scrum-diddly-umptios

I've recently (as in this week) joined the ranks of the Bay Area folks who subscribe to the Box. It's a weekly dose of organic fresh-from-the-farm produce delivered right to your door (or in this case, my office). The idea of getting fresh yummy vegetables brought to me every week was enticing, however the challenge will be to figure out how to prepare some of the items that I've never had before. This week's challenges were: fava beans, red kale, and fennel (also included in this week's box: asparagus - the thin tasty kind, baby garlic, mixed greens, carrots, and walnuts). I haven't figured out what to do with the fennel yet, since it's got a kind of licorice-y flavor to it and I'm not really partial to licorice. The other ingredients, however, came together nicely in two different dishes. First, I made a big old pot of chicken matzo ball soup and threw in red onion, the carrots, the baby garlic, and some snap peas from my own garden. That's for dinner tonight, and I'm looking forward to it. The other dish I made was last night's dinner, which was bow-tie pasta with sliced chicken breast, bacon pieces, fava beans and asparagus that had been sauteed in the bacon grease (sounds gross, but if you use just a tiny bit it makes them taste wonderful!), ribbons of kale, and plenty of parmesean cheese. So good. Not too heavy because it didn't really have much of a sauce beyond the melted cheese, but very tasty in a nice spring veggie pasta kind of way. Plus, it had bacon in it, and everything is better with bacon. : )