CSA Week Sixteen

This week in my CSA I received:

-One leek
-Parsley
-Collard Greens
-Beets
-Radishes
-Sweet potatoes
-Green bell peppers
-Apples
-Bosc pears
-Eggs
-Wildflowers

The night before, my friend roasted the beets for a tasty beet salad with toasted walnuts and goat cheese.  Last night, I still had a few things left over from the week before, so I made eggplant, caramelized onion, and tomato pasta, and sprinkled it with the parsley.

If you are looking for a hearty soup with sweet potatoes, try this Sweet and Spicy Lentil Soup.  Swap out the swiss chard for collards, and add the leek in with part of the onion, and you got yourself a meal.

Want to try a delicious dessert?  Try this Apple Cake.  I made it last weekend, and besides the peeling and chopping, the recipe is pretty simple.  Plus, you can sneak it in for breakfast and not feel too guilty.

And if you are feeling ambitious this weekend, try this Butternut Squash Ravioli.  Not going to lie - it is time-consuming, but you do feel kind of proud at the end: I made homemade ravioli - ta da!

CSA Week Fourteen

Wow, it's finally fall, or at least it looks like it in this picture.  This week in my CSA I got:

-Eggplant
-Collard greens
-Beets
-Fennel
-Peppers
-Garlic
-Carrots
-Sweet potato leaves
-Spaghetti squash
-Apples
-Eggs

I have no idea what I will be making this week, but my CSA group emailed us a little about sweet potato leaves:

The sweet potato is one of the world's most cultivated crops, and is grown all over the world, but especially in Asia and the Pacific. The leaves are high in protein. Chinese herbalist lore says that the leaves can improve the respiratory and renal system function. Like spinach, chard and other greens, sweet potatoes leaves are highly versatile. Here is a recipe for stir-fried sweet potato leaves:
Ingredients: One bunch of sweet potato leaves; 1-2 hot dried red chilies (optional); 1-2 cloves of garlic
Salt, soy sauce, pepper to taste
Method

1. Fill a pot with water and put it on the stove over high heat. The pot should be large enough to hold the leaves, and there should be enough water to cover the leaves.
2. Strip the leaves from the branches. The thin stems that attach the leaves to the branch are tender enough to eat, so there is no need to remove only the leaves. Wash and drain the leaves.
3. Mince 1-2 cloves of garlic.
4. Chop the chilies fine, and combine with the garlic.
5. When the water comes to a boil, turn off the heat and carefully add the sweet potato leaves. After 2 minutes, remove and rinse with cold water. Chop the leaves. (This step was recommended by the cookbook to remove traces of natural slime from the leaves.)
6. In a large skillet or wok, heat some vegetable oil over high heat. When it is hot, add the garlic and chilies. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring often.

Add the greens, then stir-fry the mixture until the greens are tender, about 2 or 3 minutes. Add salt, pepper, soy sauce, or other flavorings to taste.

If you are looking for a fall pasta dish, try this pasta with brocoli rabe, toasted garlic, and bread crumbs - soooo good.  Or how about chocolate ice cream for dessert?

CSA Week Nine

This week in my CSA I got more zucchini (ugh) and a ton of other stuff.  Here is what I got:

-Mesclun greens
-Green bell peppers
-Beets
-Eggplant (my arch nemesis)
-Basil
-Yellow squash
-Zucchini
-Cucumbers
-Cherry tomatoes
-Melon
-Watermelon
-White peaches
-Eggs
-Sunflowers

Feeling a little unmotivated this week, but made some tacos and pesto on Wednesday.  On Thursday, my friend made these stuffed peppers from Smitten Kitchen, which used up the rest of the tomatoes, peppers, and some zucchini.

Tonight, I am planning on making a zucchini tart, which uses the pesto I made and the zucchini!

I would love to make a watermelon salad with basil and feta, and maybe roast some beets.  Ugh, what to do with this eggplant?  I might make this roasted tomato and eggplant soup (to hide it)!

Check out my review on the Van Leeuwan Ice Cream Truck.

CSA Week Four

I cannot believe June is already over!  And this short week totally flew by.  This is what I got in my CSA this week:

-Curly endive
-Kohlrabi
-Kale
-Tat Soi (Click here to learn more about Tat Soi)
-Beets
-Basil
-Cucumbers
-Zucchini
-Broccoli
-Blueberries
-Blackberries
-Eggs
-Sunflowers

Wednesday night I used some of my lettuce and made black bean tacos, and had the blackberries for dessert.  By the way, they were the biggest blackberries I had seen in my life.

Last night, I made Jamie Oliver's Broccoli and Pesto Tagliatelle, which I hope to share soon (good bye basil and broccoli).

Today my friend is making these McClure's Garlic and Dill Pickles with our cucumbers (click here and scroll down for the recipe).

Later this weekend, I am going to try the Clinton St. Baking Company's Blueberry Muffins.  Roast some beets, toast some walnuts, and toss together with some goat cheese for a warm salad.  And maybe make this Zucchini Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze, click here for the recipe.  I found a stir-fry recipe in Jamie's Food Revolution cookbook, that I might tweak to use the tat soi, and I am making this Kohlrabi Salad.  Geez there is so much to make...I am completely forgetting about the kale and orzo salad from Super Natural Every Day and what about the curly endive?  So much to do, and in a very hot kitchen I might add!

CSA Week Two

I am on to week two of my CSA, and I was very proud that I finished most of my produce from last week, except for the scapes, which I plan to make a pesto with.  Click here for the Scape Pesto recipe.

This week I received:

-Lettuce
-Arugula
-Kale
-Salad turnips
-Beets
-Cilantro
-Scallions
-Lavender
-Blueberries
-Strawberries
-Eggs

I have a loose idea of what I want to make:

-Black bean tacos tonight using the lettuce.
-Black bean salsa using the scallions and cilantro.
-Roasted beets and arugula salad with goat cheese.
-Kale chips (click here for the recipe) or this Kale and Potato Gratin.
-Blueberry Kuchen (click here for the recipe), or blueberry pancakes, or muffins, or this blueberry crumb cake!
-Strawberries are just to be eaten, or placed on top of homemade vanilla ice cream!  But you could make these Strawberry Greek Yogurt Pops.

CSA Week Twenty-One

Hello!  Here is what I got from my CSA this week:
-Sweet potatoes
-Potatoes
-Broccoli
-Red and icicle radishes
-Beets
-Swiss chard
-Baby bok choy
-Lettuce
-Cherry tomatoes
-Hot peppers
-Apples


If you are looking for something to do with swiss chard, try these tacos.

Click here to read about my visit to Fairmount Bagels, one of Montreal's most popular bagel shops.

Green Beans with Lemon, Garlic, and Parmigiano Gremolata

Sometimes I can get stuck trying to combine all my vegetables to make one main dish, but recently realized there is nothing wrong with just letting each vegetable shine on its own.  A few weeks back, I roasted a buttercup squash and beets, while my friend made some baked eggs with tomato, goat cheese, and dill.  But the best part of the meal had to be the green beans with gremolata (a traditional Italian condiment, of lemon, parsley, and garlic) from Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift's cookbook The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper.  Super soft green beans, seasoned with fresh lemon, parsley and nutty Parmigiano, you really cannot go wrong.  So I thought this would be the perfect recipe to share, since I got green beans again from my CSA this week.

Ingredients for Green Beans with Lemon, Garlic, and Parmigiano Gremolata from The Splendid Table's How To Eat Supper, serves 4:

-Olive oil

-1 1/2 pounds green beans, stem end trimmed

-1/2 cup water

-Shredded zest of 1 large lemon

-1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, tightly packed

-3 large garlic cloves

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground pepper

-1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, fresh-grated

Lightly film the bottom of a straight-sided 12-inch saute pan with the oil.  Heat it over medium-high heat.  Add the beans and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper.  Saute for 2 minutes, then add the water and immediately cover the pan, and turn the heat to medium low. Cook the beans for 15 to 20 minutes, checking them often for burning and adding a little water if necessary.  You want the beans to become very tender.

While the beans are covered and cooking, make the gremolata.  In a food processor, mince together the lemon zest, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper.  Stir half of the mixture into the cooking beans.  Blend the rest of the gremolata into the grated cheese and set aside.

When the beans are tender, uncover them, cook off any liquid in the pan, and turn them into a serving bowl.  Toss the beans with the reserved cheese-gremolata mixture.

Enjoy!

CSA Week Sixteen

Hello! I cannot believe it has already been four months of fresh produce.  It is sad to think that I only have two months left before my CSA comes to an end until next summer.  Here is what I got:


-Mesclun greens
-Lettuce
-Edamame
-Beets
-Garlic
-Green beans
-Tomatoes
-Radishes
-Apples
-Peaches
-Eggs

CSA Week Eight

Two months -whoa!  The best part this week was definitely the cherry tomatoes - such delicious treats to pop in your mouth.  Here is what else I got in my CSA this week:

-Cherry tomatoes
-Onions
-Zucchini
-Cucumbers
-Lettuce
-Beets
-Corn
-Basil
-Cantaloupe
-Some other melon
-Peaches

Pickle Party!

I would like to introduce my first guest blogger: Adam - pickle aficionado, meat lover, and beer drinker.

Nothing screams summer like home-made pickles, even when eaten in the dark days of winter they bring the tongue right back to sunnier times, but the following pickles are so good that they never make it for more than a few weeks in the refrigerator.

“Pickle” is a broad term. Alton Brown defines pickles in Good Eats: The Early Years as:

1) a solution or bath for preserving or cleaning, a brine or vinegar solution in which foods are preserved 2) any food item preserved via above definition.

There are three types of pickles, all have the same goal of limiting the bacteria that can grow and thus preserving the food.

CSA Week Six

Here is what I received from my CSA this week:

-3 pounds summer squash
-1 pound potatoes
-1 bunch flat leaf parsley
-2 heads of garlic
-mesclun greens
-1 kohlrabi
-1 bunch red beets
-cherries
-blueberries
-3 peaches

This morning I preheated my oven to 400 degrees and chopped up my potatoes and tossed with olive oil, rosemary, chives, sage and two cloves of minced garlic. I roasted them for about 25 minutes until they were soft and had browned on the edges.My roommate and I had a BBQ last week so we grilled the squash, and I ate all the cherries and peaches already. I plan to make blueberry muffins today. Click here for the recipe. I used the parsley I had on a quinoa salad for a picnic on Friday. Click here for the recipe.