The Daily Samosa

I'm taking a break from writing my mid-term paper for my Human Behavior in the Social Environment class, which I seem to be entirely incapable of focusing on. This is the only paper I've had to write this mid-term season, and all of those problem sets and exams seem to have completely destroyed my ability to think qualitatively.

Every couple of weeks, our blogger advisory committee sends us suggested topics to address on our blogs -- nothing obligatory, but just ideas to help us overcome writer's block if we're facing it. One of the ones this week was:

What do you do to keep healthy and happy while balancing school, your internship and all of your other commitments?

In my opinion, this question is phrased in a rather optimistic and leading way -- who's to say that I do manage to keep happy and healthy while balancing school, work, volunteering, life, etc, etc, etc? That's a pretty big assumption to make! But curmudgeonliness aside, here's my answer:

Cooking is something that really helps me deal with stress. I'll never be able to follow a recipe to the tea spoon, but there's something about turning dry, lifeless beans, scruffy vegetables, and whatever else into warm, delicious food that I find extremely comforting. I especially love making soup, and I recently received an immersion blender which has revolutionized my life.

I'm a member of a CSA, so each week I walk to a church in my neighborhood to pick up a box of fresh, organic vegetables from a farm out on Long Island. A picky eater by nature, I've discovered that I love vegetables I'd never even heard of, and in every box there's a new culinary adventure to be had.

This week, the more conventional vegetables went fast -- the potatoes and leeks quickly became soup, the carrots were devoured with hummus, and the baby lettuce made a delicious salad. I'm now scratching my head about what to do with the two bulbs of kohlrabi I have left, and the large bunch of bok choi.

Kohlrabi, for those of you who have never heard of it before (I hadn't), is part cabbage, part turnip, and looks like a space ship. It comes in both purple and green varieties, and can can be either eaten raw or cooked. I've never cooked it, just had it chopped into salads, and barely noticed. My boyfriend finds it to be utterly offensive, and when I told him that I was writing about kohlrabi on my blog he wondered if I was writing about how disgusting it is and how we should eat the farmers that farm it because they would probably taste better.

Actually, that wasn't what I'm going to write -- I've got two bulbs of kohlrabi, and I'm going to make the most of them! Between paragraphs, I've been browsing cooking blogs, and here are some good-looking recipes I've found:

Raw Kohlrabi, Apple, and Carrot Salad (I think I'm going to make it with lemon-tahini dressing. A vegan friend came over for dinner the other day and I was making cole slaw, and so instead of putting mayo in the dressing I put tahini, and it was SO GOOD. My mayo days are over.)
Roasted Kohlrabi with Romesco Sauce (I'm not sure I'm up to the Romesco Sauce, but I have some muhammara I made the other day that might fill in well. By muhammara, I mean something based on muhammara, made with pine nuts instead of walnuts, and no tamarind paste.)
Kohlrabi Greens Pesto for Grilled Pizza (A way to use the greens! That involves pizza! Fabulous! I love pizza!)

As you can see, I'm feeling very optimistic about this whole kohlrabi situation. Does anyone else have any favorite recipes? Any favorite cooking blogs or websites to share? I personally am in love with Tastespotting, which takes beautiful pictures from cooking blogs across the internet and puts them all in one mouthwatering database. 101cookbooks.com is also great.