I’ve been in a cooking mood quite a bit more recently. I attribute it to two things: a new cookbook and joining a CSA.
The new cookbook is How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. (Site) I’ve been cooking with it since Christmas, but I’m slowly reading more of it as I go. I made some decent Crepes with cinnamon apple stuffing recently, enjoyed making Birds in the Nest for another breakfast, and am enjoying slowly exploring its pages. It has a lot of handy asides about lots of useful and interesting topics– while they’re almost always perfectly placed for the dish I’m cooking, I know I’ll want to find them again another day, and I’m not sure how they’ll work out. Sauces are prominent– something I hadn’t experimented with much, and very splashy and easy.
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It’s a lot like buying from a Farmer’s Market, but on a subscription basis. Basically, you pay a fee and they harvest and box up veggies for you to pick up once a week. It’s a very slick system– while you don’t pick what you get, they give you a good mix. It’s great for getting fresh ripe veggies and fruit, and very good at pushing us to try new things. Each week they include a newsletter with recipes matching the veggies of the week. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the variation in winter– I suspect summer will be awesome. The CSA I signed up with is T&D Willey Farms in Madera. They have a lot of pick up spots in town; ours is close to our way home– no more than 2 minutes out of line.