One Stop Shopping

New this year in our town is a People's Market, it is on Wednesdays near our Town Square. From what I can tell, it is a farmer's market that has a little of everything (jewelry, herbs, fresh veggies, dog accessories and treats, pizza, seafood, the list is endless!) and goes the distance to promote buying local. Oh wait, first I have to tell you that while driving to the People's Market we had an earthquake, it was a bit of a surprise but being a San Francisco native I didn't think twice and a little earthquake wasn't going to keep me from my fresh produce.

People's Market with Snow King Mountain in the back, afternoon thundershower also looming.

I have a method when I go to farmer's markets. First lap, browse by each stand. Second lap, buy! On the first lap I saw a few things that I liked, beer, cheese, jewelry, live herb plants and mushrooms. I have had the delectable mushrooms from Mountain Valley Mushrooms before so I made an exception to my usual rule and stopped off for half a pound. I can't remember the type of mushroom, just that I asked for the best ones for grilling and received two big mushrooms! On the second lap I picked up

cheese after sampling the Idaho product.

This is sheep's milk cheese from Lark's Meadow Farms and let me tell you, it is creamy and sweet with a touch of salt. I have just been nibbling away at the block since Wednesday, no crackers or fruit needed. Yum!

Back at the homestead my dog inspected the afternoon's work

cheese, mushrooms and earrings.

So to re-cap, I survived an earthquake, added to my jewelry collection, satisfied my cheese addiction and found something for dinner. Not bad for a Wednesday afternoon.

P.S. One of the best parts of the People's Market is the live music and lawn you can relax on while drinking a beer and enjoying local treats.

Just another Wednesday afternoon in Jackson Hole.

Popsicles for Adults

Here we go, my first every published blog post.

I'm not much of a cook, my boyfriend (who also used to work for New West KnifeWorks, back in the day when each knife was hand crafted in Corey's backyard studio) is the one who does the slicing, dicing and cooking. On the other hand I am pretty handy with dips, appetizers and anything liquor based. Last summer my culinary school student sister came to visit and whipped up half the recipes from Gourment magazine's July 2009 issue (I am fairly certain she shed tears when she found out that the publication was discontinued). I was so inspired by the tasty delights that I purchased the magazine, needless to point out I have not re-created a single item. Though for the past twelve months one particular recipe article has always been in the back of my mind: boozy ice pops. That's right, popsicles with alcohol, what could be better on a hot summer day? With summer here and a girls night tonight what better chance to put this updated, childhood treat to the test?

I made two flavors, Peaches and Cream and Watermelon Margarita

First, the Peaches and Cream, here are the ingredients:

On Saturday I finally made it to one of my favorite summer activities, the Jackson Hole Farmers Market. Unfortunately, the trip was short lived because of a summer thunder and lightening storm that blew all the tents away (we literally helped a vendor chase his tent into the tourist traffic, tackled it and folded it up). While I was dodging flying tents I was able to make it to a brave fruit vendor and bought three peaches for my popsicle project.

The plan is easy

chop with your New West KnifeWorks Petty Knife , put ingredients in the blender,

pour liquid into the popsicle molds, freeze and wait...

Next I made Watermelon Margarita popsicles

As I mentioned I am not much of a chef, so I by skipped the directions of straining the puree through a fine-mesh sleeve. So we'll see tonight how that worked out. For this flavor of popsicle I used our New West KnifeWorks The 9 chef knife. I must admit that I am one of those people that is horrified of loosing a hand to a giant chef knife, but I braved it so that we can all enjoy these boozy pops.

Also easy to make

the ingredients

put ingredients in blender, pour liquid into molds

put in your refrigerator, wait 24 hours

and enjoy with friends!

P.S. The liquid from the watermelon margarita popsicles makes a delicious margarita!

Iguana in Panama

In February, I travelled to Morro Negrito Surf Camp in Panama with a group of 16 guys from Jackson Hole. We enjoyed a week of surfing and R and R after a long cold winter in Jackson Hole. We were the only gringos on this remote island and had many incredible surf breaks all to ourselves.

Food was cooked all week by some local ladies but one evening Gavin Fien, Jackson Hole's premier restauranteur and I took over the kitchen to make dinner.

Being a devote, locavore, we spent the day gathering local produce to make dinner. Several boys went fishing on the Hannibel Bank a two hour motor out that is one of the premier fishing grounds in the world. The boys had great success and returned with Tuna, pargo (snapper) and Spanish mackerel.

While the fisherman were were out, we gathered the bounty of the island to round out the meal. We dug wild yucca to provide a tasty deep fried starch. We found some locally grown cabbage to make coleslaw. The highlight was an iguana caught by a local gardener. For years I have travelled to Central America and always heard of locals eating iguana. With 16 drunken mountain men, I finally had a team that would be brave enough to try the "pollo de arbol" (tree chicken).

Gavin and I made many rounds of appetizers featuring varieties of sashime, cerviche fusion plates that were unquestionably the culinary highlight of the meal. Fortunately, I brought a Phoenix 9 http://www.newwestknifeworks.com/store/phoenixknives with me on the trip. The local cutlery was not up to the task of slicing delicate pieces of fish to make beautiful sashimi.

The iguana was cooked pretty much how I cook any fine meat. I rubbed it with salt, pepper and olive oil and grilled it over a local hardwood that provided excellent flavor.

The main course was a tour de force featuring three varieties of fish grilled "entrada" (whole), seared tuna loin, fried yucca, coleslaw and, of course, iguana.

The iguana tasted delicious. The standard answer on how does an exotic meat taste is "it tastes like chicken". Actually, though, it had a texture more like steak. The only downside of iguana is there really isn't that much meat and you need to get pretty savage with it to gnaw it off the bone. Unless you have really big one, it needs to be put more in the novelty category rather than an actual meal.

Gillian "La Rena", our surf guide, demonstrates her adventurous spirit by digging into a leg.