Tuesday, June 23, 2009

CSA Week 3

This week our pasta didn't show up, but that's ok because we got tons of strawberries! As for the veggies, we got snap peas, boston lettuce, arugula, zucchini, summer squash and radishes. The lettuce and radishes have been going in salad, but I'm not a huge fan of arugula straight up, so I made a pesto out of the arugula with walnuts, garlic, Parmesan and olive oil and put it in the freezer for later. The snap peas got eaten raw as a snack. Sunday we had some grilled bbq chicken (though of course it started downpouring right as Sam turned on the grill), with a side of grilled summer squash and zucchini. And for dessert, I made Strawberries and Dumplings. As easy as slicing strawberries. Even the leftovers were great tonight. Next time I'd whip the cream to top it rather than pouring it over though.

Tonight, we used the rest of the zucchini to make Zucchini and Chickpea Pancakes. I didn't have garam masala, so I tossed in some coriander and cumin instead. The curry powder was just a tad overwhelming, so I might cut that back a little next time, but its a tasty use of zucchinis, and very quick to put together if you have a food processor.

Oh, and with the leftover garlic scrapes from last week, I made some pesto. We now have three containers of pesto in the freezer - need to label them! And need some nights when we don't have fresh veggies we want to use to test them out!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Beets Turnips and Garlic Scrapes





Wednesday night and we're done with our CSA food! Which is just as well because we probably won't make dinner at home before our next pickup on Saturday. So far, everything's been delish. Monday we had carrot linguine, which I topped with some chopped garlic scrapes sautéed in browned butter with a dash of nutmeg thrown in.

And tonight, I roasted some beets and Japanese turnips tossed with salt and olive oil as a side dish for pan grilled pork chops. We had some plain yogurt in the fridge, so I made a dipping sauce/dressing for the veggies. I wanted to toss in some lemon juice but I was out of lemons and lime just didn't seem like it would work, so I whisked in a bit of cider vinegar and some Penzey's Florida Pepper seasoning, which has some lemon zest in there. Results were quite good, and ended up dipping the pork in it too. Can't wait for next week's food!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Cooking Afternoon

We had a busy day with a two-mile swim this morning/afternoon that took longer than expected. We had to wait for the tides to change, and then as a result there was barely any tidal assistance. My hip was a bit sore but otherwise a good race.

When we got home though, I cooked up a storm! First, I made some ricotta cheese. Then, I started the soup recipe Sam's mom sent me last week - Greens Supreme Soup. I had kale from the CSA this week, but not as much as the recipe called for, so I threw in the beets and turnip greens too. Also didn't have chardonnay around or another comparable wine, so I used some of the liquid left over from the ricotta instead. The end result was delish.

While the soup was cooking, I made some pesto with the basil growing on our deck - it needed to be cut back so it will get nice and bushy, so it seemed like a batch of pesto was in order. Always good to have some pesto in the freezer.

The soup seemed so nice and hearty that we just had that with some sourdough toast for dinner with a salad rather than making pasta as well. Mmm.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Blogging Some More

I got an invite today to join a group Cooking Away My CSA, which may actually revive my blogging. Well that and the cut-and-paste feature on my iPhone once the new operating system is available. For those of you not in the know, CSA stands for community supported agriculture, where you pay a farmer upfront in the spring and then get to pick up a box of food every week in the summer and fall. We joined the Greene Harvest CSA in Fort Greene, getting veggies, fruit and a pasta share each week.

It started up last week, and my brother was nice enough to pick up the first share since Sam and I were busy swimming around Manhattan, with which me made spinach linguine with swiss chard, raisins and pine nuts, and kale and collards boiled and then sautéed with garlic and olive oil and japanese turnips over couscous. With radishes and lettuce in our salad and apples on the side, we used it almost all up.

This week, we got kale, japanese turnips, beets, snap peas, garlic scrapes, lettuce, carrot linguine and strawberries. We had some strawberries with scones this morning, and I'm thinking the pasta with garlic scrapes, maybe a soup or fritatta with the kale, roasted beets and turnips. Other good ideas?