More inspiration from the 67th St Farmer's Market

Earlier this fall, to my horror and delight, my 5 year old daughter marched confidently into her first day of kindergarten. She attends a New York city public school that has an extremely active and clever PTA. The PTA raises an enormous amount of money every year to pay for all the extras that the Board of Education cannot. One of their fundraisers is the 67th street Farmer's Market. http://east67thstreetmarket.org/

I go there nearly every Saturday to pick up some beautiful, fresh produce from local farmers. There is nothing like digging into an apple barrel to find that the apples are still wet with dew! 

This weekend I saw these little cippolini onions and couldn't resist buying them. These onions are very pungent but small and are heavenly roasted with potatoes. The recipe I used was adapted from Giada De Laurentiis of the Food Network. I prefer thyme to her rosemary, but feel free to use either. This is perfect to throw into the oven with a roast chicken. 

Cippolini Onions and Fingerling Potatoes

Serves about 6 people, or 4 people who really love potatoes.

You will need:

2 pounds fingerling or yukon gold potatoes 

1 pound cippolini onions, peeled

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cippolini Onions and Fingerling Potatoes- before cooking
and still need to be spread out more to brown perfectly.

Then I just toss all the ingredients together on a baking sheet, then spread it into a single layer.The single layer keeps the potatoes from steaming, so they brown up beautifully. I baked mine on foil so I didn't have to clean up. This is lazy and environmentally incorrect behavior which I do not condone, unless you are just really having a bad day.

Bake until the potatoes and onions are golden brown and cooked through, usually about 40 minutes. 

Hey Pumpkin

Pumpkin Muffins

I don't have to tell you that the days are getting shorter and the air is getting chillier. It's harder to get out of bed. You definitely need something to look forward to in the morning, and these moist, decadent muffins will do the trick. Normally I avoid recipes that call for things like buttermilk, because I never have it on hand. Ever. But I found this recipe on the Fresh Direct website, and since I was already shopping, I could just order it. I've altered it- of course, I am compulsive like that! But it really had way too much pumpkin pie spice in the original. However, I'd like to note that I was using brand-new pumpkin pie spice. If yours is infrequently used, then you might want to bump it up a bit.

Makes 18 muffins

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (unless it's been sitting around since last Thanksgiving, then 1.5-2 tsps!)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips (I really prefer mini- they add a bit of chocolate to each bite!)
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup molasses
2 large eggs
18 baking cup liners! Don't forget these- we had to run out in our aprons to get some.

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Stir together the dry ingredients:  flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. In a separate mixer bowl, beat the brown sugar, pumpkin, buttermilk, vegetable oil, molasses, vanilla extract and eggs. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture, stirring only until moist.Don't over beat them- they get tough.
4. Fill the 18 lined muffin cups about 3/4 of the way up. Bake for 15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
5. Remove muffins from pans immediately and cool on a wire rack before serving.