Week 6: Tomatoes!

This week we got our first tomatoes! We only got two, but this is very exciting because it means we are turning the corner, the bright colors will keep coming from this point on.  We did still get quiet a few leafy greens but the variety is slowly increasing.

In this week's share we received: romaine, braising greens, one fennel bulb, sweet onions, two tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, chives and two pints of blueberries!

Last night was blazing hot, so I stuck to a cold, refreshing dinner before I had to head back into work.

Earlier in the week, I made a yummy salad, comprised of a variety of items from our share. 

I started with a mix of grains: bulgar, Israeli couscous, wild rice and lentils.  I had picked up a "Wild Grains" mix from Trader Joe's last month which included the Israeli couscous, rice and lentils and I had some left over bulgar in my cabinet that I figured I'd just use up.

I started by bringing about 2 cups of chicken stock to a boil and then added in the grains (probably close to 2 cups--no measuring remember), turned off the heat and let the liquid absorb.  This took about 20 minutes.

I then chopped up four radishes, one zucchini, one summer squash, one cucumber, some frozen peas and a big bunch of basil (all from the share!--aside from the peas, of course) and put that in a big bowl.  I then crumbled about a 1/3 of a cup of feta over the top.  Once the bulgar, couscous mixture was ready I added that to the bowl, along with a 1/3 cup of olive oil, 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.  I mixed it all together and dug in! 

Last night I ate what was left of this cold salad, over a bed of romaine from the share and a side of sliced tomato.  This is the perfect summer meal.  It was followed by blueberries, a Popsicle and more blueberries...just perfect on a steamy evening!

Stay cool!

Mags, desperately trying to stay cool by snacking on an ice cube.

Week 6: Feeling "Reinspired"

So, I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus, and I apologize for that.  It's partially because work/life has been busy but also because I had been feeling less than inspired by the weekly goodies in the CSA.  I know I know, it's too early in the season to be throwing in the towel--but trust me, I'm not.  I was just feeling bored with collards, kale, lettuce, spinach.  Those leafy greens would just stare me down every time I opened the fridge, only to be left to wilt.  Shame on me, I know.

But this week, I'm feeling reengergized.  Our share was awesome--the mid summer bounty has begun, along with our fruit share, which is a wonderful addition.  This week's box included lettuce, green beans, sugar snap peas, tons of cukes, tons of zucchini and summer squash, radishes, carrots, a bit of basil and our fruit was two pints of gigantic blueberries! Yay!

I will hold off on sharing what I made last night to recap the one recipe that I did manage to pull together last Saturday.  Several of us attended the Ballet Gala at SPAC on Saturday evening.  This annual event is an interesting mix of "high and low."  People get all dolled up, and then lug in tables, chairs, food and beverages, and set up on the lawn for an evening of ballet, picnicking, fireworks and dancing.  Our group put together a yummy smorgashbord of items and I decided to make one of my FAVORITE recipes--Smitten Kitchen's Zucchini and Ricotta Galette.

Our beautiful spread at the Ballet Gala

It sounds super fancy, but it's actually fairly simple to make, and everyone agreed it's completely delish, mostly because it's a rich combo of various cheeses and zucchini.

I won't rehash the recipe--you can find it here.  I stuck pretty much to the game plan--but I made the dough in the food processor which made it super easy and I eliminated the basil on top, mostly because I didn't have any fresh basil to use.  I've also found that the suggested cooking time is never enough. Maybe it's just my oven, but I always leave the galette in for close to 50 minutes.  ALSO, the egg wash is super important because without it the crust just won't turn that lovely golden color.  My egg wash wasn't very even, so as you can see it browned in some places and not in others.

Letting the zucchini release some of the moisture before assembling.

 I could eat this galette for every meal.  The crust is really flaky and light, and the combo of ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan makes it really rich and so tasty.  This gets two thumbs up!!

Week 4- Kohlrabi and Giagantic Collards

Hi Friends! Sorry for the lack of posting over the past week.  I honestly haven't been cookin' up much of anything.  On Friday I headed home to New Hampshire to visit my folks and do some car shopping. I'm very happy to report that I can now officially retire my 1997 Saab! Wahoooo! I have all but driven that thing into the ground, in fact a dealer told me he'd give me $200 bucks for it...so sad. 

Anyways, I brought home a few goodies from last week's CSA for my parents (romaine and fennel) which we incorporated into a massive salad for lunch on Sunday, but otherwise that's about all the food prep I'd done, until yesterday.

Week 4's share arrived with some fairly standard goods and one new and bizarre vegetable.  We got more romaine, cilantro, broccoli, cucumbers, peas, collard greens, ONE zucchini (which I found odd) and kohlrabi.  We are still getting a lot of green veggies.  I'm really ready to see the bright reds of heirloom tomatoes, the oranges and yellows of sweet peppers, and the purple of eggplant, but I guess we'll just have to wait a little bit longer.

What, you may be asking, is kohlrabi??? Well of the top of my head, I have no idea.  We did not get this particular veg last year.  But here's a little info for you:

KOHLRABI   These little sputnik-shaped vegetables come in green or purple, can be eaten raw or cooked, and taste a lot like broccoli stems. The word kohlrabi is German for cabbage turnip (kohl as in cole-slaw, and rübe for turnip) though kohlrabi is more related to cabbage and cauliflower than to root vegetables. Eat them raw, just peeled, sliced and added to a salad, but they are also delicious cooked!  (simplyrecipes.com)

The Kohlrabi

Denison Farm sent along a couple of recipes for Kohlrabi including Kohlrabi with Honey Butter and Fruity Kohl-Slaw (clever, right?).  I'm going to think on these...

Last night I decided to use up the remainder of a dozen farmer's market eggs and create a quiche of sorts.  It wasn't a real quiche because I didn't make a crust, so perhaps it was more of a frittata or a baked omelette??? Either way it was cheesy, gooey, yumminess.

I started (as always, it seems) by sauteing one onion and two gloves of garlic in olive oil.  I then added half of a zucchini, very thinly sliced, followed by three gigantic collard greens, chopped into large pieces and salt and pepper.

These collards completely covered my cutting board!

Once the collards were wilted down, I turned of the heat and let all the veggies cool.  The last thing you want to do is make scrambled eggs by adding hot veggies to cold eggs.

In a large bowl I whisked 6 jumbo eggs with a couple of tablespoons of milk.  You could use cream here to make this very rich, or just water if you don't have any dairy on hand. 

Seriously jumbo eggs.

I then added an ounce of herbed goat cheese crumbled and about a half of a cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese and of course salt and pepper.

Once the veggies were cool I added them to a well greased glass pie dish and poured the egg/cheese mixture over the top. I also added some grated Parmesan cheese for good measure on the top.  I put this into a 425 degree oven for about half an hour, until it was puffed and golden brown.

This was very very cheesy and yummy! I enjoyed the collards, but I really like any wilted green with garlic and olive oil.

I ate my "quiche" with roasted beets from last week's share.

If you don't hear from me before the weekend, have a fabulous 4th of July!  I'll be working...booo but I hope you all get some beach, pool, and sun time!

How gorgeous are these hydrangeas. I saw them on my early morning walk with Maggie today.  The rainbow of blues, purples, and pinks is just stunning!

Week Three--The Everything but the Kitchen Sink Pizza!

Oh dear readers, my plans for using up last week's CSA did not go as - ehem - planned.  No pickles, no kale chips, but I did create my version of an Asian Chicken Salad, and I think I may have overdosed on cabbage.  I ate a head of it in one day...yikes!

Despite not making all the recipes I had planned, I did manage to use up pretty much all of last week's share and was in need of a fridge replenishment.  This week's share included the following: romaine, mesclun salad mix, scallions, fennel, beets, sage and lavender.  Casey and I split things pretty much down the middle, but I took the entire bunch of lavender to dry and make into sachets or something.  Here's my half:

Shadowy photo...sorry

Lots of lavender

For dinner last night, I decided that a pizza was in order because I had dough hanging out in my fridge from our recent Trader Joe's excursion.  I may have gone a bit overboard with ingredients but it resulted in something fabulous.

I started by sauteing 1 thinly sliced vidalia onion over medium heat  for about 5 minutes to really bring out the sweetness.  To the pan I added sliced crimini mushrooms and let those brown. 

I then added the rest of the baby zucchini (chopped), some chopped broccolini and the beet greens from this week's share.  I let this all come together for about 5-7 minutes.

During that time I rolled out the dough on a floured surface and transferred it to an oiled pan.  I spread garlic scape pesto, that I still have from two weeks ago, on the dough and topped with half of a 4 oz "log" (so I guess, 2 oz) of herbed goat cheese.  I then spread the sauteed veggie mixture almost to the edges and topped with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.

Almost perfect, except for that one wonky corner....

The pizza cooked for about 20 minutes in a 450 degree oven.  Towards the end, I decided to add a few capers for even more flavor.  This was one of the best pizzas I've made.  It was garlicky, sweet, salty, crunchy and creamy.  I'm so looking forward to leftovers for lunch!

Rumor has it that Casey made a beet and fennel salad and sage polenta last night.  Maybe she'll guest blog about her adventures in polenta!??  Hint, hint...

Good friends, good food.

There is nothing like a weekend on the Cape to leave you feeling rested, slightly sunburned and totally stuffed.  I want to take moment to thank my wonderful friend Jenny for hosting a few of us this past weekend.  We had a great time lounging by the pool, eating massive amounts of seafood and singing at the top of our lungs at the Woodshed. 

I'm not sure there is such a thing as eating too much seafood, but we might have gotten close.  We ate fried calamari, oysters, scallops, lobster rolls and fried clams this weekend and it was all delish.  Check out this massive lobster roll.

Jenny also made the most AMAZING grilled corn I have ever had.  It was basted in a mixture of butter, mayo, lime and few other things and then sprinkled with crumbly feta cheese, and man oh man, it was simply divine.  I may attempt to replicate when corn starts arriving in our share, but I have a feeling my version will never compare.

Needless to say, after this past weekend, I've been trying to get my eating back on track by consuming massive amounts of vegetables and whole grains.  Last night, following what seemed like the longest yoga class ever (because I was STARVING), I made my version of Denison Farm's Asian Chicken Salad, using up napa cabbage from last week's share and cilantro from two weeks ago, which was amazingly, still, in really good shape.

I left out the chicken, so I guess this was just an Asian Salad/Slaw.

For the salad I used:
-One small head of napa cabbage, sliced.
-About a cup of pea shoots.
-About a cup of sugar snap peas.
-6-8 sliced baby zucchini.
- 1/2 an avocado.
-1/2 a vidali onion, very thinly sliced.
-Handful of cilantro, chopped.

For the dressing, I combined:
-1/4 cup of olive oil (I keep meaning to buy sesame oil--I would sub that next time)
- 1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar.
- Tablespoon of honey.
- Tablespoon of crunchy, unsalted peanut butter.
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.
- 1-2 tablespoons of lime juice.

Please know, all of these measurements are estimates....you know me, I tend to eye ball everything.

They look like regular size zucchini....

but they are mini!

This salad/slaw, while a departure from the original recipe, was very refreshing.  I liked the addition of the avocado, which added a creamy texture to all the crunchy vegetables.  The dressing was sweet, sour, salty and just lightly coated the salad. 

And, I think that pea shoots are my new obsession!

I would equate them with sprouts, but sweeter.  These ones were purchased from Trader Joe's, along with the baby zucchini and sugar snap peas, on our way home from the Cape.  Please, please bring Trader Joe's to the Capital District!  This was Casey's first trip to a TJ's and I had a hard time getting her out of the store ;-).

Week 2

Our second share arrived yesterday, which was just on time because I had used up about everything from my half of last week's share.  The only things I had left were a bit of cilantro, three scallions, half a zucchini and a few leaves of spinach.

This week's share was very green...very leafy green.  It contained more spinach, baby lettuce mix, one head of romaine, one head of napa cabbage, kale, broccoli, basil and cucumbers. 

It's nice to be able to split a share like this because there are only so many leafy greens that one can eat.  Casey and I are heading out of town for the weekend and are planning to bring some veggies with us so things don't wilt and go bad over the weekend, but the game plan for the next week is as follows:

1) Baked Kale Chips from smittenkitchen.com (sound weird but these are a really satisfying substitute for potato chips)

          

2) Asian Chicken Salad with Napa Cabbage.  I made this recipe last year and it makes a MASSIVE salad, but it's great because it uses three ingredients from the CSA--cabbage, scallions and cilantro!

3) Pickles. There weren't very many cucumbers in this week's share so I think this will be a trial run, and perhaps an attempt at canning.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Enjoy the weekend!!!

Also, I wanted to share this cool photo that I took last night of Orcchiette Pasta (which means "ear"--I learned that from watching Giada). 

I combined this pasta with sauteed onions, garlic, zucchini, spinach, canned tomatoes, basil, garlic scape pesto and a bit of feta cheese. 



Lazy Sundays

I love nothing more on lazy Sunday afternoons and evenings than cooking up batches of food for the week.  I tend to do more Sunday cooking during the fall and winter months when I will make large pots of stews, chili or casseroles and freeze some and eat the rest all week long (boring diet, I know), but this Sunday I decided I was going to put my kitchen to work.

This post should probably be titled, "My Amazing Food Processor," because it really did all the work for me this Sunday. 

I first started by using the processor to make a dough for Scallion Pancakes using scallions from our share.  This is the second time I've made Scallion 'cakes.  Last year I used a recipe that was in the Denison Farm newsletter (I can no longer find it on their website, unfortunately).  These pancakes were very much like traditional, Sunday morning pancakes, with a loose but very thick batter, that got poured into the skillet.  I found them to be a bit heavy and doughy so I figured I'd try a new recipe this year.  I found this recipe for Scallion Pancakes with Ginger Dipping Sauce on the Food Network website.  It is a bit more involved, requiring an actual dough, resting time, rolling pins etc, but I figured I'd give it a go. 

I used the processor to bring together the flour and hot water into a ball (easiest dough recipe ever, by the way).  I shaped the dough into a ball, put it in a greased bowl and let it rest, covered by a warm damp towel.
I then cleaned out the processor and got to work making salsa with the cilantro from last week's share.

This recipe was inspired by my friend Ali, who loves to make her own salsa..hey Al!  I used four Roma tomatoes, a vidalia onion, one glove of garlic, a bunch of cilantro, a touch of Tabasco for heat, lime juice and salt and pepper. 

Casey and I both agreed, this was super super yummy salsa.  So refreshing! Slightly sweet from the ripe tomatoes, a bit of heat and a touch of cilantro.  I rarely use or know what to do with large bunches of cilantro and parsley that come in the CSA.  I don't really enjoy the flavor of either that much, but I am not one of those people that thinks cilantro tastes like soap, so I just use it sparingly.

Next, I set out to make my own hummus.  I'm not sure what the price for hummus is at your grocery store but up here it goes for $4-$6 a container, which I think is RIDICULOUS, given that it's JUST chickpeas and a few other things.  In a true cost saving measure, I made this batch out of rehydrated chickpeas.  I think this may be the last time I try to rehydrate chickpeas...for some reason, even though I follow the directions, they are never quite rehydrated and always have a little bit of bite, kind of al dente. This tends to lend an interesting texture to the hummus.  Nothing I can't deal with, but I think I'll stick with canned beans from now on.

For the hummus, I used about two cups of rehydrated chickpeas, half a can of white beans that I had left in my fridge, two tablespoons of tahini, juice of one lemon, one glove of garlic, 1 tablespoon of cumin, olive oil and salt and pepper.  This made a lot of hummus.  It was ok, maybe too much garlic, maybe too much cumin.  All can be adjusted to your own taste, but perhaps this is why people pay good money for perfectly balanced hummus.



Excessive amounts of hummus.


Back to the scallion pancakes...these required the rolling out of the dough on a floured surface...don't forget this step.  This dough is WICKED sticky (yes, I'm from New England). After it's rolled out, the dough gets brushed with oil (I used olive oil-but sesame would be good) and covered with 1/2 cup of chopped scallions.  The dough then gets rolled up like a jelly roll, sliced into four sections and then each of those sections is rolled out into a 4-5" pancake.

Not exactly a rectangle, as per the directions.

The pancakes then get pan fried in a skillet with oil and voila!

At least they look pretty.

These were still kind of thick and doughy...I may have given up on scallion pancakes or next time I will make more pancakes out of the dough and roll them much thinner to ensure proper cooking-- though I'm not sure there will be a next time.   At the end of the day this is just fried dough...so what's not to enjoy. 

The best part of this recipe was the dipping sauce, which I improvised out of a ginger lemon dressing I had in my fridge.  I added soy, more lemon juice and a tad bit of hot sauce (you could use red pepper flakes). 

Oh, you may be wondering what happened to my dear friends, the baby turnips.  They got roasted with some confetti potatoes. 

Tasty, but WEIRD texture.  I think these little guys have a lot of moisture in them and just get kind of spongy.  Casey actually spit hers out.  I didn't mind them that much, but maybe they are just best raw.  I guess I'm still waiting for an amazing turnip recipe to come along.  I may be waiting for a while.