Oakland Mills Farmer's Market, the Tree from Hell, and tonight's dinner

I normally love trees. Today I don't. Yesterday I woke up to a thirty-foot present - the tree in our backyard, straddling the fence with the common area - had shed an enormous branch. The branch fell through our yard, the common area, and the next door neighbors yard. Today we cleaned it up. Luckily we have awesome neighbors, and they ended up staying to dinner. But in order to earn our meal we were half eaten by mosquitoes and engaged in massively painful work. Yeah, it really sucked. Days like this are when I curse home ownership. When I lived in my apartment, I never had to worry!



But before that, Human # 1 and I went to the farmer's market in the Oakland Mills Village Center, also known as the shopping center with the ice rink. I'm not going to pretend that this farmer's market is anything on the scale of the I-83 Baltimore farmer's market, or the Waverly market, or the Arlington Courthouse market, any of the other large local markets. But it is nice, it does showcase local folks and local food, and it's close. I do hope more producers and more consumers start attending, however.


We bought some sorrel, or rather African sorrel. If you've never tasted this before, the best way I can describe it is as a salad green that's super flavorful and vinegary, almost as if the dressing is inside the leaf. It's pretty cool, I highly recommend it. I want to visit this stand again next weekend, the farmer had bitter balls, which can be used to great effect in Bengali Indian cooking.



Also got some heirloom tomatoes, as it's still August.



These tomatoes were pear shaped, and not ginormous like some of the others we have had recently.



Also bought some okra. A lovely veggie that has a bad reputation, in my mind at least.



Did you know that in British English, an okra is called a ladyfinger? I just learned that last night. The human members of my household were at my parents, to steal their truck then have them feed us. It's extremely convenient being a stone's throw away. I'm not sure how, but we were talking about Italian cookies, ladyfingers. At some point, my husband asserts that where he comes from, ladyfingers are fireworks. My mother then asserts that where she comes from, ladyfingers are okra. Of course, my dad immediately asks where she comes from - she asserts somewhere that uses British English. Of course, 33 years ago my parents married, then moved into an apartment in Wilde Lake. And before that my mom lived all over Asia, with a plurality, but not majority, in India. So I'm pretty sure she's asserting that British English is used in Howard County.



Seems a but bigger than a lady's finger to me. Man I need a manicure!



It's a sweet onion. It's pretty.



I'm pretty sure all recipes start with "saute some garlic and onion in olive oil." Maybe I should use this as a stock photo.

Anyway, back to the meal....


Tomato Salad
Ingredients:
Tomatoes
Salt
Olive oil

Method:



I quartered the tomatoes and lightly salted them, then let them drain their water out. I'll do something with the tomato water in the morning.

I then tossed them into a dish, and glugged maybe a half tablespoon of olive oil over them.


Summer Okra and Tomatoes or Fresh Bindi Masala
Take your pick on the ethnicity you want to cook from. Then do what I did. Or do something totally different. Dude, it's okra and tomatoes, this isn't rocket science.

Ingredients:
4 sprays olive oil
Half a sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 lb okra, cut into rounds
2 medium tomatoes
Olive oil
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp corriander
4 tsp tumeric
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Heat at medium-high.
Saute onions and garlic.
Add spices, cook about 2 minutes.
Add tomatoes. Let them sizzle and stop dripping juice.
Add okra.

Cook until okra doesn't fight back. It should still be brightly colored, though.



Along with the tomato salad and okra we had some cornbread, as well as black-eyed peas and rice.



Black-eyed Peas and Rice
Ingredients:
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon corriander
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons tumeric
1 bay leaf
2 cans black-eyed peas, drained.
1 cup white rice (can use brown, adjust water and cooking time)
2 cups water or stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat.
Add spices, saute about 2 minutes.
Add black-eyed peas. Cook a bit. Taste.
Add rice and water/stock. Bring to a boil.
Cover, turn heat to low, let cook until done (20 minutes, or more depending on the type of rice used).
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

My house was an absolute mess, but it was nice to have people over despite that. The neighbors also brought over beer and dessert. Always a good thing!