oh, the joy

the joy of a good meal cannot be overrated.

we had one such meal this past sunday, for lunch. oliver and i went to the winter market on saturday (they had a mediocre chef's breakfast), and immediately noticed that bolzano meats had a few new offerings. bryan and i talked excitedly with scott, the proprietor, and realized we could put together a nice lunch with items from the market.

while the lardo called my name loudly (and i promise i will get you next time, my sweet), we ultimately decided on the black pepper tenderloin and paletilla húngara (dry cured shoulder).

we wandered over to the wonderful bakers fromwaterhouse foods, where i immediately zeroed in on the garlic and sea salt sourdough bread.

the next stop was saxon creamery, where i selected a respectable chunk of their delicious cheese. i think it was big eds. (they also began bringing their fresh cheese curds and - oh my lord - ne'er have you tasted a fresher curd, my friends.)

i had wanted to find a relish of some kind to accompany our lunch, but nothing at the market struck me. i picked up a spinach and artichoke spread at the outpost instead.


and bryan bought home some amazing little micro greens (sprouts) - radish, mustard, and watercress, from jenehr family farms (i heart you guys). (the radish was my favorite.)


the result was easily one of the best meals i've ever had.


my only mistake was making oliver a separate lunch, thinking he would not like what we were having. and i even placed the sprouts nearest him, so he wouldn't go after the cheese. you'd think i'd know by now. my first clue (were i to ignore history) was all the guanciale he was stealing from the sample plate at the bolzano table on saturday. i kept telling him to stop, that we had to share, but scott was laughing in surprise. i mean, what 2 year old likes cured pork cheek?? um, mine. so when i set the table for our lunch sunday, he quickly abandoned his mac and cheese, and began gobbling up mustard sprouts, dry cured pork, sourdough bread, and cheese. that's'a my boy.