Well, Ollin Farms never disappoints! They have crabapples, which I find pretty cool. I picked some up at the market and headed over to my friend Chad at Hazel Dell and asked for mushrooms for a crabapple sauté.

Chad recommended a 1/2 pound mixed bag of small cremini and shiitake mushrooms. Chad knows best…

I got them home and had a plan: Tempeh burgers topped with a crabapple mushroom sauce. Perfect.

I got started on my tempeh burgers and made them according to my recipe. Then, I assembled the crabapple mushroom sauce.

First I sauteed 1/2 of a local sweet yellow onion in 1 TB olive oil and 1 TB butter until they started to turn golden brown.

Next, I added the mushrooms, which I had sliced, and let them start to cook on medium-high for 10 minutes or so in the butter-olive oil mixture until they were nice and soft. I added a little sea salt, tossed them a bit, and added 3 crabapples, chopped into small chunks.

After adding the crabapples, lower the heat to medium. The apples will start to release juice and make a crabapple-mushroom gravy-sauce.

I made some quick vegetarian maple beer baked beans, grilled a zucchini and yellow squash, grilled some tempeh burgers, and topped them with shaved parmesan and my crabapple-mushroom sauce.

Delicious.

This week’s share doesn’t really seem like a challenge. Zucchini, Squash, Red Norland Potatoes, Bok Choy, Hakurei Turnips, Onions, Swiss Chard, Lacinto Kale, and Cucumbers.

I can and will find something to do with all of this.

I finally did it. I bought fava beans at the market. I’ve been in Boulder for 5 years, which means I’ve been going to the market for five years, and every summer those big, thick fava beans frightened me. I don’t know why. They are now a new favorite of mine.

I did some research on these beans because I brought some home and had no idea what to do with them. It turns out that they are a very old bean that had been a staple in Europe way back in the day. Europeans brought them to America, but they were not necessarily a food that caught on with the mainstream. Basically, we don’t eat them as often as we eat black beans, pinto beans, etc.

But, in my humble foodie opinion… we should. Just take the time to do the following steps:

1. Slice open the pods as seen in the photo above. Remove the beans.

2. Par-boil the beans for a couple minutes. Then drain them and remove the outer waxy coating to get to the real bean.

3. Bring them back to a boil for a few minutes to make sure they are cooked.

I took my beans, put them in a food processor with some olive oil, 2 garlic cloves that I had peeled and boiled for a few minutes with the beans, and a little freshly grated parmesan.

Puree it and generously spread these green legumes on toasted bread. (My bread here was grilled, which is even better!)

The finishing touch here was some Red Alae Hawaiian Kai Sea Salt from nowhere else than my favorite place: Savory Spice Shop.

I love making cobblers for dessert in the summer with seasonal fresh fruit. Cobblers are quick and easy, but can be dressed up with ice cream or homemade whip cream. I usually make peach or pear cobblers, but this time I tried to create something new for dessert: Chocolate Cherry Cayenne Cobbler.

I couldn’t resist the beautiful red cherries at the Boulder Farmers’ Market. And when I found myself craving dessert on Saturday night, a chocolate cherry cobbler was the answer.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• a pinch of sea salt
• 1 tsp (or more) of cayenne
• 1/3 cups sour cream
• 1 egg
• 1 TB walnut oil
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3-4 cups cherries, split in half and pitted

Put the cherries and chocolate chips in a pie pan or any other glass baking dish. Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside in one bowl, and mix together the wet ingredients in another. Pour the wet into the dry, mix well, and pour over the cherries. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes or so, until the top is baked all the way through. Ovens definitely vary, so check it after 20 or 25 minutes to be sure it isn’t over-cooking.