CSA Week 2: Going somewhere in a handbasket.

Dear readers, I have a confession to make: I don’t have a picture for you this go-round. I know, I’m a total failure as a blogger, and you should spend your employer’s time elsewhere. I know I would. But here’s what happened: There was a 10-mile race across the city that was poorly signed and extremely poorly publicized, because not even the people running the farmer’s market knew about it. So no matter which way Red and I tried to get into, and then across, Baltimore, we were met by roadblocks and bored cops and thousands of people dicking around in valuable travel lanes. Had I been driving, I’d probably be locked up for vehicular homicide right now. I love my city, but there is no 10-mile route nice enough to want to run through. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

Anyway, we eventually managed to park about a half-mile away, then hoof it down one of Bmore’s sketchier streets, past a rusted-out car and a lady distressed that the stupid race meant the buses weren’t running on schedule (see, Baltimore? it wasn’t just my morning you ruined), and finally make it to the market. I’ve never been so glad to be somewhere and simultaneously wanted to go home so badly. We were not in the mood for market chaos, so we grabbed our veggies and ran. I think we ended up with spinach, collard greens, broccoli, and kale. Yes, that sounds right. From the other vendors, we scored some onions and strawberries. Or maybe I made up the strawberry part. I mean, I know we had them, but we might have bought them at the MOM’s afterwards. Whatever, I’d kneecap a nun for strawberries.

Our market highlight was this awesomeness:


As you see, that is mango-curry hummus from The Wild Pea, a small local hummus operation. One of their guys had given me a sample the week before, and I was so in love with it, I wanted to snarf it all down right then. But I still had some homemade hummus in the fridge, and I knew I had to finish it before it got moldy and I got guilty for wasting food. I promised him I’d be back, though, and this week I got my mango-curry hummus. You may be thinking, “WTF? Mango in your hummus? Bitch, please.” Scoff if you like, but this shizz is delish. Sweet mango and warm, savory curry…mmm. I don’t know if I’d try all their combos (does the world really need PB&J hummus?), but I sampled the pizza flavor when I bought my tub of mango-curry, and that might be on deck for next time. They even have a vegan sour cream-and-onion flavor!

By the time we finally got home, quite a bit later in the day than we had anticipated thanks to all the pedestrian mayhem, we threw everything in the fridge. As soon as we finished, I wailed that I had forgotten to take the photo, and that everyone would be so mad at me. Then I probably took a nap and got over it.

Red sautéed up the kale with some garlic, and we didn’t bother taking a picture of that because you all know what sautéed kale looks like. It made a great lunch over brown rice, spritzed with some Bragg’s. Is there a hippier vegan lunch imaginable? I doubt it.

Here’s the broccoli, next to couscous and some spicy tofu I tested for Tami at Vegan Appetite (it was good!):


I ate much of the spinach in hummus wraps throughout the week—hummus wraps are my favorite pre-yoga snack, and spinach makes them even better. There came a day, though, when the remaining spinach was looking pretty wilty. I didn’t have time to cook anything from scratch, so I dumped two cans of Amy’s lentil soup into a pot and added the spinach. I highly recommend sexing up your canned soups this way!


That left the collards. These were this week’s surprise hit, starring in Vegan Soul Kitchen’s Citrus Collards with Raisins Redux. We didn’t have any raisins and I don’t like them, so I used dried cranberries instead. AWESOME call on my part, if I do say so. These collards are sassy and bright, with enough garlic to keep them from being too sweet. They’d be a great holiday side. You should make them right away.


Week 3 teaser: Red hit the market by himself because I was in yoga teacher training all freakin’ weekend! Check back to see how he fared.