Hello and welcome to The Stone Soup Cook! I’m Keri and I’m glad you’ve decided to join me today!
Mr. Stone Soup and I traveled last week. Our plane back home landed at noon on Saturday, giving us only an hour to deplane, collect our luggage, get to the long-term airport parking lot and get to the farmer’s market before they closed at 1:00 p.m. Actually, everything went like clockwork, and when we squealed into the farmer’s market parking lot, Mr. Stone Soup slowed to the car down to 10 miles an hour–I did a smart little roll out of the car–and viola! I was at the market with 10 minutes to do my shopping for the week.
There wasn’t a whole lot left at the market, so I bought what I could. I decided keep track of what I spent and to challenge myself to use only what I could find at the market and buy in that 10 minutes, plus whatever was still left in the refrigerator. I did go to the grocery store, but only to buy proteins and staples.
Here’s what I got at the farmer’s market for about $60.00:
3 bunches of very fresh sweet basil
6 large, ripe tomatoes
2 zucchinis and 1 yellow squash
1 orange, 1 yellow and 1 red bell pepper
1 small eggplant
1 basket of cherry tomatoes
1 bag of salad greens
4 pears
2 baskets of blackberries and 1 basket of raspberries
1 small watermelon
4 large Yukon gold potatoes
At home, I had onions (yellow and red), garlic, a small red cabbage, a zucchini and a green squash, 3 tomatoes that were leftover that I put in the fridge to try to save them for when we got home (don’t do this if you don’t have to–refrigerating tomatoes robs them of all of their flavor!) 3 peaches (I also put these into the fridge to try to save them–we shall see) and a few grapes (again in the fridge) and a kabocha squash sitting on the counter.
I decided to make my own bread this week and when we got home, the first thing I did was take the sourdough starter out of the refrigerator, let it get to room temperature and then feed it. I made dough on Sunday and decided to bake the bread on Monday. Click here for my recipe for sourdough bread:
I then checked in the freezer to see what proteins I had on hand before going to the grocery store. I had a pound of ground lamb, a pork tenderloin, some assorted sausages and a little leftover ham. OK–interesting. I decided I would get some lean proteins at the grocery store to go along with that lot. I also noticed that I had one of those wonderful Vicolo cornmeal pizza/tart crusts. Things started looking up!
In the refrigerator and in the pantry, I always have some basics, like cheese, assorted condiments, oils (always olive oil and pecan oil, and on occasion others) nuts, vinegars, assorted flour, etc.
I went to the grocery store and bought butter, eggs, diced pancetta, frozen baby spinach, cream cheese, milk, burrata cheese, about a half a pound of prawns, 1.5 pounds of beautiful, fresh salmon, a very small chicken (under 3 pounds), deli turkey and some yogurt. I spent about $150.00.
So far, for food for the week, I’ve spent about $210.00. Let’s see what I can do with that, shall we?
If you hadn’t already guessed, at this time of the year, I turn into a giant squirrel–making and storing away food for the long, winter months. I looked at my bounty and almost immediately decided that I would start the week by making a large load of pesto sauce with that beautiful, fresh sweet basil:
I tripled the recipe and used most of the three bunches and managed to make about 32 oz of gorgeous pesto sauce. I put four 6-oz containers of pesto in the freezer and put the rest into a mason jar for use during the week. The rest of the leaves I will use in a vinaigrette or with the little cherry tomatoes for a capresse salad or…
On Sunday night, I seared the salmon and used some of the pesto sauce on orzo pasta as a side, and I seared one of the zucchinis for a quick and elegant dinner:
Here’s what I’m thinking for the rest of the week:
Monday: breakfast: yogurt with berries and granola; sandwiches for lunch; vegetarian shepherd’s pie for dinner.
Tuesday: breakfast: spinach and egg casserole; leftover shepherd’s pie for lunch; roast chicken, salad and pesto pasta for dinner
Wednesday: breakfast: spinach and egg casserole; sandwiches for lunch; dinner: roast pork tenderloin, zucchini boats and roast potatoes
Thursday: breakfast: yogurt, fruit and granola; lunch: leftover roast pork, potatoes and a salad; dinner: tomato tart using the Vicolo cornmeal crust, salad
Friday: breakfast: overnight oatmeal and fruit; lunch: sandwiches; dinner: chicken soup, fresh bread, salad
This menu will leave some of those large tomatoes, and I think I will make a load of fresh tomato sauce to freeze for the winter…or maybe another batch of tomato jam, we’ll see. Also still awaiting dispatch are the pears–I’ll either make a pear crisp or cobbler with those, and the peaches, which, if still ok, I’ll make cobbler with.
But–let’s see how it goes! If I stick to this menu, I won’t use the prawns, which is ok–they freeze well. And, well…things could change, so stay tuned!
Thanks for joining me today–check back tomorrow when I’ll share more recipes for this week’s farmer’s market haul challenge!
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
