To Market, To Market

Over the weekend we went to the small farmer's market in our town. It is held at a local creamery. In addition to the vendors the creamery has samples of their cheese. So. Good. We tried some Gouda, Gruyere, and feta. PE like the Gouda that had been aged the longest and had the strongest flavor. I liked the Gruyere. PE discovered he did like feta, just not the feta I usually purchase. Now I know.

We purchased asparagus from one vendor and garlic chives from another. I have never eaten garlic chives before. I now need to plant some in my garden. While purchasing the garlic chives the kind vendor had me taste some of the petals from the purple blossom of a regular chive. Delicious. They had a very pleasant, light onion flavor. I was excited to learn this as the chives I purchased for my herb garden have a couple blossoms so now I fully intend to sprinkle the little petals on our salads this week.

PE had plans to cook a pork roast in the slow cooker and he thought the garlic chives would work well with that. I had plans to make crash potatoes and the garlic chives would work great on that too. For the roast, PE browned it in a frying pan then put it in the slow cooker, sprinkled it with salt and pepper then put the bulbs and leaves from the garlic chives in with it. Toward the end he sprinkled it with Spade L Ranch beef seasoning. Yummy, yummy in my tummy. It paired perfectly with the crash potatoes and steamed asparagus.

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Crash Hot Potatoes
adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Print Recipe

12 whole new potatoes (or other small round potatoes)
3 Tbsp olive oil
kosher salt to taste
black pepper to taste
garlic chives (or other herbs of choice) to taste

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork-tender. On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato. With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil. Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped garlic chives (or rosemary or thyme or whatever herb you have available). Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

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