Week 16

It's been a busy week. Tuesday we got a new water heater. Thankfully, I did not end up having to shower at the gym, but the guys didn't leave until 9 PM. In spite of the water-heater installation drama, we now have a very small, very efficient water heater. Wednesday was Back to School Night. This meant, for me at least, hanging around school until 6 PM when the parents came and then not leaving until 7:30 (for those of you who are counting, that's a 12 hour work day, plus 45 minutes each way on the subway). Then Thursday I wasn't feeling well, so I didn't go to class. Yesterday was September assessment deadline chaos. To finish off the week, today at 1 PM I have to take what I hope is my final NYS Teacher Certification exam. After that I'm taking a nap. 


And eating those Concord grapes. I feel like I should do something fancy with them, but my taste buds are telling me they should be eaten as soon as possible and in as simple a form as possible.

After last week, next week is going to be a breeze. There will be time to cook, time to knit, time to post about what I'm cooking and knitting, time to clean the apartment. Schools in New York City close for major Jewish holidays. So I only have a three day work week because of Rosh Hashanah. We even get out of work early so everyone who needs to can get home by sundown. Since it's not a holiday that I celebrate, I get to relax. And maybe scout out some local tomatillos and makes some salsa with all those hot peppers that are piling up in my fridge. Maybe I'll dry some. Has anyone ever done that before?


And mentally prepare myself for the big birthday I have coming up...(more on that later this week)

This week's haul: 


1 lb. carrots
1 bunch swiss chard
.5 lb green beans
1 head lettuce
2 heads of garlic
2 Joe's Cayenne peppers
1 sweet red pepper
1 sunshine winter squash
1 bunch beets
1 quart Concord grapes!

(Ummm...can you tell I'm excited about the Concord grapes?) I was actually a little worried we'd miss them. Our fruit farmer didn't give us any cherries this year, even though they're at our local farmer's market and I saw all of the cherries there when I went to pick up eggs at the market. So I kept waiting for them to show up in my CSA pick-up, but they never did. I was worried that the same would happen for the Concord grapes. But here they are this week, just waiting to bring a little joy to the end of September.

I also picked up some "Get Gingersnapping!" granola from Granola Lab, who were the local food vendor at the CSA pick-up this week. And I picked up some amazing looking blue corn tortillas from Hot Bread Kitchen at the farmer's market.

Do you have any fruits or veggies with a very short season that you snap up as soon as you see them at the market?