Not feeling it

Hey there

Really long time, no blog, huh?  Why?  Well I haven’t been feeling it.  There are a number of things nagging me lately about blogging, but I haven’t been able to quite formulate my thoughts in a way that doesn’t sound overly negative or critical.

In general, I’m not sure I fit (if ever) in the HLB (Healthy Living Blogs) community mainly because I don’t subscribe to the same approach to healthy living as many of the others (many whom I’ve met and truly like).  It feels like instead of just writing my daily ramblings for whatever they’re worth, I feel compelled to almost market myself.  That’s a loaded statement that needs some more explanation, which I may give at some point.

What does this mean?  Well, truthfully, I’m not sure.  Maybe just writing this is the kick-start I need to start blogging again or maybe it’s time for a break.  Time will tell, right?

And since I can’t help myself,  I have to share a picture of bean at the SF Ferry Building Farmer’s Market this past Saturday.  When all else fails, post cute photo of baby

WIAW: Farmer’s market edition

Hey there friends!

Where does the time go?  Oddly enough, when I have an extra pair of hands to help with the lil one, I find that I have less time to blog.  I think it’s because I prefer to be out and about so much more, though I do miss catching up.  That being said, I’m still reading your blogs, just forgoing commenting since typing on an iphone is a pain in the arse. 

We’ve been busy bees around here though – daily walks to the coffee shop, dinner parties, visitors/guests, and even hikes in 40+ mph winds.  My glutes are still burning from pushing a stroller up hill in that!

Last Saturday we took advantage of the gorgeous 70 degree SF weather and hit up the Ferry Building farmer’s market and I’m oh so glad we did

So without further ado, I’ll recap a bit for What I Ate Wednesday (courtesy of Jenn):

I don’t know about you, but farmer’s markets in the Bay Area are ridiculously nice and have copious amounts of free samples.  A person should seriously come very hungry.  And indeed we did.  We snacked on everything from blood oranges to dried fruit to Indian food / spreads to cheese to chocolate. 

And I gotta tell ya, those vendors are pretty smart.  By offering me a sample (or two or five), I was much more apt to make a purchase.  Below are just some of the items we got:

From top to bottom, left to right:

• Salami from the pig parts store – yup, not my item.  That would be the hubby’s.  We took it to our pig-lovin’ friends’ dinner party that night.  Apparently it was tasty.
• Dried fruit (w/o sulfur dioxide).  This fruit had such natural flavor as compared to typically store bought dried fruit.  We purchased apricots, nectarines, figs, and pears. 
• Eggplant spread.  This vendor could not give us enough free samples and thank god he did, because I was in love with pretty much every item.  We purchased this along with veggie paratha bread.
• Dark chocolate almond brittle. I died and went to heaven when I had this. My grandma used to make fabulous peanut brittle and this was reminiscent of that…top it with chocolate and it was beyond faboosh.
• White Cheddar cheese.  I’m a WI girl through and through.  Give me a good cheese and I’m happy.  This had a lovely sharp smoky flavor and I’m dying to break into it.  Hmm..maybe I will right.now.

We also purchased some more cheese from Cowgirl Creamery and some blood oranges.  De-lish.

Are you a fan of farmer’s markets?  Do the ones you frequent give free samples?

WIAW: SF Ferry Building edition

First let’s start off by saying thank you for being so supportive.  I greatly appreciate your comments and not judging me for feeling icky at times during this pregnancy.  I just want to show what a “real person” is feeling and that sometimes it isn’t all sunshine, puppy dogs and roses.  (Although to be honest, I don’t even like roses!)

Moving on though, let’s recap some eats and my very first trip to the San Francisco Ferry Building.  This post brought to you be Jenn at Peas and Crayons for What I Ate Wednesday

Are there are any places you’ve known about, but never visited in however many years you’ve been living in that area?  I’ve lived in Cali for 9 years (SF Bay Area for 7) and never went to the SF Ferry Building.  Seriously.  Not once.  I’ve driven past it a gazillion times.  I’ve seen the Saturday farmer’s market hosted there.  I read the recaps from those that spent time there at last year’s FoodBuzz.  And yet, I never went.

Until now.

(source)

The hubby was just as excited to go as I was.  And despite our excursion started off a little sour since I had to pee so freakin’ bad, it quickly turned around as we started exploring shops.  It’s just a shame we didn’t go on Saturday to get double the treats with farmer’s market vendors there!

One of our first stops was at the Cowgirl Creamery to taste cheeeese.  We immediately wanted to walk along and go, “What is this?” Cheese.  “What is this?” Cheese.  (a la Borat).  But we were mature and did no such thing. 

We were informed to grab a number and then we could taste any and every cheese in the shop once our number was called.  Um, score?!?!  I’m a big fan of hard cheese (the harder the better, twss).  So I asked for interesting cheeses that would be like a cousin to Parmigano Reggiano or Asiago.  We tried all sorts of Sheep’s milk cheeses and settled on one we’d buy. 

And then I asked a stupid question: “Are all these cheese pasteurized?” Response: “No, most are raw milk cheeses.”  WHOOPS!  I mistakenly assumed all hard cheeses were pasteurized, but nope.  So sorry Baby Boy O!  Then she informed me that all cheeses have to be aged for at least 60 days so in terms of bacteria, I’m A-OK.  I did feel some judgment like I was a bad preggers woman.  Grr.

We had to swap our cheese for another one that was in the American cheddar family – sounds lame, but it’s quite good: hard, flaky, nutty. 

Zach wanted to eat here for lunch:

Anything with the word Pig Parts in its title pretty much had my lip curling in disgust.  Eww. 

As much as I wanted to try one of the many dessert shops, we concluded that lunch would best – especially if we could eat outside while doing so.

We settled on Il Carne Rosso.  A beer for the hubby and fresh organic strawberry lemonade for miss preggy.

The view:

The food:

Summer’s market salad with squash, scallions and a lemon dill dressing (for me)

Pulled Pork sandwich (for him) and a side of polenta

Holy moly was that cheesy polenta out of this world.  I loved it.  I imagine it’s what cheesy grits or cheesy oatmeal would taste like.  Zach liked it but thought it needed some tomatoes.  I disagreed.  It was perfection.

And in other random food news…

If you follow me on twitter (@Shanlikebanana), you may have read that my work has a mice infestation and they went to town on my snack drawer and then subsequently pooped on all my important files.  I think I’m more upset about my lost snacks than my lost files.  Is that normal?

You may have also read that I’m putting myself on a peanut butter ban for the rest of September.  Thanks to Jillian I bought a tub of light Cool Whip and started eating my PB in spoonfuls dipped in whipped cream.  It’s good.  Dangerously good.  I recommend PB&Co Dark Chocolate Dreams as the base.  No, no, don’t thank me.  So now I only have 3/4^th of a container of PB&Co White Chocolate Dreams left for the month.  I will not buy any more PB until I can behave like a normal person.  Otherwise, you will see me doing this:

Have you tried Jillian’s concoction? 

What other PB combo’s are out of this world?  (Make me drool people!)

What’s one place in your area you just recently visited?