Boston Organics Delivery Day!

The months of May through November are the easiest times to eat local produce, even in a city like Boston. Between farmer's markets, CSA's, and apple picking, there are many options of foods grown in the area. The challenge is making the choice to go out in search of local foods rather than be tempted by the ease of going to the supermarket down the street (which I have to say, during my first year of teaching, boxed mac and cheese and take out was all I could muster up the energy for).

My roommate and I found an awesome alternative option- Boston Organics (http://bostonorganics.com/). They are definitely worth checking out. The best thing about them is that they deliver year round- effectively eliminating my need to get produce from a larger grocery store. It also cuts down on the amount of shopping trips I need to make. Boston Organics has a wide variety of produce boxes to fit your needs. You can also choose to have it delivered every week, every other week, and can start and cancel at any time. We chose the Dogma Box, which is the local produce option. Last week, we got beets, sweet potatoes, lettuce, butternut squash, alfalfa sprouts, onions, cranberries, cabbage, pears, and apples.

One of the great, but difficult things about the Dogma Box is that you have no control over what you are going to get, which means you have to be creative in what you cook. Not surprisingly the first things that got eaten were the pears and apples! We still have lots of cabbage left...

Here are a few great recipes that I made with these great ingredients. My personal favorite is the pear and brie sandwich! It’s amazingly delicious and really easy.

Pear and Brie Sandwich

1. Slice up the pears. Cook them in a small skillet with a little bit of butter and brown sugar. (about 5 minutes).
2. Take the pears off the heat and drizzle balsamic vinegar over them.
3. Put them in a sandwich with sliced brie cheese and some sort of leafy green.
4. Put the whole sandwich back in the skillet and heat until desired (optional)

Polish Borscht

http://ngan-dam.suite101.com/easy-and-healthy-vegetarian-soup-polish-borscht-a157251#ixzz1d7oG2fol


Sweet Potato Pancakes

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/40-a-day/sweet-potato-pancakes-recipe/index.html

I went out to brunch with my mom and she ordered sweet potato pancakes, which were amazing. This recipe seemed close, but I am going to attempt to modify the recipe or find a new one, until I get the perfect recipe!

My Third Autumn in Boston

Living in a city such as Boston makes it easy for me to miss the changing of the leaves or just how quickly it starts getting dark when fall approaches, but one thing I never miss out on is baking real pumpkins!

It was during my year in Jesuit Volunteer Corps that I realized my love (and hate) of cooking with actual pumpkins as opposed to the quite convenient can. I remember clearly Jackie’s (my co-worker and housemate) and my goal to educate parents at the daycare center where we worked about the benefits of eating locally and in season. We did not know what we were getting ourselves into! Soon we were baking dozens of pumpkins! Our hands were stained orange, blenders were broken, pumpkins were left to burn, and the list goes on. Through all of this, despite everyone’s comments that it is way easier and tastes the same to buy the can, I held fast to my belief in the value of using real pumpkins.

I have certainly gotten better at using elbow grease to scoop out the seeds and can quite easily bake a pumpkin and turn it into puree, but it still requires slowing down and finding time in you busy life to dedicate to the preparation of food. And there is something beautiful about the labor of preparing food. No matter what is going on in my life: whether I am in my first year teaching, a graduate student, or a JV, I have always found time for pumpkins in my life. That being said, there is something quite comforting in this process that anchors me.

When I think about living in Boston, I think about hectic, busy schedules and constant motion. It's a struggle to fight against this trend and to slow down and find time for the things that really mater. On that note, I have decided that baking pumpkins once a year is not enough. It’s with this thought that I hope to embark on something similar to Kingsolver’s quest to eat locally in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I often think of eating on an all local diet, but never have quite gotten all the way there. I realize now how much my many difficult and humorous crazy projects, such as pumpkins have prepared me to quite easily make this transition in my eating habits.

For those of you brave enough to bake your own pumpkin, here's how:

1. Cut the pumpkin in half.
2. Scoop out all the seeds and any dark orange stringy stuff
3. Put the pumpkins face down in a half inch of water in a casserole dish (you can also put them on a cookie sheet with water)
4. Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes as 350 degrees (or until you can easily stick a fork)
5. Scoop out the cooked sqaush from skin. Put it in a food processor with a little bit of water. Mix together until it turns into a puree.

Note: You can also use a blender or try just mashing it up by hand (but good luck to you, man I love my food processor!).