Adventures with Vegetables: Week 1

After receiving an email from UK, I had this great idea that Luis and I should join a CSA. We are trying to eat healthier and branch out from our normal foods, so I thought that receiving fresh, organic vegetables every week would help us. If they're in our fridge, surely we will eat them, right? Whether this was a great idea, or a moment of pure insanity remains to be seen. We shall see.

First, a CSA is Community Supported Agriculture; basically we give the farmers money, they do all the work, and then every week we get an assortment of vegetables. All the vegetables are organic and locally grown. And, since this one is run through the college, since Luis is still a student, we get a discount! What we paid averages out to about $18 a week. Our ultimate goal is to cook more often during the week, eat more vegetables, and not have to buy any more veggies to add to our meals. This didn't happen in the beginning because most of what we received were salad veggies. There's only so much lettuce one can eat.

We received our first share at the end of May. With our CSA, every Thursday you go to UK and there they have bins with the veggies in them. There's a board that lists what you can take and how much. Then you fill up your box or bag with your deliciousness. There's also a swap box at the end, so if you don't want something you can put it there and take something else out of the box. Or not. We've not used that because we're trying to sample everything!

Our first share! So much green!

In our first share we got:

- 1 bunch braising mix

- 1 bunch radishes

- 1 bunch turnips

- lettuce (2 heads and 1 bag mix)

- 1 bunch arugula

- 1 bunch Red Russian kale

And we had the option of going out to the farm and picking sugar snap peas which we were unable to do (sadly).

Overall, I was excited about the greenness, but unsure of what to do with most of it, aside from make salads. Unfortunately, the timing of our first share was poor as we received it on a Thursday, and I went to Boston that Sunday; Luis followed shortly. So we did not get to use a lot of the food. We made a lot of salads and I was able to cook one big meal before I left using some of our plethora of food.

We did manage to try two new things: turnips and the braising mix (which apparently is "a mix of cooking greens that are young and tender enough to be quickly sauteed"). There was a recipe for the braising mix in our newsletter we get with each share that we made. Basically, it was greens sauteed with garlic. In the end, I made a cracker crusted cod (I had cod we needed to eat, I found a recipe that I had most of the ingredients for and then improvised), the sauteed braising mix with garlic, and oven-fried turnips. I thought I took a picture of it, but apparently not. I would like to say that everything we tried that week was delicious, but that would be a lie. The braising mix was eh; Luis said it tasted too much like a plant....

We did however make some delicious turnips, and this was the first time I had eaten a turnip. I followed this recipe, and man, they were tasty.

Overall, week one was not very successful in that most of our veggies spoiled. However, I will put the majority of the blame on poor timing and will not count this venture as a failure yet! We're just getting started! (the CSA actually runs through mid-November)

Also, fun photo, I took pictures of our fridge pre-CSA, this is what it looked like after we got our first share:

So much green!

Also, I am not the most timely in the posting of these entries, so we are now on Week 5 of our adventure. We are swamped in green onions. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH GREEN ONIONS? I have no idea!

I'm pretty excited about the things to come for this summer, and am looking forward to getting more towards vegetables that are sturdier and not lettuce. It's quite strange how I look forward to Thursdays every week and I can't wait to find out what we are getting. In fact, the CSA emails their newsletter every Thursday around noon, and when I started writing this entry this morning, I was constantly checking my email to find out what we were getting (and it included carrots!)

Introducing... Master Sam!

I figure since I posted my goals for the year on my blog, I should update them as well. So far, I've fully accomplished one of them and that was to get my Masters!

On May 8, 2011 (yes, Mother's Day) I walked across the stage at Rupp Arena and became a Master of something (that's how it works right?). I have to say, during the months leading up to graduation I wasn't interested in participating in Commencement. I've done it before, twice, and it was at 9 in the morning, and I had to be there at 8 in the morning, and I had to pay $70 for a cap, gown, and hood that I would only wear once. But Luis was keen on me doing it and my brother was walking in his graduation ceremony later that day so we decided to make a day of it! And of course, the fact that I got to wear a hood was a nice addition and it reminded me of this picture:

Because I vaguely remember during this event thinking how cool it would be to have a Masters hood and really pretend I was a Jedi. (Sadly though, I tried this and it didn't look like a Jedi, let's just say Master's hoods have this weird, peak-like thing on the end, and well.....)

Anyway, having a Masters feels like such a huge accomplishment and like these past two years were worth all the work and stress. Seriously, there were times when I questioned why I was going through this stress and work, and times when I debated giving up. Studying for that comprehensive final exam was so incredibly difficult, and I really thought that I had failed. I knew that had I failed, there was no way I would be able to go through that pain and stress again. Luckily I not only passed, but passed with distinction! I'm incredibly happy it's over though. So incredibly happy. Now, if I can find a job that uses my Masters degree.

Hey Masters degree. You can see me modeling my lemon yellow hood which represents Library Science. I seriously felt like I clashed cause the back of the hood was blue and white. So many colors! And the purple and white cord represents membership in Beta Phi Mu, the International Library and Information Science Honor Society. Classy, right?

Also, I'd take a picture of my diploma but it takes 90 days for UK to mail it to you! 90 days! Ridic!

Next goal to complete: going to Boston!

Goals Twentyeleven

I usually don't make resolutions or goals or anything for the New Year, but I feel like 2011 is going to be a big year and should be recognized as thus. Therefore, my goals:

-exercise more

I know this is the most clichéd of goals/resolutions, but nonetheless, still something I want to do. I do alright with exercising when it's warm out and can run, but now that it's cold I need to find something else to do.

- cook real meals more often

This will be difficult to do until I finish school, but I'm really tired of eating pasta all the time and would like to branch out.

- get my Masters

This one should be easy to keep! I can't wait until May!

-celebrate said Masters with a trip somewhere I've never been

I'm looking at you, Peru!

-learn Spanish

If I ever get that Rosetta Stone program loaded on my computer, I'm going to start on learning Spanish once again, especially if we make it to Peru.

- get a new job

Another cliché of a goal, but one that I think I can make happen with aforementioned Masters

- go to Boston

It's been too long! Preferably in the warmer months.

- spend more quality time with Amber and Gabriel

Since they've moved to KY, I get to see these kids a ton, but only for short periods and usually there's other stuff going on. Since I don't know how long they'll be in KY (or me and Luis for that matter) I want to spend time doing fun things with them.

- have Marielly up for a visit in the summer

I love spending time with Luis' little sister and would love to be able to spend some quality time with just her. This one might be hard to do with our travel plans/job hunting.

-see Jill and Kathy

Also not sure how this will work out, but if we can make it happen, it'll be awesome.

- read less

I'm probably the only person in the world who wants to read LESS. I do love reading and spend a lot of time doing it, but I think I could spend less time reading and more time doing other things. I think I get so immersed in my books that I tend to ignore everything else around me. So I'd like to read less and try other things, like getting back into photography and conquering Goldeneye Wii.

Yup, it looks like 2011 is going to be an interesting year.