Saturday Market Haul, Kale Chips, and Mint and Lime Iced Tea

I was off to the market again this morning and picked up eggs, stood in line for strawberries, and got some great rhubarb. The eggs were from a different vendor, but still $6 a dozen, so that appears to be the going rate at this market. I heard that they are $5 down at the Leslieville Farmers' Market, but I'm pretty attached to doing my market-going on Saturdays, and they go on Sundays.

I find fresh strawberries to be such a stressful proposition as I'm always really excited to get them, but as soon as you bring them home the clock is ticking to use them before they go soft. Between the time that I washed them and hulled them, some started getting mushy (don't worry, I just ate them quickly). Even now, with a bowl of hulled strawberries at the ready, I'm agonizing on how to use them, but I have to decide tonight. Having eaten some raw, I think I'm leaning towards mixing them with the rhubarb in a crumble, lest I agonize so long they become completely inedible.

Speaking of hulling strawberries, I'm on a quest to learn how to do things properly in the kitchen, and this video from Saveur explains a quick and easy way to hull berries. I'm clearly going to need more practice.

This week did not go quite as scheduled, menu planning wise, and as of this morning we still had 9/10 perishables uneaten from this week's Mama Earth delivery. Knowing that it's the greens that go south first, I made some kale chips this afternoon to snack on. I was skeptical of kale chips at first, as things pretending to be other things are never as good as people try to make them out to be. But honestly, we actually both quite like them, and it's a super quick way to dispatch a bunch of kale. I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe, but I think once you get the size of chip you like nailed down, any combination of oil and seasoning would be delicious.

And finally, it's hot, right? Allow me to recommend Chow.com's recipe for Mint and Lime Iced Tea. I'd advise cutting down the steeping period for the tea, as per the comments, to about 3 or 4 minutes and cut down the amount of sugar from a teeth aching 1 1/2 cups to a more modest, but plenty sweet, 1/2 cup. David's mom has tons of wild mint growing in her garden, so I take a bunch every time I'm there.

Alright, let's get this crumble in the oven and take these strawberries out of their misery...

From the Farmers' Market

I made my first visit of the year to our local farmers' market this morning. We used to go to the St. Lawrence Market at 7am every Saturday, hangover or shine, but we were spending a lot of money (mostly on breakfast) and never sleeping in. When we started getting organic fruit and veggie delivery, we took a break. I work close to SLM, so the regular stalls in the south market are always available. What you can't get during the week is the local/free range eggs, and I've been missing those. So my goal for this morning was to source some eggs and maybe get some rhubarb and strawberries.

As published in their weekly newsletter, there were eggs, but they were $6/dozen. The family who sells eggs on Saturdays at SLM charge $3.85 for a dozen large. I bought the eggs this week, and we'll see what they are like, but I will keep looking to see if I can find a slightly cheaper dozen. It may well be that's the going rate, and if that's the case, I'll buy from my farmers' market for simplicity sake.

Rhubarb was also available, so I bought a bunch ($4) that I turned into a super delicious and comforting crumble tonight. There were no strawberries, but it was a long shot, and strawberries are so stressful anyways, as it's a race against the clock before they rot.

So a small haul this week, but I was excited to find such a vibrant and varied farmers' market within walking distance from home. If I'm lucky, maybe I can haul D out of bed to join me next week.