I. Love. My. CSA.

This is an exact copy of a recent post on my other blog, but I really wanted to share it here too- enjoy! And to learn about how you can get your paws on your very own CSA, check out www.localharvest.org. You'll be glad you did!

Last Saturday was Farm Day with our CSA. It's the last pickup of the season, and they invite all the members out to the farm to see where the food is grown and glean the fields. For our last pickup we got an insane amount of grey Hubbard hard squash, a baking pumpkin, a pile of tomatoes, a half gallon of homemade organic, local apple cider, fresh roasted green chilies, and a huge bag of apples. After we hauled all that back to the car, Bobby and I hit the fields. I really, REALLY wish I had brought my camera to the farm, but at least we had a good time photographing the pile of food we brought home, as we laughed and told each other about 10 times "getting a CSA was SO worth it".

We both agreed we should lay everything out on the table and take a picture. It was pretty ridiculous.

In addition to the potatoes, carrots, peppers, broccoli, swiss chard, corn, and tomatoes we gleaned from the field, we also got to pick out a carving pumpkin. Here I am for size reference. Bobby said a few times "this is the best Halloween pumpkin I've ever had!". Thanks for making dreams come true CSA. You're a peach.

You might be thinking, what do you do with all those squash?? The good thing is, these gray guys will last until March, provided they are stored in a dark, temperature controlled, fairly cool place...

so now they're living on the shelf in our laundry room. Their more colorful friends will last until December this way.

This is a HUGE wooden bowl in the middle of our dining room table, filled with apples.

Then we took about two hours to wash, chop, and store all the fridge worthy veggies.

More veggies and the chard filling up both drawers- the left one that's closed is more of the same.

All of the onions, potatoes, shallots, garlic, and beets we got will be going in a wire hanging basket we scored from Goodwill for $1.50, but it needs to be hung. So for now they're living in a canvas bag.

We have been eating like crazy this whole week, and you can bet that the apple cider is almost gone. I need to use the chilies soon before their roasted awesomeness is wasted, but everything else is working out well. Between the natural shelf life of the hard squash, and the fact that we sorted, washed, and chopped pre-emptively, I think we'll get through without wasting too much.

All in all, I'm VERY sad our CSA is over. I've shopped at farmers' markets for years, but CSA's are so much easier, and to me, more enjoyable. Once you vet your CSA and know how they work before you buy a share, you absolutely know that everything you are getting each week is local, organic, and fresh picked. You get to see the people who grow and pick your food every single week for 5 months, or in states with longer growing seasons, sometimes as long as 9 months. Plus it's always fun to have veggies fresh enough to have clumps of dirt on them, or fruit that naturally ripened instead of being picked early to sit on a truck for a month and arrive at the store feeling like a rock and tasting like nothing. And it's cheap. Our CSA was $500 for 5 months. That's $100 a month, $25 a week. We had a fruit and veggie share of local, organic, fresh produce, plus we had a flower share- we got a bouquet every week of native flowers. And then at the end, we were able to glean as much as we wanted. I saw some families carting away wagon loads of food. It's a healthy, environmentally friendly, and economical way to help local farmers and eat great food. I don't ever want to go without a CSA again, and I hope I don't have to!

Veggie Packed Dinner- Bruschetta and Swiss Chard Salad

I took these pictures about two weeks ago, but they languished awhile before I uploaded them, and then I put off going through them for a bit after that. Since last week was our last CSA pickup it kind of makes me a bit sad to look through them, because I loved all the local, fresh, organic produce I got every week. I hope the winter farmer's markets don't let me down!

One of the last big batches of rainbow swiss chard, chopped and ready to become a salad.

Regular tomatoes and green zebra tomatoes, which were later added to chopped fresh garlic, basil from my balcony, and covered liberally in organic olive oil and fresh cracked black pepper. I think I could live off of bruschetta.

The chard was mixed with 3 colors of peppers, peppers, and tomatoes- all from the CSA- and then tossed in lemon goddess dressing and topped with raw, unsalted trail mix and chia seeds.

The bruschetta on top of Whole Foods Seeduction loaf. Not my favorite, but it was nice sliced thinly and toasted.

Doesn't this make you want to eat your veggies? Or at least sit and admire how pretty they are? Getting a CSA was so very worth it. I don't see Bobby and I ever going without a share in a CSA again unless they aren't available where we live. I've shopped at farmers' markets for many, many years, and I try to buy local/organic, but this makes it so much easier. Plus, I got to know the people who grew and picked my food, as I saw them every week for almost 5 months. And I also love when my food is so fresh picked that there are still dirt clumps on it :)

Coming Back Soon...

This blog started off as a food diary- the goal was to take pictures of every.single. meal. I made. And I couldn't use my phone since internet isn't something I feel I need on it. I found myself getting out the camera every time, taking lots of pics from different angles, and then uploading them to my computer, sorting through them, then uploading them here. So, I've decided to just take pictures of a few meals a week- especially since my breakfasts are usually smoothies and/or oatmeal with lots of add ins, and lunches are usually just leftovers from dinner the night before. So, to take off the expectations of every single meal being photographed and blogged about, I'm going to experiment with just a few posts a week.

Today was Farm Day with our CSA. We were able to go out to the farm, see where our food was grown, and glean whatever was left in the fields. We have lots of pictures of our last haul, but it took us about two hours to clean, chop, and put it all away. So, for now it's bedtime.

Butternut Squash Filling is Why Ravioli Was Invented, Right?

The first time I had butternut squash ravioli it was thanks to a Lean Cuisine a few years ago. Now, before you question my tastes, just know it was actually really, really good. Lately I have been meaning to make ravioli the kind of homemade/kind of lazy way, using wonton wrappers, but when I found frozen butternut squash ravioli sans cheese in the freezer section for under $4, I figured that would be way better- and way easier. I did, however, go ahead and make a sauce from scratch and fancy it up with lots of veggies to compensate.


So, here's dinner. On the floor. In front of our sliding glass door. Here in Colorado-Land it's about to start getting dark around 4:30, and anything that is even remotely sauce-y looks super gross and slimy under our dining room lights, so I have to work to get any kind of natural light. This photo doesn't do this yummy pile of deliciousness justice though. Despite being pre-made, the ravioli was really good and well seasoned. I made a creamy garlic sauce with about 5 cloves of fresh garlic, half a cup of unsweetened coconut milk, some olive oil, and various spices of paprika, thyme, basil, rubbed sage, and a sprinkle of flour and some vegan butter to thicken it up. I cubed a large 'bella mushroom and thinly chopped three big rainbow chard leaves, sauteed them in light oil, and then tossed them in the sauce. When the ravioli was done cooking it too was tossed in, and chopped roma tomatoes were added at the very end, just so they were warmed through but not cooked down. Everything except the 'bellas came from our CSA, and you could really tell with the tomatoes- they had such a good flavor.


Because the main dish was pretty decadent thanks to the creamy sauce I wanted to keep things light on the side. Broccoli, squash, carrot, and chopped rainbow chard were tossed in a very light coating of rosemary balsamic dressing, then topped with chia seeds and a handful of trail mix- pistachios, almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, brown and golden raisins. Everything except the chia seeds/trail mix came from our CSA. I'm going to miss my weekly dose of local, fresh picked, organic food once winter rolls around. There are a few winter farmers' markets, but it's not *quite* the same. While I don't miss living Texas I have to say to those of you that have a year round growing season- you're very lucky.

Check out www.localharvest.org to see what CSA's and farmers' markets are available near you. Usually they're somewhere around $30 a week, and you get a ton of food. Plus you're cutting down on emissions from eating locally, the food is fresh and better for you, and it's often organic as well. You'd be surprised what's out there- Dallas is far, far, away from being remotely "green and crunchy" and yet there is a CSA with drop off points in 3 different areas of the metroplex. You might discover an entire underground of local food advocates right under your nose!

CSA filled Tacos

Last night, after we ate this dinner, we headed off to a party. My internship director invited me, and all he said was "they have a treehouse, they hired a DJ, and they're roasting an entire goat". We did time it to show up when the goat *wasn't* being roasted, and had already been taken down and divvied up. We both had a great time, and the party was wonderful. The DJ even jumped over the side of the treehouse in the rock climbing harness they keep for that purpose. Oh, and there was a keg. Let me just say, having lots of drunk people crawling up into a two story + tree house, and then jumping over the edge, seemed like it was full of YouTube potential. As a non-drinker, I always get to enjoy the antics of those around me who *are* partaking. But, on to what you come here for- the food!



Lately I've been trying to use up the random things I have in the pantry before buying more groceries, since between said random things and our CSA I have a lot of options. This was a pantry + CSA = dinner creation last night. Blue corn organic taco shells that had been hiding on the top shelf were stuffed with sauteed squash, zucchini, green bell peppers, and white onions, topped with the avocado sauce from the other night, chipotle salsa, red onions, and chopped rainbow swiss chard. Everything except the salsa and avocado sauce is from our CSA. We've been getting so many different things the last few weeks and it's been awesome. I served it with black beans and rice from a box, to which I added two cups of some more chopped rainbow swiss chard. This was super good and very easy. It might not be gourmet, but that's not really my aim :) I like healthy, simple, and relatively quick when it comes to day to day dinners. I'm much more likely to cook, and enjoy cooking, without having to make everything a big production.

Sunshine Burgers at Sunset

After a week in Chicago with our mutual friend Jo, Bobby flew out to join us on Friday night. The three of us spent the weekend in the city, and then Bobby and I hopped on the Amtrak Labor Day afternoon and headed back to Colorado. It's a pretty painless train ride- we got on at 2 p.m. on Monday, and arrived in Denver at 8:30 a.m. the next morning. We got a sleeper car, which was very much like staying in a Transformers Hotel room. Everything in it served at least two functions, and could be folded and turned into something else. Plus it's much more comfortable than sleeping in the coach car seats- I've done the 36 hour Los Angeles to Seattle train ride, and it's hard to sleep when someone keeps waking you up to offer you vodka. But anyway, on to the food...


It was pretty painful to have to toss out so much CSA produce, but Bobby simply couldn't eat it fast enough on his own, and then both of us were gone for those three days. So, after cleaning out the fridge today, I threw together a meal- yes, this sounds just like my post before last, I know, but we've been doing tons of traveling lately! We had BBQ sunshine burgers topped with a sauce I threw together in the food processor: avocado, red onion, fresh garlic, garlic salt, pepper, a splash of raspberry lime dressing, a handful of cashews, and a dash of Frank's Red Hot. Tomatoes from the CSA were chopped and sprinkled on top.

The burgers were served with pickled beets purchased from our local farmer's market, as well as roasted veggies spiced with cumin, salt, and pepper: green bells and squash from our CSA, and organic red onion. I topped them with more of the spicy avocado spicy cream sauce because it was really, really good.

Right as I was finishing up my last bite, I noticed a streak of pink from the sliding doors. I got up to investigate, and found this awesome sunset filling up the sky. Literally 5 minutes later it was gone. I loved Chicago and I already miss Jo, but it is so good to be back home.

Chicago Diner

I spent a week in Chicago with our mutual friend Jo, and then Bobby flew out on Friday night to join us for his birthday weekend- his birthday is today actually, I'm glad he was born to say the least ;)

He flew in late Friday night, so Saturday we decided to hit up Chicago diner for lunch. It was AWESOME. Please go if you're ever in the area, it is very worth it and is pretty accessible from the L- we walked about a mile, which is really nothing in the grand scheme of city walking.





When the waitress asked for our drink order, I went first and ordered a cola. Then Bobby and Jo ordered shakes, so I decided that sounded good. Bobby got cookie dough, I got vanilla chai. Mine tasted like a pumpkin pie shake and it was really, really good. The restaurant is all vegetarian but most things are vegan, like the shakes.

I got the "Pork" Tacos, and they were a very, very good choice. The seitan (wheat meat) is marinated in a pineapple sauce, then grilled, and it was piled with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, salsa, avocado slices, and vegan sour cream- this was my favorite sour cream, as it was light and creamy, almost fluffy.

I ordered a side of biscuits and gravy with "sausage"- also seitan. I was a bit disappointed, if only because every vegan/veg restaurant I've gone to makes brown gravy and biscuits, not white gravy. I'm a Southern girl from Texas, brown gravy doesn't make sense to me on biscuits. On stuffing, yes. Biscuits.. where's that creamy white gravy? I've had vegan white gravy before, and I've made it myself, so I guess I'll just have to keep cooking it at home. But the search continues.

All in all, this place rocked. Great service, and although it was packed there was a quick turnover and we were seated immediately. Plus, it wasn't pretentiously expensive like a lot of vegan/veg places can be. I would definitely go back the next time I'm in Chicago, and I highly recommend it!