1. I was given a pumpkin. And...
2. I was given 24 pounds of dried figs.
Yep. Just another average day in October....
I've been asked to "do something" with the bags of figs that our county food bank was given... and by "bags of figs"... I mean ONE THOUSAND, one pound bags of the dried little suckers. That's a lot of figs... for those of you who are quick with your math. A lot.
And you know, it's common knowledge that every food-scarce person and their family, craves figs. Duh.
There's enough raisin-hate in the world... I can image Cousin to the Raisin, the Dried Fig, knows it's fair share of bad jokes and witty limericks. Let's face it... the FIG is a pretty ambiguous fruit for your average mid-westerner. Is it a raisin? Is it a date? It doesn't look like Brad Pitt.
Oh. But wait... there's a handy Nutritional Information sheet included. Using a font, that makes it look like our wedding invitation from ten years ago. Apparently, if you make it pretty enough... no one will wonder why... as a family that struggles to put bread and milk on their table... they were given a very usable and wildly versatile bag of figs.
Anyway, if anyone's got any really good ideas for using large amounts of dried figs... I'd love to hear them.
It needs to be a recipe using basic "food pantry" ingredients, with the recognition that some of the folks coming to the pantry don't have electricity for oven use, may not have running water, or access to things like milk and eggs. I'm considering a carrot and fig salad, maybe a no-bake cookie of some sort.......... Ideas? Anyone?
I am on your blog because I too have been gifted a huge bag of dried and cubed figs barely any good ideas(other than smoothies)what to do with them. Afraid that adding figs to too many meals will make us sick of them too quickly. Hoping you could help me out. Wishing I could help you out. One of life's cute little jokes, I guess. Enjoy your gift! Nuri
ReplyDeleteAnd fond memories of pumpkins danced in my head after reading your pumpkin testimony. I remember being offered as many free pumpkins as I desired the day after Halloween. So being an ambitious creative foodie, I filled my entire VW bug with pumpkins, just knowing that I could distribute them to all my grateful friends who would make pumpkin pies, breads, wines and soups with them. No such luck. My friends don't like me assuming such things anymore. ... But you want to know something? I haven't learned the lesson yet. I don't do pumpkins anymore; but I do tomatoes, onions, apples and figs like you wouldn't believe! I too have a mission. Looking for people to feed! Nuri
ReplyDelete