Not sure why I didn’t think to bring our camera to the dinner party at K’s & R’s place last night. The lovely Margaret, visiting from Texas, cooked up a Tex-Mex feast beyond compare! Tostadas piled high with delectable morsels, baked stuffed peppers and baked enchiladas, beans and rice, and for dessert: home-made pralines which were served with coconut milk ice cream. We all ate too much, especially GJ who had two huge plates. It was all so good. Thanks Margaret for the marvelous treat!

Since I did not bring the camera, I took a picture today of two lovely peppers Rebecca gave me on friday when I was at her garden along side two of the pralines we were able to take home from the party last night. It’s taken all my resolve not to eat them today!

Two peppers similar to the ones Margaret stuffed and baked last night as well as two of the pralines which made such a nice dessert.

Had a meeting the other day at Bean Around The World, one of our fine Chinatown coffee establishments. Can’t resist their Peppermint Hot Chocolate. Usually made with Silkroad Westcoast Peppermint Tea, this day I think it may have had peppermint syrup as it was sweeter than usual – but still delicious and beautifully presented.

Yum!

So busy the last few days with the 25th Annual Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival. With seventy-two shows and fourteen venues this year it’s a bit overwhelming. We expect to take in at least eleven shows this year.

Dropped by the Moss Street Market yesterday and, as usual, loaded up with lots of yummy fruits and vegetables. Today was the last Victoria Downtown Public Market Society’s Summer Market in Market Square. Picked up some beautiful yellow beans and lovely Ciabatta bread, which we snacked upon with Roma tomatoes from Moss Street. The Society’s next event is Eat Here Now 2011, Sunday September 11 from 11–4 in Centennial Square. A huge list of local farmers and food makers will be participating in this Harvest Festival.

Our own tiny garden in our window is proving very fruitful indeed! Saddened by four years with no outdoor space of our own, we planted two lovely tomato plants in hanging baskets in one of our south-facing windows. It’s pretty wonderful to be able to eat food you’ve grown yourself, even on a very small scale!

http://www.victoriafringe.com/

http://www.VictoriaPublicMarket.com

Delicious Ciabatta bread from a local baker with delectable Roma tomatoes from a local farmer.

Our own tomatoes growing in our window.

When I lived in San Francisco for a month in 2004, I found myself indulging almost every morning in a hot chocolate and croissant from La Boulange Bakery on Polk Street. It’s one of my favourite treat combos. So this morning, I popped into Fol Epi Organic Bakery and Caffè Fantastico at Dockside Green. Nice hot chocolate at Fantastico, not too sweet; a good compliment to the buttery perfection of the Fol Epi pastry. A line of tiny sparrows waited patiently for the crumbs I left behind.

http://laboulangebakery.com/

http://www.folepi.ca/

http://www.caffefantastico.com/

Hot chocolate from Caffè Fantastico and fresh croissant from Fol Epi Organic Bakery, Victoria BC

This blog was initially going to be about food. OK, truthfully, it was going to be about chocolate, hot chocolate to be precise. In spite of embracing a broader format, I suspect much of what I write will be about food.

One of the things I love most about living in Victoria is our easy proximity to wonderful organic food and fantastically passionate creators and growers of food. As is usual on a Saturday morning, I found myself at Moss Street Market yesterday with my lovely friends Kerry and Tatum. This market was was formed 20 years ago and is comprised of locally grown organic produce, meat, flowers and honey as well as local art, crafts, jewelry, baking, preserves etcetera. Here’s a link to their website:

http://www.mossstreetmarket.com/

Our good friend Rebecca is one of the vendors. Here’s a picture of some of her beautiful vegetables.

Lemon cucumbers and baby summer squashes from Rebecca's Garden.

Sometimes on Fridays I help her harvest at her beautiful garden.

I bought two lovely bunches of lavender from another farmer. The market was at its most abundant right now. Below is a photo of some poppy heads. I’d never seen them for sale before. We also bought ten pounds of blueberries as it was Ruby Red Farms’ last market of the season.

Moss Street Market runs every Saturday until the end of October. Here’s a website which lists some of the farmers’ markets in British Columbia:

http://www.bcfarmersmarket.org/findamarket.asp

Beautiful bunches of poppy seed heads. they were a tall variety apparently; reds and pinks.