I have been meaning to tell people about four fabulous food finds this weekend. If you have not been yet hurry to the Mill City Farmers market before the end of the season. It is a local market with only local products.

I went this weekend and was so in love with so many things I thought I would share 4.

1. Salad Girl Salad Dressing.

This very cool hippy dippy chick makes her won salad dressing and sells it for $6 a bottle. It was amazing, I tried blueberry basil, Apple Walnut and Curry Fig. I bought all three. I went home and promptly roasted the beets I bought, put them on my arugulla with cheve and toatsted walnuts and had a salad worthy of any bistro. These salad dressings were really fresh, yummy and amazing. 

2. Ednas Caramels

Delicious caramels made by a mother and daughter who sell them at the market. If you are into candy and caramels try these buttery morsels and you will be mouth happy in a hurry. Search Citypages.com for their full story about them making these in their kitchen. They are also available at Kowalskis.

3. Mini-Donuts 

The chef from Spoonriver and Cafe Brenda gets up and works the farmers market to make the most light and airy mini-donut morsels that put the Fair's to shame (and I LOVE the fair donuts - they were that good) . They were hot, melted in my mouth and they made me want more. 

4. Queen of Tarts

This is my dream life. Have a tart booth. Make 4 savory and 4 sweet tarts and sell them for $5 bucks in cute paper sleeves. These tasted great, They were fresh, buttery, light and had fresh ingredients that you could really taste. Roasted paper, rosemary and Feta, Bluberry cruble, almond paste with cranberries, leeks and gouda - they were all worthy of the delicious crust they rested in.

I need to change my mood to Buttery.

Its been a while.

My mother died July 31st. I have spent the last 6 weeks desparate to get back to "normal." The whole idea of normal makes me laugh - I am always trying to get there as if it's a destination I can drive to. If it is a destination, would I even know it if I got there? Probably not - yet I continue to seek it.

Laundry, Homework, pesto noodles.

On Sunday we started the task of cleaning out the clothes in my moms bedroom. My three sisters and I came armed with laundry baskets, garbage bags and giant lumps in our throats as we went through my moms dresser. My mom had an enormous dresser with at least 12 drawers. Around the dresser were piles of laundry and clothes in size 0-12 many with the tags still on them. The sizes chronicled the Cancer journey and the various stages of her body over the past 5 years. As we filled 8 garbage bags for the Goodwill and 4 for consignment and filled each of our baskets with things we wanted to keep I came to the obvious realization that my mom was a shopoholic. There were easilly thousands of dollars of unworn clothes that we got rid of. My mom was always certain she wouldn't have enough so she kept buying more  - just in case.  

Being a shopoholics kid had some benefits. We easily each got over 40 presents at Christmas so I probably shouldnt complain but when the shopaholic is gone and you have spent 5 hours to only clear off the dresser and the floor around the bed its daunting. I know I have months of cleaning and family bonding/melt down time ahead. I see plenty of garbage bags and dumpsters in my future.

It makes sense now that I save nothing and throw everything away or recycle it. Go figure, I cant stand stuff.

Its a wierd story I know - only in our family would my mothers impending death be eclipsed by her younger sistsers death - first.

My mom was always the middle kid. She got the hand me downs and bossed around by the higher ups. You would think in death she would not have to "share the stage".

My aunt Debbie died. Debbie was a bit of a nut, as we all are - and you'll soon come to know. Addicted to pain pills her whole life, an alcoholic, lesbian, thearpaist at other times she succumbed to lung cancer yesterday. Her and my mom have the same hospice nurse who takes care of them. I have yet to meet her as we just entered hospice but I hear Willie Mae is a saint. Debbie had Lung Cancer for about a year. My mom uses her as a bench mark on the journey "well... at least I am not as bad off as Debbie." and now the bench mark is gone. It scare me to know what is up ahead.

As I start this blog, Ellie walks in and see's the ad for Lori and Julia. She says, "That's a picture of Lori? She is much taller than Julia." Such is life right? Always being compared to something.

Ellie is gutsy. As I was driving back from running, I noticed three boys a few houses down playing Wffle ball in their front yard. I told her about them and said, "Why don't you go introduce yourself to them and ask them to play? " So she did. I watched out the window while she played for about  45 minutes. When she came in I asked her if she had a good time - she said. "Yes, but they thought I was a boy and I didn't want them to find out I was a girl or I would be completely humiliated." Its gutsy to be 8, ask a bunch of boys to play and then have to pretend you are a boy.

Its a wierd story I know