cooking at home

something that's been super awesome about our temporary housing location is that we're literally 3 blocks away from the pike place market in downtown seattle. this means that conor can walk to the market every day to pick up fresh produce, meats and bread for dinner that night.

there's something so simple and european about this luxury -- and it makes me a little sad that it's exactly that: a luxury. why/when did it become so difficult for americans to have easy accessibility to fresh foods? when did we trade off our ability to take a quick walk and pick up fresh produce versus needing to drive to a supermarket where everything is days old, pre-packaged or processed?

as long as i've been alive, the drive-to-a-supermarket model was the predominant one, at least in suburbia. perhaps if i grew up in a bustling city with corner markets every few blocks then i wouldn't find this to be so cool. but even in those cases, you aren't totally sure where the produce came from. there's something uber refreshing to know you're buying from a farmer directly.

heck, even in san francisco it was a treat for us to go to a farmer's market on the weekends -- monday through friday, we trekked to safeway like the rest of the world (although at least we could walk there). and san francisco is a foodie-haven... daily markets in every neighborhood should be the norm - not the anomaly!

at any rate, since we have the luxury for the next two weeks, we will surely continue to take advantage of it. daily home-cooked meals are becoming our routine, which is a great change from the past days of take-out and restauranting!

i hope we can keep up the rhythm even after we move to our new house and aren't a hop, skip and a jump away from a market anymore...