Butternut squash chili

Tonight I made butternut squash chili. I got the idea from my sister-in-law, but that was last year and I didn't get a recipe, but I found this one:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Butternut-Squash-and-Turkey-Chili/Detail.aspx?soid=recs_recipe_seed

I cut up a sweet onion, two cloves of garlic and prepared a butternut squash. I only used half of a large squash, the rest is in the fridge.
I started the onion and garlic in oil, then added the squash. When the onion looked translucent, I started to add the tomatoes, beans (rinsed slightly), and green Chiles. I also defrosted some frozen corn in the microwave and added that instead of hominy. Then I added some cumin and chili powder. I simmered everything for 20minutes, but the squash was still a little hard, so turned up the heat for another 5 minutes. The squash was in 1inch chunks, so smaller chunks might have cooked faster.

I added some shredded cheese and sour cream on top. Served with the multigrain bread, since I have a lot leftover. Cornbread would also taste good with this.

Mussels with beer broth

Yesterday we tried making up a recipe for mussels. At least that is how I felt. Bert might have been working from a recipe. We cut up 1/2 a medium onion, 2 cloves of garlic and cooked those in some olive oil. Then we added 12oz Sam Adams Lager and 2 pounds of mussels. We used our Dutch oven for this one.

We purchased the mussels at Wegman's. They sent us home with mussels on ice. Bert washed each one and threw out about 3-4 for broken shells. Two pounds is about right for two entrees. You also want to throw out ones that are already open and won't close if you tap them.

The mussels sat in the beer for just a few minutes it seems like before they popped open. Bert sprinkled in some basil, I think the recipe called for parsley but we didn't have any. We served with Wegman's whole grain baguette. The mussel meat was good. I liked the bread. Tough to cut, but soft in the inside. The beer broth was too sour. Next time I want to try a white wine broth instead.

Potato Leek Soup

Our summer CSA may be over, but I am still cooking up recipes in the kitchen. Today was soup.

Potato Leek Soup
1 Leek, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
1 TBS butter and 1 TBS olive oil
8 TJ baby Dutch potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 cups low sodium chicken stock
2 cups milk, 1%
1 bunch kale, stems removed and cut into small pieces
Salt
Peppercorn
Thyme
4 pieces bacon, cooked, chopped
I sauteed the leek with the butter and oil blend in my Dutch oven. Then added the potato and enough stock to cover the potatoes. Simmered until potatoes were tender. Then I transferred to my little pitcher for my hand blender. I puréed most of the soup in two batches. Then added milk. I added salt, ground peppercorn and tasted....I didn't taste much. So, I decided to add some thyme, dried and fresh. And I still didn't taste much so I added the kale, and more salt and peppercorn.  Then I added the bacon. I let simmer for 15minutes.

Bert liked the soup. I still didn't taste much flavor, so added a bunch of pepper once I served it. The pepper helped some. We'll see how it reheats.

The cabbage did not reheat well at all.

Cabbage casserole

I had a GIANT head of cabbage in the fridge from two weeks ago, and finally I had an evening to prepare something.  I found a recipe for scalloped cabbage casserole on-line:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/beths-scalloped-cabbage/detail.aspx

I used 1/2 of the GIANT head of cabbage, used breadcrumbs instead of crackers and sprinkled paprika on top for color.  Bert liked it okay. I think it was kind of boring. I think that smaller pieces of cabbage might have worked better than chunks of cabbage. I think I needed to either drain the cabbage more or use more cheese in my roux. The final product was kind of runny. I sprinkled curry on mine which helped a little.

I served this with grilled pork chops.  I think some butternut squash would also taste good with these two items.

Butternut squash and kale soup

Have barely cooked all week so I still have a fridge full of food. On Wednesday I took the time to peel and chop a butternut squash. This was a good use of time. I was able to quickly prepare one serving for lunch on Friday and two servings for dinner on Friday by microwaving for 3 minutes then mashing with cinnamon.

The whole reason I prepared the squash was to make soup with the kale.

Butternut squash and kale soup
2 large tomatoes, cut into quarters,
1 leek, sliced in half lengthwise, almost to tip, but keep intact
1/4 onion, cut in half
6 garlic cloves whole,
2 1/2 cups butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 4-5 pieces
Celery root, peeled and cut into chunks
1 Yukon potato
Olive oil for roasting
6-8 cups chicken stock
3 leaves crinkle kale, cut into small pieces
1 bay leaf
3 sprigs thyme
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed
1 can kidney beans, rinsed

I brushed a jelly roll pan with olive oil, added my vegetables and then add more oil to the vegetables and stirred it around. Maybe a real roasting pan would have been a better choice... easier to stir. Stir a couple times while cooking.

Vegetables roasted at 400degrees for 30minutes, until tender.

I put 5 cups chicken broth in my Dutch oven with the thyme and bay leaf. Brought to a boil.

Picked through the roasted vegetables. Put the onion, garlic without the peel, and tomato into my blender and blended until smooth.

The rest of the vegetables I transferred to the cutting board and sliced into smaller pieces. Maybe I should have roasted them as small pieces, so I didn't have to cut them again while hot. As it was I still had big chunks of vegetables.

I put everything in with the kale and stock, then added the beans. I then added a couple turns of the salt grinders and peppercorn grinder. My stock was low sodium, so not a lot of salt except for what I added.

I simmered this for 15 minutes.

Served hot with crusty French roll. Yum!

Bert liked the soup fine. I thought it was still kind of bland. In my second helping I added some curry powder, and that helped. I like curry flavor. Also need to figure out the right size for the vegetable cut.

Our last box!

I guess summer is over now that the Summer CSA has ended.
Our last box:
1 head of romaine lettuce
Bunch of kale
1 colored head of cauliflower
1 green pepper
1 medium onion
1 butternut squash
2 tomatoes
4 apples
2 pears
1 really giant head of cabbage
2 leeks
1 celeriac bulb

Unstuffed Cabbage

They gave me a giant head of cabbage, so I had plenty for another recipe.

Unstuffed Cabbage- makes about 6 servings
1 pound chicken sausage (apple chardonnay flavor)
1/2 onion chopped
14 oz can diced tomatoes
3oz tomato paste
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon chili powder
Salt to taste
Red pepper flakes to taste
5 cups shredded cabbage

In my large non-stick skillet I started by heating the sausage with the onion until the onion was a little soft. I cut the onion into half rings, because I wanted to match the size with the cabbage pieces. Next I added the tomatoes, vinegar, salt and pepper. Then I folded in the cabbage. I cooked that for about 10minutes.

I actually used red chili pepper flakes, which made the dish super spicy so I added a little sugar to try to balance the flavor.

This was okay. I served it with roasted potatoes (which I thought were a little burned). The dish was very spicy. The sausage was tasty. If I made it again I would leave out the red pepper flakes.

We ate this for leftovers a couple nights later. We served it with rice, which really improved the flavor.

Braised cabbage

Tonight we tried Braised cabbage. Recipe found here:
https://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/

I didn't want to buy a 1/2 gallon of cider, so I bought a 12oz bottle of hard cider.
I didn't buy caraway seeds because Trader Joes didn't have them and I didn't want to stop at another store. I tried cumin instead.
I didn't buy fresh thyme either and used dried instead.
I added my last turnip with the apple. The apple wasn't a Granny Smith. I think it was a Cortland.
I shredded the cabbage by using my mandolin on the julienne setting. That worked really well. All of the skin on my hand is still intact!

Bert melted the butter, added the turnip for two minutes, then the apple for another two minutes, then the cider and spices, waited three minutes, then added the cabbage, covered and simmered for 9 minutes.

This all took about 20 minutes. We served this with roasted potatoes and chicken.
Overall, I am not a fan of cabbage. This dish was edible, and certainly an acceptable way to get rid of some cabbage. I think that it needed more apple flavor, so either I needed to use more cider or buy real cider.  I will try the leftovers tomorrow.

No more corn!

Today's box
1 giant head of cabbage
3 tomatoes
3 peaches
2 pears
4 apples
2 peppers
1 onion
1 butternut squash
1 head of lettuce
1 head of cauliflower
2 servings of potato

I am really going to miss having fresh vegetables! We have at least one more week of the CSA, possibly a bonus week depending on how the fields look.

butternut squash risotto

I had two butternut squash sitting on my counter, staring at me. Eventually I was going to need to cut them up, so I chose to do that this morning while Bert was golfing. The alternative was take-out for lunch.

Butternut Squash Risotto
1/2 butternut squash, peeled, diced
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon oil
Salt
pepper
Chili powder
1 small onion, diced
2 tablespoon of butter
1 cup Arborio Rice (Risotto)
4 cups chicken stock (probably)

Parmesan cheese
Parsley
I melted the butter and stirred with the olive oil, then added the squash and seasoning. I stirred this until the squash was tender. I put this aside on another plate. You can also prepare the squash by steaming on the stove top. One recipe said to mash the squash once cooked. I kept it in diced form.

I warmed 2 TBS of butter and added my onion. I stirred this for 2 minutes, then added the rice. I stirred the rice for about 1-2 minutes, then I started to add the stock. I had warmed the stock on another burner. I transferred warm stock to my risotto, about two to three ladles worth at a time. Each time I added stock, I stirred until the stock had been absorbed before adding more. After about 3 cups, I was getting hungry so I tasted the rice. It had a good consistency so I stopped there. Yummy!

I turned the heat down and covered until Bert arrived home, about 8 minutes later. You can serve with cheese and parsley. I forgot both but the recipes still tasted good.

Bert thought the recipe had cream in it because it was so creamy! The recipe probably took 90minutes to prepare.

Stir fried caulifower

Tonight I tried a new cauliflower recipe. Someone at work suggested it to me when I told them I don't really like cauliflower. We'll call it stir fried cauliflower.

I grated the cauliflower, mostly the florets, less of the stalk. I also diced a small onion,
I warmed oil in a pan then added the cauliflower and onion.
I stirred and stirred and added a little more oil to see if it would get crispy at all. It didn't.
I then added low sodium soy sauce. Now it started to look like fried rice, which was the point.

I liked eating cauliflower this way. Bert did not like it because it had too much soy sauce and he couldn't taste the cauliflower. I liked it because I couldn't taste the cauliflower. I will need to find another recipe that works for both of us.

Nearing the end of the summer CSA :(

We did a pretty good job this past week eating our vegetables. We weren't around this weekend, but the only thing left from last week was one serving of stuffed pepper and a turnip.

This week's box had:
4 ears of corn
3 tomatoes
2 peppers
Head of cauliflower
3 peaches
4 apples
2 medium potatoes
Head of green leaf leattuce

Stuffed Pepper

For stuffed peppers tonight I used:

1 cup 10minute Uncle Ben's Brown Rice
1 head of Asian Greens
8oz V8 low sodium vegetable juice
2 chicken sausage links
2 medium tomatoes
3 peppers
Shredded cheese blend, low fat


I started the water boiling for the peppers. While that was boiling, I cleaned and cut the pepper and greens. The greens taste like cabbage.  I also started the rice, which took 10 minutes.

When the large pot of water was boiling I added the greens' stems first, then the peppers (I cut those in half this time so they would fit in the pot). I brought that back to boiling then added the green leaves. After a minute or two I drained off the water and returned it to the large pot so I could add the diced tomato, rice and chicken sausage. Last time I made stuffed peppers, I thought it was dry, so this time I added the vegetable juice.  Seasoned with salt and ground peppercorn.

I scooped the filling into the pepper halves and arranged in a baking dish. I sprinkled cheese on top, covered and baked in the oven, convection setting, for 20minutes. It was heated through after 20minutes.

This took about 1.5 hours, cooking on my own. Not sure Bert would have saved me much time since there was time spent waiting for water to boil.

Baba Ganouj Take 2

I think I first had Baba Ganouj when I lived in Boston in 2003 and tried Shwarma King. Growing up, I don't think there was anything like Shwarma. I am pretty sure I first had it in a wrap, probably with falafel. The first time I made it myself was for a Grad School International Food Potluck. Yes, the white girl from VT brought Baba ganouj. The recipe I used came from an Eating Well magazine, so I am pretty sure I picked that recipe because I had a free copy of Eating Well lying around and there was the recipe with very few ingredients. Score!

I made another batch of Baba Ganouj Tuesday night. I used eggplant that had been in my fridge for two days, much fresher than the batch I made the other day. This time I cut the eggplant in half, massaged the skin with Olive oil and put it cut side down on a baking sheet. I baked at 350 for 30minutes, cooled it on the counter then scooped out the filling. I ended up eating the skin, it was really tasty!

In the last 15minutes of cooking I tossed a few garlic pieces on the tray to bake. I used one of these in my dip.

I blended 1 tablespoon of Tahini with 1 TBS of lemon juice and 1 clove of the garlic with the eggplant with my hand mixer. Oh boy it was good. Nice a creamy and smooth. Good blend of flavors and not too much garlic this time!

This is tasting really good as a dressing for my tabouleh over romaine lettuce and stuffed in Joseph's low carb pita. I stretched it for lunch all week.

Stuffed winter squash

We made stuffed winter squash last night.
Recipe was provided by Stillman's Farm, but they haven't posted the recipe yet.

Yummy squash recipe (makes 4 large servings)
1 winter squash (I used carnival, provided by CSA)
1 small onion
2/3cup apple juice
1/4 cup dried currants
1 tablespoon curry
2 apples, pared, cored, diced (I used Jonamacs which I had on hand, the original recipe calls for Granny Smith).

Soften the onion in a 1 tablespoon of butter. Then add curry, stir for about a minute. Then add currants, apples, and juice. Salt to taste. Stir until liquid is absorbed.

I cut squash into quarters and cleaned out the seeds. The recipe calls for acorn squash, sliced into 1inch rounds. Slicing winter squash into that many pieces sounded dangerous, so I stuck with quarters. Placed these into a 9x13 baking pan with some water in the bottom.

Spooned the apple mixture into the quarters. Covered with foil. Baked for one hour at 350degrees.

By this time, we were starving and ate something different for dinner, so I scooped out the squash into a casserole dish and saved it for later.

When I reheated my portion the next day, I added a little more butter which helped smooth out some of the acidity. Bert added cinnamon to his quarter and really liked it that way.

I figure about 30g of carb per quarter.

Tasty Pork

I got this recipe from Cooking Light. The recipe is for Barbecue Pork, but it isn't "real" barbecue.

The recipe
4 bone-in center cut pork chops (I bought 2 packages at 0.7 pounds each)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (I found low sodium!)
1 tablespoon soy sauce (low sodium)

Season the pork with salt, pepper, garlic powder and thyme.

Put under broiler, about six minutes a side. We added the sauce at 3minutes, then turned at 6minutes, added sauce, and sauced again at 9minutes, take out at 12minutes.

The next night we did this on a grill pan on the stove top. That also worked well (and the condo didn't heat up like an oven with the broiler on).

This was really good and easy. We are going to make this a regular on our table.

Baba Ganouj or is it Ganoush?

For Baba Ganouj I used
Two small eggplants from last week
1 tablespoon Tahini paste
2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

I peeled the eggplant, cut into 1inch pieces, salted, then tossed in olive oil. I put this in the oven for 30minutes. Tried to toss them once while cooking (that was after 25minutes, would aim for 15minutes next time). I took them out and let them cool.

I put the eggplant into my hand mixer container. Then added the paste, lemon juice, garlic and Olive oil (1-2 tablespoons). Used my new found hand mixer to make it nice and smooth. I think there was too much garlic, but too late to take it out this time.

For lunch, I also made Tabouleh. I used a box of Near East Tabouleh mix. It was ready to expire! Probably would taste better using fresh ingredients. I mixed in one of my tomatoes, some olive oil and lemon juice. I think this will taste good with the eggplant spread on a pita with some romaine lettuce. I hope it does because this is my lunch plan for the week!

Asian Greens this week!

We have a few things leftover from last week.
3 Turnips
1 red pepper
Leftover beet hummus (how long is this good for?)
And our neighbor left us a quart of cherry tomatoes since we helped water them this summer

This week's box
4 large ears of corn
Head of cauliflower
1 bunch of Komatsuna, I think
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 small onion
2 small eggplant
3 medium tomatoes
4 small pears
I also purchased a 1/2 peck of Jonamac's from Trader Joes

This afternoon I made Baba Ganoush/Ganouj and Tabouleh. I am thinking I'll have tabouleh and hummus in my lunch... and maybe some turnips, since I can eat those raw. The ones I have are very sweet.

Trying the turnips

I can't remember the last time I ate turnips, if ever. I checked out allrecipes.com to find a good turnip recipe to start us off on the right foot. I knew if Bert didn't like the first bite of turnip, it would be an uphill battle to get him to eat another.

I used this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Thanksgiving-Day-Creamed-Turnips/Detail.aspx

I am not sure of the size changes for turnips, but I chose the largest one in my bunch. I should have weighed it out first. I peeled and diced and boiled. I made the roux and blended the turnips with the roux and ate it up!  The turnip has a good flavor raw (I ate a few pieces before cooking) and is good in the recipe. The recipe calls for sugar, which I added this time, but will probably leave out next time. There was a lot of sauce, so probably could prepare 1/2 as much sauce next time.

I hear turnips do not reheat well, so Bert and I had to split this recipe... and now we'll have sushi for lunch. Odd combo, I know. But, I wanted to try the turnips before I picked up my next CSA box.

The brookies got rave reviews at the party. Not sure how the middle pieces turned out, but the edge pieces were tasty (and crunchy like a brownie edge).

I also bought a new 9x13 pan yesterday! So next time I can make the brookies without burning the top.

Thin Mint Brookie

We are going to a dessert bake-off tomorrow. Since it is with Bert's friends, he picked the recipe.
He loves mint chocolate, so we went with this recipe.
http://beyondfrosting.com/2014/02/09/thin-mint-brookies/

We didn't have any Girl Scout Thin Mints, but Walgreens has "fudge mint" cookies which are not the same as Thin Mints, but still good. I used a 9x13 brownie mix from Betty Crocker and refrigerator cookies by Tollhouse.

Since I don't have real bakeware that is 9x13, and I didn't want to run to the store tonight, we used an aluminum pan. It is really hard to cook with an aluminum pan. The cookies are still raw after 30minutes.

They smell good! Maybe we'll have to eat raw dough. At the very least, I need a new 9x13!!

spaghetti squash

I nearly slit my hand open tonight with a giant knife.

First, when I cut off the stem of the spaghetti squash, I noticed that the skin was really tough. This didn't stop me from thrusting the knife blade deep into the center of the squash.  Once it was in there, I couldn't really move it... at all. The skin was so hard! As I tried to pull it out, I realized that I was probably going to lose a finger if I continued to try to cut through this squash... and Bert wasn't around to staunch the blood and rush me to the ED. I suffered a quick flashback to the year that I tried to carve a pumpkin by myself as my mom was occupied on the phone. Almost lost my thumb that day. This time, I put the knife down before hurting myself and decided I was not going to cut it in half first. There must be an easier way, and there was.

I turned the oven to 375/convection. I punctured a few more holes into the skin, carefully, then put the whole thing in the oven. I baked it for about 50minutes.  When it came out, I was able to easily cut it in half, scoop out the seeds and shred the insides.  There was plenty for two nights.  I served it with Francisco Ronaldi's heart healthy sauce with added dry basil and oregano. We also bought some turkey meatballs in the refrigerator section, which I heated with the sauce.  The meal turned out really good! I could probably also consider heating the frozen eggplant slices for next time. We ate the pasta with crusty French rolls which I wrapped in aluminum foil and warmed in the oven for 4 minutes. 
The food this week has been so good! Bert loves spaghetti squash and meatballs.

Beet hummus

First, the ratatouille is amazing. I just want to eat it all at once! I ate it for lunch today with a French roll, grilled chicken and an apple. I was hungry all afternoon, so maybe tomorrow I'll eat the lentils with my lunch too.

Tonight I made an easy omelet for supper and stirred in some ratatouille and parm cheese. So good!

With a full belly I made beet hummus.  I took out my Kitchen Aid Hand mixer. This was a gift from my aunt. I used it for the first time tonight, took off the plastic wrap and everything. The Kitchen Aid has more than one attachment, that's a plus! It was a little tiring to make hummus this way, by hand, but in all, probably easier than doing it with my bad food processor. I could also make it easier next time by cutting the beet pieces smaller I used this recipe:
http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beet_hummus/

1/2 pound of beets is about 1 medium beet. I used all I had left, which was 1.5 beets (11ounces).  I added three TBS of Tahini sauce, 1/4 of fresh squeezed lemon juice, 1 garlic clove, 1 TBS of zest and 1 TBS of cumin. It tastes okay. I think there is too much cumin, and probably needs more lemon juice, which I don't have. All in all, worth bringing to work for lunch.

My Hamilton Beach Blender and Food Processor

I looked into my issues with the Hamilton Beach processor and I found others with the EXACT same problem. First, I was complaining about the horrible job it does with purée with my friend and she said to me, "don't you have a special attachment for the food processor?" and I'm like, no. I just have the one blade in the food processor and then one blade for the blender." This got me thinking... did I leave the third blade somewhere??

I searched the web for a description of my food processor. I found images that I could match with a model number. I then matched the model number with items for sale on Amazon, and I found the exact same piece of equipment.  One of the reviewers specifically said, "the blade pushes the food to the side and cuts absolutely nothing.". OMG it is like she took the words right out of my mouth. Basically the reviews state that it is probably good at chopping ice. Nice. Well, I bought this thing so long ago, that I probably wasn't smart enough to search for reviews on-line before buying it.  The days before Amazon started selling stuff other than books or posting reviews of products (or at least before my awareness of these things.) I either received this as a gift (likely) or bought it myself, either senior year in college (maybe not) or my first year in Boston. I definitely remember making cucumber soup in the processor in my second apartment in Boston (2004).

My Aunt bought me a hand mixer, which has a specific chop/purée attachment, so I think I will try using this the next time I make purée beets.... for beet hummus or Baba ganoush.

Ratatouille

I made ratatouille tonight so I can bring my lunch to work this week. I did have to stop by the store to pick up a summer squash, since I realized just today that I didn't actually get one in my box this week! And so ends the summer squash season. The farms might have some for the Farmer's market, but maybe not enough to put in the CSA boxes. Even the grocery store was almost out of zucchini. There was one left.  I didn't take it, but the summer squash looked okay, so I took one of those.

I used
1 large onion
Some garlic cloves
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
The thin eggplant
The summer squash
3 small tomatoes
Salt
Oregano
Basil

I used some suggestions from this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ratatouille-recipe0.html

I started with the onion and garlic, cooked that a little, then added the eggplant, cooked that a little, then added the rest except tomato and cooked that a little. Then I added the tomatoes, salt, oregano, and basil and covered. It simmered for probably 40minutes. I pulled out an eggplant piece and it was really good! Now it is cooling and then I'll eat it the rest of the week.
I am going to try it with lentils tomorrow, and maybe again for dinner with an egg. I also have crusty French rolls that will taste good with it.

This is before I cooked it down.

Besides the chopping, which I am getting better at, this was fairly quick and easy. Emeril's recipe only cooked it for 5 extra minutes instead of 40minutes, so I could probably save some time there.

I used some of the juice from the ratatouille to flavor my water for the lentils. Should be good!

Chicken Broccoli Casserole

For this recipe, I took inspiration from a few different recipes on allrecipes.com.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Broccoli-Chicken-Divan/Detail.aspx
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chicken-Divan/Detail.aspx

Bert sauteed about 1 pound of chicken tenders, cubed. I steamed 1 medium head of fresh broccoli (cut into pieces) for about 5minutes or so, but I think the "or so" was a little too long. I layered the broccoli into an 11x7 glass Pyrex. The chicken was seasoned with salt and pepper and layered into the dish. Then I mixed 1 can of cream of broccoli soup with about 1/2 can of fat free milk and some curry. I poured/distributed the soup over the chicken and broccoli. I sprinkled low fat Mexican cheese blend on the top, then some breadcrumbs (plain).  Maybe I should have mixed melted butter with the breadcrumbs to add some color to the dish. I baked in the oven for 30minutes at 350degrees.

I liked the casserole. Bert did not care for it. He thought there was too much broccoli, but he also didn't realize there was curry in it, which was the most prominent flavor, so we are still not really sure what he didn't like about the dish.

We served this with steamed corn the first night and roasted potatoes the second night. If we didn't have either, you could probably add more water to the dish with instant rice to make a complete casserole.

Turnips in the box!

One more post before I go to bed.
Our haul today:
3 tomatoes
1 pear, 2 apples
4 turnips!
2 medium potatoes
1 spaghetti squash
4 thin, small, long eggplant
1 small regular shaped eggplant
3 peppers
4 ears corn
1 medium onion

Dinner details to come, but we made a Chicken Broccoli Casserole.

Beet cake

For lunch we finished the stuffed peppers. And then I was hungry/low afternoon, but this was probably related to the Barre class I took in the morning, and partially due to the low calorie meal the stuffed pepper is.

I spent the afternoon making beet cake. Recipe here:
https://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/2014/08/09/csa-week-7-2014/
Or here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/beet-cake

I boiled the beets a few nights ago, so those were ready to go. I used the julienne setting on my mandolin and the safety to hold the beet. I used one GIANT beet and half of a medium beet to get two cups purée. After slicing and dicing (done with one motion on the mandolin) the GIANT beet, I piled those pieces into my food processor.  Man I hate that thing. First of all, I don't understand how my processor has like 12 different settings, but uses the same blade. Secondly, every time I use that thing, the food gets flung to the side and makes no progress.  Finally after like 20minutes of running that thing, stirring, processing, stirring, processing, it actually started to look like purée.  Unfortunately, I was just shy of two cups, so then I had to cut up the 1/2 of the medium beet. The piece was too small for the mandolin so I cut it into chunks and put it in the processor... again it took forever, but maybe I didn't have enough bulk in there to get it working right, so I added back some of the other purée to give more volume... which helped a little. Eventually it was "good enough.".

I eliminated the chocolate as the recipe writer suggested, but I kept the 1/4 stick of butter in the recipe, thinking that the fat from the butter was important (but figured the fat from the chocolate was okay to skip). I creamed the butter with light brown sugar (a little shy of 1.5 packed cups, I used all I had without going to the store). Mixed in the vanilla and then the eggs one at a time. I melted 1/4cup butter (like I was supposed to do to prepare the chocolate, and I did this because melting butter in the microwave can give it a different texture that melting on the stove or using soft butter at room temperature). I blended the beets with the butter, then added that to my sugar. I blended the flour with the salt and soda then added that to my mix slowly.  Beet juice was everywhere. My kitchen looked like the scene to a massacre. My clothes were only saved because I wore an apron.

I spent a lot of time online trying to figure out how to bake this without a 10inch fluted pan. Who has one of those things anyway? Probably my grandma because she used to make me angel cake. I should get that from her because she isn't baking anymore! Anyway, I decided to use a 9x13 baking dish (my lovely white one from Martha Stewart, cleans so easy, it didn't know that was the last thing it would ever bake. So sad). I tried to use canola in the Misto and then flour the sides, but that was a big mess, so decided to use parchment paper. This makes the corners ugly, but if you eat the corners, then no one is the wiser.  It baked perfect in 50minutes. This makes about 16-20 serving. Each with about 10g of fat, 30g of carb and 200kcal.

It is so tasty! There is a hint of beet. The texture is soft and dare I say moist. Better than any zucchini bread I have ever made.  Bert didn't care for it, but he doesn't like beets. We'll see what the girls at work say.

And then I proceeded to break my 9x13 baking dish as I cleaned it.  I was putting it back in the sink for one more rinse, when I bumped it into the drain hole. Drat.

Stuffed peppers

Tonight I made a new dish! Stuffed peppers.
I had one medium red bell pepper, 1 large green bell pepper, 1 small red bell pepper. Leftover eggplant and squash from the previous recipe and leftover bulgur, already cooked. We also defrosted two chicken sausage links (Thin and Trim brand).

I boiled the peppers in a large pot of boiling water for like 5 minutes. I diced the squash and eggplant that had already been sauteed and seasoned earlier in the day and cut up a medium tomato. I mixed all of my vegetables with sausage pieces together. I cut the soft peppers in half, then filled them with my stuffing. I then sprinkled cheese on the top and baked it in the oven at 350 for maybe 30minutes, took it out, sprinkled on more cheese, and put it in for another 5 minutes. Done.

Bert didn't have any complaints as he shoveled it into his mouth. I thought the stuffing was kind of dry and maybe would taste better with some tomato sauce to bring everything together.

Made enough for four servings (two nights) for us.

We each ate half of the green pepper. Tomorrow we will share the red peppers since those are smaller we can each eat a whole one (or share the halves since the small pepper is very small).

Bread and butter follow up

I finally got around to trying the last batch of pickles that I made. Honestly, the skin on that cucumber variety is too tough for pickles. I didn't like the stringy onion pieces. The flavor of the brine wasn't quite right either. Maybe I really did need all of that sugar... or I brought out too much flavor of the spices by toasting them a little before adding the vinegar.  Need to work on this recipe.

A new dish

Last night I made Summer Tian, recipe here:
https://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/

This took a little longer to make than I anticipated, probably because I didn't really pay attention to the baking time until I put it in the oven. Oops!
I started making the dish around 6pm and we ate around 7:30pm, a little later than I like.

I sliced the onion and garlic, Bert sauteed it. I then sliced 1 summer squash, 1 skinny eggplant, 2 baby red potatoes, 1 large tomato. It was too much. I had squash and eggplant leftover.  I salted the eggplant a little before adding it to the dish.

I baked it for 30minutes, then added the cheese and baked for another 15minutes. The potatoes were still a little hard, so maybe needs 35-40minutes before adding the cheese. The cheese was crispy after 15minutes. While the cheese baked I made tilapia, fresh, from Trader Joes. Used my grill pan to cook the fish. The fish had a little heat and was pretty tasty.

Overall the tian was okay. An acceptable way to eat eggplant.

Tonight we ate leftovers. I rolled the leftovers into a whole wheat wrap to add a few more calories. I also boiled the beets, and used the beet water to make bulgur for lunch tomorrow. I didn't get any greens this week, so I was lazy with packing my lunch. A salad is so easy to bring to work! Without a salad I have to come up with other lunch ideas that don't involve leftovers, because I really don't want to cook every night. It is easier when my lunch can be tossed together in the morning. Tomorrow I'll bring in the beets, bulgur and some cucumber... and call it a salad I guess. The bulgur is 10minute variety from TJ's. Cooks up really easy.

Another bounty

I am a little behind this week, both in eating the veggies and writing here. My excuses 1)I've had a cold that I can't seem to shake 2)I didn't make any new recipes last week 3) I worked this weekend, which was three days. We fell behind with our veggie consumption since 1) I don't bring my lunch to work when it is the weekend because there is no time to waste walking back to my office when the café is right there 2) we ate out Saturday night 2/2 bad planning (still not sure if it was my fault we didn't defrost chicken, or if it was Bert's fault for not thinking about it while I slaved away at work) 3)we ate out Sunday night (he had plans with his friend, and well, I invited myself along so I wasn't stuck cooking for myself 4)Bert always gets takeout for all his meals when I work.

Going into Sunday we still had two cucumbers, a head of broccoli and squash casserole leftovers remaining.

Bert picked up the following
2 tomatoes
2 peaches
Head of broccoli
Bunch of beets
2 eggplant
3 peppers
2 squash
4 cucumbers
4 ears of corn
4 potatoes
1 onion
Bunch of radishes

I think this is the start of a recipe for ratatouille in there... too bad Bert tends to not like tomatoes and eggplant.

Two complaints. 1) Bert didn't pick up this week's newsletter which usually has recipe ideas and the farm is behind in posting the newsletter to the blog, so I am on my own. 2) He tossed the peaches in the giant grocery bag, so by the time he got home they were all bruised!

We finally ate at home on Monday evening, for my birthday! Bert steamed the corn, sauteed the broccoli and chicken, like I asked him to. I brought two cucumbers to work to share. We ate out last night because I needed a drink after working the weekend and here we are, Wednesday, and a long way to go with the veggies.

Potatoes!

I was away last week so had a break from the CSA. I missed the fresh veggies!
This week
4 ears corn
1 summer squash
2 small eggplants
1 bunch kale
2 large tomatoes
3 peaches
6 small red bliss potatoes
4 cucumbers
1 small head of broccoli
1 each red and green pepper
1 small onion

Tonight we steamed the corn and kale. Served them with peppercorn flavored pork tenderloin. The tenderloin was very tender. We baked at 425 for about 35 minutes. Easy meal. Tomorrow we'll use the leftover pork in fajitas.

Bread and Butter Pickles

This time I decided to make refrigerator pickles using one recipe: Hannaford's Bread and Butter Pickles from July 2011. My mom makes amazing pickles with this recipe. We'll see if I can replicate her success.

The recipe calls for 4 pickling cucumbers, well cleaned. I don't have "pickling cucumbers" so I used a standard cucumber. My "standard" cucumber is about 1 pound size. The skin is a little tough and the seeds are big. The outside skin is smooth, deep dark green, nothing prickly.

A different recipe said to use 1 pound of cucumbers for one cup vinegar. My mom's recipe, although for "4 cucumbers," uses 1 cup of vinegar, so I figured my one cucumber would be sufficient.

This recipe also uses 2 large sweet onions. That seemed excessive, so I used the one I had.

I sliced the cucumber using my mandolin. I didn't cut myself this time! For the onion, I cut off the top, stuck the teeth of the mandolin guard into the top, and sliced the onion in that way using 1/8inch cut. I then cut the rings into quarters. I don't know if that was the best way to do it. Maybe I should have cut the onion top to bottom.

Next I used Kosher salt and mixed the cucumbers and onions with the salt. I put this in the fridge for two hours, okay maybe three.  Then rinsed them off with cold water.

For the brine, I toasted turmeric, celery seed, mustard seed, cayenne pepper and whole clove quickly in a skillet. Then I added 1 cup of white vinegar and 3/4 cup sugar (the recipe calls for 1 cup sugar, but because of my diabetes, I used a little less).

I boiled the brine for one minute then poured over my cucumbers. The amount of brine was just about perfect to cover 1pound of cucumber. I filled two of my Mason jars with the cucumbers and most of the onion.

Now it is cooling for two hours and then I will put in the fridge to eat later.

Baked Eggplant

Tonight I made baked eggplant. Recipe found here:
https://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/baked-eggplant-2/

I had one skinny and long eggplant and one fat eggplant. The skinny one I cut the long way, the fat one I cut into small circles. I used a spatula to spread real mayo on each piece. I put these on a baking sheet with parchment paper. I then sprinkled shredded Parmesan cheese on each one. Popped them into the oven just as the recipe stated.

They are so yummy!  I may try freezing them if there are any left tomorrow.
Tomorrow I make cucumbers.
Tonight we had the kale.

Broccoli stir fry

Fresh broccoli is so good. I am not a huge fan of broccoli, especially raw and plain. I will eat it after it has marinated in a pasta salad and certainly after being steamed. Bert prepared our broccoli first by stir frying with pepper, onion and olive oil. As the vegetables got tender, he added chicken and then Island Soyaki Sauce. The final product was amazing. Broccoli has never tasted so good to me.

We prepared the other half of the head tonight in the same way. I defrosted some shrimp to change things up, so we had shrimp and chicken broccoli stir fry! I am so sad that the broccoli is all gone now.

I still have eggplant, one squash, 1/2 onion, a tomato, 2 cucumbers, some lettuce and kale. I have 3 meals left to finish them off! I think I will probably make pickles on Saturday.

The lettuce is holding up well in the cotton sacks.

Peaches and broccoli, but not together

We had a bountiful pick up on Sunday.
Two eggplant
4 ears of corn
1 small head of lettuce
1 bunch kale
3 tomatoes
4 cucumbers
1 summer squash
1 pepper
1 onion
1 head of broccoli
2 peaches
1/2 pint blueberries

We immediately fixed the corn, so tasty! Cooked last week's kale bunch on the stovetop and stir fried chicken.

I got through the lettuce and cucumber from last week today. Just a bunch of arugula left! I also already ate the peaches. They were perfectly ripe so had one for breakfast and one for lunch.

Zucchini muffins

I am almost done with the box from last week.
Last night I made pasta. I stir fried the zucchini, then decided to add Italian style stewed tomatoes, and 1 cup white kidney beans. This made enough for two nights. I cut up all my cucumbers for the beach tomorrow and hope they are all eaten.

Tonight I made zucchini muffins. I followed the recipe my mom gave me for zucchini bread. Divided it in half since I didn't need two loaves of bread. I made 12, 1/2 cup muffins.  I had one rather large, but not extra large zucchini. I grated it, then tried to squeeze out the extra water. I used canola oil instead of "Crisco oil" not sure if that is what she meant by Crisco oil or if she meant the thick white paste-like oil. The original recipe called for three eggs, so I used 1 egg and 1 egg white figuring that was about half an egg. There were no instructions about greasing the pan, but I did anyways. I used my canola oil Misto in each cup then wiped up the extra around the edges and the large drops in the middle. Baked at 350 for about 25minutes and they came out golden brown. Can't wait to taste! So far it looks like it was a good idea to grease the pan. After they cooled for a few minutes, I removed the muffins to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Also, I bought organic cotton produce bags to use instead of plastic when we go to the store and for storage at home. Amazon and reviewers of these cotton sacks suggested they could be used for storing lettuce and "keeps lettuce leaves fresh for a long time." Umm, compared to what? We'll just have to wait and see! When I received the bags I washed them in the laundry with cold water, then air dried all but the one I wanted to use for lettuce. The bag was damp, as suggested on the website, and I placed my lettuce leaves in the bag. Today, about two days later the bag was getting dry and the leaves a little wilted, so I wet the bag again. We'll see how the leaves look tomorrow. The leaves were certainly edible today, and I might have been able to revive them a little with a rinse in vinegar/water.


Things left to use
1 bunch kale
1 bunch arugula
A few leaves of red leaf lettuce

And I finished all the pickles, mine and my mom's! My mom's pickles are so much better than the ones I made. I will need to try her recipe for real next time.

Tofu stir fry

On Tuesday we made stir fry. Bert heated up some olive oil. I carefully cut the tofu into 40 squares, 5 squares x 4 squares x 2 squares. I tried to squeeze out as much moisture as possible, by laying the tofu block out on paper towels, and then drying it again when I made the first cut. Bert watched and turned the tofu in the large skillet. When they looked perfectly brown, he transferred the cubes to back to the cutting board, then started the vegetable stir fry. He used 1/2 green pepper, 1/2 onion, 1 large summer squash. We used Tj's Island Soyaki sauce for flavoring. Dinner was served over Uncle Ben's 10minute brown rice. 

Even though the crisp on the tofu was good, I am still not a fan... and neither is Bert. It is just too soft. I either need to give very firm tofu a try, or give up on this method of using tofu.

Wednesday we went to a shindig after work and didn't get home until 8:30 or so. Instead of eating leftovers we just had eggs and toast.

Tonight we ate the tofu leftovers. At least the tofu is more consistent tonight. Soft all the way through instead of having a crispy exterior. Leftover stir fry is not that great. Everything is mushy. Note to self: stir fry isn't hard. Just make it from scratch.

My composting pail arrives August 23rd! The business is so busy they couldn't get me a pail right away. Good news for them, unfortunate news for me. We need better composting options!

Trying to compost

Today's box:
1 giant head of red leaf lettuce
4 cucumbers
4 ears of corn
1 bunch kale
1 bunch arugula
1 bunch small beets (white beets with red veins)
1 pepper
1 onion
2 tomatoes
1/2 pint blueberries

I also picked up: Cisco's Light Sankaty to try.

My mom also left behind two small cucumbers and a handful of green leaf lettuce... and a jar of her refrigerator pickles. Although, I did say it was okay to leave me the lettuce and pickles. I could tell she didn't want to drag them back home with her... and she had just told me that she made another 4 jars before making the trip down, so I knew she had plenty to spare.

After washing all the lettuce I looked at the remaining stump and realized that it was ridiculous for this to all end up in the landfill in a plastic bag! And I feel it is too much for my garbage disposal to take. Especially since I think that the more I use the disposal the greater the chance I am going to break it and need to hire a plumber to fix it. I finally decided to buy into a composting group:
http://bootstrapcompost.com/
They will pick up a 5gallon compost bucket every two weeks. Three times a year I think they return some compost to you or donate it to Boston school gardens. I opted for donation since I don't have my own garden! Can I write off the compost donation on my taxes??

Well, the bucket might arrive too late for today, but hopefully I'll get one later this week.

I peeled the beets and started those roasting. That is when I realized they were white beets with red veins. So far I had only received traditional dark red/purple beets. I have already pulled them out of the oven and tried a few. So tasty and earthy!

Since the oven was on anyway, I kept working and made my mom's Italian Bake.  Not a drop of Italian blood in us, but this is a good use of my CSA! I had scratched out the recipe on a post-it note like 4 years ago. I must have been on the phone with my mom at the time, because there were limited details. This is what I did this time:

Italian Bake
4 small zukes or eggplant
1/2 onion
16oz tomato sauce
2 cloves garlic
Oregano to taste
Shredded cheese
Bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350. I sauteed the onion and garlic in a little oil, then added the tomato sauce until warm. Added some oregano. I used the mandolin to slice my vegetables to 1/4 inch. I used 1 yellow squash, 1 Zuke, 2 thin long eggplant. I sprinkled a little salt on them.

Next I layered the vegetables, then tomato/onion mix, then cheese, then repeat. Topped with cheese and breadcrumbs and more oregano.  It is baking as I type. I will let you know how it turns out. I wonder if 1) I should put breadcrumbs within the layers 2) it is better to sauté the onion first, or just boil in the sauce?

We will also make the corn tonight and stir fry some chicken.

End of week inventory

We are going to have a surplus this week. We haven't cut into summer squash or eggplant yet.
Thursday I ate dinner out. Last night I steamed the green beans and served with leftover risotto and chicken. The green beans took less than 10 minutes I think. I put the everyday seasoning on top with lemon juice and a little butter. They were perfect.

Inventory
2 eggplant
4 summer squash/zucchini
3 small slices cantaloupe (this was very good!)
1 serving leftover beets
1 serving lettuce greens
1 jar of pickles
1 tomato

For lunch I will finish the lettuce and beets. My parents are visiting so I'll serve them a tomato with sandwiches, might as well eat up the cantaloupe too. The pickles will probably last another week or two, so I'll continue to work on those this week.

I have been packing the pickles in my lunch. I parse them out in the morning and sprinkle a little sugar on them. By lunch they are perfectly balanced and edible without choking on the acid. I'll be glad when this set is done! My mom promised to bring me the rest of the spices used in her recipe. She bought them in bulk for less than Stop n Shop sells them for two ounces.

Comedy of Risotto

We made the risotto dish again last night since it is pretty easy.
I really wanted to go to the gym after work on Tuesday since I hadn't been in a while. As I was leaving work I texted Bert: "going to the gym. we need to defrost chicken." He knows that means I forgot to take some out that morning, and when he gets home he needs to start running the single breast under water (it takes about 30minutes and a lot of water to do it this way).  As I walked to the gym I remembered that we didn't have any starch for the meal, and we had leftover ingredients to make the risotto again. This time I called him, because I have a dumbphone and typing instructions into a text would take forever. I had to leave a message: "Hi hon, let's make the risotto again tonight. The kale is already washed and ready to use, and the tomato sauce is in a Tupperware container in the fridge. I hope to be home by 6, but if you can start that around 6, then we can eat around 7. Love you! "
After my work-out my sugar was low, so I couldn't race home. Instead I sat on a bench and drank Gatorade. I texted him again, "my sugar is low, need to wait before I walk home." When my sugar felt better I started to walk home. I decided I should probably text him again so he knows I didn't pass out in a ditch or something: "I am getting close" at 6:30.

I get home finally and the first thing he says to me is "I failed." And I know that means, he is just starting dinner.  Oh well. The onion was chopped and hitting the pan as I walked through the door. Oh well.

Where did the communication break down? Well, he defrosted the chicken without a problem. But the phone call did me in. For some reason that night he wasn't able to reach his VM. He thought the message might be from his mom and he would call her later when he got home. I was vaguely concerned that I didn't hear anything back from him through all of this, but not enough for me to panic. NBD. When he got the text that I was on my way home, he looked at his phone and realized the VM service was working and I had left a message.... with specific directions.

We ate a little later that night, but it was fine as I had time to freshen up before we sat down.

I have today off so I changed up my lunch. I had one tortilla wrap in the fridge, plenty of lentils, kale and cheese leftover. I made a quesadilla for lunch and cooked the rest of the kale, knowing we could eat it as a side later that night.

Sunday through Tuesday we should have served more veggies with the risotto to help use up the vegetables. Basically we didn't make a dent in the box those nights! Rookie mistake.

Stuffed peppers

Tonight we made stuffed peppers with the risotto from last night.
Bert actually did everything. He cut and cleaned the peppers, put the rice mix inside and popped it in the oven. The afterthought was maybe we should have precooked the peppers before stuffing them. I think they came out fine, he thought they were still too firm.
Steamed the last two ears of corn. (Yesterday's was so much better even if it was slightly under steamed.)
Stir fried the chicken with everyday seasoning, which does have 80mg of sodium per 1/4 teaspoon, in case you were wondering the sodium content. Trader Joes does have 21 Seasoning Salute which is without salt, but it is more fun to use the seasoning with the grinders.

For lunch I had some roasted beets, last week's leftover lettuce, pickles, Siggi's vanilla yogurt and peach. The Siggi's yogurt is really good! I think I'll buy it when it is on sale.

Eggplant and Cantaloupe!

I had to work today, so Bert picked up our box.

2 tomatoes
1 bunch kale
4 giant beets
2 Japanese eggplant
4 ears corn
3-4 cucumber
3-4 summer squash/ zucchini
1/2 pint blueberries
1 mini Cantaloupe
1 bag of green beans

For dinner we made Baked Risotto with Greens (Kale)
Recipe here: https://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/
Although the recipe says "1 bunch of greens" my bunch was much bigger than the 4 cups suggested by the recipe. I realized that after I washed and chopped everything, so I put the rest of the kale in a plastic gallon bag for later. That will make prep easier next time!

Steamed corn for 2 minutes (maybe needed another minute.)

I also prepared roasted beets for my lunch. I made lentils with some kale pieces... and burned them.

The beets taste so good!

I think I'll bring the cucumbers to work. I certainly don't need any more pickles!

We finally tried the pickles tonight. They are okay. Kind of acidic. I think they would taste better with more sugar to balance the acid.

Too many cucumbers puts me in a pickle

On my day off Friday I made my first batch of refrigerator pickles. I used advice from two different recipes, one for bread/ butter pickles from Hannaford and one from chow.com.

I used my mandolin to slice 4 cucumbers. 1 small, 3 medium of different varieties. Sliced to 1/4 inch.
I used about 1 tablespoon of large granule sea salt and salted the cucumbers. Placed into the fridge for two hours.

Then I rinsed the cucumbers and placed them in Mason Jars. I found three jars with lids. The cucumbers more than filled the jars. I ate a bunch of salted ones plain, where were pretty good.

For the brine I first used 1 cup white vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon peppercorn and 1 tablespoon mustard seed. I toasted the seeds, then added the vinegar and sugar, boiled for a few minutes until sugar was dissolved. I then poured the brine over the cucumbers... and it wasn't enough! So I repeated the recipe, and poured again. Almost enough, so I settled for less than perfect.

Cooled them for about 1 hour, then put on the lids, shook them up and put them in the fridge for 24 hours. Now I just have to wait, taste, and perfect the recipe.

My mom offered to bring some pickles when she visits. No thank you!

Cucumbers to spare

This is the week of the cucumber. Maybe I will make some refrigerator pickles; however, Bert pointed out that the spices I need to buy are more expensive than a jar of pickles. I also don't know if I have many glass jars to put the pickles in. Maybe I'll throw out the old pickles in the fridge. I probably bought them for the 4th of July last year.

This week's box
2 yellow squash
1 zucchini
1 bunch arugula
1 head of leaf lettuce
1 bunch of beets
1 bunch kale
1/2 pint of blueberries
3 ears of corn
5-6 cucumbers

We made corn the first night. It was so good. We boiled the water, added the corn and took the ears out when the water returned to a boil. The corn was perfect.

We ate summer squash two nights in a row and kale tonight.

I've been taking lettuce/arugula blend to work every day with roasted beets, cucumber, and lentils.

I finished the berries with breakfast.

I have one small zucchini left, some beet greens, and 4 cucumbers.

Kale chips

Tonight I finished the lentils, 1/2 of the beet greens, and the roasted beets. Bert tried to finish the Swiss Chard. He ate the leftover Greens Pizza from last night. Half way through the "slice" he told me that he doesn't think we should do this next year (the CSA) since he doesn't like Swiss Chard... or beets. I tried telling him that he should try something at least 15 times before making a decision, because that's about how many tries it takes to acquire the taste of a new food. He then told me that we have an agreement that he only has to try something 3times before making a decision. I vaguely remember this agreement, but am pretty sure it was strictly about texturized vegetable protein as a meat substitute. (He eats tofu fine).

He did offer to drive me to the Farmer's Market every Saturday to pick up fruits and vegetables instead of getting a box. I told him we won't make any decisions until next year since we never know what next summer is going to look like. For now, we have a commitment until fall.

I guess I'll be eating the vegetables myself, and possibly sharing with my co-worker's if I can't get through the veggies quick enough. I certainly can't eat squash and zucchini every day for an entire summer, which right now is about the only thing he eats consistently from the box (and he will eat kale),

I prepared kale chips tonight. Recipe here: https://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/kale-crunch/
Washed the kale, but didn't dry it. Chopped it. I used my Misto spray with canola oil to spray the kale. The bunch formed about 3 layers on the sheet. If I was smart, I would have sprayed each layer separately. I then put in the oven for 10minutes or so, I didn't set a timer. The top was crunchy looking and browning when I took them out to add the Parmesan cheese (front the green shaker). I took them out of the oven after maybe 5mintues.  At this point I decided I should have tossed them around a little during the baking process. Oh well. I tossed them and put them back in a little longer, maybe another 5 minutes, but the oven was off (since I thought I was done), so I just put them in the warm oven a little longer. Finally, I took them out for real. They are so good for snacking!! Great use for extra kale. Not sure I would buy a bunch though just to make chips.

Green Pizza

For lunch I have been eating lettuce with cucumber, lentils, roasted beets, low fat feta cheese and low fat Caesar dressing. It is a very filling and tasty salad, but I still eat a peach and maybe some crackers with it.

Tonight I made the Green Pizza from a previous post. I cut up one small onion and 3 cloves of garlic. I used Swiss Chard. I trimmed the stalks from the leaves and sauteed the stalks with the onion and garlic first. After those were tender, I added the damp leaves and covered. I tossed once. I decided to not use the pie pan this time, too many dishes. I was able to put the pan I used for sauteeing into the oven after spreading pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese on top. While that finished off in the oven I prepared a chicken breast for stir fry.  By the time this was all done it was 7:30p. I probably started around 6:20pm.  Luckily I had a snack of melba toasts and hummus before I started!

I still have so many vegetables left!
1 large zucchini
1 small summer squash
1 large cucumber
1 bag green beans
1 bunch of kale
Enough lettuce and a small cucumber for lunch tomorrow
1/2 bag of beet greens
Leftover roasted beets (maybe 2-3 servings)
Leftover squash from Monday
Leftover pizza from tonight

I think I might try refrigerator pickles with the remaining cucumber. I will probably have to gift the squash and maybe the green beans to Bert's mom before I get a new box on Sunday!

The tomatoes and blueberries are coming!

To recap last week, by the time we picked up a new box we had 1 zucchini, 1 bunch beet greens, a small handful of arugula and 1 bunch radishes left. The radishes had gone soft, so I threw those out.

We picked up our box a day early since we were out of town on Sunday. This box
1 small head of leaf lettuce
2 zucchini
3 summer squash
1 bunch Swiss Chard
1 bunch Kale
1 bag green beans
1 bunch beets (5 with greens)
3 cucumbers
2 small tomatoes
1 pint blueberries
1 sprig basil

I saw corn at the market which is super exciting! I would have totally bought some if I knew I was going to be able to eat it that day, but we were heading out, so saved my cash for next time.

We came home late Monday. Bert was ready to order Chef Chow's Chinese take-out, but I convinced him 1) we needed to eat the veggies 2) I could make something faster than delivery. I sauteed last week's zucchini and 1 summer squash. At the end added 1 can of diced tomatoes and some basil. Served over whole wheat pasta. Sauce could have been a little thicker. Probably should have used more oregano. I seasoned with Everyday seasoning and some salt when the squash was dry, before adding to the pan.

For lunch I had lettuce with cucumber and tomato. Had cottage cheese and hummus with Kashi vegetable crackers. Rounded out the meal with a peach. I ate lunch at 2pm and was still hungry by the time I got home for dinner.

Tonight I made a stir-fry with 1 zucchini, 1 squash and 1 block of firm tofu. Island Soyaki sauce from Trader Joe's provided some extra flavor. We served with Goya brown rice mix. Although it has a heart healthy stamp on it, it was very salty tasting. I prefer the plain Jane Uncle Ben's 10minute brown rice better.

To get ready for lunch tomorrow, I prepped lentils and roasted beets tonight. I burned the bottom lentils in the pot since I kind of forgot to check on them and did not set a timer. I remember checking on them and there was still a little bit of water left. I should have taken them off the heat at that point, but no, I thought I would keep them going to the end. I only thought to check on them when I smelled the hint of something burning. I was also multi-tasking, which is a challenge for me in the kitchen. I was busy carefully peeling the beets for roasting. I feel like Lady Macbeth. The beet juice is not washing from my hands very easily.

I hope I can get the burn marks out of my expensive stainless steel pot!

And Bert informed me that two of the peaches I bought at the store on Saturday are already showing mold spots! Such a bummer and a waste!

Mid-week cucumber and summer squash salad

Monday's work salad was dry without dressing, so for Tuesday's lunch I made an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing which paired well with the tomato, beets, lentils and lettuce. I can't tell if I am eating fewer calories with my homemade lunch or not. I know I have been starving after eating my salad and fruit, so started to eat pita chip crackers from Trader Joes.  I am certainly eating less added sugar by not eating the pineapple Chobani yogurt (the best flavor!), and yes, probably more controlled calories than the hot meals served in the cafeteria. I started eating more hot meals last August when the cafeteria rolled out the "green plate" entrées, which means they meet certain heart healthy guidelines for fat, salt and calorie content, although I am almost certain the portions used to make it a healthy plate are not the same portions served at the counter, but I digress.

Last night we made another salad. Recipe here: https://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/fresh-summer-squash-cucumber-and-fennel-salad/
And I have a mandolin! This is the second time I have used the mandolin. The first time I made a breakfast casserole for my brother and sister-in-law and I sliced the potatoes with it.

I used a large squash and large cucumber. I had to dirty two bowls, because the first one I used just wasn't big enough for "folding." I also didn't have time to let the salad marinate since as usual, I came home from the gym, curled up on the floor with a low blood sugar, then decided to take a shower before starting dinner, by that time I was starving, so wasn't going to wait 30minutes. We also didn't make anything else but chicken with everyday seasoning. The salad was very lemony. I am not a big fan of raw summer squash, but it tasted okay with the lemon and mint. Not sure I would make it again. I am going to try it again Thursday for lunch, maybe marinating the salad will help balance the flavors.

Tonight I ate lunch for dinner. For lunch I went with two friends to Legal Crossing in Downtown. That meal (Garlic shrimp over homemade pasta) and drink was exceptionally good. Because I was drunk from the "cold tea" which was Allagash White mixed with some hard liquor, I craved ice cream for dessert. Bert was available, so we stopped by Ben and Jerry's. I had Gilly's SNL ice cream which was delicious.

I don't know if we are going to make it through this box! Still remaining:
Radishes
2 zucchini
1 bunch arugula
1 bunch beet greens
1 bunch kale
Few leaves of lettuce

I am still making my way through the beets. Two cooked ones left.

Week #3

I find myself eagerly awaiting 3:30pm on Sunday so we can head over to pick up our goodies and then make a menu for the week!
This week's box:
1 bunch of radishes with greens
1 bunch of arugula
1 head of red leaf lettuce
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 bunch kale
1 bunch beets with greens
2 summer squash
2 zucchini
2 small and 1 large cucumber
1 bag of green beans
1 fennel bulb

Plus we still have one zucchini from last week.

After shopping, I started by prepping the beets. I will eat those on my salad this week. I boiled them since I like them that way better than roasted, plus we were using the oven to make veggie pizza. Recipe here: https://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/kale-pizza-and-other-thoughts/

We really liked it. I think next time I would render some bacon or Pancetta first, then cook the onions, garlic and greens. Tonight we ate it with pork with applewood rub. Not a great flavor combination, but at least it wasn't chicken with everyday seasoning! There were no real carbohydrates with this meal. I considered making some pasta crust, but I didn't have any milk to keep the pasta together We were also running out of burners.

I spent the remainder of evening making lentils to add some oomph to my salad and washing the lettuce. I used the beet water to make the lentils. Thought I would save some energy by using water that was already heated.

Fixing the kale

Last night we sauteed the kale. I washed and cut the leaves, first in half along the stem, then into 1inch strips. Added some oil to the pan, then the greens, then 1/2 cup of water. Bert kept an eye on it, sort of. Some of the leaves started to burn to the bottom, but he saved them. We could probably use a little more water next time. We sprinkled with lemon juice. We had leftover rice and stir-fry chicken.

For lunch today, I had more salad. Hahaha. I laugh because I am eating a lot of homemade salads these days and expect this will be the trend for the summer. Bert picked up frozen cooked shrimp, so I defrosted that for protein on the salad. We shelled the peas and boiled them for about 10minutes. I cooled them off a little and put them on my salad along with 1/2 of summer squash. Bert ate the peas with a little butter and his grocery store sandwich. I don't know why he eats those things.  Originally I asked him what he was having for lunch since I was having a salad. He didn't know, but was going to Walgreens for a Gatorade and was thinking about picking up some fruit there. Yes, Walgreens has fruit, some fresh, some pre-sliced melons in the grab-n-go section. I said, "why don't you just walk the two blocks to the grocery store and pick up real fruit?" Then I proceeded to make a list of things for him to pick up. I even said, "you could get one of those deli sandwiches even." A few moments later I had the idea of putting shrimp on the salad, so I added shrimp to the list. Unfortunately, I didn't specify that we would both have salad and shrimp and to cancel the sub. Oh well.

For supper tonight we sauteed one zucchini. I boiled the rest of the beet greens in water. Those two things didn't take long at all. While those were steaming I prepared the 10-minute brown rice. Bert fixed the chicken with salt and the everyday seasoning. Since my mom likes vinegar on her beets and boiled greens, I put a little red wine vinegar on our greens. I was able to mix some of the beet water with the rice, but it wasn't that noticeable, maybe I'll add more next time. Bert didn't like the greens with vinegar. I thought the meal was pretty good. The zucchini was perfect. How many more days can I eat chicken stir fry with everyday seasoning??

We made good progress today. Almost done with the vegetables. We have 1/2 summer squash, 1 zucchini, a few strawberries and enough lettuce for one to two more salads. I think we'll be done by the next pick-up Sunday!

Mid-week #2

Tonight I prepared the Swiss chard. I pulled it out of the fridge. The leaves were exceptionally soft and wilted. I wasn't sure if I could revive them, or if they were even edible. I had read somewhere that you can freshen your greens by bathing in ice water with some vinegar, so I did that. I chopped some onion and garlic and sauteed with the Swiss Chard stems. I read somewhere that the stems are tougher so need to be cooked longer than the greens. I was working solo with limited space so everything was cooking while I remembered I needed to start the rice and slice the Swiss chard leaves. The onion and stems were starting to burn just as Bert came home and the first thing I said to him was "I need some help here!" I didn't even give him a chance to tell me how hot it was outside. With the spare hand, I was able to slice the chard and put that with the stems. He finished stirring that while I prepared the chicken and turned off the rice before it burned in the pot.  Not easy!

I tasted the chard and it tasted too much like burned garlic. I sprinkled some lemon juice on it to see if that would help.

Bert said the garlic was a bit much, but overall the chard was not bad.
I added some fennel greens to my rice, which didn't really add much flavor, so maybe I should have cooked it with the rice the last few minutes of cooking (if I catch the rice in that time frame).

We finished the chard with better success than last time. Tomorrow the kale or the zucchini!

Second week

We left my parents place early on Sunday so we could get back in time to pick up my box of vegetables. We made it back with time to spare! The good thing to know is that if we miss a pick-up the food goes to Rosie's place, or a food shelter, or back to the farm for the pigs. (I can also request a change in day/location for pick-up, but the alternatives are not as convenient.)

The box
1 small bunch kale
1 bunch Swiss chard
1 bunch beets
1 head fennel
1 small bunch arugula
1 pint strawberries
1 bag of shell peas
2 zucchini
2 summer squash
1 head of green lettuce (not sure of the variety)

Bert went to the store and picked up butter and cottage cheese. I need the cottage cheese for my lunch and he needed the butter for our scallops.

Sunday night we had roasted beets and fennel per the recipe suggestion on the flyer.
Recipe here: https://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/roasted-beets-and-fennel/
This time I trimmed all of the beet greens off and washed/ rubbed the dirt from the beets. I cut them in quarters and started them in the oven at 400degrees. I then prepped the fennel. Cut off the stalks, then sliced the bulb. I still don't think I sliced the bulb right. I put the pieces in the oven after 10minutes lead time. I also added red potatoes we had on hand. They took the same amount of time (maybe quicker) than the beets. I roasted everything for another 30minutes. Maybe the beets were a little underdone. Bert fixed the scallops. The meal was okay. I think it needed some greens (of which I had plenty, but didn't use!) to round it out. The scallops were perfect and tasty! The more I talk to other people, the more I think I should have peeled the beets before I roasted them, oh well!

For lunch Monday I ate the leftovers from Friday (that we didn't eat Sunday as planned). We ate dinner out since we went to the Sox game.

The farm also recommended roasted beets on green salad, so I brought the leftovers to work today. Sprinkled olive oil and red wine vinegar on the greens, beets and fennel. That was very good. Ate the Kashi crackers with cottage cheese and the tomatoes with the cottage cheese. Yummy!

For dinner tonight, Tuesday: I forgot to defrost some chicken, but luckily Bert wasn't coming home for dinner, so I could keep things easy. I washed the arugula. Cut up the strawberries (they expire so quickly!), tossed the rest of roasted beet/fennel on the greens and sprinkled the leftover goat cheese on top. I made a fried egg for some extra protein. Dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Maybe the meal was a little short on the carbohydrates, but everything else was tasty!

Still in the fridge: lettuce, squash, peas, Swiss chard and kale. Tomorrow I think I will fix the kale or chard. The squash lasts a little longer, so I have been saving those for the end of the week.

Need to remember to defrost some chicken for tomorrow!

First Week

I am a little behind, since this idea just came to me. I want to make a record of our first summer with a CSA so I can remember what it was like, in truth, when next year comes around and I think about doing it again. I don't mince words, so I think I will leave an accurate impression here.

I am going to back-date the first post just so it is chronological.

I picked up my vegetables Sunday at 3:30pm. Stillman's Farm delivers to Brookline Village, on a Sunday, which I thought was perfect. 1) it is close to where I live, 2) there is a parking lot in case the haul is bigger than what I can carry 3) it is a Sunday, so I can go shopping after I know what I am working with and plan for the week 4) I will have time when I get home to wash everything as needed.

They gave me my veggies, a reusable grocery bag, $20 punch card to buy more veggies as needed, newsletter with a recipe, and a friendly greeting. The items in the box fit almost perfectly in the bag, so I left the box with them!  We then made a quick trip to the Bevy (is that a VT or SMC thing? Did I spell that right?) and picked up some cold beer, Sierra Nevada Summer Ale. Pretty good stuff.

The box:
1 bunch beets with greens (5 of them)
1 bunch Swiss Chard
1 head of green leaf lettuce
1 summer squash
2 zucchini
1 pint strawberries
1 large bag of spinach
1 small bag of shell peas (my dad had to identify them for me. I wasn't sure if they had to be shelled or not, plus if I ask my dad he can feel useful)

The first recipe they provided was for a spinach and roasted beet salad with goat cheese! I didn't have goat cheese, but I had just about everything else so we went to the store and picked up some goat cheese. Well, I thought I had Dijon Mustard for the dressing, but that was expired and I realized that after we returned from the store, so we used Ken's Light Caesar dressing instead, which Bert preferred.

I had never prepared beets before, so appreciated the details in the recipe. Cleaned the beets (keep skins on), trimmed the greens about 1-2 inches from the top of the beet, then boiled (in my brand new, never been used before, Dutch Oven!) in water for like an hour. While the beets boiled, I washed the beet greens. Spinning then all dry with my salad spinner. Best investment EVER. I also washed and dried the Swiss chard since it took up a huge amount of room in the fridge and squeezed the leaves into a gallon size plastic bag with two paper towels. (Then I read this week you aren't supposed to clean the Swiss Chard so far in advance, oh well.). Cleaned the spinach I needed for dinner. Since Bert refuses to have a meal without a "meat" he cut up a chicken breast and stir-fried that. Since I refuse to have a meal without a starch, we microwaved potatoes. I know, we used the microwave. Took like 7minutes. If I had planned better, we could have roasted the potatoes while the beets were boiling. Oh well.

When the beets were tender, I pulled them out of the water and cooled them in a bowl in the fridge. After maybe 10minutes? Or less? I could easily peel the skin off. I sliced one beet for each of us. Crumbled the goat cheese, tossed the chicken and potato on top, and dressed with Caesar. Yummy!
Recipe from here: http://stillmansfarm.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/spinach-salad-with-goat-cheese-and-beets/

This was the first time Bert remembers having beets. He didn't think they tasted like much. I thought they tasted earthy, which I liked. We ate that salad for three nights (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday)

I realized Sunday that we were not going to get through all of the vegetables unless I started bringing my lunch to work, so we also picked up lunch stuff at the store. If you are going to eat tomatoes out of season, then you have to choose Compar(i). (The out-correct wants to write compare). I bought cottage cheese for my protein, melon for my fruit, and Kashi 7 grain crackers for some extra carb.

Wednesday I boiled/sautéed the Swiss Chard. Looked fine coming out of the bag, so maybe the early prep/wash was okay. I added some lemon juice as it cooked. The leaves turned kind of brown, so not sure if that was because of the lemon juice or what happens when it cooks. And, maybe I put too much water in the pan (used one cup) since they were kind of soggy too. I was trying to cook them like I cook kale, but maybe that doesn't work for them. I had never prepared Swiss chard before. We also had that with chicken and roasted potatoes.

Thursday night we had events after work, so we didn't eat at home. Friday I followed a recipe from my Cooking Light book: Mediterranean Pasta. Zuke with chickpeas, olives and (canned) diced tomato over pasta. I added goat cheese, which made it better, and seasoned with Trader Joes Everyday Seasoning, which works well on everything. The recipe itself, meh. I think the Zuke needed to be stir-fried a little, rather than boiled in the tomato juice. Maybe I should have used fresh tomatoes.  We saved half the recipe for Sunday since we were going to be away and it is nice to have something ready for dinner after a long trip.

The head of lettuce was getting soft and wilted by Friday. I kept the leaves on the head, and washed a few as needed for lunch. Maybe I should have washed it all at once and stored in a plastic bag in the fridge.

I brought beet greens, one summer squash, one Zuke, and the bag of peas to my parents since I wanted to get rid of the veggies before I had to pick up my new box on Sunday!

I ate the berries quickly early in the week for breakfast since they were expiring in the fridge.  The berries tasted like fresh, real, strawberries. They weren't sweet and perfect like the Driscoll variety, but that's what you get when the berries come from a small farm instead of a giant production in California. I ate, and still eat, berries with Greek vanilla yogurt, walnuts and Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal, with a little cinnamon on top. Yummy! My favorite breakfast!

Week One: Success!