Strong Verbs Are Just Better

Is there some kind of law that says the postman will ring the doorbell JUST as you sit down on the loo?

( What was in Box 2 )

Box 2(+carry over) turned into:

- The oranges from box 1 became orange juice, after I bought a citrus juicer
- The bananas mostly went on breakfast, allowing the older bananas I already had to become Jack Monroe's Banana ketchup (minus the peel).
- Endives: I still have two (friday's box contains beetroot, and I have a cunning plan for endive and beetroot salad), but one got sliced and mixed into a mash made of potatoes left over from the previous week's slow-cooked beef and vegetables, and eaten with the last of said beef
- Other leftover roast vegetables: got pureed, and mixed with gluten-free panko crumbs and parmesan, to make sort of vegetarian rissole things. These fed me for a few lunches, with sweet chili sauce and guacamole.
- The celery, stock, some green beans and frozen spinach got turned into a pilaf with halloumi. I added more spices than I normally do with pilaf, and a mint-yoghurt dressing, and it was pretty great.
- One broccoli, half the lettuce, an apple, half the kiwi fruit plus a handful of cashews went into a salad that was vaguely based on this one crossed with the delicious magazine warm spinach and apple salad. No cheese, though.
- One fennel, half the garlic, and some of the long peas ('haricots coco'... whatever that is in English), onion i had from the store, some not-salami but similar sausage rounds, and some feta cheese went into a risotto
- The tomatoes, along with some mushrooms I had and the last of the halloumi became a variation on my roast tomato pasta
- I attempted to make fruit custard tart, with pre-made shortcrust, kiwifruit, and crème vanille. Conclusion was: kiwis muddled with crème vanille would be better and easier, the pastry was not sufficiently sweet. I could try the puff pastry, I guess, it wasn't very puffy and might blind-bake down. Or I could just eat fruit muddled with crème vanille forever.
- another tomato (I ended up purchasing more), and 2/3 of a zucchini, became a pizza with a creamy white base sauce.
- the rest of that zuchini, and about a quarter of the capsicum, got diced up and fried with mushrooms to make additions to brunch "burritos" (i don't bother putting rice in them) of banana ketchup, guacamole, vegetable mix, cheese, and egg.
- Two zucchini and two potatoes went into a curry with chickpeas, working from this as a base recipe (modified by a good year of habit now...). Another handful of the flat pea things got cut up and fried with mustard and cumin seeds to go with.

Left over:
1 orange
4 apples
8 kiwi fruit
Half a banana
2 endives
1 fennel
1 zucchini
A handful of the long flat peas
Half a lettuce
The garlic stem
Most of the potatoes

Plus the extra tomatoes I bought, and a handful of apricots. One thing that surprised me was that I was able to shop on the day I received the box, and then only needed a quick duck into the station grocery store for milk, tomatoes, and the apricots (I think I wanted to mix them with kiwi? I didn't, whatever it is I wanted to do with them) the following weekend. I didn't notice a dimunition in my grocery expenditure during box 1, but I definitely did for box 2.

Box 3 arrived today (Friday) and I don't think I'm quite so in love with it, but it provides some good staples.

Contains:

A small head of celery
3-4 zucchini
A cucumber
Another lettuce of some sort
A fresh garlic
More potatoes
Two shrink-wrapped packs of precooked beets
4-5 tomatoes
About six carrots
About 4 apples
Quite a lot of rhubarb
Something that looks like a rockmelon from the outside but might not be inside (melons are weird here)

I am currently roasting the endive with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, with a view to endive, beet and brie salad tonight. I also cut the tops off the celery, and fished out the bag of veggie ends from the freezer and herbs from the balcony garden, and slowcooker stock is underway.

Looking at this, I will probably make lentil borscht, and a stir fry of some kind. Possibly roast carrots and fennel make some variation on this salad. Mixed spiced roast carrot/zucchini/potatoes with chickpeas and not-couscous might also be in order, especially if i make a big patch of tzatziki to go with.

Just *look* at this:

( The bestworst teapot I can afford )