About

Welcome to The Copper Table: Slow Food for a Fast World.

I’m so glad you’re here! If you are hoping to find out more about this blog and its creator, this is the best place to start!

This blog is about using Farmers Market and CSA box produce, cooking in season, and making as many things as possible from scratch without taking all day in the kitchen. Great food isn’t difficult, and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time!

My Cooking Philosophy

It is my mission not only to help you cook fresh, but to have fun in the kitchen! The question “What’s for dinner?” should not be a stressor, but a place of solace.

Cooking With Fresh Ingredients

Make the most of your farmers market finds and csa share

The area I live in is largely agricultural. We are surrounded by farms of varying size that grow many types of fresh produce, beef, pork, chicken, eggs, and we even have a couple of local flour mills. I love using these products in my recipes! Not only am I supporting small businesses, but I know what is in everything I eat, and I know the people who grew it. I want to help you do the same! The recipes on this site are for anyone looking to utilize more fresh local ingredients, no matter where you might live.

For many years, I have wandered the local farmers markets and roadside honesty stands in my area, always looking for new ways to use what I find. I also grow some of my own fruits and veggies!

I even spent two seasons helping out at a small local organic farm near my home weeding, harvesting, and tending to many varieties of organic produce. This experience has helped hone my skills cooking great seasonal food with real ingredients, as well as becoming familiar with how fruits and vegetables grow.

My husband is Italian American, and his family is from the Puglia region. Before they came to the United States, they were cheesemakers. You will find several Italian recipes on the site as well, including Pesto di Basilico, Panzanella Toscana, and Burrata Caprese using fresh ingredients from the farm and garden just the way they do in Italy.

It is my goal to use my experiences and knowledge to help you with ideas for Farmers Market produce, your own garden, whatever you might find in your CSA box, and cooking from scratch. The recipes on this site are also great for anyone looking to cook with more fresh ingredients in general, you are not just limited to what you may find at a Farmers Market.

There are a lot of great ingredients at local grocery stores as well, and the recipes here will help you use those too! When the Farmers Markets and honesty stands are closed for the Winter and there are no CSA shares, I buy produce at my local grocery store when needed.

How The Copper Table Can Help You

Cooking with the seasons

I’ll not only show you some great tricks for homemade sauces, curry pastes, and salad dressings to turn up the volume on your cooking, but I will share with you tips to use your local farmers market, garden grown, local grocery store, or CSA products to create fresh, real dishes that change with the season. This means variety and less boredom when eating and cooking. Also, you know exactly what’s in everything you eat!

In my time on this cooking journey, I have noticed that one of the best places to start making more things myself is making salad dressings, spice blends, kitchen staples such as Creme Fraiche, and sauces from scratch rather than buying them in a can or bottle, and I’ll show you how to do just that!

Not every recipe on the site uses fresh produce, but those recipes that don’t use any produce have a minimum of processed ingredients and are from scratch, such as my White Chocolate Chai Brownies.

Of course you need main dishes to pair with all this great produce right? I have you covered there too! With dishes such as Beer Braised Short Ribs and Homemade Cheeseburger Macaroni, there are many options to choose from.

If you want to see examples of making your own curry paste or spice blends for recipes, check out my Thai Green Curry with Chickpeas, Slow Cooker Beef Tacos and Homemade Toppings, or One Pot Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya.

For some fabulous ideas with fresh produce, try my Easy Lemon Cucumber Pickles, Farro Salad with Spring Vegetables, Roasted Green Beans And Carrots, or Rigatoni Primavera. There are many other fresh produce recipes all over the site, but those are just a few ideas to get you started.

If you want to:

• eat more fresh produce
• make more of what you eat from scratch
• cook fresher, healthier meals with an occasional indulgence thrown in
• avoid takeout with easy dinner ideas
• cook in season
• know what to do with all that produce at the Farmers Market or local grocery store
• learn more ways to utilize your CSA box

THEN YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE!

Easy Dinners

takeout convenience at home

We all get busy, and that’s why I have a whole category of recipes for Easy Weeknight Dinners, for those hectic days when you need something fresh fast and don’t want takeout.

If you need something easy the whole family will love, you’ll find it here. With meals such as Thai Green Curry with Chickpeas, One Pot Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya, Buffalo Chicken Rice Bowls, and Easy Beef and Rice Skillet with Fresh Guacamole, you won’t need to hit a drive thru!

About Me

hello, I’m amy!

I am the creator and recipe developer here at The Copper Table. I live on a small island in the Pacific Northwest and I am very fortunate to live in such a wonderful place! We have beaches, forests, lakes, mountains, and everything in between.

I’m a fresh produce nerd and farmers market geek. When I am not developing recipes for the website or working my day job in Food Service, I serve on the Planning Committee and help cook the dinner served at Cook For A Cause, a yearly fundraising event for the Coupeville Farm To School Program which grows the produce served to the students of the entire school district! This program utilizes the fruits and vegetables grown on the school farm to prepare scratch made meals for the students. I love supporting them!

Aside from cooking, hiking the many trails near my home and looking for seashells at the beach are two things I enjoy doing most. When I am not wandering the beach or walking in the woods, you will probably find me cooking, reading, writing, wandering our local farmers market during market season, or spending time with my family. I also like working in my small garden when the season is right for it. The outdoors is my favorite place to be when I am not in the kitchen!

I have always loved food and cooking. In 2019 when the opportunity to take my passion for food and love of writing and turn them into a blog came along, I couldn’t pass up the chance!

Where else can you find me? I have had two recipes published in the second edition of The Salad Gazette, published by The Devil Wears Salad. If you’d like a copy, you can sign up for my newsletter and you’ll get one right to your inbox.

I have also been interviewed on the Cook Local Eat Local podcast with David at Cooking Chat. His podcast is all about cooking and eating local food, which is something I am very passionate about.

Get To Know Amy

some things i love…

1. The Beach! It is my sanctuary. The best place to sit will always be on a bench by the water on a foggy day.
2. Good quality chocolate. Can I just say that white chocolate is woefully underrated?
3. I love a good Farmers Market! They are full of wonderful ingredients and cooking inspiration.
4. Cheesecake! It is versatile, creamy, and indulgent. When given the choice, I will always choose cheesecake over any other dessert.