Spring is coming!

I know it's still February but March is just days away. Big box stores like Walmart are already selling seeds and I bet stores like Mississippi Market Co-op and Whole Foods are too. Even if I don't intend to buy them, seeing them in the store helps me to get through that last little bit of roller coaster weather in March and April. Each year I try to add another planter to my little balcony garden. I've started out slow because my downfall is watering the plants everyday. It's kind of like brushing your teeth...you really have to do it or everything will rot. Several of the pots I bought last spring did not winter well and the finish has cracked on those. I can start looking for replacements soon. My plan this year is to try a variety of herbs, especially since fresh herbs tend to be pricey at the market. I like the small space gardening advice and photos from fellow blogger at www.mybalconyjungle.com/ and look forward to seeing the progression of their balcony this spring and summer.

Downtown Streets

Three policemen and a woman in a fake fur coat in the middle of the street with her hands in the air....I don't know what happened after that but that's what I saw this morning. Crime does occur here and just about everywhere else in the world. Several weeks ago we received an email from the St Paul City Police warning that there have been a rash of purse snatchings in downtown. How did we get on that email list? Should we worry? If you don't guard your purse in all situations you should probably worry. Did you leave your purse in the car at the gas station and quickly ran into pay and it was gone when you came out? I know of that happening. I always wear my purse with the strap across my chest if I am out and about. Generally I feel pretty safe in downtown St Paul. Half the battle for women walking with a purse is to remember to secure it, zip it, don't carry the bank with you, and look like you are fully alert!

Appetite

We ate a salad most days in Buenos Aires...basic ingredients of lettuce, tomatoes, and onion served in a little silver bowl. Plenty for two people. Sometimes corn oil and white vinegar were on the table and it took us awhile to figure out we needed to ask for the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I never saw any other choices for salad dressing so I began to look at salad dressings in the small markets that we passed on our daily walks. If you go to Rainbow or Cub there is a good 20 feet of shelf space devoted to salad dressing and that doesn't include the stuff in the refrigerated section. If you have two people trying to decide which salad dressings to purchase you could be there all day. First you have to look at the ones that have food coloring and rule those out, then consider the sugar content and other ingredients, and finally price. It's exhausting. I like the idea of simplifying the choices for salad dressing. In my survey of 8-10 markets in Buenos Aires I found most of the small ones only carried oil and vinegar. I finally found a market that was about 1/3 the size of the Rainbow on Robert Street and there were four varieties of Newman's Own and one local brand. So five to choose from. I could live with that. What about making my own dressing and unclutter the fridge of all those half used bottles of salad dressing we accumulate? I usually pick up a free weekly copy of the Villager newspaper that is available downtown. An article appeared about salads and making your own dressing in the food section of the 1/26/11 edition. The author Jo Marshall says "Luckily for the cook, the world's most satisfying salad may also be the simplest--an interesting tangle of leaves moistened with just a drizzle of oil and vinegar." I may just start skipping the salad dressing isle entirely!

Fruit Stand

M and I just returned from an adventure to Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was summer there and we had some humid days in the high 90's so returning to the deep freeze of Minnesota was oddly pleasant. They do things differently down there. There are small specialized grocery stores everywhere. We ate more fruit both with breakfast and in a wine drink called "clerico". It is similar to sangria only made with white wine. The food network has a recipe that I think duplicates what we had. Look for the recipe at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michelle-bernstein/clerico-summer-white-sangria-recipe/index.html Generally we tend to buy our wine at Morelli's, a market that would fit in nicely into one of the neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. It is located just a mile out of downtown on Payne and Tedesco. See their online specials at http://www.morellismarket.com because sometimes you need to print out a coupon. This week they offer a deal on an Argentine white wine with a Torronte grape made by Alamos. I had not heard of that grape, but have been enjoying the red Malbec wines from Argentina. An article in the NY Times http://nyti.ms/gucvSq suggests "TORRONTÉS has been touted as the hottest thing to arrive from Argentina since the tango." Ok, we'll see about that.