three bowls

So Discovery Channel or whatever has Shark! Week! and this blog is now apparently going to have Produce! Week!  Equally scary! 

I have an overabundance of fruits and veggies to get through this week.  Produce delivery arrived yesterday, QFC had a 10 for $10 sale on mangos (!!) and the good prices on mushrooms, herbs and potatoes at Trader Joe's inspired me to stock up.  So there is a lot of cooking to be done.

So what's so scary about that?  Well, this week's produce delivery contained some heretofore unencountered or ignored vegetables (broccoli rabe, sunburst squash, sugar snap peas).  I realized I can add something else to my list of excuses for not eating enough vegetables.  In addition to taste and single-person quantity concerns, we also have simple lack of exposure. 

I mean, if you haven't done a lot of cooking, and haven't confronted some vegetables, let's face it: on first meeting, they don't exactly lend themselves to any kind of intuitive sense of what to do. If the closest frame of reference you have for how they look and smell are weeds you helped your friend cull from her garden, how are you even supposed to know if they are fresh and edible, or if they are still good three days from now?

So I realized I am going to have to study up.  And since I can't retain information unless it is contained in the form of rap music and/or reality television, I also realized that I will need to write about it since that process seems to help me remember stuff.

Ergo, I will be doing periodic "Getting to Know You" articles about certain produce items, including buying, storing, and nutrition info.  I am not ripping off the "Getting to Know" visual aids from Cook's Country; I have had "Getting to Know You" the song from The King and I stuck in my head for various long periods of time since I had to sing it, warbly-voiced and nervous, at the Centerstage auditions at the Phoenix Jewish Community Center back in fifth grade or whenever it was.  So there you go, Cook's Country.  My title has provenance!

First up: Broccoli Rabe!  Hello, Broccoli Rabe!