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After finishing work at 4, I got The Oyster in the car and rushed to Lexington in time for the Lexington Farmers Market, which runs from 2 till 6. I was very keen to get my mitts on some goat cheese, which tends to sell out early.

We were wandering around the market by 4:45 and lucky for me, Crystal Brook Farm hadn’t sold out of their chevre rolled in cracked black pepper. It’s heavenly (I’m eating it right now with hazelnut crackers) — lots of pepper, and you can practicaly taste the sweet grass the goats nibbled on. Double lucky for me: no one else in this household likes goat cheese, so it’s mine. Mine, all mine.

The other stuff in the photo: I picked up the red tomatoes and blueberries from the Charlton Orchards Farm table, and the honey is from Niemi’s Apiary in Athol, MA. As much as I wanted it, the fresh mozzarella I had to pass on — my cheese drawer is overflowing. I also wanted to get some grass-fed aged beef from River Rock Farm, but by then I was running out of both cash and checks, so we passed by. Instead I used my last $2 to buy The Oyster a fat brownie from the Hi-Rise Bakery table. (Oy, the prices they charge for breads I make for many dollars less! But they do have very good bread.)

On the way back home, we stopped at Verrill Farm in Concord. The Oyster was quite happy to head to Verrill’s because they have a pretend tractor he likes to drive. This is where I got the yellow tomatoes, the quart of red potatoes plus the lone spud, the corn (we shucked it ourselves at the stand), and the bag of baby spinach. Then it was a quick stop at my favorite Indian market, Kolava Market in Westford, for the chick pea puffs and homemade yogurt. These two ingredients I needed for a raita my friend Sonika served for lunch a few weeks back. It was very yummy!

So, how will I use these ingredients? The corn we ate for dinner tonight, and I used a yellow and a red tomato for a salad caprese. I’ll have the remaining two tomatoes for lunch tomorrow, the blueberries for breakfast, and roast the red potatoes for dinner. The baby spinach and lone spud are for my Babe challenge, which I hope to complete tomorrow. And the honey is for our stash.

Hope this isn’t boring y’all. I just post this stuff because I’m nosy and curious why people buy what they do and how they plan to use their ingredients.

We rarely buy bread products anymore, save for the odd package of hamburger/hot dog rolls or a baguette if I want bruschetta and don’t feel like baking bread for it. Here’s the recipe for our “house bread.” DH likes classic American bread — with a not-too-chewy crust, a fine, soft crumb. The dairy keeps this bread fresh days longer than bread without; important because we don’t manage to eat a full loaf in a day. If it does get stale, I cut it up into squares and make croutons or grind it up in the food processor for bread crumbs for The Oyster’s chicken nuggets.

After a lot of experimenting, here’s my no-fail recipe:

2 1/4 tsp. dry yeast
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup water, room temp
15-oz. bread flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup buttermilk, room temp
1/4 cup oil

1. In a large mixing bowl (if you’re using a mixer, do this in the machine’s bowl) bloom yeast in the water. I add one of the two tablespoons of sugar to help feed the yeasty beasties.

2. Whisk flour, the remaining tablespoon of sugar, and salt together and dump into mixing bowl. Add buttermilk and oil. Either mix by hand until it’s no longer workable, then start kneading, or do what lazy people like me do … start the mixer’s engine. Use a dough hook and let it mix for about 7 or 8 minutes.

3. If your kitchen is cold, turn on oven for one minute then turn it off.

4. When the dough clears the side of the bowl and looks/feels “springy,” shape into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover bowl with a clean towel or plastic wrap and let rise for an hour in a warm place or in the prewarmed oven.

5. After an hour, the dough should have doubled in size. Gently press out the gas and shape into a loaf. Place in an oiled 1# loaf pan, seam side down. Cover with towel or plastic wrap; let rise again for approx. 35 minutes.

6. OK, here’s the secret. Take the cover off the dough, and place the dough in a cold oven. Turn on the heat to 400 degrees F and set your timer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes of baking, your bread will have risen magnificently and have a dark golden crust. Turn the heat down to 350 degrees F and bake an additional 24 minutes.

7. Turn bread out onto cooling rack and let cool for 45 minutes before you even think of cutting into it.

Yield: One loaf

You can play around with this formula. I’ve made the dough with just plain whole milk when I didn’t have buttermilk. Or I’ve made fake buttermilk by adding lemon juice to plain milk. Tonight I made a mix of 5-ounces of Irish wholegrain flour with 10-ounces bread flour, and so far, it’s looking good. One time I substituted walnut oil for the plain vegetable oil; I’ve also used melted butter. And another time I flattened the dough out before the final rise and added cinnamon and sugar. Yum. If you need to stretch out the process, you can do all sorts of things to make breadmaking suit your schedule. Stick the dough in a cold fridge to slow down the rise. I’ve mixed up bread before bed, then let it rise all night. In the a.m. I take it out, let it warm up, then continue with the recipe.