CSA, Week 10

This week's CSA share included:

• 2 eggplants
• 2 tomatoes
• purple carrots
• 4 ears of corn
• 2 patty pan squash
• purple bell pepper
• 4 potatoes
• 2 cantaloupe (1 with fruitlovers share)
• quart blueberries (with fruitlovers share)

Here's how we used our veggies in the past week:

• Zucchini Pie (trust me, this was delicious...much better than it sounds...like a frittata):  zucchini, onion, tomatoes
• Grilled Pork Chops and braised cabbage with apples:  pork chops from our meat CSA, cabbage
• sandwiches and salads:  tomatoes, lettuce
• Blackberry Cobbler:  blackberries and blueberries
• Squash casserole:  yellow squash, onion, zucchini (from our garden)
• Boiled potatoes:  red potatoes
• fried green tomatoes:  green tomatoes
• Tomato/basil/mozzarella appetizer:  tomatoes
• Rolled Stuffed Eggplants
• Yakinasu (Japanese Grilled Eggplant)

Yakinasu
with soy-sauce/lemon juice

All those delicious meals and we still have lots leftover:  purple cabbage, green beans, bell pepper, blueberries and blackberries, lettuce, and cucumbers!  Add to that the squash, tomatoes, purple ("green") beans, and corn we got in our DWI box.  It seemed like we've been eating lots of veggies in the past week (and lots of meatless dinners too) but we definitely have room for improvement and need to get these leftover fruits and veggies used up asap!

CSA, Week 8 and Week 9

I didn't get last week's CSA details posted so this week I'll show what we've received and what we've been cooking the past couple weeks.

Week 8 CSA Share

Week 8: 

• cucumber
• eggplant
• purple bell pepper
• purple cabbage
• 3 tomatoes
• 3 yellow squash
• 4 ears sweet corn
• onion
• 1 pint blackberries
• 2 pints blueberries (fruitlovers)

Week 9 CSA Share

Week 9:  

• cucumber
• 3 red potatoes
• 3 tomatoes
• 4 yellow squash
• eggplant
• green bell pepper
• lettuce
• onion
• green beans
• purple cabbage
• pint blueberries
• 2 pints blackberries (fruitlovers)

Here's how we used the Week 7 and Week 8 shares:

• oven "fried" chicken (Cayne had to cut our whole chicken into pieces for this one):  chicken from our meat CSA, corn on the cob (on the side) 

• fried green tomatoes:  green tomatoes (these were delicious...neither Cayne nor I had ever had them before!)

• Rolled Stuffed Eggplant (we made this twice because it was so good) -- from The Joy of Cooking:  eggplant
• Pasta Primavera:  tomato, squash, zucchini, onion, carrots, kohlrabi, green bell pepper, purple bell pepper
• Cabbage salad (From Asparagus to Zucchini Cookbook):  cabbage
• hamburgers:  ground beef from the meat CSA, tomatoes, lettuce from our garden, onion, corn on the cob (on the side)
• sandwiches:  tomatoes, lettuce from our garden
• mozzarella stuffed sausage meatballs:  ground hot sausage from our meat CSA
• tacos:  ground beef from our meat CSA, onion, tomato (BTW, Trader Joe's taco seasoning is the absolute best taco seasoning you can buy...and their taco shells are great too)
• lasagna:  ground hot sausage from our meat CSA, ground beef from our meat CSA, (squash and zucchini in one of the lasagna pans I froze)

• Coffee/Crumb cake:  blueberries
• vanilla almond fruit tart:  blueberries and blackberries
• babyfood:  yellow squash, zucchini, and pattypan squash
• I also froze some chard and kale using my Foodsaver

We still need to use the potatoes, onion, cucumber, and a few of the berries from last week but we did a pretty good job making a dent in that box.  We also have 2 heads of green cabbage and lots of tomatoes from our DWI box to use up.  Time for some BLTs and some tomato/basil/mozzarella salads!  I also need to make a new batch of pickles using the cucumbers from the past couple weeks.

CSA, Week 7

This week's CSA share included:

• 1 zucchini
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 onion
• 3 cucumbers
• swiss chard (silverbeet)
• 1 green bell pepper
• 4 ears corn
• bunch of beets
• bunch of red potatoes
• bunch of carrots
• 1 pint blueberries (fruitlover's share)
• 1 pint blackberries (fruitlover's share)

And from the "free" box I picked up:

• 1 eggplant
• 3 green tomatoes
• 1 kohlrabi

Here's how we used our veggies in the past week:

• Coleslaw:  cabbage, spring onions
• Pasta Primavera:  zucchini, summer squash, red onion, carrots, cherry tomatoes

• Balsamic Marinated Beets:  beets, red onion
• Squash Saute:  zucchini, yellow squash, garlic, yukina savoy

• Veggie Stir Fry:  Bok Choy, carrots, yellow squash, zucchini, sugar peas, kohlrabi
• Blackberry Cobbler:  blackberries
• Bumbleberry Cobbler:  blackberries and blueberries
• Refrigerator Pickles:  cucumbers
• Green Bean Dinner:  green beans, onion, and CSA cubed ham

From our CSA box last week, we still have one small bunch of yukina savoy to cook.  From the DWI box, we still have lots and lots of squash, a couple zucchini, kale, chard, some blue potatoes, and 2 tomatoes.  Granted, we haven't eaten the coleslaw or marinated beets yet (they had to chill overnight and then we didn't eat them yesterday...meaning we'll try them tonight) but I think we did a pretty good job getting through most of the veggies and all of the fruit this week.  My goal for the upcoming week is to start freezing some of the greens to use in roasts and stews this winter, start freezing some of the squash/zucchini, and introduce Ethan to zucchini.

A New Kind of Blackberry Cobbler

A few days ago, I used a recipe from allrecipes.com for Blackberry Cobbler with some of the blackberries in our CSA.  This is a different style of cobbler from any I've ever made before but it is one of the highest rated recipes on the site so I decided to try it out.  I followed some suggestions in the reviews and cut the melted butter (that you leave in the bottom of the pan) in half and made my sugar syrup using 3/4 cup sugar and a cup of water.   I also used an overflowing pint of blackberries, which was more than the 2-cups the recipe called for.  The result was fabulous!  It was a perfect not-to-sweet and not too biscuit-y cobbler (that would be "scone-y" to folks in NZ). Anyway, the cobbler was so delicious that Cayne and I ate 2/3 of it the night I made it. I suppose we may be eating more fruits and veggies but we're not exactly eating more healthily...but at least we're enjoying it!

Dinner Tonight: Mhmm...Not sure what to call this one

Tonight I made a skillet dish/soup using some of the sausage we got in our CSA and some veggies.  I thought the sausage might be like a Mexican chorizo since it was labeled as "Ground Pork Sausage...Hot" but it wasn't anything like Mexican chorizo.  It tasted good though, and I'm glad I tried this dish, considering I'm not a very big fan of sausage and I did not have high hopes for how it would taste while I was cooking it.  Cayne loved it and calls it perfect "man food".  I will admit that the sausage gave a good flavor and the kale was awesome-tasting in this dish.

Ground Sausage and Kale Skillet Dinner
1 lb hot ground pork sausage
2 large baking potatoes, sliced
1 bunch kale, rinsed and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can chicken stock
2 bay leaves

Brown the sausage in a large skillet (like you would brown ground beef).  Add the onion, potatoes, and garlic and sautee until onions are tender.  I also added a little vegetable oil because there was not much fat in our CSA sausage.  Add the chicken stock, bay leaves, and con of tomatoes.  Once the liquid is hot and bubbly, add the kale (you might have to add in batches, so that it will wilt, making room for more in the pan).  Mix everything together, cover, and let simmer until the potatoes are tender.

More Veggies... The Wades Didn't Want It (DWI) Box

My mom really wants to support local farmers so she joined 2 different CSAs this summer for 1/2 shares at each one:  Delvin Farms and Flying S Farms.  But, while she likes some of the veggies she gets in these shares, she doesn't like all of them.  Cayne told her that he would eat anything they didn't want so now we have a weekly addition to our CSA share-- her rejects!  So, she's calling those veggies The Wades Didn't Want It Box...our DWI Box.  This week we got romaine, kale, garlic scapes, baby squash, sugar peas, blonde peas, chard, and garlic in our DWI box.  This adds to my weekly challenge of cooking all these great vegetables...but I'm up for it!

We did pretty good this week using up ALL our veggies except the 2 bunches of romaine lettuce, 2 bunches of kale, and a garlic bulb.  Luckily, the greens still look great so if I use them in the next couple of days they'll still be good and the garlic will last for a while, I'm sure.   I can't believe we went the whole week without a single salad though!  Still, that's a lot of  left over lettuce...and we pick up our new CSA box tomorrow!  I've got to get cracking....or freezing!  Luckily, Delvin Farms is offering their shareholders a canning and freezing class so mom and I are signed up to take it on June 18th.

Here's how we used up all the veggies (and a little of our meat CSA) this week:

• Chicken Curry Dinner:  cauliflower and swiss chard (aka:  silverbeet to you Kiwis)
• Chicken and Veggie Casserole:  squash, carrots, spring onions, and broccoli
• Pork Stir Fry:  pork (from the meat CSA), spring onions, bok choy, carrots, garlic scapes, garlic, sugar peas
• Frozen Peas (to use later in the year):  Blonde peas 
• Chicken Tikka Masala:  spring onions, squash, garlic scapes, English peas, red and yellow chard
• Strawberry Tea Bread:  strawberries (we ate most of strawberries fresh though)

Dinner Tonight: Bok Choy and Pork Stir Fry

Cayne, stir frying the veggies

Tonight we used meats and veggies from our 2 CSA farms to make a stir fry.  I prepared all the veggies and the stir fry sauce and Cayne did the cooking.  It tasted so good!  The Peaceful Pastures pork was super flavorful and the fresh veggies were superb, as usual.  Our stir fry included squash, carrots, garlic scapes, spring onions, bok choy, garlic, and some ground ginger.  I made up the stir fry sauce based on a recipe I found online and it was delicious.  It didn't look like the recipe made very much but it was so flavorful that it ended up being the perfect amount.  After cooking the meat and then the veggies, Cayne pushed everything to the side of the wok to heat and thicken the sauce before stirring it all together.  Then we served it over some rice.

Stir Fry Sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
2.5 tbsp chicken broth
2.5 tbsp white wine
1 tsp sugar
4 tsp corn starch

Thickening up the stir fry sauce

Dinner Tonight: Broccoli Squash and Chicken Casserole

Tonight I decided to use up the broccoli, squash, and carrots from our CSA in a casserole.  I had found a basic recipe to follow online at Food.com but ended up changing it up quite a bit.  It tasted great...being a casserole I think you could put anything you wanted to in it though!

Squash, Broccoli, and Chicken Casserole

1 cubed, cooked chicken breast
1 head of broccoli, cut into florets

2 yellow squash, chopped
3-4 carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped onions (I used spring onions)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 beaten egg
1 3/4 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
4 tbsp melted butter
1 can cream of mushroom soup
4 slices swiss cheese
1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
fresh chives to sprinkle on top
salt and pepper to taste

Mix the melted butter, mayonnaise, egg, cream of mushroom soup, salt, pepper and shredded cheese (it's OK that it's not melted) together in a large bowl.  Add the vegetables and chicken.  Stir to mix.  Pour into a greased casserole dish (2 qt size) and top with the swiss cheese slices and then the bread crumbs (you can also melt some butter and mix with the breadcrumbs before baking for a crisper top).  Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly, about 30 minutes.  Sprinkle fresh chives on top.

BTW -- the Jones Mill Farm
Pain de Champagne tastes awesome!

Dinner Tonight: Curry

Tonight I cooked some Trader Joe's Curry Chicken Tenders (delicious) and Roasted Curry Cauliflower.  I also used up the rest of the Swiss Chard from last week's CSA by cooking it in the same pan as the chicken to give it a little bit of curry flavor as well.  It worked really well to throw it in the pan after the chicken was finished, adding an interesting but subtle flavor.  Everything tasted so good and it was a really simple dinner to make...although to like it, you must like curry!  I'm really enjoying using our CSA veggies when cooking.  I also made some more Strawberry Tea Bread, although I couldn't find hazelnuts at Publix so I ended up using a mixture of leftover hazelnuts and walnuts that I toasted before grinding.  I think it will still make a great dessert!

Roasted Curry Cauliflower

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp curry (I used Penzey's Sweet Curry)
1 tsp salt
1 head of cauliflower, washed and cut into florets

Mix oil, lemon juice, salt, and curry in a bowl big enough to hold all the cauliflower.  Add the cauliflower and coat the florets with the curry mixture.  Pour cauliflower into a large roasting pan in a single layer.  Bake at 450 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until the cauliflower is tender.

Dinner Tonight: Spring Salad of Arugula with English Peas, Radishes, and Strawberries

Ethan playing with food but not eating it...yet.

I found this recipe while searching for something new to do with our CSA radishes: Spring Salad of Arugula with English Peas, Radishes, and Strawberries | Earthbound Farm Organic | Recipes for Delicious and Healthy Food. It looked delicious and I had almost all the ingredients. I bought a Trader Joe's Champagne Vinagrette the last time I was there so decided to forgo the vejus dressing in favor of using our new dressing and decided that instead of arugula we could use our CSA mizuna, supplementing with some red romaine if necessary. We also had the English peas and strawberries from our CSA.  So, all I really needed was walnut oil, goat cheese, and a baguette.

The salad was delicious!  The goat cheese croutes were absolutely fabulous.  I will have to try these with other dishes.  I think marinating the cheese in the walnut oil gave it a great subtle flavor but a good olive oil would taste almost as good.  The mizuna was good too -- earthy but milder than arugula...I just cut off the ends of the leaves (some of stalks were a little thick) before tossing it in the dressing.  Oh, and Trader Joe's Light Champagne Vinaigrette gets two thumbs up and was the perfect complement to the fruit and veggies in this salad.

Strawberry Tea Bread

Strawberry Tea Bread

This afternoon I made some strawberry tea bread using some of our CSA berries.  This is a recipe I made once a long time ago and loved but then forgot about.  All these spring strawberries reminded me of the yummy-tasting bread so I had to try it again.  I think the ground hazelnuts really give it a great punch, although I'm sure you could also just add hazelnuts to the mix and it would be just as good.  The other great thing about it is that you can bake it in your bread machine, which must use less energy than having your oven turned on for an hour (and I think it keeps the kitchen cooler, too...although maybe a newer over would be just as good at that).

Strawberry-Hazelnut Tea Bread

1.5 cups strawberries
2/3 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs (at room temperature)

1 tbsp milk
1/3 cup ground hazelnuts
1 1/3 cup self rising flour, sifted

1. If using a bread machine, remove the dough hook from the bread machine pan.  Line bottom of loaf pan with baking paper or wax paper (I used aluminum foil).  Spray with baking spray or grease and flour the pan.  
2. Hull and coarsely chop the strawberries.  
3. Cream the sugar and butter together.
4. Add the eggs and milk to the butter/sugar mixture.  
5. Mix the ground hazelnuts with the flour and gently fold it into the wet ingredient mixture.  
6. Gently add the strawberries and fold in.  
7. Spoon into the pan.
8. Put pan in bread machine and use "Bake" setting.  Bake for about 50-55 minutes (I baked for 60 min).  Or, use a 350 degree oven and bake for 60-70 minutes.  Check for doneness by inserting a wooden skewer into loaf -- it should come out mostly clean when the bread is done.  
9. Cool for 2-3 minutes in the pan and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

This was a great desert for our Broccoli Cheese soup dinner! :)  

Dinner Tonight: Bulgogi and Chard

Tonight I used some of our CSA vegetables and something new I found at Trader Joe's:  Beef Bulgogi.  I always love Trader Joe's marinated meats and I used to like the Bulgogi cart that would come to the NIH campus for special events.  While I didn't prepare a traditional Korean meal, it still ended up tasting delicious and we discovered a new way to cook Swiss Chard (I'm honestly not sure if I've even eaten chard before).  I steamed the asparagus and cooked the chard (leaves and chopped stems) in olive oil/garlic/crushed red pepper and then added some lemon juice before serving -- a simple recipe I got out of The Joy of Cooking.  BTW -- apparently you are supposed to wrap your bulgogi in lettuce leaves but I just mixed some of the chard with the beef and it tasted great.  The best part was that everything cooked really quickly -- once things were chopped and ready to go, the cooking time was only about 10 minutes.  Now I'm ready for my next CSA vegetable challenge.

CSA, Week 2

This week we got:

• asparagus
• broccoli
• spring onions
• lettuce
• cabbage
• radishes
• Swiss chard
• beets
• kohlrabi
• 2 quarts of strawberries (we signed up for the fruitlover's share to get the extra quart)

The kohlrabi (the vegetable we couldn't identify last week).

Now I just have to figure out what to make with all this produce! The strawberries are easy -- they are so delicious Cayne and I have been snacking on them for "dessert" while watching TV after we put Ethan to bed. Last night I found some delicious-sounding beet and kohlrabi recipes in a book Cayne's friends Jono and Anna got us, Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Garden Companion, so we'll have to try those.

Delicious Broccoli Cheese Soup

A couple of days ago I tried making some broccoli cheese soup using the broccoli we got in our weekly CSA share. I was a little apprehensive because I love broccoli soup and the last time I tried making it (a long, long time ago) the recipe I used (in Joy of Cooking) had a step where you are supposed to puree your soup until smooth. Well, no matter how long I tried pureeing in my food processor, my soup turned out grainy and unappetizing. This time, I looked around online for lots of recipes and found some that call for pureeing and some that don't. I decided to make a non-pureeing recipe, where I would just add the broccoli florets at the end.

My favorite-looking recipe called for putting shredded carrots in the soup too and I figured that if I was buying carrots to shred anyway, I might as well shred and steam extra to make baby food with (our pediatrician recommended shredding the carrots before steaming so that they don't need to steam as long). So, I started off with the carrots and while those were steaming I chopped the broccoli and came to a realization: I was going to be wasting a lot of broccoli stalks if I only used the florets and I figured that the stalks would add good flavor to my soup (after all...there are all those broccoli soup recipes that call for pureeing your soup after putting both florets and stalks into the soup). I decided that pureeing not the entire soup but just the vegetables might help to keep the soup smoother while adding great flavor.

So, after steaming and then pureeing Ethan's carrots, I steamed some broccoli stalks and carrots together and then pureed them with a little chicken stock to add to my soup. The end result was delicious! And since it's a mash-up of a bunch of different recipes, I can call it my own, right? Here's my recipe:

Betsey's Broccoli Cheese Soup

2 medium or 3 small bunches of broccoli

2 cups shredded carrots

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 TBSP butter

1/8 tsp nutmeg

3 cups chicken stock

1 can cheese soup

2 cups shredded cheese (I used Mexican blend but think Sharp Cheddar would be better)

1/4 cup milk

1.5 tsp mustard

1.5 tsp Hot (Hungarian) Paprika

1 tsp Mexican Oregano

1 tsp Basil

salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste

1. Chop the very ends off broccoli stalks. Then cut the broccoli florets off and set aside in a medium bowl. Chop the remaining broccoli stalks into small pieces and put into a steamer basket. Add 1 cup of the shredded carrots to the steamer. Stem broccoli and carrots for approx 10 minutes or until very tender.

2. After broccoli and carrots are tender, put both into a food processor with up to 1/2 cup of chicken stock and puree until smooth. Set aside.

3. In a large pot, melt butter and add chopped onion and nutmeg, cook until onions are transparent.

4. Add remaining chicken stock and the can of cheese soup (if you'd rather not use the cheese soup, add extra milk and cheese later). Add the pureed carrots and broccoli. Stir to mix.

5. Add the mustard, hot paprika, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper.

6. Add remaining cup of shredded carrots and broccoli florets. Heat until bubbling and reduce heat.

7. Add the milk and shredded cheese (save some cheese to sprinkle on top of each serving). Heat for 5-10 minutes on medium-low. Add extra salt and pepper to taste.

8. Serve in soup bowls with a side of bread and sprinkle extra cheese on top of the soup.

This soup tastes great the next day after flavors have had an extra chance to mix!