A tisket a tasket. . . bountiful baskets

Chris and I finally decided to take advantage of the local produce provider: Bountiful Baskets food co-op.  This organization is a co-op that works to provide its group members with " a variety of high-quality seasonal produce. We balance variety with seasonality in order to get the most appealing and cost-effective basket possible. We also choose to use local produce first when available, then regional produce (California, Utah, Colorado, Northern Mexico!)".  
That is the technical language.  In reality, I just kind of like the idea of having someone else providing me with a basket full of fresh, organic (available every other week), local(ish) produce that we have to eat/try/experiment with.  It is a little like cooking roulette and I love a good challenge!
Although both of us were excited to retrieve our bountiful basket on Saturday morning (7 am pickup, yikes!), one of us was more excited than the other.  At about 5:30, I looked over at Chris who grinned and said "Almost time to get our bountiful basket!!!" as if it was Christmas morning and Santa had left bountiful presents under our tree.  Up we were, bright and early, off to pick up our basket!

For our first time, we ordered an organic basket, a mexican pack, and 3 pumpkins (promised to be basketball size).  We had no idea what to expect in our organic basket and I was pleasantly surprised.  We got kale, portobello mushrooms, 2 heads of cauliflower, romaine lettuce, apples, pears, grapes, all organic.  In the mexi pack we got avocados, green onions, regular onions, hot peppers, cilantro, and tomatillos.   Last, we got 3 HUGE pumpkins.  We had to make 2 trips to the truck.  Here is some of our loot!

So far, the best thing I have made was the salsa verde with the tomatillos.  To.die.for. . .  


We brought the pumpkins home carved one.  Before the carving, we let the pumpkins hang out in the living room.  These are my first Arizona pumpkins and it was nice to have something so seasonal in the house again!  Rocco was not sure what to make of the pumpkins.  I think he thought they were giant toys!

We carved one of the pumpkins, cooked the seeds and put the pumpkin outside.  I am not sure which picture is more spooky, the one with the glowing pumpkin or the glowing eyes?!

We must have been summoning the Halloween spirit, we were even visited by a ghost!

 We have already ordered our basket for next week, I cannot wait to see what we get!