Post-Thanksgiving Shopping

Thanksgiving dinner produces great leftovers, so we went to the Hollywood Farmers Market Sunday morning expecting only to buy some greens and fruit.

It started well at the Finley Farms stand with malabar spinach and snap peas. But they also had parsnips and Canadian-sized rutabagas - how could I resist? I spent years being deprived of parsnips and rutabagas because I couldn't find them organically-grown. So now I'm like an addict - snatching up organic ones whenever I see them in order to get my fix. We'll eat them mashed, sautéed, roasted, cooked in soup and baked in spice cake - and then I'll prowl the market in search of more.

Flora Bella had black radishes and smaller rutabagas, so I bought them too.

And Tutti Frutti had red peppers and poblanos - perfect for roasting and freezing.

Yes, our fridge is now tightly packed, but the roots will store well if we don't manage to eat them all this week. And with the evenings drawing in, dinners of root vegetables are just the thing to nourish body and soul.

Here's what we came home with:

1 bag malabar spinach
1 bunch red russian kale
1 bunch purple mustard greens
1 small bag snap peas
2 red peppers
8 poblanos
2 onions
3 sweet potatoes
9 small potatoes
1 celeriac
1 giant rutabaga
1 bunch small rutabagas
2 bunches parsnips
2 bunches black radish
2 bulbs fennel
4 apples
6 oz blueberries
4 pomegranates
6 grapefruit
6 small jars of St. Benoit yogurt
1 lb Oaxaca coffee from Cafecito Organico