September/October Catch-All

Some tidbits from this fall:

I visited a new farmers' market this year.  The downtown St. Paul Farmers' Market! I like this market because it is small enough that it is not overwhelming yet it still has a wide variety of produce and other vendors.  The prices are on the cheaper side yet the quality is still great.  Thumbs up to this one!

I went with Jamie and we may have needed to make multiple trips back to the car because we bought so much.  In our defense, watermelons are heavy!

This vendor might want to rethink their choice of potato scooper.  As a cat owner who is very familiar with the intended use of that utensil, it is very hard to imagine eating anything that touched one of those.

For the first time in many, many years, I went to the Mall of America.  I had no choice since I needed to go to a store that only has one location in Minnesota and that location was in this monstrous mall. I took the train and tried to pretend like I was a tourist in a new place.  It helped make the experience more bearable.  Still, giant malls are discombobulating and overstimulating!  In case you are unfamiliar, this mall  is so big that it has a theme park in the middle of it.

The beer tastings that started in the spring are still going strong.  My appreciation for beer is growing but I still maintain that hops taste icky.

I am so glad Verdant Tea opened up a shop.  I love the space, the tea tastings are a steal and their food menu keeps getting better.

My book club met there recently and I got to taste some new things, including a few new blends of tea and a savory porridge called congee.  Yum!

As I have mentioned, Paul has become a fabulous pizza chef making up all sorts of interesting combinations and perfecting his own crust recipe and technique.  As a treat/inspiration to him, we had a date night to Pizzeria Lola.  We took seats at the counter that gave us a great view of the wood fired oven and the pizza prep area.

One of the cooks shared some of their stats with us because we were curious how many pizzas their very efficient and busy operation churned out in an evening.  It was estimated that they make around 600 pizzas on a busy night.  Amazing team work!

They have a fun photo booth display that people can look at while they wait.  Thankfully we timed it just right and didn't have to wait.

Another recent reason for celebration was my mother-in-law's birthday.  We prepared and shared a lunch with her to celebrate and then Paul's sister and family joined us for dessert.  Happy Birthday, Joanne!