Sunday Shopping

Today we were on a mission at the Hollywood Farmers Market. This is Labor Day weekend - our traditional time to put up salsa. It is usually a very hot weekend, and we throw pounds of tomatoes into boiling water to peel, and then stir steaming pots of tomatoes and chilies in our non air-conditioned kitchen.

Traditions require a little work. You can read about our salsa-making weekend, and see the recipe for this famous (well, within the family) salsa here.

This year we have had air conditioning installed. However, maybe we won't turn it on. After all, working up a good sweat is part of the tradition.

The chiles will come from our garden - we have guayanan habaneros, serranos, jalapeños and fish peppers. However, we have to buy the tomatoes - our plants are woefully under-producing.

So our first stop this morning was at Finley Farms' stall, where we bought 10 lbs of San Marzano tomatoes. These are paste tomatoes - more flesh than juice - so they won't cook down too much and we'll get lots of salsa.

Larry took these back to the car, and then we proceeded with the rest of our shopping. (By the way, I mentioned last week that I had planned to make ratatouille but there was no eggplant. This week, the eggplants were back. I bought one to stuff.)

Here's what we brought home: 1 large and 4 small plain St. Benoit yogurts, 8 large shiitake mushrooms, 1 dozen eggs, 2 heads garlic, 2 red onions, 10 lbs san marzano tomatoes, 1 red butter lettuce, 2 tangelos, 4 limes, 1 cantaloupe, 3 red peppers, 1 eggplant, 1 head celery, 1 avocado, 5 tsugaru apples, 1 1/2 lbs small red potatoes, 2 beefsteak tomatoes, 2 heirloom tomatoes, 16 oranges