Berry Picking at The Market at the Grelen

Friday afternoon after a meeting I drove out to Somerset, VA, located in Orange County, and went berry picking.  I had originally intended to pick peaches, but due to the rainy weather earlier this summer, the Peach crop was cut short... I learned this after attempting to pick at two different farms before making it to the Market at the Grelen. 

But alas, I am not deterred.  With smarter than me phone in hand, I searched the VA section of www.pickyouown.org and found a nearby farm.  having also learned my lesson, I called ahead to see if there were actually berries available, BEFORE I drove over to the farm.

 I picked up my very beautiful 4-pint picking basket and headed into the lovely rows of raspberries and blackberries.  The raspberries were making a come back for their second bloom and the blackberries were in full bloom.  It was a lovely day; perfect weather up on the mountain with a nice warm breeze.

(Roy tells me I don't know how to relax....)

I don't agree!  This was amazing.  I watched the butterflies, the bees, the morning glories and just had a generally lovely mid-day.


 I picked 4 pints of berries while I wandered through the garden/fields.  I ate a few as I picked as well.  I mean come on who can resist such yummy delights!  Fresh and warm from the sun.  If you get a chance, you should pick berries, It is a true delight and adds a whole new perspective on relaxing.






In honor of my lovely berries I made brownies with raspberries folded in.  I topped it off with a little fresh vanilla bean ice cream and some chocolate raspberry sauce and fresh berries.  I mean really who doesn't love the looks of that!?  and if you don't.. then well maybe YOU need to relax a little.    and you don't have to have the ice cream or other toppings, but simply enjoy a nice chocolaty treat.












The recipe originates from Juli Bauer's book: OMG That's Paleo.  Which if you haven't read or tried, you're totally missing out.  It has wonderful recipes.

Sweet Potato Brownies with fresh Raspberries.

Ingredients:
1 sweet potato
3 eggs, whisked
¼ cup coconut oil, melted
⅓ cup raw honey
½ cup chocolate chips
3 tablespoons coconut flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Time to bake that sweet potato. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees, pop the potato in the oven for 25-30 minutes, be sure to turn it once, to make sure it doesn't burn on side (I know from experience...).
2. Once the sweet potato is soft and cooked through, peel off the skin and mash it up in a bowl. And turn your oven down to 350 degrees.
3. Now add your wet ingredients: coconut oil, honey, vanilla, and whisked eggs to the bowl and mix together.
4. Then add the dry ingredients: coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and chocolate chips.
5. Mix well to incorporate all that goodness.
6. Fold in the 1/2 cup of raspberries, gently.
7. Grease well, and pour the batter into an 8×8 glass baking dish
8. Bake for 30-35 minutes.
9. Let rest to cool a bit.

Meeting Danielle Walker - from Against All Grain

Thursday evening Roy and I trekked up to Falls Church/Alexandria in NOVA (Northern Virginia) to have a mini-date night and go to Danielle Walker's book signing of her recently published Against All Grain.

Roy and I drove up Falls Church, mostly traffic free, and with only minor snags from the GPS navigation we arrived with plenty of time to grab some dinner.  We stopped into the Red Robin and had burgers. We both added bacon to them and I got some extra pickles (yay!), and 96'ed the bun.  A side of sweet potato fries and a Angry Orchard cider and we called it a date!  A Pre-anniversary date!  Yup, on Friday we've been married 4 years.  Sort of hard to believe how fast time flies.  

After dinner, we hopped over to the Barnes and Noble, I jumped in the cue and Roy took to perusing the books, magazines and movies.  The line was comically long in wait and short in people.  Danielle is such a sweetie, she takes the time to chat with all of the people there for the signing.  I thought it was wonderful.  (the 2 behind me did not really think it all that brilliant and murmured about it most of the time in the line.  I must admit that while I was waiting, I thought to myself that I should think of something witty to say or a question to ask, and I completely drew a blank.  Yup, not a single thing to say, other than to smile.  DOPE!  Anyways, I met Danielle, told her how much I loved the book already, and asked her to disregard the flour that was already in between the pages... To which she laughed and said that is what the book was designed for!  (thank goodness).  Mine is DEFINITELY NOT a coffee table book.  We don't even have a coffee table!!

To follow up, i thought I would make a recipe out of the newly signed cookbook.  So I made the Peach Coffee Cake.  I did however, not follow the directions 100%, because who does that??  Ok most people do.  I am just not one of them.  Call it lack of attention to detail, need to be creative, not being fully prepared to bake the recipe as prescribed, allergic to am ingredient, whatever you will.  I just don't do it.  So... since I had been berry picking on Friday, I added fresh raspberries in lue of a third peach, and instead of pecans (which would have been amazing!) I used walnuts in the topping.    

This tasty treat made a debut at St. Asaph's coffee hour on Sunday.  I mean, come on, no two people should eat a WHOLE cake by themselves!  plus how am I ever going to win friends and influence them to the ways of paleo living if i don't share how wonderful paleo tastes??  Ok, so it was great, and everyone loved it.  Roy even enjoyed it - which is saying a LOT because he doesn't like raspberries (too many seeds).

August 1

Is anyone else struggling with the cruel hard fact that today is August 1st!?  I mean 7 whole months of the year have come and gone.  So what has happened to those lost days?

Well on July 4 & 5 we had 5 chicks hatch out from under our broody hen "Hatchie".

  My mom visited and we all rode the train to Philly to take in a Phillies double-header with my Sister and Brother-in-law.

And of course we had lots of wonderful food.  Delicious paleo treats, meats and experiments.

Blueberry Lemon Donuts

Breakfast

Bacon Tart Pie

Cherry Cream Crepes

 Breakfast bowls






Dinners

Mango lime fillet

Stuffed Pork tenderloin 

Lemon Basil pesto over chicken

Honey Mustard Porkchop

 From the grill --- think to yourself the tune from Grease "Summer Lovin' " but insert Summer Grillin' and that is our theme song here!

The days are now getting shorter...  this makes me sad, I love the summer days.  And while there might be some HOT days left, we're rapidly descending into the second half of the year.  I look forward to sharing more delicious recipes and photos of all that we're cooking up in the cafe.  2 new cookbooks arrived this week: Beyond Bacon and Against All Grain, so there will be photos from those meals.


Maybe we will think about having some fall chicks, since another hen has decided she too wants to be a mommy....

For now, We're going to enjoy the rest of the summer!

Maple Bacon Scotch Eggs.

I don't know if any of you have tried the Maple Bacon Sausage meatballs yet, but this is the NEXT best thing.  Seriosuly if you haven't had the meatballs, you're missing out in life.  I mean really now, it has the necessary ingredient: bacon.  What more could one ask for?  oh yeah, they ARE amazing.  so enough about the meatballs, because these are even better.  This is breakfast at it's finest and it's portable, if you really needed it to be.

So make the Maple Bacon Meatball recipe, but don't bake it... instead wrap it around those hard boiled eggs, bake and enjoy!

Ingredients:
4-6 Hard boiled eggs.

1lb breakfast sausage (no sugar added)

1/2 sweet potato (especially if it's an extra large one!)

½ yellow onion, peeled/ diced

2 tablespoons maple syrup

5-6 slices of bacon

1 garlic clove, minced

salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Place your bacon slices in a pan over medium heat. Cook on both sides until crispy, place on a paper towel to soak up the excess fat and cool, then dice up into small pieces that would fit well in meatballs. 

3. Shred your sweet potato.  I use the regular cheese grater, but it's much faster in the food processor using the shred attachment. (Food processor is on the Christmas list).

4.  Then shred your onion in the same container with the sweet potato that was shredded. (or you can finely chop these... creates less mess and fewer tears).

5.  Add your sweet potato and yellow onion to a bowl along with your breakfast sausage, maple syrup, garlic clove, diced bacon, and salt and pepper and mix well. Your hands are your best tools.

6.  Peel the hard boiled eggs and rinse them off.  Be sure to pat them dry.

7.  Take about a half handful of the mixture and pat it flat.  Place the egg in the middle and wrap the meat around it.  Make sure the whole egg is covered and sealed in there!

8.  Place on parchment paper.  Repeat egg-wrapping process.  If there is any extra meat, make little meatballs on the side.  They make a great afternoon snack.

9.  Place those alien egg balls into the oven and bake for 30 - 35 minutes.  You may want to turn them half way through, but you don't have to.

10.  Take out, let cool slightly and ENJOY!!