What I'm Eating
Special Edition
with
Shamrock's Arrow Fund Cookbook
and ingredients from the
Douglass Loop Farmers Market
While you're here, click on Rocko's World
with pictures from past markets, News, Rocko's Blog - the
life of a senior dog and more!
We've got a very special edition of What I'm Eating
this week that combines
helping animals and the support of our market vendors in the incredible project.
Shamrock's Arrow Fund pays the medical bills of animals who have been subjected to extreme
torture and neglect. When we say extreme, this is way beyond the bad pet owner who keeps their dog chained
in the yard, this is a horror that no animal should ever have to experience. Helping abused animals is close
to our heart given that we found Rocko on the side of the road after someone had thrown him and his brother out
to starve (unfortunately we were too late for his brother but you can read
Rocko's story here).
Arrow Fund has compiled a cookbook of recipes, cooking tips, pictures of the animals they have saved, and even
recipes for pet treats. You can purchase the cookbook for $12 and 100% of the proceeds go to this medical fund.
We offered to sell the cookbooks to Rocko's Rewards booth at Douglass Loop Farmers Market. As I was paging
through, I had an idea - let's get some of our vendors at the market to donate the ingredients and
create one of the recipes from the book. Now I'm not going to give you all the details - you have to buy the
book to get the exact recipe, but here we go!
For those of you who follow What I'm Eating, you know that I really do not know how to cook.
I do love looking through a good cookbook because it gives me ideas. We're in the middle of
strawberry season and as soon as I saw the Green Leaf Salad with Strawberries my mouth started watering.
I knew this was going to be our feature of the week.
Of course, someone who doesn't know how to cook doesn't have a pantry stocked with spices.
There are only seven ingredients to the dressing for the salad and I had was salt, sugar and olive oil.
Time to hit up our friends at
Flying Leap Farm
to help. Kimberly provided the red wine vinegar, paprika, minced garlic and dry mustard.
Flying Leap's offerings include artisanal ketchup and a wide variety of vinegars, mustards, dipping sauces
and lots of other things that will add something very special to whatever you are trying to cook.
Along with recipes and cooking tips, make sure you ask Kimberly how she came up with the name Flying Leap.
She is an inspiration to all of us who are trying to make our way in the small business world.
Paul and Allison of
Long View Organics offered to
donated the main ingredient, lettuce. Every week they have a table full of lettuce assortments
bagged and ready for your table. After hearing about the work of Arrow Fund, they were happy to
pitch in with enough lettuce to feed a small army! The recipe said to tear your lettuce into small pieces,
but Long View has young leaves that I used straight out of the bag.
Garey Farms
has been rolling in the strawberries for the past couple weeks. If you've been to the market
hopefully you've tried my favorite pretzel bread - if you fry up an egg and it put it
on a piece of pretzel bread it will be the most simple and delicious breakfast sandwich you've ever eaten.
John Garey offered us a container of strawberries to support this project.
The recipe calls for feta cheese which we did not
have at the market, so I asked for help from
Sappori d'Italia
on selecting a goat cheese to complement the salad. Their recommendation was a black pepper
cheese. Master Cheesemaker Giovanni Capezzuto from Napoli, Italy is very passionate about
making cheese in the Old World style. I enjoy talking to him, he simply radiates positive energy,
and you can tell this is someone who loves what he is doing. Stop by to sample the many different flavors he has to offer.
Finally, we needed a good bread to complement our dinner.
The place to go for that is
Wiltshire Pantry Inspired Catering.
Every week they have a table full of breads, croissants, sticky buns and much more -
and a line of customers ready to enjoy them. This week one of the specials was a whole grain
loaf made with carmelized onions. I did break off a piece as soon as I got home. It was moist
and flavorful, the onions added an undertone of flavor and sweetness. I knew this would be the
perfect compliment to our Strawberry Salad.
As for the salad itself, this was EASY. While the dressing
was simmering on the stove, I rinsed the lettuce, sliced the strawberries and diced the cheese. Total time
in the kitchen, 15 minutes. Now that's the way I like to cook! The dressing can be served warm or you can
let it cool to room temperature. As I'm typing this I'm letting it cool down. In just a minute I will toss
everything in a big bowl, take my final picture and settle in to enjoy a delicious dinner.
We encourage our friends and fans to support Shamrock's
Arrow Fund by purchasing a cookbook.
Arrow Fund will be at Rocko's Rewards booth Saturday, May 19th with more cookbooks for sale.
And please thank
the vendors who supported Arrow Fund by contributing the ingredients to make the
Green Leaf Salad with Strawberries.
It starts as
something small but when we all pitch in, we can change the world, one saved life at a time!
~~~ Rocko Says ~~~
On a mission to give every animal a life of love
Rocko, May 12, 2012, 17 years and six months old
Thanks to DLFM for being Bardstown Road's only dog friendly market!
Market hours - Saturday, 10:00 - 2:00
Location - Douglass Blvd Christian Church, located behind the
PNC Bank at Bardstown Road and Douglass Loop
Photographer: Lenore Slawsky, Rocko's Rewards, all rights reserved
Yes, that's really Rocko on every package of our all natural dog biscuits
Watch our video to see what it took to get The Perfect Picture
and why Rocko still hates the camera
