Tucson Local Food Fair and Farmer's Market at Rillito Park: Another BrightSpot

With this warm Spring, we lucked out and experienced a "below normal temps" Sunday.  Perfect for an outing to the first ever Local Food Fair, and, for us, a visit to the Farmer's Market regularly held at Rillito Downs Park. One of the sponsors for the Food Fair was LocalFirst/Tucson.  The breeze turned into a wind when we were leaving, but it didn't blow away the smiles or appetites.  We enjoyed a lamb pita with dilly-green beans and chocolate baklava, prepared by the Sunnyside High School/JTED Culinary Program (sorry no photo--we ate it fast, before Mark could take a picture.)

We also sampled a chicken and rice entre from Snow Peas, a "Modern Asian Kitchen" that is new to us.  We will try it out for a full meal when we are on Tucson's east side.  Check out their menu at www.facebook.com/SnowPeasAZ .

For "dessert" we each had the new pastry hit (modelled after the NY dossant), a part donut, part croissant (topped with maple bacon icing) from Prep and Pastry.  That's where I had my birthday tea and am still waiting for the owner to send me the detailed menu from it so I can post the menu with more of my birthday pictures.  Their pastry is in a photo below.  Check out their menu at www.prepandpastry.com .

The other photos are of the wonderful vegetables at the Farmer's Market.  We spent money and time and both booths featured below and got an earful of hydroponic gardening info from the enthusiastic student/gardeners from the UA. The garden is at the UA Campus Farm.

 Enjoy!!

 

 

Japanese Friendship Garden

Because we are fortunate to have a friend who shares her condo with us on the occasional weekend, we are learning to enjoy the "brightspots" of Phoenix.  This is our second visit to the Japanese Friendship Garden www.japanesefriendshipgarden.org , but the first time in the Spring.  The light was muted with clouds and so Mark's photos are sharp and clear.  Enjoy a small tree of cherry blossoms and the reflective pond, a bubbling stream and sculpted bushes, and (special surprise) a young family of five ducklings and their mom.

 

 

 

Preview of Prep and Pastry Birthday Tea

Due to a bad cold and family issues, it is taking me longer than expected to post the lovely photos of my marvelous 65th Birthday Tea at Prep and Pastry.  Here is one photo that Mark took of one of the four (for 7-8 of us) with myself semi-hidden and my friend, Eileen, in the picture.  I have an album to make of his photos and those two other guests/friends have shared so more will be coming.  The "Downtown Abbey" theme and game that I made up made it fun, the food was fabulous, teas amazing and gifts and love from friends made my heart overflow....

Queen Creek Olive Mill

While on a brief respite weekend and Phoenix, we took a long drive from our downtown location to the far East Valley, discovering groves of still standing (and just blossoming) orange groves.  Meandering through the past agricultural area and more recent urban sprawl development, we reached our destination (45 minutes later):  the Queen Creek Olive Mill.  It was worth the drive.
We took in the Olive Pressing 101 tour, led by a wonderful guide, Sandy (who looks better in her mid 60s than Olivia Newton-John does and had the same perky personality as "Sandy" in "Grease).  We tasted a variety of their products (and olives from the Olive Garden at the Greek Monastery in Florence) and had a great Panini and salad from their Restaurant. 

Here are pictures of the exterior Olive Grove/Picnic Area and the amazing interior/store with products not only from their gardens but other local growers.  The story of the Mill and other photos (plus directions which you will need) are at www.queencreeekolivemill.com.  We encourage you to check it out and, if the trip is too much for now, their products are also available in Tucson at La Encantada.  We bought their "classic" EVOO for ourselves and our Phoenix condo hostess and our Chef Aron Fonte.

New place in town: Prep and Pastry

Last week, my hubby/photographer and a visiting friend tried out a new place in center Tucson: Prep and Pastry www.prepandpastry.com .  The location is convenient and takes over the former Emilia Grey Tea House.  They changed the décor to urban chic and it reminded Mark and me of Thomas Keillor's place we reveled in a few years ago on our Napa trip:  Ad Hoc.



Prep and Pastry offer a savory weekend brunch menu and afternoon tea during the week along with breakfast and lunch that resembles the brunch menu.  Our server, Rose, was so upbeat about the menu and what she is learning about quality food. 



My only suggestion to them, at this point, is they need to add color to either the plating or the plates because the photos look a bit flat and don't do justice to the best scrambled eggs I have ever had.  They come from a Willcox egg farm and the crispy bacon (not pictured) recalled the taste and thickness of my Uncle Fleming's hog farm product he used to bring to my grandmother's on special visits.



I will be trying out their tea soon and will let you know how it goes as well.  I recommend giving this new "brightspot" in Tucson a try--the owners are really working hard at delivering some unique selections and, so far, I would say they are doing well.

ladies in the line

The Ladies in the line: prompt words—threat, viewpoint, birdless, blimp, drive, singing, spit, float.

The ladies in the line were singing a happy tune in the south yard of Eleanor Roosevelt's cottage, near the gravel drive where the limo was waiting. From their viewpoint, the day could not be finer. This conclusion was enhanced by the spiked punch they sipped at lunch. Ignoring the signs that all was not right with the world (the midsummer sky was birdless and not a butterfly floated by the bushes), they continued to dance. Irritated by their joy, the gardener angrily spit his tobacco into the raked grass and threatened the universe with his tight fist. The Goodyear Blimp took a photo of the scene which was published on the inside page of LIFE magazine with the caption "Ladies frolic with the First Lady while the stockmarket hits a new low." (148 words)

 

 

Car Happy

Mark took this photo and captioned it so well I am just using it as ":

I am standing next to our new car, a Subaru Impreza Sport Limited, with Beau Overfelt, our fantastic salesperson from Tucson Subaru.  This decision was an unplanned event.  But when the 16 year old Camry Mark had been using from his dad needed more repairs than it was worth, and, we determined over the next few days, we were not yet at the point of being a "one car family"--we started shopping.

We had been viewing Subarus on the road, reading about their safety record (very high), but hadn't driven any during our various car rental experiences.  So Beau took us out (very patiently and with good humor as well as detailed info) with three different models: the Impreza, the Crossfit and the Forester.  We thought we would want a bigger car, but we really liked the ride in the smaller model.  We went back another day (Beau was off) and Kevin took me out for a spin.  Mark did his homework on Costco leasing and so we went back for a loooong session with Beau, his manager, Terry, and Tim, the "financial guy."

It's been 13 years since our last (and successful Royal Isuzu) lease-purchase and our brain cells were popping with the new details and amazing technology in a new 2014 car.  Besides seven air bags and a transmission that is as smooth as silk, Mark is bursting with gear-head info.  I, however, will comment on the comfort (for my back) of the seats, super sound system and fantastic visibility, including a rear-view camera.

But, we would have turned around on the first day in the first five minutes if Beau hadn't approached us with a smile and wry sense of humor.  He never pressured us into a decision, but answered all of our skeptical questions and when he "didn't know", he checked it out with his manager.

We highly recommend this dealership (newly relocated on Oracle, just south of River) and ask for Beau or Kevin.

P.S. The dozen red roses I am holding in the photo are from Beau--that's a first in my history, i.e. a car agreement resulting in a bouquet.  Classy and kind:).