My Trip to the Farmers Market

I love the farmers markets. I usually make it to at least one every weekend. I stopped by after church on this visit. I knew I wanted zucchini and mint for a salad. Whatever else I purchased would be inspired by the selection. That's my key to shopping at farmers markets -- go with at least one dish in mind. Otherwise, I tend end up with a lot of stuff that "don't match." "Koolaid no sugar. Peanut butter, no jelly." Yep, one of the funniest movies ever. I digress. On this trip, I picked up garlic, onion, okra, tomatoes and corn. I had some hot turkey sausage in the freezer -- the makings of a meal. I was completely winging it. Here we go.

Grab a Dutch oven and brown the turkey sausage. Don’t cook it all the way.

Look at all that wonderful fond. Don’t waste it!

Throw in some chopped onion. Use the moisture from the onion to soften the fond.

Add the garlic on top of the onion.

Moving on. Add the fresh corn. I threw in the cobs too for additional flavor.

Add the okra.

Tomatoes.

I hope you have been seasoning with salt and pepper at each addition. Add the sausage plus a little water and cover.

While that simmers, let’s get to the zucchini salad. Thinly slice onion and finely chop a garlic clove.

Grab you favorite peeler and peel the zucchini until you get to the seeds. Turn it and attack it from the other side.

Add olive oil, lemon juice and lemon zest.

Add feta (I’m using reduced fat) and mint. Add a good amount of freshly ground black pepper. My feta was so salty that I didn’t need any salt.

That is a mighty fine meal for someone who was winging it.

Tools of the trade:

• Shun Chef's Knife
• Totally Bamboo Butcher Block
• All-Clad Dutch Oven
• OXO Wooden Turner