Mo' Fresher Mo' Better

Saturday morning I got up early and went to the farmer’s market Downtown, one of my favorite things to do in Kansas City. When I was little my dad and I used to go almost every weekend. We were the only ones in the family who didn’t mind getting up at 6am on a weekend, so it became something special that just the two of us did together. The market has expanded quite a bit since then and many of the booths are remain open and offering quality merchandise even by 11am, but I still prefer to get there as early as possible.

Kansas City has several farmer’s markets, including one in Overland Park and a fabulous little local one in Brookside. However, I still like the downtown one best. Not only does it remind me of my dad, it is the largest and offers, in my opinion, the best food variety and the best people watching. A wide variety of produce, plants, spices, teas and homemade breads, jams, pastas and crafts are available at incredibly reasonable prices. 

Recently, my boyfriend and I have been indulging in the homemade pastas one booth has to offer. They provide a variety of different flavors and types of pasta along with recipe suggestions for each one. Last week we tried the porcini linguini (which we made in a cream sauce with fresh porcini mushrooms and cold water lobster tail meat). This week we bought a lemon chive angel hair (which I’m planning to serve tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, asparagus and seared bay scallops) and a saffron spaghetti. The pastas are a bit on the pricey side, but the splurge is absolutely worth it for the quality you get. 

This week I also bought ingredients for fresh salsa, the perfect summer snacking food. I like to keep things interesting when I make salsa, so I decided to make a tomatillo salsa. Here’s the recipe...hope you enjoy! 

Tomatillo

Note: I was hoping to find yellow tomatoes but didn’t see any this week. However, I highly recommend using them if you can find them, as they add beautiful color and a rich flavor that’s a nice addition to the red tomatoes and tomatillos. 

Our ingredients

My favorite new kitchen toy: a citrus saver (compliments of the TJ Maxx sale section). No more random lime halves in saran wrap for this girl!

Ingredients: 

 4-5 tomatillos (go for the medium or larger ones, they will be sweeter)

 1 large or 2 medium red tomatoes

 1 large or 2 medium yellow tomatoes

 2 jalapenos

 1/2 of a small yellow onion

 1 handful of cilantro

 1/4 of a lime

 Pinch of salt

Peel the tomatillos out of their wrappers and rinse well. Dice the tomatillos, tomatoes and onion. Mix together in a bowl. Dice the jalapeno and add to the bowl*. Finely chop the cilantro and add to the bowl. Mix ingredients together. Add the salt and juice the lime over the mixture. Mix well. Let sit for 15-20 minutes to allow flavor to develop. Enjoy!

*To control spiciness, you can either leave all the seeds in, remove them all, or remove half of them. The more seeds that go into the salsa, the hotter it will be. Also, either wear gloves or be careful to avoid touching your face after dicing the jalapenos. The oils will stay on your hands for several hours, even after washing them.

Ta da! The finished product.