I went to the farmer's market yesterday. Here in Texas its slim pickens, especially compared to the market in Colorado. I did buy some local apples, some humanely raised pork chops, and zucchini. I used one of them to make this, one of our family favorites:

Zucchini Muffins

Heat oven to 350. Line 12 cup muffin pan w/ paper liners. In large bowl, combine 1 c. all-purp flour, 3/4 c whole wheat flour, 3/4 c sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp each baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add 1/3 c. milk, 1/3 c. veg oil, 2 large eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1 1/2 c. shredded zucchini. Stir to combine and divide among muffin cups. Combine 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp sugar and sprinkle over muffins. Bake 25-30 min.

Tonight I made a pretty fancy meal - lamb kabobs and from scratch leek-potato soup. The lamb I meticulously trimmed and marinated in lemon zest and juice, garlic, fresh chopped rosemary, soy sauce, and EVO. We had some old leeks that we pulled out of the garden Sunday, and they were chopped, sweated, simmered, and blitzed with my immersion blender in vegetable stock, potatoes, cream, and buttermilk.

Unfortunately, my family was not impressed. I think each of them ate one piece of lamb, to be polite. They really liked the bread I bought ready made and crisped up in the convection oven. Anthony said the soup was just OK, Colin didn't really like it, and Anna asked for soup in her school lunch tomorrow.


Oh well, I love lamb. Leftovers for my lunch tomorrow, too.

Anna, my little foodie, wrote down a "new" recipe for me to try. She wrote:

1. Ketchup

2. Mustard

3. Pepper

4. Cream

She said, "I want you to take a little bowl, and put some mustard and ketchup in," demonstrating with her hands, "then mix it all up. Add some spice, ya know, pepper, and cream, and I will try it."

I am hoping she'll forget it.

I wish I had pictures of my latest cooking adventure: on Saturday night we made our own gyro meat, on the maiden voyage of my rotisserie. I've had my beloved gas grill for about 2 years now and never used the rotisserie feature.

After watching Alton Brown's gyro adventure on foodtv, we've been wanting to give it a go. With my MIL in town, I knew we'd have the right audience. We picked up 1 lb of ground lamb and 1 lb of ground grass fed beef at Whole Foods, assembled, and roasted the spit. It smelled SO GOOD! That rotisserie feature is awesome!

I was thrilled with the gyro results, served on Phoenicia pita bread with homemade Tzaziki sauce. Anthony said it tasted like gilled meatloaf. Not much of a compliment when you consider HOW MUCH he loathes meatloaf. I also made a greek style salad and dressed it with the Tzatziki and EVO. I guess I'd make it again, but not just for Anthony. He apparently likes the mass processed gyro meat better.

These are green pears! Green in color, and also because I spied an old neighbor selling them while I was jogging Saturday morning, and returned with Anna on the bicycle to purchase them. No carbons were emitted in the procurement of these pears!

I got about twice this many for $4. The old guy kept slipping more into my backpack. Fortunately the trip from his house to mine is downhill.

These pears are ugly but delicious. They are crunchy and juicy like Asian pears. The kids will eat them out of the hand, but sometimes I peel and slice them like Uncle Buck.

Tonight I made Pear and Maple Crumble. It was good, but next time I think I'd add some bourbon or at least vanilla to the fruit mix. Could stand to have more ginger. I had to sub almonds for the walnuts, because that's what I had. Also, I did NOT top with sour cream (?!?). Anthony made some whipped cream for me.

The pears were still crisp and al dente. Not the best dessert ever, but it was pretty easy, and the bowls were empty.