In an effort to ensure that I get work done in the next few days, I have pre-emptively scheduled a celebration in the form of a dinner party, for which I intend to make the long-anticipated mushroom strudel with morel cream sauce.
This intention necessitated the purchase of a quarter pound of morels. It did not necessitate the further purchase of another eighth of a pound, which I acquired for my own nefarious purposes. Yum.
Of course I also had to pick up a couple of pounds of white mushrooms and a pound of crimini for the strudel itself, and quite a lot of asparagus for cream-of-asparagus soup. And then more asparagus, and a pound of sirloin, for a beef-and-asparagus curry I had a sudden craving for last night. And while I was picking up the sirloin I decided to get a small chuck roast as well, since I imagine we'll have another few cold wet days before the month's out, and a pot roast takes the edge off that nicely; so then I had to pick up a couple of pounds of carola potatoes.
Sorrel and ramps are still in, but won't be for much longer, so I picked up a bit of each of those, and some sauté greens as well (a mix of arugula, chard, mustard greens, tat soi, bok choi, and mizuna that I use in risotto and in other contexts where I want something more peppery than spinach and/or where spinach would disintegrate too much).
I arrived at the market a couple of hours later than I usually do, partly because I wanted to sleep in and partly because I needed to wait until the post office was open (:::waves at
elynross:::); and though the crush of people was correspondingly more annoying, it was nice to be there mid-morning, with the sunshine and the corner activists. The Green Party table was being staffed by a guy I know from the Tyson strike in Jefferson last year, and I had a nice chat with the grandparent-types at the PFLAG table.
The tulips are over (though there were still a few at some of the flower stalls); it's all lilacs and lily-of-the-valley and love-lies-bleeding, the first of the hanging baskets starting to appear, and little pots of lavender and lemon basil. And me weaving through strollers and commencement-weekend parents, waving at the vendors I know and getting teased for being behind my time, and generally feeling that there's nothing else I'd rather be doing at that moment.
Happy spring, everybody.