i'm not gonna lie--i'm pretty psyched that we have a week off from our CSA this week. i'm a little overwhelmed with roots!
we got a beautiful share last week:
Orange Storage Carrots; Cippolini Onions; Celeriac; Mars Onions; Bunch Curly Parsley; Mixed Gold and Chioggia Beets; Bag Claytonia (Miner's Lettuce); Sorrel*; Leeks; Red Norland Potatoes; Red Shallots; Carnival Squash; Tullochgorum Popcorn; Pete's Greens Kitchen Applesauce; Champlain Orchards Macintosh Apples; Champlain Valley Creamery Triple Creme Cheese; and Elmore Mountain Flax Seed Bread.
the cheese was mind-blowing. the popcorn is beautiful (but apparently looks normal when it's popped, darn!) and the applesauce is just sweet enough.
so what have i been making: i made a lovely root vegetable and cabbage soup inspired by this recipe with carrots, parsnips, potatoes, celeriac and beets with some savoy cabbage thrown in. it was so satisfying and really flavorful.
the rest of the cabbage went into slaw for tacos with chile-braised beef and beans.
we had a nice salad with the claytonia, orange, radishes and bell peppers last night with our tacos.
today i'm making irish lamb stew--i can plow through some of the roots and potatoes and i defrosted some lamb that's been languishing away in my freezer for much too long.
ooh--i made a yummy egg bake the other morning. i was cleaning out my fridge and had these things:
*bread ends that needed to be used
*a little breakfast sausage
*portobello mushrooms
*heavy cream
*egg whites left over from cookie baking
*sundried tomato tapenade
so i cooked the sausage and cooked a mushroom in the sausage fat. i sliced and toasted the bread ends and spread them with tapenade. those lined the bottom of a baking dish. i sprinkled those with the sausage and mushrooms then poured over a mix of egg white, eggs, cream and milk and sprinkled that with sharp cheddar--YUM!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
what an awesome evening
we had such a great evening. dan's been SLAVING away at his 2 final take-home exams but we still had some friends over for dinner tonight. was probably a great break for him--he's been locked in his office since noon, with barely a break (i finally made him take kayla for a very short walk before dinner). anyway, it was really great to hang out with pj & katy tonight and i was able to make an amazing dinner with many of our CSA goodies.
*salad of claytonia & spinach w/ pomegranate seeds, toasted pine nuts, salad turnips & champagne vinaigrette
*red wine braised roots over barley
*homemade pumpkin pie with rum-scented whipped cream--i roasted the pie pumpkin we got a few weeks ago and followed the JoC recipe with an all-butter crust and threw in a slug of appleton reserve rum and cinnamon when i was whipping the cream
i'm not a pumpkin pie fan, but apparently mine was good--dan said he could never go back to canned pumpkin and provided me with this analogy: it was like always eating the peanut butter you find in reese's peanut butter cups, then eating REAL peanut butter for the 1st time--you could never go back to eating the reese's peanut butter.
my only beef was that the crust was sog-o-rama--but apparently that's normal? i can't even tell you one time that i've ever had pumpkin pie so i wasn't prepared for taht. i didn't blind bake the crust but it said not to. maybe i will next time?
i was so excited too--my friend/coworker nicci has been using all the root vegetable recipes i developed for my last feature to use her bounty of roots she's been getting from her csa. i have been getting tons of roots as well, but haven't been using my recipes--not sure WHY i haven't, but pulling out that braise tonight was perfect--especially because i was cooking for a couple with one vegetarian and the other who wasn't eating cheese or spicy food (there went my trademark mexican night!) but i'm glad i had those contraints because dinner was delish!
and the company was even better :) we rocked out to hendrix, drank wine and enjoyed a good meal--to me, there isn't much better in life.
*salad of claytonia & spinach w/ pomegranate seeds, toasted pine nuts, salad turnips & champagne vinaigrette
*red wine braised roots over barley
*homemade pumpkin pie with rum-scented whipped cream--i roasted the pie pumpkin we got a few weeks ago and followed the JoC recipe with an all-butter crust and threw in a slug of appleton reserve rum and cinnamon when i was whipping the cream
i'm not a pumpkin pie fan, but apparently mine was good--dan said he could never go back to canned pumpkin and provided me with this analogy: it was like always eating the peanut butter you find in reese's peanut butter cups, then eating REAL peanut butter for the 1st time--you could never go back to eating the reese's peanut butter.
my only beef was that the crust was sog-o-rama--but apparently that's normal? i can't even tell you one time that i've ever had pumpkin pie so i wasn't prepared for taht. i didn't blind bake the crust but it said not to. maybe i will next time?
i was so excited too--my friend/coworker nicci has been using all the root vegetable recipes i developed for my last feature to use her bounty of roots she's been getting from her csa. i have been getting tons of roots as well, but haven't been using my recipes--not sure WHY i haven't, but pulling out that braise tonight was perfect--especially because i was cooking for a couple with one vegetarian and the other who wasn't eating cheese or spicy food (there went my trademark mexican night!) but i'm glad i had those contraints because dinner was delish!
and the company was even better :) we rocked out to hendrix, drank wine and enjoyed a good meal--to me, there isn't much better in life.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Catching up
So, I was out of town a lot--I was in Jamaica for a work trip then came home for a few days before heading to Michigan to see my family for Thanksgiving. Let's do a little catch up here:
week of 11/25
Yellow Potatoes (Some Russets and Other Mixed In); Bunch Kale (Maybe, see below*); Shallots; Mars and/or Torpedo Onions; Turnips -or- Rutabaga; Pie Pumpkin -or- Red Kuri; Parsnips; Brussels Sprouts; Bag of Greens (Probably Mix of Claytonia and Tatsoi); 2 Mini Decorative Pumpkins; Butterworks Farm Early Riser Cornmeal; Fresh Cranberries from Vermont Cranberry Company.
week of 12/3
Sugarsnax Carrots; Chioggia and/or Red Beets; All Blue Potatoes; Brussels Sprouts; Sweet Salad Turnips; Yellow Storage Onions; Bright Lights and/or Ruby Red Chard; Mix of Claytonia and Spinach; Ploughgate Creamery Acer Cheese; Champlain Valley Apiaries Raw Honey; Elmore Mountain Multigrain Bread.
week of 12/10
Orange Storage Carrots; Parsnips; Garlic; Mars Onions; Bunch Curly Parsley; Red -or- Green Cabbage; Bag Mesclun; Bright Lights Chard;* Butterworks Farm Yogurt; Pearled Barley; Oyster -or- Shiitake Mushrooms from Amir Habib; and Red Hen Squash Bread.
some comments
*the acer cheese was AMAZING. similar to brie but much better flavor
*love the claytonia/spinach mix, but the claytonia has longish thin stems (edible) that make it a little unweildly to eat--please don't think i'm complaining, as i'm so happy to be getting greens in mid-december!
still have
*honey
*cornmeal
*barley
*pie pumpkin
*sausage
*cranberries
*lots of turnips, potatoes, parsnips and carrots in my fridge!
i'm really glad that i did the winter share. it's SO challenging. more challenging than i ever thought. see, here's the thing, in the summer, i can make a meal out of anything--greens, tomatoes, zucchini--ANYTHING.
but how do you turn brussels sprouts into dinner? parsnips? it's a challenge. we don't eat a lot of meat to enjoy these delicious vegetables as a side dish with. roasted vegetables are great--but what do you serve it with? i'm trying to make as much of our meals as i can using only what i'm getting from our csa--but i don't want to serve starchy vegetables with a side of starch.
some things i've made lately:
*roasted turnips, beets, blue potatoes, carrots & parsnips
*a soup with potatoes, frozen corn, tomato puree, cilantro, crushed red pepper & lime juice
*chicken sausage with marinara, red wine-braised onions and chard over toast with parmesan
*curried squash soup
oh, here's a fun experience i had: so i had a glut of squash and i thought i'd make my curried squash soup (super simple with coconut milk, red thai curry paste, lime juice & brown sugar). i thought it would be easier to roast all the squash instead of peeling it and cooking it in water like i normally did. but maybe i didn't roast it long enough, the skin didn't come off super easily. so THEN, i thought, oh, i can put it through the food mill and the skin would stay in the food mill--BUT the skin was so soft, it got milled along with the squash. of course, i didn't realize this until i got through 1/3 of the squash, so i had to toss it. so lesson learned: peel squash before milling it!
week of 11/25
Yellow Potatoes (Some Russets and Other Mixed In); Bunch Kale (Maybe, see below*); Shallots; Mars and/or Torpedo Onions; Turnips -or- Rutabaga; Pie Pumpkin -or- Red Kuri; Parsnips; Brussels Sprouts; Bag of Greens (Probably Mix of Claytonia and Tatsoi); 2 Mini Decorative Pumpkins; Butterworks Farm Early Riser Cornmeal; Fresh Cranberries from Vermont Cranberry Company.
week of 12/3
Sugarsnax Carrots; Chioggia and/or Red Beets; All Blue Potatoes; Brussels Sprouts; Sweet Salad Turnips; Yellow Storage Onions; Bright Lights and/or Ruby Red Chard; Mix of Claytonia and Spinach; Ploughgate Creamery Acer Cheese; Champlain Valley Apiaries Raw Honey; Elmore Mountain Multigrain Bread.
week of 12/10
Orange Storage Carrots; Parsnips; Garlic; Mars Onions; Bunch Curly Parsley; Red -or- Green Cabbage; Bag Mesclun; Bright Lights Chard;* Butterworks Farm Yogurt; Pearled Barley; Oyster -or- Shiitake Mushrooms from Amir Habib; and Red Hen Squash Bread.
some comments
*the acer cheese was AMAZING. similar to brie but much better flavor
*love the claytonia/spinach mix, but the claytonia has longish thin stems (edible) that make it a little unweildly to eat--please don't think i'm complaining, as i'm so happy to be getting greens in mid-december!
still have
*honey
*cornmeal
*barley
*pie pumpkin
*sausage
*cranberries
*lots of turnips, potatoes, parsnips and carrots in my fridge!
i'm really glad that i did the winter share. it's SO challenging. more challenging than i ever thought. see, here's the thing, in the summer, i can make a meal out of anything--greens, tomatoes, zucchini--ANYTHING.
but how do you turn brussels sprouts into dinner? parsnips? it's a challenge. we don't eat a lot of meat to enjoy these delicious vegetables as a side dish with. roasted vegetables are great--but what do you serve it with? i'm trying to make as much of our meals as i can using only what i'm getting from our csa--but i don't want to serve starchy vegetables with a side of starch.
some things i've made lately:
*roasted turnips, beets, blue potatoes, carrots & parsnips
*a soup with potatoes, frozen corn, tomato puree, cilantro, crushed red pepper & lime juice
*chicken sausage with marinara, red wine-braised onions and chard over toast with parmesan
*curried squash soup
oh, here's a fun experience i had: so i had a glut of squash and i thought i'd make my curried squash soup (super simple with coconut milk, red thai curry paste, lime juice & brown sugar). i thought it would be easier to roast all the squash instead of peeling it and cooking it in water like i normally did. but maybe i didn't roast it long enough, the skin didn't come off super easily. so THEN, i thought, oh, i can put it through the food mill and the skin would stay in the food mill--BUT the skin was so soft, it got milled along with the squash. of course, i didn't realize this until i got through 1/3 of the squash, so i had to toss it. so lesson learned: peel squash before milling it!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
slacker...
i know i'm a slacker. i'll try to update this weekend--been out of town a lot. this week's pick-up:
Orange Storage Carrots; Parsnips; Garlic; Mars Onions; Bunch Curly Parsley; Red -or- Green Cabbage; Bag Mesclun; Bright Lights Chard;* Butterworks Farm Yogurt; Pearled Barley; Oyster -or- Shiitake Mushrooms from Amir Habib; and Red Hen Squash Bread.
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