Week 4: Turnips, Greens & Radishes

I was thrilled to come home and cook Thursday night's dinner because it would mark the successful completion of this week's veggie delivery. And eating all of our veggies by Thursday meant we could have a gloriously gluttonous Friday night of pizza and mojitos. So I was feeling in very high spirits when I opened the fridge and reached for the turnips, turnip greens and radishes that, along with tilapia, would be our dinner. Let me back up a bit to say that a fellow CSA member highly recommended reusable produce bags from Whole Foods and swore that they would revolutionize my storing process. In her defense, because these bags are made of tight netting that allows the produce to breathe, they did relieve me from having to hand-dry a million leaves of lettuce. However, as I inspected the items for Thursday night's dinner, I was devastated to see that the produce did not hold up well at all in the reusable bags. The turnips and radishes had gone soft and the greens were droopy. I skeptically trudged on, hoping that new life could be breathed into them through sautéing, roasting and presenting them on a pretty white plate. I was tragically wrong. Everything was bitter. The turnips and radishes –– even though they'd been well oiled and roasted –– had to be choked down, and the greens were simply inedible. I really couldn't believe it. Though the wind was gone from our sails, we thoroughly enjoyed Costco's finest tilapia.

Now let's move on to Friday. I don't even remember what we fed the kids for dinner. We were so focused on getting them to bed so Mama and Daddy could mix drinks, order pizza and start the weekend. This time, we were right on the money. The gourmet pies from our favorite brick oven restaurant did not disappoint and the Food Network mojito recipe was exactly what the doctor ordered. I must admit, I ate an entire 12" quattro formaggio with wild mushrooms on it... All by myself. When I told my girlfriend that I had no idea why I couldn't stop eating it, her simple, yet adequate response was, "Hm. Maybe you're rebelling against all the kale?"