Happy New(ish) Year!!!

My last post being December 16th makes it a whole month without updates! what kind of blogger am I!?!  I'm anxious to get back to it - and I'm sure those who follow have been foaming at the mouth for new mouthwatering recipes and photos ;)
I placed my deliveries on hold for the holidays - or at least tried to.  My final delivery of the Good Food Box was meant to be December 8th, as I planned on cancelling the Dec 22nd delivery.  However, my procrastination gene (what?!) forced me to wait until December 17th to call - and I was a few hours late.  When you want to cancel or make a change to a GFB delivery, you call your local coordinator (your pick up location), who in turn must call Foodshare to make the change - a rather inefficient system in my opinion.  Being the holidays, I assume there were likely lots of people trying to cancel delivery at the last minute, and therefore I forgive Foodshare for their strict cut-off time. 
Another large box of organic produce made it's way home just in time for Christmas - most of it came with Rory and I to Windsor for Christmas dinner.  The box had very similar contents to the previous boxes - and yes, yet another bag of potatoes.  I did notice this batch wasn't of the best quality though - there were 3 or 4 rotting onions in a bag, the squash I received was starting to mold on the outer skin, and the apples looked worse for wear.  Too bad, this was my last GFB delivery and I had such good quality in the rest of the boxes. 

I don't have many photos to share this time around unfortunately - but i used a lot of the produce in a very traditionally way so use your imaginations...

• green beans went in to a green bean casserole a la campell's soup with french fried onions http://www.campbellkitchen.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?recipeId=24099&ref=%2fSearchRecipesResult.aspx%3fSearchType%3d1%26q%3dgreen%2bbean - I couldn't resist.  As I cook more, I become less of a believer in using processed anything in my cooking, but there are a few key items that just make me feel like a million bucks - this is one of them.

• organic GFB mashed potatoes - with CREAM AND BUTTER!
• 2-squash bake with caramelized onions - see my recipe for sweet potatoes on my last post - substitute the sweet potatoes for two organic GFB squash (one hubbard, one buttercup)...the hit of Christmas dinner.  Along with the pre-stuffed cooked-from-frozen Butterball turkey which was juicy and flavouful - that's some freaky food science.
• organic GFB brocolli - steamed to tender/crisp, tossed with butter and S&P.
• organic GFB leaf lettuce salad - with sunflower seeds/ dried apricots/ red onions/ (recipe provided by Carmelle Mills) - good combo Mum!
• A good looking bunch of organic GFB swiss chard was left behind with the Mills' when Rory and I left Windsor, and my pops cooked it up for him and my mum - Neither of them had cooked it or tasted it before... how brave!  they both really liked it!!! And fortunately, it's on the 'highly beneficial' list for blood type A (insert exaggerated eye roll here). 

I also have some yet to be uploaded photos of a few other items - carrot cake, short ribs, a thai coconut curry - that I will share in my next post.

As of Monday, I will be starting up with a new produce box company.  Front Door Organics (http://www.frontdoororganics.com/) is a family business now in operation for over 12 years.  Their philosophy includes:

• Building and maintaining relationships with local farms and offering local products whenever possible
• Becoming involved and supporting community
• Fair wages and benefits for employees
• Timely and fair payments to farmers and suppliers
• Gender parity
• Environmental sustainability

In reading the website details, I get a strong sense that this is a company very committed to it's business plan - as long as that plan continues to fit within their philosophy of social responsibility.  How refreshing!

Front Door organics delivers directly to your door.  To sign up, you can fill in an online form, or call the company directly. Either way, you will have to speak with an agent on the phone before you get your first delivery.  There are set delivery days for specific areas of the city.  I will receive my delivery between noon and 10pm, and I had the choice of whether or not I wanted the delivery person to knock on the door (I opted for no-knock service - we likely won't be home anyway).  Rory asked a valid question - what if it's 20 below outside, and we don't pick it up for 5 hours? Hmm, don't know.  We will see I guess!
I pre-paid by credit card over the phone (this is the only option for your first delivery), and a $10 deposit will also be charged for the Rubbermaid box that my produce gets delivered in.

There are two options for boxes- The Basic Box contains 10-15 organic choices.  The Custom Box contains the same - but you can replace any or all items in the box, with other items available that week - which are all listed online.  I chose the Basic Box, but was informed that I could change my mind and switch to the custom box online up until the day before delivery - impressive!

In addition to the flexibility with the box, you can buy other organic grocery items online and add them to your delivery -  either as a one time addition, or a standing order every week or every other week - from canned/dry goods, dairy products, household cleaners and even clothing and gifts!

Right off the bat, there are several advantages to this service over the GFB: it's a delivery right to my door, I can know in advance what's going to be in my box, and I can customize it (thereby avoiding mounds of potatoes!)
Down side - price.  Basic box is $35.  Custom box is $40.  The amount of produce sounds comparable to what I was getting in the GFB box, so hopefully it will last for 2 weeks.  We will know soon enough!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday - and that any extra pounds that snuck on were well worth it!

I'll be back with new recipes and photos in no time!