Dinner in Decatur with all ingredients from (and a shoutout to) the amazing DeKalb Farmer's Market. This may have been a farmers' market once upon a time, but now it is a giant international grocery. It is unlike any other "super" market. For certain products they contract with only one supplier. For instance just about all pasta products are Delverde,. dozens and dozens of shapes and sizes. There was only one brand of milk, something organic, that is is phenomenally good, and I don't say that about milk very often. The variety of vegetables is remarkable. Four different sizes of collards alone. There was Culantro and Cubanelle peppers, along with just about any other fresh pepper you could name. There was a bin of fresh green peanuts in the shell: it's the season for boiled peanuts! A fabulous fish market. Lots of smoked turkey products that they make in house. Berkshire pork. Tropical fruits you never heard of. A zillion things for making Indian dishes, including curry leaves and kaffir lime leaves. And on and on, with a few very strange omissions.
My daughter says they don't carry any kind of tortillas, which is pretty weird, considering. Of course she shops in similar fashion as her father: fast and furious. and like him, if she doesn't see it right away she assumes they don't carry it. At least she has an excuse, like a full time job and toddler twins. Me, I'm dawdling and gawking. The most diverse bunch of shoppers you could imagine. Some jaw dropping turbans and other headgear and swooping African print dresses and saris.
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So, dinner was put together from our market trip. Cooking for four plus is not something I'm used to on a daily basis, but my husband and I managed pretty well. Mac n Cheese with Delverde small penne. You can't go wrong there with toddlers. Long cooked green beans cooked with heirloom tomatoes, fresh beans and house cut hickory smoked bacon. Thanks to the twins, lots of leftovers there! Rotisserie chicken, one of the best ones I've ever had: spicy hot rubbed, plump. At first we couldn't find the rotisserie chicken, partly because it was such a large space unto itself, and for some mysterious reason, roped off with traffic cones and yellow tape like a crime scene.
