Friends from near and far (plus some tasty vegetables)

We were very excited to cook from this week's box, as our friends Sarah and Don, who have just arrived back in Minnesota from their sojourn out to Boston, were dining with us on Thursday. They had decided to move back to the Twin Cities, and we were happy to be able to share our CSA with them for a welcome home meal. Our friends Jason and JB were attending as well, so we were all going to crowd around the table for a delicious meal, and even better company.


With all our guests to think of, we were excited to see what this week's box had to offer. The first appearance of the fantastic looking, and equally delicious tasting, garlic scapes, as well as asparagus, red scallions, kohlrabi, lacinto kale, lettuce, oregeno, snap peas and strawberries all made the task of crafting something worthy of this group seem slightly less daunting.

After inspecting the box, we decided to steam the asparagus, kale and kohlrabi greens, along with some mustard greens we had on hand already.


We also constructed a salad of lettuce, garlic scapes, red scallions, kohlrabi bulb, snap peas, tomato and cucumber.



We prepared salmon to accompany our CSA vegetables, and the recipe was taken from the excellent book, "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art." I am not sure I can agree with the simple part of that title, but it is a fantastic book if you are interested in Japanese cooking. The salmon itself came from the great Coastal Seafoods.

I thought it came together really well, and if the empty plates and bowls can attest, so did everyone else.

For desert, we had some fresh strawberries, some of which Jason and JB brought from their garden. These were strawberries even Plato might have held up as ideal.


As good as the food (and drink, go Surly) were, our friends made the night. I hope to cook even more elaborate, and delicious, meals for them very soon.