I just found out about the most amazing thing (thanks Anna and Kristen)! Did you know that there’s an organic produce delivery service in Boston?! Well there is! It’s called Boston Organics and I’ve just signed up to receive their weekly half fruit and half veggie $27 box of assorted awesomeness as well as some fabulous sounding freshly baked bread.

My order will be dropped off on Wednesday so I’ll have more to report then. To find out if this great service is available in your part of the city you should review their delivery schedule. There are lots of delicious add-ons that you can arrange to have in your box too including cheeses, coffee, and chocolate for a small additional fee. They also allow you to create a list of produce that you definitely don’t want to have in your box. So I promptly exiled the honey dew melons to the “do not deliver” list.

Do any of you have a program like this in your area? If so, how has your experience been?

Welcome to a new feature on ErinCooks.com in which I’ll attempt to answer “burning questions” posed to me by honest to goodness real people with actual food related concerns. Need some advice? You can always Ask Erin Cooks.

Dear ErinCooks: The onion has long been my sworn enemy. I know it adds flavor and whatever to dishes but onions disagree with me so I avoided them. Since I stopped eating Smartfood Popcorn and cereal as meals, became a vegan and started cooking proper food for myself I decided it was time to make my peace with the onion. My body definitely rebelled when I started feeding it vegetables and fruits, but it adjusted and so I started actually adding onions to things when called for and now they don’t bother me. Well, not exactly and that brings me to my onion related questions:

1. I hate handling onions because the smell lingers on my hands and repulses me. Why in the age of convenience food, when you can buy precut everything, can’t I find precut onions? Do they not keep in the cut state? Do they exist and I just can’t find them? Is this the dumbest question you’ve ever heard?

2. If I do indeed have to handle onions, how do I get rid of the smell? Someone told me you can rub lemon on your hands, but then my hands just smell like onions and lemons.

Help me, ErinCooks. You’re my only hope.
– Anna D

Dear Anna D: This is your lucky day because you can actually buy pre-cut onions (I’ve definitely seen them at Whole Foods). You can also purchase frozen onions but if you tell anyone that you’re doing that they will mercilessly ridicule you (i.e. I will point and laugh). Or you can pre-chop and freeze them yourself for future use. If you do buy pre-cut onions just keep in mind that you’re going to be paying at least twice as much for them.

As for your concern about the onion smell staying on your hands, I’ve never really noticed this with onions. I am however horrified on a daily basis by the smell of garlic on my hands. I’ve woken up many nights in bed completely disgusted by the smell emanating from my hands after having chopped up garlic for a dish. For that reason, I try to touch the garlic as little as possible and wash my hands with a lemon based soap immediately after dropping the smelly stuff into whatever concoction I’m making. Lately I’ve been using a peppermint soap from Williams-Sonoma and that seems to do the trick as well. I think the key is to wash your hands as soon as humanly possible after you come in contact with the ingredient you dislike, and if you still really can’t stand it you could always invest in a package of latex gloves.

I also wonder if you might like using shallots better than onions? In fact, people like Anthony Bourdain recommend that you use shallots instead of onions. Apparently it’s one of the things that make restaurant food taste so great, and why we can never duplicate the flavors at home (you know besides the gallons of cream, oil, and butter of course). Or you could buy one of those Vidalia Chop Wizards. I’ve never used one personally, but they seem to have really good reviews online.

When these rolls came out of the oven and I tasted the first one sandwiched with a little butter I almost did a cartwheel. Finally, I’d made a recipe with yeast that actually tasted good!

Time for a quiz.
Which of the following accurately illustrates how Erin feels about baking bread:
A. I famously can’t make bread.
B. I’m impatient and dislike it when recipes take several hours to make.
C. I hate to cook anything with a high mess threshold.
D. All of the above

Give up? Well if you chose “D” you’re right on top of things. However, I plan to make an exception to this raging anti-bread sentiment in the future because I really liked these rolls.

In addition, these pumpkin dinner accompaniments are “Part 2″ of the recipes I made with one can of leftover Libby’s Pumpkin. Those little cans obviously have a lot more possibilities in them than just boring old Thanksgiving pies.

Can of Pumpkin Part 2	Dissolve Yeast & Sugar
Make Dough	Knead & Form Into a Ball
Let it Rise	Shape, Bake & Cool

Pumpkin Yeast Rolls (Originally published in the December 1998 edition of Cooking Light magazine. I halved the recipe as outlined below.)
Makes 12 Rolls

1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 package dry yeast (about 1 1/8 teaspoons)
1 tablespoons brown sugar
3/8 cup warm fat-free milk (105° to 115°)
2 1/2 cups bread flour, divided
1/8 cup stick margarine or butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 large egg (Note: Just scramble one egg in a dish and pour half into your recipe)
Cooking spray

Combine the pumpkin and vanilla extract, and set aside. Dissolve yeast and sugar in milk in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add 1 cup flour, pumpkin mixture, margarine, salt, vinegar, nutmeg, and egg to yeast mixture; beat at medium speed of a mixer until smooth. Stir in 1 cups flour to form a sticky dough. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead dough until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes); add enough of remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands.

Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover dough, and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

Coat muffin cups with cooking spray. Punch dough down. Divide into 12 equal pieces; shape each piece into a ball. Place 1 ball in each muffin cup. Cover and let rise 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Uncover dough; bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Remove from pans; cool on wire racks.

I just ate the craziest thing for lunch. It was a Lean Cuisine Chicken, Mushroom and Spinach Panini and via some magical means (this strange silver coating on the package) it grilled itself in the microwave. Yes those are grill marks in the photo. Thanks iPhone! Equally shocking was that the sandwich actually tasted good and I now feel full even though it only had 280 calories (or possibly 320–my box and the website differ). Obviously some strange voodoo is at work here…

Friends with babies and babies on the way, look out! I’ll make Foodies of your little lads and lasses yet. Or at least just brand them as such. The Fig Leaf Baby Connoisseur Collection features an array of simple onesies embroidered with cute monikers like “Foodie,” “Ripe,” and “Fresh Squeezed.” Is there anything that you can put on a baby that doesn’t inevitably look completely adorable?

For Christmas CK bought me a Whirley Pop. If that’s not the ultimate in kitsch gifts I don’t know what is. Strangely enough though, the ridiculous looking thing makes really excellent popcorn. This good opinion is seconded by Robin at Big Red Kitchen. In fact, Robin even gave me some tips about how to get the elusive Whirly Pop Kettle Corn not to burn. I’m really not kidding about this pot. You’ll never buy microwave popcorn again.

Laura had a very expensive snack at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant after work and handles the reality that she’s been charged $16 for a single glass of wine quite well.

Heat, Eat, and Review tackles the new Smucker’s Peanut Butter and Honey Uncrustables. I know I’m not supposed to like things like this, but I have fond memories of the Grape Jelly and Peanut Butter Uncrustable that I sampled in a grocery store once. Although, this could also just be my new constant craving for white bread talking.

My friend Erin is in the initial planning stages of plotting out a spot in her community garden. I’m hoping to grow something a little more challenging myself this year. Really. I mean it.

Top 5 Recipes I’m Dying to Try this Week

S’more Cupcakes from Jen at Beantown Baker
Sarah’s Perfect Peanut Butter Cookies at FoodCite
Rachelle’s Calico Bell Pepper Muffins at RachelleB.com
Tropical Coconut Cheesecake from Tarah at Genesis of a Cook
Nicole’s Hearty Potato Leek Soup at Pinch My Salt

Blake Makes recently gave away free samples of a new type of chocolate. This chocolate is crafted by a company called TCHO. TCHO bills themselves as a “startup premium chocolate manufacturing and sales company.” Their website has a very young and high tech appeal to it and they come off sounding very much like the Gary Vaynechuk of chocolate. I appreciate the enthusiasm. I guess the founders better get themselves a Twitter account and join the color wars.

The chocolate that I tried is described as being in a “Beta” stage. This means that they’re still working on the recipe and are hoping for some constructive feedback from people who have tried the current batch. When I ate the chocolate I felt like it had a really great texture, but it was just a tad too bitter for me. That didn’t exactly stop me from eating it though. It was gone before the first commercial break of New Amsterdam. Don’t raise your eyebrows! It’s a good show and I worked out first. Anyway, I’ve been craving chocolate chip cookies all week and I think the TCHO chocolate would be great chopped up and used in the batter. So if anyone (hint hint) wants to send me any more chocolate I’d be happy to test that theory.