So Wednesday, I made elbow noodles, broiled some zucchini, chopped some leftover tomatoes, made some rice, and sauteed chicken, adding lots of cherry-serrano jelly at the end. The chicken and rice went together to make dinner. The other stuff went in a casserole dish and into the freezer. It will be removed, heavily cheesed, and eaten when I don’t feel like cooking (like maybe next week).

I got some that weren’t quite red yet, so I let them mellow a few days. I had already eaten at a wedding reception, but I knew tonight was the night. So I busted out the broiling pan, seeded the peppers and sliced them (they are long peppers, so I just kind of quartered them), then drizzled with a little EVOO and a bit of sea salt and pepper. Under the broiler they went!

I cooked them for about 5 minutes… I don’t use a timer as often as I should. But they came out amazing. Smooth, soft, melty, and definitely sweet. The sea salt and pepper balanced the natural sweetness well. I find that red peppers are amazing if you cook them with high heat. They need to melt in your mouth and be carmelized. These were not at all spicy, just perfect.

Mmmmmmm.

I decided to get all four varieties of heirlooms this week. I was planning to try them and figure out which one I liked best. There was a big, beautiful Brandywine, some Bulgarian and Hungarian heirlooms, and a zebra tomato. I don’t know which was which with the Bulgarian and Hungarian, but it was one of those I loved. And guess what?

It was the ugliest tomato. Purple and green. Looked plain weird to my grocery store trained eyes. But I tasted it and it was the most amazing tomato. Such a wonderful tomato flavor, just sweet enough, just sour enough, just salty enough.

All my heirloom tomatoes are now part of a huge bowl of salsa fresca. They are mingling with some onion, 3 jalepenos (no seeds!!!), some cilantro, lime juice, and salt. Today they will be a delicious part of the most awesomest dinner ever. Quesadillas with fresh salsa FTW!

Next week I plan to buy a whole bunch of those ugly tomatoes. They are so good!

I also got figs. Never had figs before. I didn’t even know what they were until the farmer told me. He let me try one. They are really sweet and juicy, so I bought three and ate them up this morning. So good.

I love my farmers’ market!

Wednesday I felt generally blah. I left work early and went to the farmers’ market. That lifted my spirits. They had tomatoes, squash, and pumpernickel bread. Happy times.

Saturday was day of crappy work junk. Sometimes I hate being floor super on Saturdays cause everything goes wrong and no one else is there. Grr. However, all those were solved.

Today my pastor’s preaching cut straight to my heart. I gave him a little trouble (”Stop preaching directly to me like that! It’s scary!”), but I like that he really hears the Holy Spirit and preaches in a way that has an impact on people. It was all about looking for a spouse. I got some prayer, too. Really, really needed it. I cleared up some things with a friend and I feel better overall.

I have lots of wonderful books to read as I hide inside during this awful heat! I’ve also been playing FFXII. Doing lots of leveling and entering areas I didn’t dare to tread (aka The Zertinian Caverns) on a much lower level than I thought possible.

I also have use of the washer and dryer back! I did two weeks worth of laundry and, since my gas bill is low and should stay that way, have been rack drying my clothes again. It takes longer (about 24 hours per load), but is worth it.

Going to a Cards game tomorrow! I have tons to do in the morning, including cleaning the linen closet, copying my keys, and getting something with which to hang things on the wall. Also dropping books off at the library. But the rest of the day will be a fun day!

I made some nummy home fries with the white new potatoes I got. It was kinda like this:

1 tbsp. bacon grease (or veggie oil or perhaps butter, but that’s a little iffy)

1 large (or 2 medium) shallot(s), diced

1 lb. new potatoes, cut into small pieces

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp seasoned salt

Warm bacon grease over medium heat in a skillet. Add shallots and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes. Add potatoes and seasonings. Toss a bit and cover. Cook about 5 minutes. Uncover, cook for another 5 minutes. Turn heat on high and cook till potatoes are brown.

Eat. Mmm.

I plan to make more streusel tonight with my ENORMOUS blackberries.

Tonight: Leftover chicken, roasted potatoes and garlic scapes. It looks promisingly delish!

And it was! I doused the chicken in a light dusting of flour and pan-fried the crust. It made the chicken look and taste different, but it was still the amazing marinated chicken from the dinner party. Then I sliced up 3 well-scrubbed Idaho potatoes and cut my garlic scapes into pieces. They were tossed on a cookie sheet with EVOO, sea salt, and pepper and roasted at about 450 for 25 minutes. Delicious. The garlic scapes came out a bit more cooked than I liked, but they were still delicious with that hint of garlic flavor, not as strong as a clove of it but still lovely. Apparently garlic scapes are delicate little beasties. I should have added them halfway through cooking time.

I also had some market fresh strawberries. Strawberries aren’t good for long. They turn from lush and tangy to mushy and moldy lightning fast, so I ate them tonight for the good of mankind. They were great. Not super crazy sweet. A little tart, and even a little earthy. They were delicious. I ate them while reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (which is an awesome book, btw). Nice!

Tomorrow I will broil my asparagus! I think I will have it with some kind of rice, probably brown because I don’t think I want to fuss with meat. I usually gobble up my farmers’ market finds in a couple days, which is good. Limp asparagus and mushy tomatoes are sad things to have. Better to eat a less-meat produce-rich diet now, while these lovely bounties of God’s earth are in season, than in the dead of winter. These delicious finds have really turned me off of grocery store produce. Farm-fresh stuff has more complex and lovely flavor. And less danger of contamination, which has cropped up all over even those nice organic farms. This contamination is now in my delicious tomato friends, further reinforcing my decision to stick to local produce.