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bountiful baskets

For those of you who know, Bountiful Baskets is an organization that buys produce in bulk and distributes to it’s members for a small fee.  I’ve tried it a couple times over the years and always ended up straying.  But the price is right and the produce is usually local and seasonal, so I thought I’d give it another go.  I went and got a basket with my friend Amy yesterday:

bountiful baskets bounty

bountiful baskets bounty

While I realize that it’s the middle of winter and the produce growing right now isn’t my favorite, I’m a little … disappointed? nervous? surprised? … by what we got.  Carrots are easy enough, and we got some mini peppers that will be fun, along with some potatoes, strawberries and cantaloupe.  What I’m not too excited about are the 3 bags of parsnips (make that 5, since Amy didn’t even want to attempt to use all 3 of hers) and the 20 or so lemons we also got.  Really? I mean, I’m all for trying new things, but I’ll be trying parsnips for weeks! And the lemons, well… it’s just not the same to make lemonade in January as it is in the dead of summer.  So I did some digging on the internet, and found the following recipes for the parsnips at least:

oven roasted parsnips (recipe @ http://www.food.com/recipe/oven-roasted-parsnips-17407 )

honey glazed carrots & parsnips (recipe @ http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Honey-Glazed-Roasted-Carrots-and-Parsnips-233404 )

mashed parsnips and potatoes (recipe @ http://www.marthastewart.com/340168/mashed-parsnips-and-potatoes )

Now that I know what to do with them, I must admit that I’m excited to try the recipes 🙂 I’ll be making the oven roasted parsnips tonight  so I’ll keep you posted on how they turn out!

Anyone have any yummy, non-lemonade ideas for the lemons? Please share!

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