day three: lunch and dinner and a market too

For lunch today I made Eggplant Ragout which sounds much fancier than it tastes. I needed a zucchini for the recipe so I walked down my street to the Wednesday Farmers Market. The farmers were still unpacking and the air was so chilly that everyone was wearing fleece and hats. I loved it. I spotted some zucchini-looking-things and asked what they were. Papusa squash -- a cousin of the zucchini except that they hold together better while cooking. Perfect; I bought six. I also bought some raspberries and leeks (for soup later this week (not the raspberries)). I snacked on the raspberries all day, realizing that I cannot actually find Martha recipes for snacks as well. However, I will definitely eat local snacks like raspberries and popcorn.

For dinner I made mashed potatoes and buttered carrots with parsley. I love how much better things taste when I follow a recipe. Before this week, I would have boiled the yukon potatoes and maybe swished them around in a skillet with some olive oil. The carrots would have been thrown on my plate, raw and unpeeled. I had to innovate with Martha's mashed potatoes a bit since she called for either a ricer or one of those amazing Kitchen-Aid mixers that I really really want but won't get until I at least graduate and move to a bigger place, or until I maybe find one on the curb (haha). Instead I took what I had -- a plastic potato masher and mashed them up real good before adding the butter and the warmed milk. Both the potatoes and the carrots had perfect flavors and tasted great alongside the Wollersheim wine I drank.

For once, an early dinner. I think tomorrow I will make some bread. I can't wait for the weekend; I am planning a pizza night and a homemade pasta night -- both firsts for me!