Paniers bio

I've decided to sign up for weekly organic fruit and vegetable baskets this year. Basically, you buy a "share" of a farmer's crop and he delivers a basket to you once a week. You can't pick and choose what you want-but luckily, I like most (if not all) fruits and vegetables. (I think the only ones that I don't love, really, are radishes... but chopped up and mixed with other vegetables they're fine.) I'm really looking forward to the challenge of using up an entire basket of fruits and vegetables ever week! The farmer I signed up with emails everyone on Fridays to let us know what to expect in the next week's basket, which gives us time to plan meals around it.

I heard of this system quite a while ago, but I was worried about not knowing what to do with my weekly harvest and ending up wasting food. Well, now that I've been living on my own for ten years (!!) I think I have a good repertoire of recipes up my sleeve, and I'm pretty sure I'll find ways to use everything up. (I know how to make pickles now!)

This morning I came across a tip about using up vegetables on Liz Fabry's blog, and I want to keep it in mind this summer: roasting.

"I'm a big fan of roasting stuff. It's so easy, and I've yet to find a vegetable that it doesn't improve.

These grape tomatoes were starting to get wrinkly and sad. CRISIS. So I cut them all in half, threw in some whole garlic cloves for good measure, tossed everything in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and threw the pan in the oven at a low temperature (325º, maybe?) for about an hour and a half (larger tomatoes would take longer, though).

Out came magic. Crisis averted."