you at market!

La Presse

It was a pleasant surprise to find out that one of our cheese buyers is Pierre Foglia, a writer for La Presse Montreal, who mentioned us in his column.  If you don't read French, you'll need to use Google translator to view it.

Where There's Smoke...

Monday, the smoke from the Canadian wildfires moved in.



It appears as an atmospheric haze, but it smells like the neighbors are burning trash.



I can't even imagine what it is like closer to the source - the burn is about 100 miles away.

Aged Gore-Dawn-Zola

The aged version of Gore-Dawn-Zola tastes great, but doesn't have as much bluing as I expected. Oh, well.  Looks aren't everything!

In order to not use the regular 3.4 lb. wheels of blue cheese that are sold out weeks in advance, we made these larger cheeses over the course of the winter to age out and sell as cuts at farmer's market.  A few of the larger wheels are being sold wholesale - Tomme Collins are all big wheels this year, just to cut down the labor of caring for them.

The Last of the Early Lilacs

(Most of the trees and bushes on the lawn have white flowers, taking turns blooming from May to June.)

It may have been a holiday yesterday, but the town's preparations for a parade and barbecue only got in our way.   We are turning a poor-doer alfalfa stand near our old Carter Hill house into cornland, so it had to be plowed, smoothed and planted.

Back at home, I had a sick chicken, and the smoke from Quebec was creating an atmospheric haze. Things don't look too good for the chicken.