market of farmers

so the first time i just dropped by with Cj. (i tried CJ and cj but i like the Cj looks better!)
second time i rolled out of bed and rushed there.

this time i didn't.

things are always a LITTLE different every time i go.
today as i walked there the music was an older man in a black cowboy get up singing 'walk the line'... he was good.
i walked around to find the best price for fruits (usually always like 2-2.50/lb! crazy!) and of course trying all the pluot, plum, and other fruit samples.
i love the smells.
strawberries have the most pervading smells.

tried a sample raspberry.
it was a furry, mushy bland thing in my mouth. igg

had some aged gouda.  so gouda. ^_^

i realized i dislike it when people hawk their goods .

there's this one stand i always go to where i get a bag of grapefruit for $3.. best deal there. and great grapefruit; except last time i got mushier ones and so some were going bad early... SO this time i made sure to get firm ones.

i also bought a mushroom focaccia bun thingie... the bread part was really gummy and tough.  i was debating between that and the eggplant focaccia, but.. I guess I'll never know.
whole wheat organic usually ALWAYS fails.
It was also $4


Then I saw a stand of delicious nectarines and peaches for $1.50/lb! even MORe deLish! hehehe.
barely eked by with $4.80.... i had change *whew*.


I didn't have cash by then so I couldn't stop by trader joe's to buy my veggies.  i loooove cherry tomatoes btw for snacks.  and blueberries.

I guess this summer tart blackberries have been replaced by its sweeter, rounder alternative!


Um, the pastries there aren't that great.. I kept on walking around and nothing attracted me.
and i wanted a tamale but.. 7.50?  NO FReaKIng WAy!  hOtTamAle!

and i realized farmer's market kettle corn is a rip off compared to TJ's.


when i made my second round, the cowboy man in black was playing country roads.. and this little boy was stoically doing the electric slide, by himself.  I confess, I stared a little closely at his face to try to discern if he was a boy with special needs, i don't think he was.  I smiled a little at him.  he just continued to .. do his weird slightly off-rhythm shuffled footed electric slide.  thought of joining him. didn't.   i realized though, when you're around that age, it's still okay to... do things like that.  ... but then, i don't know. he looked about 11 or 12.. aren't boys "cool" by then?  he was seriously BY HIMSELF.

heh.


UM i had a REALLY cool way of how I wanted to write about my experiences, including the lines including like "squarer jaw for a little person" about the boy... but.. I forgot! so now it's just a brain dump.

Appleberry Cobbler

i roughly followed pioneer woman's blackberry cobbler recipe  (i was gonna follow this one but i didn't have self-rising flour; and it seemed pretty important to the recipe)

combined

about 6 cups total of frozen blackberries (3 cups), frozen blueberries (2 cups), and 2 small apples chopped (minus the peel because the peel tasted so weird.... : ALWAYS taste your fruit before putting it into a dessert!  ...  usually i just leave the peel in though; because i'm lazy and my eaters are grateful regardless) ... i don't think the ratio of fruit matter.  i'm just recording it for my sake

a healthy drizzle of honey (~1/3 cup = bc honey is sweeter than sugar and bc i was in my mom's kitchen and couldn't find the sugar)

a half a ripe lemon juice (about 1 tb) 

half a lemon's lemon rind (cut up tinily b/c i couldn't find a grater)

then

preheated oven to 425 degrees.

then

combined

2 C whole wheat flour (no white flour/cake flour in the house.. don't think it makes a difference honestly.....)

1 tb of baking powder

1/4 tsp of kosher salt (couldn't find the normal salt til later)

1 tb of white sugar (i found it!.. i also eyeballed the measurement)

mixed it.

then, i thinly sliced in 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick!)  

this helped a lot in cutting in the butter since i don't have a pastry cutter.

i just use 2 knives (butter knives or steak knives are fine.. in this case i used steak knives since that's what i used to cut my apples)  and do awkward scissor motions.  the butter cuts into the flour relatively quickly; it works pretty well! .... DON'T melt the butter and mix it.. or use a blender or anything that horrendous.  thank you.

when the flour is coarse and coated tiny pieces of butter (about a quarter of a dime size)

then added: 1/2 cup milk into a 1 cup measurer (from the flour) and cracked an egg into it.  mixed it with a steak knife  (hey! less to wash!)   ... basically i eyeballed the milk measurement.

made a well in the flour mixture; poured in the milk. and roughly added more flour mixture into the center with the knife until most was combined.  then went in with my hands and tried to get into a ball more or less.

i rubbed a tart dish with butter

poured the fruit mixture (and juice) into it.

then tore off pieces of the dough and littered the top so that it looks like a cobblestone street! (hence the name cobbler...according to Pioneer Woman. hah)

THEnnnn into the oven for 30 minutes!  until the top is golden-browned!  which it was!

and was pretty good.

you could taste the lemon rind for sure and that REALLY made it pop.

the crust itself was aiight.  the berries were fine.

it was sort of watery:  i think that's why you need sugar.

you could probably also add some flour or corn starch into the mixture to thicken it.

ehh; don't care that much!  hah 

:-)