The past week has been a whirlwind of work-busy, life-busy, and general overwhelmed-ness. That hasn't kept us from some delicious meals, of course.

Otis whipped up an incredible salad that we ate Tuesday and Wednesday, with raw shaved kohlrabi, grilled chicken, pan-seared garlic scapes, and a mustard dressing. I'm in the process of bugging him to get the recipe to post here.

It was a perfect example of CSA cooking-- maximizing the fortuitous combination of vegetables.

Another perfect example of my personal approach to CSA cooking was our Thursday night meal, when I worked late and then served 365 Organic frozen pizza from Whole Foods along with a glorious salad. Sometimes convenience foods are just required.

In that vein, I'm currently reading Plenty for a slow food book group, and it's fascinating so far. It's about a couple who commit to eating only foods that come from within 100 miles of their home in Vancouver BC.

It's truly frightening how a local diet has become so difficult in the age of agribusiness. We're awfully lucky here to have Wolf Pine, the farmer's market, and so many incredible local purveyors. Of course, during the wintertime it's really necessary to have store put by, which the people in the book didn't do (they started their experiment on the 1st day of spring). One thing Otis and I have done, which makes an enormous difference, is install an additional freestanding freezer, which can hold more pureed tomatoes and kale soup than any two people could need! Actually, we process a lot of the CSA veg, since it's usually a little much for the two of us. There's also nothing like eating tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes you pureed yourself during the depths of winter-- it's like a little taste of summer laid by.

Saturday afternoon we attended an event at Vignola, which featured Allagash Brewing's Hugh Malone beer and Silvery Moon Creamery cheese. The event was organized superlatively by Katey Szum of Allagash (hi Katey!) and was raising funds for MOFGA (it was $10 per person to attend). Allagash also donates $1 for each bottle of the Hugh Malone sold to MOFGA. It's a delicious beer, and pairs well with the Silvery Moon cheeses, all of which were incredible. The Camembert was particularly delicious, and was, to my palate, comparable to or better than any similar cheese imported from France. The cheese folks also were offering tastings of a cheese-on-development, which they called No. 9. It was dry, tangy, and really outstanding as well.

Then, Saturday night, our friends Jenn and Matt grilled some halibut to perfection, served with charmoula (everyone loves charmoula. all the cool kids are eating it) and Israeli couscous. We brought (guess what?) a salad. We also enjoyed a few mojitos made with mint grown by their neighbors, and met their newest pug, a cute chubby little thing named Helga.

Mint has been growing quite well all over southern Maine, as far as I can tell. Our friend Pearl also provided a couple of bunches, which I am going to cook into a simple syrup for future cocktails.

Anyway. I'll post Otis's recipe as soon as I can make him write it down. In the meantime, this past week's CSA contained:

2 heads lettuce -- used in salad
0.3 lb. mesclun
Kale
¾ lb. sugarsnap peas
1 bulb fennel
1 bunch baby turnips -- we've used about half of these in salads and will probably finish them tonight
1 bunch carrots -- same as the baby turnips. these are the sweetest little tasty carrots, they're just incredibly carroty.
10 garlic scapes
1 bunch scallions

And, here's the status of last week:

1 head romaine-- used in salad
1/4 lb mixed greens-- used in salad
1/4 lb lettuce mix-- used in salad
1 bunch parsley
.3 lb sugarsnap peas-- used in egg rolls
2 kohlrabi-- used in Otis's chicken salad
10 garlic scapes-- used in Otis's chicken salad
1 head Chinese cabbage-- used in eggrolls
1 bunch swiss chard

I am sitting at my computer this morning, feeling a wee bit sorry for myself. Otis went off yesterday for a fun overnight visit with a whole passel of old friends in Boston-- I was supposed to go, and then spend Saturday night with my mom, but I came down with a nasty cold and had to stay home.

I did wake up this morning feeling a bit better, after nearly twelve hours of sleep, so I am trying to pull it together and become cheery once again.

One thing that is helping is thinking about my CHEESE! On Tuesday night Otis's parents stopped by to visit on their way back from a long weekend in Camden. That evening, Allagash was having a tasting event at Flatbread for their new beer, Fluxus. We stopped by to taste the beer and to introduce Walter and Jane to Ravinder and Katey. It was lovely to see them, as always, and our old buddies Scott and Tanya were there too, so it was a lovely pit-stop on our way to Benkay for sushi (more on that shortly).

So what is she talking about the CHEESE!? you are wondering. Basically, at the same time as the Allagash event, the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center was holding a raffle fundraiser, and you could choose which of the many lovely items they were raffling off you wanted to win. One of the items was a $50 gift basket from Silvery Moon Creamery. This is the same cheese we tasted over the summer at Vignola with another Allagash beer, the Hugh Malone. So, I bought six tickets and put all my eggs in the cheese basket, so to speak. And I won! Words cannot express how excited I am. I just hope the gift basket includes their Camembert, which was the butteriest yummiest indulgence I can imagine.

See? I am already all cheered up. Now who wants to go out to breakfast with me? Everyone I know is still asleep, and I'm hungry!

More soon, about our dinner at Benkay, beef stew, and the first visit to the freezer for summer tomatoes.