I Love CSA's

I have been loving the beautiful photos of people's csa box contents. We get our box each Thursday, I am going to try to capture some of that beauty with a photo and post on our weekly bounty. There is something so satisfying about knowing not only where your food came from but that it is just a stone's throw from home to boot. Music Man even notices the difference in flavor with truly fresh local organic produce, I never thought the day would come when he would utter, "wow, this is really good lettuce, it tastes so fresh!" No joke, he really said it:)

Today we received; the so mentioned lettuce, D'anjou pears, apples, yukon gold potatoes, acorn squash, green onions, cauliflower, baby carrots, lemons, kiwi, tomatoes, kale, and spinach. Sunshine promptly nibbled up a pear on the ride home and the lettuce and tomatoes were enjoyed with our taco dinner tonight. The greens and carrots will disappear quickly as I have started juicing fresh greens for us all. We all love cauliflower soup so that will be on the menu for sometime soon. The fruit goes quickly in this house which leaves me with just the squash and potatoes, any ideas? We currently have much squash about, I am going to try juicing it as well and perhaps using the rest in soup next week. This time of year soup is a standby in our home and luckily all are agreeable to it around here, or more realistically they tolerate my obsession with it. As I mentioned I hope in the future to post some photos.

Fall Indulgences

I am always drawn to the heart of every home I visit, the kitchen. I love the way so often it becomes the gathering spot for family and friends. In our home the kitchen is not only where meals are prepared, but also where homework is done, songs are sung, tea is sipped, hugs and kisses abound and where we open our hearts to one another each day. If I could craft a home, it would start with the kitchen and everything else would be designed around it. I hope to share my view and vision of all the beauty and magic made from this special place.

I love the fall and all of the wonderful flavors that it brings. Our kitchen is currently stocked up with various squash, persimmons, bitter greens, pears and apples. In our csa box this week we received a bunch of sun chokes (aka Jerusalem artichokes). This was a new veg to our family, so through a quick query online I found an amazing lemon chicken with sun chokes recipe. My folks were joining us for dinner so, in true form for me, I decided to experiment with a new recipe. We also currently have a plethora of persimmons and there were more in our box, luckily so was a recipe for persimmon pudding cake, and another opportunity to experiment. I am pleased to say that both new recipes came out wonderfully, pleasing everyone. "Keepers" for sure as we like to refer to such experiments.