By Elizabeth Whalley RHN

As the conventional food industry is becoming more and a more globalized, I have opted for a more local diet, as I’m sure many of you have. I will continue to wait patiently for the first tomato of the season after a long winter of countless root vegetables. Eating local allows us to connect to the environmental changes going on around us, changes that are often as innate as the changing of the seasons.

Thus, you can understand my excitement in seeing the many varieties of peppers at the market last week after a long, pepper-less winter. All of the different shapes, sizes and colours were so alluring. If you’re lucky you’ll even get a history for your pepper varietal from your knowledgeable farmer. If you’re not so lucky (as I seem to have found myself), you’ll be led astray to the land of incredibly hot peppers. Not to worry, as  possibilities for peppers are endless and roasting helps to mellow out those spicy peppers. Here is my homage to local market peppers of any shape, colour and size;

Basil Goat Cheese Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:

• A few pounds of your favourite peppers
  
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 small bunch basil
• 1 small bunch chives
• 3 tablespoons cream cheese
• 3 tablespoons goat cheese (I used feta, it added a great depth of flavour)
• 2 tablespoons quality olive oil
• Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Prepare the peppers for roasting; for smaller peppers chop off the top, for larger cut into quarters. Be sure to remove as much of the seeds and membrane as possible, after roasting hot peppers can actually be quite mild without them. Chop off a small portion of the top of the garlic cloves (this allows them to roast much better).

Arrange the peppers on a baking sheet, along with the garlic cloves. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil (reserving the remaining tablespoon for the filling), sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes.

While the peppers cool combine the remaining ingredients, along with the now roasted garlic in a food processor. Pulse until a smooth consistency is reached. Season to taste, I found with the feta no additional salt was needed.

Transfer the filling to a piping bag. If you don’t have one a zip lock bag with the tip cut off works in a pinch. Pipe the filling inside the peppers. Place tops on the peppers and return to a 375 degree oven for an additional 5 minutes. Serve warm with freshly cracked pepper and grated Parmesan or asiago cheese (optional).

The day is much cooler today so you might be thinking about using your oven again after our record breaking sunshine in July.  Many of us picked up blueberries from the market yesterday, so why not treat ourselves, our family or our friends to a heart warming, classic comfort dessert made from these delicious berries.  Jodi’s tip for this one is to add 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts to the topping.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of fresh blueberries
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 Tbsp of cornstarch
• 2/3 cup almond flour
• 1 cup oats or gluten-free oats
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 Tbsp cold, cubed, unsalted butter

Method:

Preheat oven to 350º.  Wash and pat the blueberries dry.

Mix blueberries, lemon juice, brown sugar and cornstarch and place mixture in a greased, ovenproof dish.  In a separate bowl, rub together almond flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter until mixture is crumbly.

Sprinkle dry mixture over the berries.  Place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until topping begins to brown and it smells too good to leave in any longer.

Enjoy with some heavy cream or ice cream to top it off.

As the summer heat persists, two things should be on your mind; where is the closest beach and how am I going to stay hydrated today?

Hydration is so important to almost all of our body systems; it keeps your blood flowing, flushes your kidneys, gets your digestive system moving, keeps your skin looking fresh.. I could go on and on but you get the idea.

Your daily needs for water not only depend on your body type and activity level but also the type of environment you live in. As temperatures rise during the summer months, so do your hydration needs. Use this great hydration calculator to figure out your specific needs.

Along with how much to drink, finding the right type of water can always be confusing. We are fortunate in the Lower Mainland to have great quality water at the turn of a tap, with no need to worry about fluoridation and other environment toxins. However, the added chlorine posses a laundry list of health risks and in a city like New Westminster where you are more likely to have an older house with lead pipes. But bottled is not the answer. Plastic bottles are not only hard on the environment but they also leach toxins into your overpriced water. Not to worry, inexpensive filtering units are easy to install and can be easily found at your local hardware store. Better yet,chlorine dissipates from tap water left to stand for 30 minutes or more.

Counting your 8 glasses a day can get monotonous so why not look to the market stalls to add some sparkle to your water, naturally. I’ve created a simple recipe for flavoured water that will tickle your taste buds.

Savoury Summer Sipper

• 1 litre filtered water
• 1 inch cucumber, thinly sliced
• Handful of cilantro
• The juice of half a lemon

Combine all the ingredients in 2 to 8 hours. The long the fruit and/or herbs sit in the water the more intense the flavours will be.

You can experiments with all kinds of different flavours; berries, citrus, other fruit or herbs like; mint or thyme.

By Elizabeth Whalley