I woke up super early, so I decided to go ahead and get at 'em before it got too hot. I hit the North Market first and bought my first Toby Run shitakes in awhile - poor Jim thought I might have fallen out of love with his shroomies! Comb's herbs had also picked some squash blossoms early in the morning, so I snagged two bags of those - really, is there anything more beautiful?
I picked up some arugula from Toad Hill Organics, which became part of my lazy market lunch - boil-in-the-bag Tasty Bit curry (I love that stuff) with brown rice and sauteed arugula.
I was happy to see Quiver Full back at the market. They are one of the only sources for locally-grown and milled flours and cornmeal. I bought some cornmeal and a pound of their whole grain pastry flour, as well as some whole grain pancake mix. The pancake mix is nice because you only have to add water, so you can make just one pancake at a time. Which I did, to taste. The pancake was actually quite delicious. I'll admit it - I'm a bit of a white flour and white pankcake kind of girl, but I need to get more whole grains into my diet. These pancakes were really good. The flavor of the flour is really something, and if you'd like an example of how the best of even the most simple ingredients make a world of difference, I suggest you check these out. The products aren't cheap, but as Mr. Quiver Full was explaining to me, the milling process he use doesn't generate extra heat, so the germ in the grain is still alive. This is very good fo you, however it can cause insects to try to invade the grains, so they should be refrigerated. I think I might make some all-local blueberry muffins or something this week. Well, now I think of it, I suppose there isn't any local sugar. We'll think on that.
My Elizabeth Telling CSA this week contained Swiss Chard, onions, green beans, potatoes, tiny little carrots, and extra eggs! Woot! I'm about to scramble those and place them on toast with some sauteed mushrooms.
And then I was off to Clintonville! I walked past a new vendor with some amazing-looking artisan breads. I'll have to check them out next week when I have more time. Lately, bread has become a conveying device for the loads of butter I've been making, and well, girls can't live on butter alone, so I passed on the bread, and the Amish donuts (those things are evil). I picked up my Wayward Seed Farms CSA, which contained arugula, more tiny carrots, some baby zucchini, wax beans, a cucumber, some fingerling potatoes (below - they smell delighfully like dirt), and some cute little eggplants (above). I've had a love/hate relationship with eggplant over the years, but thanks to a reader, I've learned to love them. I'm going to have to search for that comment and thank that reader. FYI, the secret is to cook them really well and douse them with olive oil. The Wayward Seed Fruit CSA contained apricots, apples and blueberries!
I also saw peaches for the first time this week, but I had to pass on them due to already having tons of fruit in the house.
I had a busy week last week (can you believe I actually worked like 50 hours?! well, if you knew me, you'd know how amazing that is), and I have a bit of a busy week this week, so I won't be doing a ton of cooking, but I do hope to get a few things on the table to write about. Simple and healthy things, because let's face it, there's a little more waitress to love than I usually like having around, so I see lots of veggies and whole grains in my future.
So, readers, what did you get this week?
