Fennel and apples and chives, oh my!

Things I haven't been doing much of: sleeping, blogging.

Things I have been doing a lot of: rowing, improv, COOKING!

Let's talk about that last item, shall we? Okay! The story behind it is, we joined a CSA with Brittnye a few weeks ago. If you're not familiar with CSAs, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and when you join one, you regularly receive a box full of veggies and fruit from local farms. You're supporting local food production, in this case organic, and you get whatever is in season, whether it be root vegetables, apples, or garlic. In our case, we actually get home delivery once a week, and the produce comes from several local farms, so we always get lots of different stuff.

This has revolutionized my life.

I was already trying to cook more, but this... this is special. I was unprepared for the joy I would feel at peeking out the back door and seeing that non-descript gray cooler box waiting for me. I pulled out the surprises one by one, gazing at them, smelling them, feeling their weight in my hands. Fennel! Leeks! Carrots! Kale! Everything I sliced emitted amazing aromas, even the shiitake mushrooms. If you know me at all, you know that I normally stay far, far away from any type of mushroom. I've tried to like them, I really have. But in this case, I didn't have to try. Those babies had me at "oh, what's in this little paper bag?" They looked so fresh and were so aromatic that I promptly made a fennel-mushroom sautee and loved every bite of it.

And it's only gotten better from there. Between in-depth gmail chat conversations with my foodie sister, emails/phone calls with Brittnye (Brian's foodie sister), and some quality time with Marcella Hazan, a sort of magic began. The thrill of seeing what I could do with what had arrived on the back porch--knowing the quality of everything was always great--became addicting. Roasted beets, leek pesto, the best freaking green beans ever... I think I'm in love.

Happy Spring!