19. Spring's No Time to Stand Over a Hot Stove (Granville Day!)

Last weekend we took advantage of the sun and hopped a bus to Granville Island. I hadn't been in years, and was looking forward to seeing peculiar art, live music and fresh farmer's market goods. I have to say it delivered, as these artsy communities always do.The only criticism I have is that it was way too packed to take pictures -- luckily, I snapped one of my purchases once I got home.

Peas are already out! And you won't be surprised to learn that I demolished them in my face about 20 seconds after this photo was taken. I picked up some tamarind concentrate from the ethnic store, which I use for pad Thai but I actually like it most in peanut sauce and meat marinades. From the same place I got amchur, or green mango powder, an Indian ingredient I've been curious about for some time. A pinch of it is supposed to kick up curries, roasted vegetables and meat but we'll see if I'm not adding it to smoothies by the end of the week. 

Rounding out the list is a par-baked baguette from one of my favourite bakeries, some local garlic and a duck-and-apricot pate, which certainly sounded right up my alley. 

Dinner that night, as you might expect, was a selection of a few of these items.

I preheated the oven to crisp the baguette and prepared some fruit, cheese and yam fries with garlic-lime mayo (I thought we might need something extra!). I also made a little dish of leftover bacon and chopped boiled egg so that we could make mini breakfast sandwiches. This convinced me that I'm not totally grown up.

I've spent the last few minutes staring at the cursor, trying to come up with a less food-douchey way to describe the pate than "unctuous," but it just fits. Please take down my blog immediately. Oh, and big announcement, guys -- I like cantaloupe. I really like it when it's wrapped in prosciutto, but I'll take it on its own, too. Gee, all of this cured meat talk has reminded me of a certain sketch on a certain sketch tv show. . .