Holy jetlag

I never thought of being jetlagged as something positive. Usually when I am jetlagged I wake up very early in the morning and get tired very early at night. That makes me angry. However, this time I decided to take advantage of it, and I succeeded. Everyday this week I either worked out or wrote on spoonglish before going to work in the morning, and it was so satisfying. Although now that I think about it, maybe it has to do with the fact that I turned 26 last week and I am becoming an old morning person.

 Yesterday it was Saturday and I was awake early too, even though I went to bed at 3am on Friday night. For the first time ever, being awake at 8am on a Saturday was perfect. Why? For so many reasons: 1) Because the night before my brand new camera arrived and I couldn't wait to learn how to use it. 2) Because I had always wanted to go to the farmers market but they only open on Saturdays from 9 to 12, so I could never go because I was always asleep. 3) Because both things added up so well! I could go to the farmers market, buy food and take pictures of the market!

So I got up and started to read the huge instruction book of my brand new camera. At 10 am I had taken 143 pictures of my coffee mug and 87 pictures of a beer bottle, using all the possible different settings. It was time to head to the market.

 It was a beautiful morning. I was surprised of seeing so many people on the street. Not only old people but also young people. Everyone at the market was so nice. The farmers let me take pictures of the food and told me things about their farms and their products. Everything was extremely expensive (I paid 8 dollars for a loaf of bread and 5 dollars for a lettuce), but the quality is excellent and you are getting the freshest products straight from the farm.

My favorite stand was the bread stand. I couldn't stop taking pictures. They had so many kinds of breads, all hand made, with different flours and flavors. It took me a while to decide which one to buy. In the end, I chose a barley and wheat loaf that had many different types of seeds. It was delicious.

Seeing all that food at the market made me want to get in the kitchen and cook something. So I did it. I hadn't made bread for quite a long time, so I made dough for a ciabatta and put it in the refrigerator. I will talk about this ciabatta and making bread in a different post because I haven't baked it yet, and because bread baking is a whole different world that deserves its own post. I also made pavo en escabeche (pickled turkey breast) which made the kitchen very stinky. I can't post about that either because I haven't tried it, as it has to stay in the fridge for 3 more days before eating it. But don't panic, there is a recipe that I can talk about and I am proud to say that I made it up myself and it turned out very good. It is a delicious cauliflower soup! I made it because I couldn't wait to use my new yellow hand blender (thanks mama). Here it is:

Cauliflower Soup

1 cauliflower

1 onion

1 big potato or 2 small potatoes

3 cups/750 ml chicken stock

1/2 cup/120ml heavy cream

1 pinch grated nutmeg

3 tbsp olive oil

In a big pot, heat the olive oil and add the onion coarsely chopped. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes until soft. Meanwhile, coarsely chop the potatoes and the cauliflower. Add them to the pot and stir for a couple minutes. Add the chicken stock and water to cover all the vegetables. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, until the cauliflower is soft. Using a blender, puree the vegetables until a smooth texture is reached, with no lumps. Add the cream, the nutmeg, season with salt and pepper and stir well. Serve in bowls and decorate with some ground nutmeg.