Aspirational Asparagus

©2012 John Houser III

Big news! I am back to having a weekly piece in The Baltimore Sun! I will be covering the seasonal fruits and vegetables at our local farmers market. I'm really excited to tackle this pretty serious undertaking.
The farmers’ market has become a central part of food shopping for many people again. This time ten years ago farmers’ markets were considered a little too hippy-ish for most people. As the farm-to-table culture in cooking and food circles gained more popularity so has the idea of supporting farmer’s market. There are many farmers’ markets around and in Baltimore, most notably the Sunday JFX farmers’ market as well as the Waverly market and the new Fells Point market (both on Saturdays). Each of the farmers’ markets in the area share many of the same vendors but all have their own charm and personality to offer the patrons who come by every week to get their food. From early spring to late fall our area farmers’ markets provide us with an abundance of local and seasonable food produced by people who care as much about the craft of farming as they do making a buck or two. This is the reason for these articles, to help you navigate what is in season and more importantly; how to cook it. I have chosen to kick off my market guide by featuring the Grande Dame of spring: asparagus. Here's the link:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/bs-fo-harvest-asparagus-recipes-20120518,0,5684412.story

I came up with three recipes and I'm pretty proud of all three. Here's the line up:

1. Asparagus soup
2. Grilled asparagus in a bacon/ kimchi emulsion
3. Shaved asparagus with prosciutto and poached egg on toast

Knives are fun

©2012 John Houser III

Most useless culinary tool ever???

#maybenotbutprettyfuckinguseless

Epic Kale

I had a pretty big piece come out a few weeks ago. It was all about kale. Kale has been getting a lot of play lately and has become a new poster vegetable for farmers markets and sustainable/ organic food types. It's super cheap and extremely versatile to cook with. So with this in mind, my editors at The Sun contacted me and charged me with the task of coming up with three recipes featuring kale. As a bonus, I got to shoot the pictures for the piece as well. The final product turned out really well. I got the front page of the taste section as well as three new recipes to add to my repertoire this summer when we always have a ton of kale in the fridge from  our local CSA. Here's what the page layout looked like:

(©2012 John Houser II)

Did I mention that I did all of this in four days? Yes, I'm bragging a bit, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. So I haven't had a chance to post original recipes to this blog, but I got paid to do it for someone else and link the page for you all to read and get the recipes. So I hope you like the piece and the recipes. The soup is my favorite BTW, it kicks ass. Talk to you all soon. Here's the link to the piece on The Baltimore Sun's website.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/dining/bs-fo-kale-recipes-20120413,0,7057280.story

Cheers,

John