Jul 9th, 2007
To market, to market
When I was in market-bag-knitting-mode in May, I gave one of the bags I made to my friend Katie. The handles were too long for my liking but just right for her, so I was happy to give her the bag. (This was not a total freebie, though: I did leave the ends for her to weave in herself. Mwahahahahaha!)
Katie insisted on knitting a bag for me–and I was delighted to say “Okay!” because I don’t think it’s possible to have too many reusable bags. She even let me choose the color of the yarn, which was awfully nice of her since she already had a ton of suitable pink-orange-yellow yarn in her stash but she knows that color combination makes my head explode. (But you know what? If she had made my bag in those colors I would have loved it anyway and taken it–without my head–to my local farmers’ market.)
She gave me the bag last week, and I’ve already put it through its paces. She is a looser knitter than me (aka “Death Grip on the Knitting Needles”), so the bag has some stretch to it. But it works wonderfully and provided the perfect container for the produce I bought last weekend. There’s something awfully wholesome about seeing fresh fruit and veggies peeking out through the holes of a cotton string bag. Thanks, Katie!
Beautiful beans!
We’ve got tomatoes and eggplants that I’ve been checking each day to see if they are ready to eat yet!
Pixie, do you have a favorite way to prepare eggplant? I like the idea of eggplants but haven’t found any recipes that I really like. (Well, there are a few, but they all involve coating the eggplant in batter and frying it. Yummy stuff, but I’d like to find healthier and less-labor-intensive alternatives.)
Oh–I should mention that I discovered yesterday that Katie knits as tightly as I do. So the stretch in the bag she gave me is because of the pattern and the yarn. Apparently, the bag I gave her is equally ginormous now!
Gotta love those market bags!! So easy to knit and they look so cool. I just bought TONS of yarn from Elann to make more. They actually have yarn that is the closest to the Fantasy Naturale that I have ever seen for like less than half the price.
It’s awesome, too, that you are using the bag at a market! Sweet!!
Other than ratatouille and it’s Italian cousin caponata, I like to grill eggplant after marinating it in lemon, garlic and herbs, or lime and spices. I ran across an eggplant-tofu stir fry in a generic Asian cookbook that looked promising but I haven’t had a chance to try it.