Farmers Market Finds!

So, you know I love to come on and talk about all my delicious finds at the Farmers Market.

I was dissapointed that I missed the good people from Zingermans - I look for them every week!

I did find the Sansonetti Foods booth, which I had missed the last time I was there, and I was chatting up the woman a little, as much as the busy farmers market crowd would let me.

I told her that I had gotten their Michigan Apple Glaze, and I know I told you all about it last week, but I'll mention it again. The stuff is crazy good. I've tried it with everything I could think of - I've had it with Mexican food, I've had it with pizza, I've had it with Stir Fry. It's just really never NOT delicious!

Today, my son (my usual partner in crime) was with me, and we selected the Premium Marinara to try. Delicious as always. Smooth, mellow, and really tastes of fresh tomatoes, basil and garlic. I know that with spaghetti sauce, saying it tastes like tomatoes is like "Yeah, duh!", but sometimes you get spaghetti sauce that you have to doctor, or sauce that tastes more like chemicals and preservatives then the actual stuff in the sauce, and with my friends at Sansonetti's Gourmet Foods, you don't get that. They tell you tomato, they mean tomato!

It did get the two year old stamp of approval too. In fact, he asked for extra! If you've got any experience feeding a two year old, you know the two year old stamp of approval is no small feat!

I also made a stop off at the Pillar's Tamales booth. I had gone to their booth once before, and gotten Plantains, and kind of didn't understand the appeal. Not because of anything the lovely people at Pillar's did...just because I don't get the appeal of the plantain. If you've never seen one before, they look just like a overgrown banana, but they are a little more starchy, with a mouth feel kind of similar to a potato. If you can imagine a banana and a potato being cross bred to each other, the result would be a plantain. You can't eat them raw, they have to be cooked. So far, I've not come across a cooked plantain that knocked my block off. I've not come up on one I hated though, to be fair.

I got the Saturday Special at the booth. That included 2 tamales, fried plantains, black beans and rice, and a side the seemed to look similar to cole slaw, but was flavored differently. I also had a hibiscus tea to drink.

I gotta say - totally loved it. I finished my plate, and could have had another! I had the Vegan Tempeh for my tamale choice. No particular reason why - I'm not vegan - it just seemed like such an interesting choice. Even the plantains were really good. The only thing I might have taken a pass on seconds of was the slaw. Like I said - it looked like cole slaw, but it had a bit more of an herbal quality to it. I even took a picture of their menu so I could remember what it was, but of course, my camera is not with me right now. Figures.

The Hibiscus tea was a bit of an aquired taste - a little fruity, but with kind of a wooden note on the back of your tounge. It was an aquired taste, but I did come around, and found myself truly dissapointed when my cup was empty. The tea did not earn the two year old seal of approval. He took a drink, wrinkled his nose, and went "No, thanks!"

Two for two! I really just can't speak highly enough of the people from Sansonetti's. Love them, love their products. When I first found their products, I was told that their curry mustard is especially designed to go with Kogel Hot Dogs. Can't wait for the opportunity to have both of them in the same place at the same time!

More Delicious Farmers Market Finds!

Took another trip to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market this week. One of these times, I'll remember to take my camera, and take good pictures. Love the Farmers Market. LOVE!

Got another round of City Goat goat cheese from Zingermans Creamery. Good stuff. Good, good, good. I actually think about it all week. Is that weird? Probably. Hee! I get cravings for the stuff - really! There's tons of fresh asparagus at the market, maybe next week I'll try the two together? Aah, experiments! :)

Last time I was at the Farmer Market, I got some Apple Glaze from Sansonetti Farms, and I have to tell you - I missed them! They weren't there, and I was really looking forward to seeing them. I've seriously tried their Apple Glaze with everything I could think of - it's good with everything! I've tried it with Mexican food, I've tried it on pizza, I've tried it with Stir Fry. It's good stuff!

I did find a new booth at the market, Pillar Farms. They had authentic Mexican lunch - tamales, fried plantains, hibiscus tea (I'm not sure how authentic that it, but it sure sounds good!), and more. I didn't want to go for the full out lunch, because I had inlaws coming into town that I knew would want to eat, so I got a side of the fried plantains.

I gotta admit - I just don't get it! It's not my first time having plantains, and while I've never had them and thought they were downright horrible, I've never eaten them and gone "Oh, I can't wait until I get to have that again!"

So I'm sure the lovely girls at the Pillar Farms booth did nothing wrong, and I'll probably go back this week and try the full out lunch, but I just didn't get that excited about the plantains.

I also got a loaf of fresh bread. I actually made French Toast with it this morning. I had read in one of my books that the origins of French Toast were to use the milk and egg to rehydrate the bread so they could still eat it. I left the fresh bread on the counter in the bag overnight, and this morning sawed myself off a few pieces, and had some french toast.

So crazy good. Crazy, crazy good! :)

And naturally, I had my two year old with me, so we had to make a stop at the snow cone booth again. :)

Check them out online:

Zingermans Creamery

They are also on Facebook. Worth the trip, all by themselves! :)

Delicious Finds at the Farmers Market!

I've been wanting to go to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market for a couple of weeks. It's sort of an off time of year to go - they are open year round, but in Michigan in April, there's not much that's in season. So it was some herbs and flowers, and just a few other things. Lots of apples and apple cidar, which seemed strange, because it doesn't seem like this was really the time of year for that.

At any rate, after taking forever to find a parking spot, we parked, and hiked across the street. I decided that I was going to take the tact of starting at the back, and working toward the door, so that's what we did.

One of our first stops was the Sansonetti Gourmet Foods booth. I have to give major shout outs to these people, because that guy was really cool. They are a locally owned business, headquatered in Holly, Michigan, which is about an hour north of here. They mainly do sauces - they have Michigan Maple BBQ sauce, Hot Sauce, two kinds of spaghetti sauce, and a curry mustard, which he told me was especially designed to go with Kogel Hot Dogs. Which made me laugh, because that's the mark of being a Michigan company - to most of the world, the phrase "Kogel Hot Dogs" means nothing. In Michigan, that's big business!

So he let me sample a little bit of everything. The Michigan Maple BBQ sauce is delicious - thick and rich, but not overpowering, and I didn't taste any pepper, or anything that would change the flavor that they were going for. The Hot Sauce I was impressed by as well. Most hot sauces have a vinegar base, and so you just get a really kicked up vinegar. Theirs, you taste, and you really get true, red pepper kick. One of the spaghetti sauces, and the name of it is escaping me right now, is really delicious. It's a spicy sauce, and he uses FOUR different kind of peppers, to get a really even flavor, and it's really great stuff.

There was a bit of confusion with the guy, which is why I'm giving them such a strong shout out. I got the Michigan Apple Glaze, which is good stuff - it's got the feel in your mouth of BBQ sauce, but has a delicious taste of fresh apples. When I was standing there talking to him, I realize that their product looks so familiar to me because they carry them in my grocery store, which I told him. He thought I meant that I worked at the store, and was like "Ooh, if you work at a store that carries our stuff, I'll give you a deal!", and he gave me a dollar off. D'oh! So I was honest, and it eventually came out that I didn't work there. Still, I felt so bad, I wanted to give him the dollar back.

Yes, I am considering buying the Curry Mustard and some Kogel Hot Dogs when I go to the store tonight. I'm just saying - the mustard was really good!



The jar of apple glaze. It says it goes well with fruits, and even that you can mix it with a little vinegar and oil, and have a nice salad dressing. Guess who is sales pitching Kogel Hot Dogs and grilled fruit for dinner tonight?!

My next stop was the Zingerman's Creamery booth. Not to be confused with Zingerman's Deli or Zingerman's Bakery, all of which are headquatered in Ann Arbor, and appear to have no connections to each other.

Zingermans does all of their cheese work themselves, and can I tell you, it's amazing stuff? They give free samples if you stop by their booth, and I tried a bit of the mozzarella and a bit of goat cheese. The Mozzarella is all hand made and mixed, and packaged by hand. It's smooth, and creamy and delicious.

The goat cheese is also packaged by hand. I know alot of people don't care for goat cheese because of the strong flavor, but those people have never had fresh! It's soft, creamy, has a really nice, mild flavor. Goes well with everything! :) I got the roasted red pepper, and the guy working the booth recommended using it in pasta salad, but I just sliced it up and put it on crackers. I couldn't help but wonder how well it would go on a bagel with a little smoked salmon, though. You'll probably be reading the results of that experiment later. :)



The gorgeousness that is Zingermans fresh goat cheese. It also comes in regular, Rosemary, and cracked black pepper. And I can tell you - the only one I haven't tried is the cracked black pepper, but if it's as good as the others? I'm so there! :)

Back to the front of the market, we found a biscotti booth. Gorgeous flavors, smelled so delicious. I settled down on the Mint Chip, and we went merrily on our way.

Honestly, I'm a little ambivalent about it. It wasn't knock me down fantastic - for as much mint as I had smelled, I kind of expected to taste more in it. It seemed just neutral. Of course, I suppose I'm being too tough on it. I mean, it's not like there's many ways to revolutionize the biscotti, you know? It's sort of is what it is. The both did by far and away have the most diverse range of flavors I've ever seen!



The biscotti. You can see the chocolate running through it. I've only tried to make biscotti once, but it did not look like that!

Nearly to the door, we found something fantastic - a snow cone booth! Oh, come on - it's not high food culture, but who isn't excited by a snow cone?! I'm waiting for my order, and I'm all kinds of excited, because I haven't had a snow cone in years, and James has never had one. And the lady is kind of getting excited, because she sees how excited I am, and I'm like "James! Check it out! A snow cone!"

And he's looking at this cup, and I'm sure thinking "Check it out! My moms finally gone crazy!"

But we pay our dollar, thank the lady, and wheel around the corner to enjoy our treat.

The syrups she used were actually nicer then I remember a snow cone being - it wasn't "Make my teeth hurt" sweet, but it tasted like candy, just the same.

I don't have any pictures of the snow cone, but suffice it to say...



...it was delicious!