Sunday Shopping

It was cold at the Hollywood Farmers Market this morning. Chilled fingers had a hard time counting bills, so every transaction took a little longer than usual.

We ate breakfast out so we didn't buy oranges to juice, but we were still weighted down. I had looked in my pantry last week for white lima beans to cook with the beautiful rapini from Flora Bella (see the recipe here), and found I had run out of them. Zut alors! I used a combination of yellow-eyed beans, black-eyed peas and barbecue beans, which tasted fine but didn't look as good, which is why I didn't post a picture. This week I bought both lima beans and rapini, so I have hopes of an attractive and tasty bean dish this week.

Larry bought an organic brisket from Rocky Canyon Farms where the cows eat grass until the day they are driven to the slaughterhouse. I think if you're going to eat a cow, it's nice to let it have a good life first. Also, for your health, grass-fed creates less inflammation in the human body than corn-fed does. (Most grass-fed cows are fed corn for the last 3-6 weeks of their lives to create more marbling in the flesh.)

We discussed grapefruits with Jorge. The ones we've been eating are sweet with yellow flesh. He says they're pink grapefruit, so named because of the color of the skin - there's a pink blush on it - not the color of the flesh. He gave us two ruby grapefruit to try - they will have pink flesh, he says. I hope they taste as good as the pink ones. (Are you confused now too?)

We also learned that the blueberry bushes at Forbidden Fruit Orchards near Santa Barbara got frosted this week, so no more blueberries from them until spring. I hope our bushes will be fruiting then too.

Still no rutabagas at the market. Instead I had to once again restrain myself from gathering armloads of squash -- this week we'll start eating our Thanksgiving decorations.

Here's the organic produce that we did bring home:
olive oil, feta, pistachios in the shell, 4 cups plain St. Benoit yogurt, blueberries, 1 dozen eggs, 13 German butterball potatoes, 4 tangerines, 2 heads garlic, cherry tomatoes, 8 red potatoes, purple curly kale, 1 red pepper, carrots, purple mustard greens, young turnips with tops, beets with tops, rapini, parsnips, cauliflower, 2 chestnut sweet potatoes, 1 lb coffee, 1 green pepper, 8 pink grapefruit, 2 ruby grapefruit, 2 lbs each of lima beans, Christmas limas and chickpeas. Russ sharpened two of our kitchen knives while we shopped.