Saturday morning market

I've had a stomach bug for just over a week so eating has been hard. Well, once I got over the fever, eating was easy. It was after that was hard. It's a revelation to be able to eat again.

I found a couple pictures on the camera that I've never posted. Who knows why. I've passed over tons of things because the pictures look bad afterwards or I just forget.

Here we have a nice two- or three-hour cooked pork that became carnitas. The recipe is Rick Bayless'. It's simple but delicious. I went through a phase where I was making it every week so we had quick throw-together food for when we came home from tennis. Or before tennis. Or on random days...

Anyway, you may remember that we were in the Riverview Farms meat CSA a couple years ago. A year ago? Anyway, the freezer is still COMPLETELY full. (Since you probably doubt me, I will one day post the freezer inventory list I have on the fridge to prove it.) Anyway, I never knew what to do with all the pork shoulders I had so we used up two or three making carnitas. Delicious. And too much meat. I need to give some away next time.

Speaking of giving away, I have been sharing pickles and stuff. It's fun and exciting to share with friends. As long as they like it, anyway. :)

Here are some morels that we found at the Dekalb Farmers Market, of all places. I think they were about $25/lb. We had never seen fresh ones before so we bought them before we knew what to do with them. H recommended cooking them with butter and garlic, I think, so that's what I did with them. They were incredibly earthy, far meatier than I had expected. I would love to cook with them some more.

And now we get into the loot from this morning. It's the height of tomato season so it's sad that we had missed the market two weekends in a row. We got up a little earlier than usual (I just happened to wake up) and headed over there and ran straight to the farm stalls before even saying hi to L.

I'm not sure which stand I got these from (they are next to Souper Jenny). Arugula ($10/lb), because J could eat arugula just dressed with s+p, olive oil, and parmigiano every day. And then some fresh peaches that are ready to eat today. I have this weird thing with peaches ($2) where whenever I buy them, they go bad before I can eat them no matter how I time it or put things in the fridge. It's frustrating. So there is hope for today.

Indian Ridge had chanterelles again, about 17 lbs, according to what they said. This is the best farm stand, but it has always been intimidating to me because he puts so little out. Either I'm finally getting over that, or everyone was especially nice today. Maybe it's because I looked like I meant to do business. Today, I saw the chanterelles and rushed right in. These are so delicious. I will just saute them lightly. We bought two packages. $12.

Indian Ridge also looked like they had an assortment of fingerlings, but they were less exciting to me.

Riverview had bi-color corn (72 cents an ear). As with all non-pesticide-treated corn, they are expected to have worms and some mushiness at the top of the ear. I have a worm hanging out right now in the sink. I'll put him outside later. We also got some pink-eyed peas ($4) from Riverview, which they said may be the last crop of the season.

From Farmer Jeff, we got some romas ($4) and some heirloom okra ($4?), which he said to just saute. I'll do some tonight with some of the chanterelles.

Yoder Farms is the first place we went to get tomatoes. We mainly picked up the purple cherokee/ brandywine cross-breeds ($5/lb), one that's ready to eat now and two that will be ready in a couple days. And then one patty pan squash. Yum.

Riverview was having a special: $20 for 10 lbs of tomatoes so we did that thinking we may can some. However, for breakfast, we had one of these (and a leftover Pine St Market poblano sausage. Yes, breakfast.) and it was AWESOME, so they may not make it to canning. I would be okay with that.

Lastly, we hit the Spotted Trotter. They are new to PRFM, but I've been keeping an eye on them in the news. We picked up some of their rabbit and pork sausages, their lamb and pork sausages (which no one could possibly resist because they are wrapped in caul fat!), and some of the Spanish chorizo. The chef was there cooking up some of the rabbit sausages while we were there. We tried it topped with peach chutney. It was fantastic.

It was a fantastic market day. We have a lot of goodies for tonight. Exciting!