Box #13: Stress and veggies

First off, I have to offer a big bad-blogger apology for how sporadic our posts have been lately. I can't promise it will get a lot better just yet. Patrick and I are working on getting a new fridge to store all these great veggies in—and the kitchen, bedrooms and yard that go with it! The rest of our month will be filled with paperwork, boxes and hernias. We're so excited!

We are also stressed, and that has affected our CSA consumption in two ways:

• We've wasted some veggies and tested the shelf life of others. (Looking at the photo above, I just realized the green beans I ate for dinner were from the box before our latest one, making them 12 days old. They were delicious! Last week, we neglected a half-head of red-leaf lettuce for 7 days. To our surprise, only the core was starting to brown. We cut it out, crisped up the leaves in cold water and used them in a salad.) This is in some ways defeating the purpose of farm-fresh produce; on the other hand, I doubt grocery-store fare would be so hearty.
  
• We're opting for simple preparation as often as possible. The other day I ate a half cantaloupe for breakfast. Spoon, mellon, mouth. Over the sink. I brought the sungold tomatoes you see above to work for a snack. Boy, am I glad to have eaten those babies whole and unadulterated by dressing or heat. Amazing. My favorite thing since fennel. I shared exactly two with co-workers, mostly because I wanted someone to confirm what I was tasting. I hope these simple, raw, fresh snacks are counteracting the convenience food I've been eating otherwise.

But, I'm ahead of myself. Here's the spectacular meal we made right out of the box when we stopped at Don and Sarah's after picking up our share:



We all chopped and chopped, grabbing veggies from our CSA box and from Don and Sarah's kitchen. Sarah and I made a salad.



Don roasted the potatoes for a side dish and created dinner scramble from the veggies and some Schlangen Organic Farm eggs. Don says not to overcook your scramble—that way you get crunchy vegetables and softish eggs.



Then came the best part: These raspberries had such a great life growing up on an organic farm. Now, after a short road trip, here they are suspended in Don's dairy-free tapioca, which he made with coconut milk and agave nectar. I have to say, when our friends first went on their no-dairy, no-chocolate, no-gluten cleanse, I thought a good dessert would be impossible. Turns out, the challenge has made them into dessert magicians. This was a little bowl of heaven.