Adventures in food!

Most of them have never said it, but probably many of my family would say if asked, that I am a picky eater. My mom has said so, and my aunt Peggy has said so. But I blame it all on hormones, because my appetite changes with my changing moods from week to week--even from day to day. Sometimes I have a great appetite, and everything sounds good to me and I can eat a lot. Other times, Joe probably has the urge to force-feed me, because nothing sounds appetizing to me. And my appetite ranges everywhere in-between. (Plus, I have a killer sweet-tooth, and though I've been working to master it for years--and succeeded for long stretches of time--it recently has been getting the best of me, to an insane degree.)

That said, I have to tell y'all about the coolest thing we've been participating in--a farmers' market co-op. It started out with the support group of the spouses/sig. others of med students (aka, 'LifeSupport'), but I believe others have joined in, such as church friends of various med student wives. Anyway, it is organized like this:

• 12 families participate in one Co-op. (The numbers work out fairly nicely this way.)
  
• Each family pre-pays $10 for fresh fruits/veggies, and then the two girls delivering on a given Saturday take the $120 and buy bulk produce from the Dallas Farmers' Market.
• They divide up the food into 12 parts, then each of the two girls delivers 6 families their share.
  
• Those receiving the food again pre-pay $10 to the deliverer, who last delivers to the girl who will deliver next time, and gives that person the money. She will of course use it next time to buy the produce.
• A folder is kept to put the money in and to keep track of who has paid, a calendar of who is next to deliver, and a map of the farmers' market wholesale areas.
  

We have been delivered everything from pineapple, strawberries, and blackberries, to new potatoes, huge carrots, tons of onions, and patty-pan squash. I have been a deliverer once thus far, and it really is fun to go to the market!

The pick-up happens twice each month, and I have loved it for three primary reasons: One, we get pretty darn fresh produce twice a month; two, I really think it is saving us money on grocery store fruits and veggies; and last and best of all, I LOVE having someone else decide what ingredients I have to use! Sounds weird, I know, but I love it.

My least favorite part of my day used to be when I got home from work and had to decide what to make for dinner. I don't mind making dinner, in fact I love to cook; it is just the decision making that about killed me, day after day. Argh. Now that someone ELSE is making some of that decision for me by choosing what I'll receive in yummy produce every two weeks or so, I feel like I've been given some direction.

For example, a month or two back, we received two eggplants in our delivery of produce. My first thought was, "What in the world do I do with eggplant?" But, once it had settled in that I really did have two eggplants in the fridge, and they really were going to rot if I didn't do something with them, I settled down to find a recipe. I vaguely remembered hearing that Eggplant Parmigiana (sp?) was good, so I looked on AllRecipes.com, and voila! there were several for said dish. I got brave and made it, and it was yummy! (That was even after substituting/omitting a couple ingredients I didn't have-!) Joe loved it even more than I did, I think. (He's not a picky eater, but I still like him to like my meals:)

Two Saturdays back, we were delivered five good-sized green tomatoes. Now, I didn't really know prior to this that "fried green tomatoes" was anything more than a movie title. But I looked it up again, and sure enough, many recipes for country-style fried green tomatoes! And would you believe they are really good?? Kinda reminds me of the fried zucchini at Crown Burger in Salt Lake City. They were even good left over, reheated in the microwave! Who knew?

In case you'd care to try:


Fried Green Tomatoes

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
5 green tomatoes, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1 cup crushed saltine crackers
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup butter

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, salt and pepper. Place the crushed saltine crackers in another bowl, and the beaten eggs in a third bowl.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Dip each tomato slice in the egg to coat, then in the flour mixture. Dip the floured tomato slice back into the egg, and then into the cracker crumbs. Place the coated tomato slices in the hot skillet, and fry until golden brown on each side, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Add more butter to the pan, if necessary. Serve hot!
--from Beth someone on Allrecipes.com

They say necessity is the mother of invention--well, it seems to apply to the whole appetite and cooking thing for me (work with me here): When I have something in the fridge that I need to use because it will go bad and be a waste of money otherwise, I feel all frugal and good about myself when I find a new way to use it! It tends to do something for me psychologically, or maybe just emotionally, and it increases my appetite!

Any which way I look at it, I'm really enjoying being "forced" to discover new foods, by way of someone else doing my produce shopping :)