The Garden Apartment

Alexandria West End Farmers Market Opens Sunday, May 3rd

Susan Birchler and Julie Bryant, founders of the Alexandria West End Farmer's Market

In 2006, Julie Bryant decided that that the West End neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia needed a farmers market. At the time, Julie owned and operated a small coffee shop adjacent to the Cameron Station neighborhood (in the West End, of course). She began talking to her customers about the idea, and one of them- Susan Birchler- volunteered to help out. 

Three years later, the idea has grown from a small farmers market in the Ben Brenman Park to a robust marketplace and community meeting place. Together Julie and Susan act as the market managers, contacting farmers and vendors, publicizing the market, and working tirelessly for the continued success of the West End Alexandria market. 

An impressive array of twenty-five food vendors are participating this summer. The list includes many returning from past summers: Papa's Orchard, On the Gourmet, J&W Farm, chicken and eggs from Hilldale Farms, home baked dog treats from Lisa, and Tom's Dairy (known to fans as "Tom The Cheese Guy").  To name a few more, West End will also have local honey, flowers, bread and baked goods from Bonaparte Breads, Virginia wine from North Gate Vineyard, and fresh roasted fair-trade coffee from Beanetics Coffee Roasters. 

Photos from the West End Market, summer of 2008 

The West End Market opening hopes to bring the community together through more than great food, however. Several local artists and craftspeople will be at market exhibiting and selling their goods. The artists will return for the second week of the market, and will continue to sell their goods on the first Sunday of every month throughout the market season. 

There will also be an acoustic musician, and a storyteller from the Alexandria Library.

Bring the entire family and support our local farmers and the grand opening of the third season of the Alexandria West End Farmer's Market.

And if my words haven't convinced you yet, maybe my sidewalk artworks will:

I may not be much of an artist, but hopefully the message is perfectly clear:

The Alexandria West End Farmers Market opens this Sunday, May 3rd!

Alexandria West End Farmers Market

Sundays: May 3rd- November, 2009

9 AM- 1 PM

Ben Brenman Park; 4800 Brenman Park Drive 

* located off of Duke Street Across from the Beatley Library; South parking lot

* Bike parking available with the market manager

For more information from Susan Birchler herself, check out the West End Farmer's Market Blog here. 

Plug Your Nose: Ramp and Ham Buttermilk Biscuits

Ramps are in season and I intend to utilize them exponentially. Plug your nose, and join me for the first recipe: ramp and ham buttermilk biscuits.

Ramps at the Bigg Riggs Farm stand {Old Town Alexandria Farmers Market}, April 18th, 2009

Buttermilk is one of my favorite ingredients. The quantities consumed at the garden apartment are a little embarrassing, actually.

It should come as no surprise, then, that buttermilk biscuits are baked quite often in our little abode. And no further shock should be induced when I inform you, dear reader, that a spring recipe posted on Epicurious for ramp and buttermilk biscuits piqued my curiosity.

Though the Epicurious recipe was the source of inspiration, I already have a favorite go-to buttermilk recipe. I was also feeling rather pressured to use some leftover Easter ham-- and thankfully ham seemed like an ingredient that would pair nicely with the sharply onion flavored ramps. 

I reasoned that folding the ramps and ham into my go-to dough would be simple enough, and gave it a go. The results? They turned out wonderfully: the rich flavor of the buttermilk complimenting the saltiness of the ham and the enduring flavor of the ramps. * Warning: You may want to reduce the amount of ramps to your personal tolerance level.

To see the recipe for plain buttermilk biscuits, visit Pinch My Salt (and also get a wonderful lesson on the protein content of various flours). To make my version with ramps and ham, simply fold 1/3 cup of diced ramps (or less, depending on how strong a flavor you want) and 1/3 cup diced ham into the completed dough. I also added 1/2 teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper to the dry mixture in the food processor. 

And for some photographic assistance. . . 

The fresh ramps were diced.

The buttermilk was measured, and the dry ingredients measured into the food processor.

After carefully pulsing the butter into the dough, the ramps and ham were gently folded in. The dough was then rolled out and cut into twelve squares.

After baking in the oven, the biscuits were golden brown and begging to be eaten.

Want to know more about ramps? Read more about them here. This is the first recipe in The Garden Apartment's "Plug Your Nose" Series featuring ramps. Stay tuned for more recipe inspiration for this stinky wild leek, which will be in season for the next few weeks.

What is a ramp?

Chances are, you've never heard of a ramp {and I apologize for assuming you ignorant if you have}. Read on to hear about this interesting wild leek indigenous to our area.

Don't be fooled by their seemingly scallion appearance. This is not to say that ramps shouldn't be classified as onions; certainly, the ramp is a type of onion. 

But there's no mistaking ramps for mild green onions. First of all, there's the pungent smell which will pervade your home as soon as you bring them inside. Then, there's the taste of a raw ramp: strong, garlicky, and sharp all at once-- the flavor lingering in your mouth. Finally, there's the cooked taste: a mingling of onion and garlic flavor all in one ingredient.

Hopefully I haven't scared you away from trying these wonderful wild things. 

Because you should.

And soon-- they will only be in season for a short time. 

Ramps are a wild leek which is generally foraged in certain regions of the United States-- including West Virginia. Calvin Riggleman of Bigg Riggs Farm claims that they only grow on the northwest side of the mountain (though I've not confirmed this with any other source). While they can be cultivated to some extent, Calvin and his friend/ fellow ramp hunter claim that it is much more fun to find them in the wild. Last week they found the above pictured bunch of ramps growing up out of a pile of snow. 

In honor of ramp season, I will be featuring various ramp recipes throughout the next few weeks. First up is my recipe for ramp and ham buttermilk biscuits-- so stay tuned. 

You can find ramps this weekend from Calvin of Bigg Riggs Farm at the Old Town Farmers Market in Alexandria, Virginia or the Great Falls Farmers Market in Great Falls, Virginia on Saturday. On Sunday, you can find ramps from Calvin's neighbors over at Spring Valley Farm during the DuPont Circle Farmers Market. 

And if you want to learn more about ramps, check out the following website. Or, if you decide you really love ramps, visit the Whitetop Mountain Ramp Festival in May and participate in their ramp eating contest (information below)!

Ramps! The King of Stink

Website dedicated to tracking all ramp festivals' dates and locations

Whitetop Mountain Ramp Festival

Sunday, May 17th, 2009 11 AM-6 PM 

Features a Ramp Eating Contest

Katie's Passover Seder Feast {and a recipe for gefilte fish}

Katie invited me to document her Passover Seder Feast from prep to meal. Read the story, or scroll down for her homemade gefilte fish recipe.

Katie and Mike were married nearly one year ago. Now, they are expecting their first baby. Feeling the crunch of oncoming responsibilities, Katie organized a large Passover Seder dinner as a "last big hurrah before somebody had a baby." Hoping to document the happy moments and delicious foods shared with friends and loved ones, she asked me to join them in a bit of a photojournalism adventure. As a true mark of her generosity, she also invited my husband- who bore no camera or food blog credentials- to join the table of eighteen family members and friends.

Passover is the celebration of the Jews' exodus from slavery in Egypt. According to Katie, it is widely considered to be the Jewish food holiday. She further describes the holiday as falling into the category of "They Tried To Kill Us, We Won, Let's Drink! Jewish Holidays." Certainly, there's a more Orthodox explanation, but Katie's synopsis is helpful for those of us who are not Jewish.

The food prep for the large meal began one night before the Seder. I joined Katie to document the prep work. When I arrived at her house, I found her and her younger brother Mike navigating a large table through their dining room. "This is exactly what I should be doing during the fourth month of my pregnancy," Katie cheerfully chided her brother, before enthusiastically embracing me in a hug and moving on to the ten plus grocery bags littering the dining room.

And with this, the fun began. First up were two large stockpots of chicken stock for the matzoh ball soup. A fish stock was also prepared, which would be used for poaching the gefilte fish, a traditional fish served at the Seder dinner.

For those non-Jews wondering exactly what gefilte fish is, it is deboned fish which has been ground with a mixture of carrots and onions, shaped into ovular patties, poached in fish stock, then served and eaten cold. Sounds appetizing, right?

The process of making gefilte fish from scratch is impressively tedious. It was Katie's first time making it, though her culinary degree gave her an edge over the average home cook. First, and most importantly, the bones from the fish had to be removed. 

The reason behind the removal of the bones is that the gefilte fish is something that can be made in advance and eaten guilt-free on the Sabbath. An important rule of the Sabbath is keeping it a day of rest. Removing bones from fish is considered work, and thus, the gefilte fish is pre-prepared to be boneless and completely ready to serve work-free on the day it's eaten. 

Katie grinds the deboned and chopped fish

Before I left for the evening, Katie removed the bone from the legs of lamb, butterflied each leg, and removed the silver skin. De-boning the leg was only slightly easier than removing pin bones from fish.

Katie looked tired, and we retired for the evening. 

I returned to Katie and Mike's house the next evening to find a beautifully set table  and a small group of close friends and family who had been assisting throughout the day.  

Before the guests arrived, Mike's grandmother expertly shaped the Matzoh balls for the first course soup.

Katie's friend Alex carefully prepared the Seder plate, reading the Hebrew inscriptions on each plate to determine where to place the bitter herbs, boiled egg, lamb shank, and salt water. 

Then, Katie and Alex selected the readings and prayers for the first portion of the dinner. Katie joked that the four passages instructing the participants to drink wine would all be included.

And finally, the guests arrived. Some guests were very anxious for food.

Despite growling tummies, the guests would have to wait. The beginning of the Passover Seder meal is a (rather long) series of prayers and symbolic gestures. 

The guests were seated, and prepared themselves for prayers.

The meal began with the lighting of candles by Katie and Alex.

Mike presided over the table and led the prayers (with participation from all guests), assisting the non-Jewish guests in understanding the various symbolic gestures. Pointing to their open front door, he explained that the door was left open and a seat left empty to demonstrate that there was always more room at the table.

We dipped the bitter herb in salt water, symbolizing the tears of the ancestors and remembering the bitterness of their slavery.

The matzoh was broken, and the middle piece was wrapped and hidden by Mike-- who promised a present to whoever found it at the end of the meal.

We dipped our fingers into our wine glasses and dotted wine onto our plates for each of the ten plagues: "Blood. Frogs. Lice. Wild beasts. Cattle disease. Boils. Hail. Locusts. Darkness. Death of the first born."

 

 

After the Seder plate and initial prayers had been read, it was time to serve Katie's delicious matzoh ball soup. 

Next, came the much awaited homemade gefilte fish.

All agreed that Katie's gefilte fish tasted much better than it sounded. The Jewish attendees understandingly appreciated her efforts the most, after a lifetime of eating jarred gefilte fish, which is stored in a jelly-like substance. Descriptions of this fish were usually accompanied by a wrinkling of the nose and a look of disgust. Katie's fish was well received by all- Jewish and Gentile alike.

Next, it was time for the main course: garlic and herb roasted leg of lamb, potato kugel, quinoa, lemon salmon, and asparagus. 

Everything was delicious, though all agreed that Katie's leg of lamb was the star of the show. 

The food, drink, and good company made for hours of lively conversation. 

As I left Katie's house with a full stomach and smile on my face, I couldn't help thinking it impossible that having a baby would prevent her from hosting many future celebrations with family and friends. 

To see more photos from this beautiful gathering of friends and family, visit my Flickr photo set documenting this event here.

* * * * * * * * * 

Katie's Gefilte Fish

Recipe adapted from the 2nd Avenue Deli Cookbook (by way of epicurious.com)

Katie's notes: We only used 2 kinds of fish (no carp): half and half whitefish and pike. If possible, purchase the fish from a store which will fillet, debone and skin the fish for you (it was a lot of work!).

Many people think it is a crime to put sugar in gefilte fish, but she prefers hers a little sweet, liking the pairing of the sweet fish with the spicy horseradish. 

For the gefilte fish balls

• 1 (1 1/2-pound) fillet of whitefish and (1 1/2-pound) fillet of carp or pike (at fish store, ask for whole fish, filleted and skinned. Retain the heads and bones. Many stores will also grind the fish for you)
• 2 large onions (about 2 cups when grated; don't tamp it down)
• 1 stalk celery
• 1/2 medium carrot
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 4 teaspoons sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/8 teaspoon pepper
• 3/4 cup corn oil
• 1 cup matzo meal

For the cooking

• Heads and bones from fish
• 4 medium onions, peeled and quartered
• 2 stalks celery, trimmed and chopped into 3-inch pieces
• 2 medium carrots, peeled

We made the stock and then saved it for the next day, when we poached the fish balls. All ingredients were combined and the simmered for about an hour or so. Fish stock does not need to simmer like chicken stock. Some chefs say 18 minutes is all it needs. 

All the ingredients for the gefilte fish balls are combined and allowed to sit for at least 2 hours-- though we did it overnight. Then the balls are formed and poached in the simmering fish stock. Cooking time will depend on how big you make the balls, but ours (formed with two serving spoons) took about 15 minutes. 

An old diary {and lemon sandwich cookies}

After the discovery of an old diary, it was time to lighten up the mood in the garden apartment with these delicious lemon sandwich cookies.

Last weekend, I found myself home alone. In the mood to reorganize, I embarked on an afternoon of spring cleaning. As I rummaged through my closet, I came across something I hadn't thought about in quite some time.

An old diary.

And not just any old diary, but the diary that every woman in her early-twenties keeps when she is first out in the big world all on her own. You know the one.

As you might suspect, it was full of the angst of these years-- the unsettled, unsure, what am I meant to do with my life kinds of questions? More often than not, pages were filled with reflections on people I'd dated. Two major questions were asked in these passages: 1. What was wrong with them? 2. Would I be single for forever?

And then, around age 25, the diary ends. At this point, I had just met John and penned only a few entries about my initial impressions of him and our relationship.

When John returned from his weekend away from home, I casually mentioned how I'd read through the entire early-twenties diary. He asked whether there was anything interesting inside. I mentioned the above-mentioned angst, soul searching, and boy problems.

And of course, he just couldn't help but ask that question. 

"What did you write about me?"

I told him all the good things. That he made me laugh, and that he was a good guy.

Jokingly, he asked, "Did you have any doubts?"

I paused for a minute. With four and a half years under our belts, my diary scribblings at three months seemed pretty harmless.

"Yes. I worried that we hadn't had any really deep or soul searching conversations." I added, "Of course, this was my three month impression. Obviously, that's changed."

He nodded his head, so I thought this conversation was over and forgotten. 

How wrong I was. It seemed that every time I brought up any topic-- be it something I'd listened to on NPR or a friend's personal problems, John was incredibly interested in analyzing the situation.

This analysis would promptly be followed by this statement: "How is that for deep conversation?"

After explaining to him (again) that the reason I really love him has more to do with his ability to make me laugh than carry on long depressing conversations, I decided to lighten things up a little with a batch of delicious and light-hearted lemon sandwich cookies.

I found this recipe on Epicurious, originally published in BonApetit this January. I made these at work one week ago, and found them so delicious that I selfishly had to make a batch to enjoy at home. The creamy filling full of fresh lemon zest makes these cute guys irresistible. In fact, the only change I've made to the original recipe is to double the amount of cream filling. I also found (in both batches) that the cookie yield was more like 36 sandwiches, which is reflected here.

Because the cookie dough needs to be refrigerated for four hours, I found it easiest to make the cookie dough early in the day and make the lemon cream filling while the cookies were baking. However, you can make the cream filling a day ahead, if desired. Just bring it to room temperature before spreading it between the cookies.

Lemon Cream Sandwich Cookies

Adapted from BonApetit(original recipe here)

Makes 36 sandwich cookies

Filling:

• 3 tablespoons finely grated lemon peel
• 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 cups (packed) powdered sugar

Cookies:

• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel
• 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
•   
• For cookies: 
• Boil lemon juice and lemon peel in small saucepan until mixture is reduced to 2 tablespoons, about 4 minutes. Pour into small bowl and cool. 

This is what gives the cookies such wonderful lemon flavor.

Sift flour, salt, and baking soda into medium bowl.

Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Add sugar; beat until blended. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then beat in yolks. Beat in lemon juice mixture. Add dry ingredients and stir to blend well. Cover dough and chill until firm, at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out 1/3 of dough on lightly floured surface to scant 3/8-inch thickness. Using 2-inch round cutter, cut out cookies. Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until golden at edges, about 12 minutes. Let cookies cool 5 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

Make the filling:

Using back of spoon, mash lemon peel and salt to paste in medium bowl. 

Add butter. Using electric mixer, beat until fluffy. Add sugar in 4 batches, beating after each addition until blended.

Now for the fun part:

Spread large dollops of the filling between the cooled cookies.

Then, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Admire them, then enjoy.

The ironic thing about these cookies is, as it would turn out, John is not a big fan of lemon cookies. Don't get me wrong. He is still eating them, but apparently prefers something chewy with chocolate. 

As for myself, I stand behind these cookies as the best lemon sandwich cookies I have ever tasted.

And most importantly, as for that old diary, it is safely put away in an undisclosed location, and need not be reopened.