many meals

Thursday, we were running a little low on salad supplements, so I stopped in at our local independently-owned health food store and stocked up on an avocado, some organic cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, a red pepper, and a lot of organic broccoli, which I'd been craving. Now that I work in the neighborhood, I forget how easy it is to stop off on my way home, quickly snag some produce, pay, and dash out. It's maybe an extra 7.5 minutes off my evening. And they're *so* nice there! It's also a good incentive to leave work at a reasonable hour.

That night, we indeed had a fresh salad with the rest of the smoked salmon, some fresh mozzarella, lots of fresh lettuce, garlic scapes, tomatoes, some of the pepper, mushroom, and avocado.

Friday and Saturday, I had dinner with friends but I did get that omelette in, a little two-egger filled with sauteed mushrooms, onions, and parsley, with cheddar cheese.

Sunday night, we had another salad. I made a tiny stir fry with onions, chopped baby beets, mushrooms, and fresh peas I'd picked the day before. We also had strawberry soup -- fresh strawberries, yogurt, mint, and water put through the food processor. It would probably be good with a little sour cream on top, too, but there was none in the house. For dessert, we had fresh baklava, brought back from Mr. P's trip to New Jersey. The rest of the baklava went into the freezer. We'll eat it over the course of the next few months.

Monday, we had pesto-stuffed gnocchi (Trader Joe's) with broccoli (finally), ginger, and my own pesto. I was so stuffed that I didn't want dessert. Based on a recipe in the farm newsletter, I made a quart of pickled broccoli, which we'll eat in a week. It might be horrible, in which case we'll never have it again.

And last night was farm pickup night. We had a big salad with fresh strawberries, romano cheese, turnips, garlic scapes, the rest of the red pepper, some fresh peas, fresh herbs (probably basil and parsley), and raw pine nuts.

I also made a little stir-fry over high heat of fresh zucchini, garlic scapes, and chopped spinach. Mr. P typically hates zucchini and says the stuff should be licensed. I never buy it. It is good raw and I might grate it into a salad later this summer. But I thought I'd try cooking this little guy. And it worked! Mr. P got to the seconds before I could and said "Can I finish it?" and then realized what he'd said. He couldn't get over how much he liked it. (Tiny victory dance.) We'll probably have an opportunity to try the same trick with brussels sprouts later this summer.

Not sure what's up for the rest of the week. We now have some yummy cooking vegetables in the house -- broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale. Depending on the misery index (temperature plus humidity), we may cook some of it up and eat it cold later.