Chasing Away The Winter Blues With.......Produce?

This is the thermometer on our back porch. 

The temperature has climbed about eight degrees since I took my daughter to school this morning.  It wouldn't be all that bad except for the fact that it's very windy.

There isn't much snow on the ground.

You can still see the grass through it, and the sun is starting to melt it just a little.

It stills seems pretty bleak, though.  Look at how sad the patio set looks sitting in the snow.

You see that wooden box on the table?  In the spring and summer that becomes an herb box.  Now it's just a box of frozen dirt with some dried up, brown stems that used to be herbs.

Look how dirty and dingy the pile of snow on the end of my driveway looks.

It's full of leaves, grass and dirt.  It looks so untidy.  I wish it would melt.  Snow is only pretty when it first falls.

I can't think of too many good things to say about winter.  I'm practically counting the days until spring arrives.  On the bright side, though, we went shopping yesterday and found some beautiful produce. 

Fresh fruits and vegetables always cheer me up in the winter because they remind me that there are places in the world that are warm and sunny even if my little corner of the world is a frozen tundra.  It reminds me, too, that winter is only temporary.

Apples may be associated with fall, but I find them cheerful in any season.  Arranged in a bowl, they are practically a work of art.

I like them every bit as much as having fresh cut flowers.  Maybe more.  Apples taste better.

I love bananas.   These need a day or two to ripen before they can be eaten. The great thing about them is that you can create something with a tropical flavor, and what puts you in a warm weather state of mind than something tropical!

A Banana Daiquiri would be nice.  Just for the potassium, of course.

I buy grapes year round, but they still remind me of summer.

An ice cold, juicy grape is so wonderful on a hot day.

If your monitor had a scratch and sniff feature, you could scratch this picture and practically smell summer.

 

  If you grow your own tomatoes or shop at roadside produce stands, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  Tomatoes just smell like warm summer days.  I was lucky enough to find some still on the vine.   We've been eating a lot of salads lately and what's a salad without the tomato?

Speaking of salad, we also found some great asiago cheese (not springish or summery, but delicious).  If you're not familiar with asiago, it's a hard cheese similar to parmesan.

Just a little bit of this fabulous cheese grated over a salad takes it to a whole new level.

I got some broccoli, too.

And do you see what's in the bowl with the broccoli?  It's sun!  What a surprise when it came streaming through my kitchen window this morning.

Only 49 days of winter left....

Willoughby