Friends: I’ve moved to Brooklyn! That is my somewhat-excuse for my absence: I’ve been packing, unpacking, arranging, adjusting and settling my life for the past two weeks, and things are finally looking adulty. My kitchen is killer, and mostly sold me on the apartment/makes it worth the hour commute to work. I have slowly accumulated groceries from the conveniently placed Fairway and Whole Foods by the office, and yesterday I even drove(!) to the Whole Foods in Park Slope. Apparently there’s a Stop and Shop nearby that I need to find because #budgets. Anyway it’s been great so far and I’m looking forward to cooking and baking all sorts in the kitchen (it has an island!).

Last weekend, I went to the farmer’s market at Grand Army Plaza. There were lots of great produce and stands with baked goods, flowers, meat, and dairy. Here’s my haul by the end of my trip:

Not pictured: a surprisingly yummy morning bun, a cup of (chewy?)
coconut yogurt that came without a spoon, a baguette end used to eat
aforementioned yogurt.

I had some fancy basil pasta from work that I wanted to make and thought I could make a fresh tomato sauce for it…without a blender. I’m all for that rustic feel/taste, so if you ask me, it worked out fine. I will admit, however, that I need some work on pasta sauce. Even if I’d used a blender, I’m not sure how this would have turned out. Here’s what I did anyway! Please educate me into a better pasta sauce in the comments below 😀

I pretty much chopped up one large beefsteak tomato, some leaves of basil, and garlic from the market, added salt and honey, and simmered it on the stove until the water was cooked out. Since it was only for me, I didn’t need much at all. Then I threw it on top of my pasta, added some brie, and ate it. Not necessarily the prettiest, but fresh and great.

Check back soon for shenanigans of Brooklyn 😀 ~