The Transition to Spring

The end of winter is a beautiful thing.  Wait, no it’s actually not very beautiful.  Spring is beautiful, but this end of winter seems to drag on a few too many weeks.

While it’s dragging on there is no hope yet of new produce.  There is no asparagus or rhubarb.  The trees are still lacking buds and the garden is a dead wasteland.

So what do we eat during this strange in-between time?  The question is less about what and more about from where.

We eat from the pantry.  Now is the time of year when we look most to our shelves of preserved tomatoes and fruits.  We look at the last remaining winter squashes that have managed to last incredibly long.  We open up the chest freezer and pull out bags of strawberries and peaches to make smoothies.

Yes, we still shop at the market for the cellar vegetables that the farmers have preserved nicely, like beets, carrots, potatoes, onions, cabbage, etc.  And we are also quite happy to buy the greenhouse greens that make nice salads and remind us of the warmer days ahead.

But it’s the pantry that brings us joy.  All the hard work done in the fall makes for easy dinners now as we cook with the canned tomatoes and handfuls of frozen peppers .

Recently we tried a new recipe for Winter Squash and Apple soup and shared the recipe on Bailey’s blog .  It’s a great recipe, both sweet and savory.  It also makes great use of less-than-perfect apples, and would likely work with applesauce to.

There will be more winter squash this week as the plan is to use an acorn squash or butternut for two meals, which you can see below:

• Red Bean and Barley Soup
• Asparagus Quiche (using up the frozen asparagus), Salad
• OSG Quinoa Broccoli Wraps (from The Oh She Glows Cookbook )
• Winter Squash Soup , Fresh Sourdough, Salad
• White Bean Chili with Winter Squash (from Easy Everyday Slow Cooker Recipes ), Sourdough or tortilla chips
• Mezze Night – something along the lines of fresh pitas, hummus, tzatziki, falafel, and possibly some shawarma…. We like getting carried away with some meals.

Linking up at Menu Plan Monday .  Check out more of our Locavore Menu Plans: