Party In My Kitchen

For those of you who have been to our house, you've got to admit, our kitchen isn't fancy, nor very spacious. It especially does not have good storage or counter space. What it does have are a decent gas stove, a good dishwasher, a brand new fancy refrigerator, and me. While I'm no star chef, or gourmet chef, or even a chef at all, I do cook a lot in my kitchen.

This afternoon, I had my work cut out for me. 

We host a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) drop site on our front porch each week. We've been doing this for about 3 years now. It's a pretty sweet deal for me. We've been getting our CSA box from Oxbow Farm for about 7 years now. A few years back, the farmers invited CSA members the opportunity to host drop site at their house. I jumped at this because it means I don't have to drag my kids out (sometimes in the rain) to a farmers market or other drop site, find parking, etc., etc. My box, along with several others (I think we're up to 14 this year!), come right to my door. 

Sometimes members forget to pick up their boxes. When this happens, I try to contact them, if possible, and find out what's up. Sometimes they are out of town, and forgot to get someone else to pick it up for them. Sometimes they are running late. And, sometimes, I can't get a hold of the member(s). This happens about once a week or so. I usually give them a day or two to come pick up, even though the farm tells them it's on a specific day of the week, at a specific time. This is the advantage of picking up a someone's house. Especially a do-gooder like me. *smile* When I finally decide that the box(es) are not going to be claimed this week, I try to find homes for the vegetables, and sometimes fruits.

Today, their home is my home. 

Although this is part of the sweetness of being the host, it does make for challenges. 1) Where to store all these veggies. 2) Now I have 3 bunches of parsley to use up, or something the like. 3) It takes some work to use up all this organic produce. 

That's how the party in my kitchen happened to day. I went through the box and picked out the stuff that I know I'll use for sure. I set aside the rest. Then, I set out to make things fit in my fridge. To do this, I have to take the parts off the veggies that I know won't get used, such as carrot tops and put them to compost. I also have to take some of the older stuff out from previous weeks and do something with them. Today, I cleaned baby carrots, parsnips, and baby beets. The beets went into the oven an hour ago, and will get pureed later. The carrots and parsnips will get roasted for dinner tonight. I also peeled, cut and cored 4 over-ripe pears, and I'm in the process of making pureed pear for Crosby and pear butter. In addition, I prepared chicken wings for tonight's dinner: Chinese-style salt and pepper fried chicken. Mmm-mmm.

Thank goodness the kids are happily playing together upstairs, Crosby is napping, David is doing some work stuff, and it's raining outside. It's the perfect afternoon to party in my kitchen.