food is fun

another weekend of hunting and gathering (well, gathering and not so much hunting) for local food and such. it's what i call, free fun. since we are big proponents of free fun, that leaves more money to purchase really really good food. we started our saturday morning off with a trip to downtown greer for breakfast at our weekend breakfast touch stone, southern thymes cafe. we have tried to venture out and experience various breakfast stops around town, and always we come back to this one. the food is good, the food is cheap, and the service is with a smile. just like we like it. plus it's eggs folks and ya don't need fancy fuss with eggs. now there is a little place up 25 that we have been meaning to try, but it always seems we are heading in the other direction.

downtown greer, southern thymes cafe is on the right with the round sign.

cute barber shop

after breakfast we headed down to the farmers market in greenville. i haven't been to this market in awhile, and boy has it grown. not the biggest market i've seen around here, but still really good. we got lots of really good looking produce. some local, some organic, some not. and we got a big jar of tomato veggie soup and very colorful free range eggs. yummy.

downtown greenville farmers market

after the market went drove down to happy cow creamery . on the way we stopped at this little used books store that i had been wanting to go into, practically next door to the creamery. it was in this ladies house and was super fun. she had the coolest old linoleum floors and tons of books. ray got himself a few paperback novels and i got a vintage organic gardening book. all for $4. can't beat that. also i found what could easily be my dream house. she had the most wonderful little white and red barn with two huge fig trees on both sides. i could totally live in it.

super cute.

let's see. space for garden, mini cows, some goats, chickens, and pigs.

then it was on to visit with the cows at the creamery.

sunbathing happy cows.

not sure what kind of fruit this is. peach? some kinda of weird plum? it was really smooth and almost translucent like a orange tomato. anyone know? it is probably something really obvious that i just can't think of.

i totally forgot to plant mums this year. so pretty.

we also went to the guitar center to look around. ray wants another guitar and a little keyboard and drum machine. good lord! i however, want a banjo! but we were just looking. we also went to total wine to see if we could find this wine made by willamette valley vineyards. we found a 2006 pinot noir. we got three bottles of pinkus organic hefe-weizen, which is my favorite beer right now, and also bought another wine suggested by the guy at the store (alfio moriconi selection, reserve pinot noir d'autrefois). we are NOT wine connoisseurs, but the willamette was darn good. so good in fact we finished the entire bottle. all in all, a very fun and productive day. well it was productive till the wine drinking started. after that we just sat around and watched the first three episodes of mad men.

here is the loot from the day's shopping. we have a cookie, yellow & green heirloom squash, 3 different types of peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, heirloom tomatoes, green beans, crowder peas, broccoli, eggplant, tomato veggie soup, pasta sauce, garlic stuffed olives, cottage cheese, sour cream, buffalo wing cheese, unsalted butter, pasture raised bacon, milk, and free range eggs.

everything was either purchased at the framers market or at happy cow creamery.

the bottle of wine we drank, cookie, and bread, that i made, sitting out to get stale for the bread pudding i am going to make for sunday breakfast.

now the trick is cooking and eating all these fresh veggie before they go bad. we did not by any meat, other than the bacon. we still have some ground lamb, shrimp, and pork sausage in the freezer. also hunting season has begun. and although we don't hunt, a friend's boyfriend does. i am in line to receive his buddy's first deer. in a nutshell, here is my stance on hunting. if your going to kill it, you better grill it. also, any deer that they get and don't need themselves, they give to this organization that uses the meat to feed the homeless. that's pretty cool.
so this morning i finally woke up and proceeded to make some bread pudding for breakfast. I LOVE BREAD PUDDING. love it. here is the quick recipe i use from the bear wallow books old-fashioned bread puddings.

bread pudding

2 cups milk (scalded and cooled)
2 cups dry bread cubes (i used my homemade bread)
2 tbs. butter
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup sugar (i used only 1/8 cup)
dash salt
cinnamon
nutmeg

your supposed to butter the bread before cubing it. i didn't. i put the butter in with the scalded milk. i tore up the bread into pieces and split the bread between four butter ramekins. in a sauce pan scalded the milk and plopped in the butter, set aside to cool. in bowl mixed together eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. slowly mixed in milk. poured over bread and sat ramekins in hot water bath. baked about 40 minutes in 325 degree oven.

bread pudding

served bread pudding with local scrambled eggs with local jumbo grape tomatoes, basil from the front porch, and raw milk cheese from morningland dairy in MO.

after breakfast it was time to start my day of relaxing. that meant a little time with some coffee and martha.

coffee....good!