Saturday’s usual downtown farmers’ market took a week off while the downtown held the fall festival we call Octoberfest. I dropped Amigo at his barbershop chorus’ booth where he volunteered as food prep, wrapping hot dog and hamburger buns in napkins. As we arrived, the guys already on site were singing “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” to a young woman who had just bought a hamburger.

I left to the tune of “On, Wisconsin” played by the nearby polka band, and Chuck and I stopped at the neighborhood meat market. We love this place. We can wander back to the butcher’s counter and discuss our Eating the Opponent menus and ask for their advice. We came home with this.

Saturday Market

Okay, I admit it. We didn’t just buy meat. We bought the meat for KC style chili, I picked up a container of hot beef and two mini-lasagnas for those days when I don’t have time or energy to cook. The bread, a good nuts & twigs variety, was day-old and on clearance. What else? Oh, ham salad for Chuck – he just had a tooth pulled, and he’s eating soft and smooth whenever he can.

No fresh vegetables – at least not from this market. My living room and dining room are full of tomatoes in various stages of ripeness. I predict salads and BLTs and anything else that uses tomatoes on our menus this week.

Okay, readers. Do you have a creative way to use tomatoes? I’ll take suggestions.