Trying New Things

How often do you and your family try new foods? If you are like my family, probably not very often. I’ve written before about Abundant Harvest Organics and how I get a box every week full of fruits and vegetables grown locally in California. I never know what that box is going to contain and I love the fact that I’m surprised by what I might find.

Usually, I get things like tomatoes, peppers, peaches and grapes. I love when I get potatoes and onions and avocados. But… sometimes, I’ll get something that makes me scratch my head and say, “Huh?”

Today… this is what I found in my box.

I can’t say I have ever had these things in my house before. A basket of figs… the closest I’ve ever gotten to a fig was a fig newton cookie when I was a kid. A singua… a Chinese okra which looks like a really long cucumber. And a melon… which doesn’t really have a name and doesn’t look like a cantaloupe and doesn’t look like a honeydew.

So… after trying to figure out what on earth I was going to do with these things, I found a few recipes and this is what we ended up having with dinner:

Figs with goat cheese and honey.

Singua (Chinese Okra) pan fried with paprika, cumin, salt and cinnamon.

Bruschetta with fresh tomatoes and basil.

We added some grilled steak and we had instant dinner. So tell me… what foods have you tried lately that were new to you?