No, that's not intimidating at all.

Our first box from Door-To-Door Organics arrived yesterday. This is a cool service that delivers a box of assorted produce — all organic but not necessarily local, as I discovered when I opened my box and found a bunch of bananas — to your house once a week. I guess they do focus on local food as much as possible and have close relationships with many Colorado farms, but since they deliver year-round, they have to look a little farther afield so their customers don’t have to subsist on a diet of leeks, nettles, and potatoes in the winter.

I have been looking into doing a CSA farm share but haven’t committed yet. So I thought the box would be a nice supplement to our weekly farmer’s market outings, especially since, as I wrote a couple weeks ago, it’s pretty slim pickings at our farmer’s market this time of year.

Well, of course I kind of forgot I had signed up for the box until I found it on my porch. And — even though I ordered the “small” version — it was big. A slight feeling of panic seized me as I unpacked what seemed like an endless bounty of fruits and vegetables and simultaneously realized that we won’t be eating at home for the next few nights. I mean, I know I shouldn’t be scared by the presence of Swiss chard, piles of cherry tomatoes, and a few extra avocados — but did I mention the box was big?

If only I had a cornucopia in my props closet.

While they do have some items you can order specifically, in general the box’s contents are a surprise. Here’s what we got:

So, after dutifully photographing it all (I know, I know, my photography skills are lacking), I took a deep breath and started chopping. In addition to a gorgeous salad, which used up most the lettuce, some tomatoes, an avocado, and a few strawberries (dressed with my favorite Lemon-infused olive oil, sherry vinegar and some shredded Parrano cheese, yum), I made a sautéed veggie pasta dish that my husband declared was one of his all-time favorites. In addition to feeling very proud of myself for dispatching with a good fifth of the box’s contents in one meal, I made something that’s worth repeating (I can say this because my husband is extremely picky and old enough to have eaten a lot of pasta, so if he loved it, you probably will, too. Plus it’s super easy.)

Here’s the recipe:

Vegetable Pasta Sauté

Panic-averting comfort food.

Easy, quick, and extremely satisfying. Serve the kiddos before adding the red pepper if they aren’t down with spicy.

Now, about that Swiss chard…

5 Responses

  1. That first photo you took was great and I thought that immediately – well before reading that you didn’t like your photography!

    I have a healthy and so delicious Swiss Chard recipe to share. Got inspired by something I saw on TV about ingredients that are good with wine. I often bring it to parties because people love it and it’s so crazy easy.

    Use 3/4 to 1 whole bunch of chard per adult person eating. It shrinks a huge amount!

    Remove leaves from thick stalk, wash and tear into 3 or 4” pieces. Toss stalk unless you have some other brilliant idea here, but they are really tough.

    Boil a few inches of water in a pot. Place leaves in a steamer and steam lightly until they START to wilt (only a few minutes – do not over steam).

    As soon as you put the leaves in the steamer, in a separate large skillet add olive oil to cover the pan and add one clove of finely chopped garlic per bunch of chard to the oil. Cook garlic for a few minutes, but do not brown too far.

    Drain steamed chard in colander and push out water will back of large spoon and let sit. Do not add to oil and garlic yet.

    Add one or two handfuls of raisins to garlic and oil and cook on medium until raisins start to plump. You may need to add a touch more oil if raisins are particularly dehydrated.

    In a separate small skillet, toast pine nuts alone with nothing else by simply applying heat and turning/stirring regularly until pine nuts are toasted and light/medium brown. It doesn’t take long so watch them closely. If they get too dark, they are more bitter.

    Remove leaves from colander and mix into oil/garlic/raisins on low heat. This is not really a cooking step, but a warmly/mixing step so don’t kill the chard with too much heat. Just get it warm again after it was sitting. Turn heat off and add toasted pine nuts and mix in lightly. Don’t reheat once pine nuts are in and don’t over mix. Just toss and serve.

    Serve warm, but leftovers are also good cold.

    Hope you don’t mind me wearing your hat for a sec. You are still the Queen FE!

    1. Thanks Barb! I am going to try your chard tomorrow! And as soon as I learn how, I will re-post that recipe! Funny about the photo — the first one from yesterday’s post David took. I might need to hire him as photo guy!

  2. I really enjoy reading your posts and have gotten some great recipe ideas from them!