A few weeks ago, while in an unusually adventurous mood, I signed up to receive a biweekly CSA (community supported agriculture) garden share. All I have to do is toddle over to the pick-up spot handily located on my north country campus, and voilà,  a nice bag of fruit and veg awaits.

For those of us not naturally inclined toward healthy eating, CSAs can pose a significant challenge: what IS that green leafy veg or strangely shaped root-thingy? Since Field Goods provides a handy list of its bag contents, I have been spared the guessing game, though it hasn’t been easy figuring out what to do with exotics like kale, delicata squash and fennel.  Thank goodness for the internet, which provided some tasty recipes that even I could prepare.

So far, I’ve had great success with roasted delicata squash. It’s a truth universally acknowledged that all vegetables taste better when roasted. Acorn and butternut squashes tend to be extremely difficult to chop up, but delicata is smaller and the skins less thick, so it’s easy to handle.

Just wash it, trim the ends, slice it down the middle length-wise, scoop out the seeds, and slice the halves into quarter inch half-moons. Then slice a red onion the same way (I used a yellow one and it was fine). Toss together with about 1.5 T of olive oil, 1 T of honey,  and seasonings of your choosing, depending on whether you want it sweet or tangy. Preheat the oven to 400 and place the squash on a foil-lined baking pan (spray the foil or add a little olive oil). Then cook until the squash is soft and browned (about half an hour). It’s yummy!

Someone else’s roasted delicata squash

Recipes for roasted delicata abound, so I advise looking around to find one with the seasonings that appeal to you.

I’m probably proudest of myself for using up a nice large fennel bulb and a huge celeriac in a single meal! Last night I made fennel-celeriac soup and it was super easy and very tasty.

Photo from the blog Feasting at Home

I found the photo and the recipe here. I reduced and modified it a bit. First you chop your fennel, celeriac and a small onion. Then you cook the onion in olive oil for about 10 minutes, add the fennel and cook for few more minutes (about 15). Then add the celeriac and about 4 cups of vegetable broth. To this I added a generous splash of white wine and about half a cup of water. Season to taste (in my case, pepper but no salt) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until the veg is soft (about half an hour). Using an immersion blender or regular blender, mix until smooth. Add a dollop of sour cream and serve with hot rolls. This soup makes a perfect fall dinner.

Even the DH got into the game. When we received some pears that would not ripen, he roasted them with walnuts and cinnamon-sugar topping. Delicious!

Someone else’s baked pears, but you get the idea.

After decades of cooking the same old dinners, I’m ready to try new things. I am not interested in becoming a gourmet, I’m just desperate for change. When I go searching for recipes on the internet, I look for (1) something that will not take much time to prepare, (2) something that is easy to make correctly, and (3) something that uses fresh ingredients (not canned soups or prepackaged mixes). Given the recent food-poisoning incidents associated with imported or mass-handled produce, I like buying locally grown fruit and veg. The CSA allows me to believe that I know how my food was grown and handled. It’s a lovely fiction 🙂

I’m off to work at the Fall Bazaar at our church. Have a great weekend and eat healthily!

Another super busy week began with a trip to a Columbus Day antiques auction. My son accompanied me, and we had a great time watching the proceedings. Some nice antiques went for practically nothing. If only I’d been in the market for a table… However, I did manage to rescue this little Hepplewhite-style chair as a temporary addition to my living room until I get around to reupholstering the one that normally sits there.

The angle is a little odd because I was trying to avoid my son as he lunched in the dining room, but then I took this picture, and I like the lighting, so here he is.

Are those elbows on the table???

Speaking of son #2, it’s now official that he and his other half, Nicole, will be moving to Idaho in about two weeks! Including a slight detour to Indiana to see his brother, the trip is a little over 2,500 miles.

That’s a lot of audio books and music!

Nicole has a job in Ketchum, the nearest town to Sun Valley ski area and the place where Ernest Hemingway committed suicide and is buried. Hemingway’s last abode is now a museum, and, if I have my facts straight, Nicole will split her time between the house, the town library, and the history museum.

They’ve taken a place in nearby Hailey, where people who can’t afford multi-million dollar resort homes live. It looks pretty nice to me.

We sure are going to miss them! Once they’ve moved I’ll have to watch movies alone, and get the DH to deal with giant spiders like this one on the ceiling outside our back door. That body is about the size of a large acorn or an almond still in the shell. No kidding.

I think it’s a spotted orb spider

Oh, well. Halloween is around the corner, so I suppose we should expect scary spiders and the like. Ugh.

One last thing…Gregory Alan Isakov’s new CD, Evening Machines, is out, and it is really good! You can listen to it on Spotify or Youtube.

Have a great weekend!

*Gregory Alan Isakov, That Empty Northern Hemisphere