CSA Week 7

Here's what's in the box this week:

potatoes

kale

lettuce

oregano

summer squash (1)

zucchini (1)

chard and vinaigrette (went to my friend)

Half the kale was eaten as slaw, since I still had some dressing left over from last week. The other half I turned into kale chips. This is so easy and the kale shrinks down to nothing. It's a great way to use it up, plus way cheaper than the kale chips you can buy in the store! Well, I can't really comment on the packaged kale chips, as I refuse to buy them when I can make my own. These I dusted with chile-lime salt - a seasoning you can find in the Mexican section of the grocery store or online. The key is to spread everything out into a single layer, or they won't dehydrate evenly - even use a few pans if needed. 

For Sunday breakfast, I decided to make a hash with the potatoes. I picked through my growing supply of potatoes for all the smaller ones and boiled them first. I also used the summer squash and zucchini in the hash, as well as the last of the chicken from last week. The key to a good hash is to make sure you get good browning and crunchy bits. That's a bit hard for me, as I just can't seem to leave things alone (it has taken me many years to learn to make good fried eggs, since I have a tendency to flip too soon). For me, the key is to multitask so I get too busy to constantly tend to the pan. 

Still have the oregano left and the lettuce. I'll use the lettuce up in work salads. Will hit the farm stand down the street to beef up my salads with some cucumber and peppers. There's lots of potatoes left, so I was thinking about making a lemon, oregano, potato salad...will have to find a recipe for that...

CSA Week 6

Here's what came in the box this week:

baby beets and greens

rainbow chard

sage

green onion

potatoes 

kale (went to my box sharing friend)

My CSA also started the u-pick farm this week. I picked:

green bell pepper

jalapeno

purple kale

I also was fortunate enough to get 2 bags of lettuce from two of my co-worker's gardens!

I had a work picnic this week, so I used the salad greens to make a giant salad. I added in green onions, radish (from about 3 boxes ago), pickled rhubarb, golden raisins and slivered almonds. I made a honey balsamic dressing that used up the rest of the beet green pesto from about 2 boxes back. The salad was truely large and I ended up with lots left over, so I added the bell peppers and some lunch meat and brought it into work - it was gone...

The beet greens and chard were cooked down on the day I got the box so they wouldn't wilt in the fridge. I then added them to zucchini butter from last year that has been in my freezer and some pasta for lunches for this coming week. The pasta also got some Asiago cheese, baby brie, pasta water and lime juice.

The kale was made into a salad - my favorite kale salad, a kale Caesar slaw. I usually have all the ingredients on hand - anchovy, lemon juice, mustard, olive oil, parmesan. The dressing is so creamy and lemony and bright, I just love it. You also add in a hard boiled egg and that never hurts anything. (http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/tuscan-kale-caesar-slaw)

I'm constantly amazed at the internet - I do a lot of research at my job to find answers to random questions from my providers and can usually find the answer, so when I was looking for what to do with the sage, an herb I usually associate with the fall, I was not surprised to find a sage and beet dish. What did surprise me was that I found a beet and potato salad with a lemon dressing, and since I love lemon, that sounded yummy to me. (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/beet-potato-salad-with-lemon-709) This salad is more of the German potato salad style, where you make an acidic dressing and you toss the potatos and beets while warm. This dressing used lemon juice, jalapeno, oil and onion, which I used the green onion for. I only had a small amount of beets, so I used an equal amount of potatoes. It was very good and it is also gone... (see a theme here?)

So what to do with the sage? I added a few leaves to the beets when I roasted them (I know the recipe from above says to steam them, but that's messy with beets and roasting is so much better). I followed a Martha Stewart recipe but added some oil, salt, pepper and the sage. (http://www.marthastewart.com/336625/basic-roasted-beets) Since the beets were from the farm box, I had a wide variety of sizes, so I had to cut some down so the cooking time would be the same - it ended up being about 30 min. Then you let the beets steam off their skins and you just rub them off with a paper towel. It's actually not all that messy and I had only a few red fingers (mostly from cutting the beets to size).

What else to do with the sage? I decided to make a sage, lemon, garlic scape (I have a straggler from the box from 2 weeks ago) and green onion paste for a butterflied chicken. The chicken is from a farmer friend who I also got a few ducks from - those to be used in the future!

So far, I seem to be keeping up with the box. I am interested to see how things progress now that we are getting into the bigger growing season and my box sharing friend is due to have her baby fairly soon - that just means that I will be cooking the whole box and sending goodies to the new parents. I am also happy to report that the u-pick farm has tomatillos - I see enchiladas in my future!!

CSA Week 5

Here's what's in the box this week:

Beet greens 

Rainbow chard

Green onions

Yellow squash

Cilantro pesto

Purple collard greens (given to my friend as part of her share)

The greens were sautéed and added to beans and chicken thigh confit for a quick cassoulet. 

The chicken thighs being sous vide'd in a mix of bacon fat, vegetable oil and ghee. Which, note to self, get the stupid vacuum sealer and stop using jars!! The chicken turned out fine since I was going to shred it anyway but if I wanted to brown the skin, it wouldn't have worked.

A quick search of the Internet archives found a recipe for summer squash pasta with cilantro lime pesto. (http://dishingupthedirt.com/summer-squash/roasted-summer-squash-pasta-cilantro-lime-pesto/) So I used the pesto from the box, added lime zest and juice and some Asiago at the end. The lime is what made it - light and fresh. 

So far, have yet to use the green onions. So they are just going to hang out on my window sill until some great thought comes along. 

Hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July!!!

CSA Week 4

Here's what's in the box this week:

Beet greens

Zucchini

Bok choy

Dill

Garlic scapes

Sweet and spicy vinegarette 

(Sorry no pic this week)

The beet greens were sautéed and added to what is becoming my standard morning breakfast - scrambled eggs with greens and green garlic butter. 

The zucchini was turned into zoodles then sautéed with the vinegarette, teriyaki and hot sauce. 

The bok choy was turned into an Indian dish with lentils. I loosely followed this recipe but used a pre-made spice mix. http://food52.com/recipes/26050-bok-choy-dal-tadka-dhaba-style-bok-choy-in-spiced-lentil-curry

The dill was made into a Greek style yogurt cucumber salad. It has my homemade yogurt, dill, scapes, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, pepper 

I also added the scapes to the salad and to the dal in a scape-ginger paste.

I really enjoyed using my fun new kitchen equipment- my spiralizer!!

CSA Week 3

Here's what's in the box this week:

Mixed lettuce

Beet green pesto

Radish

Lambs quarters

Garlic scapes 

Dill

Lambs quarters is something I've never heard of before (far right of pic). Apparently they are native to the area and grow wild. They are spinach-like and can be used where you would use spinach. First thing I did when I brought the box home was sauté the lambs quarters and radish tops. They made an appearance in my morning eggs (along with the green garlic butter, mornings are very happy at my house lately). 

I knew I wanted to make a dip because I was going to a blues festival over the weekend and wanted something portable. Spinach dill dip came to mind. I had some yogurt and ricotta. Added the garlic scapes and lemon. Voilà. The taste is pretty garlicky - I may be overly sensitive to raw garlic taste. I don't dislike it but it's one of those things that anyone around you should also partake...just so you are in the same boat.

What was left of the dill will be dried to be used for pickles. 

The beet green pesto went into a tomato, cucumber and mozzarella salad. It will also make an appearance as salad dressing base for the lettuce and radish. 

I think my approach to the CSA this year is to set myself up for success - sauté what greens you can to be used later so that you don't waste anything. We will see if I can still be so zen when I have more zucchini than I know what to do with...time will tell

CSA Week 2

Here's what's in the box this week:

Mixed Salad greens

Cilantro

Garlic scapes

Hakurei turnips with greens

Strawberries 

Spinach (went to my box-mate)

Vinaigrette (went to my box-mate)

Cut to obligatory salad picture. I am happy to report that there will likely be many pictures of salads to come! I added the cilantro to the salad greens and used the cilantro to make a cilantro-lime dressing (left over green garlic pesto, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, cilantro, juice of a lime, agave). The salad has pickled rhubarb, lactofermented green beans, white beans, turnips and tuna. 

I braised the turnip greens and turnips separately. The greens got a quick wash and chop, to the pan I added fat (I recently confit-ed chicken thighs, so I used that flavorful fat), some roasted garlic, and the washed greens. The beans in the salad I cooked from dry, so I added the pot liquor (aka bean cooking liquid - which, if your are going to store your beans for any time period, store them in the liquid, they will last much longer) as my braising liquid. Cook until your liquid has evaporated and the greens are tender. Once cooked, these can go in anything - for me, it made an appearance in my breakfast eggs with the green garlic butter...oh so good!

The turnips were braised with the garlic scapes. I used my pot liquor again in place of the stock. These turnips are Japanese in origin and raw taste like my mother's favorite veggie - kohlrabi. Braised like this, they are tender and sweet. http://www.threelilyfarm.com/blog/braised-hakurei-turnips 

CSA Week 1

I have been away for a few months, and I am sorry about that. My laptop has taken a dive and I have yet to replace it - don't really need one with an iPad and iPhone and work computer, etc. But it does make blogging a bit difficult. Well, since the CSA has started again, I will try to be better about posting more often - don't feel like you all are the only ones being ignored, the spice challenge didn't work out too well either. Will try to incorporate more spices in my CSA this time around...

I started with a different CSA this year - this one is from Fertile Grounds (http://fertilegroundscsa.com/). They start the season off earlier than my last CSA and they have pick ups right up the street from the clinic I volunteer at on my volunteer days, match made in heaven! They don't do half shares, so I am sharing a full share with a co-worker.

What's in the box this week:
spring mix
easter egg radish
rhubarb
green garlic
green garlic pesto

The CSA was nice enough to send notice of what they were stocking in the box, so I was planning on making green garlic pesto, but since that was included in the box (and I'm still working on my batches of pesto from last summer), I decided to make green garlic butter. I had 3 stalks of green garlic, so ended up tripling a recipe I found from the New York Times. Most of it was put in the freezer and I am planning to use it on a shrimp pasta later this week, but it is just wonderful on warm bread and in eggs!! http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017437-green-garlic-toast

The pesto was incorporated into a salad dressing for the greens and radishes (oil, red wine vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, agave). I also added it to my morning eggs before I made the green garlic butter. Green garlic is baby garlic - when the farmer plants all the garlic in the winter, they are not totally sure what will and will not come up in the spring, so they over plant. Then they need to thin out the beds and thus, you get green garlic. It looks a lot like a green or spring onion but garlicy.

I'm a huge fan of rhubarb. I was so excited about spring that I made a big batch of strawberry rhubarb sauce 2 weeks ago when the rhubarb started showing up at my local farm stand, so this time around I wanted to try something different and I found a recipe for pickled rhubarb. Not quite sure how I'm going to use it now that it is pickled - it may just be eaten alone or incorporated into my salads. http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/05/quick-pickled-rhubarb-lemongrass-ginger-recipe.html