Farmers Markets

Ringing of the bell, the aroma of coffee combined with the tantalizing whiff of fresh tortillas and vegetables sizzling on a hot griddle. The faint sweet caramelly scent and sound of Kettle corn crackling just past the next booth. Ah, Farmers Markets in the morning.

It's one of my favorite pastimes, just wandering down the aisles looking at all of the wonderful produce, flowers, and other treasures that I can take home and use to create something wonderous for dinner or breakfast.

Coming from a place that is fairly limited on what's growable (and not too bitter) to someplace that is overflowing with abundance of practically everything, I tend to get overwhelmed and want to buy everything I see: plump sweet blueberries, freshly cut kale and butter lettuce, tender garlic shoots, freshly caught salmon-so many ingredients and not nearly enough imagination to keep up with all the potential combinations at my fingertips.

I have to be very careful when I do go there because it becomes something akin to a gambling addiction...one more bundle of asparagus, two heads of that gorgeous Porcelain garlic...{I'm sure I can use up that half pound of delectable Chantrelle mushrooms by tomorrow}...and suddenly I wind up at home with too much of a good thing and not nearly enough help around to consume it all in time. Cest la vie. I manage somehow and then strictly inform myself to be more judicious next time and only purchase what I really, conceivable will use up in the next two or three days...









Wait a minute, were those fresh Morel mushrooms? Wouldn't that go beautifully, sauteed with the Blue Lake green beans over there? Oh, and those fresh Shuksan strawberries-sooooooo good with just a touch of basalmic vinegar, mmmmmmmmmm.

Darn, I've done it again. ; )