Twice during the time my relatives visited for Thanksgiving I answered “No it’s from Costco,” in answer to “Is this from the farmer’s market?”

Ironically both times referred to different sausages: One from Aidell‘s and the other from Fra’mani. Both are made in the East Bay of San Francisco. Technically that is local, although I’m not quite sure how directly the merchandise goes from the factory to the local Costco.

When my sister and I visited Costco a few days later, it was nice when she decided NOT to load up on stuff like olive oil and instead buy locally when she got home. If you really compare prices and factor in gas as well as helping the local economy where you live, the few cents you might save often don’t add up.
First, we transformed Two Dog Farm‘s last week of dry farmed tomatoes into a delicious Arabic style tomato salad: Chopped with red onion, lemon, garlic, salt and pepper. I could live on that.

We roasted beets with sliced potatoes and garlic along with rosemary from my friend’s garden. Only recently did I learn about dipping potatoes into egg white which makes a crispy crust without a lot of oil. Yes of course I used a lot of olive oil too.

This Chinese cauliflower turned out to be a big disappointment, like chewing straw. Into the compost bin. However I will definitely try it again perhaps during summer?

The apple pie with walnut crust was totally experimental. I’d found this walnut crust containing only walnuts, sugar and butter on AllRecipes. It was intended as a cheesecake crust. But how decadent and delicious would that be as an apple pie crust? Too decadent. It completely overpowered, over nutted, over sweeted. Like having the filling of baklava with pie. OK that sounds good but I wouldn’t do it again.

The meal’s highlight was not having a beater on hand. So I found that metal device which I’m not sure if it’s an egg whip. But between a fork and this plunging thing, we got that heavy cream into stiff peaks in no time. Yum.