Especially when Able-Bodied Boy is out of town that week....
So the 10 heads of Pak Choi was really about 8 small heads of Pak Choi and another 6-8 small heads of Bok Choi. We got two turnips, but no additional bunch of "Asian Green".
So....
I turned the bunches of kale from last week and this week into a yummy veggie lasagna. Sort of a combination of my BLE and the Canadienne's squash/kale idea. The red sauce was sauteed onions & red peppers, then canned tomatoes, chopped mushrooms, roasted squash (diced, oiled, and oven-roasted at 400 for about 90min), tomato paste and spices. The noodles were smeared with a few tablespoons of part-skim ricotta each (with curly-edge noodles, I can't do the spatula smear over an entire layer, so I go noodle by noodle :)). The kale was pan roasted. Completely dry chopped kale tossed with oil in a very hot pan. It wilts slightly, but gets that roasty, almost-burnt wonderful kale smell. Then I added a few tablespoons of water to help it wilt. I did that in a couple of batches. Layer it all together and top with some mozzarella!
After it chilled in the fridge, I removed a third of it (perfect for a bread pan and feeds two!) and the other two thirds will be separated and frozen for future meals. Damn tasty if I say so myself! Next time, I might try adding shredded carrot and zucchini, too.
The Pak Choi and Bok Choi got stir-fried with some chicken, ginger, garlic, cornstarch, and soy sauce. That yielded about 5 servings (1 for Batman to taste-test for me, and the rest to be divided in two packs for freezing). To serve, cook and fry (with a little oil and soy sauce) either brown rice or rice noodles, add 2 beaten eggs until cooked/scrambled, then add the thawed stir-fry mix until all is heated through. Should make for some simple meals!
I'm starting to learn that greens aren't so scary.
But the three heads of lettuce, and the bags of mizuna and arugula are starting to eyeball me for some attention. Salads, here we come!
We were on a cruise a couple of weeks ago. You know... unlimited food at all hours? Well, we did not too too bad with the eating, and we managed to make 95% of our cruise only using the stairs (we were on deck 11, the buffets and sundecks were 12+, and most of the food and bars and fun stuff were on decks 5/6). I also jogged three mornings (got up to 2 miles, and forgot how much I loved jogging!!), spent 3 hours kayaking, an hour in a pilates class, an hour doing guided yoga on the beach (my lord was that intense and sweaty and BEAUTIFUL) and an hour snorkeling. So I probably only gained 5 lbs instead of the 15 you usually hear about.
One really special evening on the ship, we got a private seating at the Chef's Table, with 7 others, enjoying 9 courses of dishes specially prepared by the executive chef and his staff, as well as a selection of fabulous wines. This meal is only offered once per cruise for an extra fee, and we were shocked it wasn't booked solid (up to 12 can attend). We met some really awesome people and it was one of our favorite parts of the trip. The lighting was dim and I loathe flash photos (aka these will be crappy photos), but here's a sampling of what we enjoyed...
Anyway, we got home Sunday morning and I immediately sent Able Bodied Boy out for a massive amount of veggies. I was tired of fish, tired of meat, and tired of not cooking my own food! Some of what I made (sans photos) in the last week...
Eggplant Curry (a nice infusion of spices in a coconut milk sauce, with fried eggplant cooked until not quite mushy) served with brown rice. Not the healthiest thing I made, but I was really craving indian food :)
Cauliflower Stew (a crock pot all day filled with: peppers, onions, tomatoes, cauliflower, Worcestershire sauce, and 33rd & Galena spice blend; i was going for the veggie version of sausage and peppers... we added pepper and red pepper flakes and it turned out well!) served with egg noodles
Paneer Saag. OH MY GOD. Let me 'splain.
I made Paneer. Indian Cheese. Honest to goodness fresh cheese. In my home. And it was GOOOOOOD. There will be another post later about fresh cheeses and dairy products. This was my first attempt and damn... not that it was a perfect process, but the ends justified the means and I have learned some things already.
Then I made the Saag (spinach sauce) which is one of my favorites from indian take-out. Again, WOW. I had made this recipe before, but let some of the recipe comments online guide my second attempt. Pretty damn healthy and very damn tasty. That recipe I will share at some point (if you beg me enough... tempted to just keep it all to myself!)
Between the paneer and the saag, I made enough to freeze half for a future meal. Served with brown rice and store-bought naan bread.
I also started my first batch of cordial, with peaches my dad brought me last year and had helped me freeze. We'll see how that goes....
And oat cakes.
And mega burgers for lunch (Black Bean burgers, cheese, avocado, home-roasted red peppers, tomato... it's a Dagwood stack in the end...)
And Able-Bodied Boy made THE BEST SOUP EVER. And I'm the soup lady... his soup was better. We had a ton of Swiss Chard still growing in the garden, so he wanted to use it up. So he found this recipe and we actually cooked. Together. Without fighting. Or blood. We substituted homemade loin bacon for the pancetta and a couple ounces of chunked parmesan for the rind (and I left the skins on the potato). But otherwise we cooked it as ordered and holy crap was it the best soup ever. Did I mention that already?
He also made homemade bread.
And I made pancakes and eggs and bacon so he could have pancake sizzlies (thank you Alannariva, for inspiring me to tell him that and thusly shooting myself in the foot :-P).
Salads. We've also eaten some salads somewhere in there too. But looking at the list, I'm starting to wonder if that was pretty pointless with all the other food we've eaten....
Not much new on the home front. I've been working on a sewing project that is finally completed and should be posted soon (completely for showing off :) ), with a thousand more sewing projects planned. Able-Bodied Boy has already been mowing the lawn and planting seedlings. Looks like beans, peppers, swiss chard, carrots, and beets this year.
We have a list on the fridge of things we'd like to make/preserve this year. Many of these involve dozens of pounds of tomatoes, and yet we are not growing any ourselves until at least next year. Looks like the CSA and neighborhood farm stands will suffice. In any case, our list this year includes hot sauce (although we are not growing hot peppers), ketchup, salsas, strawberry-rhubarb preserves, drying mint, pepper jelly (thanks to my SIL's sister), canned tomatoes (if there are any left in the county after we make salsa and ketchup), and salsa zucchina. A tall order, but Able-Bodied Boy has PROMISED to help with canning this year. Especially for those items he is begging me for (most of them).
Over at Two Frog Home, I read a neat little post about her grandmother's cookbook (The Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking, 1953) and the Food Preserver's Creed she found therein. She posted it and I'm hoping she doesn't mind that I share it with you here.
How beautiful is this? How amazing that we have all forgotten these simple principles? To feed our family year-round from the bounty that surrounds us? To take joy in the process, learning and developing the skills necessary to provide safe, nutritious foods?
I would love to be able to can/freeze/dry all the foods we would need for the year during the times in which they are in season, but I know I'm not quite ready for that. I think it was an old post from Sharon over at The Chatelaine's Keys (who has a wealth of knowledge!) that prompted me to starting thinking of food preservation for beginners. The suggestion was to take your top few meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and start there...
Dinners... We already freeze homemade lasagnas, although the ingredients therein are not always seasonal. We buy and freeze lamb seasonally. We freeze batches of cilantro pesto, not seasonally. We freeze some veggies. We put together a tomato/zucchini sauce base. We could/should probably do more for seasonal preservation of dinners, like tomato-based sauces, stored/grown root cellar vegetables,
Lunches/snacks/condiments.... We have (or will have) pickles, salsa, fruit spreads, frozen fruits. We freeze soups (some seasonal, some not). We eat a lot of frozen "burgers" (mostly veggie, salmon, or turkey) and most of those are store bought, but could be seasonally put together and frozen. We can make our own bread/rolls, but don't always. We could make our own mayo as needed, but don't (yet).
Breakfast... We now have the option of freezing blended eggs and greens as fritatta ingredients. We are stocked with smoked breakfast meat for a year. We do breads on occasion, including a wonderful English Muffin recipe (and homemade Hollandaise which IMO tasted like heaven - mostly because I made it from scratch perfectly on my first try). I know how to make homemade butter, buttermilk, and fresh cheeses.
I'm sure I'm missing a few ideas and/or pantry items we already have, but you get the idea. Start with what you eat, and see what you can do to do it for yourself. Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is a wonderful book if you're at all interested in learning what it takes to do it full force (she and her family resolved to only eat what they could produce/obtain locally for one year).
I would love to be there, but I'm not. But what is life if not the striving for better...?
Smoke it!
There are plenty of smoker boxes on the market for all sorts of grills, as well as a variety of types of wood chips. There are also stand-alone smokers specifically for smoking, but I don't think we're quite that serious about our smoking just yet.
So, here are the basics of smoking your belly:
Get the chips wet
Heat them on high heat until they begin smoking
Turn down your heat until you can maintain a 200deg covered grill temperature
Put your pork belly in (not directly over any heat source)
When the belly reaches 150deg internal temp, it's done! (approx 3 hours)
We have a gas grill, with three long rows of racks and burners across the grill. We put the smoker box on top of the back burner (rack removed), and only used that burner during the process. On high, the grill got up enough heat to get the chips burning, and on low the grill was able to maintain 200deg. Perfecto! We placed the meat on a cool secondary rack (one that hadn't been in the grill during the warm-up process) to avoid any grill marks or too much heat directly on the meat. That secondary rack (which was really a fish grill rack, scrubbed really well first) went onto the front of the grill, where the burners had been off all along. We checked on the temperature after a while, and right around the 3 hour mark, it had reached 150! (Ok, and by "we" in this entire paragraph, I really mean Able Bodied Boy :))
We let it cool down a bit, then rinsed the salts off, then stuck it in the fridge to harden up a bit for slicing. We might have licked our fingers.
Slice it!
Of all the aspects of making bacon, this was probably my biggest worry. I know someone with a slicer... someone that lives 500 miles away :-P So we were going to need to find a slicer, find another slicing method, or hand-slice the meat.
Luckily, I happened to be at a friend's house, touring through their recent renovations, when we stopped to chat. Lo and behold, there was a slicer at our feet! I immediately claimed it (thank goodness they are nice people and understand my quirks), with promises to return it.
If you don't know how to use a slicer, for the love of all things fingered, look it up! Be safe; these are dangerous machines. The only good thing about how wonderfully sharp they are (besides cutting, you know, meats and cheeses and such) is that any body parts you lose to it will probably have a clean cut and can be taken to the ER with you... Sorry if that grosses you out, but seriously these machines are dangerous.
Anyway, we picked a thickness we liked and it only took a few minutes to create 6 lovely piles of a half pound of bacon.
If you don't have access to a slicer, just remember that the world won't end if the slices aren't perfect. And use a sharp knife. And you could probably briefly freeze the meat to make it a little more solid.
We found that one end of our belly was rather fattier than we would generally like our bacon, but I don't fault the pork shop for that. First, I imagine they take the better cuts of belly for their bacon. Secondly, there are two directions we could have sliced the bacon in... long side or short side. I told Able Bodied Boy to use the short end, so we'd have sandwich-length pieces of bacon, and more slices for dividing amongst our 6 piles. If we had cut on the long side, each piece would have had one end fattier than the other. *shrug* I divided the fattier pieces amongst the piles. We can always save the bacon drippings for future cooking. If you were looking for healthy bacon... move along :)
Price it!
This may vary for your area/sources, but here's what we were working with...
$7.50: 3.5 lbs Pork Belly
$0.83: .5 lbs Kosher Salt ($5 for 3lbs)
$2.40: 4oz pure maple syrup ($.60/oz)
$1.00: a handful of wood chips
$3.91: ($11.73 total for 3 lbs of bacon)
Granted, this math doesn't factor in the actual smoker box we invested in (and have used several times), or the time and energy. But the local pork shop sells their bacon for around $4.50/lb and, provided they don't use curing salts, we feel like it isn't any more/less economical to buy their pork belly versus buying their bacon.
But for those who haven't paid attention lately, bacon is up between $5 and $6 per pound at the grocery, and don't forget that they've pumped it with extra goodies...
Up next on my list of home-makins... dairy products. Are there any products that you're curious about how it's made, and if it can be done fresh at home?
Maple syrup (the real stuff, for the love of nature!)
Brown Sugar
Black Pepper
Other, as desired
A non-metalic covered curing vessel
A rig for keeping the belly out of it's own liquid. We used a large tupperware, with two small lids underneath the belly to keep it out of the pool.
Or, you can just use gallon-sized baggies (cut the belly in half if necessary... two bags, two different cures?). They will retain the liquid around the belly and possibly not get you as dry of a cure, but you're used to water-logged store bacon anyway (and you could drain the bag daily!). Be sure to double-bag to prevent contamination.
A spot in the fridge to keep it cold (and safe!)
Ok, let's get curing!
You do NOT need to remove the skin of the belly.
On a VERY CLEAN surface, rub both sides of the belly in a coat of salt. This is about a quarter-cup total for both sides. It doesn't need to cake, just coat. See photo above.
Rub both sides with your flavoring, a quarter-cup total. Brown sugar? Maple Syrup? Cracked Black Pepper? Your call!
Place in your curing vessel.
Daily, for one week:
Drain the liquid, if necessary
Add more salt to coat each side (1-2 Tablespoons total)
Flip over
Next up, smoking and slicing!
The weather has been great lately for doing a little winter pruning (I tackled our blackberries last weekend!). Have you been doing any outdoor projects?
We are making bacon. And it's super easy to do, from what we are finding.
Now, this was inspired by three things. First and foremost, the blogging goddess Crunchy Chicken and her post last month about her first bacon phase. Second and crucially, the fact that we have a full-service pork store just around the corner from our house, where all manner of fresh pork product is sold seasonally from September to April. Lastly and gratefully, Able-Bodied Boy's willingness to buy a smoker box for our gas grill (I swear I didn't bully him into it!).
How do you make bacon? The basics are as follows:
Obtain pork belly
Cure pork belly (let it sit with salt and flavorings like sweetness or spices on it) for one week
Smoke until the internal temperature reaches 150F
Seriously. That's it.
Why is this better than buying it from the store?
Store-bought bacon has evil additions.
Extra water, so that you are paying for more liquid than actual meat
Preservatives, namely sodium nitrite (see safety discussion below)
The source of the pork is unknown. We've all heard the horror stories about commercial farms: the feed, the anti-biotics, the conditions, etc.
Ultimate customized bacon flavors!
Is it safe to make your own bacon?
Yes, just as safe as you bringing home and cooking any other meat product: if you are mindful of cleanliness, food-handling precautions, and safe cooking temperatures, than you are perfectly safe.
The FDA allows sodium nitrite to be used in the curing of meats. Sodium Nitrite helps in the prevention of botulism and keeps the meat a nice pink color. But it also, when heated, can form nitrosamines when heated. Nitrosamines are a carcinogen in lab testing. Now, there are some other products that can help prevent the nitrosamines from being created, so they pump ascorbic acid or erythorbic acid to help prevent that. source
Yum.
I don't know about you, but I don't want to use those products. I'm not selling my bacon and I trust my methods. So, sodium nitrite (aka pink salts, aka curing salt, aka Prague Powder) is not being invited to this party.
Where am I going to find a pork belly from a good source?
This may take a bit of leg-work, but here are some tips:
Google maps: sometimes just entering "pork store" will yield you some options
Website listings: try localharvest.org or see if your local area has a website with area farm/market information. For the Philadelphia and South Jersey areas, I found farmtocity.org and slowfood.cape-may.net
Farmer's Markets: just because your farmer's market doesn't have a pork vendor doesn't mean they don't exist. Ask around. Farmers know farmers. Farmers often don't bring with them what is too difficult to transport (say, heavy coolers full of meats and ice) if they don't reliably sell.
CSA's: same as the farmer's markets. Many CSA's have relationships with local dairy/meat farms and they may have a good contact for you to call
Know a local friend who lives around the corner from a pork store, or works in a butcher shop *winkwink*
I haz pork belly! What now??
Patiently wait for the next installment, when we start the curing process!
What's going on in your kitchen? Or, with this beautiful weather, have you made your way outdoors to the garden?
As I mentioned at some point last year, I try to eat oatmeal every morning. It's full of soluble fiber, which makes you feel fuller for longer. And it's low in calories, which is good for the waistline.
It also sucks.
It's mushy. It's slimy. And no matter how many spices and how much honey I throw in it, it always just feels like BLAH in my mouth.
So when I said I "try" to eat oatmeal every morning, what I really meant was I haven't had oatmeal for about 6 months.
But I keep hearing about "breakfast cookies" and thought, 'hey, that's a great idea!' except I don't want my healthy breakfast to get bogged down with carb fillers (like flour) or tons of sugar (cuz a cookie is sweet, right?).
So, I invented my own Oat Cake the other night, from the depths of my pancake and oatmeal cookie experience in life. I used a good bit of egg, for added protein. And a bit of cinnamon and honey and vanilla for flavor. The texture is like that of a dense pancake or english muffin (or a crumpet, if that means anything to you). It's portable, filling, healthy, and doesn't make me gag. I'd call that a win!
I made three batches of this (the first to test, then a double-batch to have grab-n-go breakfast in the fridge for the next week or so). I enjoyed them hot off the griddle, and they weren't so bad cold as I ran out the door the next morning. In any case, they are MUCH tastier than oatmeal :) And I can imagine replacing the cinnamon/vanilla/honey with other fun combinations, like pomegranate molasses and allspice, or using chai latte instead of the milk. Adding dried fruit would also work!
BREAKFAST OAT CAKES
You'll need:
1 cup of oats (not quick oats), divided
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp milk
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp honey
a food processor
a griddle
optional: egg/muffin rings
Instructions:
In a food processor, blend half the oats (1/2 cup) until flour-like (1-minute will do). In a medium bowl, mix all the oats and dry ingredients (oats through cinnamon). In a small bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients (milk through honey). Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until completely combined, then let sit for several minutes to thicken.
Preheat a griddle to 275 (or medium-low on a stove). Grease/spray the griddle if necessary. If you have them, set up egg/muffin rings on the griddle. Ladle approximately 1/3 cup of batter onto the hot griddle (should make 4 cakes). Let them cook for approx. 5 minutes per side, until dark golden brown.
Yields:Makes 4 cakes; 2-4 servings, depending on your morning nutritional requirements
Last weekend, I made Hungarian Chicken Paprikash and German Spaetzle noodles.
Paprikash is a dish my mom used to make on occasion, and I absolutely loved. But, as all things go, it faded from memory. That is, until I met Brigita in New Zealand, a Hungarian girl that I befriended and became one of my closest friends while our time in Wellington overlapped. Paprikash was one of her home favorites and, had we had a few spare dollars for the paprika, we would have made it. Luckily, I have a ton at home now, and the spare container of sour cream in the fridge screamed out for it :)
As for the spaetzle, it just seemed appropriate and I was curious about how they were made. The recipes I found seemed easy enough, so it was worth a shot. Especially since I bought a bag of egg noodles as back-up :) You don't need a lot for a full serving of these... they are VERY filling!
(what the leftovers look like, since this was made on the same day as the outdoor chicken drama and brownie splurge and I didn't think to take photos:)
1 1/2 cups sour cream (full fat, please!) brought to room temperature
Instructions:
Salt and pepper the chicken thighs. In a dutch oven over medium heat, brown the thighs - skin side down first - until golden. Set the thighs aside. (Can be done in batches.)
To the dutch oven (with the chicken fat), add the onions and cook until soft and slightly browned. Add the tomato paste and garlic, cooking until fragrant (2-3 minutes). Add the chicken broth and deglaze the pot. Add the tomatoes, paprika, and pepper flakes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add the chicken thighs and any juices that collected with them, and bring to a simmer.
Simmer uncovered for 1-2 hours until the chicken is cooked through and tender. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly, then whisk in the sour cream. Do not allow the heat to rise too much, or the sour cream will curdle.
Serve with egg noodles or spaetzle.
Yields: Serves 4-6
Time:
Prep: 20 min
Cooking: 1-2 hours
SPAETZLE
You'll need:
3 cups AP flour
salt
4 eggs
up to 1 cup milk
1 Tbs butter
Instructions:
In a large pot, fill two-thirds with water and add a heavy dose of salt. Cover and set to boil.
In a large bowl, mix 3 cups flour and a pinch of salt. Create a hollow in the middle of the flour.
In a small bowl, whisk eggs and 1/2 cup milk until fully blended. Pour the egg mixture slowly into the flour, whisking it with a fork as you go. Add additional milk until the consistency is like a thick cake batter (more runny than dough, less runny than pancake batter).
Once the water is at a full boil, pour the batter into a gallon-sized plastic bag. Cut a tiny corner off the bag (you're looking for a stream of batter that is approximately 1/8 inch wide) and pipe into the bubbling middle of the water. The noodles should float to the top and, eventually, you may find it hard to find open spaces to let the stream into the water. A free hand (your own or someone else's) can use a utensil to create gaps.
The noodles only need to cook for 3-5 minutes, so let them cook for a couple additional minutes after you finish piping, then into a strainer they go (I scooped them into the colander, so I could re-use the water in case of a disaster).
The agitation of the water should break up the noodles, but if not you can break the pieces up after they cook.
In a large pan, warm the butter on medium and toss in the spaetzle to coat. (I don't know how necessary this step is; some recipes included it, others didn't. It is possible to fry/brown the spaetzle, but I didn't have any luck with it. The technique didn't hurt, but it did add calories and extra dishes to wash.)
What a weekend (and it's not over yet)! No time - or photos - to post about it all just yet, but here's a taste....
We spent Saturday chasing a sex-crazed rooster (yeah, Bunty is decidedly NOT a hen) off of our poor dear Ginger, who was getting injured.
I made a hearty eastern-european meal of Hungarian Chicken Paprikash over homemade German spaetzle noodles, shared with dear friends.
I ate delicious, fudgy brownies. Which - if you know my sensitivity to caffeine in any form - made for a very squishy-brained Able-Bodied Girl.
We shipped the rooster off to boot-in-the-ass camp at Barnhenge Mama's farm, where he will learn manners and respect of the ladies. We also picked up Bunty2 and integrated her into the mini-flock.
Tomorrow, I am off of work. And I've decided to have a tech-lite day. No internet. No email. No tablet. No TV. No DVD or Netflix streaming. Cell/text only for immediate matters. No computer. Until 9p. Able-Bodied Boy is willing to join, although pressing work matters may force email/computer use. Crafting, cleaning, and board games will abound!
Well, my family successfully survived two years of deep-fried turkey during my two years of hosting, so my father decided we would be ambitious and try making a Turducken for my parent's turn at hosting this year.
Ahh, yes, layer upon layer of MEAT. Yum!
My brother and I were set to task with boning the duck and chicken, respectively. Our first hurdle was the realization that my father didn't actually own three boning knives, nor three knives capable of proper boning.
Of course, I also broke a knife in the process, which didn't help.
So, we set to boning the birds...
Me with the chicken... before
Me with the chicken... after
Able-Bodied Brother with the duck...
and Able-Bodied Father with the turkey.
So, after that, we had the serious business of bringing them all together. Some instructions say to add stuffing between layers, but we opted not to. After much wrestling and squishing and tying and wrapping, we finally got all the parts into each other...
My dad roasted it at 300 for most of the day, with the extra wings on top, and it turned out lovely and not at all dried out! Show that beautiful meat footage!
Overall, the taste wasn't bad, but everything kinda got washed out in a "poultry" taste. And really, who focuses on the taste of the meat at Thanksgiving, when there is an awesome spread of dressings and gravies and sides and cranberry sauce and PIES!
I will leave you with Alton Brown's favorite friend...
How was your Thanksgiving? Eat any incredible foods? Eat too much? Did you try to be good?
Looks like summer is getting away from me... 3 weeks since my last post?!?!
Well, I'll forgive myself if you will. Between the heat and Able-Bodied Boy's relentless traveling and a just-flop-when-I-get-home mentality... well, you understand. Of course, I forget my camera when I go off and do exciting things, but here's a bit of what we've been up to... mostly food, mind you ;)
beet hummus really is bright pink. and pretty damn tasty!
Last week's haul: shallots, beets, tomatoes, zucchini, celery, escarole.... see those beautiful heirlooms? remember that my csa grafted them?
Also, the dozen ears of corn we're starting to get each week. That's a lot of corn!
A blurry shot of my latest frittata... garden swiss chard and basil topped with csa tomato
This week's haul from the CSA: flowers, tomatillos, onions, shallots, hot peppers, swiss chard, and a metric ton of tomatoes
Step One in the great Cleaner Replacement Program... Shower Spray!
Mac just loves exploring everything about our house :)
So, no photos of the haul from last week or this week. But plenty of other photo goodness (in as much as my photos are "good").
Last week, we got spring greens, escarole, carrots, cucumbers, kale, summer squash, celery, and flowers. I also picked chamomile and epazote.
This week, carrots, cucumber, beets, summer squash, green beans, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and cabbage.
Also, the chickens have upped their production... so we've been eating a lot of fresh, wholesome food :)
Notice how the egg yolks differ greatly in color and size? This particular week, Mac had been staying up late to chase beetles and lightening bugs, while Ginger went to bed early. Funny how the diet can affect the eggs so much, eh?
Homemade Flax Seed Bread, topped with Blueberry Butter, Sauteed Swiss Chard with Sausage spices, and Scrambled Eggs.
Sorry, it was too good not to take a bite before photos :)
Stewed Escarole with Feta, topped with Poached Eggs.
The only ingredients with unknown source are the olive oil and feta cheese.
The Ladies apparently want onto the deck for a nice dip in the hot tub.
Chicken Stew, anyone?
Kale, Tomato, and Garlic Scape Frittata. The only ingredients with unknown source are the butter and mozzarella cheese.
We also managed to avert the first opportunity to buy chemical cleaners since Able-Bodied Boy's support of the Natural Cleaner Replacement Program (which I will start to detail at some point). I gawked at him in the store, but admitted I hadn't looked into any replacements yet. But he agreed to avoid the purchase, and researched that a vinegar-water solution would do the trick. Go Able-Bodied Boy! (I can take no credit, besides being a nag.)
I'm staying in the A/C, cooking up our yummy eats. How are you keeping cool this summer?
Much Love, Able-Bodied Girl
PS. i'm getting really tired of eating eggs. might need to start baking. zucchini bread!!!
I stored the Tuesday haul very carefully, so that we could enjoy most of the produce over the weekend when Able-Bodied Boy was actually home. I also purchased some strawberries and rhubarb from Linvilla Orchards. And then there's that first egg of ours... So we've been feasting!
Saturday Lunch: Tuna Wraps
Tuna, mixed with CSA radishes, CSA oregano, curry power, lemon juice, mayo, salt and pepper, then wrapped in a CSA red lettuce leaf and a CSA collard leaf.
Sunday Brunch: Collard Frittata
CSA collards briefly sauteed in butter, then tossed with CSA scallions, CSA oregano, feta cheese, and black pepper, then tossed with miscellaneous egg whites, yolks and whole eggs (a mix of local farm and store eggs). Cooked covered over low heat until the sides were firm, then under the broiler on low until the top was mostly set. Then the lone chicken egg was cracked on top and sent back under the broiler on high until the egg was mostly cooked and the frittata was browned.
Sunday Brunch: Chamomile Tea
I got a handful of fresh chamomile, but had no clue how to actually make the tea, short of drying it (which I didn't want to take the time to do). So I took off the feathery "leaves" and flower heads, put them in a tea bag, and set it in some hot water. YUM!
Stem Pickles
Got stems? Make fridge pickles! Heat 2 cups sugar and 1 cup vinegar until sugar is dissolved; add 3 heaping tablespoons of sriracha sauce and a 1/2 teaspoon of celery seed; cool; pour over stems into a jar; place in fridge for 2 weeks.
Technically, I haven't eaten any yet cuz the oldest ones are still only 1.5 weeks old.... but they look fantastic!
Most CSA's I had seen pre-packaged all the loose greens for you.
Not ours. Cuz I didn't pay attention.
So my one huge canvas bag ended up being a layered mess of spinach and spring greens and arugula interspersed with the whole/bundled goods. As such, I did not pick much of the PYO because I was worried it would get lost in the bag. I also didn't take photos of the haul cuz quite frankly, I had "a day" and was nearly in tears separating everything out of the bag at home. You try telling 3+ lbs of leaves to not co-mingle!!
first haul: spinach (2lbs) spring greens (1lb) arugula (~1/4 lb) bok choi (1 head) scallions (1 bunch) radishes (1 bunch) white beets (1 bunch) kale (28 stalks) butter lettuce (1 head) pick your own: garlic chives thyme marjoram chamomile sage basil parsley
First meal: Spinach (sauteed in oil, honey, garlic, smoked paprika, aleppo pepper, and balsamic vinegar)
with fish sticks (don't ask)
Second meal: (cooked/shared with with our CSA buddy, Purple Pregger Monkey)
Bok Choi (blanched, with stir-fried garlic, hot peppers, & CSA scallions, with coconut lime dressing)
Lettuce Wraps (filled with chicken thighs, mushrooms, CSA scallions, and other asian ingredients)
The only bad thing about the CSA, that I can come up with so far, is that I have absolutely NO motivation to do my own gardening again, ever :) With such selection, grown by experts, and keeping me out of the heat...
