Farmers Market Breakfast

Springtime in DC is a treacherous time.  Will it be humid?  Rainy?  Ninety nine degrees out or 52?  How many tourists will I need to push down the escalators on the metro?  Three minutes into my morning commute today I immediately regretted not wearing tights.  Yes, the weather forecast says it will be 72, but when it's 43 degrees at 7:45am, my legs, they are a-shiverin.

However, with the springtime weather ups and downs comes some forms of sunshine: produce!  At the farmers markets!  Certainly, it is glorious.  There is really nothing that makes a weekend as lovely as a morning walk down to the bustling market, scoping out the vendors, doing some good people watching ... and of course, picking up fresh produce.

Brownies with Cherries and Chiles

I have a cookbook problem.

There is an entire shelf of in my living room stacked with cookbooks. There's more than one that I haven't made a single thing from. I have single topic cookbooks. Take pie, for example. I have three completely devoted to it.  There is also a book solely about macaroons, and I hate to tell you this, but I have never had a macaroon, not once. I'm not even entirely confident about the standard ingredients. I looked through the book, I promise, but I think it may have been written in Engrish and some things definitely didn't quite translate.

You know what gets me about cookbooks? Its leafing through the pages and creating the scenarios where you get to share that meal. Its thinking, oh, that would be fun to bring to a potluck, or my book club.  Or, maybe for Poppa Fierce's birthday I'll try that caramelized pear pie. I like to think about the possibilities in the pages. Its a fun day dream.

Given that, I didn't mean to buy another cookbook today, I swear. It isn't like me to lie and say I totally ignored the cookbook section at the store and that the book literally fell out of the sky accompanied by a live piano performance singing songs of its deliciousness within. Just kidding, it is. If I thought you would believe me. I read each and every title on the shelf, my head cocked slightly sideways like your pup when he's confused.

The book stood out to me, not necessarily because of the brand but the title. Come on, who doesn't love chocolate? So I picked it up and leafed through-I figured it looked pretty good. I continued to browse, looking for bargain Le Creuset (preferably a mini coquette in the shape of a vegetable). I got the thing I had actually come for, and decided I didn't really need the cookbook. So I put it down. 

Then I heard a voice: You should probably just page through it one more time to see if anything jumps out at you, you know, its worth it if you get one good recipe! I obliged my inner shopaholic, and was feeling above the influence until I saw this recipe, the one here after the jump (you didn't think I was going to just let you see it, did you?). This recipe is my favorite chocolate bar in brownie form. I wasn't going to leave without it. 

Homemade Bagels

Goodness gracious.  We've had this post in the queue for what, oh, four weeks now - we know, we know, we already apologized, but the last month has been a bit ... involved.  So.  Now that we have that out of the way for good, MOVING ON.  Don't these look lovely?

That's J Fierce's poppyseed bagel on the left, and C Fierce's onion garlic salt bagel on the right.  We spent a few days together hanging out at J Fierce's, eating a lot of dried sour cherries, making mango/pineapple/strawberry/mint salsa (it's probably still in the fridge somewhere because someone *ahem ahem C Fierce* got a leeetle carried away with chopping the pineapple), grilling steak, eating the best fried chicken in town, drinking beer out of mason jars ... and didn't even have any fights!  Nope, no bar fights!  And no fights with each other, either, which, in itself, is an amazing feat.  (Ask J Fierce about the time she refused to speak to C Fierce and Little Brother Fierce for the entire duration of a flight, layover, and subsequent flight.  ALL OVER A STUPID FOUNTAIN SODA.  WEIRD I THINK MY CAPS LOCKS KEY GOT STUCK.)

ANYWAY back to the bagels.  Some were cuter than others ...