Errands and a great lunch

I love this type of tomato.  They are so sweet tasting.  They were a bit pricy since they are grown in southern Italy in Sicily and it's not quite 'tomato harvesting season' here yet.   However, I wanted to make my caprese salad with my fresh mozzarella cheese that I had bought last week at the grocery store. 

I left my house early today and ran some errands and when I finished I was actually in the neighborhood of the school.  I do need to work at school this weekend- however, I also wanted to get back to my little town and stop at the bakery before they ran out of bread and closed.  I didn't get to go there last weekend and I only made it there one day during spring break.   So, I opted to go to my house instead of going to work.  *That will be tomorrow's plan.   On Saturdays, there is this very small market, taking up the space of a parking lot, selling a variety of things: clothing, food, fresh fish, veggies, and other odds and ends.  I had never stopped there because I was always on my way somewhere else and then they'd be closed when I came back through the same area on my way home.

When I got to the bakery in my little town; they only had ONE piece of bread with the fresh olives baked in it left.  I grabbed it and a couple other whole wheat pieces.  They do make/sell white breads but, I personally like whole grain breads better.  See the salad that I made?  Pretty, huh?   Fresh slices of mozzarella cheese (this is a big hunk of soft cheese stored in a salty like brine water-- it is NOT, I repeat: NOT like mozzarella cheese sold in the states!  This is not the same stuff that is sold in slices or shredded.), the tomatoes from the today's market, fresh basil leaves from the plant that I bought last week, and just a little salt and fresh ground black pepper sprinkled on.   The final touch?  It is all drizzled with dark green olive oil (I found this olive oil, from the first pressing of the olives,  at a local festival celebrating the harvest of the olive trees a few weeks after my arrival last November.) and sweet aged balsamic vinegar.   

 I also had some of the fresh cooked shrimp, like the local Wednesday Fish Man sells.  Someone at the market was selling fresh 'uncooked' fish and they had a few cooked fish items that you could buy.

I must also confess that after I arrived home and unpacked everything- that I didn't even notice the time; but, I started taking photos and cutting the tomatoes all up/etc.  The next thing I knew, I had taken the photos and I had lunch ready to eat.   So, I ate it and it was so good.  The bread you see is necessary to dip of the left-over olive oil mixed with the balsamic vinegar.  Not just because I think it tastes amazing.

It wasn't until I had finished eating my meal that I realized it was only 10:30am!   Oh well, I'm calling it BRUNCH.

I also splurged and bought myself some yellow tulips. 

A good start of the day, I'd say.