Today's Adventures
Jul. 8th, 2025 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithWe went up to Champaign-Urbana today.
We got lunch at Dunkin' Donuts. I really like their breakfast sandwiches, particularly the croissant with egg and sausage.
My partner Doug wanted to catch a sale at Barnes & Noble. He had some luck finding videos. I picked up two magazines, and later found a bargain book. I have learned that if I start in the magazine section, I can usually find at least one, and that avoids the Universe having a kernel panic attack over me not finding anything in a bookstore. Regrettably I couldn't find another issue of Earth Island Journal. I did check the speculative fiction, but it was all either boring rehash or downright off-putting.
Next we went to Planted. I was hoping to find some more interesting versions of air plants, but they just had the same kind I've already got. Instead I picked up a very shiny iridescent pot with oilslick colors, and a tiny plant to go in it which has dark leaves in sort of a red-green-purple-brown color ... I have no idea what it looks like to human eyes other than probably "dark leaves." Most people can't see layers like that. One thing I love about this store is that if you buy a plant and a pot, they will repot the plant in the new pot for free. :D They always have a ton of fancy pots and some cheap ones. The fancy ones tend to be expensive but this one was quite reasonable.
Then we spotted a sign for the Champaign Farmer's Market, running Tuesdays from 3PM-6PM. It's much smaller than the Urbana Market at the Square, but multiple people were selling produce plus vendors of other edibles such as baked goods and a few crafters. Our first stop was the familiar Scones & Things: a booth selling scones, tie-dyed T-shirts, and pecan mini-muffins. I found a pastel rainbow T-shirt that I wanted, but we didn't want to buy right away, so they held it back for us.
My partner Doug got to talking about magic with the lady at the Macaron Palace. He picked up a couple of macarons from there. I have to say I was impressed. Macarons are A) super difficult to make correctly, and they're crappy if made wrong; and B) usually filled with icing, at least in America, which isn't a favorite of mine. The one I had was A) made correctly and B) filled with lemon curd or something similar. I would happily eat another.
Another shop that caught my eye was the Unprogramming juice booth. I was tempted by the lemon-ginger-apple but we still had beverage in the car.
Diamond's Homestead had the biggest selection of produce. It included summer squash, zucchini, carrots, and various other things. But what caught my eye was the mushrooms. They had pink oysters! I hadn't ever seen those in person before, only read about them. Same with the blue oysters -- which are sort of a pale gray or cool lavender -- and the lion's mane. We bought a mixed carton to make stir-fry later. It's always so exciting to find a food that I've read about.
EDIT 7/10/25 -- We stir-fried the mushrooms. They were tasty but not much better than our usual mix of mushrooms.
By then it was starting to drizzle, so we looped back to pick up my T-shirt and a carton of the pecan mini-muffins.
Next we went to Harvest Market. I found apricots and cherries in the fruit section. We got a brick of Cabot aged white cheddar cheese. We picked up Brown Cow yogurt, and a couple of blackberry Yoplaits.
For supper we ate at Smokey's Barbecue. We got a platter with turkey and burnt ends, plus fried okra, applesauce, and cornbread. That was really good.
It has been a productive day.
We got lunch at Dunkin' Donuts. I really like their breakfast sandwiches, particularly the croissant with egg and sausage.
My partner Doug wanted to catch a sale at Barnes & Noble. He had some luck finding videos. I picked up two magazines, and later found a bargain book. I have learned that if I start in the magazine section, I can usually find at least one, and that avoids the Universe having a kernel panic attack over me not finding anything in a bookstore. Regrettably I couldn't find another issue of Earth Island Journal. I did check the speculative fiction, but it was all either boring rehash or downright off-putting.
Next we went to Planted. I was hoping to find some more interesting versions of air plants, but they just had the same kind I've already got. Instead I picked up a very shiny iridescent pot with oilslick colors, and a tiny plant to go in it which has dark leaves in sort of a red-green-purple-brown color ... I have no idea what it looks like to human eyes other than probably "dark leaves." Most people can't see layers like that. One thing I love about this store is that if you buy a plant and a pot, they will repot the plant in the new pot for free. :D They always have a ton of fancy pots and some cheap ones. The fancy ones tend to be expensive but this one was quite reasonable.
Then we spotted a sign for the Champaign Farmer's Market, running Tuesdays from 3PM-6PM. It's much smaller than the Urbana Market at the Square, but multiple people were selling produce plus vendors of other edibles such as baked goods and a few crafters. Our first stop was the familiar Scones & Things: a booth selling scones, tie-dyed T-shirts, and pecan mini-muffins. I found a pastel rainbow T-shirt that I wanted, but we didn't want to buy right away, so they held it back for us.
My partner Doug got to talking about magic with the lady at the Macaron Palace. He picked up a couple of macarons from there. I have to say I was impressed. Macarons are A) super difficult to make correctly, and they're crappy if made wrong; and B) usually filled with icing, at least in America, which isn't a favorite of mine. The one I had was A) made correctly and B) filled with lemon curd or something similar. I would happily eat another.
Another shop that caught my eye was the Unprogramming juice booth. I was tempted by the lemon-ginger-apple but we still had beverage in the car.
Diamond's Homestead had the biggest selection of produce. It included summer squash, zucchini, carrots, and various other things. But what caught my eye was the mushrooms. They had pink oysters! I hadn't ever seen those in person before, only read about them. Same with the blue oysters -- which are sort of a pale gray or cool lavender -- and the lion's mane. We bought a mixed carton to make stir-fry later. It's always so exciting to find a food that I've read about.
EDIT 7/10/25 -- We stir-fried the mushrooms. They were tasty but not much better than our usual mix of mushrooms.
By then it was starting to drizzle, so we looped back to pick up my T-shirt and a carton of the pecan mini-muffins.
Next we went to Harvest Market. I found apricots and cherries in the fruit section. We got a brick of Cabot aged white cheddar cheese. We picked up Brown Cow yogurt, and a couple of blackberry Yoplaits.
For supper we ate at Smokey's Barbecue. We got a platter with turkey and burnt ends, plus fried okra, applesauce, and cornbread. That was really good.
It has been a productive day.
