Hello! Welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–I’m glad you’ve joined me today!
Mr. Stone Soup and I were traveling last week and I had only 10 minutes to shop at the farmer’s market on Saturday when we got home. I decided to make this week’s posts a farmer’s market haul challenge and see what I could make out of this haul, plus a minimal run to the grocery store to get proteins and a few staples. I ended up spending about $210.00 total on the food.
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
3 bell peppers of assorted colors
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, 3 peaches, a few grapes and a kabocha squash sitting on the counter.
At the grocery store, I bought a very small chicken, about 1.5 pounds of fresh salmon, some deli-meat for sandwiches, burrata cheese and some shrimp, along with some staples like milk, butter, eggs and yogurt.
First thing I did was to make a big batch of pesto, most of which I froze for use later, but some of which I used for pasta to go along with the seared salmon we had for dinner Sunday night.
On Monday, I made a simply luxurious vegetarian shepherd’s pie:
Tuesday, we had roast chicken and squash boats.
So at this point, I still have all those tomatoes, some salad greens, some cherry tomatoes, an orange bell pepper, a yellow squash, a potato, the pears, 1/2 the watermelon, some of the grapes, the kabocha squash and the cabbage left. Also, I now have some roasted chicken meat and a carcass, plus the shrimp and notably, the cornmeal crust in the freezer.
Tonight, I’ll be making my famous tomato tart, using that cornmeal crust I have in the freezer, the burrata, and the pesto sauce I made on Sunday:
Along with that, I’ll be making this wonderful tomato and watermelon salad:
Since I only have assorted greens, I’ll be substituting them for the arugula–should still be delicious!
I will serve some of the chicken alongside the meal so that I can have some leftovers of the tomato tart for Mr. Stone Soup’s lunch tomorrow.
For breakfast today, we had leftover spinach and egg casserole and for lunch, Mr. Stone Soup had leftover chicken and squash boats and I had a sandwich.
After today’s meals, I will still have most of those tomatoes, some salad greens, some cherry tomatoes, an orange bell pepper, the pears, some of the grapes, the kabocha squash and the cabbage left. Also, I still have a little of the roasted chicken meat, plus the carcass, and the shrimp (which I put in the freezer on Sunday, so there’s no rush to figure out what to do with it).
My most pressing concern is for the tomatoes–they need to be used up. I could make Keri’s Killer Red Pasta and use up most of them tomorrow, but that won’t use up anything else on the list of items. I checked in my dry goods pantry and found 3 containers of the San Marzano tomatoes, so I decided I’d make a batch of fresh tomato sauce today, that I’ll put into quart containers and freeze. I’m also prepping sourdough, that I’ll bake into a loaf tomorrow.
I’m thinking I’ll stuff that kabocha squash for dinner tomorrow and use the rest of the greens and the pears to make an elegant salad. We’ll see tomorrow…
Until then–thanks for stopping by–
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
