Farmer’s Market

Life is Good

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It’s another gorgeous day in Charlottesville!

I’ve had a great start to the weekend and am anticipating the rest to be fabulous also.  This morning started with a quick bike ride to the Downtown Farmer’s Market where I drooled over picked up some beautiful produce.

With my pannier weighing in at at least 15 pounds I left the market happy and out of cash.

Next stop was Mcguffey Arts Center for DANCE CLASS!  I used be be identified first and foremost as a dancer.  I spent from age 5 until 27 spending hours upon hours a week in a dance studio, as a student, teacher, choreographer, and company member.  That was up until 2 years ago when I left the country in pursuit of…adventure I suppose.  In any case, I have only taken 2 dance classes in nearly 2 years and had all but buried my former identity under layers “American abroad”, “Personal Trainer”, “West Virginian”, “Chiropractors wife”, “world traveler” and other such identities.

It was time to start dancing again in a serious way.  And this morning was a glorious welcome back.  I took a modern class with Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp, who is a lovely individual and a great teacher.  I was a little nervous going into the class, would my body know what to do?  Did I still have the ability to pick up phrases?  It was a bit of a rusty start but by the end of the 1.5 hour class the two year absence from the studio melted away.

I returned home around 12:30pm and it was time for lunch.

Mary’s crackers and twigs from my Veg Fest loot with homemade herbed yogurt cheese (mix plain yogurt, chopped fresh herbs, salt, and pepper, spoon mix into a colander lined with a clean dish cloth or paper towels, place the colander in a bowl to drain and put the whole thing into the fridge for a few hours.  Tastes like goat cheese but it’s cheaper!).

Butternut and sweet potato sauteed in coconut oil with ginger, garlic, and rosemary.

And a giant salad with homemade sauerkraut on the side.

The sauerkraut is only 3 days old and thus not so fermented yet but it was pretty tasty.

Kombucha for dessert

I am saving my real dessert for Kath and Matt’s “housecooling” party we are going to tonight, I heard somewhere she is busily baking cookies for it.

Speaking of cookies, that’s what I had for dinner last night!  Tate and I walked downtown just before 6pm to check out the First Friday Gallery Stroll.  We checked out a few galleries and munched on grapes, veggies, a few pieces of cheese, some pretzels, and these AMAZING chocolate cookies.  We split one and went back for a second.  Chewy, gooey, and full of chocolate and coconut, I must try to recreate.

We also checked out the wine tasting at the Market Street Wineshop, which is very funky and cool with decent prices.  Each Friday they offer a free tasting flight of 6-8 wines that are on sale.  My favorite last night was the Chardonnay from Excelsior.  I didn’t do any shopping there last night because I didn’t want to carry bottle with me all night but I will definitely make this my wine shopping go-to from now on.

Tate and I were pretty satiated from all of our tastings by the time we met up with our friends Jessica and Tim but they needed dinner so off to Enoteca we went.

Wine and olives were consumed.

I don’t plan on going back to Enoteca, the tables are not very comfortable, my wine was not good, and our server forgot Tim’s order.  Oh, well, nothing lost because there are so many supposedly amazing restaurants in this town.

I am off to run 4 easy miles.  Have a great Saturday!

It’s Alive!

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I just spilled a whole container of sesame seeds on my kitchen floor.

And I haven’t had my coffee yet.

At least this rain is having the positive effect of making me glad I left Portland!  I LOVED living in Portland, everything about the city was a perfect fit for me (except how far it is from home, which ultimately became most important).  My friend once said something along the lines of “I love Portland and Portland loves me”, and this saying became a common line in our circle.   That town really did love me back.

But the rain!  I was so happy in Portland that I was able to overlook the rain but I don’t think I could have kept up that act long-term. It really is wet two thirds of the year (if not more!).

We are on rainy-day number 4 here in Virginia and I’ve had enough.  The first few days were cozy but now I want to go running or walking or biking or take out the trash without getting soaked.  The forecast for the weekend looks clear and I have my fingers crossed.

I attended another lovely yoga class at Ashtanga Yoga Charlottesville yesterday.   Honestly, I was not impressed with the teacher but I am a harsh critic.  She was fine but not memorable or inspiring or innovative, just a solid “fine”.  My body loves the yoga though.

Post yoga I had an exciting discovery, my kombucha is finally ready!

It is fizzy and sweet and tangy and delicious!  Success!  I have been tasting it every day or two for the last week and until yesterday it was still too sweet and too flat.

The kombucha buzz sent me on a fermentation kick and with yogurt making itself in the kitchen sink

And kombucha brewing in the cabinet

I set about making my first batch of sauerkraut.

This cabbage was $1 at the farmers market and it is perfect!

I used this recipe from the Wild Fermentation website.   My variation had 2 carrots, half an onion, 3 cloves of garlic, and some celery seeds thrown in with the cabbage.

Here are two articles on why I have been adding more fermented foods into my diet.

7 Little Known Reasons Why NOT to Avoid Bacteria

Fermented Foods: Top 8 Reasons Why to Eat Them

There is some fermentation of a slightly different variety on tap for this afternoon :).  But first, run in the rain or yoga?

P.S.  My head is full of Brittany this morning after catching up on Glee last night!