CSA

Who doesn't love fresh, local veggies in the winter? This carrot, potato & leek soup used the majority of our winter CSA share. Local? Check. Organic? Check. Delicious? Check! I'm sharing this easy dish for our Friday Quickie. Find the recipe & method, after the jump!

My favorite part of autumn CSA shares are all the squashes & pumpkins that are abundant. Besides amazing recipes like butternut squash risotto & gnocchi, soups and delish gourds, there's another hidden gem to savor: the seeds. It's so simple to make! Find out how, after the jump.

So I haven't always been the biggest cabbage fan. I never disliked it, but I have never been in love with it. Until I found the most perfect, delicious salad ever on health.com and modified it. And I am sharing my cabbage & apple salad recipe with you, lucky readers. The ginger dressing has just the right amount of flavor to compliment the cabbage and apples. The fresh crunch and light flavor leaves you feeling refreshed. Plus, the salad just helps you feel totally healthy and better than a detox. (Says the girl who refuses to try a juice cleanse because she eats too much...) Click through for the best Cabbage, Apple & Ginger Salad recipe you'll ever taste!

OK, I'll be honest. I used to hate cauliflower. Growing up, I remember having the often awful, frozen broccoli / cauliflower / carrot steamed mix repeatedly. And got so sick of the mini-tree'd veggies. (Sorry Mom & Dad!) But I found a Crispy Cauliflower Recipe that changed my perception forever. Plus, CSA cauliflower is so damn fresh and flavorful, I can't praise it enough. If you have a CSA or stop by your farmer's market and spot that white, floury veggie, I demand you make this. Right now.

Let's be real: I think of food, like 98% of the time. The other 2% is the blog, Pounce DeLeon & bourbon. But today, we can reflect on World Food Day. What is World Food Day?

Community-supported agriculture programs have so many benefits: They give you access to fresh veggies delivered straight to a neighborhood near you, they can help you save some cash over grocery-store produce, and they give you a direct way of supporting local farmers. Yet one of the main problems of joining a CSA is this: You end up having a mountain of veggies—often, ones you’ve never heard of—in your fridge at all times. While it’s amazing to have an overflow of lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes as a salad base, what on Earth do you do with piles of kohlrabi, rutabaga and lacinato kale? Here’s a diary of how I handle a week with my CSA veggies. Read my full guest post on Be Well Philly Today!

CSA veggies get super repetitive and boring this time of year, so it's time to get creative with the summer harvests. That's why I traded my typical salad-with-lettuce for a CSA Cucumber, Fennel & Mint version. This actually came from one of our CSA's members, but I added a few extras for a more filling lunch. CSA Cucumber, Fennel & Mint Salad Recipe - after the jump!

If you were to ask me my two favorite food groups, they'd be Mexican and sushi. (Although I'm not a chef, that's the most accurate answer I'd give.) Although I rotate a variety of Mexican dishes, sushi is something I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole. HIGH FIVE, My friends: I dominated the DIY Sushi recipe. I haven't attempted using fish since I'm terrified and wanted to try easy vegetables first, but it was SO much easier than I had imagined. Plus, my Mom had given me a sushi kit a few years ago that I stashed away and thought "yeah, I'll never actually try that...". Well Mom, I'm maturing at my cooking and finally broke out the kit - and am officially addicted. This DIY CSA Sushi recipe makes it totally easy to have for dinner OR make for a party. Recipe, after the jump!

Whether you have a kick-ass CSA this year or are frequenting the Philly Farmers Markets, it's the time right now where leafy greens are a predominate portion of your foods. And if you're receiving CSA shares with loads of lettuce, you'll learn REAL quickly if you can preserve them or not. Considering this is my second go at a CSA and I still hadn't mastered the skills, it was important for me to figure it out. Here's 2 methods that will help preserve your leafy greens like lettuce, swiss chard, kale and more: