Yeah....it's hot....

It's really really hot here in the Northeast.  Summer is definitely here, as indicated by my hair and the arrival of our first CSA share yesterday!  Our first box contained the following: spinach, romaine, cilantro, baby turnips, zucchini, summer squash, scallions and garlic scapes. Not a bad share for the first week. 

The box felt pretty light, mostly because of all the greens, but as we head into July and August the shares get very heavy with tomatoes, cukes, carrots, eggplants, and corn.

Because the temps were approaching 100 degrees yesterday, I had very little motivation to turn on my stove.  So when I first arrived home, I just washed the greens and split items so that when Casey came to pick up her half it would be all set to go.  I then attempted to install my AC for the second time (nothing like waiting until you are desperate).  The first try was a massive fail, resulting in water pouring into my bedroom from the unit.  I pulled the AC out completely after that, and luckily the evenings have been fairly cool and sleeping wasn't a problem, but I just couldn't deal anymore.  I'm happy to report, the second try was a success! The whole ordeal would have been easier if I asked for help from some burly man, but what can I say, I'm stubborn.

I then made my way back to the kitchen to make garlic scape pesto. Now...what is a scape you ask????  A scape is the shoot that grows out of the ground from the garlic bulb early in the season.  They are very green, very long and very pliable...actually quite beautiful.  If the scape is not trimmed from the garlic bulb it will curtail the growth of the garlic.

First, I started by taking out my food processor, which hasn't seen much action as of late. I firmly believe that my food processor is the BEST utility purchase I have ever made.  It has opened my eyes to how easy it is to make pesto, hummus and pie crusts.  The only kitchen items I continue to lust for are a KitchenAid stand mixer and a Le Cruset Dutch Oven. (my birthday is quickly approaching..hint hint)

I then washed and chopped the scapes into large pieces.  I added about a 1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese, and about a 1/2 cup of olive oil (if you haven't noticed already, I don't do exact measurements very often when cooking). 

This pesto is beautiful but VERY VERY garlicky...you will not be making out with ANYONE after eating this.  The intense flavor could be mitigated by adding in pine nuts or walnuts, which I unfortunately didn't have, but the substantial amount of oil and parm in this batch did cut the raw bite quite a bit.

After splitting the pesto into two containers and cleaning up, I headed outside with Maggie and a beer.  I just recently discovered Wacko by Magic Hat, and it is so yummy.  This will definitely be my go to summer beer.  The Magic Hat website describes it as "A beer with beet juice color.  Wacko is the liquid song of summer. Crisp like the morning, cool like the evening and quenching all day long.  Pop the top and set your summer loose.  Wacko is a delicious summer beer with a big malty aroma, a subdued hop bite and clean, slightly sweet finish."  What's not to like!

Hey Mags....

As often happens on these hot summery days, the thunderclouds started to roll in and the temps dropped  significantly and we headed indoors to await Casey's arrival and start making something for dinner.  I didn't have a whole lot in my cabinets and in an effort to use multiple veggies from the CSA and finish up some things that were going to turn in my fridge, I went to my old stand by..the summer salad!

I had two almost empty boxes of Israeli couscous and a bit of orzo that I decided to use as my "grain."  I have really have fallen in love with Israeli couscous.  I think it's the texture and the beauty of those perfectly round pearls of semolina.  Following the directions on the box, I brought to a boil  1 1/2 cups of water, poured the couscous and orzo in, put the cover on and turned the heat down.

Image from gourmetsleuth.com

I then got to chopping up my veggies.  I used one zucchini, one summer squash, two scallions, and 1/4 of an English cucumber and 10 grape tomatoes that were left in my fridge.  I tore some of the spinach into bite size pieces and added that to the bowl, thinking that the warm couscous/orzo mixture would wilt it slightly. 

After about ten minutes the couscous/orzo had absorbed all the water.  I turned off the heat and added it right to the bowl of veggies.  I mixed in about a 1/4 cup of the garlic scape pesto, some lemon juice, a bit more parm and salt and pepper to taste.

 I ate two serving of this "salad" while it was still slightly warm.  Casey arrived shortly after and helped herself to a couple of servings as well.  Lucky girl spent the afternoon out on the links, while I slaved over a hot stove ;-)

I was able to use most of the ingredients in this week's share in this one recipe.  Last year, I attempted to use at least a few veggies in every meal that I made, but sometimes that just gets difficult.  Now I need to figure out what to do with the baby turnips...any suggestions? I'm toying with just roasting them, but on a hot day, that's not too appealing.  I will definitely saute up the greens with some garlic and olive oil but I must say...I just don't LOVE turnips and am constantly flummoxed by what to create from these little gems.

Adventures in Farmer's Marketing...and Strawberry-Rhubarb Compote

So, I feel an apology is in order because this blog was created with the intention of journaling our adventures in cookin' up all the veggies in our weekly CSA share (Community Supported Agriculture--for those not in the know) from Denison Farm, and I have yet to actually talk about food from our CSA.  Well, that's because we are currently counting down, with baited breath, for the first week of June, when the first delivery is supposed to arrive--weather permitting, obviously.  If it's anything like last year, it should look something like this:

In the meantime, we will have to satisfy our cravings for local, organic produce by stopping into the Saratoga Farmer's Market, which just reopened in its outdoor space on High Rock Avenue.  Yippe! Our Farmer's Market is really quite impressive, with everything from baked goods, to eggs, to jellies and jam, to cheese, to beautiful plants and flowers, and of course the requisite seasonal produce.  If the weather is nice (or even if it's not), the Farmer's Market is the place to be on Saturday mornings. And it certainly was this past Saturday.  Casey and I walked down to the Market mid-morning, and ran into many familiar faces along with hundreds of dogs and babies.  In a strategic move on our part, Casey and I both left our pups at home in order to avoid a disastrous public scene...we tend to not play to well with others.

Fresh fish in Upstate New York. I heard the scallops were amazing...these are next on my agenda.

We spent about 45 minutes wandering amongst the various vendors. Pickin's were a bit slim at some..much of the produce was still of cold weather variety (ie potatoes, carrots, greens), but we managed to pick up a few goodies. I left with a bunch of rhubarb and a scone and Casey purchased a bunch of broccoli rabe and a scone.  Now, scones normally aren't my favorite baked good, but the folks at Rock Hill Bakehouse really do it right.  I tend to think scones are so dry they suck all the moisture out of my mouth and are often as hard as a rock, but these were just perfect.  A little dry but not too much, a touch sweet and a touch of tart from the currants...I think I could have eaten 5. We also sampled a bit of their savory foccacia...one word...AMAZING...I have been dreaming about eating a whole loaf of it for the last couple of nights. 

Casey-enjoying her scone ;-)

Well, last night,  I was craving my favorite late spring/early summer, super, simple treat.  I guess it could be described as strawberry-rhubarb compote, for lack of a better term. If you like tart, sweet, sloppy goodness this dish is for you.  So, with Maggie supervising at my feet, I got to work chopping the rhubarb into 1/2" pieces. I used about a pound of rhubarb for this "recipe." 

I combined the rhubarb with (yes, I cheated) a bag of frozen strawberries.  I must admit for this recipe, I like using frozen berries, I think they just break down a bit better.  To the berry/barb mix, I added a 1/4 cup of water and a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar, turned the heat on and just let it rip. 

Super easy...let the mixture boil and break down for about 25 minutes and let cool. 

It's delish over vanilla ice cream or biscuits. I ate mine this morning over some Fage yogurt.  Perfect breakfast on a beautiful spring morning.

What are your favorite Farmer's Market goodies or early summer recipes? I'm always looking for new ideas!

Vegan Wine…

Who knew, right?  Vegan wine. Well, that was exactly my reaction while perusing the wine list at downtown Saratoga’s Wine Bar. The Wine Bar is a cozy, upscale, bar/restaurant with an impressive rotating wine list, and great small and large plates if you come in hungry.  Some of my personal faves are the Warm Nut Medley, which I keep telling myself I will attempt to make at home, but never do.  This mix of cashews, almonds and pecans (maybe a peanut or two but I can’t remember off the top of my head) come right out off the stove, just slightly warmed, slightly sweet, slightly salty with a touch of rosemary.  So simple, but so delish.  My other recommendation is the Cheese Sampler…because well…I LOVE cheese.  This platter could honestly be a meal for two, it’s a real bang for your buck and it comes with 3-4 hard and soft cheeses, fruit, crackers and bread.

Not the Cheese Sampler, but an impressive cheese plate, none the less.

Anyways, what was I talking about, oh yes, VEGAN WINE.  So, I had the pleasure of joining a few of my lady friends for a couple of mid-week glasses of wine and while debating my options, I noticed a little asterisk next to a few of the wine options.  Gazing down to the bottom of the menu to discover what this little asterisk meant, I read that it noted which wines on the menu were vegan.  Well now, how could there be vegan wine? I’ve never seen any bacon sticking out of a glass. So we started surmising what “vegan wine” could possibly mean, and without coming to any sort of reasonable consensus, we decided it best to ask the bartender.

She described to us that some wine is filtered using materials such as… are you ready for this…it kind of makes my stomach churn...blood, egg whites or fish bladder.  Now, I am certainly not a vegan, nor a vegetarian. I enjoy ice cream, eggs, bacon, chicken, fish, and let us not forget CHEESE, with abandon, but the thought of wine being filtered with fish bladder momentarily gave me pause.  With information in hand, we all went ahead and ordered our various glasses, without being all that mindful of whether the wine was vegan or not.  I guess the momentary wave of nausea didn’t really have any long lasting impact.

So I’ve been thinking about vegan wine a bit over the last couple of weeks and I reached out to my friend Jenny, who’s younger brother Jon worked for a great online wine blog, Cork’d, and is now the Director of Operations at the Daily Grape. I was curious about what his thoughts were on vegan wine.  His response was that, in fact, most wine is actually vegan and those of us who care, actually have nothing to worry about.  Good news! I’ll go with Jon’s words of wisdom because I like him and he’s a sommelier.

If you are interested in doing a little research of your own on vegan wine, and the wine making process in general, you may want to check out this article:

http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2009/10/vegan_vino_sure_but_it_comes_w.html

I welcome your thoughts and comments on vegan….or not vegan wine, and of course new sipping suggestions are always welcome.

Enjoy! And drink responsibly!