Witness the Bounty!

Yesterday was a big day, my friends! It was the opening day of the downtown Portland Farmers' Market (an important thing to remember about the Portland Farmers' Market: Yes, you DO have to feed the meters on Saturday. Found this out the hard way...)! I didn't think I'd be able to control myself, but I actually came away with an amount of stuff that I could carry back to the car in one trip. Let's see, what have we got there... Looks like some leeks, shallot greens, a quarter pound of Juniper Grove Redmondo (aged about 9 months, mildly goaty, slightly pungent, nutty flavor), broccoli rabe, Rogue Creamery pesto cheese curds, a couple of Nikola potatoes, some runty early season carrots, stinging nettle and yellowfoot mushrooms. What am I going to do with all this, you ask? Well, when I got home yesterday I julienned one of the leeks, sauteed it with the mushrooms, added some cream, reduced and finished with a little butter, tossed it with some whole wheat fettucine and topped it all with some grilled chicken for lunch (downing most of the pesto curds, along with a double deuce of Rogue Hazelnut Brown, in the process; gotta have fuel for hard work like this, y'know...). Right now I'm about to make some pesto with the nettles. And I'm making inroads on the Redmondo (perfect, sliced thinly, with some crusty bread and good olive oil). The rest is sitting in my crisper drawer awaiting future projects.

And speaking of future projects, allow me to show off my new toy:


I found this on Craigslist. It's the big one, the 500-watt, 6 qt model. I've been wanting one of these for a while now, but they're way too expensive new. I got a pretty good deal on this guy (thank you, Craig!). Sort of dwarfs the cordless drill, wouldn't you say?