school schmool

some people clean, some exercise, some spent countless hours on facebook...I, however, procrastinate through looking up recipes and cooking. I figure there could be worse things. I make some of the most "gourmet" meals when I have lots of school work to do. Like yesterday I made the most divine spinach and artichoke dip. Only problem is that I have no self-control when it comes to chips and any sort of delicious dip. Like I said before, there could be worse things.

I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this year. A CSA is usually operated by a local farm, but the consumer is sort of the owner as well. Before the harvest you pay in full for the produce that you are going to get for a certain amount of time, in my case it is 19 weeks. This means the farmer doesn't have to take out loans and that I get amazing fresh, local, organic yumminess through September. I got the first basket on Friday...perfect timing as I have four papers and an exam this week.

In my basket were onions, radishes, kale, tat soi, strawberries, spring lettuce mix, mint, arugula...yea I think that covers it. I am splitting the basket with two friends, so this first week our portions were small. I like this actually, especially with new things that I am experimenting with like radishes. I don't care for radishes raw so I figured I'd try cooking them, they were better but still not anything to write home about. Secretly I want to move away from using recipes and start relying on myself to be creative. I tried that last night, it wasn't successful although my creations were recipe inspired.

I stir fried some radish greens and kale with a little soy sauce, rice vinegar, and this asian chile-garlic sauce and baked a root veggie medley of radishes, carrots, sweet potato, and onions. Neither of the dishes were amazing, in fact the stir fry was hard to stomach. And I learned that I still don't like onions. Again this makes me thankful for the small portions of veggies I get each week because it helps me learn a lot about cooking and if it turns out not as well as I intended, I'm not stuck with leftovers. Plus, I find that smaller portion cooking is better for me so I don't binge on things like the dip again :)

Here are some pictures to document last night:



If any of you know amazing recipes for spring or summer produce (like radishes) please send them my way! And don't worry, I'll keep you posted with anymore delicious and successful creations.

Time to work again, or cook, I haven't decided yet. Why does it have to be the perfect rainy morning that makes me want to sleep and not write about depressing things like human trafficking....