First CSA meal - Strawberries, Bibb Lettuce, Swiss Chard, and Zucchini

For the first meal with my CSA produce, I started off with a salad - Bibb Lettuce, Strawberries, Pecans, Feta Cheese, and a vinaigrette dressing:



It was excellent.

The main course consisted of grilled chicken (just seasoned with McCormick's Montreal Chicken seasoning), Sautéed Swiss Chard, and Fried Zucchini. I'm not very good at pairing foods, but that's what I put together. The Chard was kinda bitter, so next time I'll try some other way to cook it. The Zucchini was awesome - I did that by dredging the slices through flour, then an egg wash, then bread crumbs (Vigo Italian Style), then frying on the stove for a couple of minutes on each side.



For dessert, we had strawberry shortcakes. The cakes came from the Publix bakery, the strawberries were sliced then sprinkled with sugar, and the whipped cream was real whipped cream (made with real nitrous oxide!). It was the best part of the meal.



Now I have 1 Zucchini, some Snap Beans, and 4 apples left. This isn't much, so next time I'll get the regular sized bag of produce from Local Food Stop.

Got my first CSA bag

I signed up for a local CSA (Community Supported Agricultural) program - Local Food Stop. The way it works is you pay some amount of money ($20-30) every week and get a bag of produce grown at local farms. In this case, it's all organic stuff. Sometimes they throw in non-local produce, but it's always organic. I don't really care about organic produce. The reason I'm participating is to force myself to learn to cook and eat new things. This will give me some variety and help my cooking skills. Also, since the produce is always fresh and in season, it'll be a bit healthier and tastier than the crap they sell at my local Wal-Mart.

So anyway, today I got my first bag of stuff:



This is the small bag, it contains Snap Beans, Zucchini, Bibb Lettuce, Fuji Apples, Strawberries, and Swiss Chard.

I also got a bag of freshly roasted coffee from Higher Ground - the CSA purchases in bulk to save on shipping costs. I got the Peruvian.

For more information on CSA's, or to find one in your area, see http://www.localharvest.org/csa/,