I’m happy to report that I’ve made it to the farmer’s market every week for a month now! Last Sunday, Robert came with me. I thought he would be bored and impatient but, it turns out, he really enjoyed himself. More than me even! See, I really want to be one of those people that goes to the farmer’s market and casually chats up the farmers and spontaneously buys whatever looks fresh and turns it into a meal. But I’m not. Instead, I’m your typical introverted Seattleite and I thrive on order over chaos. Apparently, Robert is the opposite. He was asking questions and getting free samples and really getting into the whole thing. He picked out some veggies and made a delicious farm-fresh stir-fry that evening. I think he’s getting inspired by the Eat Feed podcasts we have been listening to. They cover different food themes each week, anything from the history of ice cream to modern-day Hawaiian cuisine, and are each quite fascinating. Go to eatfeed.com to download the podcasts or to podcastalley.com to learn more about podcasts in general and to choose from a variety of topics to fit your tastes.

Yesterday turned out to be my day of new experiences! For our Friday lunch outing, my friend and I tried a new sushi restaurant. Then, after work, I went to my new neighborhood farmer’s market. It was much busier than I expected which is great! I bought bing cherries, fresh peaches, baby beets with their greens still attached, purple “green” beans (which will probably turn green when cooked anyway), green and yellow zucchini no bigger than my thumb, some long spiral sesame breadsticks and two hazelnut shortbread cookies. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all of it yet but I’m sure it will be delicious. Since the farmer’s market is so close to my home, I’m planning on making this a regular thing. Plus, with Trader Joe’s right in between, I can turn it into a whole shopping experience.

For dinner, Robert and I went to the Vietnamese-fusion restaurant, Monsoon, voted as one the best neighborhood restaurants in Seattle by Bon Appetit. I have been wanting to eat there forever. It’s a bit farther than our normal walk for dinner but still in the neighborhood. We started with the crab and shrimp spring rolls which were very crisp and quite good. Robert had the cubed flank steak which was very well-seasoned (yes, I did try a little tiny piece.) I had the catfish claypot which was perfectly cooked and very flavorful too. I should have added a vegetable dish for us to share because they had some nice seasonal options available and neither of our dishes came with vegetables. It was a bit pricey but not overly so. Plus, as I’ve said before, it’s good to get out of that rut and go out for a nice dinner every once in a while.

Well, the results are in and not one of my recipes won in epicurious.com’s Best Vegetarian Recipe Contest. That’s so lame. The winning recipes are lame too. It’s not like I wanted a built-in microwave but the bragging rights would have been nice. OK, that’s enough ranting. I submitted my recipe for Bolivian corn chowder figuring that, although I feel chipotle chilies are now over used, people still tend to gravitate towards recipes containing them…apparently, I was correct because one of the winning recipes is Chipotle Sweet Potato Gratin. I also turned in recipes for Asian Slaw, Cashew Korma and Posole Verde. I thought Posole Verde might have a shot because there are few good vegetarian hominy recipes out there. Maybe the 2 to 3 unseeded serranos called for in the recipe scared them off. Maybe I’ll enter my Green Bean Salad recipe in this month’s Best Summer Salad contest. It also has chipotles but I’ll have to check with my mom to see where we got the original recipe from (you know, in case it’s actually from epicurious.com or something.) In other news, I’m going to check out the Capitol Hill farmer’s market this afternoon. I’m really interested to see what they have there because it’s only about 7 blocks from my apartment!