Thursday, December 29, 2005

Storm's A-Comin'

So we went out on this one day of not-so-rainy-gusty driveability and got — uh — food.
Four grocery stores, one farmers' market and three restaurants in a single day. I doubt that's a record, but I impressed myself.
The Marin farmers' market was skimpy today, but the basics were at hand. We got mushrooms to make beef stroganoff with our leftover Christmas roast beef. Potatoes to have with 1) the gravy I will make from the beef drippings, and 2) the New Year's Eve snicker-snack of roasted baby potatoes topped with crème fraîche and caviar. Some Huckleberry potatoes for — I dunno, a salad? — because I just read about them, and they're Pink Inside! Who could resist? And they're local. Some Marin wildflower honey for our tea, because ever since Eat Local August, we haven't used sugar. A couple of rolls for leftover roast beef sandwiches.
At the various stores: Rice vinegar to steep cloves of garlic in. Cowgirl Creamery crème fraîche and clabbered cottage cheese to experiment with on the caviar potatoes. A sack of black-eyed peas for New Year's Day "good luck" eatin'. Oh, some cans of English-style Heinz baked beans, for beans-on-toast. Some avocadoes on sale. Japanese rice seasoning (seaweed, salt, sesame seeds).
And at the restaurants: First, a sippy at one of our old Mill Valley haunts, followed by a gorgeous seafood repast of the mildest sort (though one could go way overboard, easily) at Fish, in Sausalito. We're going back; it's good. Then another sippy at another Mill Valley-Sausalito-ish, Christmasy place right off 101. Bar was so packed, one of us had to stand instead of sit. Who, I wonder?
Holidays. Lovely. And throughout this season, I've actually managed to shed a few pounds! (Too stressed to overeat? No, I love this season.)

6 comments:

Jocelyn:McAuliflower said...

Sounds like productive gathering!
Our obvious farmers markets have taken their yearly break :( Time for me to investigate and find new options (csa maybe?).

ZaZa said...

How is the Buckeye? I've seen that place since I was a kid and never been there. I'm always on my way to or from someplace else and it's never the right time or enough time to stop.

Guy said...

MMmmm, beef gravy.

Monkey Gland said...

You've shed pounds?

Up until a couple of days ago I was ballooning at a frankly startling rate, I have become zeppelin sized!

cookiecrumb said...

McA: CSA is good, but I'm always afraid I'll get too much and won't be able to eat it all. (Did you notice my link to you on this post? The word "garlic.")
B'Gina: Buckeye is very nice. It's a serious meat place, but I've always had great salads, upscale mac'n'cheese, etc. Jammed for the holidays.
Biggles: Mmmm. The fat, the drippings deglazed from the pan with wine, AND the juice that leaked out during carving, all mingling in a dish in the fridge, awaiting my touch.
MG: Hubster and I came to an agreement on co-eating (this wasn't a problem when we both worked and ate lunches separately, but unemployment has been a rather new experiment for us): I've finally declared that I will only eat what, and as much as, I want to, and he can jolly well go ahead and stuff himself. He rides his bike most days, so he's burning calories. I guess you'll have to quit the carbs again, eh?

Fran said...

How wonderful to have Farmer's Markets. Sounds like such fun.