This Week's Pick-up

So excited--check it out:

Mixed Colorful Carrots; Kale in Same Bag as Mesclun; Garlic; Celeriac; Leeks; Winter Squash; Kohlrabi; Napa Cabbage; Manchester Cheese from Consider Bardwell Farm; 1/2 Gallon Champlain Orchards Apple Cider; Elmore Mountain Honey Oat Bread.

Never had the cheese before, so I'm freaking out to try it!

I'm feeling overwhelmed with squash--I have 3 kuri (or 4?) and an acorn. I'm going to a potluck on Thursday so I might just roast it all up.

Tonight I got home late so it was a non-CSA dinner (except for our salad). Tomorrow I hope to make the nummy fish dinner idea I posted yesterday.

Perishable items from last week to use up: brussels sprouts and salad turnips and cilantro--hope they'll all be gone tomorrow!

CSA PICKUP WEEK #4

pickup last week was:
Red Kuri Squash; Russet Potatoes; Mixed Medium Beets; 2 Stalks Brussels Sprouts; Torpedo Onions; Bag Mixed Spinach and Claytonia; Green and/or Purple Pac Choi; Bunch Cilantro; Sweet Salad Turnips; Rolled Oats from Quebec; Butterworks Farm Whole-Wheat Pastry Flour; Red Hen Pain au Levain; Dozen Eggs.

i was in jamaica so luckily dan picked it up. i just got home last night so i did some cooking today finally with it. sauteed the pac choi with an onion, leftover carrots and some salad turnips and served chicken & vegetable dumplings over it for a yummy quick dinner. i steamed the beets to have for salads this week. on the menu tomorrow: seared flounder with cilantro pesto and baked potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts.

Oh, sweet kale...

We heart kale at our house. We lovingly refer to any dark leafy green as DLGs but kale might be our favorite. Tonight, we had DLG tacos--I learned how delicious they can be thanks to my favorite Mexican cookbook author, Rick Bayless. We published his chard tacos in an issue of EatingWell and we make them all the time at home.

So tonight, I braised the kale and served it in corn tortillas with the green tomato salsa I made yesterday, feta and hot sauce. I made some homemade black beans and roasted some delicata squash for side dishes.

Really surprised at how much we're enjoying the green tomato salsa. I'll have to remember that next year.

A Perfect Pizza

Why don't I take pictures of what I cook???

I made a beautiful pizza on Friday night. I made pesto with the sorrel, the remaining supermarket basil and the rest of the parsley from week #1. I sauteed the chard with onion and garlic. Then thinly sliced the buffalo mozzarella. I roasted a delicata squash. That was the pizza.

The dough we got was WICKED wet. I liberally coated my peel with flour and when I went to put the 'za on the peel, it was stuck like glue. We ended up folding it over and making a calzone, then I made the 2nd one on parchment paper. But it was so good. Made a salad with the lettuce we got, some salad turnips, pine nuts and pomegranate seeds.

Today I'm making Italian Peasant Soup with Cabbage, Beans & Cheese. And I made a delightfully tart green tomato salsa with sweet onion, garlic and cilantro. Tomorrow we'll have some Mexican food with that.

Veggies Galore

While I had no problem with my summer CSA, I am not able to keep up with the winter one. I guess I don't *have* to keep up, most of the stuff we're getting now keeps more than what I was getting this summer. But it's still making me feel bad.

For instance, I still had the pac choi from week #1 left, and finally cooked it up tonight. Most of the outer leaves needed to be tossed, but it was alright. I made pho, using tilapia instead of the beef (I think I liked it better!), added a pinch each of 5 spice powder and ground ginger to the broth, and since I didn't have enough pac choi, I chopped enough savoy cabbage to make up the difference. The result was my favorite batch of pho ever.

I also sauteed the shiitakes. I have a bad history with shiitakes. When I was a kid, my friend and I made this authentic Chinese dinner that used a bunch of dried mushrooms. I was 12 then. The next day, I could not get the smell of the mushrooms off my hands. It made me ill. To this day, I can't handle the smell of them.

So the shiitakes are all him. Which is sad, because these were the most beautiful mushrooms I've ever seen. I sliced them all up and sauteed them for Dan. He added a bunch to his soup tonight and he can use them the next few days.

So tomorrow, this is my plan: make pesto with sorrel and the rest of the basil I bought for the pho, use that instead of red sauce to top a pizza that will have delicata squash and fresh mozzarella on it. Maybe some sauteed chard too? I'll probably use that beautiful head of lettuce to make my new favorite salad: greens, pomegranate seeds and pine nuts with champagne vinaigrette.

Now that I know what I'm doing with the sorrel, I need to look for cabbage recipes...

CSA PICKUP WEEK #3

Red Kuri Squash; Acorn Squash; Garlic; Walla Walla Onions; Head Lettuce; Green Tomatoes; Bag Mixed Spinach, Baby Tatsoi and Claytonia; Bunch Sweet Salad Turnips; Bunch Kale; Bunch Sorrel; Oyster or Shitakii Mushrooms from Amir Habib; Bufala di Vermont Mozzarella Cheese; Elmore Mountain Pizza Dough.

a cooking marathon

Yesterday, I had a cooking marathon. By 9:30 am a pot of curried carrot soup was finished. While that was cooking, I made a plan on what to make with the rest of my CSA goodies.

On the list:
stuffed cabbage rolls
lasagna
peanut noodles

OK, that was easy, so now on to prepping. I sliced mushrooms and diced an onion for the lasagna sauce and julienned daikon, carrots and kohlrabi for the peanut noodles. Took the dogs for a walk and headed to the grocery store for the rest of the provisions needed for dinner.

Upon returning home, I prepared the lasagna--with ground turkey, parsley, mushrooms, onions and tomatoes layered with ricotta, spinach, mozzarella and parm--and made the stuffed cabbage rolls as close to how my Aunt Elaine had taught me as I could remember (I think I'd use less rice next time and I cooked the cabbage which I might not do--or do less--next time). I realized after I put the water on that I didn't have spaghetti for my peanut noodles, so I'll finish that project tomorrow.

And it didn't take me that long! I was able to do laundry and other chores in between food projects. At 3ish, we decided to head out on a bike ride. Dan and friends found a really easy way to get to Red Hen bakery in Middlesex, a 14-mile round-trip ride. We got warm drinks (it was way colder than expected!) and a cookie and headed back. When we got home, the cabbage rolls made a warm and cozy meal. I quickly roasted a delicata squash and a sweet potato for the side and we opened a bottle of McNeils Imperial Stout--yum!

And now we have food for most of the week--leftover cabbage rolls, the whole pan of lasagna and the soup.