csa

What’s in the Box? Summer 2012 CSA Week One

/ Kelly / 6 Comments

CSA season has officially begun! Last night, S and I picked up the first of our boxes – we’ll get one every other week from now through mid October. We get our shares from Crossroads Community Farm; my ex-roommate and I bought the same option from them two summers ago, and it was fantastic. And the price is right. It’s $350 for an “everyother” share, but S and I both got a $100 refund from our health insurance company to put towards that purchase. So that brings it down to $150. Split between the two of us, that’s only $75 each for an entire summer’s worth of fresh, local, certified organic produce. Hellz to the yeah!

We were thrilled with the contents of our first box – check it out:

A big wicker basket filled with vegetables, along with a couple bags of leafy things and a bowl of snap peas.

So much green!

Yum yum yum. Let’s look a little closer at those gorgeous peas, shall we?

A bowl of plump sugar snap peas.

That garlic scape tendril is getting cheeky…!

We didn’t get solely vegetables, though…

A small container of bright red strawberries in the foreground with a larger container in the background.

FRUIT!

…we also received a whole lotta STRAWBERRIES! They’re small, sweet, and absolutely gorgeous. Two years ago when I did the CSA, it was a bad season for strawberries, so we only received one tiny bag of some sad berries throughout the whole summer. But this magnificent harvest bodes well for my fruit-loving self!

That’s a lot of produce! Here’s a list of everything the share contained:

  • Bok choy (This wasn’t included in the list on the farm’s website, but we definitely got some!)
  • Cilantro
  • Garlic scapes
  • Head lettuce
  • Kohlrabi
  • Radish
  • Russian kale
  • Salad mix
  • Salad turnips
  • Scallions
  • Spinach
  • Strawberries
  • Sugar snap peas (The farm’s website listed them as “snow peas,” but I don’t think they are!)

So, what did we do with our score? S and I lightly pan-friend some marinated tofu along with the sugar snap peas, bok choy, and garlic scapes. We cooked up a bundle of thick rice noodles, tossed them with the veggies, smothered the whole mess in a modified version of the Cheater Pad Thai sauce from The Happy Herbivore Cookbook, and topped it with some scallions. Delicious! I snapped a quick pic, but it’s not really blog-worthy so y’all can use your imaginations.

I also prepared some giant chopped salads for our lunches today. They feature salad mix, head lettuce, salad turnips, radishes, and a couple other things from the fridges. And of course we brought strawberries for dessert today. ;)

Have you participated in a CSA? What would you make with this week’s share?

Curious about what other folks are getting in their CSA boxes this time of year? Check out the What’s in the Box? link party for this week!

525,600 Minutes of Vegan Madness

/ Kelly / 3 Comments

Today is my one-year veganiversary. What a crazy, unpredictable, amazing 365 days it’s been – I went vegan, got a full-time job, moved to Madison, and essentially started a totally new chapter in this little life of mine. I feel so much more centered than I did a year ago, so much more comfortable with who I am and what makes me tick. I might not know exactly what I want to do with my life or what I want to be when I grow up or where I’ll be in 5, 10, 15 years, but hey – I’m enjoying the ride. And, as I’ve said before, being vegan is an essential part of that.

It can be difficult, I think, to really grasp how much one seemingly simple dietary decision might affect you and your life. But when it’s tied to something in which you believe so strongly – that nobody and nothing should suffer for your sake – how can it not make a huge difference? I’ve never been one to put too much stock in the idea of good energy or bad vibes or anything, but who knows – maybe eating a cruelty-free diet really does have some unintended, unquantifiable results. I can’t disprove that, so maybe I should give the idea a little more credence.

Anyway, how did I celebrate this special day? Well, I smeared myself with tofu and nutritional yeast and ran around naked, yelling about factory farms and how easy it is to get plant-based protein! …no, that’s a lie. Really I went to work, came home, ate some sweet potatoes, watched a Russian version of Anna Karenina, and am contemplating an early bedtime. Yeah, boring. I didn’t even bake myself a cake. But I did get my first raise at work! And yesterday I ate one of my favorite veggies EVER.

O M G.

I’m not quite sure I can express how ecstatic I was to get Brussels sprouts in our CSA share this week. And my wonderful roomie grabbed an extra bag, so I can enjoy double the sprouty goodness! I know they look a little burnt, but trust me – they’re just crisped to perfection, roasted with a little extra virgin olive oil, garlic, sea salt, and a dash of pepper. Perfection, I tell you.

Anyway, I’m spent. Time to crack open American Gods and then get some shut-eye. Tune in tomorrow or Sunday for a super-exciting GIVEAWAY POST!

P.S. Pardon the lame/cliché RENT quote in the title of this post. It’s 11:00 PM; give a girl a break!

CSA: Community Supported AWESOMENESS

/ Kelly / 10 Comments

This summer I’ve been positively swimming in fresh, local, organic vegetables. The roomie and I have an every-other week CSA share from Primrose Community Farm, and it’s been totally worth the investment (especially since my HMO paid for $100 of it!). We pick up our shares right at work because so many of our company’s employees take part in Primrose’s CSA program. It’s often the highlight of my week; even though Primrose sends out a newsletter letting us know what we’ll find in our share, seeing the beautiful veggies in the flesh (as it were) is always a treat. And then there’s the added drama – will my share fit in one reusable bag, or will I have to stuff some veggies in a paper bag? Will the paper bag tear?! Will my veggies make it home in one piece so that I can chop, slice, roast, sauté, and devour them?!?

Somehow, they always do. And somehow, I always find myself surprised – over and over again – at how delicious simple meals can be when fresh-from-the-farm produce is the star.

Share and share alike.

Although the pictured share might be a little smaller than our average box, it’s still fairly representative of the variety of produce we receive. Mmm, heirloom tomatoes.

Post-roast.

There’s almost nothing easier than chopping up a bunch of veggies, throwing them in a pan with some spices, and settin’ them in the oven for an hour or so until they’re tender and ready for devouring.

Spirals in the sun.

Except, perhaps, tossing some pasta with chopped tomatoes and a handful of basil for a light, clean lunch.

Goodness greenness.

But then again, sauteing a generous portion of green beans with cayenne pepper and various other spices is also not going to wear you out.

Holy pink, Batman!

And neither will savoring with a sweet pink watermelon slushie on a hot day.

…I’m going to be oh-so-sad when this growing season ends and my shares stop comin’. Mighty, mighty sad indeed.

Chocolate-Covered Baby Balls [Or, Multiple Weeks’ Worth of Food, Mostly Dessert]

/ Kelly / 1 Comment

Okay, I swear this post isn’t a chocoholic pedophile’s fantasy (I feel gross just saying that)! Hear me out and I’ll explain – it’ll be worth the wait, I promise!

Tonight I had the most satisfying, amaaazing, and simple dinner ever. My hungry belly loved this meal!

Hello, summer deliciousness!

I channeled Angela‘s hot-over-cold approach to dinner with this dish, and I was surprisingly delighted by the result. I sauteed a yellow zucchini, some spinach, chard, and spring onions and piled that on top of a bed of a cold Southwestern Black Bean, Corn, and Quinoa salad I whipped up a few nights ago. Paired with lots of raw sugar snap peas and hummus, this meal screamed “SUMMER!” to me, especially since the veggies came straight from my CSA share. My roommate and I have a half-share (every other week) from a local organic farm, and they deliver the boxes straight to our work. It’s pretty much the most convenient thing ever! I didn’t get a chance to photograph this week’s haul since my roomie picked up the share, but here’s last week’s deliciousness:

First share o' the year!

That box included arugula, broccoli, cilantro, garlic scapes, head lettuce, kohlrabi, radish, Red Russian kale, salad mix, spinach, and strawberries. Holy freshness, Batman!

Anyway, after tonight’s dinner, I desperately wanted something sweet to round out my fabulous meal. Too bad I didn’t have any chocolate-covered baby balls left!

Oh, my.

Yeah, I know that photo is grainy, ugly-colored, and badly composed, not to mention a little nauseating. But its subject is so damn delicious that I’m posting it anyway. A chocolate-covered baby ball, you see, is born when two awesome bloggers’ recipes collide; more specifically, when Averie’s No-Bake Vegan Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls take a dip in Katie’s Pseudo Magic Shell. This chocolate covered hunk o’ peanut butter is a totally Katie-inspired dessert, hence the “baby” in its name. :)

Unfortunately, though, I didn’t have any baby balls left for dessert tonight. Nor did I have its flattened cousin:

Mmmffff.

Yep, that’s essentially a homemade peanut butter cup comprised of the same ingredients as the baby balls. Freakin’ amazing. ‘Nough said.

So without baby balls or peanut butter cups ready for my sweet tooth, what could I eat for dessert tonight? Not these cupcakes, sadly:

Multicolored brethren.

I made these for my roomie’s birthday last week. Using some VCTOTW recipes as a base, I made Peanut Butter Cupcakes with chocolate frosting aaand Mint Chocolate Cupcakes with vanilla frosting. The vanilla frosting is dotted with – get this – accidentally!vegan mint chocolate chips I discovered at Woodman’s recently. Score!

Sadly, though, those cuppers are no more. I considered devouring the only fruit from today’s CSA share…

(Okay, this photo is from our first share, but whatever!)

…but decided to save them for tomorrow. Instead, I went with a perfect dessert for a hot day – banana soft serve, of course!

Very soft serve.

It was a little more soup than soft serve, but that didn’t detract from its cool deliciousness. I made Averie’s vanilla variation, and used maple syrup for a sweetener, and it was almost too sweet! Now that I’m the ripe old age of 23, I find myself much less able to tolerate eXtReMe sweetness. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing!

So – that’s pretty much a summary of the foodie happenings in my life lately. What’s the most delicious thing you’ve eaten recently?