Trip to the Farmer's Market

Over the week, Bryan read Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. It's a great follow up to his earlier book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and explains the importance of the proposition that we should eat actual food, versus food-like substances, and the dangers of what he calls "The Western Diet." He's essentially encouraging us to stay away from McDonald's Southern Style Chicken Sandwiches, regardless of how delicious they are, in order to stave off obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases linked to diet.

Even at the farmer's market, they have cookies. But these are the good for you kind, right? 

One other take away from the book was the notion of eating farm fresh whole foods, instead of processed foods. And he advocates for the reader to vote with his wallet and get these ingredients directly from local farmers, to support local agriculture and better the environment by buying in season foods rather than foods shipped across continents. So that's the kick Bryan is on right now, and what brought us to the Union Square farmer's market this Saturday.

We got all the ingredients we needed to out next two meals, and got some nice shots of the fresh produce. So here's a little preview of what we'll be making this weekend.

Read on to see what we got!

The parsnips for our first meal. 

Our first meal will be braised lamb shanks with a red wine reduction (update: this didn't actually turn out very well, so we got rid of it). It will be served over a bed of puréed parsnip, with a golden beet and bianca cheese salad (bianca cheese was unfamiliar to us but we tried it out at the market - it's a lot like goat cheese in consistency and taste, but its made with cow's milk and is a touch sweeter).

Red beets. They look pretty weird on the outside, but after roasting them they'll probably be delicious. 

The next night will be a little more traditional - burgers. We got some excellent looking grass fed ground angus beef. We'll be serving that on a brioche bun and top it with whatever cheese we have on hand, and serve it with a side of roasted majectic purple potatoes and sweet yellow carrots.

Are these not the biggest carrots you've ever seen? 

Of course we'll be posting the outcome here, so stop by tomorrow and Monday to see how it came out!