Day off

To relax, I shop and I cook. I perform activities that are diametrically opposed to what I do at work and I avoid people. I love my wednesdays and I love going to the wednesdays' Santa Monica Farmers' market. It's a really happening place. I've bumped into Wolfgang Puck here and even chatted with him. There are all kinds of camera crews here and probably some of their shots are going to end up on the Food Network or magazines. Who knows. First I walk around and scan all the stalls to check out what is available and the prices. Then I make up a mental image of what I'm going to eat for lunch or dinner and I go around buying what I need. I take the bus there and back, at $1.25 a bus ride, it is still the best deal in town. All around me, I hear English, Spanish, French and Russian being spoken, every one's excited. I've never seen such incredible produce anywhere in the world, the French markets can't beat this market! It gets really crowded in the summer.

Onions, onions and more onions.

Mountains of garlic.

Aren't they pretty, these are really sweet peppers, great in salads.

With all this frenetic shopping, I get hungry and needed a little sustenance in the form of a cherry turnover, mmmmm delicious. I had it on my left hand and snap it with my camera in my right, it shook and the picture is blurry.

A herbal bouquet, I pinched the leaves and got the smell of Rosemary and Thyme on my fingers.

I got some Rosemary and Thyme for adding to the roasted potatoes.

A melange of potatoes, there are purple ones, red ones, yellow ones, round ones, and fingerlings, you've never so many varieties of new potatoes before.

They're cut into half and salt and pepper and olive oil added to toss, with lots of Rosemary and Thyme.

Place as a single layer on a roasting pan, roasted at 400 F for 45 minutes.

I love the salad mix being sold at the market. They add Calendula blossoms into it and it is so pretty. The guy who sold it to me this morning was very generous with the Calendula blossoms. Lunch is ready and I relax with a salad of greens, blossoms and heirloom tomatoes and some foreign magazines.

The remains of a meal....

The roasted potatoes are ready too and they smelled so good, taste good too, not just my opinion...I took some over to my other neighbor, Richard, he's a house husband. He liked it, I gave him the last of the salad mix. He watches my house when I'm away and picks up my mail and my newspapers.

I think I'm thoroughly decompressed now and can go back to work tomorrow at that pressure cooker job that I have.