Farmers Markets in February?

One of the things I adore about our ‘hood (besides Baker & Spice and margaritas the size of my head) is our farmers market.

It’s a great farmers market, just on its own-good variety, lots of vendors, but not too crowded.  But what’s extra awesome is that it is YEAR ROUND.  Which means that dinner last night came fresh from the farmers market.  In February.  Sweet.

(Also, aparently this is the time of year to buy eggs?  There were a TON

How pretty are they?)

There’s a decent variety going on at the market, even though it’s winter.  On Sunday morning we bought some polenta, catfish (caught the day before!), and a squash.

We cooked up the catfish with some spices plus cracker crumbs, and then did the polenta with just a little cheese added

And squashies!  The fiance actually tried a few bites.

Isn’t the polenta pretty?

I’m marrying a 5 year old, and he chose this based entirely on the fact that it had pretty colors

Not kidding.  Don’t worry friends, he works for the government

Today I made use of some Super Bowl leftovers.  Cause a good follow up to local farmers market food?

Artichoke dip.  It was made to be a breakfast food, right?

Don’t worry, those chips?

ORGANIC.  That means healthy, right?

If you follow me on twitter you saw that we’re having a plumbing adventure right now.  I’m pretending it’s not happening at the moment, so I’ll tell the whole story later.  Basically, the bubble in the ceiling didn’t go away on it’s own.

But on a happy note, we have leftover polenta! And really, how much can you worry when that’s in your fridge?

Eating on the run

One thing I’ve learned in my 13 (that is over half my life!  wow.) years of babysitting and nannying is that when you’re watching a child you better eat when you can.

You wait, and then the baby manages to have a diaper explosion, or won’t nap, or who knows what else.

So today I’ve had lots of little things to eat.

Baby sized wrap with cheese, hummus, lettuce, and avocado(that’s a salad plate…the tortilla was litttttle)

Followed up with a hummus plate

Why do I not eat this more?  Seriously.  So good.

Baby of course ate too.

She had her yogurt + blueberry applesauce + oats

And tofu and mushrooms.  Yes, she’s not a year old, and eats things my 26 year old fiance won’t touch.

At one point she was gleefully shoving all the tofu she could get her hands on into her mouth.  Good lord.

I had my second lunch/afternoon snack

Squash with rice, ‘banzos, peas, carrots, corn, and maters.  I mixed it up with some Trader Joe’s yellow curry sauce.  Tasty! A nice bit of spice.

After baby napped, we went on a walk and I found this at the store.

Cougar mountain pumpkin cookie

Tasted mostly like a gingersnap, but super tasty.

I love these cookies mostly for the name.  In my head “cougar mountain” is a mountain full of perimenopausal women wearing mini skirts and hitting up college bars

(Cougar Town, the TV show, on the other hand, in my head is a town that’s been overtaken by REAL cougars.  Which would have been a WAY better show)

And…. in a few hours we should be getting our keys!  Not 100% sure, so cross your fingers.   Yay for being homeowners (Boo for having to start moving)

Happy day

More on my california adventures to come…. Have lots to get caught up on around the house!

Today is a happy day.  If you didn’t know, Mama Pea is BACK.  Which is pretty happy (also happy is how she doesn’t judge when I text her, drunk, on a Sunday afternoon.  Which might have happened this weekend)

Other happy things:

My fruit bowl looked like this earlier today

Yeah, those are cookies.  They’re like fruit, except with carbs and sugar.  And no vitamins.  And some peppers. Which are also not fruit.

So I hit up the grocery store

Happy day!   Apples and PINEAPPLES are on sale!  Much better

I had a quesedilla for breakfast.

Happy day- this time the cheese wasn’t moldy.  Also happy-melted cheese for breakfast.

Went to the sub orientation.  Found out there were over 800 applicants (just to sub!) and I was one of just over 100 who got on.  Happy happy for employment

Made lunch

Butternut ravioli, with tomatoes, spinach, and creamy sauce (Jessica, this is how to love veggies.  Put them inside carbs, then cover with sauce)

AND THEN….

FOUND OUT WE CAN CLOSE ON OUR HOUSE ANY DAY WE’RE FREE TO SIGN THE PAPERS!!!!!!!

It’s a happy happy day!  Fts.*

*fts = for total serious.

Squash squash sqaush

The police still haven’t found who hit my brother’s car. 

The good thing is that they’ve got three cars, so this was the extra… So monster baby and her mommy aren’t stuck at home.

Onto some happier notes:

My day has a lot of squash!

EDIT:  If you want to make pumpkin butter, the recipe is here

First, I made pumpkin butter

(that’s right, MADE.  I am my own Trader Joes!)

I started with this

(In my family we don’t do homemade halfway.  My fam grew this pumpkin.  And then after halloween my mommy cuts them up and cooks them, then freezes.  Full on homemade.  And yeah, it’s been in my freezer for a year.  Whoops)

And I ended up with this

Put on some bread

Tasty!  I’m looking forward to this in some oats!

And then, because I hadn’t done enough with squash, I made some more kobacha soup!  This time I used this

instead of milk. Gave it a crazy good texture!  (And hey! my lunch was vegan!)

Defiant upgrade.  Genesis was asking about how it’s made-her you go girl!  (And, anyone else who wants it )

We have a crazy amount of corn on the cob, so I chopped some of that into it.

Happy happy lunch!

So… what’s your favorite way to eat squash?

Crash!

Well, last night was interesting.

My dinner was in two parts last night, because I babysat…. so I started out with this monster naner

It was too big (that is what she said, it’s true), so I used half in some Nature’s Path cereal

I love this cereal!  It’s the Crunchy Maple Sunrise.  So tasty!

Then babysat, (the baby btw had squash and tofu for dinner-babies would make awesome food bloggers!), and came home to some kabocha soup and Dave’s Killer bread.  Plus wine!

Seriously, the only thing better than that soup, is that soup with Dave’s.  The only thing better than Dave’s is Dave’s with that soup.

The fiance ate leftovers while I babysat.  I told him to eat vegetables.  He ate cereal.  Good job honey, good job.

But here was the crazy part of the night… My little brother sent me a text with this picture of my older brother’s car

My brother was home (and not in the car!) when it happened and heard no brakes, no squealing tires, just SMASH.  And then the person drove off.  Who does that?  10:1 says they were drunk and/or 17.

We were totally going to buy that car off him too.  I’m guessing not so much now.

So far, no luck finding the person who did it… but their car is probably pretty messed up (my brother’s got pushed forward about 10 feet)

Anyways….

Today I used up the other half of the monster banana, with peanut butter and cinnamon in a flat out.

And now I’ve got a crapload of groceries to put away….

Question of the morning:  have you ever been in a car accident or gotten your car smashed?  I drove my car into the median once.  Well, side swiped.  Which meant I was fine, and my car was a messsss.