Cooking for yourself, especially with a busy schedule, is more efficient and enjoyable when you know the right techniques and systems to save you time and energy.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Everywhere you go
I’ve been blasting Christmas carols all week. November might seem too early. Yet, with retailers already selling Christmas decorations, I think Christmas carols are fair game.
My rain-drenched shoes are another reminder that fall is coming to an end. Which means holiday seasons are around the corner!
Festive pumpkins mark the beginning of the holiday seasons. What will you do with your CSA box when you’re on vacation?
With Thanksgiving as soon as next week, and Christmas following thereafter, I’ve given some thought to what will happen to my CSA boxes while I am out of town.
I remember taking my graduate student, ChoEun, to Ralph’s, my closest grocery store in downtown Los Angeles. It was one of our “culture” lessons.
I tutored international graduate students who needed a bit of help with English and integrating into American life.
(Ironic, isn’t it? Considering I am not American but was teaching others the American way of life.)
I guided her to the peanut butter aisle. On cue, she gasped.
“This is all peanut butter?” she asked.
“Yep, welcome to America. The land of free choice,” I replied.
I had the same experience myself only three years before.
When I first walked into the peanut butter aisle, fresh off the proverbial boat, I was shocked by the variety and choice of peanut butter in American grocery stores.
Crunchy or smooth. Salted or unsalted. Roasted or raw. Organic or 100% natural.
I knew there was nothing like this in South Korean supermarkets. Rows and rows of peanut butter. Every combination you can think of.
And similarly, when you first decide to sign up for a CSA box, you too will be hit with many choices. How do you choose a service?
The first time I asked Alex to pick up my CSA box with me, I planned it all wrong. It was exactly two years ago, on a cold, misty Friday night.
We drove deep into the suburbia where street names are vaguely related and yet juxtaposed with other references that make no sense. We drove past the Spanish cities of Aragon Boulevard, Seville Way, and Avila Road. Then we turned the corner and passed by some American universities of Georgetown Avenue, Notre Dame Avenue, Yale Drive, and Colgate Way. As you might be able to tell, we were lost in the suburban maze.
Alex peeking into the CSA box first thing in the morning.
First thing every Thursday morning, Alex bounces downstairs and out the garage door, even before a bite of breakfast. He’s looking for a treasure chest in the form of a waxy cardboard box, with some leafy greens poking out, more often than not. Once Alex brings home the bounty, and we pick apart each item, excited to try the exotic fruits and vegetables we find.
