snippets

::little bits and pieces::

our little Bubo is growing up!  she’s adapted so well to life here in this busy house and now barely flinches when the boys act crazy near her cage.  she even dozed on my lap the other day during quiet time when I was reading in the time out chair.

we love her.  she loves apples.  no really, she will cut a bitch for some apples.  I saw her do it.

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I have not written much about it, but we’ve been enjoying the CSA this year, and have also grown a few tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and herbs of our own.  Something has been off about the tomatoes this year, and a wily raccoon has been eating tomatoes right off the plant, leaving really rude teases about the tomato we might have enjoyed, but the dry-farmed tomatoes from the CSA have been awesome for soups.  THIS is our family favorite, and I make it exactly like the recipe, if you can believe it.  I keep meaning to freeze a batch, but we keep gobbling it down because it is that good.

While I will never be into as savory a breakfast as my husband who has ordered fish and eggs for breakfast (woof), I do like this simple way to get a leg up on the daily vegetable intake.  I quickly sauteed some leeks and bok choy then topped with a very runny egg—it’s best if you let the yolk coat the greens.  As much bok choy as we’re getting, it’s good to have it in something other than a stir fry!  (We have shrimp or chicken stir fried with tons of veggies every week, too.)

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A rare sighting of brother-sister quiet play, post homework.

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You know what is hard?  Taking a photo of someone toasting marshmallows, is what. 

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Yesterday afternoon was the afternoon of our discontent, at least if you ask the boys.  Big sister was playing at a buddy’s house, and it was funky weather outside, so they seemed inclined to amuse themselves mainly by punching each other.

So I took them and fed them to a hungry hippopotamus after making them play for a couple of hours at an indoor play place. 

Co-op Cookin’: Emerald City Salad

I don’t buy many cookbooks nowadays, because I have plenty and have been procrastinating purging quite a few that are good, but which I simply never, ever use.  However, I’d heard so many good things about Feeding the Whole Family that I picked it up a few months ago.  As a person who’s trying to incorporate the amazing variety of produce provided by my CSA into our daily life, I liked that this book has so many recipes and ideas for veggies one might not find at the big chain groceries.

Last weekend I adapted her wild rice salad using what I had on hand, adding a bit of summer squash and broccoli, using more cabbage than called for, and skipping the kale/chard/collards because I was making massaged kale salad as another side.  What’s cool about these kinds of recipes is you can totally do that and still love the results, as long as you stick to the concept and substitute similar textures or flavors.

Anyway, I liked it a lot, and have been nibbling on the leftovers all week, because it also keeps very well.  This morning I added a couple of spoonfuls to my eggs.

Awesomely, the recipe is HERE.  I really do recommend the whole book.

Co-op Cookin’: Beet Risotto with Goat Cheese

We’re back in the thick of our CSA’s summer share season, and, having been blessed with a really good amount of rain—rain that won’t stop coming because apparently we’re getting Seattle’s weather for a while—it looks like it’ll be a great season.  In recent weeks, we’ve been receiving everything from fava beans and sugar snap peas to beets and cabbage, as well as lots of delicious lettuces, strawberries, cauliflower, and broccoli, plus more types of greens than anyone would want to see written out… I even finally tried roasting fennel, and the dreaded licorice flavor is really tamed down that way, making it nice along with roast chicken.

A few days ago I spied a recipe I just had to try out that very night.  Normally risotto is not a dish I’d make because it’s so time-consuming with all that stirring, but this one takes only a few more minutes than making plain white rice.

I liked this so much, it was all I ate for dinner that night.  Find the recipe HERE.  Yum.

Co-op Cookin’: Yummy Borscht (No, really!)

I have read many times, and told my kids many, many times, that for some tastes, a person needs to eat something as many as two dozen times to integrate a complex flavor into one’s palate and truly enjoy it. Finding the correct preparation also matters—a LOT.

Take beets, for example. I never liked the things. In fact, I disliked them… then I listened to a friend and roasted some in olive oil with salt and pepper, and it was like the world of beets was opened to me. I don’t like pickled beets. I don’t like boiled beets. I like roasted beets. I like them, Sam I Am! ;)

Somehow I went from being kinda bummed out when seeing beets in our CSA share to feeling a little excited. No one else in my family really likes them, even roasted, but the share always has just a few. I can eat a few over a couple of days, no problem.

This past weekend I made borscht from scratch, and put it out with Sunday dinner. I will not lie: there were some raised eyebrows. Try it with sour cream, I said. It’s best that way. Again, this was met with visible skepticism. I didn’t even bother to serve some to the kids, figuring it was not worth the wasted soup (more for me, I thought!).

Wow, this is really good! My husband said this, then my father in law echoed it. Bunny, interested, asked to try a spoonful, then asked for her own cup. The boys were oblivious, which is fine. :) I’ve been enjoying the leftovers with lunch the past few days. It’s really a good soup, and you can’t deny it’s very healthy. If you think you hate beets, maybe you should try them a new way, is all I’m sayin’.

Borscht (adapted from Down to Earth, by Georgeanne Brennan)

4 medium to large red beets with leaves attached, 1.5-2 lbs in all
1 cup chopped beet leaves
4 c beef or vegetable broth
1 white or yellow onion, finely minced
1 carrot, peeled and minced
2 large celery stalks,minced
2 T tomato paste
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 c sour cream
chopped fresh dill (I used dried and it was fine—just use less)

Preparation

Cut off all but 1” of the beet tops. Reserve the youngest, most tender leaves for the soup (chop to measure 1 cup and set aside). Heat oven to 350. Place beets in oven proof dish along with some olive oil and a little salt and pepper, then roast for 1 hour to 75 minutes until tender when pierced with the tip of a knife.

While the beets are cooling a little, place broth and next 6 ingredients (through pepper) into a heavy bottomed soup pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat, partially cover, and allow to simmer until vegetables are tender and broth has taken on some of their flavor, about 30 minutes.

When the beets are cool enough to handle, slip off their skins with your fingers or a paring knife. Then either julienne, slice, or roughly chop the beets. (I chose julienned.) Add these to the broth and simmer for another 10 minutes.

Serve topped with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of dill. Since I used dried dill, I added it into the soup as it finished cooking.

Co-op Cookin’: Green Bean Salad with Mustard Crema

leftover green bean salad with heirloom carrots and tomato-basil sandwich

Growing up we generally had green beans from cans.  Man, they were awful!  I can still feel the weird coating on my teeth and hear the ghastly squeak in my ears as I forced them down… I know canning is a great way to preserve food, but NOT green beans.  Frozen is pretty good, but fresh is really my favorite for this vegetable—and we received a nice big bag each week in our share in August, so I got to try out a few ways beyond amadine (our favorite).

The August issue of Cooking Light had THIS recipe tucked away with farmer’s market recipes.  It’s great as a side on a warm evening or with grilled food, and works well passed around family style.  My husband enjoyed it so much he requested I make it again this weekend.  It’s a keeper of a recipe.

Notes: I’m not a big fan of buying ingredients I won’t use otherwise, so I substituted yogurt that I allowed to thicken by putting in a coffee filter over a mesh strainer for the crème fraîche.  The leftovers in the above photo have a lot of dressing on them, I think because it settled during the intial serving?  At any rate, it was still good.  :)

Co-op Cookin’": Melon Fruit Bowl

A couple of weeks ago we received a ridiculously, adorably small cantaloupe in our CSA share, along with strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries.  Not much larger than a softball, I could smell how fragrantly perfect its flesh was.  Normally, I’d cut a cantaloupe into slices or cubes and let the kids eat it at will, but this was a special melon.  I have a thing for petite produce—you can ask my husband, who lived through the baby squashes I insisted on buying every time I saw them in the late 90s.  I don’t know why it’s so, but if I like the full-sized version, I ♥ the baby one (which is why I have three kids).

So, anyway, our infant cantaloupe was saved for a special breakfast.  With flesh so buttery soft a spoon cut like a knife, all that was needed for a perfect summer breakfast was some vanilla yogurt, berries, and some granola.  It’s easy, and I wish I could make it 3 times a week… if only I had a baby melon vine all my own!  (I think making a recipe for this would be ridiculous!)

Co-op Cookin’: Chunky Gazpacho with Sauteed Shrimp

We all but have tomatoes coming out our ears right now with what’s coming in our share and from our four plants. It’s funny how every year we eagerly watch the tiny starter plant work its way up through the cage, form little flowers, then miniscule baby tomatoes, checking daily to admire their progress, and we feel like they’ll never quite be ripe.

Finally we can’t stand it anymore and we pick one that really needs an extra day or two—the wait has been too much and we need to try one whether it’s really time or not.

Then, all of a sudden they’re coming at you like monsters from a movie, but instead of crying, “Feed me!” they beg, “Eat me!”

While I will be peeling and seeding, then squishing plenty into zipper bags for winter eating, we’re also enjoying about 2000% of our RDA of tomatoes at every meal except breakfast. The August 2010 issue of Cooking Light has a great gazpacho recipe that I’ve made twice so far and plan to make weekly for the next month or so. As with nearly every recipe I try, I just adapt it to what I have and don’t worry about the specific varieties and colors of tomatoes, and I love that it has no bread, so my carb hatah husband has no objections.

Actually, he quite likes it! It tastes great the day you make it, but even better a day or two later. Find the recipe HERE. Make the shrimp to have a quick dinner, or simply make the soup any old time.

Co-op Cookin’: Salmon with Strawberry-Melon Salsa

If apples and oranges are winter fruits, then melons and berries are most definitely summer fruit, baby. :) We’ve been spoiled rotten with abundance this blessedly temperate year and are going to sorely miss all the amazing local fruit in a few months when it’s only remembered plenty.

In the meantime, nearly every meal has included a rainbow, just as the FDA suggests-yay! I love fruit salsas with meat, especially since cilantro has also been coming in regularly… and now even some spicy peppers. This week we even got some softball sized cantaloupe more flavorful than any I’d had before, and ripe enough to eat with a spoon.

Salmon with Strawberry-Melon Salsa

1 C. diced cantaloupe (or whatever melon you prefer)
1/2 C. Sliced Strawberries
1/4 C Red Onion, finely diced
1/2 Jalapeno, finely diced
Juice of 1/2 a Lime
1 tsp Olive Oil
1/3 C chopped Cilantro
Salt & Pepper to Taste
2 Salmon Filet

Prep: Combine melon through cilantro in a medium bowl, gently toss to combine with salt and pepper. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat, and spray with nonstick spray. Place salmon, skin side up, and cook 3-5 mins, or until fish is crispy and caramelized, then turn and cook on other side an additional 3-5 mins, or until desired doneness. Serve topped with salsa.

I served this meal with Summer Squash Croquettes, from Cooking Light. For us, 2 salmon filet is enough for my, my husband, and our daughter, but you may need to make more (the boys refuse to eat the fish).

Co-op Cookin’: Heidi’s Guacamole

The past couple-few weeks we have been blessed with avocados in our share. I buy a couple of Haas every week, so it’s nice to not have that extra thing to buy for a month or so while local green skinned avocados are ripe.

My kids love guacamole, and while there are many ways to make guac, the one universally loved by kids and adults alike is my friend Heidi’s recipe. It’s simple, quick enough to make as an afternoon snack, easy to make with one or 10 avocados, and, did I mention DELICIOUS??

I’ve been making batches nearly every day, and there are never leftovers. Never.

Since Heidi has disabled the search function on her blog, and since I can’t recall when she posted her recipe (thus solving a years-old problem for me trying to duplicate her perfect guac), I am going to post again, but visit her blog for lots of other good stuff. I hope I remember it correctly and am not leaving out a key ingredient. :)

Heidi’s Guacamole

1 avocado, mashed
1 small tomato, gooey seedy middle discarded, diced
juice of 1/2 a lime
pinch of garlic salt
salt to taste

Prep: Mash avocado in bowl. Combine with other ingredients.

Voila. We really like this with Trader Joe’s corn chips (like Fritos, but organic, so obviously completely healthy, haha)… or you can eat it Cole’s preferred way—with a spoon.

Co-op Cookin’: Cilantro Shrimp with Tomatoes & Peppers

Our shares from my CSA are getting HEAVY, man.  I felt like I was lugging a huge bag of flour to the car last week, as it is full-on bounty time here.  4 baskets of strawberries, 2 baskets of my favorite raspberries on earth (we become sooo excited about these!), tomatoes, peppers, squash… bounty.

Much to my children’s dismay, I am determined to reincorporate seafood in our diet a couple of times a week.  I spent a while flipping through the most recent issue of Cooking Light, which has been hitting it out of the park in the past few months, and found Cilantro Shrimp.  Cilantro has been a regular in the share, and I liked the idea of veering into Eastern recipes, as I was tiring of Latin American uses for that herb.  To up the veggie content, I modified the recipe to add chopped bell and some mildly spicy pepper in with the onions and garlic, and added diced tomatoes in the final minute before adding the cilantro.

Paul and I loved it.  For him I served it with salad of CSA radicchio and lettuce, and for me, I had salad separately, and put mine in a bowl over rice noodles.  It was also good the next day for lunch, heated gently.  It’s very summery, but the kids would not touch it.  Oh well.  More for us, haha!  :)

Co-op Cookin’: Kohlrabi “Kohl” Slaw

Kohlrabi is a weird bit of earth’s wonder.  I had no idea how I would use it when I first spied the Sputnik shaped globes in my share.  Whenever I don’t know much about a veggie in the box that week, I spend a little time Googling around the intertubes for ideas, but could not find anything that quite struck my fancy this time.

I like cold sides in the summer, so I decided to see what would happen if I subbed shredded kohlrabi for cabbage—and it worked nicely!  Since kohlrabi smells a little peppery, it seemed to need sweetness for balance.  Being much the same texture and as moist as an apple, I figured that would fit the need, then I threw in a few radishes for color and, um… ‘cause I have a lot of radishes.  :)  The dressing is my basic recipe I use frequently—a ‘go-to’ quickie.

My husband and I loved it, and my eldest tolerated it.  She likes ‘normal’ slaw more.  I’ve made this twice, once with a fuji apple I had on hand, and another time with a tart granny smith.  I think, were I buying an apple specifically for the slaw, I’d go with tart, but I’m a use what I have kinda chick who says either is a-okay.

Kohlrabi Slaw

3-4 average sized kohlrabi, peeled and halved
3-4 medium carrots, peeled
1 apple, cored and quartered, peeled if desired
2-4 radishes, optional
1/2 c mayonnaise
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 packet splenda, or 2 tsp sugar
3 dashes hot sauce (I like Tapatio)
pinch celery seed
1 tsp milk, if needed, to thin
Salt and Pepper to taste

Prep: Ideally, use the grater of a food processor to julienne the kohlrabi, carrots, apple, and radishes, or get a nice workout with a hand grater—either way, grate it all, and place in a large bowl.  Mix remaining ingredients in a smaller bowl, then add to vegetable mixture and combine well.  Can be made ahead and chilled until time to serve.

Co-op Cookin’: Broccoli Slaw

I love cold food on warm and hot days!  Keeps me from sweating bullets in a hot kitchen, for one thing, and who really wants a piping hot meal when it’s in the 90s or 100s outside?  This slaw comes together quickly and grating vegetables is a good ‘helper' job’ for my 8 year old.

Broccoli Slaw

2 or 3 broccoli Stems, Grated Coarsely 
2 Cups Broccoli Florets, Chopped
1 Carrot, Grated
1/2 C Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tsp Sugar or 1 Packet Splenda
2-3 dashes hot sauce (I use Tapatio)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Prep: In large bowl, combine Mayo, Vinegar, Sugar, Hot Sauce, Salt, and Pepper.  Mix in grated vegetables, coating well.  You can serve this right away, but it’s better if allowed to sit in the fridge, covered, for a few hours.

Co-op Cookin’: Broccoli Soup

Oh, I love this soup! Since I’m suffering no shortage of fresh broccoli from my CSA share, it’s a staple for lunch, sometimes all alone, sometimes with a sammich. :) I based my recipe on THIS one from Soule Mama, but as she did with her own recipe, I have changed and altered “my” way enough in the past year or so that I feel okay sharing here. It’s a very basic, forgiving recipe. You can cream it after pureeing, but it’s equally delicious without the cream. I tend to leave out the cream, and add a splash of half and half to a bowl after reheating a serving so that I don’t need to be careful of curdling. Fresh broccoli is great, but frozen works very well, too. I like chicken broth, but vegetable broth would be a nice vegan alternative… I imagine soy milk would also work well in place of the dairy. I’ve also put grated cheese on top for a nice change of pace.

You can see where I am going here! You almost can NOT mess up this soup – UNLESS you add too much broth or water to it. It’s best when it’s thick. Believe me on this. I made it watery once and it was no bueno. Other than that: foolproof!

Broccoli Soup

2 lbs Broccoli Florets
1 Qt Chicken Broth
1-2 Leeks, depending on size, chopped
2 large potatoes, skinned and chopped
1/4 Tsp Red Pepper Flakes (optional)
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/8 Tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/3 C Half and Half or Cream

Prep: Place all ingredients except Half & Half or Cream in large pot. If necessary add a little water to JUST BARELY cover ingredients, and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and cook 45 mins or until potatoes mash easily with spoon. Remove from heat and blend/puree using whatever you have (I like my immersion blender). If using cream, you can stir in now, or add to each bowl when serving (it helps to delay adding the dairy if you’ll be reheating a serving at a time over the next few days just to reduce the ‘fuss quotient’).

Co-op Cookin’: Tatsoi Salad with Sesame-Ginger Dressing

Another new-to-us green in the CSA share during recent weeks!  Tatsoi looks an awful like spinach with paler stems and is related to bok choi.  A quick bite revealed a tangy taste, not as peppery as a radish or as bitter as chard.  Bok choi is definitely more mellow, but very similar.  This is a great salad to prepare early in the day and allow to ‘chill out’ in the refrigerator until dinner is ready.

Tatsoi Salad with Sesame-Ginger Dressing

12 oz tatsoi leaves and stems, washed and ripped into bite sized pieces 
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Rice Vinegar (I used Dark Sushi Vinegar)
1 Tsp Grated Fresh Ginger Root
1 Tsp sugar (or 1/2 packet Splenda)
Dash or Three of Hot Sauce (Sriracha Ideally, but I had and used Tapatio, haha!)
1/4 c chopped Peanuts, if desired, for garnish

Prep: Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch tatsoi for ONLY 1 minute (Time It!), then drain and immerse in ice water.  Drain and dry or give ‘em a spin in the Salad Spinner.

In medium bowl, combine soy sauce through hot sauce, then stir in tatsoi.  Cover and chill for at least an hour, or up to 8 hours.  Before serving, toss to distribute dressing evenly.  Garnish with peanuts to serve.

Note: Toasted Sesame Seeds would also be a rockin’ garnish… I just didn’t have any, and I am all about using what I have on hand, which explains why I never follow recipes very closely.  :)

Co-op Cookin’: Grilled Chicken Salad with Fresh Strawberry Balsamic Dressing

The lettuces and strawberries are coming in huge quantities now – 2-3 heads of various lettuce and a whopping 6 baskets of strawberries a week for those of us on the fruit bounty option. I love a dinner salad on a warm evening, and this one worked out very well.

Grilled Chicken Salad with Fresh Strawberry Balsamic Dressing

1 head lettuce, washed and ripped into bite sized pieces
2 radishes, sliced
1/2 lb sugar snap peas, stemmed
1/2 c sliced green onion
juice of 1 lemon (about 2 T)
1 T olive oil
2-3 chicken breasts depending on size, pounded to 1” thick if they’re whoppers
lemon pepper seasoning
1 c strawberries, rinsed, hulled and chopped
1 T balsamic vinegar
1/2 t freshly ground pepper
1/2 t sugar (or one packet Splenda)
1/4 t salt
2 T canola oil
1/4 c sliced almonds (toasted if desired), for garnish

Prep: Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch sugar snap peas for 2 minutes, then drain and immerse peas in ice water. Combine lettuce, radish, onion, and cooled peas in large bowl. Toss with lemon juice and olive oil.

Bring a grill or grill pan to medium high heat. Sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning on both sides of chicken breasts and grill until cooked through, about 6-8 mins per side. Allow to rest for 5 mins, then slice crosswise. Meanwhile, combine strawberries, vinegar, sugar/Splenda, salt, and oil in processor or blender and puree until smooth.

To serve, divide lettuce mixture among plates, top with chicken, then dressing, and almonds.

Co-op Cookin’: Chard Rolls

Chard, chard, chard.  CHARD!  I have lotsa chard.  I need to figure out lotsa ways to make chard.  This is one I made up last week, based on cabbage rolls.  We adults liked it a lot – possibly more than with cabbage – and my 8 year old didn’t complain, which, some days, is a victory. :)

Chard Rolls with Homemade Tomato Sauce

2 28 oz cans whole tomatoes
1/2 stick butter
1 small onion, peeled and cut in half
8 large Swiss chard leaves, stem removed
1 green garlic, sliced thinly (could also use green onion, regular garlic, etc)
1 Leek, quartered and sliced thinly
1 lb ground beef
1/2 c oatmeal or breadcrumbs, whichever you have or prefer
1 egg, beaten lightly 
salt and pepper to taste
1.5 c chicken broth
cooked rice
sour cream (optional)

Prep:
Sauce: Combine canned tomatoes, butter, and onion in a large sauce pan.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and bring to a simmer.  Cook 45 minutes.  Remove onion and blend sauce to desired consistency.
Rolls: Combine garlic, leeks, beef, oatmeal and eggs in bowl and mix until just combined.  Divide into 8 oblong 3” portions.  Overlap the two sides of a chard leaf where the stem was removed and place a portion of beef there, then roll inside leaf as you would a burrito.  Place roll, seam side down in skillet with lid.  Repeat with remaining leaves and beef portions.   Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer.  Cook until instant read thermometer reads about 165, about 10 minutes.  Discard any remaining broth.

Serve over rice topped with tomato sauce and sour cream.

Co-op Cookin’: Garlicky Lentils

It’s funny how we sometimes decide we don’t like a food simply on principle.  Until a couple of years ago, I’d never had lentils, and never felt the need to try them, despite knowing how iron and fiber rich they are.  They seemed mysterious and suspect—like something I was either not old or exotic enough to appreciate.

Then I actually had them, and slapped my own forehead.  We loved the smoky simplicity and were cured of our lentil prejudice for good.

Here’s one favorite recipe, modified for co-op produce on hand.  Diced onion can be substitued for leek and garlic cloves stand in perfectly for the green garlic.  I buy precooked lentils from Trader Joe’s (I believe it’s the Melissa’s brand repackaged for TJ’s)—of course cooking from dried is fine, too!

Garlicky Lentils

1/4 c Olive Oil
1 green garlic, sliced thinly (could also use green onion, regular garlic, etc)
1 Leek, quartered and sliced thinly
1 pkg Prepared Lentils (or 3 c cooked at home)
1/4 c Chicken Broth
1/3 c chopped fresh parsley

Prep: In small bowl, combine oil and garlic; set aside.  In medium pot over medium heat, saute leek for 1 min, then add lentils and chicken broth.  Cover and simmer for 3-5 min, then turn off heat.  Stir in oil/garlic mixture and parsley, then serve.

 
Braised bratwurst, garlicky lentils, escarole salad with strawberries

Co-op Cookin’: Fresh Fava Beans with Green Garlic

Cooking for one’s family, day in, day out can be a challenge on so many levels. Back in the DINK days, it was easy-easy. First off, I am lucky that my husband is very adventurous about new foods and recipes—his only ‘rule’ pertains to fish: fresh only, no frozen. I made almost exclusively ‘new’ recipes and would joke that if Paul liked what I was making for dinner, he had better “enjoy the hell out of it because I might never make it again.” I wasn’t really kidding, though. There are a couple of dishes he remembers dimly (and probably as more delicious in his memory than in reality) and tries to describe to me to see if I’ll make them again. I never remember, though.

See, here’s the thing: I like making new foods far more than I really enjoy anything else about the whole eating process. I enjoy sitting down to supper most days, but sometimes I am so over what’s for dinner by the time I have looked at and and smelled it for an hour that I’d be happier with a ham sandwich. For me it is the cooking, not the eating.

Add in kids, and aaaallllll those snacks and meals, and I practically live in the dang kitchen. Thing is, they are not so much on the adventurous eating band wagon. Bunny and Cole will eat a variety of foods, and Carter is moving along slowly, but they’re not going to get excited about paella anytime soon. New veggies? No thanks. No, really—no thank YOU.

Getting back into the co-op groove means new foods. I love it and am determined to get a new taste or flavor inside little tummies a few times a week if I can. It’s different being handed a mixed bag of fresh produce. Here you go – make something of THIS.

Sometimes it’s intimidating! Before I ever joined the CSA, I’d only heard of fava beans, really. I’m sure they were in the produce section somewhere, but I sure wasn’t seeing them.

Anyway, I’m going to document some new recipes along the way. Here’s the first. :)

This week was the first week fava beans were large enough to warrant shelling. Young favas can be cut into bite sized pieces and eaten pod and all, but after a few weeks it’s time to get a’shelling. My kids seem to love helping with shelling, pushing the button on the salad spinner, etc., so it’s pretty quick work.

Fresh Fava Beans with Green Garlic

fava beans, shelled
1 green garlic, sliced thinly (could also use green onion, regular garlic, etc)
unsalted butter
salt to taste

Prep: Steam beans for 5 mins, then, if desired, remove the beans from their silvery-grey ‘coats.’ Quickly saute garlic in butter, then add beans.

This is so simple, but it was great. Plus, if you go by the mantra that one eats with their eyes first, this is some eye candy!

Salmon with favas and fauxtatoes (whipped cauliflower).

Menu Monday – Produce, Produce, Produce

Monday already? I guess it is time to plan what we’ll eat, then. :) I have a bounty of produce to plow through, having been camping with Bunny from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning, and then choosing to make a simple chili for dinner last night.

Here is what we got last week in the CSA share.

So much remains, and Thursday evening pick-up looms… Yowzer! We’ve eaten all but the two largest artichokes, which I’ll steam for dinner tonight. I’ll make broccoli soup with the broccoli and one leek. I’m itching to get up and roast those beets right away. There are a couple of new-to-us greens, one of which is tatsoi. I found a recipe for Chilled Wilted Tatsoi Salad Recipe with Sesame-Ginger Dressing that I’m also going to make today…

Must keep brain storming! Bear with me as I think aloud. :)

Monday: Salmon, artichokes, tatsoi salad, roasted beets
Tuesday: Sausages, braised collard rapini, green salad (oak leaf lettuce, radishes)
Wednesday: Zucchini ‘ribbon’ “Lasagna” (strips of lasagna in place of noodles)
Thursday: Roasted chicken with mizuna & roast pear salad
Friday: Crust-less Pizza Quiche, braised chard
Saturday: Beef & Veggie Soup
Sunday: Grilled Eggplant & Capicole Parmigiana, salad (based on linked recipe)

Menu Plannin’ Monday: Under the Wire

With all these veggies hanging out ‘round these here parts, I have to get my act together making sure to include them all in the meals—no point in getting fresh, organic CSA veggies if we don’t eat ‘em! :) So far we’ve done pretty well with last week’s haul: artichokes were steamed and eaten both fresh and with the hearts scrambled into eggs on Saturday morning, green garlic has been standing in for regular garlic whenever possible, we had undone cabbage roll skillet, the beets & greens were pretty tasty, rutabaga was roasted and mashed into cauliflower (honestly, we didn’t like it much), and braised collard rapini played nicely with the Easter ham.

Can you believe we still have a good bit more to eat before Thursday’s pick up? The cool thing about how fresh these veggies are is they KEEP. Unlike the produce at a major grocer, this stuff was picked only 1-3 days before I had it in my grubby hands, so sometimes it’s fine to let it linger in the fridge for a couple of weeks (Russian Kale, I might be talkin’ to you).

Here’s my menu plan so far, with recipes linked where possible.

Monday: Mixed Greens & Sprouts w/ Oranges & Balsamic Chicken (this will help with the sprouts and radishes)
Tuesday: Vegetable Beef Soup in Crock
Wednesday: Ham & Leek Crust-less Quiche w Braised Yellow Chard
Thursday: Roasted 8-Piece Chicken w/Onions and veggie TBD
Friday - Sunday: TBD

While the pickup is not until Thursday evening, the weekly newsletter from our CSA is emailed on Tuesday, so I will be able to plan more fully tomorrow morning before grocery shopping. I’m thinking of making a gumbo and working in a salmon dinner somewhere… we shall see.