telepathic paranoia

This weekend I finally got up early enough on a Saturday to make the Moscow Farmer’s Market. Subconsciously, I guess a part of me expected it to be like the weekly street markets in Paris — fresh cuts of meat, an endless array of cheeses, shining fish bellies chilling on ice… Still, once I got over my disappointment at the absence of triple-creme brie, I found plenty of New World treats to keep me and my camera entertained.

Not to seem like a complete greenhorn, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many different kinds of pepper in one place.

and I couldn’t resist these colorful tomatoes…

Tags: farmers market, idaho, moscow mountain, peppers, photography, red, the palouse, vegetables, yellow

When I told people I was moving to Idaho, I heard a lot of spud jokes.  “Bet you’re going to eat a lot of potatoes!” people would say, cackling merrily at their own wit.  “Yup,” I’d say.  I mean, I like potatoes.  Who doesn’t like potatoes?

Imagine my surprise, though, when I get out here and am greeted, on my very first weekend, by the National Lentil Festival (sponsored, naturally, by the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council).  Turns out the Palouse is the number one source of all North American lentils!  So screw your potatoes, because we’re having a lentil extravaganza around these parts.

Complete with Lentil Dude, waving cheerfully at you from the back of a convertible.

Also featuring pitcher after pitcher of lentil slop to feed the masses.

And of course, the inevitable awkward recipes designed to transform this lowly legume into something utterly other.

That’s a lentil-flour chocolate chip cookie in the foreground, in case you were wondering. It wasn’t bad.

Not lentil-ed out yet? I’ve got plenty more festival pics, check out some recipes, and if that’s not enough, I’ll leave you with this charming little ditty about the lentil, “lovable and cute”:

lentilfestjingle.mp3

Tags: agricultural fair, food, lentil recipes, lentilfest, lentils, parade, the palouse

Second day of class was pretty terrific! I know I’ll be singing a different tune next week, when the work actually kicks in, but so far, grad school is fun! But I spotted this forlorn-looking nature morte between classes and it made me sad.

Seriously, who is responsible for this crime against chocolate-covered waferdom? What kind of soulless monster would leave a kitkat bar out in the streaming sunlight, in one of the busiest intersections on campus, so all and sundry are forced to watch helplessly as the object of our common desire is transformed into a soggy, goopy mess?

It shook my faith in humanity.

Tags: candy, chocolate, kitkat, ruined candy bar, still life, university of idaho