Hello friends!
Today I have a quiz for you.
After hanging out at the Bentonville Farmer's Market this weekend, I vote, "All of the above".
You know those times when it seems as if everything is just falls into place?
Those days when you wake up and it's twenty degrees cooler than it's been all summer. Those days when the keys, camera, and earrings are all where they're supposed to be. Those days when you go to the market and someone hands you free ice cream for breakfast. Those days when every thing's going so well you think, "Wow. All I need is a soundtrack in the background," and out of nowhere comes your favorite Beatles song...
Yeah, this past Saturday was one of those days. Add that to the fact that my market is in the running for America's Favorite Farmer's Market (yep, that's a real competition and yes, you should probably vote for Bentonville if you're a local foodie like me) and it quickly falls into "awesome" status.
What magnified the "perfect day" feel was that everything was so stinking beautiful. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I have a thing for produce pictures, but this took it to a totally different level. Walking around the square, I literally wanted to stop and take a picture approximately every 5 seconds. (Thankfully the Mister was super forgiving and willing to stroll at my leisurely pace.) Look at that color, that texture, and the imperfectly amazing asymmetry of something that only nature could make happen. To me, it's inspiration and beauty in one of it's purest forms.
Okay, so there's beautiful food and then there's beautiful baby smiles.
That's two beautiful and inspirational things.
And then you see a local farmer who has the wisdom of a thousand stories etched into his face.
Let's make that three beautiful and inspiring things.
You know what: Maybe it's just the awesome energy of life that is happening everywhere you look at a place like this.
Whatever it is about the market, it was this great refueling station for the creative part of my soul.
But what is a muse without a creative product? I channeled the inspiration within the market to create an awesome dish... after I checked out recipes from the James Beard foundation. The fact that these gourmet recipes are available on my iPhone allowed me the wherewithal to figure out how I could bring this stack of potential awesomeness to my own kitchen. (What?!? You haven't heard of the James Beard Foundation?!?! Well, if you were a Food Network addict like me you would most definitely recognize the names of Tom Colicchio, Mario Batali, and Wolfgang Puck, who are all James Beard award winning chefs. They're kind of a big deal.)
The folks at James Beard are the best in the, "Let's get something from the Farmer's Market, take it home, and make it delicious," business. It's how the produce I brought home went from this:
to this:
The Mister and I went with this meat sauce from the "Dean of American cookery" himself, James Beard. (We also handmade the pappardelle following this pasta recipe, but that's a whole different blog post.) This ragu isn't anything close to the red sauce that you find jarred in the the grocery store. Instead it is a meat sauce with a onion, carrot, and celery base (isn't there a fancy French word for that combination?). And don't let the produce picture trick you, other than a dab (yep, that's a technical cooking term) of tomato paste, there's not a tomato to be found in this recipe. (And yes, that's another post as well.)
So it's a meat sauce and I didn't have one single picture of a piece of meat.
Well, remember the farmer above? He raises grass fed cattle and we used both his ground beef and beef liver. (Yep, the recipe calls for chicken liver but we improvised and liked it.) Also, another farmer at the market sold pork. But let's be honest, even if we hadn't had a recipe with bacon we would have bought bacon... because... it's bacon. Right?
And the cheese on the baguette? Local, tangy, "wasn't sure if I liked goat cheese with savory flavors until I tried it and now I can't imagine dinner without it... ever," goodness. I may have just drooled on the computer thinking about it. Maybe.
Quick recap:
- Farmer's Markets are good for the soul. If you're in need of inspiration, wake yourself up next weekend and make it happen.
- James Beard Foundation recipes will make your family forget that pasta sauce ever came in a jar.
- The Bentonville Farmer's Market is an absolute gem. If you are local, vacationing, or in town on business you should head on over here on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Once you're there, shoot me a tweet and I'll meet you. Chances are we've run out of bacon.
Also a quick heads-up: I am a (new!) member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. Though this content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Downtown Bentonville, Inc, all opinions and photos are my own. #bvfoodie #CBias #SocialFabric
Collective Bias is a local company that I am pumped to be working with. I will keep you informed when other cool opporunities like this come my way. Until then, check out more photos and more details of the Farmer's Market experience here.