Two great things happened today, both of which helped distract my attention from Governor Sanford's sad struggle of heart vs. head, the continuing unrest in Iran, and the incessant pounding of hammers on my roof top (the latter so disturbing to the cat that I allowed him the forbidden pleasure of sleeping in my closet on the cashmere sweater pile). Note to self: whenever I think my job is tough, I need to remember that I could be nailing shingles on a pitched roof under the steady glare of a Georgia sun. But back to the good things....

Today I picked up our first share of vegetables and assorted protein from Oasis Garden, a small produce market/garden shop that launched a CSA this summer. CSA - that's community supported agriculture, a way to purchase fresh, seasonal foods directly from farmers. Essentially, you pay for a share and every week you get surprised with a box of whatever they happen to be producing. I talked about doing this last year after we unexpectedly found a box a vegetables (including The Carrot) on our doorstep. But the closest outlet was Columbia (one hour to the east) or Athens (1.5 hours to the northwest). And while I'm all about fresh produce, I'm not about a two-hour drive for a head of cabbage. So for the past two weeks, I've been like a kid at Christmas (or a meydele at Hanukkah) - eagerly anticipating this delivery. And, Kate, our friendly purveyor of produce at Oasis Garden, did not disappoint. This week's share includes....

• one eggplant
• one pound of crookneck squash
• 1 slicer tomato
• peaches (3 white / 2 yellow) 
• one cucumber
• two bottles of juice
• blueberries
• one pound of turnips
• cherry tomatoes
• grass fed ground beef
• and peach flavored drinkable yogurt

The other great thing that happened was a visit from the FedEx man. He was bearing a package from my friend and fellow blogger, Luisa Perkins, who lives and writes in New York. Luisa sent along a copy of her new cookbook, Comfortably Yum: Food for Body and Spirit. If you rush out to Amazon to procure a copy of your own (which I'm instructing you to do at this instant), you'll note that I played a small role in the naming of this impressive collection of Luisa's recipes. Dulce de leche squares, lahmadjoun, cowboy stew ... yum indeed. But, wait, before you rush off to participate in a bit of Internet commerce ... there's more. Luisa also included a batch of Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies. There's a story there too, but Luisa tells it best. So pop over to her site to see how this delicious delivery came to be. Thanks, Luisa, for the cookbook, for a truly delectable batch of cookies, and for helping me discover that you can forge real friendships on the web not simply virtual ones.

Grass fed ground beef. Turnips. Homemade cookies. A cookbook to peruse. And a new roof over my head.

Living. The. Dream.