About

Hi you,

I’m Sarah. I live with John. We have a CSA share, a garden plot, and easy access to local farm stands. All the things to eat seasonally.

Eating what’s outside means meal planning takes on a different approach. Instead of deciding on meals, making a list of ingredients, and then going shopping, I see what there is in the box and then plan what to do with it.

The Approach

Meal planning is labor. I used to draft emails with recipe ideas so that John could pick up his turn of cooking without making me do more work in the moment, or I could look it over on the nights when I just didn’t want to decide what to do with the stuff in the fridge. This blog is the next iteration of that process. I’m hoping that the archives prove to be more useful for remembering what we did with an overwhelming amount of produce*, than trying to sort through abandoned email drafts.

To be explicit, this is not a site where I’m writing down recipes, or even documenting how I adapted the three to five recipes I referenced when cooking. Instead, it’s a peek into how I think about how we’re likely to eat the ingredients we have on hand. Mostly vegetarian, but not always. Usually gluten free for John’s sake, but sometimes I want those sticky proteins. Sometimes I refer to specific recipes (sometimes even recipes that I’ve used before). Sometimes, I’ll leave the search until we’re ready to cook. Sometimes it’s a cookbook from our shelf. Sometimes it’s a cookbook borrowed from the library. Sometimes it’s the internet. You know, the places where recipes are stored.

My strategy for the CSA box is not one that requires completely finishing up the produce from one week before the next box arrives. Some weeks are busy. Some items store. And sometimes the thing I want to pair a flavor with comes in the next box. Only problem is that this lends itself to the forgotten item pushed to the way back of the fridge. That’s why each week includes a list of what came in the CSA, what’s coming in from the garden, and what’s still in the fridge/pantry from the previous week. I’ve also added a list of our open preserves, partly as an inventory and partly to notice when we eat what of the produce that was put up. I admit, some of this probably isn’t helpful or even interesting if you’re not visiting our kitchen. That is okay.

*Anyone else live through a sweet potato winter, a radishes forever phase, or a watermelon summer?