Bountiful Baskets, week 2

It was still dark out when I was driving out of my garage this morning to go pick up my Bountiful Baskets stash this morning.  Yes, I was thinking I was crazy, but after I picked everything up, it was worth it.  I just need to make sure I get a nap this afternoon.  I also remembered to take pictures this time!


Regular 50% fruit/50% veggie basket:

• 1 cantaloupe
• 2 tiny Bosc pears
• 1 bunch of bananas (7) - not as ripe as last week
• 7 nectarines
• 1 bag seedless green grapes
• 2 bags of carrots
• 6 ears corn
• 1 bunch broccoli
• 2 tomatoes
• 2 green peppers
• 2 heads romaine lettuce
• approximately 1.5 lb of white potatoes

I also got some extras this week - sourdough bread (5 loaves), and a Mexican Pack:

• 1 bunch cilantro
• 2 yellow onions
• 1 head of garlic
• 2 Hass avocados
• 4 poblano chilis
• 5 jalepenos
• 10 small limes
• 11 smallish tomatillos

Right about now you're probably saying to yourself, what the heck are you planning on doing with all that food Miss Mindi?  I have plans!  Some of the bread is getting given to one of the young guys I work with, and maybe some of the other produce if I'm feeling generous.  He and his fiancee are getting married in a couple of months, and their budget is hurting a bit.  Especially since their 7 month old puppy was at the vet all day yesterday and its looking like he might need surgery to remove a blockage.

There's also a BBQ I've been invited to tomorrow, so I'll take a salad, using up a fair amount of the romaine (since I still have some from last week) and carrots.  I'll also throw in the tomatoes and some green peppers, since I really don't like those.  Let the people at the BBQ eat them!  Oh, and I'm also taking banana bread, to use up the super ripe bananas from last week.  And.... I'm making chicken tortilla soup, or I would be if I weren't up here on the computer.  But, the first thing I did was make a batch of fresh tomatilla salsa.

I've never done anything with tomatillas before, but it seemed pretty easy to husk them, chop into quarters, and throw into my Vitamix along with some fresh garlic, lime juice, cilantro, salt, fresh jalapenos, and some fire roasted jalapenos.  I have to say, it turned out pretty tasty.  Not what I usually eat for breakfast at 9am, but what the heck.  Nice and tangy from the lime and tomatillos, with just a bit of kick from the jalapenos, and that special something from fresh cilantro. 

After eating some of last week's produce, and seeing what I got this week, I'm happy with the quality and variety.  I did notice the corn from last week probably wasn't that fresh.  As I was husking the ears to fire roast it for the soup, I noticed that my 2 week old corn from the farmers market was looking much better than the 1 week old corn from BB.  This weeks corn looked like defects (some of the ears had a second immature ear growing on it).  I'm happy there's variety.  While there were some repeats, it wasn't all the same.

Anyway, back down to chop veggies for the soup, and I might wander up to the farmers market to grab a pastry, and look at all the expensive produce, knowing mine is almost as good, but less than half the cost.  Hopefully there will be a stitching post either later today, or tomorrow.

Summer's Bounty

Teresa has been posting pictures of her Bountiful Baskets stash each week, so I finally broke down and got one this week, instead of going to the Farmer's Market.  It hasn't been the fear of the unknown that's kept me from doing this, but the god-awful pick-up times on a Saturday morning.  This week it was 6:45 am.  No joke.  I decided to suck it up this week and I wasn't disappointed.  I totally forgot to take a picture, since I was half asleep and put it all away when I got home, but it really was bountiful.

• 5 black plums
• 7 white peaches
• container of strawberries
• large bunch of seedless black grapes
• 1 cantaloupe
• 6 bananas
• 4 roma tomatoes
• 2 heads of romaine
• 1 bunch of broccoli
• 4 ears of corn
• 1 bag of carrots

The black grapes are awesome.  I've never seen seedless black grapes before, and I hate grapes with seeds in them.  These are super sweet, and have some great flavor, and yes, they're almost gone.  I'll be eating a lot of salads this week, since I already had a huge bag of romaine hearts from Costco.

I also have tons of corn, since I had bought corn at last week's farmers market.  What do you do when you have more corn than you know what to do with?  I made Southwestern Corn Chowder, happily everything was from my pantry or fridge.  Super simple, just some sauteed sweet red onions, cubed potatoes, chopped fire roasted chilis (I used jalapenos and anaheims), fresh corn, chicken stock, milk, and a splash of cream at the end.  Oh, and seasoning, can't forget the seasoning.

As for stitching, not much to show this week.  I battled my sewing machine and got a few smalls finished, so I'm happy about that.  I hate sewing, so those type of finishes tend to pile up until I feel guilty and finally work on them.  I had 5 that needed worked on, and got 3 done.  Both of these were part of the Autumn Challenge in the Samplermakers group.  This was one of the main motifs supplied by Jennie Lynn.  I just added a touch of whimsy with the felted wool circles and mother of pearl buttons.  Super simple hanger of some black hemp twine knotted in the corners.

This was my own little composition, using the moon, cat and cauldron provided.  Its just finished into a simple little decorative pillow, and backed with felted wool.  You can see my Russian matryoshka dolls behind.  Yes, that is a Gorbachev doll, and the ones inside are other Soviet leaders.  That, and the really big doll, were purchased on a trip to Moscow in 1984.  The doll on the left is from a trip to Votkinsk a few years ago.

Hopefully next week I'll have some more stitching pictures to post.  I actually did get a lot done this week, just it was spread across so many things, it wouldn't look like much.