For me, comfort food is the cuisine of the South. From kindergarten through high school, I lived in North Carolina, and although parts of my upbringing were decidedly Midwestern (both my parents grew up in Illinois), my time in the region gave me an appreciation both for the food and laid-back vibe.

So this week, I was excited the box contained fresh Mississippi purple crowder peas. Despite their name, crowder peas are not peas. They’re a species of bean, and their common name is cowpeas. If you’ve never had them, they are similar to black-eyed peas. After shelling, I simmered the peas with onions, garlic, pepper, and bacon, ladled them over rice and served them alongside garlicky chard.

The box also contained Savoy cabbage, sweet corn, poblano peppers, plum tomatoes, red potatoes, red beets, and the leeks I used in last week’s post.

I stuffed the poblano peppers with a mixture of rice, beans, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream. As an aside, if you decide to make this recipe, I used about half the salt. I tasted the filling as I was adding salt, and it seemed salty enough to me. The peppers are just as delicious on the grill, but I’m out of propane, so they went into the oven to roast.

The finished peppers paired really well with a spicy sautéed corn. It’s a good thing I like hot peppers, though, because, interestingly, this batch of poblanos was hotter than the jalapeño I diced for the corn.

In the past, I’ve had a little trouble making good tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes; it always seemed to turn out a bit watery. The secret must be good summer tomatoes. My CSA tomatoes have changed my luck with fresh tomato sauce. This week, I made a simple linguine with burst tomatoes and chiles, and for the second time this summer, my sauce was phenomenal.

Finally, if you’ve been following along, I’m sure you can take a stab at how I used the beets: beet salad with greens and blue cheese. And it was delicious.

Next week will bring what possibly will be the last of the sweet corn. It is mid-September, after all.