CSA Monday! Last Edition

This week was the final week for my CSA. I really enjoyed it, but am glad it's over. I prefer doing the meal planning/grocery shopping at the end of the week but with CSA pick-up on Monday, that became difficult if I wanted to use the vegetables soon after they were picked. I would recommend everyone to try a CSA for a season. See if it fits your lifestyle. You're bound to discover new & exciting vegetables as well as learn more about where your food comes from (Farms, IMO, are very different from gardens).

I am, however, committed now to eating as much local, organic produce as possible. However, from now on I will visit my local farmer's market. There you can find really cool local varieties. Plus, going to the farmer's market is just plain FUN and mine has chocolate almond crossiants.

Lucky for me, although my delivered CSA is over I've still got the gleaning of the fields this weekend. I'm pretty positive I will go. It sounds like there are lots of greens to be had and those put up so well in the freezer, as well as my belly. The husband will be doing a 6-hour mountain bike race and destined to be exhausted (and ravenous) afterwards so perhaps I will be a darling and make a big pot of bacony, freshly picked Southern greens with cornbread and black-eyed peas (and maybe a roasted chicken) to greet him.

Anywho, onto this week. I'll upload a photo when I get home (the camera was in the husband's car).

The Haul:

small pumpkin, lettuce, young mustard greens, sorrel (I didn't take any), honey!, corn, potatoes

The Plan:

Big Salad: Last night I used the young mustard greens and the lettuce again in a big salad with a homemade vingariette. I love the young mustard greens raw. Tastes like a more assertive arugula.

Potato Corn Chowder: It was 50*F this morning! Soups of all sorts just sound fabulous right now. And a creamy, dreamy potato corn chowder sounds heavenly...

Pumpkin Muffins: The pumpkin is not big enough to make more pumpkin soup (which turned out fabulous, btw) so I'm thinking about making muffins for breakfast.

CSA Monday! Pumpkin Edition

CSA Monday is on Thursday this week! With just one week to go, I'm stoked about the pumpkins as shown here:

corn, pumpkin, sweet potato, eggplant, radish, and (not shown) lettuce & young mustard greens.

The Plan:

Big Salad: I mixed the lettuce & the young mustard greens and added radishes and cucumbers (from last week) and some leftover roasted chicken. Perfect, healthy workday dinner.

Pumpkin Soup: Um, it's fall. And 2 pumpkins just fell into my lap...so...um...no brainer.

As for the rest? No clue what will end up happening to it. I'm actually livin' la vida loca in New Orleans right now. Makes me wish I had a little okra to stew up some gumbo!!

CSA Monday! Watermelon Edition

I walk to pick up our CSA. Let me tell you...walking a mile with a watermelon in your sack is not fun. But thanks to the glorious fall-ish weather, I didn't break a sweat! The jerk chicken from last week was good. The jerk seasoning was also nice on the sweet potatoes. I really like to spice up my sweet potatoes. When I make sweet potato fries I usually add chili powder.

The Haul:
Watermelon, huge zucchini, cucumber, Italian basil, Thai basil, huge sweet potatoes, garlic and lettuce mix

The Plan:

Spicy Vegetable Red Sauce with Pasta: Basically, I'm just using of the squash and eggplant from last week that I shamefully didn't get around to using along with the mammoth zucchini from the week. Add in some garlic, onions, crushed red pepper and a can of tomatoes and it's good eatin'. For an army.

Ham Feast: Roasted sweet potatoes, ham and Southern-style greens spiked with cider vinegar.

Kra Pow with Bok Choy: To use the Thai basil. And hot peppers from the garden. This is the husband's lunch.

"Greek" Watermelon Salad: Maybe for this weekend's lunch? Sounds interesting.

Watermelon Rind Pickles: If I've got the time, maybe something else I'll give a whirl this weekend. I've never had them, but love all things pickled.

CSA Monday! *Honey* Edition

I'll admit it: I'm getting a bit burned out on summer vegetables. The thing I'm looking forward to most with dark, leafy greens and root vegetables. But, today's the last day of summer so it's fitting I'm still getting summery goodness plus a healthy dose of liquid gold.

Here's the haul:
sweet potatoes, honey!!!, summer squash, corn, cucumber, eggplant and lettuce.

The Plan:
I'm going to put up the squash and eggplant by grilling and then freezing them. I really can't fathom eating more squash or eggplant or tomatoes right now. Seriously.

Salad for lunch

Mark Samuelsson's Jerk Chicken: The husband is going to make this. The recipe in our cookbook calls for roasting the chicken over sweet potatoes and parsnips. Will serve this with some pikliz.

I'm also going to make a double batch of split pea soup this weekend and go apple picking (so some appley and honey-y desserts may take place).

And...um...that's it. We've been pretty lame with our meal planning lately. Sorry guys!

CSA Monday! Two Weeks Edition

Gah, last week I was unable to do a CSA post here's last week haul:

I did a poor job of using all the produce as well. All the sweet potatoes we still have. Some of the tomatoes got used for BLTs and the others, well the ones that didn't go bad, were used this week. The zuc, squash and eggplant got put to good use for my lunch, Harissa Roasted Veg & Israeli Couscous (recipe to be posted soon). And the corn was left for this week too (bad, I know)

This week, I got:


Deja vu, no? There's basil (italian & thai), 2 gimongous sweet tomatoes, corn, tomatoes, 1 zuc & 1 eggplant.

The Plan:

3 Bean Corn Chili: Black, dark kidney and light kidney beans mix and mingle with corn (off the cob), tomatoes, hot peppers, onions, celery and spices. To top baked sweet potatoes. Probably half of this batch will be frozen for later.

Chicken & Eggplant Kra Pow: Like regular kra pow, but with eggplant added. Yum.



Misc:

Mark your calendars! Raising Winter Greens *free* talk this Saturday!!!! More info

CSA Monday! No Potatoes Edition

Thank goodness! No more potatoes! Hurray!

Here's the haul:


Sorrel, bell pepper (1), corn (4), tomatoes (bunches), tomatillos (several) and garlic. I could have also gotten some basil, but seriously...I've got tons & tons of basil. AGH!

Here's the plan:

Canning tomatoes: Confession: I'm kinda getting bored of tomatoes. I know, I know, it's blasphamey. So, empowered by the recent talk on canning I'm giving it a try. Will post how it went soon.

Chicken Tortilla Soup: I'm using Ina Garten's recipe because, despite being a rather decent cook, I'm messed up this dish by just winging it more often than I'd care to admit. But I am adding some green pepper to it!

Potato and 2 Bean Salad: With my remaining 5 potatoes from prior weeks, I'm going to make a nicose-esque gone Greek salad with what I have on hand: green beans & garbanzoes. Add in some lettuce & lots of Sungold tomatoes with a bit of feta and all tossed with an oregano-spiked red wine vinegarette.

Corn on the Cob: I was going to put it in the tortilla soup, but the husband pleaded to just eat it right off the cob. So we will, perhaps with some BBQ chicken this weekend.

Tomatillo Salsa: I'm a one-trick pony when it comes to these darn tomatillos. The ones from this week will be added to those from last week (I think they are still good) and made into my salsa. And then I will freeze it all & see how that goes!

CSA Monday! Lotsa Lemon Balm Edition

This week I'm not inspired by the CSA. Perhaps its because it's basically the same thing we've had all summer? I realize this is not my CSA's fault; rather, it's a lack of creativity on my part and a general "case of the Mondays." Blah.

Mercifully, however, this is the reported last week for potatoes. We are rice-eaters and having 7 potatoes per week has been a bit of a challenge for us.

Anywho, here's the haul:


Lemon balm (huge bunch), garlic, potatoes (7), tomatoes (lots!), corn (4), tomatillos (7) and eggplant. Basil was also part of the offerings, but...seriously...we have enough basil. In our garden. In our freezer. In a pot on the side yard. We did not need anymore basil. So I left it for others to take.

Here's the plan:

• Chicken & Potato Indian Curry with Green Beans. Recipe TBA, but I think it'll involve Mark Bitman's Hot Curry recipe for the spice and my husband trimming the green beans.
• Pasta with Raw Tomato Sauce. This is the husband's recipe. Actually the first recipe he ever gave me. Unfortunately, his recipe writing is horrible and I thought it was gross. But, he was cute, so I kept him around...
  Anyways, it's about 1.5 lbs of tomatoes (chopped), a bunch of basil (torn/chopped) and 1-3 garlic cloves (depending on your preference, minced) marinated in 1/4 cup nice olive oil, salt and pepper for a few hours in the fridge. Then, boil pasta, drain and toss with raw sauce. Eat room temperature or hot (heat from hot pasta). This is the part he left out. I thought it was like a pasta salad & ate it cold &...well...the oil was kinda solidish and the pasta was just.not.very.good.at.all.
• Grilled Eggplant with Hummus, Olives, Pita, Sliced Tomatoes. This is my favorite summer supper. It's light and easy, even if you make the hummus yourself.

And, I'm going to try to dry the lemon balm for hot tea. Will report back. I think I'll also try freezing some tomatillo salsa just to see how it does.

And, finally, here my harvest from last week. I've got a few sweet peppers that should be ready to pick soon and have since picked 2 more Wonder Lights, a half-pint of Sungolds, 3 romas and several more hot peppers. But I'm too tired to take another picture.


Pictured above is basil (purple and green), lavender, thyme, rosemary, and oregano (all used in the herbaceous happy hour), several hot peppers, large handful of Sungolds and 4 Wonder Lights. The herbs alone would have probably cost about $10 at my grocery store for conventional versions (this is assuming they stocked lavender...) and these are organic! And, as of right now, I think the larger tomato plants are done for the season. They don't really have any new buds on them so I may pull them up this weekend.

CSA Monday! Big, Blue Potato Edition

We got *another* 7 blue potatoes from our CSA. Add that to the 7 we got last week and I didn't use (that's right, the Provencal Potatoes didn't happen. Honestly, I was a little weirded out by the thought of blue potatoes and orange Sungolds all in one dish. It would be like eating a UF student...I did however make roasted Provencal-style vegetables and served them with a lovely whole wheat couscous with garbanzo beans tossed in. THAT *was* fantastic).

Here's the haul this week:

ground cherries (not pictures b/c I ate them on the way home. 20), corn (2), tomatoes (9), peppers (2), basil, mint, garlic (1), squash (1 huge one) and...the previously-alluded-to 7 blue potatoes.

The Plan:
Since the husband isn't going to be around for dinner most nights this week...

• Tapas night: 1 part friends, 1 part alcohol and 1 part produce. Shake it all together and you've got a good happy hour! The food: Bruschetta (with CSA tomatoes & basil), tapenade, & herbed goat cheese (with herbs from the garden) to be spread (separately) on the carb of choice (bread/crackers), Patatas azules sin Bravas (roasted blue potatoes with aioli, no bravas sauce), something squash-related and turkey meatballs. The beverages: lemon-lavender vodka tonics, Pimm's cups, & lemon balm iced tea (for those that have to drive)

• Nachos: Call this a secret single supper. I certainly ate more random crap for dinner in my single days and when the mister is not going to be home from dinner, I indulge. I love my nachos LOADED. This week, I'm going to use the peppers (plus some hotter ones in the garden) to kick up some black beans. Cheddar, onions, tomatoes, corn off-the-cob and sour cream with also be toppings. Delicioso!

• Caffeinated mint tea: Because I can't have enough tea in the summer. Especially when I've got a long weekend of busting up our clay-y soil ahead of me.
  

CSA Monday! Tons o' Tomatoes Edition

Wowza. This week I got a ridiculous amount of tomatoes from the CSA. Add onto that the tomatoes I've gotten from my own garden this week and you've got approximately an *insane* amount of tomatoes. To be honest, I'm getting a little tired of basil at this point. I'm getting tons of it from the CSA and, thanks to giving the plants in my garden a hard harvest about one a month, my garden's basil plants are producing like crazy. I've made and put up a lot of pesto and a whole freezer bag of it chopped up & frozen into ice cubes.

I'm also getting a little burned out on tomatoes. This is a good thing as it is my goal every year to get sick of strawberries, tomatoes and peaches when their season ends here. But, man...the season has just started!

Thus, while I have enjoyed my CSA thus far and would encourage everyone to try it out, at the midway point of our growing season, I'm not sure I'll continue it next year. I mean, next year my garden will be a bit more diverse and fully planted. It'll be producing quite a bit of food if all goes marginally well and most of it will be a duplicate of the CSA offerings. I'm starting to think next year might be the year of the Weekly Farmer's Market Visit. That way I could just buy what I want to supplement my garden.

We'll see. I'm going to have to think through this more...

Anywho, here's the haul:
Eggplant (1), heirloom tomatoes (6!!!), a bunch of basil, a bunch of peppermint, tomatillos (7), blue potatoes (7), and a big honkin' cucumber.

Here's the plan:
Caffeinated peppermint iced tea: Since it's officially hot as hell in the DC area, nothing could be better than some refreshing iced tea. And mint gives it just a little kick.

Panzanella: This is an Italian bread salad. Cut up some day old bread into chunks & toast it if it's still really moist. Add in some chopped tomatoes, cucumber, basil, rosemary and olives with a bit of homemade vinaigrette and you've got something totally delicious.

BLTs: The best way to use a tomato. And, it just so happens that bacon was on sale last week so I stocked up. This my friends is what I like to call "fate." Slather on some chipotle-garlic mayo (Chop up some chipotles in adobo and a clove of garlic & mix with some of your favorite mayo. You'll thank me later.) and you've got yourself the best lunch after a morning of gardening.

Chicken, Mushroom, Spinach Enchiladas with Tomatillo Salsa: I talked about this in my salsa verde recipe although this week I'll be adding some leftover grilled chicken into the mix. Honestly, I don't know what to do with tomatillos besides salsa at this point and this is an easy, healthy dinner to throw together. It also makes great leftovers.

Potatoes Provencal: We'll see how this goes. It's a Mark Bittman recipe. I'll use the blue potatoes for it and add in some tomatoes, eggplant, thyme (from my garden) and artichoke hearts. I'll report back. Should be colorful to say the least!

Are you finding yourself with an over-abundance of tomatoes? What are YOU doing with them?!

CSA Monday! Ground Cherry Addition!

No blogging this weekend due to feeling a bit poorly. But now I'm on the mend and almost able to taste food again! (Nose is still a little stuffy)

But this week's CSA haul is *exciting.* Why? Two words, mis amigos, two words: ground cherries. As you know, I got some ground cherry seedlings from my CSA. However, I have not netted them and I fear that the birds get to them before I do.

I've got corn (4), tomatoes (3 huge ones), tomatillos (8), ground cherries! (16), garlic (1), basil, ground cherries! (16), squash (1), bell pepper (1 small), and eggplant (1).

Last week, the bean enchiladas with mole didn't happen b/c I got sick and the husband wasn't feelin' like cooking. I can report, though, that the rest of it was delicious! This week the plan is:

Grilled Steak Tacos: Marinated then grilled london broil topped with tomatillo salsa and onions, rolled up in a corn tortilla and served with corn-tomato-black bean salad. Ole!

Ratatouille: Eggplant, squash, bell pepper, tomatoes and herbs (thyme & parsley from the garden, basil from CSA) all cooked up together into one fantastic summer stew.

Snackin': Ground cherries! Just pop out of their skins & eat! It's my dessert tonight actually. They kind of taste like persimmons to me. So delicious. Makes me want to go out & net mine. Except I'm kinda feeling lazy right now.

I should be back tomorrow hopefully after finding out what is ailing two of my tomato plants. Fingers crossed it doesn't start with "late" and end with "blight"...

CSA Monday! Big Basil Edition

This week I got 2 ginormous handfuls of basil: one thai basil & one italian basil. Honestly, between the CSA & my garden I'm running out of ideas of what to do with it! I've already made 2 batches of pesto and froze 12 1/4 c disks of it chopped. But, I'm not sick of it yet!

Honestly, we're getting more produce then we can handle now. It's a bit tricky to use it up every week. Our CSA started out a bit scant because of the uber rainy spring. But now? Whoa!

Here's this week's haul:

Corn (4), italian basil, squash, thai basil, fresh garlic (1), purslane, tomatoes (2 huge ones!) and potatoes (7).

This week the plan is:

Pizza Margherita- Homemade pizza crust, tomatoes, mozzarella and italian basil.

Thai Chicken Stir-fry- My husband is using the thai basil to make an improvised kra pow chicken.

Vegetable Stew- Imagine the filling of a pot pie without the crust. Truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of crusts. I've taken some of the potatoes leftover from last week and added some leftover carrots, leftover cooked broccoli, handful of frozen peas, mushrooms and onions. Just make a roux and add chicken stock and thyme from the garden. It's pretty delicious. And mostly healthy. Throwing together bits & bobs into a meal is what I'm famous for!

Corn and Black Bean Enchiladas with Mole- We love mole. We vacationed in Oaxaca, Mexico to taste it from where it started. I found some great jarred stuff for the mole poblano. It's not as good as homemade, but it's not bad. We're going to roll some tortillas around corn & black beans and onions, pour on mole and top with cheese. Maybe if we have a little chicken leftover somewhere I will put that in too. I'm going to add the purslane to some lettuce for a salad to serve along the enchiladas.

CSA Monday! No Cabbage Edition

After 3 weeks (?) of getting a cabbage the size of my head, my husband was surprisingly disappointed in not getting a cabbage this week. He very much was looking forward to making Pilkliz.

Here's the haul:
1 medium broccoli, 1 massive zucchini, 7 potatoes the size of my fist, 1 cucumber, 1 fresh garlic, 1 globe (?) eggplant, and as much basil & oregano as I can eat.

Compared perhaps to last week, this week's meal plan is kinda lame but sometimes you just feel like making the obvious with the ingredients & just keeping everything simple!:

Baked Falafel Sandwiches: Frozen chickpeas (I make a large batch of dried & freeze) formed into patties will be drizzled with a cucumber taziki sauce and topped with lettuce (from grocery) and tomatoes (from garden). Maybe I'll heat up some frozen corn too. I love fafalel's with corn a la the one I had in the Hague. All stuffed into a whole wheat pita. Yum.

Baked Potatoes & Cheesy Broccoli: When I was little I would only eat broccoli if it was smothered in cheese. Times have changed (I like broccoli all sorts of ways now), but I still love it most with cheddar. Throw it on top of a baked potato & you've got a fast & fabulous dinner or weekend lunch.

Jerk Chicken with Pikliz and Grilled Eggplant & Zuc. I bought a small cabbage at the grocery store to make my husband's dream of Pikliz a reality. We'll use (blasphemously) some cayenne peppers from the garden in it instead of scotch bonnet. Since the grill will already be fired up for the chicken, might as well throw on the nightshade veg. It's my favorite way to have them anyways.

Marinara. My husband has honed his signature recipe. It involves canned tomatoes, caramelized onions, plenty of garlic and fresh basil & oregano.

If I was going to be interesting with my meals this week, I think I would have done some sort of potato-zucchini gratin and maybe some kind of indian curry with the eggplant and make a condiment out of the cucumber. But grilled veg just sounds so good.

CSA Monday! Big Squash Edition

CSA season is in full swing here in the DC area. Spring greens are giving way to summer vegetables which is tres exciting. But then the problem is: What do I do with a mess of vegetables every week?

This is a problem I've heard my fellow CSAers lament as we stand in line to pick up our shares. So, I've thought that I would share what I do with my produce.

[geek moment]

To me, meal planning is like a logic puzzle. In short, I try to solve this equation every week:

meals = max(CSA share veg) + min(new groceries) + pantry/freezer items

In words: how can I use up all my share with buying as few additional things as possible? This is my challenge every week. And I totally get excited at considering all the possible combinations. Almost too excited.

[/geek moment]

This week I got 1 good-sized head of cabbage, 1 large patty-pan squash, 1 large zucchini, 7 potatoes about the size of a fist, 1 fresh garlic, 1 small head of broccoli and 1 bunch of basil. This week's plan?

Very Veggie Pasta Salad: the squashes, a clove of garlic, broccoli, & basil + half a pound of pasta, sun dried tomatoes, sun gold tomatoes from the garden, balsamic vinaigrette (balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, oil, dried basil, dried oregano, olive oil, & honey).


Nana's Cabbage Rolls Unrolled (aka Katy's Cabbage Roll Casserole): the cabbage & garlic + onions, rice, ground beef, paprika, raisins, canned tomatoes and (believe it or not) can of condensed tomato soup. The recipe sounds bizarre but for me it's comfort food...and very retro 1950s!

Quick pickles: cucumbers & garlic + dill, vinegar & some other spices I have around. This will be used as a side with burgers for this weekend.

Oven garlic fries: potatoes & garlic + olive oil. To also go with the burgers this weekend.


If you were given this particular mess of vegetables, what would you do?