sundays: it's back! old cheney farmers market

it started today, on this beautifully chilly april morning. there were no morels. it was too soon. there's always next sunday. read more about the market here.

any picture of the tasty treat above signifies this market for me: a beaver tail, from kathy davis' bakery in beaver crossing. always delicious. always easy to eat with one hand. much longer than you can see in the picture. two dollars.

i went to a bacon party

i went to a bacon party, and i want to make up funny lyrics to the ricky nelson song "garden party" as a result, but that song is too sad.

after seeing the bacon available, i decided to bring the opposite of bacon: a palate-cleansing cucumber and green onion salad, tossed in a keye lime vinaigrette with chili pepper flakes. i only brought this as an antipodal complement to the main fare at hand. i tried four bacon varieties myself, and would have tried more. bacon is a dangerous thing. a dangerous and wonderful thing.

i think the next time i make this salad, i'll put bacon in it. cucumbers are 3/$1 this week at ideal so that might happen soon.

look at the desserts on and around the link above. so good! cake balls!

have the number for possible takeout in your phone

if your springtime weekend excursions involve trips to the edges of civilization to buy yard & garden supplies, or beyond that into the relative wild...

you will be driving back home past places that have take-out that you like. places that usually seem out of the way. figure this into your plans. prepare yourself by having the numbers/contacts available, without any unusual searching, for anyplace you've frequented twice in the last year. adjust frequency for location.

whenever i'm heading back into lincoln from the south, north by way of 48th, i call ahead an order of the asparagus rolls from o yummy. coming back into town from the north, south on 27th, an order of spring rolls from vung tau (above) is always a good idea. open on sundays.

psychedelic pork-fried rice

the first time i bought the barbecued-pork fried rice from the hy-vee at 50th & o st, it was because i thought the food would take a nice picture. it caught my eye. why buy fried rice? how hard is that?

about a week later, the second time i bought the same item, it was because the first round was delicious. and i was at that same store buying other stuff. and i looked for it again.

hy-vee apparently built it into their business model to offer american-style chinese take-out at all locations. with the kitchen for this separate from the hot deli kitchen. brilliant.

of course i support my neighborhood restaurants, but i see this 3.49 purchase on a receipt again.

my advice about green beans

green beans have been on sale lately... my advice: as soon as you get them home from the store, prepare green beans for cooking later by snapping off the ends and rinsing. it's nice to get that out of the way, because it always takes longer than you think it will when you've got other fish to fry... so to speak. if you're making them that night, they'll be fine waiting for you in the fridge.

the days of pawing through a big box of beans and selecting what you want in your plastic bag are pretty much gone. most of the supermarkets in town set up big plastic bags well over a pound each-- that's a lot of snapping!

i filled a casserole dish with green beans and added one can stewed tomatoes and tossed some grated cheese in. then put a couple of bacon-wrapped chicken breasts (they were a dollar again!) on top and baked at 400 for about half an hour. the green beans don't get mushy and overcooked with this method.

orangina haikus for national poetry month, april

o, orangina.
more refreshing than water.
2% pulpness.

orangina dance!
shake it, shake it and shake it.
best served super cool.

so glad i had an excuse to buy these

the cup has wonderful pastries and desserts. these cupcakes should be quite the hit. i did "have" to taste the raspberry frosting, and it tasted like fresh berries.

on the other end of the counter, you should know about their new day-old, half-price basket of wrapped pastries. that's the croissant i took home for breakfast.

the cup also has sandwiches, salads and soups; and their coffee beans are from cultiva. and of course they have more tea than you can shake a spoon at.