No, not THAT March Madness….my own crazy month of work travel, ergo the  inability to work in my kitchen.  It’s made me kinda crabby, and definitely a little bit heavier as a result of eating out for pretty much every meal.  And I have zero self-control when it comes to making smart food choices at restaurants.  If the candy is in front of me, then I will eat it, so to speak….as well as anything in the bread basket.  I’m trying to recover from it now, and I have a week of being able to control my guilty pleasures before I have to go back to Cleveland.

I did drive over to the West Side Market last Saturday, if for no other reason than to just stare at the fresh produce and meats.  I couldn’t walk away with nothing, so I purchased some smoked sea salt and fleur de sel (both rather hard to find out in the country area where I live) from the herb vendor.  It’s in a gorgeous old building that dates back to 1912, but the market itself has origins going back to around 1840.  The variety is pretty incredible, but I was disappointed that the produce vendors all seemed to be selling pretty much the same thing, most of it shipped in from other parts of the country, or the world.  I liked the meat vendors much better, and there was a definite visible quality difference if you walk around and look at what’s on offer.  There were also several pastry and baked goods vendors, which was pretty tempting for a sugar-fiend like me.  The area around the market has a lot of character, and houses some of Cleveland’s best farm-to-table restaurants.  I also stumbled across a Penzey’s store where I bought some Vietnamese Extra Fancy Cinnamon (thank you Cook’s Illustrated for that tip!) and Aleppo Pepper, which has also been difficult for me to find.  The people working in the store were some of the nicest I’ve ever come across in retail of any kind.  They gave me a nice printed copy of the neighborhood shops and restaurants, as well as a cool bumper sticker that says ‘Love People. Cook them tasty food.’  I seriously love food-related bumper stickers, and this one now holds a special place in my heart.  It really completely sums why I love to cook – yeah, it’s fun to eat the yummy results, but it’s so much more fun to make someone else happy with those yummy results.