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!