I Stand Corrected!

Today me and my youngest sister walked to the nearest grocery store, called Farmer's Market. A year and a half ago, when I first came home after turning Vegan in Hawaii, I had a sad incident involving having to buy someone yogurt  that was almost certainly made from factory farm milk because there was nothing else. So, I was bracing myself to be disappointed again, but I needed garlic today and I knew they had to at least have garlic.

Boy, was I surprised! Things are getting better. The produce section was actually quite impressive... they had a big long thing full of what I suppose you would call specialty items, and the prices of everything were pretty comparable to what I paid in Bellingham, except the organic stuff was slightly more expensive than at the Co-Op.

Brace yourself for an onslaught of Rae-fanning-over-vegetables!

Kale, Chard, Leek, Beets, Celery/Celery Root!

Note the tiny amount of Yukon Gold potatoes. But at least they're there! xD ALSO... if you click on this photo to enlarge it, there ARE Kaffir lime leaves! There was also a sign for lemongrass but I didn't see any lemongrass anywhere. Hmmm.

LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL PURPLE KALE. OMG.

This is mainly because of the (2) Daikon.

My sister was making fun of me for taking pictures of everything xP Oh well... it wasn't in a mean way, we just teased each other.

Our cart. Note the lovely SMALL/cheap bottle of cooking sherry.

I was also very very pleased to see the large array of nondairy milks and also a section of the freezers devoted to Amy's products.

We bought about $40 worth of stuff and I went home determined to cook 3 different things for dinner that night. So, I made a double batch of this Leek and Potato Soup, some Black Bean Salad with Corn from vegweb, and a bunch of baked asparagus with garlic salt and rosemary (I didn't use any other herbs or normal salt).

It was exhausting. But, everybody seemed to like everything, so I was happy. I made the asparagus especially because it's one of the only vegetables my youngest sister ADORES... and thus she ate about half the tray before I could take a picture.

Stupid yellow tint...

 Somehow the soup didn't turn out as green as it usually does... I wonder if it's because I didn't use the actual blender but instead used the handheld/immersion blender my mom has. The consistency wasn't as nice that way.

This was the smallest pot I could find that wouldn't be full to the brim with a double-batch.

I forgot to add cilantro.

My 2-year-old nephew LOVED the salad... he ate a lot of it. So did my sister / his mom.

Two people in my family are having digestive issues since the stew last night. I'm not sure why, since nobody else who ate it is having problems... but now my brother is leery of curry and lentils, so I figure I'll take a break from both for the next few days if possible.