Saturday

Farmers' Market this morning:

Sweet potatoes

Crimini mushrooms

Red beans

Sweet onions

Red, orange and white carrots

Collard greens

Lettuce from York County, where it snowed last night

Breakfast this morning:

Sesame seed bagel with hummus, and coffee from Green Line Cafe across the street from the farmers' market, where I watched dogs walk by with their people and people shop at the market and street canvassers canvass.

Pictured above: Take-Out from Desi Village. I don't remember what the main dish there is called but it was basically mixed vegetables over rice. Also in the picture are vegetable pakora (veggies battered and fried) and vegetable samosas (peas and potatoes with cumin in a pastry shell). The green sauce is hot and the red sauce is sweet and smoky.

Co-op later for: bananas, raisins, English muffins, soy milk, nuts, and tea

$18 at mariposa co-op

3 bananas
3/4 lb organic flame raisins
1/2 lb pecans
3/4 lb carob chips
32 oz soymilk
16 raspberry-leaf teabags
and
a 3.2 oz raspberries-in-dark-chocolate candy bar

Kids in a Candy Store

We've joined Mariposa Food Co-op and have been dining on...

pasta with mushrooms, marinara, greens, and fake meatballs... three-bean chili... red dulce... seaweed ramen... veggie burgers... crunchy bean sprouts... beans & rice... raw green beans... sandwiches w/mushrooms, lettuce, onion, tomato... ravioli... nuts... pumpkin seeds... grapes... apples... sesame seed candy... carob chips... oatmeal... trail mix... cold cereal with oat milk... sunflower seeds... and various cookies, brownies, and cupcakes... washed down with coconut water.

Life is good.


Today at Clark Park Farmers' Market

one bunch kale
one bunch collard greens
one head green leaf lettuce
one head red leaf lettuce
one head broccoli
two portabella caps
red and white carrots

A loaf of Cracked Wheat bread from Metropolitan Bakery. Then shopping tonight at the co-op for many of the things mentioned above plus sage incense and a new toothbrush.

Stocking the new kitchen!

First farmers' market from the new apartment. It was a nice little walk (about the same distance, but a different direction). I cleaned the new (to us) refrigerator to within an inch of its life before heading out this afternoon (yes, it was afternoon before I was done). That took about an hour and a half. I took out all the trays from the door and all the shelves and washed them in the sink with baking soda and hot water. Scrubbed out the inside of the fridge with baking soda as well. Dried and reassembled everything. It is sparkling. Then went nuts at the market.

Saturday Shopping List

1 lb. small red beans
1 lb. green beans
1 pint shiitake mushrooms
2 heads red leaf lettuce
6 ears bi-color sweet corn
10 red potatoes
10 sweet onions
a dozen carrots (smallish, with the greens still on)
3 summer squash
2 golden zucchini
2 green zucchini
4 small cucumbers
2 purple peppers
1 green pepper
6 heirloom tomatoes
2 giant red tomatoes
6 peaches
1 pint blueberries
12-oz jar of strawberry jam
1 lb. granola
1 loaf country white bread
1 oz. fennel seeds
2 oz. black pepper

Total: about $50


Came home and had raw green beans and carrots dipped in hummus for brunch. Haven't had coffee yet, so I'm venturing out in the heat for an iced coffee. Later, it's off to the old apartment to gather up dishes and cooking utensils.

We've been living large these past couple days, picnicking on gourmet food from the local restaurants. Gourmet veggie burgers and salads last night from Dock Street Brewery. Night before last, chickpea-tabouli salad, guacamole and hummus with pita and black olives, with orange-chocolate-chip cake for dessert, from the Gold Standard Cafe. Tofu scramble from Gold Standard for breakfast yesterday. But at some point, we have to actually settle down and start cooking again. Clean fridge, check. Groceries, check. Clean stove, clean cupboards, clean dishes next.

Saturday!

Saturday Shopping List

1 stalk of Brussels Sprouts

another pint of Brussels Sprouts

1 lb of Lima beans

1 pint of red potatoes

1 pint of sweet potatoes

5 yellow onions

1 pint of white mushrooms

1 bulb of garlic

1 pint of cranberries

1 loaf of rustic white bread

a jar of strawberry jelly

1/2 loaf of banana sourdough bread

4 chocolate-banana muffins

Total spent: $31.39

We still had tons of carrots and a few sweet potatoes. We had plenty of beans already. A couple peppers and more red lentils for when I want to make the lentil soup again. Today we're eating leftover Tofurkey. I'm hoping these sweet potatoes I got today are the white ones. You can't tell from the outside, or at least I don't know how to tell. There's a scratch on one and it looks kinda white.

It's a gorgeous day out there. Chilly, low 50s, perfect weather for hats and scarves and sweaters. We're going to walk to Second Mile and see if they have any pretty things we want for the house.

Squash, potatoes, apples, leeks, and a long walk to the park.

Another rainy market day, but this time cold as well. And our trip to the farmers market (four blocks from our home) took two and a half hours.

That's the fault of Philadelphia Federal Credit Union. That is due to the check-cashing policies of Philadelphia Federal Credit Union, especially those policies involving payroll checks, which do not seem like good policies to me. They can't cash payroll checks. I opened a checking account with them back in May, and I have yet to begin successfully using them as my primary banking institution. I'm trying to leave Wachovia and stay with something locally owned and more secure that doesn't keep getting sold. Unfortunately, PFCU, in my five months with them, has done things like: giving the wrong digits to the company that printed my checks, causing a loan payment to bounce and throwing off my finances for the better part of a month; failing to issue a debit card for my new account until after two phone calls, a branch visit, and an email; and now they tell me they can't cash my payroll check and would have to hold it for two business days before I could access the funds, even though I have an account there and it is a payroll check. So after standing in line at PFCU for a long time, we were given the above news, which caused us to walk to 36th & Chestnut (about 15 blocks), me in uncomfortable rubber boots, hungry, to stand in line at Wachovia and cash the check, then walk back to the farmers market and shop, before dragging ourselves home.

We were met at the door by hungry cats. We should have been to Center City and back with their food by now. It's after 2 p.m. Usually, we're home from the market before 11 a.m. Today, we left after 11, because of the downpour this morning, but we should have been home well before noon and then back out to run our errands after a quick meal. This whole day is off.

Anyway, here's the grocery list:

2 butternut squash
1 acorn squash
12 apples - Autumn Crisp and Empire
1 head of cauliflower
about 3 lbs of blue and red small potatoes
a big basket of yellow potatoes for soup
4 sweet potatoes
3 huge "candy" onions
2 huge leeks (huge... one leek will make a whole pot of soup)
4 ears of sweet corn
4 big tomatoes
1 portabella cap
1 loaf sourdough bread
1 loaf multi-grain bread

Total: $44.36

Less than $50! Less than $45, even! We were still good on greens and carrots (we didn't juice, all week, I just snacked on the carrots, and the cooler bag in the fridge keeps them crisp and perfect). The people with the fresh Lima beans weren't there. The lady with the spices wasn't there, which is too bad, because we need some spices. (Maybe these folks were there this morning... who can say? We weren't there. We were in line.) We still have plenty of dry beans, which we stocked up on some time ago.

I got those dozen apples so that I can make lots of the delicious fried apple pies I 've been making. I bake the apples in the oven with oil, molasses, cinnamon, and brown sugar, and then fill pastry wraps with them and fry them. I can make up a bunch of apples and keep them in the fridge, then fry up the pies for a perfect, quick breakfast on work mornings. The next step will be actually to bake a pie. A real, whole pie. I think it will happen sometime before this winter is over.

Have you ever seen one of those annoying commercials where the voice-over tells you what you'll be able to do "with all the money you'll save" by buying their product or using their service? I always hated those, because the point of something being cheap is that you don't have any more money than that. You don't have stores of extra money that you'll now be able to use for a cruise to Costa Rica if you just order from the dollar menu or rent a cheaper carpet cleaner.

You know what, though? That line of faulty reasoning makes a great excuse.

With the money we saved by only spending $44 on groceries for the week, we called in an order to Lee's Deli, the greasy spoon/corner store at 47th & Baltimore. We both had greasy veggie burgers and fries for breakfast. Ew. Mmm. I think we earned it.