So, since I currently don’t have a job for the first time since the age of 15, I have actually had time to cook, which makes me happy.  I wouldn’t say I’m a great cook, but I really enjoy feeding people- I’ll happily cook almost anything, even red meat, which I’ve never actually eaten, if I know that people are going to appreciate it.  (I have been told that I cook things I don’t eat better than food that I do, and I have no idea why.  Even Mike, who is always eager to tell me what is wrong with a dish “so I can learn more” says that my meatloaf is the best he has ever eaten.  I have no idea what it tastes like.)  But in normal life, things  get hectic and I get lazy, so if we eate at home 3 times a week I considered it a home run.

Lately though, we’ve been eating home-cooked dinners 5 or 6 nights a week, which I consider a small miracle, because in order to feed Mike, I have to make at least 2 side dishes to go with any main course.  He is really passionate about side dishes.  Not only have I been good about actually planning out meals ahead of time, which really does slash our grocery budget, but I’ve been producing fairly successful fare lately, so much so that Mike actually told me that the goat-cheese stuffed chicken breast I made tonight was “as good as restaurant food.”  This is huge.

I can’t take all the credit though.  I may be getting a little better with practice, but the real star of our food lately is the fact that we are living in a wonderland of produce.  This week, the veggie-palooza got even better with the addition of this:

You see, last week, at the reccomendation of a friend in my knitting group up here, I signed up for a CSA, specifically, the one run by New Roots Organics.  It’s amazing.  When I opened up the bin this morning, I was so excited that I did a little happy dance outside our door.  It’s filled with fresh, locally grown, delicious, organic produce, including red leaf lettuce, crisp fall apples, big ears of super sweet corn, beets (Mary, what are beets made of?), and super sweet ridiculously yummy peaches, among other good stuff.  Thanks to this magic vegetable delivery service, I’ve been able to up the ante on the required side dishes and teach Mike that he likes far more vegetables than he ever knew- yesterday, he asked for MORE LEEKS and tonight he destroyed a pound of green beans (I helped a little, of course).  If you asked him last week, he would have told you that he didn’t like either of these things.

The best part of this whole thing is that it’s ridiculously inexpensive.  The bin we’re getting is the smaller size (I may upgrade later to the regular size), it’s only $25 per delivery, and you can choose if you want it every week or every other week (I signed up for every other week, but I may end up bumping it up to every week, we’ll see).  If I went to say, Whole Foods, and bought this much produce, I’d be out twice that much money.

So yes, I recognize that I just wrote an entire blog post about how awesome vegetables are, but I’m really excited.  We may have moved to a strange city where it is going to be dark and grey and rainy for half the year, but at least I can spend my time swimming in an ocean of organic spinach.

By the way, any suggestions on what to do with the beets?