Jamie's Perfect Saturday :)

Yesterday was a lovely, restful day. Market in the morning, napping and cooking all afternoon, pot luck dinner at a friend's in the evening. I feel very fed and rested today. After the hectic last few weeks (months?), it was delightful. The day started with getting the girls up and packed off to gym and their night with mom. Gym on Saturdays starts at 9 so that leaves the rest of the day free. This week wasn't my week to set up the farmer's market, so I just hung out for awhile, visited with folks. This week, the market had bread, asparagus, mushrooms, plants, flowers bouquets, rhubarb and strawberries! The first of the season! So cute and sweet, just the perfect berries, even if they are a bit tardy in showing up. That left the afternoon for napping and getting ready for a market potluck. No work, no wedding planning, just wandering around, snacking on strawberries, snow peas and fresh bread. The theme for the potluck was to use what was available in the market this week. We've so busy getting the market up and running, plus keeping our jobs and families running, there hasn't been much time for just hanging out. For Christmas last year, Aunt Nancy gave me the cookbook: Wild Mushrooms (Northwest Homegrown Cookbook Series) by Cynthia C Nims (Author), a perfect resource to figure out what to do with morels, shitakes and miatakes (my favorite because the look so weird) found at the Camas Farmer's Market this year. For the potluck, we brought "Warm Spinach Salad with Wild Mushrooms, Bacon, and Hazelnuts" with the spinach (Purple Rain Vineyard) and mushrooms (Nature's Choice) from the market (shallots could have been too, but I still have some from my own winter store), and the bacon from a local favorite, Dee Creek Farm. We also brought a Strawberry-Rhubbard Crisp adapted from a Boston Globe recipe, with strawberries (Hill Tree Farm), rhubarb (Lacamas Lavender Farm) and honey (6-Acre Farm) from the market. If I would have thought of it, I would have brought deviled eggs too. But because we have our own egg producers, I never think to buy eggs from the market, and our own egg consumption has been keeping up with supply. Not that I needed to bring three dishes, I just sometimes go a little overboard for these things. There was so much food! Lots of strawberry and strawberry / rhubarb options (shortcake, pie, just yummy strawberries, real whipped cream), roast lamb from Farm Direct Meats (so yummy, I ordered some today for us), roasted asparagus, salads with young tender greens, and mojitos with fresh mint (and local honey on request). It was a lovely, social time. Sorry, no pictures to share. You'll all just have to imagine, and visit your own farmer's market for your own tasty treats.