I would really like to know how much I could accomplish if I had back the mental energy that I am currently spending on managing fresh produce.
(This is one of those complaints that is 100% not a real problem at all and obviously you know that so we’re going to skip the part where I have to apologize for talking about any part of my life in anything less than superlatives when obviously a lot of people have it worse than I do. Consider this like, my open html tag on skipping the apology because it’s inherent and understood from here until the end of the pandemic and/or all human suffering of any type. This is the new default font of this blog, thank you for your understanding.)
Maybe this will be my new pandemic skill – knowing how vegetables work?
We start with buying things that we know last longer, so we don’t have to shop as often (RIP leafy greens, miss you, but not enough to eat you I guess.)
I spent all morning waging war against my #1 sworn enemy, which is soaking wet baby carrots. God I hate baby carrots. They arrive wet. I take them out of the bag. They are never not wet. HOW.
Fruit is another tricky one. I am a fruit eater of habit, I could buy the exact same things week after week and I’ll always eat it and I’ll always know exactly how much I need. My family not so much. Ada hates kiwis, loves kiwis, needs a banana every day, doesn’t eat bananas for months. Wildly unpredictable.
Today I took all of our “guess this isn’t going to get eaten” but not bad yet fruit and ran it through the Vitamix and then dug up some ziploc-style popsicle bags that have been in the cabinet over my fridge for at least five years (I am 5’2″ so that cabinet could just be a trash chute straight out of the house for all the good it does me).
We used pears, kiwi, and mandarins. The mandarins were “Cuties” of course but this was the first time I’d ever seen a brand on kiwis, they are trying to become “Mighties” and NO. It’s longer than the actual name? A kiwi squishes like an eyeball if it’s even three minutes past ripe. Not mighty at all actually. GTFO with the branding of fruit.
Anyway. We made popsicles and my kid thinks I’m a hero and she’s so excited about her Not Quite Rotten Fruit Homemade popsicles and honestly I’ve been patting myself on the back for them all afternoon too, because this is probably what my grandmothers felt like when they turned an entire bushel of beets into pickled beets or whatever. I am a pioneer making the best of my inability to control the ebb and flow of groceries right now.
Every day is better than the next. Zach and I heard a guy say this during a networking meeting once, and he definitely meant it the other way around, the happy way, but it’s just the brightest most positive way I’ve ever known to say that it just keeps getting worse so I’m going to keep it.
Today is definitely better than tomorrow, when my kid will surely refuse to eat the damn popsicles now that they are frozen.
day 4 of our Road America IMSA trip By Sunday, I was sleeeepy and we…
day 3 of our Road America IMSA Great Lakes Extravaganza weekend Off the Rail Early…
day 2 of our Road America IMSA/Wisconsin adventure weekend Manitowoc Coffee Admittedly, this one wasn't…
day 1 of our Road America IMSA/Wisconsin-lovin' weekend Despite our best plans, Thursday ended up…
Knoxville, Newton, and being Googled by my own kid. I'm a little infamous for my…
Day 13 - North Platte, NE to Rockford, IL So it turns out that when…