CSA: Four days later

My Happiness Project topic for August is Cooking. As I wrote last week, I’ve cleaned out the cabinets, organized the grains and spices and bought some new and replacement tools for the kitchen. I still have a few more things to buy — like a magnetic knife rack, but I’m on track to actually start cooking more.

As I work to reduce my time on the computer, I’m then finding a little more time to spend in the kitchen. Biut, WHAT should I cook. I have no idea where to start.

CSA to the rescue! We joined a CSA last week. I’ve been wanting to do it for years, but there was never a pickup point that was convenient enough. With all the traveling that we do, I just couldn’t see joining a CSA where I had a small window of time somewhere across town for picking up the week’s basket.

Now that the Salacoa Co-op is delivering to Pine Lake for pick-up, I am betting that if I’m not in town to pick up our basket, I can find a neighbor who’d be happy to do it for me in exchange for some of the fresh produce!

So, for cooking this week, I was presented with an array of fruits and vegetables that I would not normally buy or cook with. Okra, eggplant, lots of tomatoes, figs.

I panicked at first — I don’t want to let any of this food go bad. But what to do with it?

I made fried okra. I made tomato sauce (adding in basil from our own garden). I made salsa (tomatoes and peppers from the basket). I made a patty pan squash/eggplant dish (I still don’t like eggplant — next time I must at least peel the skins off). I used the red bell peppers on the homemade pizza Camille made. And now I’m down to just a handful of veggies and the figs.

So I’ve been cooking up a storm the past few days … and, for the most part, it has been fun! I just wish I had someone to clean up the kitchen after I cook … sigh.