The March 5th Haul

Saturday School has ended and I can finally go back to my normal Saturday routine. Most (childless) people would balk at the idea of willingly getting up at 7 on a Saturday morning after a full work week just to go get produce, but I love it. It feels like Christmas, "What will I get?" So, I woke up at 7 and gleefully got my big gulp, drove to Sunny Springs Park, and picked up a giant box of fresh surprises.

butter gold potatoes, turnips, green beans, spinach, tomatoes, yellow squash, acorn squash, bananas, mineola oranges, braeburn apples, mangoes, and a pineapple

So I get home from the park around 8:15, turn NPR on the radio in the living room (because Weekend Edition, Car Talk and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me are awesome), and wash all the fruits and veggies, put them away where they belong, clean my kitchen and sit down and plan what I'll cook during the week. I flip through 5 or 6 of my favorite cookbooks and browse Recipe Zaar to try and use as much as possible from my basket while buying as little as possible from the grocery store. I wonder what the people at the store must think of me every time I buy nothing but meat, butter, cheese and spices from them.

I settled on a lamb stew to use some of the turnips and potatoes as well as carrots I still have in the fridge and some aloo saag to use more potatoes and the spinach. The recipes come from these beautiful cookbooks. I also want to dust off this recipe for stuffed acorn squash. There are some amazing sites for recipes and cooking online, but I love cookbooks. I love flipping through them and seeing gorgeous professional pictures, and I love having them on my book shelf.