Sometimes I get into trouble with you my gentle readers because I don't always do "wow" recipes. What I mean is seared scallops can knock it out of the park and many people are cruising the blogs looking for those iconic images to satisfy their tastiest food fantasies. So in my heart, I know today's Avocado Watercress Salad with Green Beans will surely be a disappointment for those of you looking for truly inspired, gastro-molecular, gravity-defying-stacks of food. But my wallet (and my blood sugar) can't afford to enjoy these treats on a daily basis.

I also know that several of you nice folks are gonna leave me sweet messages saying how you think all my recipes are "wow".  To those of you so inclined, I'll say "Thank You" in advance for those kind words, but there's really no need to pat my ego this way. Because, as much as I love bringing on the wow-factor every once and again, I honestly enjoy real food and real life here just as much as anything.

Real food and real life includes eating seasonally for me. Prime season for ripe California Avocados starts right now. Which is why I have chosen this Avocado Watercress Salad with Green Beans. It's fresh and seasonal. It has just a few ingredients; each one chosen to augment the other. While, it's true that this is "just a salad" I like to think that it is in no way boring. Because you don't need to switch into zombie mode every time you make a green salad. A salad does not have to limit itself to tomatoes and carrots.

Spring is in the air. We had some of those April Showers that Bring May Flowers yesterday. Of course this is LA. It doesn't rain much in April so the same rule applies for March, just without the cute rhyme. Which is fine with me, I don't really like cute rhymes.

Spring has already sprung here (I do like alliterations) and I have been super busy these past few weeks. I have had my nose stuck in the oven manically working on my cookbook– plus I have been traveling quite a bit. And I have more trips to Arizona and Costa Rica planned this month. So basically I feel I missed winter and all the great things you can find at the Hollywood Farmers Market. So book be damned, I decided to walk my butt down the hill this morning and write myself a good old-fashioned Market Matters post. Gosh, remember when I used to write a Market Matters posts every Sunday? Those were the glory days this little food blog, back when there was time to cook and write whatever I wanted.

But that's changed. Still, I awoke determined to write a Market Matters post today. But for all my determination what I didn't have was time enough to come up with an original recipe to feature in that post.