Shannon Phillips

Using our vegetables this week will be a challenge, as we’ve been eating out a lot with Nanita and Marqueño. But our box this week was super exciting: after the long winter weeks of endless chard, kale, squash and leeks, we’re starting to see the first harvests of spring. Not that we didn’t get chard and kale—in fact we got chard and two different kinds of kale—but we also got some things we haven’t seen in months: cauliflower, and asparagus, and shallots. We also got carrots, kiwis, and a bag of lovely little red potatoes.

Wednesday night I made chicken pot pie for everyone (I didn’t make that last week, which is good, as then I was able to use the carrots and shallots from our box), but last night we went to eat at the new Yemeni restaurant that opened up down the block: I wrote them a good review on Yelp. And tonight my mom and Mark have offered to babysit Robin so that Sam and I can have a “date night.” We have reservations at Rue Lepic, a little French bistro that I’ve been interested in for ages—and one that’s a bit too nice for a two-year-old. So that’s exciting.

Tomorrow Nanita and Marqueño are going home, and I’ll be out for my D&D day with friends. I think we’re wrapping up early, though, so I might have time to cook afterwards. I think I’ll buy a flank steak today and put it in the fridge to marinate, and then when I get home tomorrow I can pan-roast it quickly, and roast the asparagus in the oven at the same time. (Mmm, roasted asparagus! I’m so ridiculously happy about the asparagus—my friend Robyn who gets her CSA box from Full Belly Farms mentioned a while ago on Twitter that they were getting asparagus, and I’ve been seething with jealousy ever since.)

Then Sunday I want to try the recipe for blue cheese macaroni with kale that Molly suggested: if I up the proportions just slightly, I think I can probably cram in both bunches of kale. And Robin’s good about eating strongly-flavored cheeses; he loves dairy fat in pretty much any form.

Monday we’ll have a veggie dinner of roasted potatoes and cauliflowers with sauteed chard, and then Tuesday can be leftovers night as usual. So despite two nights of eating out, I think we’ll get to all the vegetables by next Wednesday.