Eating (mostly) Amish

While I HATE the hot weather, there's no denying the avalanche of edible bounty it produces. After hearing about the incredible deliciousness of the vine ripened peaches currently sold at roadside stands all over town, I wheeled into one today. Oh. My gosh, ya'll. These babies are juicy and perfectly ripe and impossibly sweet. Chin-dripping delicious.

Also, today, my weekly Amish produce shipment arrived. Here we have cabbage, zucchini, broccoli, new potatoes, scallions, blueberries, cabbage, and beets. All of which I LOVE except. Beets. I've never gotten over those mushy, sliced, stained red things they used to make us eat in first grade. Gag me. Probably fresh beets, like many foods, are entirely different. Still, I cannot seem to overcome my preconceived notion of beets long enough to even attempt cooking the things (they go straight to my Mom).

Obviously, this rice mix isn't straight off the paddy, but it's notable in that I used to have to order Texmati rice blend (it includes white, brown, wild and red rice) from the Amazon grocery. Happily, Kroger now carries it.

The chopped stir fry ingredients. I added a handful of chicken and cashews. I think both salads and stir fry benefit enormously from the addition of a handful of nuts. Obviously, this array would be greatly visually improved by the addition of some contrasting color--a red pepper, perhaps, or grated carrot. But, the goal here is to cook with what I have on hand.

Dinner. I'm planning to bake blueberry muffins for breakfast tomorrow. I have to say, I LOVE this whole concept of once-a-week organic Amish food. While the fact that the food is slow, natural and fresh is great, I also enjoy the fact that I don't have to make decisions about what to eat. On some level, it's such a relief to have nature and the Amish decide that for me. After working all day and going to school and what have you, going to the store is just...kind of overwhelming. There's so much to choose from. I didn't actually realize that aspect of the process had become burdensome until I had this experience. I suppose that makes me the epitome of the ugly American....like, ohmygod...we have, like, too much food! But, if I'm honest, it's true. Too many choices, sometimes.