market finds

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of working again with Cathy at a local farmer's market. I always make sure to do a bit of shopping while I'm there. While meandering through rows of tomatoes, green beans, squash, peppers, potatoes, greens, broccoli, brussel sprouts, basil, artisan breads, beer, wine... I spotted of couple of goodies I hadn't seen before.


These cuties were labeled Asian eggplant. Aren't they the cutest?! I think I'll probably roast these with a little olive oil, kosher salt and cracked pepper.



I ran across a couple of little girls eating these lovely apples and just had to go on a hunt for them.

Isn't the color spectacular! These are called Pink Pearls. They're a tart apple so I think they'll be great for baking.


Did you hit your local market this weekend? What did you find that you couldn't live without?





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cheesecake stuffed strawberries

Geez! What is the matter with me?! I keep forgetting to tell you about a fun recipe I found over at Indigo's Sugar Spectrum. The very second I laid eyes on Jennufurla's fun twist on cheesecake I was in love! I picked up a couple extra pints of strawberries from farmers market and got busy. My daughter was excited to help me put these little gems together. Oh My! Yum!



Head on over to Jennifurla's blog for the yummy recipe. This is one of my favorite blogs, it's packed with fun and inspiring recipes and lovely photographs. See if you can spot her cute green polka-dot plate while you're over there!

Happy Weekend!






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mango raspberry summer soup and a cookbook giveaway!

Lately, I've been thinking that there aren't nearly enough giveaways going on here at the Ungourmet. Lucky for me...and for you, Amazon Encore sent me this wonderful book, The Berry Bible for review. They even threw in an extra copy for me to give away. Pretty darn exciting! . The author, Janie Hibler is a fellow Portlander and is a contributing writer for Gourmet, Food and Wine and Bon Appetit.




This book has a wonderful A-Z berry encyclopedia. It also holds 175 recipes for berries including cocktails, breads, soups, salads, main courses, sorbets, pies, cakes, pastries, puddings and much more.
I love this book! It's bursting with terrific information on wild, fresh and frozen berries. I had a difficult time deciding which recipe to make first. I almost made the Blackberry-Blueberry Cardamom Muffins. I also considered the Fallen Lemon Cake with Melba Sauce. The Sauteed Chicken Breast with Blueberry Port was also quite tempting.



I finally settled on this Mango-Raspberry Summer Soup. Isn't the color just beautiful!



I've never made a chilled soup so I was excited to see how this would turn out. The original recipe calls for banana. I was concerned about adding the banana and then letting it sit until tomorrow to serve. I thought the banana might turn brown overnight so I left it out.



I'm sure the original recipe is a touch sweeter with the banana but, in my opinion, the soup was still lovely and refreshing without it. This is a "souper" soup for summer entertaining. ;D

Mango-Raspberry Summer Soup
recipe adapted from The Berry Bible

Makes about 8-10 servings

2 cups mango puree (you can do this in the food processor)
1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice
2 pints fresh raspberries
2 bananas, peeled (I left these out)
1 papaya, peeled and seeded
1 cup milk
2 heaping tablespoons cream of coconut
mint sprigs for garnish

Put the mango puree, oj, raspberries, banana, papaya, milk and cream of coconut into a blender and blend until smooth. Using a damp cheesecloth, strain the soup into a large bowl. Chill before serving. Pour 1/2 cup servings into your container of choice and garnish with a sprig of mint.

Print recipe

If you would like to win one of these fabulous cookbooks, leave me a comment including your email. I will use the random generator to pick a winner. I will close the giveaway on Sunday night at midnight PST. U.S. and Canada only. Sorry! I just can't afford the postage for overseas shipping. I wish I could!




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Serendipitous Fruit Salad

I am writing this post tonight while watching the movie, Serendipity. I'm just a ridiculous romantic at heart and this movie is truly, insanely romantic.


According to Wikipedia the word Serendipity means the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely unrelated.

If you haven't seen this movie, go and rent it tonight!

My husband's cousin is turning 40 and tonight we attended a Birthday BBQ. He has been dabbling in beer brewing and had several of his creations on tap. I didn't want to show up empty handed so I ran to the market to search for ingredients for an appetizer but as I perused the produce dept for herbs and veggies I was drawn to the fruits instead. Then I decided to completely change direction and make a fruit salad.

As it turned out this was the perfect choice! I was the only one to think of fruit salad.

For the salad you will need:
1/2 a canteloupe
1 pint of strawberries
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
4 red apricots (These are fabulous!)
juice from 1 lemon
1 tbsp grated lemon zest

Cut all of the fruit into bite sized pieces and toss with lemon juice and zest.

For the dressing I used:
1 cup of plain Greek style yogurt
juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 1/2 tbsp honey
1 tsp grated lemon zest

Combine all ingredients and give it a good stir. Toss with the fruit or place a dollop on top of each serving.

I also toasted and chopped a 1/2 cup of hazelnuts and sprinkled them over the salad as well.

This was an outstanding and unexpected treat. I can't wait to whip this one up again very soon!

Ya gotta love Serendipity!

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Honey I Love My Peaches Grilled!

I am just a grillin' fool right now! Since my air conditioning isn't working I don't even want to think about turning on my stove or anything else that might create heat (vacuum cleaner or clothes dryer). Actually, it's getting me out of a lot of housework and who doesn't love that?

I made everything on my grill tonight. Dinner was Chicken Pasta Alfredo with garlic and zucchini. And then for dessert I grilled some peaches and served them with vanilla bean ice cream. It was simply terrific, just the kind of dessert I love.

This is so easy!

You will need just this short list of ingredients:

2 or 3 ripe peaches
1/2 tsp rum extract
1/4 cup of honey
1 tsp cinnamon

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Wash and slice peaches. Place peach slices on aluminum foil and drizzle with the honey and rum extract, shake on the cinnamon. Wrap it up tightly and grill on medium heat for about 1o-15 minutes until peaches are tender.

Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. This is such a terrific dessert for summer. Give it a try!

~Yum! Yum!~

I would love to know what your favorite summer dessert is. Please share!

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Watermelon "Cupcakes" and Strawberries Playing Hide and Seek

Last day for BSI. Don't forget to email my your watermelon recipe!

I saw this on The National Watermelon Promotion Board website and thought it was just about the cutest idea ever!

I used a very small juice glass to cut 1 1/2 inch round from a piece of watermelon that I had sliced about an inch thick.

Then, whipped up some pineapple cream cheese frosting. Using 1/3 cup crushed pineapple, 1 package of cream cheese and 3-4 cups powdered sugar. This will frost at least 2 dozen "cupcakes". I didn't make that many because I wanted to save part of the frosting for another recipe.

The frosting needs to be on the thick side and everything needs to be nice and cold. I think it would even be a good thing to stick these in the freezer for a while to keep the frosting from sliding.

These would be great for a kid's summer pool party or birthday party!

I also wanted to share a photo that I took of my little garden strawberries. Tell me, is anything playing Hide and Seek in your garden right now? :0)

~Strawberry Love~

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