Happy New Year!

So I'm already way behind on one of my perpetual New Year's Resolutions, which is to write more. Faithful blog reader of mine, I can only beg for forgiveness. Something tells me you're not too beat up about it :)

In talks with with the other Martha, it seems she is resolved to up her repertoire (what an oddly spelled word!) this year by trying a new recipe each week. I've encouraged her to chronicle her journey here but unless we get a new name/url for this little guy, I'm thinking it might not happen. I hope to hear from her soon on her kitchen adventures!

As for me, I'm about to head on a soup kick. I feel like the soup options in my life are pretty bland and boring, so I'm hoping to try out a few new recipes in the next few weeks... First one, starting tonight, will be soup from a lentil package I picked up from Gene's on Sunday because omg hello this store is my absolute dream come true and I'm so depressed it's taken me so long to discover it. M had visited it before with rave reviews, but I'm not gonna lie, I thought it was too fancy and expensive and just never bothered. Newsflash, kids: the soup I'm making tonight will make five servings and cost me a whopping... $1.19. Let's see how it holds up (it is, after all, lentil soup...eek)! Gene's is so wonderful not only because of their inexpensiveness, but also their crazymazing meat selection, and I will definitely be coming back here for special occasion dinners... or just to get their chicken thighs, which at $2.99/lb, are half as cheap as Whole Foods (sorry Tyrone) and I am sure just as quality. Produce selection was definitely not as cheap as Harvest Time, my new Stanley's, but hey, a girl can take having a nice deli mere steps away. Seriously. Amazing discovery, so so happy!

Other soups on deck for the next few weeks: Shrimp Bisque and Italian Egg Drop Soup. It's nice out today but I have a feeling winter's going to stick around a bit longer... like til April or May. Call it my Chicago intuition ;)

In the meantime, stay warm and healthy! Eat that vitamin C. It's a nasty time out there.

love love,
a

Stanley's

Like the Chicagoist , we've often noticed Stanley's but never gotten off the bus to explore. Yesterday's trek to "Market Place" on Diversey and Clark had Fresh Pict (with a t!) strawberries at 4 dollars for the 1 pound carton, and M was sure we could do better elsewhere. So after work today I got on the bus and trekked out there. It wasn't that far and it was so totally worth it. I got a whole lot of produce for under 10 dollars: and those strawberries I almost bought yesterday for convenience? 1 dollar, people! 1!!!

Stanley's also has olive oil (tons of it) and a deli selection. Lots of organic things, if you're into that. It's all so cheap I just wanted to stay for hours. Unfortunately, at this point it was already 7 pm (but I'm pretty sure they're open until at least 10) and I had some food to make, so I regretfully pulled myself away from the alluring shelves of produce and made my way home. But don't worry, I'll be back, Stanley. Probably in like three days. My days of being disappointed by high farmer's market prices are pretty much over. I blew a good 20 at the Southside Farmer's Market (61st and Dorchester) this past Saturday.

Pictures of the fruits (vegetables?) of our labor coming soon!