Dear John,

Last week, someone on the neighborhood listserv started a thread sharing lifehacks. The first responses were about grocery lists and meal planning. Bulk cooking sauces and dressings on weekends to prepare for the week ahead. Making meals large enough that leftovers get packed in lunchboxes. Having regularly occurring menus. Which a reminder that, I can still tell you that growing up Saturday morning is pancakes, Saturday dinner is pizza, Sunday morning eggs, Sunday lunch spaghetti, and Sunday dinner hot dogs and popcorn.

I contributed using a melon baller to core an apple. Truly it works quickly, and then you have a half ball of core to toss in the apple core bag in the freezer.

Because, the apple core bag, is definitely one of our more recent tricks. Apple and pear cores (and other fruit), tossed in a bag in the freezer until you have enough to make jelly and mostarda or chutney. I opted not to put that one the listserv though. It feels a bit of an advanced cooking to reduce waste move. I’ll share with you, here, though.

It led to a fun discussion of our other hacks:

• Freezer scrap bags: In addition to the apple cores, we have kale and green stems that become pesto, veggie peels become stock, and one day I might figure out the secret of saving Parmesan rinds for stock
• Second curtain rod over the far side of the shower for hanging washcloths to dry
• Family account on one password with shared passwords
• Cryptomator + shared drive for secure file sharing across computers
• When mood is bad, eat something, drink water, and go for a walk and talk.
• This blog for sharing the menu planning process

Speaking of….

Home meals

• Sweet potatoes topped with celery and shallot and cheese. This recipe is a better fit for this box than I remembered!
• If we want something salad-y, I think the turnips are the first thing to try. I don’t know scarlet turnips! Maybe shave them and some apples and do a mustard dressing? We can also try grating the rutabaga.
• Two weeks ago, we made the parsnip soup with celery relish from Six Seasons. Honestly, it’s worth a repeat.
• Oh, root vegetable tangine sounds really fun. Aka it would do exactly as titled and mix up our routine. And we have preserved lemon waiting to be used!
• That blog had an older post that reminds me we can make gnocci with the root veg. We’re out of our sweet potato gnocci, so that’s tempting. But maybe one of the four pounds of rutabaga goes to that? We already have grocery store potatoes on hand.
• Last week, I used the last fall squash in a winter chili adapted from Simply in Season. This one looks like it’d be fun to stuff, but maybe play on that theme? Beans and cheese and some canned tomatoes and spices with heat.
• I was debating how to use the chard–it’s not quite a salad green but I wanted to get the crunchy freshness of barely cooked greens. I think returning to the pandemic winter favorite of turmeric rice with greens is the way to go. (You know if it came a week we had cilantro, I’d be making that soup.)

Love you,

Sarah