This Sunday at the Market

Tomatoes!

They're looking gorgeous - so colorful and flavorful even... and I generally don't like tomatoes... but how could I resist. I bought 3. I also got:
a rainbow assortment of radishes
3 zucchini ($9 for this & the above 2)
basil ($1)
mint ($1)
watercress ($1)
mixed baby greens ($3)
broccoli crowns (2@$1)
3 pounds of apples (I asked for 2 and he gave me the extra pound gratis) ($6)
golden & red raspberries ($6)
3 pink grapefruits ($2)
1 lb. each raw almonds & raw walnuts ($15.50 total)
dates ($4 - guilty pleasure)
a jar of strawberry jam ($6 - but soooo worth it)
and a basket of figs. ($1.50)

I returned 3 empty cartons of eggs to Tomas from Lily's farms & got a chicken ($13). I also returned an empty glass jar for jam to the people i'd gotten some apple jelly from - they gave me a quarter.

I also got a pound of Bison cubes to make Bison Fondue ($10). The recipe looked interesting... I bought them despite the fact that I cancelled what was to be another meeting of our 'Diner's Club'. I popped the bison into the freezer.

On tuesday I received a text from Michelangelo:

Whenever we convene the food society again i'm coming with you to the farmers market and we're going to eat buffalo steaks ok?

I told him Sunday was the next time I'd be free, and Linder's Bison is always there. So we set sunday as the day... I asked if it was just him or if Ara was joining... he went and invited Ara... ok - no problem.

Last night (saturday) I contacted him on AIM to find out what time he'll be meeting me at the market - that I'll be getting there around 9:30...

Mike - Why so early?
Sharon - because it's from 8 til 1:30, and i don't want to go when it's too hot or too crowded
M - but i'm entertaining tonight
S - um - we had plans to shop together - what time will you be up?
M - I invited Holly too.
(now i love holly to pieces - and she's always welcome, and she always appreciates my cooking - wonderful guest)
S - At what point was I to find out about this? That's it - deal's off... I'm not shopping alone and then cooking and setting up for dinner for 4 all by my self.

I've been underemployed for too long - and I go to the effort of carefully selecting fresh, organic, seasonal, locally and hopefully ethically/sustainably grown foods... but I can't foot the bill and feed 3 other people when all they bring is a $10 bottle of wine or a box of eggo waffles.

That was $80 of groceries! not that all those items will go into one meal... but if I'd gotten 2 pounds of bison (enough for 4) that would have been about $20.

I'm over it. I was going through my cranky/blue moment - and now i'm just taking it in stride... i've mellowed... and i'm just dismissing the whole hassle of Mike... he can be so obnoxious... i should know better... i've known him for over 10 years now... washing my hands of his silliness effective immediately... and it's in print!