September 11th, 2010
Hot food, cool people
I love meeting people online. I’m terrible at meeting people in general, because believe it or not, I’m very shy. I’ve worked really hard to try to overcome it, but the best I can do is pretend that I’m not having anxiety attacks. I’ve missed many a hangout because I suddenly “felt sick” or “had something come up.” Really, it’s just my Social Anxiety Disorder making my social life frustrating. It also makes work frustrating and downright scary sometimes.
So love the internet. Not only am I able to speak without the fear of completely making an ass of myself (if only I could proofread the things I say in person before I say them!), but I’m exposed to many many more interesting people than I would be otherwise. I’ve made some wonderful friends (and Brian, actually) by playing World of Warcraft, and one of my closest friends – the man who will be performing my wedding ceremony – through a Pagan forum years ago. And more recently, I’ve met some wonderful people in the food blogging community.
I met the wonderful Jennifer of Bread and Putter via the Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen, a community of food lovers, many of whom are also bloggers. Jennifer and I befriended on there, then later began following each other on Twitter and reading each others’ blogs. I soon found out that she lives in a neighboring town to mine, and actually works in my town! So this discovery led to the decision that we should meet in person and hit up one of the better farmer’s markets in our area.
After several scheduling conflicts, we managed to finally meet up and go to the Northampton Farmer’s Market today, and…wow! What an awesome place. I was really excited to not only meet another [awesome] foodblogger from my area, but also by how much selection was at this market! I got some eggplants, some organic salad mix, blue potatoes, something called an “Amy” melon, and…be still my heart…lemon grass!! I have not been able to find lemon grass anywhere around here – and believe me, I’ve scoured – so I’d resigned myself to never trying all the wonderful lemon grass-laden recipes I’ve found. Until today, when I snatched up the last of that farmer’s supply. I was so happy I almost did a little dance. Actually, I may have. I don’t always notice my celebration jigs. Jennifer caught me sniffing the lemon grass, though. I can’t help it; I smell everything. And I really wanted to see if my lemon grass smelled, you know, lemon grassy (for the record, it did not – we both checked).
So my day was set then and there, and I’m super happy I got to meet you, Jennifer! We must do this again sometime, or maybe have lunch at one of the great restaurants you’ve told me are out there?
In the meantime, I have decided that in order to expand my culinary repertoire, this week’s menu in our house is mostly…middle eastern! All of our dinners and some of our lunches are all recipes that hail from the middle east, particularly Lebanon, Egypt, and Palestine I think. I plan to take a lot of photos that hopefully I can get up sometime in the next few weeks along with a full report of this experiment. We just ordered a new computer for Brian so I should be able to get photos off my CF card soon. 
I love the Internet for some of the same reasons. And, I am totally jealous of the lemon grass. I can’t find it anywhere! How fun to go to a farmer’s market with a fellow food blogger.
The farmer gave me several stalks instead of just one or two like I was expecting, and I’m not sure I can use it all in the three weeks I should be able to keep it. Would you like me to send you some of it? I can send it priority so it only takes a couple days to get to you.
I had a great time too! I can’t wait to hear what you make with the lemongrass and lunch some weekend soon sounds like a great idea.
[...] up to the awesome farmers’ market in Northampton. And this time I was joined by Valerie from Sex, Food, and Rock & Roll. (Go ahead and read that post – Valerie called me cool! Me! Cool – wow, first time [...]