This is the first week we've received tomatoes in the CSA distribution. I had hoped they would not put them in the refrigerator with everything else, and fortunately, they did not. (Tomatoes deteriorate faster when chilled.)
I sauteed roughly-chopped yellow squash and red onion for several minutes in olive oil and added the tomatoes at the end. (Everything other than the olive oil and spices came from the CSA.)
Last week's CSA basket: chard, broccoli, lettuce, and bok choy. I realized I didn't post this after I picked up this week produce, which was essentially the same. Expect this week instead of lettuce there's an unidentified item that I think could be kohlrabi. I don't actually know what kohlrabi is, unfortunately, but that's the word that popped into my head when I saw it and I'm hoping the random bits of information that buzz around my brain will prove useful this time. And zucchini too, but I ate that before I thought to take a picture.
We're well into summer session now, which is both project season and vacation season. I don't have vacation planned--the last time I took a vacation day I spent my freshly banked stimulus payment on home repairs, so it's safer this way--but I am in the midst of a project that requires careful planning and coordination, and lots of heavy lifting. I suspect I may get a bit cranky about the heavy lifting part before long.
A couple of new foods this week: sugar snap peas and cabbage. The lettuce was gone the next day and I'm already missing the spinach.
Anybody have suggestions for preparing the peas?
More lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and radishes. Not so much lettuce this time, but considering I still haven't finished last week's radishes, I decided to share these with a friend.
And I've found yet another use for those wonderful blue bags from the store that shall not be named. We seriously need one, or several, of those stores in the Kansas City area.
I picked up this week's load of produce from the CSA farm and I feel pretty confident that I will not be lacking for lettuce. There were at least 5 heads of lettuce--I haven't opened the last bag yet to count--as well as a huge bundle of spinach, more radishes, and new this week: broccoli. I'd planned to clean it all up tonight so I can just grab what I want from the fridge for the rest of the week, but I still have that last bag to tackle.
In my defense, I had to mow the lawn first.
Ever since I started making radical improvements in my diet, I have been spending bank on fresh produce. It's a bit scary how expensive it is, so I jumped at the opportunity to join a CSA this year.
If you're not familiar with the concept, CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. Local farmers--often organic growers--sell subscriptions to their produce. The farmer benefits by having others share the up-front costs and risks, while the subscribers benefit by having a weekly share of whatever is harvested that week at a very reasonable price. On the designated day each week I stop by the farm (it is an urban farm that's on my way home) and pick up the food that's boxed up for me. Included in the box is a list of the week's produce and a couple of recipes. If you don't recognize something, you can usually identify it by process of elimination--match up what you do recognize to what's on the list, and whatever's left is probably that new thing you've never tried.
This week there was lettuce--red and green leaf, spinach, and radishes. I'm excited about the prospect of making a dent in my food budget this summer (without sacrificing good nutrition) and about trying foods that I may be overlooking at the market.
I'm on a diet. That sounds very temporary, which isn't true, so maybe I should call it an improved eating plan? Anyway (under the supervision of my doctor and a dietitian--I don't want you worrying that I'm on some crazy fad diet) I have altered some of the food choices I make. Instead of the previous unlimited, eat-whatever-I-want sort of plan I had before, I have been counting carbohydrates. It's not low carb, just controlled carb. Nothing is off limits, but everything counts, so I have to choose wisely. The good news is that in addition to regular exercise, it's really making a positive difference in how I feel. And bonus, I've lost a few pounds, too.
I won't argue that the idea of counting carbohydrates went over easily. All that keeping track of every morsel and what time I ate it was darned irritating in the beginning, but before long I had a better idea of what to choose, especially after reading about a fillion food labels.
One of the products I was happy to find was a yogurt from Blue Bunny called Sweet Freedom. Most yogurt seems to have around 20 carbs per serving, which is a lot when you're trying to stay below 50 for a meal. This product, however, has only 5 carbs per serving, which was absolutely doable. I practically cleared the shelves and always made a point of going to the grocery stores I knew carried it. It's probably not a surprise that I got a little worried when I saw it marked clearance at Super Target. Clearance? As in, not carrying it any more?
This time I really did clear the shelves of every remaining container and sent a message to Blue Bunny as soon as I got home, asking who else in my area carries it. Someone responded on the next business day, but with bad news:
Unfortunately, BLUE BUNNY Sweet Freedom Fresh Dairy Yogurt has been discontinued due to lack of demand. I will definitely pass on your request to return this product to the store shelves to our Marketing Department for their review and consideration.
I shouldn't be this disappointed about one product getting pulled, but I really am. I feel like someone stole my dessert.
I like apples. My favorite variety is Fuji, but I've been having trouble finding them lately, so I've been buying Gala, which are also good. This apple, however, was not so good. It's a Sonya, which I'd never tried before, and I didn't get any farther than this. Unless you like mealy apples, in which case I highly recommend them.
I decided this weekend would be a great time to make some homemade ice cream. You'd have thought I would have done it during the heat of the summer, but it didn't occur to me until I was going through my cookbooks to plan the menu for a dinner I'm hosting at the end of the month, and I found a copy of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream recipes. The recipes look great, but I never seemed to have the right ingredients on hand when I wanted to try them out. I popped the freezer container into the freezer and picked up the ingredients for chocolate ice cream when I went to the store. I was already planning to try the pumpkin ice cream recipe next as that sounds perfect for this time of year.
My hopes were dashed however, when tried to actually freeze the ingredients in the ice cream freezer. The freezer bowl had been in the freezer for about 18 hours, but by the time the motor shut down (after about 20 minutes--much shorter than normal), there had been no progress whatsoever. I put the ice cream mixture back into the fridge and put the freezer bowl back into the freezer, and tried again a couple of hours later. Still no difference.
Now I have unfrozen ice cream in the fridge and a non-working ice cream maker. It seems a frivolous expense to purchase another ice cream maker, but it was a nice treat to serve fresh ice cream now and them. Maybe this would be a good time to add the KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment
I spent much of the day yesterday trying out recipes I've been stockpiling. I made up this platter for the lovely people who agreed to be my taste-testers, but I was able to add one more tart before the platter was whisked away. As I'm not yet able to transmit samples to all of you, I'll just tell you about them. I should say that all of the recipes require that you prepare the tart dough (and partially pre-bake in almost all cases) before moving on to the fillings. You could, I suppose, use a pre-made pie crust for most of them if you were pressed for time.
On the left is the Asparagus-Goat Cheese Tart. I was looking forward to this one because I love asparagus, but it was my least favorite of the four, and got the lowest rating from the testers. There wasn't anything wrong with it--it didn't taste bad--but it just wasn't particularly exciting. It baked longer than the recipe suggested in order to reach the golden color around the edges, so perhaps it was just over-baked. I can't really recommend it and don't plan to make it again.
In the center is the Tomato and Basil Tart. What you can't see from the picture, and what the name doesn't suggest, is the 8 ounces of goat cheese (chevre) that lies under the tomatoes. Between the cheese and the buttery crust, this dish is incredibly rich, and I don't mean maybe. You simply could not make a meal of it, but it is wonderful in small servings. The recipe calls for a garnish of slivered basil over the top, in addition to the basil mixed in with the goat cheese, but my basil was suffering from heat exhaustion and would have done nothing to improve the appearance or taste of the dish. It's not a complicated recipe, but there are several steps that, taken together, make it a bit time-consuming to prepare. I will save this recipe for later, because, as Rustee noted, it would work well as an appetizer.
Over on the top and right is the Red and Yellow Pepper Tart. Unfortunately, I can't link to this one for you, as I got it from a cookbook rather than the web, but you can find it in The Greens Cookbook
Not pictured is the Leek and Mustard Pie, also from The Greens Cookbook (page 245). I'm a bit new to leeks, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. In terms of preparation, it was the simplest recipe of the four and is flexible in terms of cheese. My only quibble with the recipe is that it tells you how the pie will look when it's done, but it doesn't give you a suggestion about how long that will take, so I was constantly checking on it. (For the record, between 45 minutes to an hour.) This recipe edged out the Red and Yellow Pepper Tart as my favorite of the four, but only just. A friend is planning a trip to Kansas City at the end of the month and I think this is one of the dishes I'll be serving her.
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