"Sun"-dried tomatoes!

For those who do not know, I started eating a raw food diet 3 weeks ago. Which means I don't eat anything cooked or processed. Fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and grains are all part of my daily diet. I just don't cook them. (Cooked being anything above 105-115 degrees, depending on the raw source!) But, I am learning ways to prepare "placebo" food! Meaning I make mock meals that are super tasty but not cooked. Several of my favorite recipes call for sun-dried tomatoes. Can you see the price? That's right, $6.99 for 3 oz. Even if they don't tax food here, that's still outrageous. But, I buy them b/c I love them and need a change from salads every once in a while.

I noticed that they had a whole box of tomatoes at Hay Market for only $5. But I thought to myself, "even though that's a great deal, I didn't bring my canning supplies. What will I do with all those tomatoes?" So, I left. As I was purchasing the sun-dried tomatoes I had an epiphane,

"I do have a dehydrator, I'll make my own!"

So, I went right back to Hay Market, bought the box of tomatoes, and began my work!

While I was slicing, Lance helped me line the tomatoes on the trays.

(Funny side-note: I told Lance to pose for me, b/c he had already finished lining them up, so he did. After I snapped the picture he said, "mommy, did I do a good job pretending to line up the tomatoes?" Aahh, you've got to love kids! He's so cute!)

Then he salted . . .

And seasoned with Italian Seasoning . . .

Oops!

I opened the wrong hole for him. He shook out a whole pile! Don't worry, we scraped them off. :) All ready to go into the dehydrator! Thanks Lance!
9 full trays and I still have a quarter of the box left!

The remainders made 5 more trays and this is what I have to show for my box now!

So tell me, $7/3 oz. or $5 for this? I sure am glad I have the equipment to do stuff like this! These sure are tasty, and look how much more red they are than store bought!

Seriously, Lance HATES tomatoes! Did I say that loud enough? Even if we hide them in a meal, as soon as the food touches his tongue he spits out the disguised tomato. BUT, he LOVES these. He grabbed a huge handful today and ate them like raisens! What a boy. :) I'm glad that this healthy food tastes so yummy, and so are my kids!

His quote for the day:

"Mommy, I do like tomatoes!"

Hard Rock or Hay Market?

I just discovered this wonderful year-round oasis of fresh produce. It's a little scary to say, but since we've been out here our food budget has exploded to over $600/month! The price of good food is outrageous here. Until I discovered the Hay Market . . . like I said it's year-round. The only draw back is that it's only open Friday and Saturday! So, I'm quickly learning how to shop for a week at a time.

It's quite an experience to shop here. A lot of the produce is excellent. Some is o.k., and some was on it's way out 2 weeks ago! LOL :D

The service is, well, Boston style! Nothing happened to me, people were quite nice, but I've seen them slap customers hands and "politely" remind them that

"it's not self-service, I'll help you with that!"

(Throw in the accent and you're set!)

To give you an idea of the size of this market: It starts around the corner of a building, spreads along an entire block, and wraps around the other corner. My engineering estimate is that it's about 3/16 of a mile!

So, nearing the end of the market I noticed this . . . squint and you can see . . .

Hard Rock Cafe . . . Or Hay Market? Well, you guessed it, I opted for the Market and check out my loot!

All for only $22!

That's 8 heads of Romain lettuce back there! I'll give you a short list of just some of the prices I run across:

Lettuce: 3/$1

Strawberries: case/$2

Avacados: 6/$1

Tomatoes: big box/$5

Bananas: 4 lbs/$1

Peppers: 4-6/$1

Cucumbers: 6/$1

Zucchini: 3-4/$1

Pineapple: 1/$1-$1.50

Of course, this is a weekly market. Prices fluctuate from Friday to Saturday, and drop extremely low Saturday afternoon when they just want to get rid of it. This is when I hit the market!

So, I've given myself a budget of $40/week at this market. You can see how much $22 got me, just double that and we're set! I'm hoping that we can stay way below $400/mo. on our food budget, considering we have such great accomadations!

I have to throw this one in . . . All along this market are little step-down shops. This is a meat/sea food shop. Mind you it's well over 95 degrees outside and super humid. I just can't figure how this is fresh . . . people eat it and live to tell, though, so I guess it can't be too bad! It's all part of the Hay Market experience!

Brian's School

We like to walk to school to meet Brian for lunch a couple times a week. It's not far, just about 15-20 minutes or so. Along the way I decided to take pictures of "campus." It's really quite hilarious how things are arranged. I still don't know exactly what "campus" actually is. So, take a look and enjoy.

This is looking at the building where Brian studies everyday after classes end.

This is to the east.

And this is north. The Marriot is actually just to the left, but I guess I didn't capture that in my little lense.

And this is walking home. One of the weirdest but coolest buildings on campus. I actually really like it, but I feel like I'm in toon town at Disneyland or something.

It was on this fateful day, just after taking this picture, that I dropped my camera on the cement and busted the focuser inside the lense head. Now, $151.50 later, I have my camera again, hense the delay AND update in our blog!

Unfortunately we missed Lance's Birthday. Fortunately, Shauna came to the party and captured some pictures! Happy Birthday Lance!

"Can I decorate Daddy?" (Why wait for permission)

At Lance's request, Brian drew curious George with a popsicle in one hand and balloons in the other. (Those were the only colors we had. Use your imagination...)

He was really happy about that!

He liked the taste too! :D

Lance's cute friend Matthew, in the middle, made this card for him!

What you don't see is that I made 3 different cakes. We invited lots of different people and I wanted to be sure to have enough. I made lemon, chocolate and spice cake. Yum, yum. After all of this, only a few people showed up. The next day I started my diet! Ha! :)

Making the best of our Salem experience!

After touring the wax museum we headed downstairs and the boys dressed the part of a pirate. Always good for a picture and proof of a memory. :)
Then we headed to the ocean to see the fairy. The boys loved seeing how big it was as well as all the boats lined around the docks.
















Then a picture of me for good measure. I had to prove I was there.
One of the things I love most about being here are the buildings. Too many to take pictures of, but all are unique and the architechture is amazing.

Witches in June? Snagged by the Salem Witch Museum

We decided after moving here, that we would spend every Saturday doing something to get to know the area. One of our first adventures was the Salem Witch Museum. We read good things about it and were excited to go. Upon arrival we were excited to capture photos for our blog and began our shoot!

When we saw the stained glass windows we were really excited to see what lay ahead!

However, I cannot say enough, how our entrance into the musuem forshadowed our experience there . . .

As you can see we were really excited about what lay ahead after seeing this . . .

Wo! I thought these figures were going to jump out at me . . . they were so real! LOL

A synopsis for the readers enjoyment!

So, you want to know if you should visit this attraction? If Spencer's face doesn't say it all, I guess I don't have an answer for you. Who knows, maybe Salem is better in October . . . we won't be there to find out!