A day with gelato is a good day. Oh, and hollandaise.

We had an unannounced field trip today -- took the school shuttle to Civic Center plaza to visit the Wednesday Farmer's Market. Peter gave each team $10 to spend, then we came back to South Campus and cooked a family meal. My group settled first on the beautiful green tomatoes, which Fitz volunteered to fry (after dipping them in egg and milk, and coating them in seasoned corn meal). Alex sautéed some onions and added blanched kale. I made hollandaise sauce (successfully! It's such a joy when it works!) and poached eggs ($2.50 for a flat of 30, cage-free). We piled the kale on the tomato, and the egg on the kale, and finished it off with sauce and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds ($.90 for a large fruit: first week at the market!) And on the side: hash browns that Meghan made. It was a joy to behold, and to make.

The other teams made rosti potatoes with poached eggs and three salsas, wild mushroom bread pudding, and a potato-chili frittata. We all came back with grapes, too: the market is full of them now, from tiny champagne grapes to big fat muscats. And all delicious.

Sam found a bottle of prosecco, so we had fresh fruit sangria. A little bubbly in the morning makes even the dishwashing pleasant.

After class, I headed for the Ferry Building, where, while killing time before an interview, I serendipitiously found a copy of the out-of-print cookbook I've been coveting (The Mediterranean Kitchen by Joyce Goldstein, my hero). And before I retrieved my car from the parking lot, I got gelato from the Ciao Bella stand: blueberry and pistachio.

Yum.

And the interview was really promising, too.