Suitcase of sunshine...
My dear friend C, who I have adored for 20+ years, came in from Florida this past weekend for a wonderful visit. Because she knows we cannot get local produce here in the winter (and because she is so very generous), she went to the Farmers' Market before she left home and brought two heavily stuffed suitcases of fruits and veg along with her. There were many familiar items in the mix but also some things I had not tried such as a white bell pepper, white eggplant and longans (the experience of which, I can only imagine, is very close to peeling and eating an eyeball...blech!). C and I are both eating vegan, so she used some of this bounty to whip up some lovely dishes for us: fresh tomatillo salsa, eggplant salad (one of my favs), roasted veggies with fresh rosemary and a "faux-feta"/phyllo pie.
Because my roommate tarirocks loves citrus (which is obviously never local for us, even in summer) C included bags and bags of oranges (and various cousins to the orange). We have a mountain of them on our kitchen table now and could likely save an entire village from scurvy for much of a year.
It was lovely of C to import some sunshine for us...and nice to be reminded of how much I am loved.