Italian Tomato Paste Tutorial

Photo - Ferdinando Scianna/Magnum - - Saveur Magazine
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Bagheria, Sicily August 1, 1976
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Sicilian women make tomato paste the traditional way: by spreading pureed fresh tomato on pinewood boards and leaving it to bake in the sun for up to ten days. - Saveur.
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I now have a new appreciation for 'canned' tomato paste!

Winner Of Baking Book

The America's Test Kitchen Baking Book was by far the most popular choice and it just happens to be the choice of the winner in our last giveaway of the year.
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Most of you are familiar with the very busy and talented blogger, Sunny, from Life in Rehab, congratulations Sunny, you and hubby are the winners, so if you email me the mailing details then it will be on it's way.
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I'd like to invite all of you to email any recipes that you would like to share that you will be using at Thanksgiving. Send in your photo and recipe or link and a few words...remember this is every ones kitchen and this would be welcome anytime.
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Have a great day.

Which Baking Book ?

Good Monday morning to you all. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.
We spent the weekend running errands and fussing with the chicken yard in preparation for the change in weather, and that's about it. . . This morning I was thinking that I needed to do a new post for The Kitchen Calls and what should it be? Well I came up with this idea.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and it's rainy and beachy stormy out so I have decided that we need to bake...what book should we bake with? How about if we all have a hand in deciding which book will be awarded to the next. . . . . giveaway winner. Yes I know we just had one but I want a baking one before the Holidays.

This will start today and all you need to do is leave a comment telling us what your favorite Thanksgiving baked good is and what cookbook you vote for...that's it.

This will probably be the last giveaway until after the Holidays as we will all be so busy.

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Good luck to you all.

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All images from Amazon.com

Giveaway Winner

Above is the Fennel seed from our 'old' garden at the Vancouver house. It comes back every year and likes to self seed. I would be really happy to share some seeds with anyone who would like them. Plant these and you will never need to buy Fennel seeds again. I use them in place of Anise seeds in recipes. They have a nice licorice flavor. Just ask and I will pop some in an envelope and I will furnish the stamp, you have nothing to lose.
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Now, the winner is. . . . .
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Congratulations Kami!
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Yes this is daughter Kami and Mr. B. drew her name but it was very above board and fair.
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Thank you all for your entries and really we all win by having a few more recipes in our files. There will always be another giveaway at The Kitchen so you will have another chance again.
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Have a wonderful day!

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Garlic and Basil

Photo - Kitchen Daily

Kat from Princess and the Pea sent in her entry just in the nick of time so I will get right to it.

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Roasted cherry tomatoes with garlic and basil

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Ingredients -
Cherry tomatoes on the vine - as many as you want!

A clove or two of garlic

A glug of olive oil

Crushed sea salt

Crushed black pepper

Fresh basil
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Chuck the cherry toms in an oven proof dish with a load of chopped garlic. Pour over the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and put in the oven at 200.c until the tomatoes split. Once cooked, add a little chopped fresh basil and eat as part of a main course or on a sesame bagel or wherever you like! Yum! My favourite. I eat them with everything!

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Thanks Kat and good luck.

King Ranch Chicken

Photo - Milk and Honey Home

We are all happy when we can add another good slow cooker recipe to our files. Julie from Milk and Honey Home, has challenged herself to dust off her crock pot and test out some fall meals. This King Ranch Chicken recipe is a keeper she says and is happy to share it as her entry in the giveaway. You will enjoy a taste of her blog as you scroll down to the recipe.

Thanks Julie and good luck.

Caprese Salad

Photo - Life In Rehab

This recipe that Sunny, from the always informative and inspirational blog, Life in Rehab, sent in for the giveaway, has to be the easiest salad recipe that I've seen and so pretty too. She has posted it on her blog today so you can go right over for all of the details here.

Thanks Sunny and good luck.

Bolognese Sauce

Alex is a new follower to The Kitchen Calls and we welcome her with open arms..especially when bringing a delicious pasta dish to us. This Bolognese Sauce is a recipe by Mark Bittman and you can find the entire procedure here at Alex's blog - A Moderate Life.

Thank you Alex for this entry and good luck.

Crispy, Sticky, Chicken Thighs

Photo - My Everyday Graces

Heather from the delightful blog, My Everyday Graces has this entry all ready for us on her post today. It is one of Jamie Oliver's recipes and a favorite with Heather's family. You can read all about it there.

Thanks Heather for your entry.

Have a great day everyone!

Tomato Basil Orzo Salad

Photo - Lola Nova

Here is our latest entry for the giveaway, from Lola Nova. This is what she had to say in her email.

Tomato Basil Orzo Salad - Recipe here.

We used our very lovely sun gold cherry tomatoes and fresh basil from our garden. Delicious! We had it with a green salad and a crusty artisan bread for dinner. It would be a wonderful side dish as well.


Thank you Lola for this tasty looking entry. I would like to take this opportunity to encourage anyone who has not grown the tomatoes that Lola has used in this dish, to do so. They will be one you will plant year after year as they are one of the sweetest and best performers around.

Have a good Monday.

Sloppy Joes

Photo - Life on Coyote Hill

This blast from the past has been sent in by Kate from the lovely blog, Life on Coyote Hill. I haven't thought about Sloppy Joe's in a long time but just looking at the picture brings back the memory to my tongue. Kate reports that she has made this recipe of Rachael Ray's a couple of times and it was a big hit with the grand kids. She says "It reminds me of a Coney dog on a hotdog bun."

Thanks Kate for bringing this up again.

Here's Rachael Ray's recipe over at the Food Network site.

Good weekend to all!

Cajun Chicken Pasta - PW

Photo - Pioneer Woman

This recipe was sent in by Sarah, my lovely daughter in law. Cajun Chicken Pasta will melt my Mr. B.'s heart as it will remind him of his beloved Louisiana.

Photo - Pioneer Woman

Sarah new she would find something delicious from the Pioneer Woman's Website as it is a go to place for anything you could hope to whip up. I love how the PW always has great step by step photos and instructions so it is easily put together.

Thanks for your entry Sarah.

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Here is the link to the recipe.

Lentil Soup

Photo - The Food Network

Here is Kami's proper entry for the giveaway after her lack of tomatoes in the recipe yesterday. This is a hearty lentil soup from Giada De Laurentiis, courtesy of The Food Network website. Kami made it for her dad the last time he was down and he gave it rave reviews.

Thanks Kami for sending this Lentil Soup recipe.

Where's The Tomatoes Daughter?

Photo - Kami
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Well now, for all of you mothers out there who feel that their children don't listen to them and wise people have told you that they will grow out of it, I am here to tell you . . . . . they are lying.

Unless there are some yellow pear tomatoes in there somewhere I will have to come to the sad conclusion that my child still does not pay attention to my words. I ask myself "Are you in a Peanuts special? Is Charlie Brown in school and are you the teacher? Wha, wha, wha, wha, wha, wha."

Lucky for daughter Kami, that I have made these and Mr. B. took them to work and he hints on a weekly basis for more. And. . .she is a good wife and mom and had out of town guests and still managed to pull these out of the oven for them. Also her heart is always in the right place and I do love her gobs so her entry will be allowed and so here it is.
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Recipe for Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls.

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Have a good day and you can find the details for the giveaway here.

Gazpacho

Photo - Allrecipes.com

Good Monday morning to all. Today we have our first entry for the soon to be released cookbook, How Easy Is That? Maureen has emailed this Gazpacho recipe from Allrecipes.com . Maureen and her husband live in the Midwest and enjoy cooking and even though they don't have a blog of their own, are happy visiting others to get ideas. Maureen is a busy lady helping her parents and giving her sister and extra hand with her three young boys.
Here is Maureen's email. - My father loves Gazpacho and this is actually the recipe he sent me to make for him. I have made others in the past but he wanted this recipe to be made.
I would love to be included in your giveaway for the Ina Garten book. I love her books.
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Thanks Maureen and good luck.
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Details for the giveaway here.

Barefoot Giveaway Details

Photo - How Easy Is That? Ina Garten - Release Date October 26, 2010
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If you are fortunate enough to have ripe tomatoes from your garden this would be a great way
to get them to the table. Pull this out of the oven on a cool evening and get the napkins out, I
can almost smell it as I type. This recipe is from the soon to be released new cookbook by Ina Garten.

Do you know where I am going with this? If you know me then you know I am just itching to do a ....drum roll . . . . . . Giveaway! And who is one of my very favorites? You are right again, you do know me. So let's do it.

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This needs to be done in the next few weeks so we can choose the winner and get the special pre-order price, so a name and address is needed.

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Details: ** Note - You do Not have to have made this before..it can be a 'hope to make'.

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I would so appreciate more people entering than I have had in the past, so if you spread the word any way that you choose it would be greatly appreciated.
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1. Choose a recipe that uses tomatoes of any kind, fresh or canned.

2. Send a picture (yours or from internet) and the recipe, it's fine if you haven't made it yet, to my email and I will feature it on The Kitchen Calls.

3. Contest starts today, October 1st and ends October 21st , winner announced on the 22nd.

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Good luck to all and remember please spread the word.

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Note: Daughter Kami has pointed out to me, first in the comments (didn't get it then) then on the phone, that the readers may not know if they need to take a picture of the recipe that they make or can it be from the web....It can be anything you want to do as long as I have a photo to go along with the recipe, I will even try to find one for you if need be. If you do use one other than your own please give credit. If anyone has any more questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Mr. B.'s Cabbage Rolls

* * * Mr. B.'s Cabbage Rolls

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Rarely do I follow a recipe exactly. I scan over it first and while doing it I can almost taste it all, so if I think something could be added that might improve it, then in she goes. That is how this recipe came to be called Mr. B.'s. I did follow the directions from the Smitten Kitchen on how to prepare and kept pretty close to the amounts called for.
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I must say this was quite a lesson in itself about how many varieties there are of this dish and from all over. I will not take the time to review it but would encourage you to check out the comments on the post of Alex's Mom's Stuffed Cabbage, they are very sweet and full of different little bits of family memories from many of the readers.
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I will give you the way I made this and what I would do differently. You can go to the link above to get the original recipe and the comments there.
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1 head cabbage - Savoy was called for but the 2 stores I went to had poor offerings.
1 lb. ground beef 87% lean
1 medium onion, chopped
2 T olive oil
1 carrot, shredded
1 celery stalk, thinly sliced
1/2 to 1 C. dried cranberries, to your liking
1/2 C. uncooked rice
2 T tomato paste
3 C. tomato sauce ( 3 - 8oz. cans)
1/2 C. tomato juice
1/2 C. ketchup
Fresh grated nutmeg
salt
pepper
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Core the cabbage, leaving it whole and put it in a large bowl. Pour boiling water into core area and around cabbage so the leaves will get soft enough to remove. Leave 10 min.
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Heat oil in a large frying pan with straight sides, you will be using this pan for the rolls too. Saute onion until soft then add carrot and celery and some salt and pepper and cook a little longer just to take crispness .
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In a bowl put the meat, rice, tomato paste, and cranberries, oh, and I forgot that I put in some ketchup for taste too, salt and pepper again and grate a bit of nutmeg..go easy as this is stronger than ground nutmeg from a jar, maybe use like your pepper. Add contents of pan give a quick mix and let cool while dealing with the cabbage.
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Get a towel ready to lay your leaves on and drain cabbage, carefully remove leaves and remove the hard rib by making a V cut. I ended up using 12 leaves (not counting the ones I messed up). The instructions said to dry leaves but I gave up after first one because I saw no reason, just don't have a bunch of water on the leaf.
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Now I don't know how you feel about touching your food but I get right in there with my hands and give it a good mixing.
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Now here we go down the home stretch. I took a 1/4 C. measure and pushed a glob in there and mounded it a bit then plopped it on to the leaf at a place that looked like I could start wrapping it like a tortilla and that is just what you do.
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Put the tomato juice evenly on the bottom of the pan and start adding the rolls seam side down, they will be very snug in the pan.
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Mix the tomato sauce and ketchup along with some salt, pepper and a little more grated nutmeg together in the bowl and pour evenly over the rolls, cover and bring to a boil and reduce heat and simmer for about 50 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
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I hope you get something from this and maybe you will want to branch off and do your own thing. If you have any comments or questions please do not hesitate to ask. And don't be shy if I didn't make something clear.
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** Next time I will use the Savoy cabbage and find a different way to get the leaves off. Please share if you know of a good way.
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Have a wonderful weekend.

Stuffed Cabbage

* Photo - Smitten Kitchen
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One thing I really like about Fall is that we head back to the kitchen to rattle around with our pots and pans. We pull out all of those comfort food standby recipes and start looking for new ones to add to our repertoire. Today I am sharing one that I will hopefully be adding to mine and will be testing one day this week ( a full report here ). This is from the files of Smitten Kitchen under the title of Budget recipes and is her husband Alex's mom's Stuffed Cabbage. At a glance it appears to be of few ingredients and not very difficult. I am looking forward to giving it a place at the table.
Check back later this week and see how it went.
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Keep an eye out for her new cookbook coming out in 2012.
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Have a great week.

Nigella Lawson's New Cookbook

* * * * Photo from The Quince Tree

Sue, over at the lovely and always informative blog, The Quince Tree has this post today, introducing and giving us a very nice review on Nigella Lawson's new cookbook Kitchen - Recipes From the Heart of the Home. She is over in the UK so links to Amazon over there, here is the link to the US Amazon.com.
I encourage you to go and check out Sue's post as she also has a very nice recipe she shares for an adult beverage that she is brewing up to be ready for Christmas.
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Have a great day.

New Barefoot Cookbook

Daughter just emailed the link for info on Barefoots new book. I new nothing about this...what is the matter with me? Here it is over at Amazon.com.

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Have a great weekend.

Choose Your Cookbook Giveaway

There is a contest over at my other blog that you will not want to miss.

Kitchen Closed

The Kitchen Calls will be closed until further notice.

Saveur $5 Subscription

Saveur subscription for $5.00. All of the information over at my other blog here.

Tasty Kitchen Apple Pie Theme

I came across this at Pioneer Woman blog and she directed us over to Tasty Kitchen for an all out Apple Pie Theme. I checked it out and wanted to pass it on for any of you who need some all American ideas for the 4th.

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Have a blessed weekend with your friends and family while you celebrate the greatness of this wonderful country that we call home.

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My love to all,

Sherri B.

The Farm Chicks Sift

Photo - Farm Chicks ' Serena's Web Journal '
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This morning, Serena from The Farm Chicks blog has a very good reminder for all of us. Pay very close attention to how the word sift is stated in a recipe as it does make a difference. How much of a difference, you ask? Well I put on my Home Ec. apron and set out to find out. Let us take a trip to the classroom....
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We are working with 2 cups of all purpose flour. On the left is 2 cups of flour sifted--flour that has been measured out and then sifted. On the right is 2 cups of sifted flour--flour that was sifted and then measured out using the proper method of gently putting it in to the measure with a spoon or offset spatula (what I use) and leveling off.
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Next, we need to see what the difference is and I did that by going back to the one on the left that was sifted after the measure and measured it by the same method as the one on the right and here we have the results..
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There is the two cups measured out the same way that was done above and I would say that there is at least 1/3 of a cup left over. Wow! When you are baking that can really make a lot of difference. So remember...
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2 Cups of flour sifted is - flour measured out, then sifted.
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2 Cups sifted flour is - flour sifted then measured.
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Class dismissed, have a great day.

101 Cookbooks

Honey Balsamic Bean Salad - 101 Cookbooks -

It is summer today and I am in a great mood and full of energy with a list that I have made for myself that is totally unrealistic (typical me) but I am going for it anyway. First up is sharing this wonderful site where Heidi Swanson keeps a recipe journal of, mainly, natural, whole foods and vegetarian recipes. Since I am trying to incorporate all of this into our lives, I was thrilled to find this gem, and as a bonus the photos are definitely easy on the eyes. Please take a look around and let 'The Kitchen' know if you try something and want to share your thoughts. I will direct you to the recipe here.
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Have a great day.

Markets In Italy

A few images in Italy from the latest Saveur Magazine. Full articles on each here.

Hope your weekend is filled with good food and good company.

Black Bean Brownies

This morning, I was checking out daughter's blog and noticed on her menu plan, Black Bean Brownies. I called and asked about the infraction against said goodie. It seems her friend Joy brought these over for scrapbook night and they were a big hit. Hmmm? Well we will just have to find out, so I will direct you over to the Meal Makeover Moms who baked it up (photo above), and you can see about getting more fiber into your family this way. Leave your comments if you give it a try. I will check it out as I am all about any excuse to eat more chocolate!
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Happy C & B

Lola Nova's Farmers Market

These photos were taken on opening day of the Portland Farmers Market. Lola, from the blog, Lola Nova - Whatever Lola Wants, was kind enough to email these. You will want to check out her entire post titled Living Local, where she takes you along on the exciting opening day. This post is near and dear to my heart as Portland is my home town and the children and grandchildren are all in the area. Mr. B. and I were married there.......I could go on and on, more of all that at a later date for today we celebrate our wonderful farmers and the market. I will now leave you to look at the beautiful photos. Thank you Lola for taking the time to share with us.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Anacortes Farmers Market

What a beautiful day for the market (finally).

We bought several of these tomato plants last year and they did very well.

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Yum. Greek food in the oven. No time though as there is plenty to see.
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Notice the green "No Farms No Food" on the sign. We need to take that very seriously as there is less and less of our farmland left. It is just common sense to support our local farmers.
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This dairy is now in some of our local grocery stores in their nice glass bottles just like the ones that used to be delivered right to your back door (dating myself once again).

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I forgot to get some of the horseradish on my way out, oh well, I will make sure to get some next time. I think I will try growing some. Have any of you tried to grow it?

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More beautiful produce.

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I had to stop this lady for a shot of 'the red slippers' with dirt in them. She was on a mission to try to find the vendor that she purchased them from as the plants inside died. Not sure if she was seeking advice or going to give a tongue lashing and I did not stick around to find out.

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All right, I must hurry past this area or I will be in deep trouble!

Hurrying right along. . . . .

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So nice to have so many cheeses available in this area.

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These are some of the places that The Kitchen Calls is hoping to get permission for future field trips. Won't that be great to go behind the scenes and see how it is all made (fingers crossed)

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The market wouldn't be complete without the local artists.

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Beautiful quilt art.

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Here we have little shopper that is taking her charge of filling the families' cart very seriously.

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There are always plenty of dogs to keep the crowd happy.

On duty protecting the food.

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Mr. B. sampling the BBQ sauce to find the hottest one available. And the winner is the Chipotle. I might add it was very good on our hamburgers that I made for lunch.

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Last but not least was an up and coming artist....and quite a good businesswomen. The price was one for $3.00 or two for $5.00. I purchased two and paid an extra $1.00 a piece to have the artist sign it, quite a bargain I felt.

The artist tending her table and probably figuring in her head how much money she can make today.....Good for her!

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I went home and made copies and put them on the line to take photos to share with you.

I just love the fact that all of the animals are getting along so well while they are eating cake!
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This is my very favorite. Notice the moon with a sad face....looks like someone may not like bed time too much...I can relate.

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I hope you enjoyed our visit to our Farmers Market and I am looking forward to seeing some of yours.