Today turned out to be a gorgeous, sunny fall day, perfect for a long stroll down to the Italian Market. We picked up some dried porcini mushrooms and bay leaves at the spice store and a few odds and ends at Fante's kitchen supply, including a squeeze bottle and pastry tips for making our plating look pretty. We ended the morning errands at Headhouse Farmers Market for six pounds of beets, a gallon of fresh apple cider, a purple cauliflower, and some scallions (for tonight's dinner, not for Thanksgiving).
Now that we're home with the bounty, we've got some other tasks to do. For one thing, the six bunches of beets came with six bunches of beet greens, which we're not planning to use for the meal and which Michael is currently attempting to tame into something that will taste good over pasta. Wish him luck, won't you? We also want to try to familiarize ourselves with the workings of our new pastry bag before the big day, and I want to make sure that quail eggs behave as I expect them to. Bought a dozen of 'em for testing purposes at the Chinese grocery store, of all places.
Speaking of which, there's still more shopping to do. In fact, it wouldn't be unusual for us to go to six or eight different stores to pick up the supplies that we need. So far, we've made five separate shopping stops: Clark Park farmers market, Headhouse Square farmers market, the spice store in the Italian market, Fantes, and Moore Brothers for the wine. We'll probably still end up at Reading Terminal Market, Whole Foods, maybe Trader Joe's, and definitely DiBruno Brothers. We probably could manage it in fewer trips, but why? I'm not going to bother getting onions at Whole Foods when I can get them from the farmers market instead, but clearly that's the not the right place to pick up lemons or several bags of all-purpose flour. On the flip side, there are people selling goat cheese at the farmers market, but I'd rather get it from DiBruno Brothers, because I know how it tastes and behaves. Hey, we only do this once a year, so we're gonna do it right.
Bonus photos!
Brussels sprouts from our Keystone Farms CSA share, still on the stalk:
The wine lineup:
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