How to Do the Saturday Market

Summer = houseguests.

At least for us. With family in town these past several days (of whom three of the visitors were kids 15 and under), we were looking for activities that provided (1) fresh air, (2) some exercise, and (3) food. Hooray for the Bellevue Farmers Market!

If you're expecting guests or just want to do the Saturday Market up right, I've got two steps for you.

WALK OR PARK. The new downtown location is wonderful! I included a map in my last post, but the easiest way to describe it is on the street between Lincoln Square and CPK, opening into Compass Plaza in front of the Tap House and Rock Bottom. We parked at Bellevue Square, having other business there, and strolled past the Bellevue Arts Museum. So easy, and it felt like the summer street fairs! In fact, here's the map from the Arts Museum website:

 

COME HUNGRY. The good thing about there being so many of us was that we were able to sample lots of the Saturday offerings.

(Pic stolen from Yelp because I ate my dish before I remembered to photograph it)

The Los Chilangos food truck serves up delicious, fresh Mexican food. I'd seen the truck parked during the week at 1829 130th Avenue in Bellevue, so I was thrilled to give it a try.

Next week we'll have to hit the other truck:

A Marketgoer, preparing to thrive

Thrive offers organic, vegetarian food, including smoothies, salads and bowls.

Then there's Midori Bakery--

 

Baking incognito at Midori Bakery

The picture's lousy (photo credit: yours truly), but the baked goods divine. We ate the perfect soft pretzels and my son had the ham and cheese croissant. All gone. All good.

On the side we enjoyed Collins' Chelan cherries--

Sweeter than the Rainiers I got on Thursday. I think we went through three pounds, lickety-split. (Their Fuji apples are worth getting, too--crunchy and sweet.)

Followed by cleverly-named Yippie-Pie-Yay:

Mid-Yippie!

Hand pies are a wonderful invention. And the perfect size, so you have an excuse to say, "Get your own!" Loved the peach-bourbon and blueberry flavors.

And ending with Hedgehog Toffee. Now, both this toffee and Thursday's Pete's Perfect Toffee are better than any you'll get in the stores, but I especially appreciated Hedgehog's compostable packaging. Being on an anti-plastic kick, I love to see the brown paper!

Finally, the Market wouldn't be the Market without food items you can't find elsewhere. Saturday offers plenty of pastured eggs and even duck and turkey eggs! When I don't have my family with me, I'll get you more details on that...

In the meantime, finish off whatever you have left in the crisper and prepare to re-load at our two Markets!

Last Farmers Market of the Season!

From Attitude of Gratitude website

Thanksgiving approacheth, and it's worthwhile to remember our causes for gratitude, as I sit typing this with dinner unmade and my 7th grader in tears beside me over her math. I am grateful for free public education. I am grateful that, prepared or not, there will eventually be food on the table. I am grateful for a three-day week next week, followed by family time and the tastiest meal of the year, in my humble opinion.

For the umpteenth annual time, we can pledge to eat at least one local food at Thanksgiving. Piece of cake, considering the riches of our local produce. Last Saturday at the Bellevue Farmers Market, I found different potato varieties, brussels sprouts, winter squash, apples for pie, cheese for the cheese plate, bread to cube into stuffing, fresh parsley--even first-course soups! Eating local captures the original Thanksgiving spirit, when shipping exotic viands thousands of miles was simply not an option. Eat what you could find or whatever had been put by earlier, throw in your lot with your friends and neighbors, and give thanks.

Enjoy the following links to some of my favorite seasonal recipes:

Elena's delicious Butternut-Squash-Apple Soup. I made this the other day with squash I'd already roasted. So easy and happens to be vegan, if one of your guests is!

Cook's Illustrated Green Bean Casserole. I love this dish in any form, even the open-a-can-of-cream-of-mushroom kind, but this one is over-the-top yummy.

If you don't do mashed potatoes, try this simple Gratin Dauphinois from Cooking Light. (I do substitute whole milk for the nonfat business.)

And, a repeat from an earlier post, the dinner rolls I make ahead and freeze every Thanksgiving and Christmas, adapted from Betty Crocker's Best Christmas Cookbook.


Besides grabbing your feast fixings, be sure to stock up for the long dry spell. Loki Fish offers a discount when you buy 10 lbs, so I'll be loading up on Sockeye filets. If you have a favorite sausage or other meat from Olsen Farms or Samish Bay, now's the time. Artisan bread from Ble or Snohomish Bakery freezes beautifully. Depending on how I plan to serve it, I either slice and freeze (for sandwiches) or throw it in whole.

And if you've managed to dodge hosting Thanksgiving or Christmas, hostess gifts abound at the Market. I've shown up with Jonboy caramels, Pete's Perfect Butter Toffee or a jar of Handmade by Rome jam--the fig with vanilla is fabulous on a cheese tray.

My blog will continue weekly during the off-season, but this Saturday will be our last chance to run into each other live and in person! See you at the Market.