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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!