To market, to market...

I found this photo sitting on the digicam. I made fried wings last weekend. I can already hear my mother complaining about how bad fried things are, and me following up that when foods are fried at the proper temperature, they do not absorb oil and therefore are no worse for you than any other kind of food. I guess this is also not the time to mention that I cooked all those scallops from the last post in bacon fat.

J and I went to the Dekalb Farmers Market today for the first in a long time. We have been reluctant to go since the produce has fallen off and it's often incredibly crowded. On the last count, today was certainly no exception. We went a little earlier than usual (around 3pm) and it will full of meandering older couples who had no idea where to go or what they were looking for, as well as a large amount of rambunctious children running around unwatched. It was actually a little painful.

I'm happy to say that the produce was looking really good. Here's a rundown of what we got:
- half & half
- heavy cream
- bananas -- 1 medium banana = 450mg of potassium and you only need like 100mg a day
- sugar snap peas -- goes well with any meats
- brussel sprouts -- J loves cabbages, big and small
- flat leaf parsley
- cilantro
- scallions
- fresh shitake mushrooms
- oyster mushrooms -- I think I will try a mushroom, cognac, cream side dish. Now I need to find a meat...
- lemons
- oranges
- jalapenos
- okra -- for gumbo
- green pepper -- for gumbo
- shelled pink lady peas
- shelled butter beans -- actually, they are big so they are limas
- asparagus -- the small stalks that I like
- limes
- sausage meat -- for a future sauce
- bacon ends -- for flavor. DFM doesn't carry cooked ham hocks anymore!!
- chicken feet -- J's going out of town this weekend
- duck legs -- for gumbo
- sugar
- sumatran coffee beans
- roses -- they're pretty!

I'm pretty disappointed that they don't sell ham hocks anymore. I was also going to get some oysters and they were completely out. I've never seen that before.

A few weeks ago, I bought unshelled pink lady peas. Unshelled peas are about $1.69/lb whereas shelled are $4/lb. I figured, watch some tv, peel some peas. How hard can it be? Well, it's hard and annoying. So I don't mind paying for shelled peas now.

I also had to stop at Whole foods to get andouille for the gumbo so I also bought these cherokees and some grass fed skirt steak.

I haven't showed off any pretty pictures of heirloom tomatoes this year because we just haven't really had them. That's the down side of not going to Star every weekend. At least the selection this week was good. Last week, they were all picked over and most of them were squishy. Ew.

It was interesting when I bought the skirt steak that the butcher told me that I had to be sure to cook it well because there was no corn in it because it was grass fed. Also, she said it would taste gamier. I thought both of those statements were weird. I think I'll go with a chimichurri to go with the skirt tonight. And maybe the limas and mushrooms. Mmmmmm.

I think I'll do a little work and then start on the gumbo. Yum. I love gumbo.