her real world

On being flexitarian: The Farmers Market

Or alternatively titled: How shopping at farmers markets brings back fond childhood memories.

I’m sorry that this photo is so blurry. I promise that I’ll upload some photos taken with a camera other than my iPhone soon. But really, I had to take a picture of these berries before I snarfed them down.

One of the things I like most about being flexitarian is the fact that I’ve cut back on my meat consumption (I’ve been trying to eat only local or sustainable or organic meats) and that I’m eating a lot more fresh produce. Also, I’m eating less of everything, which means I can afford to splurge and buy the most delicious raspberries on earth.

And oh they were delicious.

In figuring out who I am, I’ve been spending a lot of time figuring out what my favourite things are. Fresh raspberries are one of them. Eating them on their own reminds me of the excruciating hours spent picking raspberries with my family. The only thing that makes them better is cold cream and a bit of sugar.

Farmers markets are lovely and dangerous things, I have to go in with a strict budget. Today I visited the farmers market just down the street from where I work. I went in with $15 and came out with a huge bouquet of sunflowers, a half-pint of raspberries and two pints of baby summer squash. The flowers adorn my desk, as mentioned, the raspberries are happy in my belly, and the baby summer squash will be a lovely homemade pasta dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow.

Farmers markets are an excellent place to find seasonal, delicious food. Yes, the food can sometimes be more expensive. Sometimes it can be a lot cheaper. But if you’re careful and you find good quality local produce, you’ll wonder how you ever ate hard white hothouse tomatoes from the supermarket again.

Being a bit of a farmgirl snob, I sometimes wonder how anyone could ever think that what comes out of the supermarket is a REAL tomato, as growing up I can remember laying hundreds of tomatoes out on newspaper to ripen so that we could can them for the winter. In summer, lunch and supper often consisted of toasted tomato sandwiches, sometimes with bacon or cheese, mostly just with salt and pepper and margarine and maybe a bit of mayonnaise. In winter, we had the most delicious canned tomatoes ever.

One of the things I like most about being a flexitarian is that I’m going back to how I ate while growing up. I place standards on what is good enough to eat, which often times means I eat less. This comes to me at a much higher cost as when I was on the farm, the tomato plants were bought but the tomatoes we ate only cost the hard work it took to nurture and harvest them. Homemade pasta will be a lot of work tonight and not everyone can afford to buy $8 of baby summer squash.

But the end product is going to be a small portion of deliciousness that makes my heart and my waistline sing.

I’m a little obsessed with picnics right now

I’m a little obsessed with picnics right now.

This photo doesn’t really inspire the kind of picnic I’m thinking of right now, but it’s a picnic table and I work with what photos I have. But this is the picnic table where my family and I have shared countless meals. Everything tastes better outside!

I’m going to confess: I’m a picnicaholic. There is something about eating alfresco that makes me quite gleeful. One of my all time favourite shows on the Food Network is Oliver’s Twist, and my favourite episode is where Jamie prepares a picnic in a tiffin tin. I have yet to find a tiffin tin that I like (when I went to Crate & Barrel there was a yellow one that I wasn’t very fond of), but I may have to turn up the heat on my search. Because picnic recipes are out in full force.

Because I’m not able to make a picnic *right this very moment*, I thought I’d share some of the lovely and inspiring recipes that I’ve found recently.

To me, a picnic has to be portable and not messy. Sandwiches, salads and cookies are pretty standard fare for me, unless I have access to a grill. But today I’m thinking about a secluded picnic on a rock near a lake, so nothing too messy or fancy. I also adore fresh herbs and the fact that I finally have all my little seeds in the ground makes me quiet joyous.

So here is a list of things I’d take with me on a picnic tomorrow, hopefully you find some inspiration to have a picnic of your own!

Drinks: A bottle of sparkling water with mint or lemon and lime or perhaps a bottle of nice wine. Or both!

Sandwiches: ahi tuna wraps with avocado, dijon-cilantro tuna salad sandwiches, any sandwich with green chili mayonnaise, bacon egg salad sandwiches with fresh basil

Salad: sour cream cucumber salad with mustard seeds, French potato salad, potato salad with radishes, cucumber and dill,

Dessert: coconut macaroons, lime meltaway cookies, white chocolate strawberry oatmeal cookies 

So who wants to come on a picnic?!

Spring has sprung….

…At least for today.

I woke up in my usual post-”Springing Forward” glory, late and grumpy. I went to bed last night and laid awake, lamenting my situation.

It was drizzling when I got outside, but warm. With a coffee in hand from my favourite coffee shop, things were looking up. It was windy when I went out for fresh air during my work day, but I could tell that the wind was taking away the snow. Right now ti’s windy, but the blue sky teases me between the clouds of what I hope is all the snow in the city evaporating away.

As a true farm girl, my life revolves around the weather. In the winter I’m depressed. Spring gives me hope. Spring brings muddy-puddle-jumping and spring thawing with its mighty aroma where rain and dirt and things growing and things melting all mix together.  Honestly? I’d rather have a thaw on the farm, because at least I know what cow shit smells like. Here in the city? I have no idea what is wafting from the mounds of melting snow and refuse.

Today was very spring-like. And I have to give credit where credit is due, I hadn’t noticed how much brighter it was when I arrived home from work until a friend pointed it out.

Today feels like spring. And the wind? Means I have no snow on my balcony anymore. Holy effing crap.

I may or may not have had a bit of a spring in my step when I walked home. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.