bread and produce and such.

i brought my bread machine out of retirement today. it is currently concocting some italian herb bread to go with our soup tonight. i hope. it always amazes me how that little paddle in the bottom of the mixer can actually do everything it does. anyway, i’m hoping it will be yummy… especially since i had to play w/ the recipe a little bit. (of course.) it calls for 3 and a half cups of bread flour, which i don’t have. so i used 2 cups of AP flour and a cup and a half of whole wheat (because i’ve officially turned into my mother and can’t make anything with just white flour…) it also called for 1/4 cup of parmesan, which i’m out of (yeah, i didn’t actually PLAN to make this bread… the idea just sort of occurred to me as i was wandering the aisles at qfc this afternoon). so anyway, i hope it’s good.

i should really use the breadmaker more often. i don’t know why i don’t. we got it as a wedding gift from my aunt marilynne and uncle loren - yep, the one that just died – so i’m thinking of him as my bread is baking ;) and we used it a lot back then. made sandwich bread and everything. then after we moved back to WA, i don’t think it’s been used once.

anyway, i went to the yakima fruit market today and i can’t say i was overly impressed. the prices are good, but they didn’t seem to have any more organic or local produce than a typical grocery store w/ a good organic section. sooo… i’m kind of back at square one here. i visited the issaquah farmer’s market on saturday and got some great organic salad greens for a great price from a lady there, but that was all i wound up with. i wanted to get some strawberries, but i just can’t bring myself to pay $4 a pint. especially when my own strawberry plants have lots of berries on them and some are starting to ripen up already. so i decided to be patient instead. for some reason, shopping at a farmer’s market is very confusing to me. part of the problem is money. i have a specifically set budget for groceries, and i have a pretty good grasp of how far that money goes at the grocery store when i’m buying everything i want for the week. when i start getting this here and that there, i get really confused about it and numbers just start swirling around in my head… i’m not really a math person.  the other trouble i have is with having to reverse my thinking. since i’m not exactly the best or most adventurous cook, i have to be very specific in my planning. i’m not good at opening a cupboard or the fridge, seeing what i’ve got, and then somehow coming up with dinner from that. when i plan our meals, i pick out what we want to eat first, and then make my shopping list accordingly. when you go to the farmer’s market, you see what they’ve got that is in season and looks good. i always wind up looking at stuff that looks really yummy, but then i don’t know what i would do with it if i bought it. or i could buy whatever they’ve got that looks good, and have a bunch of random stuff that doesn’t really go together in any logical way to make a week’s worth of meals, but i blew a wad of cash and now i don’t have much left with which to buy the stuff that does turn into meals. you see?  aaagggghhh!!!! it drives me nuts that this is the only way i know how to shop and cook. i feel so non-creative and inadequate.

but it’s all a learning process, right? i suppose my family won’t starve… they might not be very happy with me for a while.

i’m also considering the organic farm box delivery from full circle farms. it’s $40 a week to have it delivered to a drop-off location that’s just a block or two from my house, or i could pay $5 more to get it delivered to my door. of course, that leads into the reverse planning thing as well, so i’m not entirely sure. anyway. i’m over-thinking things again, as usual. and i need to go get my soup started.