Gumbo fever

Tonight was gumbo night! I don't know if I had ever really had gumbo, since I was a vegetarian when I went to New Orleans and most versions of it are pretty meaty. This was a great recipe that features our farmers market beans and carrots as well as kale, chard, and mustard greens. I was expecting mustard greens to be stronger tasting and unpleasant and I had avoided them in the past. Turns out that I have been avoiding them for no reason. The gumbo had great strong flavors from all the spices and the roux that it started with. I won't post the recipe, but it's from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. I have used the book so many times that the middle pages have fallen out. Someday I will write a whole post just about Debbie, as we call her, even though we have never met her.

This was also the night to try out the breakfast radishes. I have to say that they moonlight well as dinner radishes. We used the classic French preparation of slicing them in half and spreading them with butter, then sprinkling some salt. Not bad, but I would happily have eaten a phone book prepared the same way.

I am enjoying photographing the food for the blog. It makes me take more care with presentation which translates into even greater eating enjoyment for me.

I am hoping to hit the PDX farmers market again this weekend. we have eaten so well off last week's purchases. I want more cheese too. But what else is new?