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Health & Fitness

This Week at Smart Markets Manassas Park Farmers' Market

This Week at Our Manassas Park Market 
Friday 3–7 p.m. 
One Part Center Court 
(City Hall Parking Lot) 
Manassas Park, VA 20111 
Map

Have we got a surprise for you this week! The City of Manassas Park will kick off its Music at the Market series this week with solo violinist Jorden Onijs, who will play for you for the entire market. In addition to the city staff who organized this, we have Stanley Martin Homes to thank for their sponsorship of this performance.

We encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to dine at the market at either of our excellent purveyors of fine food. The Taste of Local Truck and our BBQ vendor will be with us. Formerly Hops and Vines (H&V BBQ), Hal Thomas is in the process of purchasing Absolute BBQ and has great plans to restore it to its original status as the place to go for BBQ in the area. He will bring a full menu of smoked meats and sides.

The summer produce keeps on coming—the corn and tomatoes are just the beginning of so many great summer recipes. As always, we will have lots of new recipes incorporating the latest produce at the Smart Markets tent.

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Doug Linton’s beef and Wicked Oaks’ pork, chicken, and sausages offer numerous opportunities to show off your grilling acumen for friends and family. Doug’s steaks and Randall’s sausages are equally delicious and sure to please adults and kids. And think about using that grill for veggies, too—summer squashes and corn-on-the-cob, potatoes sliced and sprinkled with butter and cheese and wrapped in foil, and even onions, sliced thick and brushed with oil and herbs. Believe it or not, you can grill peaches, nectarines, and plums, too. Who needs a kitchen? Summer would appear to be the time to have the kitchen redone.

For dessert we have Jonita at Three Peas in a Pod Cupcakery baking up a storm. Check our Facebook page for her specials of the week. And don’t forget wine. Our Virginia wineries offer you great selections for all occasions.

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See you at the market!

From the Market Master

For busy people—and isn’t everyone busy these days?—cooking more at home can be a challenge. I know because I am as busy as I have ever been in my life and I am still cooking dinner almost every night. What I have learned in more than 40 years in the kitchen is that making the time often means making the most of the time I have. And that takes organization and planning but not necessarily writing out menus in advance.

It’s much more fun to balance that precision with flexibility that gives you a little more opportunity for creativity. It’s nice to be organized but more fun to be able to take what you have on hand and do something interesting with it.

This week I started with eight ears of corn and, though I have not used all of it yet, I am going to share with you some of the meals that will feature the corn. The first night we hosted my granddaughter and enjoyed corn-on-the-cob with melted butter and lots of pepper as part of our all-local meal of burgers and homemade slaw. I had five ears of cooked corn left over.

The next night I got creative with a hearty side to our local pork chops, which were small and grilled to perfection by our in-house grillmeister. Looking in the fridge for inspiration, I sautéed chopped onion and green pepper with cubed yellow squash and the corn from two of the ears that I had cooked ahead. I also added brown Jasmati rice (grown in the U.S. and sold under the brand Rice Select).

Tomorrow night we will have quesadillas with a filling based on local ground beef, sautéed until brown with the remains of the previous mélange and the rice mixed in.

Later this week, I will make my very favorite Green Grocer Potato Salad and use the rest of the corn in it. I will probably serve this with grilled lemon chicken—the two recipes are so good together. It must be the lemon in both that carries the theme on the tongue.

I did not plan any of this in advance; I just knew that I would find some great ways to use the cooked corn. Cooking it all at once meant that it was ready to use and also that I had to boil a big pot of water only once for all those meals.

Being organized in the kitchen does takes time and experience to master, but thinking ahead is a little easier and over time will help you to relax and experiment in the kitchen. Then you can get organized and make better use of the time you have.

Photo by Sarah Sertic

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