farmers' market

A couple of Sundays ago was my first 2010 trip to the farmers' market! Well, the Chicago one. I went to a very cold, but still incredibly awesome Des Moines market in early May that puts the putzy Wicker Park one to shame. But on with the story! Usually I like to reserve Sundays for sleeping in and lazing about well into early afternoon when the market closes, but somehow I managed to mosey myself down there with a $20 bill in my wallet and a song in my heart. I came out with five ears of corn, a half pound of fresh picked cremini mushrooms, two pints of heirloom cherry tomatoes, two apples, and a head of broccoli. Not bad!

Then I walked to Whole Foods to pick up some (free-range, organic) chicken to make this Oriental Chicken recipe I had found and groggily stared at for maybe an hour during a bout of insomnia earlier in the week. If that doesn't sound like fate I don't know what is, so I felt I had to make it. I replaced the red pepper with the mushrooms and broccoli I'd bought earlier, tripled the sauce, and served it over brown rice. It was amazing! So good I couldn't stop to get a picture. It was maybe my first time cooking chicken or any sort of meat, so I was pretty nervous, but I would definitely say it was a success. And this is despite finding eight green worms popping out of my fresh broccoli at different stages of the cooking.

Even after the meal was gone, I was able to enjoy fresh produce in most of meals that week. For example, in one day I had sliced tomatoes with a dollop of sour cream and some salt and pepper for breakfast, and then a make-shift tuna salad with fresh corn mixed in. Totally worth leaving my house before noon on a weekend. Now if I could just do it again...