Self-indulgence: it's better than cake
I will admit, I don't think much of birthdays as a general rule. I long ago trained myself to think of them as just "any other day" because, well...disappointment gets old really quick.
That said, I decided to do nothing yesterday that was not a treat. Well, almost nothing. I had to wash clothes if I wanted clean clothes for work for today. But really, that's no big deal. Up at eight per the current norm to get Yin fed and give him his shot. I was still pretty tired, as the past week was very stressful, and from Tues to Fri, I got...maybe five hours sleep each night? Maybe?
I've been meaning to get down to the Memphis Farmer's Market since it opened at the end of April, but lately I've been opening on Saturdays. So I decided to go find it yesterday morning. Headed out about 9:30. I kinda lost an hour, because the mapping software had me turn left when I should have turned right. But other than time and a dollar (parking) nothing major was nice, and I had a nice walk down the Main Street Mall. Finally found one of the maps and figured out where I should have been.
Side Note: Peabody Place Mall is really, really sad now. A pity, given how much went into it, and how nice it actually is.
At any rate, I did find the market and it was made of win and pie. Well. Win and rows upon rows of gorgeous produce some of which could become pie, so same thing. All the growers are relatively local, and many of them are organic/sustainable so that made me happy. My hope was to find my birthday dinner ingredients at the market. West Wind Farms is usually there, and I wanted to get a steak. Had to get two steaks, actually, since they cryovac them in pairs and freeze them for transport, which meant I spent 43.00 on two beautiful grass-fed, organic rib-eyes, each of which weighed over a pound. Yeah that seems expensive to some people I know. But that's four steak dinners for me, because I cut the steaks in half. A little over ten bucks a meal for an 8oz ribeye dinner? That is cheap, considering you'd pay almost three times that for a steak that size of lesser quality at even some chain restaurants.
I also spent a little over twenty-five on side things. Six bucks at one place got me a couple heads of oakleaf lettuce, a huge bag of shisho leaves, and some chocolate mint, all organic. Three-fifty got a nice bundle of firm shitake mushrooms. Five bucks netted a large bunch of organic baby carrots, greens and dirt still attached. Three for some green tomatoes, three for some organic eight-ball squash, and five for a loaf of semolina rounded everything out. Oh! And my squash blossoms. Two bucks got me six squash blossoms. I've always wanted to try those.
After that, I trotted on down to the Half-Shell for brunch, shrimp and grits Benedict with pain perdue. Headed home, put my close in the wash, put away my goodies, and then crawled back in bed for a nice nap.
Here's my haul. Isn't it pretty?
Trudy and Mike went out for the night, so I had the kitchen to myself. Decided to toss in The Princess Bride while I cooked. First thing, I divided my steaks, put the extra in the freezer and set the half I was going to cook out to come to room temperature while I prepped my veggies.
Look at the color on that meat. Supermarket meat doesn't look like that, all pale and blah. And the marbling! So pretty! I like my beef rare, so I just hit it with a bit of salt and pepper on both sides right before tossing it in a ripping hot iron skillet. Once it was nicely seared on one side, I flipped it and put it in the oven (which I had preheated and turned off) to finish up.
I decided I was going to have my steak over a bed of the oakleaf, with a saute of green tomatoes, shitakes, baby carrots, and squash. I wanted to do a quick fry on the squash blossoms and shiso, because I like the crunchy. Washed the lettuce, shisho and blossoms, and diced one tomato, one squash, and about six shitakes.
End result. Not the most finessed plate out there, but it still looks damn tasty if I do say so myself. I used the steak drippings to dress my lettuce, which, while tasty, wasn't the best choice considering that I used a bit too much oil in my veggie saute. So the meal was very rich, but I had some sliced of my semolina to cut it. And really, look at that steak all sliced up and looking sexy. It was so tender it almost fell apart.
Now with frosty beverage!
So yes, I had a good birthday. Thanks so much for all the good wishes, everyone.
That said, I decided to do nothing yesterday that was not a treat. Well, almost nothing. I had to wash clothes if I wanted clean clothes for work for today. But really, that's no big deal. Up at eight per the current norm to get Yin fed and give him his shot. I was still pretty tired, as the past week was very stressful, and from Tues to Fri, I got...maybe five hours sleep each night? Maybe?
I've been meaning to get down to the Memphis Farmer's Market since it opened at the end of April, but lately I've been opening on Saturdays. So I decided to go find it yesterday morning. Headed out about 9:30. I kinda lost an hour, because the mapping software had me turn left when I should have turned right. But other than time and a dollar (parking) nothing major was nice, and I had a nice walk down the Main Street Mall. Finally found one of the maps and figured out where I should have been.
Side Note: Peabody Place Mall is really, really sad now. A pity, given how much went into it, and how nice it actually is.
At any rate, I did find the market and it was made of win and pie. Well. Win and rows upon rows of gorgeous produce some of which could become pie, so same thing. All the growers are relatively local, and many of them are organic/sustainable so that made me happy. My hope was to find my birthday dinner ingredients at the market. West Wind Farms is usually there, and I wanted to get a steak. Had to get two steaks, actually, since they cryovac them in pairs and freeze them for transport, which meant I spent 43.00 on two beautiful grass-fed, organic rib-eyes, each of which weighed over a pound. Yeah that seems expensive to some people I know. But that's four steak dinners for me, because I cut the steaks in half. A little over ten bucks a meal for an 8oz ribeye dinner? That is cheap, considering you'd pay almost three times that for a steak that size of lesser quality at even some chain restaurants.
I also spent a little over twenty-five on side things. Six bucks at one place got me a couple heads of oakleaf lettuce, a huge bag of shisho leaves, and some chocolate mint, all organic. Three-fifty got a nice bundle of firm shitake mushrooms. Five bucks netted a large bunch of organic baby carrots, greens and dirt still attached. Three for some green tomatoes, three for some organic eight-ball squash, and five for a loaf of semolina rounded everything out. Oh! And my squash blossoms. Two bucks got me six squash blossoms. I've always wanted to try those.
After that, I trotted on down to the Half-Shell for brunch, shrimp and grits Benedict with pain perdue. Headed home, put my close in the wash, put away my goodies, and then crawled back in bed for a nice nap.
Here's my haul. Isn't it pretty?
Trudy and Mike went out for the night, so I had the kitchen to myself. Decided to toss in The Princess Bride while I cooked. First thing, I divided my steaks, put the extra in the freezer and set the half I was going to cook out to come to room temperature while I prepped my veggies.
Look at the color on that meat. Supermarket meat doesn't look like that, all pale and blah. And the marbling! So pretty! I like my beef rare, so I just hit it with a bit of salt and pepper on both sides right before tossing it in a ripping hot iron skillet. Once it was nicely seared on one side, I flipped it and put it in the oven (which I had preheated and turned off) to finish up.
I decided I was going to have my steak over a bed of the oakleaf, with a saute of green tomatoes, shitakes, baby carrots, and squash. I wanted to do a quick fry on the squash blossoms and shiso, because I like the crunchy. Washed the lettuce, shisho and blossoms, and diced one tomato, one squash, and about six shitakes.
End result. Not the most finessed plate out there, but it still looks damn tasty if I do say so myself. I used the steak drippings to dress my lettuce, which, while tasty, wasn't the best choice considering that I used a bit too much oil in my veggie saute. So the meal was very rich, but I had some sliced of my semolina to cut it. And really, look at that steak all sliced up and looking sexy. It was so tender it almost fell apart.
Now with frosty beverage!
So yes, I had a good birthday. Thanks so much for all the good wishes, everyone.