SALAD DAYS, BLACKBERRIES, AND ASPARAGUS BURGERS

While many of my bloggy buddies, it seems, were busy baking, my holiday weekend began with a quick meet-up with Cindie at the Lunken Farmers Market - the market where both our mothers shopped back in the days before farmers markets became trendy, and numerous.

It was a little sad to see far fewer vendors than I remember from my childhood, now most of them old-timers who may not have offspring interested in carrying on their farming tradition. But that didn't stop me from packing up a plentiful haul. This is just part of it.

Afterward, I stopped at Lobsta Bakes of Maine, thanks to an email tip-off that they'd ordered too many scallops and were reducing the price. Unsurprisingly, I also picked up a few other items too tempting to pass up.

Despite all I purchased, as dinnertime rolled around and I decided I was in the mood for a cool and refreshing salad, I realized I was without any type of salad greens. No lettuce, no problem! Instead, I decided to use a mix of tomatoes as my salad base.

I topped the tomatoes with some fresh rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, and a splash a sherry vinegar.

Certainly a satisfying bowl of food in and of itself. But as this was to be my main course, I added some hand-picked Maine crab I'd been itching to try.

Then I topped it with a dollop of Roasted Shrimp Salad I'd also picked up at Lobsta Bakes.

Their Roasted Shrimp Salad definitely reminds me of Ina Garten's recipe, which I've used in the past. Her dressing - made of mayo, orange juice and zest, vinegar, herbs, and capers - works well on tomatoes and lots of other fresh veggies in addition to shellfish. What I had not previously done with Ina's recipe was to actually roast the shrimp. These were perfectly cooked - moist, yet firm, and they took to the dressing better than my more water-logged versions of boiled, steamed, or pre-cooked shrimp I've used previously. I will definitely have to try that roasted shrimp technique in future. With a few extra capers (because, well, can one ever have too many capers?), here's what the topping to my tomato seafood salad looked like.

While many of you were far more industrious baking your peaches and berries, I simply sliced a peach, added some blackberries and Madisono's vanilla gelato to the bowl, and sprinkled on some sweet and spicy rosemary walnuts I picked up awhile back from the North Market in Columbus and have been hoarding in the freezer (sorry, Shamy, I've been trying to recreate that recipe, but so far, no luck).

After a meat-free weekend, today at Tuesday's Market on the Square, I opted for yet another one of Cooking with Caitlin's inventive little burgers, this one a beef burger with a schmear of goat cheese and topped with an asparagus slaw that I must try to make myself.

Here's the asparagus slaw recipe on Caitlin's site, although my guess is she used a different version today, with walnuts(?) rather than smoked almonds and maybe some garlic scapes tucked in. Lightly but flavorfully dressed, with crunch from the nuts as well as the asparagus, this is one of those dishes I love discovering when I eat out that inspires to try something new at home.

Time for me to go check out everyone else's 4th of July weekend cooking posts. I'll be back later with further reports on what I did with the rest of my farmers market goodies.

eggy