Spring was cold this year. Six weeks ago we had snow (really we did, and I have pictures to prove it!) But now it is suddenly summer. I still haven’t quite caught up with this shift: Ingrid’s winter boots are still in the hall and I haven’t had time to pack away our winter coats.

One of the nice things that comes with summer is the outdoor vegetable market here in Spånga. Well, it’s really more of an outdoor produce shop rather than a real market, because it’s all a single firm. But it’s outdoors (which is nice) and their range is very wide (which is even better). They opened for this season about a week ago. They have so much nice stuff that I can’t get in the supermarkets in Spånga, that I have a hard time making up my mind about what to buy. Broad beans and green beans, scallions, apricots, three kinds of melon, mangoes…

You’re “supposed” to do your shopping weekly and not buy a little every day. I’ve never managed to make it work for me, just like I find the idea of weekly meal plans very unappealing. How can I decide today what I will want to eat 5 days from now, and what I will want to cook 5 days from now? Maybe Ingrid will be away at a friend’s and Eric will be working late. Maybe we’ll be busy in the garden and I’ll want to spend a minimum of time on dinner. Maybe I’ll suddenly feel like having soup.

So I stop by the supermarket almost every day on my way home, to buy dinner materials. But I normally have enough vegetables in the fridge to put together some sort of dinner even if I have to skip the shopping for some reason, and also to adjust my dinner plan if circumstances change.

In addition to dinner, I top up the must-have stuff. Here’s my shortlist that I always go through mentally in the supermarket:

  • Bread.
  • (Soft) flatbread. This is both kids’ go-to food for afternoon snacks, and my standard breakfast.
  • Liver pâté. Ingrid’s favourite sandwich material, and the packages are small so I’m often buying more.
  • Milk. Now that I don’t drink milk with my meals, Ingrid doesn’t, either. But Eric takes milk in his coffee, and both sometimes need it with their cereal for breakfast.
  • Apple juice. Diluted apple juice is now our everyday meal-time drink.
  • Eggs. For baking and for breakfast.
  • Bananas. Adrian’s favourite breakfast and snack food.
  • Fruit.

For some while now, since the remodelling, we’ve been talking about replacing our fridge with a larger one so we can at least stock up for an entire week on such basics as milk and eggs and apple juice. (Right now there isn’t space for more than 2 litres of milk, and about 15 eggs, if everything else is to fit in there as well.) But somehow other important purchases keep coming up, and the fridge never gets to the head of the queue.