This months ingredients are:

• Pasta
• Chevre
• Beets
• Peanut buttter

On first glance, these aren't exactly ingredients that scream "delicious when mixed together," but I saw it as a unique opportunity to make a fusion dish, combining Asian influences (pasta and peanut sauce) with French sensibilities (beets and chevre). In some respects, it's a layperson's "wannabe Vietnamese," and I'm fine with that.

Cross-Cultural Vermicelli

Ingredients:

• 2 tbs chunky peanut butter
• 8 tbs lite coconut milk
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 spring onion, finely sliced
• 1 cayenne pepper, minced
• 1/2 package Vietnamese wheat vermicelli
• 1 large handful of fall greens (I used spinach, arugula and mustard greens), rinsed and torn
• 1 small beet (any color)
• 3 oz. chevre, crumbled
• sea salt

Directions:

1. Peel and cut beet into 1 inch cubes. Line cookie sheet with foil, spray with olive oil, and place beet cubes on sheet. Spray with oil and coat with sea salt. Roast at 375 degrees until heated through and tender, about 25 minutes. When finished, remove to cool.
2. Cook pasta to package directions. Rinse and set aside to cool.
3. Combine peanut butter, coconut milk, garlic, onion and cayenne pepper in microwave-safe container. Heat incrementally on high power for 1 minute bursts until ingredients become fluid. Use fork or whisk to combine, then heat for an extra minute to allow flavors to combine.
4. Steam greens in covered pot until done (2-3 minutes). Remove from heat and drain.
5. Once beets have cooled, dice them into a fine cube (around 5 mm per side).
6. In large bowl, combine pasta and peanut sauce, mixing thoroughly to ensure complete coating of pasta with sauce. Place portions in serving bowls.
7. Place greens atop pasta with sauce. Crumble beets and chevre on top.

Serves four

We trekked out into the perfect Indian summer late-Sunday-morning sun to find something to fill our tummies and our souls.

We came home an hour later with:

• A new kind of soap the scent of which Ruth Ann's daughter Rachel described as lying down on a forest carpet of pine needles and fall leaves
• A half-gallon of whole milk (Rudi has promised me tapioca this week)
• A half-gallon of apple cider (because the house smells so nice when it's cooking on the stove)
• Jicama (a South American root vegetable that I'm eager to try)
• Turkish eggplant
• Peppers in fall colors
• Tomatoes from a greenhouse
• Broccoli for soup
• Leeks for soup
• Gigantic red beets (almost as big as your head!)
• Suncrisp apples
• A yellow onion
• Young, fresh garlic
• Brussels sprouts
• Mascarpone
• Blueberry scones

Next week I'm going to pick up nuts (if they still have some) and winter squash. I just wasn't ready to switch seasons quite yet!

• morels (one of my favorite wild mushrooms - learn about ‘em here)
• ramps (a wild leek, which is a local delicacy)
• strawberries (first of the season - yum!)
• blueberry scones
• red beets
• 2% organic milk
• lilacs (not for eating)

We still have a lot of stuff from last week’s market (including purple asparagus, spring onions, pea shoots and beautiful lettuce), so a lot of good cooking lies ahead.

Any suggestions for recipes?

(Note: most of this was originally posted at randomduck.com.)