Everything but the ketchup...

I took this long holiday weekend to hit the farmer's market hard and make a mess in the kitchen.  The Saturday morning market was hot and busy.  And it didn't help that I was lugging around an entire flat of strawberries (you'll see why below).  After the market, we settled down for the All-American classic: hamburgers.  We did them protein-style with grilled onions, avocado, and pepper Jack cheese.  And we celebrated the coming of the fig season with fresh figs topped with goat cheese and honey.  And yes, I do celebrate fig season.  And to celebrate America this weekend, we enjoyed an entire meal from the local farmers who grew it.  Well, everything but the ketchup.

From now on, I call it the "Farmer Burger"

Figs and goat cheese

Figs with goat cheese and honey

1. Choose black mission figs that are extremely soft, and slice them in half
2. Top with fresh goat cheese
3. Drizzle with honey (we used avocado honey, which was almost savory - much more interesting than the store bought)
4. Sprinkle with almond slivers, if on hand.  

And for dessert later that night:

The gluten-free crust is under there somewhere...

Home-made gluten-free strawberry pie.  In no way was this low-carb, but we wanted to celebrate with an American classic.  Although I am generally in a quandary regarding strawberry pie, which has taken me to deep philosophical thinking about the fundamentals of pie that I can elaborate on at some other time, I was very pleased to make it from scratch.  The glaze definitely didn't look as pretty as the one from Marie Callender's, but since it was made from only puréed strawberries, sugar, and pectin, it was one of the freshest tasting pies I've ever had.  And we got to take the leftovers to watch the fireworks tonight.

Happy Fourth!