Persimmon Bread

 Because fall/winter has officially set in, and I no longer have fresh fruits and veggies coming from my garden, I decided to order a Bountiful Basket this week. They also had a great deal on gingerbread house kits, so I was excited to pick up my order.

In my order, there were quite a few fuyu persimmons. I'll admit that I'm not too familiar with the fruit. I saw them growing all over the place in Japan, but I never actually ate one there. I have a friend here with a persimmon tree, and she gives me a couple fruits each year, but we just eat them and move on.  I got so many in the basket that I knew I was going to have to do something different with them.

I found a recipe for Persimmon Bread, and I decided to tweak it a little bit.  I was quite happy with how it tasted- it tasted like a sweet/quick bread with a nice spicy undertaste.

Persimmon Bread

1 c. persimmon pulp (I just cut the stem looking thing off the top and put it in my food processor)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. applesauce
2 eggs
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ginger
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. finely chopped walnuts

Mix all ingredients together except for walnuts. Pour into a well greased bread pan. This is prone to stick, so putting some parchment paper in the bottom wouldn't be a bad idea.  Sprinkle the walnuts on top.

Bake at 350 for 45 min-1 hour, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I used walnuts from my tree for this recipe, and so I had to shell them before I could use them. I also made the bread after the kids went to bed, so I had to shell them myself. What a pain! No wonder I usually make them do it!  I did notice if you crack them a certain way, the walnuts make a cute heart shape.  It wasn't enough to completely win me over, but it did make me a little less annoyed.

Bountiful Baskets Oct 23

I know I haven't done a Bountiful Basket in forever, but this week they were offering pomegranates and tortillas as add ons, so I simply had to do it. We got a 24 lb box of pomegranates for $18.50, which is an amazing bargain. I also got a MEEELION tortillas for $10. I love these tortillas.
So, here's what my $15 basket was for this week:
I still have tomatoes and pears coming out my ears, so those parts were less than enthusiastically received, but I'm really happy with the rest. I've never cooked parsnips before, so that'll be a fun new thing to try.
In other news, I have confirmation that two of my Easter Egger chickens have begun to lay. I got both of these eggs today:

The interesting thing about the speckled egg is that when it's dry, the brown spots are more beige, and almost unnoticeable. The egg was a little dirty, so I washed it off, and it went speckled. Too cool!

Bountiful Baskets

Pretty awesome basket this week. I am most excited about the rainbow swiss chard. Doesn't that look beautiful?! I actually got one more orange than pictured, but I gave one to a friend. The pickup time was supposed to be 8:45, but since the truck was late, pickup was late. I ended up being late to volunteering at the daycare. My partner there, Erin, was on time, and had to hold down the fort alone for a bit, so I gave her an orange as a thank you.


I also got a 38 lb box of apples, but didn't take a picture.

Bountiful Baskets

This is the goodies I got from Bountiful Baskets this week. As you can see, Z was extremely excited about the strawberries. There's a total of 6 ears of corn; I stacked them in a somewhat minimizing way.

I was chatting with a couple of volunteers about the baskets, and the subject of preserving fruits/veggies came up. They remembered J and his marked lack of enthusiasm over the cucumbers. LOL

Bountiful Baskets and funny text

Last summer, K had really hoped that I would make pickles for her. I planted several cucumber plants, but they didn't produce as much as hoped, and what they did make were bitter. So, no pickles this year.

This week, a Bountiful Basket location was added at the last minute, and one of the add ons was a 38 lb box of pickling cucumbers for $17. Awesome! I knew that would be way too many for me alone, so I asked my sister in law if she wanted to split it. She agreed under the condition I teach her how to make them into pickles. They also had what sounded like an awesome mexican pack, so I grabbed that as well.

It was scheduled for pickup this morning, but due to weather, had to be pushed back a couple hours. J picked it up for me, since I had plans to go to lunch with my mom, grandma and sister. A few minutes after he picked up my basket, I got the following text:

"Seriously. A case of cucumbers?"

I had to totally crack up when I read it. When he'd gone to pick up the basket, they saw my name and said, "Oh, you're the ONE with the cucumbers, huh?" He replied, "No, it wasn't me. That was my wife." I suspect there was some eye rolling here on his part. We'll see who is rolling their eyes when they're enjoying pickles. So out of 100 people who ordered a basket, I was the only one to buy the cucumbers. I have to admit I'm a little surprised. I saw the box when I got home tonight. Holy cow. That is a LOT of cucumbers. And, it came in the coolest, most rustic box ever.
Here is the regular basket contents:

That is really an awesome haul. I'm pretty excited about it. The mexican pack is going to stretch my cooking a bit- I've never used tomatillos before, so it'll be interesting to work with. This is going to sound very dorky, but I loved the colors of the mexican pack. The different shades of green with the white and tan of the garlic and onion looked very pretty, I think.

Bountiful Baskets June 27

Today I got two heads of romaine lettuce, celery, cauliflower, green beans, a bunch or so of bananas, 8 tomatoes, 7 apples, 12 or so pluots, 2 zucchini, a big container of grapes, and a pound of strawberries. I chose to get the huge box of granny smith apples as well. All this for about $28 or so. Yay!

My Bountiful Basket for the week

I am especially excited about this week because I just did the basic basket, with no add ons. Everything was something I buy very frequently, and all of it was really great stuff.

Latest Bountiful Baskets haul

I have to admit I'm a little disappointed with this weeks' haul. First off, it was really, really crowded this week. Last time, I was only gone 15 minutes. This week, I had to wait in line for a half hour. I really am fairly ok with that. Here's what I got:

I like having a fruit heavy basket. The only disappointment for the basket itself is that the mangos feel very squishy, and are wrinkly, so I'm not sure if they're going to be edible.

I upgraded and got a 40 lb box of granny smith apples for $14. WOW!!!!! That's like $.33 a lb. Amazing deal, and beautiful apples.

Lastly, I upgraded to get the Asian pack. Oh yay, more mushrooms. Only my husband eats those. But, lots of Asian cuisine includes mushrooms, so an appropriate pick. I'm excited about the fresh ginger. It looks beautiful. It didn't seem like that much stuff for the money. Of course, the napa cabbage was really, really buggy. I had to get a couple flies out of the bag. Then, I saw holes eaten through it. Maybe if I was hungrier, it would be salvageable, but I just don't feel comfortable eating something that buggy.