So much time and so little to do.

Strike that. Reverse it.

Hi blog. I have been super busy (and just a little lazy) and I'm sorry to have neglected you.  Fortunately for us all, one thing I've been busy with is my CSA.  If you're unfamiliar with Community Supported Agriculture, it's basically supporting a local farm and getting fresh produce from the farm (in my case) every other week.  Our CSA, Harmony Valley Farm, also offers a cheese CSA, a fruit CSA and a coffee CSA.  We participate in the cheese share, and receive three local cheeses every other pickup.  Yeah.  It's really awesome.

We've received three boxes so far this season.  Our CSA runs May through December. We get our vegetables every other week.  Let's play cach-up. 

Here's what we got in our first box:

Ramps, Chives, Spinach

Sunchokes, Sorrel, Nettles

Black Radishes, Parsnips, Watercress

Butler Farm's Sheep Milk Brebis Cheese w garlic, Castle Rock Organic Farm's Sharp Cheddar, Cedar Grove Cheese's Organic Mozzarella

One of the many great things about this farm is that they include information about everything in the box, and recipes to try!  Thank goodness, because, really, what the hell do I do with nettles?  Aren't you supposed to not touch them because they hurt?  Why would I put them in my own mouth, no less serve them to my family?  Right?  Well.....

Apparently, if you swish them around in water,

cook them up with butter, ramps, sorrel, broth and cream,

and whirl them in a blender,

they become delicious soup that doesn't hurt at all when you eat it!

Who knew, right?  

Stay tuned to see the sunchoke and parsnip deliciousness I made from this box, as well as what I've done with the next two boxes.  Also coming up, more cocktails!

Here are some closeups of May 12th's CSA:

Ramps

Chives

Spinach

Sunchokes - loved these!!

Sorrel - yummy!

Nettles

Black Radishes - zippy!

Parsnips

Watercress (if you get some, make this)

Catch Up Part 1: Corner Table, St. Patrick's Day

I've been away for a while.  I'm catching up in these next couple of posts.  Enjoy!

Last Wednesday I went to Corner Table with  about 40 other food bloggers.  We not only ate amazing food, we also got to cook it!  Big thanks to Chef Scott, Dan for turning over the kitchen to a bunch of foodies and to Gordon the bartender who kept me in Cava all night.

On St. Patrick's Day, I cooked up some of the sausage I got at Corner Table.  Inspired by Kate,  who did this in the Corner Table kitchen, I also cooked up some cabbage, apples and onions.  I served this with a half a baked potato for dinner.  For dessert we had Sister Mary's Irish Soda Bread - on top of which I sprinkled turbinado sugar  before baking.  I served it with the Chocolate Ice Cream my son insisted we also make.  He's three. What am I gonna say, no?  We used Thomas Keller's recipe and will never use another.  SO GOOD.  (Seriously, buy that book.)  

I drank Snakebites.  Guinness and Woodchuck Granny Smith Cider.  Yum.

This year's pour was much better than last year's.

Marshall's Farm Market

Far, far too late in the season, I discovered Marshall's Farm Market  - right down the street from our new house.  It is the cutest place I've ever seen and it has a wealth of delicious, local food.  I want to live there.

All decked out for Late October

Awesome, huge bouncer for the kids while I shopped.

Tiny little "Haunted House" for the kids, too. 

In addition to chicken, beef, lamb, beets carrots and apples.....

I got some honey and many bottles of delicious goodness from Golden Fig.  The chocolate salt has been a stumper for me - it wasn't my thing on popcorn.  Going to try it on beef.  

Chocolate Balsamic, Cinnamon Clove Balsamic, Honey, Maple Pepper, Chocolate Salt

The Maple Pepper was wonderful on some rounds of butternut squash on the grill.

The Chocolate Balsamic was reduced to a syrup and eaten on vanilla ice cream.  That was delicious.  What was not in the least bit delicious was my first attempt at the reduction where I got distracted and this happened:

Luckily the second try was more successful.  After soaking this, my favorite and oldest little pan (even though it has a left--handed spout), in Coke over night to no avail, the burn finally came out thanks to a week of soaking in water on the counter and my sweet, beloved husband scrubbing it countless times over that week.  What a nice man.

My favorite Golden Fig purchase has been the Cinnamon Clove Balsamic.  I have been shaking it up with some olive oil and using it as a dressing on salads with spinach, arugula, cranberries, goat cheese walnuts and, today, crisp prosciutto. Yummy.

I am really looking forward to shopping there again in the spring (they have fresh eggs every morning, too.  MMMMmm!)   I'm going to contact them about getting local meat delivered to my home throughout the winter, too!