Great farmer's market haul today!

Wow, what a wonderful selection today at the farmer's market in downtown St. George, Utah! I am impressed with the quality as well as the prices. Today I was able to find several items that will be thoroughly enjoyed this week. First of all, I just love the sunflower sprouts from a grower in Veyo. They come to the market every week. I am a regular customer. Gotta have my sunflower sprouts. I have been unsuccessful in sprouting my own......atleast they don't look as good as these. I also purchased some sweet pea sprouts, which are so delicious in a salad or on a sandwich. I like to use the sunflower sprouts in my egg white omelets, with a bit of shredded cheese.


The next great purchase was this bag of stir fry vege mix. Just a buck for this nice little variety of squash, snap peas, carrots, broccoli flowerettes and a pepper. All organic.

Maybe the best buy of the day was for the wonderful lemon cucumbers (behind the orange tomatoes in the picture below). They were only 20 cents each. I love this variety. I cut them up and serve them with a sandwich for "chips". You'll also notice the wonderful array of tomatoes. I got the orange romas to use in the stir fry I'll make for dinner tonight. The yellow tomatoes will be served with tomorrow's dinner. I'll slice them and serve them with some baked chicken, zucchini patties, green beans (pressure cooker prepare with a great recipe from Martha Stewart...I'll post it later) and corn I froze from last week's corn festival. Gotta load up on the veges when they are in season. Besides, I bought some fresh pies for dessert. DS#4 wanted pie instead of cake for his birthday celebration.

The almonds here are soft shelled. I'll put them on a tray to dry out further but we will eat them raw, unroasted. They are easy to get out of the shell. Almonds are good for your heart, eat a few every day!

Here is the total haul! Doesn't it make a lovely picture! Have a great day at your farmer's market or in your garden. My friend Joyce tells me that they are loving the canteloupes from their family garden. I of course am jealous because homegrown canteloupes are the absolute best! I did get some really wonderful ones this week at Smith's for $1 each...not a bad price! By the way, to get a close look at the pictures, just put your curser over the picture and click. Have a great day!

http://toeverymeal.blogspot.com/2008/08/farmers-market-report-aug-30th.html check out this link for more farmer's market reports!

Family Night at Dixie Rock

This picture is taken from Dixie Rock and overlooks the city of St. George. Tonight was family night at Dixie Rock.

Dear husband has been wanting to climb to the top of Dixie Rock since we moved here to Southern Utah. The last time we had planned on doing so, there was an electical storm, so, it was cancelled. This past Monday night however, was perfect weather, so off we went. I picked up a box of ice cream treats from the store so we had refreshments as well.

For some reason, I wasn't thinking that this would be a hike of sorts, and I wore thongs. Kind of stupid I admit. Fortunately, the red rock was fairly easy to navigate. I took this picture of a family already at the top when we were just starting to climb up.

Here at the top is DH and DS #4. We were waiting for DS #2 to join us when he got off of work. All of our boys have wanted to make this hike, but we only were able to get 2 of them that could join us.

The sky was just so gorgeous on Monday night. I wish I had a better digital camera so that I could get some nicer pictures.

I finally climbed down when it started to get dark. Some other families were on the top now and the moms were making me a nervous wreck not watching their very young children peering down to the road. Besides, I had thongs on and the descent down some worn steps was on my mind. Another fun family night has come and gone!

Bad Outlet? Corn Festival!

What do Bad Outlet, Candy Cabin, Forbidden Doughnut and Too Much Fun Plus One all have in common? These were some of the bands playing tonight at the Enterprise, Utah Corn Festival.

Now that I have your attention, I'll tell you all about the BIG day in Enterprise. It is a big day in the little town of Enterprise. The day begins early with wagon rides, flea market type booths, sales of corn (at various locations in town), small town carnival type rides, yard sales, etc.

We were hungry when we arrived and found this quaint little booth that sold roasted corn on the cob. Check out the cool banner.


Once you pay your $3, the able staff grabs a cob of corn, wraps a napkin around the bottom where the roasted husk has been folded down, and proceeds to dip that corn on the cob into a nice pot of melted butter (yum). You can then go to a table where there is salt and pepper, parmesan cheese and a bunch of other seasonings to sprinkle onto your corn.


The picture below shows the roaster. They place the corn (in the husk) into this huge roaster machine. The girl on the right takes it out and folds the husk back, then it is ready to sell and dip into butter.

Around 6 pm there is a dutch oven dinner. They served some kind of meat, dutch oven potatoes cooked with bacon, rolls, cake and of course, corn on the cob. The production of the meal takes place in the pavillion (pictured below). A huge line forms once the crowd is given the word that the grub is ready. It smelled pretty yummy. We passed on the dutch oven, having decided that we wouldn't be staying long.

We weren't going to stay long, but sat in the shade to listen to a few bands that were playing. By band number 2, we were ready to blast out of there, but band #3 turned out to be quite good. Bad Outlet was their name, and we were impressed with how good they were. They were young in age but were quite professional and had great stage presence for such a young band. They are from St. George. The bands got progressively better. I especially enjoyed Forbidden Doughnut, a band from Cedar City. The band consisted of accountants and a truck driver. Now, unfortunately, my dear husband has decided that he, being an accountant, should be able to form his own band. Guess he'll have to learn how to sing first, LOL. He does play piano, so maybe he'll be on the keyboard!! Anyway, our dear 15 year old son (16 next week) was grumping about the entire "adventure", and criticized the first 2 bands (he being a guitarist and a band member prior to our move) but by band #3 he was not wanting to leave. We were enjoying the music by then until a band called "Typhus" came on. By the end of the screamo band's first number, I turned to look at my husband because I thought I was going to bust a gut, and I wish I could've captured the look on his face. Best described as "what the heck was that"! We left for home after that.

So, now we're home. Soon to be birthday boy is playing his electric guitar hooked up to his "small" amp with the sound level below ear piercing. Next year he is planning on having a band that will play at the Enterprise Corn Festival.

I have 3 dozen ears of corn, and look forward to corn on the cob for Sunday dinner tomorrow night! Our three older sons will show up for dinner and make quick work of gobbling down most of that corn.

Pug and Luigi feast on grapes!

In the backyard we have a huge patch of grapevines. These are an untamed mess along the back fence. I have attempted to trim some of this back, because since Pug and Luigi discovered the grapes, they have been pigging out!

So, here are the culprits, Pug and Luigi! In case you are wondering, Pug is an AKC pug dog and Luigi (DS#1 named him when he was a puppy) is an AKC Italian greyhound. Together, they look like mutt and jeff! Pug does better in cooler weather, and actually loved playing in the snow at winter time. Luigi loves the heat and will allow himself to bake in the hot sun....he can't get enough of the heat. Why did we settle on these two breeds of dogs? Well, my DH wanted a pug, and I wanted an indoor dog that didn't shed. We got two dogs that shed and that are exact opposites of each other. But, we love them. My DS's love them. And, they are SOOOOO funny.

When they aren't barking at someone walking their dogs, lately they have been busy eating grapes. At first, I realized that they shouldn't be eating grapes, that they might be deadly. This was after they had eaten tons of grapes. After the days and weeks went by and they were still happily eating grapes, I realized that you can't believe everything you read on the internet. Anyway, pug will get up into the grapes and take a whole bunch off of the vine, take them onto the lawn, and begin his gorging session.

Here is a picture of Luigi just feasting off of the plant. That long nose really is a benefit when it comes to grape picking.

Anyway, after trying out a few of the grapes, I've decided that the dogs are enjoying some really yummy treats. I'm going out to harvest the rest of the grapes so that the dogs don't eat any more!

Up in the Air, Junior Birdmen!

Last night we went to Tuacahn Theater and saw The Sound of Music. It was very good and we had a great time. I'll blog about Tuacahn at another time. Before we went to the theater, my dad called and told me that they would fly up for breakfast in the morning (today).

My parents, Joe (my father, in the plaid shirt) and Billie (my mother), and another pilot friend of my dad's, Ed, flew up this morning. I drove up to the St. George Airport and picked them up. The St. George Airport is on a bluff and has a spectacular view of the St. George area. My dad has flown his plane into this airport several times before so I know exactly where to pick them up and meet them at the plane tie-down area.

After retrieving them at the airport, we went to a restaurant called, The Egg & I. I had heard that this was a nice place to eat breakfast. We placed our order and waited about 45 minutes for our food. We waited about 35 minutes for the waitress to check back with us. Not sure what was wrong in the kitchen/with the staff/etc, but I do know that next time we won't be going there. The general feeling among us is that we should have gone to Cracker Barrel.....oh, well, next visit.

The food was pretty good when it finally came. I took them back to the airport after we ate and got a few pictures of them getting back in the plane and of them taking off. It was so fun to see them on the spur of the moment! I am glad that we live closer and can see each other more often.

Fun at the Farmer's Market

What a fun morning I've had so far! I walked the dogs over in the wash area. They loved it of course. It was cooler this morning, in the 70's, so it was easier on Pug.

I got myself ready and headed out the door with my Ikea bag. It was filled with ebay packages to take to the post office. I got the packages dropped off, then went across the street to the farmer's market at Ancestor Square in St. George. The market is in a perfect setting. There is a courtyard with trees and plants, and there is plenty of shade. There are a variety of vendors displaying their goods. Besides the fresh produce I saw a variety of handmade items including, aprons, crocheted lace, soaps, dried lavender, plants, flowers, jewelry and bath and body products.

Here is what I purchased today: Zinnias (3/$1)...I got 9 flowers, plums, lettuce/greens, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers (love these!), boysenberries (these are from the original plants brought into Utah by the Mormon pioneers....so I was told), baby eggplants (can't wait to grill these), figs (thought I had died and gone to heaven when I saw these babies!), carrots (including the blood red variety), sunflower seed sprouts (if you know me you KNOW that I am a sucker for these tasty sprouts), hummus (made by a cute gal with a nose ring) and fresh, warm flat bread to go with the hummus. Sorry that the flat bread didn't make it into the photo, but I was hungry and it didn't make it home!

I had a delicious breakfast of warm flat bread with hummus, boysenberries and a couple of figs. I am going to have breakfast every Saturday morning at the farmer's market. This is my new resolution and I intend to keep it up, lol!

I bought the tie-dyed onesie from a woman who told me her daughter made them. I can't think of anyone expecting, but thought it would be fun to include this in this week's prize package. It was only $5 and I love supporting kids trying to make a buck.

Well, time for the contest! Drum roll, please! This week's contest will begin now and go through August 13, 08 at 11:59 pm. The winner will come from those posting comments on this post. Tell me about a favorite fruit or vegetable of yours or you can tell me about your local farmer's market and what you like to buy when you go. The prize will be a variety of homemade greeting cards, some fun surprises, along with the tie-dyed onesie I just bought at the farmer's market today! Don't be shy, post your comments! Have a great weekend!