farmers market

I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend.  Especially those of you who still had to labor on Monday.  I had Monday off and let me tell you it was glorious! We tried to go on a day trip, the destination was a bit of a bust but the drive is always the best part anyway. Well, now that we're back in the swing of things I thought I tell you about last Thursday, when I Finally got back to the Farmer's Market!!!!!

It's been forever, It's been 2 whole months, but I was Finally able to go.  I was so excited I wanted to get everything, but instead I was good and kept to my 20$ limit.

Everything Bagels

Tomato

Onions

Fresh Dill

Bell Peppers (that's 7 of them!!)

Golden Beets

Pepper Corn Asiago Bread

All this for 17 bucks!!!! 

(those 7 bell peppers were only 4 dollars, it's the best deal at the market and i'm so glad they're in season again)

We used the tomato, onions and dill to make chicken "gyros" (we were going to get pita but this onion bread looked so good at the store we took a less traditional route).  

The power went out for a bit. . . 

But that didn't stop us!

YUM!!

farmers market

Work has been pretty crazy lately.  There have been a few staff changes, which has made work very stressful and busy, so there is no time to go out and do something fun liiiiiike . . . . go to the Farmers Market!!!!  Friday the 8th was our receptionist's last day, and we take quite a long time to make a decision about hiring a new employee, so I new it might be my last week for a little while to go to the farmers market on Thursdays.  I forgot to get more cash so I only had what was in my wallet.  I wish I had had more money because it's finally far enough into the season for greater variety of veggies to be sold.  There were vidalia onions that the farmer said were so sweet you could eat like an apple and 5 different kinds of beets!! But we had dinner plans to buy for.

These are my farmer's market buys:

Italian Garlic

Asiago Mini-Baguettes

Thyme

Basil

Mozzarella

Everything I got this time was for specific dishes, can you tell what one dish we're planning is???

All that's missing is the Tomatoes . . . a Caprese, YUM!

We bought the rest to make chicken and 40 cloves, an easy and delicious meal.  I'll tell you all about it later.

farmers market

So, what did I do with my 20 Farmers market dollars this Thursday??

I got some great lookin' veggies, and some tasty tasty breads!!

Marble Rye!

Focaccia!

Goat Gouda!

Tomatoes!

Thyme! (Andrew asked me to get some fresh thyme so we can make chicken and 40 cloves for dinner soon, delicious!)

Sugar Snap Peas!

Purple Baby Carrots! (or as they were labeled at the market "real" baby carrots)

Oh Yeah that's a pretty good haul!!!!

I do have a question for you though.

Can you eat carrot greens? There are so many greens attached to those tiny little carrots, it seems a waste to just throw them out.  Can I saute them like I would some kale????

farmers market

Today is Thursday!!! My favorite day of the week!!!

and here are my farmers market finds

BEETS!

More Asparagus!

KALE!

And a little bucket of Strawberries.

I picked this specific container of berries because it had this one in it . . .

Siamese Twin Strawberry!!! Oh nature, you're so unusual.

Yum, yum, yum, I love me some veggies.

So, for those of you who know me personally you might be thinking, "Aly, why in the heck would you buy strawberries when you can't even eat them?", and those of you who don't know me might be thinking, "why did she just write that??"  

Well, a little fact about me is that I am allergic to fresh fruit.  It happened when I was around 14, we were having an easter party and there was a huge bowl of cherries.  I couldn't stop eating them and after about 15 I started having trouble breathing.  I found my mom and tried to tell her between quick short breaths that I thought my throat was closing.  She looked at me and sighed "ah, crap."  My aunt has the same allergy so she knew exactly what was going on.  I kept trying little bits of various fruits hoping that it was just a certain type, but to no avail. It's all of them.  

BUT! There are ways, yes, I can cook it, and I've had those canned peaches and pears from Trader Joe's, and once I bought a bag of frozen berries and munched on those.  The frustrating thing is that I can't just eat it as a healthy snack.  When you cook fruit it becomes more of a dessert, which is delicious but not something you should be eating every day.  

So, today I was walking through the farmers market and every stand had beautiful, delicious smelling strawberries.  It was too tempting, I don't have a plan for them yet but they just looked so good!

Do you have any suggestions?

Should I make some shortcake?

Or some simple jam?

I need help!!

p.s. sorry I missed a wednesday, I was so tired yesterday, and thought it was tuesday until about 7 o'clock.  I'll be back on it next week, I swears.

farmers market

I finally had time to take lunch outside the office on a Thursday. So I headed over to my favorite Thursday summertime spot . . . the Farmer's Market!!!!  Yesterday it got up to 106°, then last night around 10pm it started to pour down buckets of rain, then the lightning and thunder came and it didn't stop until this morning around 9am.  Today it was about 54° (yeah a 50° drop in less than 24 hours - CRaZY).  All this meant that the market was a little sparse, but I still got some good lookin' veggies.

Asparagus

Herbs - Dill and Garlic Chives

Bokchoy

Asiago Peppercorn Sourdough Bread

OH YEAH!!!!

I wish there were some sort of "smell" button, because this bread smells amazing.

YUM!!!!

farmers market {with a little asian fest mixed in}

Last week one of the ladies at work came back from court and told me the farmers market was back in the Daley Plaza!!! It was already 3 O'clock so I had missed it, but it got me so excited! This week it was all I could think about. So today at 11:45 I went out to take my lunch break at The Farmers Market.

I was weirdly nervous walking over there, maybe I was afraid it wouldn't be as great as I had remembered, it had been a long, terrible winter. But as soon as I saw it the butterflies melted and I was grinning from ear to ear.

It's not yet in full swing, the Asian American festival was happening at the same time, so it was a mix of produce and tchotchkes, but most of my favorites were back. I always give myself a 20$ limit so I don't blow my life savings on veggies, cheese, and delicious breads. This time I only got a few things, mostly because the only vegetables any of the booths had was asparagus (and not great looking asparagus).  

It was BEA-u-tiful outside so I watched some of the festival

I got some Panang Curry, sat in the shade with my Farmer's Market buys, and watched people walk around

It was great! Thursdays are the best!!