The Roommate Feast

In an attempt to become more healthy, support local agriculture, and do something good for humanity or the environment or something, roommie and I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm this summer. It's quite wonderful. Every week we pick up a new batch of farm fresh veggies--two huge bags full of greens, vegetables, herbs, and more.

Every Wednesday after work I bike over to Cambridge (unfortunately the people on the other side of the river seem to be more supportive of ventures like this, making it the logical choice for the farm's drop-off location) and pick up my share for the week. Then I bike home and spend the evening washing and preparing all the fresh, and usually unidentifyable, veggies. It's great. It's a very relaxing and cathartic activity in the middle of the week, and it makes the kitchen smell like fresh dirt. It's a very organic experience.

It's also been somewhat challenging. After a lengthy haitus from the kitchen and cooking in general, I now find myself in the unique situation of figuring out what the hell to do with things like chard, mustard greens, radicchio, fennel, turnips, and more. I must say, so far I've been wildly successful. I used to be a pretty decent cook--relying on recipes only as a framework for a dish, creatively adding and substituting other ingredients at will. I used to watch alot of Graham Kerr (a television chef) as a kid and some of it stuck...like the part where you don't use cups and spoons to measure ingredients, but your hands and eyes instead.

But upon moving into my current apartment in JP over six years ago, I discovered that I had completely taken kitchen counterspace for granted. My current kitchen has a counter that is 13"x22". That's it. Which made cooking anything very annoying. Since then I have stuck to cooking the standard college faire that I should have abandoned years ago: soup, pasta, grilled cheese (which never goes out of style, no matter now old, mature, culinarily gifted one becomes).
Since joining this farm, I have discovered that although my previous talents have been dormant for the past half-decade or so, they didn't leave me entirely.

Last night, to celebrate the arrival of the newest guest of Hampstead House, Pirgie, (and to use up two weeks of greens and other veggies that were close to expired in the fridge) we cooked a roommate feast that would rival anything Old MacDonald or Graham Kerr could whip up. We feasted upon collard greens with boiled beets, stuffed green peppers, a fresh mixed greens salad, and fennel mashed potatoes. Paired with a glass of Red Truck California Red Wine it was one of the best meals I've ever helped to prepare.

And it's really all due to the CSA, for without our weekly pickups of mysterious farm veggies I never would have even thought to eat fennel, let alone bastardize a home state classic dish--mashed potatoes. I have to say...the fennel was a delicious addition to an American classic.