How to "DO" fall: Waconia, Minnesota

So after our summer-like September turned into winter-like October, I started to go into hibernation mode, and glaze over any hope for my 2nd favorite season. Fall being my second favorite season (I'm SUCH a sticky, humid summer girl) is a rather new thing. As a teen, I despised Autumn. The shorter days and cold nights were a sign that winter would soon arrive. I couldn't find happiness or enjoyment in the apple-picking, pumpkin-patching or leaves-a-changin'. At all. In my twenties, I finally figured out how to truly enjoy fall through lots of apple and pumpkin-based baking, cute boots with tights and taking kids to pick apples. Life was good despite the 5:30 sunset. Now I'm full on lovin' me some fall. After meeting my husband, I even started enjoying all the fall squashes, and actually EATING them.

On a semi-recent September weekend, my family and I took a trip to Waconia, MN. Really a "trip" is exaggerating it...it's a brief drive. It's ridiculously close to the city, but feels like you left the Metro. Far behind you.

First we headed to Deardorff Orchard. Gorgeous rows of apple trees with a lake view: that's how you do fall in MN!

Okay, so I didn't even mention yet...it gets better...there's a winery onsite. I have to admit, my only other experience with Minnesota wine was not exciting. It tasted like the decent $5 bottle of wine from Trader Joe's that the hubby and I keep in the wine rack, except it was like $25! I appreciated the concept of Minnesota wine, but wasn't trying to mess with average tasting expensive wine. The winery at Deardorff, named after their lovely neighboring body of water "Parley Lake" was delicious. My mom and I sampled a rich Shiraz, and chilled on some shady picnic tables, but also had the option to wander the orchard with our wine glasses.

This place is obviously the ultimate cool Mom hang-out. When is the last time the apple orchard was a sophisticated, yet sincere farm-y wine-drinking weekend outing? Deardorff is the perfect mixture of down-to-earth family farm meets winery. The last "big" orchard that I traveled to with my youth program felt like Disney World. An entrance fee, expensive corn maze and overpriced gift store does not equate a genuine family attraction. Head to Deardorff for the real thing. Apple Jack Orchard in Delano is also another family-owned favorite, and the only place I can find my Liberty apples.

After Deardorff, we spotted my favorite Minnesota roadside stop yet: "At The Farm" market alongside Highway 5.

 

"At the Farm" is the corner store you'd die to have in your neighborhood. Seriously. Homegrown produce, fresh eggs (check out the ladies in the chicken coup!), homebaked pastries and treats, funky antiques and displays, and the best part: a proprietor who is clearly a respected matron of the community, Donna Frantz. I've always loved business owners who clearly know the community better than the politicians do AND know your name. Donna is it. Donna, I can't wait to have an excuse to get back to Waconia.

The onion staging room. Love it.

Donna's lovely gourd display, grown with love.

So much character...while totally genuine...when is the Powderhorn Youth Farm branch opening?

Exterior shot of the market.

Best seats in the house to take it all in.

After our early spell of cold, crop-ending weather, I felt uninspired to post this. Why encourage people to go out to the orchards when the season got cut short and ended abruptly? Then I remembered the most important element of "DOING" fall in Minnesota. You make the best of it and enjoy every minute you have, because it is short and sweet. My friend Crystal fell ill to the flu, could barely move, but wrapped herself in blankets and laid herself out in her adirondack chair to watch her son play in the leaves when the sun came out today. BAM. That's how we "Do" fall in Minnesota. 

Start reapin' October's Bounty: Minneapolis Farmers' Market

At the Minneapolis Farmers' Market this morning, I overheard a farmer chatting up another farmer: "This is the worst Sunday we've seen since before Spring crops". Yeah, it was pretty much a ghost town in there. What was most disappointing was that farmers are still in their peak of fall veggie harvest. This girl got a bag, A BAG, full of veggies for $7 today. I'm not trying to gloat or sound preachy, but I'm just wonderin' where everyone else is to scoop up these deals and support the local economy.

After my previous Sunday visit, I made enough Red Curry for my lunches every day of the week, passed some onto friends, and froze some! And the veggies were so perfect, I never got sick of it! The whole pot of curry set me back $20. $20!!! It ended up being $2 per serving, using all fresh, locally-grown veggies.  I thought it is darn time for me to pass on the recipe immediately, straight from Thailand, to boost our local farmers and their prized October crops. Everyone will run out and buy mad veggies from their local farmer!

So the history of the recipe: the hubby and I had the privilege to travel to Thailand and take a vegetarian cooking class from the lovely international-sensation May Kaidee. I finally learned all the secrets that had been preventing me from making a non-jacked-up curry! How exciting! And at the class, we hit up the local Bangkok neighborhood farmer's market, and I loved hearing about the connections the ingredients had with the surrounding environment. This recipe can use any veggies in season, just go for a variety of textures. Curry is so versatile! It's a great recipe right now for the lucious creamy squashes!

So! DISCLAIMER: this recipe is a SKELETON for folks who like to experiment in the kitchen. The secret ingredients are the most crucial elements anyway, but I think a lot of the measurements got lost in translation. No joke. At the class, she mostly measured by "handfuls" and "pinches", which is the most natural way to cook, but proves a bit harder to share recipes. But any cook that knows how to add ingredients "to taste" will have a blast. 

May Kaidee's Red Thai Curry

Make Red Chili Paste first:

Add to food processor or Mortar and Pestle and go at it:

3 TBSP hot Red Thai chills

1 Small handful each of chopped onion and garlic

1 TBSP each:

chopped lemon grass

galangal

kaffir lime leaves

coriander or cumin

The paste freezes well (seen above in the processor, don't be scared of the oyster mushrooms!), so don't be afraid to baggie up excess. It's SUPER potent. You will use many of the same ingredients for the actual curry, so set needed items aside before going crazy with the processor.

Now for the CURRY! I'm using her direct excerpt from the cookbook, look for notes below. 

1 TBSP oil of choice

1 tsp Red Chili Paste

2 Slices Galangal*

2 Kaffir lime leaves

2 two-inch stalks of lemon grass

1 handful mixed veggies (try to include pumpkin, squash, beans, carrots and onions)**

1.25 cup coconut cream or coconut milk

1 TBSP Soy Sauce mixture***

1 tsp Sugar

1. Add red chili pasted in hot oil until fragrant.

2. Add galangal, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass and 1/4 of the coconut milk. Stir thoroughly.

3. Add veggies and remaining cup of coconut of milk and cook until the mixture is thick. 

4. Slacken with a little water and add soy sauce and sugar.

5. Serve with prepared brown rice after veggies have softened.

* Galangal is the secret! It's in the ginger family, but ginger is NOT a substitute. Yes, you need to go to an Asian market to pull this off. Galangal is also known as Kalanga at Shuang Hur market, where I shop for my ingredients in MPLS. The galangal, lemon grass, and kaffir lime leaves are used like bay leaves: you remove them before eating. (Sometimes I cheat and chop them small and leave them, because I know I will forget!).

**You can see by using only "a handful" of veggies, the original recipe is for one person. I usually do this x 10 (ish) and do stuff "by taste" and estimates. It's kind of fun, if you think you can pull off ratios. This is about the quantity of veggies I use (below). I wanna eat all week!

***The "Soy Sauce" Mixture is an awesome fish sauce substitute. It's a 50/50 split of a sweet thick soy sauce, and a salty one. I'm including the photos, cause it was just dumb luck we got it purchased correctly the first time returning from Thailand. May Kaidee basically told us to look for a pair in the same brand, one with a sugar content, one with a sodium content. All the characters on the bottles are non-english, but the salty, sweet goodness when mixed together prove fish sauce is not necessary in curry.

Other Julie tips:

I add a whole block of tofu. I cube it, throw it in my wok on top of some sizzling peanut oil, lightly fry it, and continue on with step 1 of the Red Curry recipe directions right then and there. I leave the tofu to absorb all the spicy chili paste goodness.

 

Also, think ahead of what veggies will get soggy if they're in the bubbly curry too long. I tend to overcook broccoli, personally! For this amount of veggies and tofu this time, I only required two cans of coconut milk. I almost pushed the limits...another 1/2 cup would have been nice.

Here's how I did my shopping:

Shuang Hur:

brown rice (big bag lasts forever!)

soy sauces (again, will last forever...)

galangal (3 inch piece is sufficient, and about $2)

kaffir lime leaves (small package about $1.50)

lemon grass (about $1 for 3 sticks)

tofu brick ($1.49)

oyster mushrooms (totally love them, but totally optional, about $2)

Farmers' Market:

bundle of "Jewel Carrots" $1

variety of 5 squash $4

Broccoli $2

Green Beans $1

red HOT thai chilis (Cheap..they are potent! You only need a handful)

Trader Joe's

TJ's has dirt cheap organic light coconut milk for $0.99 a can! The hubby and I stock up on staples like this (but not our groceries) once a month. Buy at the Asian Market if you prefer.

Have fun, and remember...this recipe is a total adventure! Good luck!

That's what we are, we all want a junk bizarre: Shakopee, MN

If you hadn't got the hint yet, I love antiques and re-purposed junk (and Sheila E. & Prince). I often wonder where we will dig the landfills of tomorrow, and through re-tooling my lifestyle (composting, recycling, antiquing, re-purposing items, etc) I'd like to think I'm contributing less waste. My husband and I were recently charged with the duty of replacing my 1993 Cadillac (yes, driven by the girl trying to create less waste...baby steps, baby!). We were lured into the Cash-4-Clunkers program, and started driving new cars as soon the incentive began. After a few drives, and a little research, I started feeling repulsed by the program. Halfway decent cars, with 5-10 years left on their lifespan, were going straight to the junkyard. What the hecks? The environmental equation of this economic stimulator made little sense to me.  We ended up purchasing a used car with better gas mileage, and donated the Cadi to Newgate, who would in turn fix her up and give her to a family in need of a vehicle.

Back to more exciting junk (love you Cadi, ol' girl!). Junk Bizarre is like Midwest junk mecca, all housed within Canterbury Park in Shakopee. It's apparently the biggest annual junk swap in the Midwest. Three days of price haggling, casts of interesting characters and the constant reminder that the items you buy are salvaged lovelies that would have most times ended up in a landfill.

So are you really sifting through junk at the bizarre? Course not, all the hard work of re-purposing and upcycling all the un-usable stuff has been completed by vendors, who are clearly artists in their trade. Each stall is like an exciting adventure, organized artistically like an old-school department store window display. Vendors only bring their best stuff...they're hauling it all the way from their store, so they intend to sell everything.

I had planned for the Junk Bizarre for months, so I did not go home empty handed. The green cabinet will now live in my "coal room" in the basement to organize paint and painting materials. Each panel of the cabinet came from a different source (all broken, but salvageable wood items). 

 I also collect old beverage crates from Minnesota. I bought the yellow one, which was a past home to non-alcoholic beverages during prohibition from Duluth. Now our dominos and other games will live in there, creating easy transport for non-prohibition game nights.

Finally, I purchased this primitive red cupboard to gain more storage in our pantry. It replaced a mounted cabinet that I donated to the Re-Use Center.

The incredible immigrant trunks and tin ceiling tiles at the top of the post are from "Dona-Rose" antiques. If you missed out on Junk Bizarre, Dona Rose will be at an upcoming sale "Gathering of Friends" (terrible name acknowledged), October 8-11 at Bachman's on Lyndale. Swaps or "Occasional Sales" such as this are becoming a huge trend for vendors, because they have the ability to sell their goods to a huge concentration of customers over a short period of time. I've heard of some great ones also in Buffalo, Lindstrom and Anoka. Occasional Sales typically go down one weekend per month in a set location, and the swaps are annual and plentiful. Again, dealers only bring their best stuff, and are makin' huge deals by the final day of the sale.