Sunday Lunch

Coming from a large family (I am one of 6 children) family has always been an important aspect of my life.  For the past year or so, my siblings and I have been making it a point to spend at least one meal a week all together.  With all of us grown  (my little sister is currently 19 and in college) it can be hard for us to get together.  This is where Sunday Lunch/Dinner comes in.  For over a year now, my siblings and I would get together and have lunch/dinner together, and I think it has brought us a lot closer.   My siblings and I have always been a close knit unit, having each others backs, when it comes down to the knitty gritty.  All of us so different, yet we mesh so well.  Of course we are like any family, and we get on each others nerves and sometimes I just want to punch one of my sisters or brother, but bottom line, I love them.  And I know how lucky I am to have them.  Over the past year I have realized how important my family is to me.  Maybe it's because I am getting older or maybe it's because when I am in a jam and freaking out and they were there for me at a drop of a hat... *shout out to the fam bam!

Now for the yummy good stuff.......

Over the past few months I have learned so much about our food industry and artisan specialties through documentaries and various publications such as, Food Inc, PBS television show (one of my favorites) Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, and various publications like, Twinkie Deconstructed (still working on this one), and In Defense of Food (also working on this one) and good faithful, Gourmet.com (bring back Gourmet magazine!).  I have promised myself that with this new knowledge I am going to make a change.  But to perfectly honest, it is extremely hard for me to eat organic locally grown produce 7 days a week.  I am after all, a 24 year girl, working for a non-profit, paying off bills and student loans... plus we are in a recession people.... but I have realized how important it is for me to eat locally grown produce.  Not only is it better for me (goodbye growth hormones and nasty pesticides), but I am supporting local farmers in California, thus supporting California's economy. So I am starting off slowly.  I promised myself that I will be conscientious of what I am eating throughout the week but more importantly, at least once a week, to eat organic locally grown foods.  I have decided this day would be Sunday, that way I can include my family as well. Plus, I just have more time on the weekends anyway. 

I was lucky enough to drive over to the Atwater Village Farmers Market (FM) in LA.  I had read many reviews about this FM on Yelp.  Majority of the reviews mentioned the small size, which it was, but I was so surprised to see how many local vendors/farmers there were available! It was the perfect size for me, I got all my produce, bread and yummy blueberry crumble pie in 30 minutes and was on my way home before 11:00AM (they open on Sundays at 10:00AM)

Seriously.... how awesome do these strawberries look... they tasted just as good too!












I was inspired to make pan seared halibut with garlic mashed potatoes and roasted veggies and was extremely excited to finally make this dish.  The best part of this dish... hands down... garlic mashed potatoes.... The fish and roasted veggies were great.. but the mashed potatoes had that certain something that made me say... WOW.... I am thinking it was the freshly dug up Yukon gold potatoes and the Strauss Family Whipping Cream... these potatoes were so creamy and delicious I did not add a single pad of butter.. they simply did not need them! My best garlic mash as of yet... and that is saying a lot!

Very simple roasted veggies consisting of carrots, tomatoes, asparagus, and onions, seasoned with kosher salt, pepper and olive oil.

 I also made crustini's with pesto or sun-dried tomatoes to spread with fresh mozzarella on top.  My favorite was the pesto... as you can see I took a bite before I realized I needed to take a picture of it...oops.... :)

I got this awesome blueberry crumble pie which we topped with vanilla bean ice cream.  It was the perfect balance... not too tart and not too sweet... too bad both my sister and I found a hair in our slices of pie... but other than that, it was really good!

Lastly... I would like to end today's post with my niece GG once again.  She has been through so much in the past year and my family and I adore her to pieces. She is 2 and you know... terrible 2s right? Well I can never think of my innocent little peanut in this way.. but my sister begs to differ and today happen to be one of those mischievous days... GG had gotten close to a bamboo plant at my Parent's house, and pulled it down causing all the water to pour out... the photo to the left is how my sister is giving GG a small "timeout"... too bad GG is really looking behind her and laughing when my sister isn't looking..... classic