Not too much this week; spring break was a nice change of
pace. I’ve actually had the energy to do
some cooking, though not much by way of new recipes. I did still have to meet with my capstone
team to practice our presentation so far, which went pretty well. I think our recent meetings have really
improved our communications and reduced friction within the group. So that’s nice.
Shopping: Buy all the Ponies! D:<
The other night, I went looking on Amazon at My Little Pony:
Friendship is Magic stuff. That was a
huge mistake, though I didn’t actually buy anything. I did find this Rainbow Dash soda, Fizzy Cherry Splash. I have no idea where you
buy it, but there it is on Amazon, for $9.00.
Another thing that I’ve looked at for a long time is the Twilight Sparkle boombox, which is awesome, but poor quality. I think that it would be better to put MLP
stickers on a nicer radio, so you could get some decent sound.
Sounds brilliant, doesn’t it? Bananas, chocolate chips, and cookies?! I saw this recipe on Pinterest, and it’s
taken me a couple of days to track down the original source, which happens to
be the Burlap Bag. I did this because
it’s got two ingredients, bananas and oatmeal, and I had all of them. Then I threw in some chocolate chips, and
baked ‘em. I thought these were good,
but not very cookie-ish. The kids were
totally sold on them, though, and I think they’d make for a great, healthy
snack. If I was looking to make them
more like a cookie, I’d add one-quarter to one-half a cup of flour, a bit of baking
powder, and some vanilla. Maybe some
peanut butter or an egg. This is what I
will do next time, whenever I next have old bananas. Also, I kept finding people writing banana’s,
rather than bananas. A banana’s what?! xP
Local Living: Monterey Friday Farmers Market Review
This past Friday we did go to the Monterey farmers market;
this market is open year round, Fridays from 10-2pm, at Monterey Peninsula
College. I had been interested in going,
because this market is operated by the Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Markets
association, whose markets I had never visited before.
Sadly, this market actually kind of disappointed me. Finding the place was somewhat difficult; there
were no signs at the street or entrance to the parking lot. It is held at the Monterey Peninsula College,
which apparently offers classes on Fridays, making it even more confusing as to
where to go, because you can’t simply look for a grouping of cars and people. There were no garbage cans whatsoever, the
porta-potties were placed oddly in a planter, and I didn’t see anyone who
looked like a market manager the entire time we were there. Granted, I could have just missed him/her,
but there was also no booth specifically for information about the market or to
meet the manager. One of the vendors
also had dogs with them in their stall, which is a huge no-no.
The mix of vendors was also a little odd; there were
numerous flower and plant vendors, but relatively few vendors with staple foods. I did like the vendor that was selling walnuts
and dried fruit (did not get the name), and it is always good to see Beckmann’s,
but when I decided to buy cucumbers and green onions, the only vendor in the
market selling those items was all out.
Keep in mind that this was right about noon, so only halfway through the
market time. There was a surprising
amount of organic farmers in the market, which was nice to see. I think the problem with this mix of vendors
is the time of the market; at an evening or afternoon market, like the Tuesday
market in old Monterey, the emphasis is on hot food and entertainment, while
morning markets tend to have an emphasis on general grocery shopping. This market was not good at either. Overall, I’m not sure I’d go back again; it
does have some great vendors, but nothing unusual enough to make the special
trip.
Until next week!
(images via The Burlap Bag, Amazon and the MBCFM website)
