Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Gift of Brussels Sprouts

This post is a duplicate from my other blog, but it's food related, so I thought I'd repost it.

Last weekend Sam and I went to Costco and bought $200 worth of groceries. I felt so awesome working out the budget and making sure we got things we needed instead of things we wanted. It was really fun. I decided we would get our produce and dairy at the regular store since it didn't really make sense to me to buy it in bulk when we're both only just starting to try to eat more fruits and vegetables (you'd never believe we were in our 20s, would you?).

And then it dawned on me: the long-ago mention of some produce basket co-op where you can get lots of fruits and vegetables for a fraction of the cost (as in $15 instead of $50). So I did some googling and discovered Bountiful Baskets. I then spent the next couple of hours doing research, reading reviews, and looking at pictures of what people typically get. I then ran it by Sam and we talked it over, finally deciding hey-ho, let's give it a go.

So this morning at 7:50, I arose, bleary-eyed, and asked Sam if he was coming (to which he replied "Would it kill you if I didn't?" of course), hopped in the truck, sent myself on a wild goose chase (who knows west from east, really? Pff.), and finally found the elementary school where the pickup was held. I went inside and some guy asked me for directions. I gave my standard "I just don't know," with raised eyebrows (which I'm starting to think some people might interpret as being rude, but sometimes...you just don't know). We then wandered around together until we found the auditorium, waited in line, showed proof of "contribution," the ladies made fun of my IKEA bag (have they seen how big those things are?), and kindly gave me a box to take my produce home in. I then made my way speedily home (there are surprisingly few people out and about at 8am on Saturday), singing to myself "It's eight o'clock in the morning; my husband's home and he's snoring..." (sung to the tune of that weird song on the radio right now).

Anyway, this is what we got:

I'm pretty excited to use this stuff in the near future. Some of it, like the corn, I will be cooking and freezing for later. We plan to get the baskets every other week (I think eating all that in one week would be a little over-ambitious, don't you?). Obviously some of it I can't eat because of my health issues, but Sam can.

What am I supposed to do with the Brussels sprouts though? We've both had them before and agree they are not delicious. Does anyone want them? Or something? Help?

Monday, January 16, 2012

A Nice Tidbit of Information

Remember how I'm always telling you to coat fruit and such in flour when you put them in breads and such? Well, I've sort of always wondered why the coating is necessary, and I recently found out why. It's because it helps keep the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the pan. Instead, the flour helps it to stick to the batter or dough around it. I feel like a fool for never figuring that out. But now I know!