Friday's Drawers - A come back

Fresh food and a fresh start.

It's Friday! And another edition of Friday's Drawers, one that I am actually posting. *gasp*

And I can report that not only has this share been pic'd and posted, many of the items have been prepared too.  *double gasp*

What did we do?

• Veggie, chard noodle soup with homemade chicken broth, (See the broth in the background) celery, carrots, and some of the chard at the end.  
• Roasted beets tossed with olive oil in a 400 degree oven until tender (about 45min-1hour)
• Tuna sandwich with crunchy celery for dinner.
• Snacked on pears too! yum!

What will I do with the rest?

• I have some kale in our garden so I am thinking I'll do this potato kale recipe or adapt it.
• I love eggs with chard and a little salsa or ketchup, yes I know, but I like them that way.
• I think I have some carrots left, so I'll attempt a slaw with that cabbage. In the mean time, I've been digging this purple cabbage recipe from last week's share. 

Red (Did I say purple? It looks purple) Cabbage & Apples

Ingredients
1T canola oil
1 head of shredded red cabbage
1 tart apple - peeled, cored and chopped
1 T water
1 teaspoon salt
ground black pepper to taste
1 T white sugar or honey
1 T cider vinegar

Directions
1. Heat oil in a medium size saucepan. Stir in cabbage and onion; fry until wilted. Stir in apple and water, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer about 25 minutes.
2. Pour vinegar and sugar into the mixture while tasting for desired sweet and sour taste. Cook another 5 to 6 minutes.
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

Friday's drawers - Peaches!

Eggplant, lettuce, shallots, green beans, dandelion greens, tomotoes,
peaches !!! squash

I had one of these peaches and all I could think of was Xena.

As for the rest:

• Tomatoes & basil along with the Lemon Boys from our garden
• Izzy likes the green beans raw
• I'm thinking some egg plant parm with pasta
• And maybe butter beans and shallots 

Friday's Drawers - A plan

This week's CSA had some kale, red leaf lettuce, corn, zephyr squash, blueberries, tomatoes and cucumbers. Seems pretty normal!   Ok, zephyr squash - I hear of squash, but zephyr?  It sounds like a Dr. Seuss character. Nope. It was however, the name of the NBA team Washington Wizards in 1962 when they were in Chicago - the Chicago Zephyrs. Otherwise, zephyr seems to show up in video games and comic books a lot. And squash. Huh.

Back to the share.

What did I (or do I plan on doing) with this share?

The corn was grilled (Yum!) along with the squash from our garden. The tomatoes & lettuce have been in pesto chicken sandwiches, burgers, and salad.

The kale is going into my red lentil soup. We go through so many red lentils, I finally broke down and get them in bulk here. Set to arrive on my doorstep today - Thank you Amazon Prime!  It might seem too hot for soup, but 1. this is so dern good.  and 2. It freezes really, really well.

And then there are the blueberries.  I had every intention of making pancakes....but I keep on just snacking on them.  Plus it was too hot this weekend. Blah. I do have to do something with them right quick.  Or freeze them pronto.  (Note to self: look up how to freeze berries.)

As for the plan, yes there is a plan for the food, but I am starting to ponder a plan for this blog.  It is about a year and a half old, which is pretty cool since I don't think many blogs make it past a year.  But I'm feeling the need for a fresh mix. I have some ideas peculating around for a series of posts; book reviews, new recipes, product reviews, even some transparency/accountability (gasp!) ideas, but if you have some topics you would love to discuss, or hear me rant about in my own corny way, I'm all ears! (Get it....corny....ears....)

Eat well, be well!
Christy Z.

Friday's Drawers: Baby, baby bok choy

Kale, romaine lettuce, potatoes, vidalias, mushrooms,
blue berries, broccoli, baby bok choy

My dad & step-mom came out to the east coast all the way from Arizona because the couldn't wait to try some of these veggies from our farm share and our garden!  It had nothing to do with Isabella's 4th birthday, visiting Simon or meeting their newest granddaughter, my niece baby Dune.  Nooooo.....it was all about the baby bok choy.   

Regardless of the baby they were really coming to see, it was a good visit and I did get to make a quick easy, point friendly meal for their visit. 

Orange-Ginger Baby Bok Choy

Ingredients:

1T EVOO

1 carrot, cut into matchsticks

2 T fresh grated ginger

1 lb baby bok choy, cut into 1/2 inch slices 

1/4 c. orange juice

1 T brown sugar

1 T soy sauce

1/2 c peas

1/2 c sliced mushrooms 

1t cornstarch mixed with 1T water

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat EVOO add the white parts of the baby bok choy, carrots, ginger and cook until tender about 3 minutes.  

Add the mushrooms, baby bok choy, orange juice, brown sugar, soy sauce and cover and cook until the baby bok choy begins to wilt, about 3 minutes.  

Uncover, stirring frequently, add the peas, and corn starch mixure and cook for another minute or so.  

Serve over rice.  

We also made a really good Cesar salad with the Romaine lettuce, fried rice with the vidalia onions for the kids, and strawberries & blueberries for dessert.  A good use of the share for one meal!

What is your favorite baby bok choy recipe? What do you like to cook up when you have special visitors in town.  

Friday's Drawers: Fiddle Me This

Red leaf lettuce, rainbow chard, kale, green pepper, fiddle heads, sweet potato
vidalia onions, apples asparagus, peaches

This is our last week of our east coast farm share or this season.  We'll take a week off and then we resume with a local share, but because we are working 2 gardens this year - yup TWO! - we switched to a small share.  Anyway, we have a pretty good looking share this week....though it feels like it will be a good test in creativity.

Last year I didn't do well with the fiddleheads, so I am going to try again with a new recipe.

I am super excited by the peaches.  And vidalia onions, the official state vegetable of Georgia, look really good.  I am doing some research on some recipes for the onions.  A peach salsa might be a good combo.  Or maybe an apple, chicken salad with the onions.  Or both!

As for the rest, chard will probably be the red lentil chard soup, kale for kale chips are a huge hit around here.  And if I am going to turn on the oven (though in the cold rain having the oven on hasn't been an issue) I might as well roast the sweet potato, cutting them in half and coating them in a little olive oil and sea salt.

I did the same thing last week with the asparagus and oh.my.gosh. So good.  I ate some warm out of the oven, but then I ate the remaining ones cold with my lunch.

Friday's Drawers - No Fooling Around!

With snow on the ground...in APRIL (!!!) doesn't it make you long for spring and summer fruits and veggies? If you want to get in on the June-November farm share from Enterprise Farms, today is the best day to do it. They are offering $25 bucks off your share if you sign up by April 1.  They have tons of pick ups around Boston & Western MA.  Check 'em out.  

Here is our share from this week:

Cilantro/Arugula/Dill: Dalponte Farm, Lake Placid, FLRed Valencia Citrus: Eagle's Nest Grove, Crescent City, FL
Red Grapefruit: Spooner's Grove, Vero Beach, FL
Green Beans: Homestead Organics, Homestead, FL
Greenleaf Lettuce: Lady Moon Farms, Punta Gorda, FL
Dino Kale: Lady Moon Farms, Punta Gorda, FL
Maitake Mushrooms: Phillip's Gourmet, Kennett Square, PA

Grape Tomatoes: Lady Moon Farms, Punta Gorda, FL
Collard greens

I am completely fascinated with the maitake mushrooms. I've never seen these kind of mushrooms before. They kind of looked like seaweed or something you would find in the ocean. But with a really earthy smell and texture. 

And that makes sense because when Maitake mushrooms, according to Kimiko Barber, are called “dancing mushrooms”  because when they move in a gentle breeze, they resemble coral dancing in the current. In centuries past, they were known as "phantom mushrooms" due to their extreme rarity and value.

Interestingly, WebMd even discussed how theses mushrooms are used to treat cancer and relieve some of the side affects of chemotherapy.

I am sure like many (real) foods, there are benefits.  But for me, right now...I just want to know how to prepare the suckers.

Nothing came up in my cook books at home, so I checked out the interwebs and found a couple of options.

This one looked promising.  I have been on a ginger, soy, citrus kick (Oh yeah, I have a broccoli dish to post!)

From edenfoods.com

Ingredients
1 cup maitake mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon EVOO
20 spears asparagus, 1 bunch, end trimmed, sliced into 2 inch lengths
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup water, including reserved maitake soaking water
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 cup organic sweet corn, fresh or frozen
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger root, finely grated, squeeze out juice, discard pulp

Directions
Place maitake in a bowl and soak for 20 minutes in warm water to cover. Remove, drain and reserve water to use as part of the cooking liquid. Heat up a skillet, sauté the garlic and maitake for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the shoyu and water. Cover and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes. Add the asparagus, carrots and corn. Cover and simmer another 5 minutes. Remove cover and pour ginger juice over the asparagus. Sauté another 1 to 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve.

Nutritional InfoPer serving: 94 Calories, 3g Fat (25% calories from fat), 4g Protein, 14g Carbohydrate, 7g Fiber, 0mg Cholesterol, 210mg Sodium

But I think I am going to adapt this one from a blog I stumbled across:

Maitake and Beech Mushrooms with Simmered Tofu on Sesame Rice

I'll give it a try and post how it goes.

Friday's Drawers - Kale Chips!

This week's share had kale and we decided since I still have last week's chard and now this week's and those will go into soup, I wasn't going to do another kale soup - so we did kale chips tonight.  And they are already gone.  (burp.)

Here is the easiest way to make them. 

Here is the kale:

Cut off the stems.

Put the chip sized bites into a bowl with a cover, toss with some olive oil till they are coated and a sprinkle of sea salt.

Lay out on a cookie sheet.

 Bake in a 350degree oven for 10-15 minutes.  WATCH THEM! so they don't burn. 

And kale chips.  See...someone took some in between the time that they came out of the oven and when I finally took a picture.

I came down from bedtime with the kids and the container was empty. They go that quick around here.

Friday's Drawers - Roasted Eggplant!

I am a little behind, but here is last week's CSA organic food porn.  And a quick and easy way to roast up some eggplant.

Slice the eggplant lengthwise with 5 slits.
Put a half or quarter of garlic in the pocket with a little pepper.

 Coat a roasting pan with a table spoon of olive oil and coat the eggplant.

 Bake in a 375degree oven for about 45 minutes or until tender.

Let these cool, then peel them and eat with some olive oil & white wine vinegar.  I having some with my pasta tomorrow for lunch.  This last pic doesn't look that appetizing, but my taste test so far (we'll see how they hold up tomorrow) was good.

And I don't have pics - but earlier this week, I made a stir fry with the mushrooms, broccoli, julienned carrots a little grated ginger, soy sauce and orange juice that was so flippin' good!  We had it with quinoa. Definitely making that again. 

Friday's Drawers - From white to green.

This week it has been awesome to see more green in our own yard than in our farm share box.  There has been so much snow for SO long.  To give you an idea of just HOW long we've had snow on the ground, the other morning I was looking out of Isabella's bedroom window; it was early and I was kind of groggy and saw a mound of white kind of moving back and forth.  Wha?

Dang, I know it's been a long time since my last beer, but really? Moving snow?

Look a little closer.  Whew, not crazy.

It was a white plastic bag stuffed with something blowing back and forth.  Oh wait.

Now it sounds like one of James Newman's novels.

But no, it was our neighbor's Christmas Tree.  In a white bag. Waiting since the end of December for trash pick up.

It snowed so much around here, it completely covered and camouflaged their tree.  Till now.

It's March.

Anyway, nice to see some green.  And here is some more green:

Not sure what the heck is going on with the picture.  I think my smartphone is not acting so smart.  The reason why the pic isn't in the normal spot was because I already had the stove going for those fantastic portabellas.  Marinated in olive oil, basil, oregano and white balsamic vinegar. Yum!

But here is what came in our produce box this week:

• Braising Mix, Atlas Farm, Deerfield, MA
• Strawberries,Wishnatzki Farm, FL 
• Baby Bok Choi, Lady Moon, FL
• Red Cabbage, Deep Root Coop, VT
• Red Leaf Lettuce, Lady Moon, FL
• Mesclun Mix (sust.),Equinox Farm, MA
• Rainbow Chard, Lady Moon, FL
• Dandelion Greens,Lady Moon, FL
• Portabella Mushrooms,Country Fresh Mushrooms, PA
• Zucchini, Bryson Farm, FL
• Oranges

Friday's Drawers - Yellow and Green and Rainbow Too

Broccoli: Bryson Farm, Labelle, Florida

Strawberries: Wish Farm, Plant City, Florida

Green Leaf Lettuce: Lady Moon, Punta Gorda, FL

Rainbow Chard: Lady Moon, Punta Gorda, FL

Dandelion Greens: Lady Moon, Punta Gorda, FL

Green Peppers: Lady Moon, Punta Gorda, FL

Potatoes: ENTERPRISE

Apples

And here was the recipe from this week's newsletter, Recipe adapted from Food and Wine

Swiss Chard, Potato, Chick Pea Stew

1 pound Swiss chard, tough stems removed, leaves washed well and chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds baking potatoes (about 3), peeled and sliced 3/4-inch thick
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups drained and rinsed canned chickpeas (one 19-ounce can)
3 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or homemade stock
1 cup water
2 hard-cooked eggs, cut into wedges

Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the chard and cook for 3 minutes. Drain thoroughly and set aside.

In a Dutch oven, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the potatoes and onion and sauté, stirring frequently, until the potatoes start to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, paprika, turmeric, cayenne, and salt and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add the cooked chard, chickpeas, broth, and water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Serve the stew garnished with the hard-cooked eggs.

Friday's Drawers: POPCORN!

What a treat this week with real, not pre-packaged, powder coated microwave popcorn! 

And lil sweet peppers!

And oranges!

And more crazy looking rainbow carrots!

But still the highlight was the popcorn.  I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner.  Chicken and popcorn!

So, Izzy and I took the kernels off the cob. Our thumbs were a little sore doing it this way. So we balanced it over the bowl and popped them off into the little bowl.

The newletter this week came with a "Perfect Popcorn" recipe so that is what we did....

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_popcorn/

Ingredients
3 Tbsp canola, peanut or grapeseed oil (we used canola)
1/3 cup of high quality popcorn kernels
1 3-quart covered saucepan
2 Tbsp or more (to taste) of butter
Salt to taste

Directions

Heat the oil in a 3-quart saucepan on medium high heat. Put 3 or 4 popcorn kernels into the oil and cover
the pan. When the kernels pop, add the rest of the 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels in an even layer. Cover,
remove from heat and count 30 seconds. (And yup we counted out loud with the kids.) This method first heats the oil to the right temperature, then waiting 30 seconds brings all of the other kernels to a near-popping
temperature so that when they are put back on the heat, they all pop at about the same time. Return the pan to the heat. The popcorn should begin popping soon, and all at once. Once the popping starts in earnest, gently shake the pan by moving it back and forth over the burner. Try to keep the lid slightly ajar to let the steam from the popcorn release (the popcorn will be drier and crisper). Once the popping slows to several seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, remove the lid, and dump the popcorn immediately into a wide bowl. With this technique, nearly all of the kernels pop and nothing burns.

Here is the full share this week.

• Broccoli, Bryson Farms, Florida
• Rainbow Carrots, Atlas Farm, South Deerfield
• Pineapple Orange, Eagles’ Next Grove, Florida
• Green Beans, Pero Farm. Florida
• Romaine Lettuce, Lady Moon, Florida
• Mustard Greens, Lady Moon, Florida
• Mini Sweet Peppers, Pero Farms, Florida
• Popcorn (transitional), Enterprise Farm
• Covington Sweet Potatoes, ECO, N. Carolina
• Plum Tomatoes, Lady Moon, Florida

Here was the other recipe that I think we'll try this week and see how it is....that is if we don't eat up the broccoli before I get to it!

Broccoli Sweet Potato Soup

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed 

2 medium onions, chopped

6-8 cloves of garlic 

1 tablespoon oil

1 bunch broccoli , split in florets 

1 cup milk

Water ( just enough to cover veggies) 

1 vegetable boullion cube (optional)

salt & black pepper 

1 tsp powdered sage

1 tbsp thyme 

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp dried rosemary 

4 tbsp fresh parsley or cilantro (optional)

can be served with croutons and cheese (optional)

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally until

translucent. Add sweet potatoes and herbs. Add enough liquid to cover and boullion and bring to

a boil. Lower heat and simmer 10 minutes or until sweet potato is cooked. Use some liquid from the

soup to boil broccoli in the separate pot. Puree sweet potatoes soup in blender. Stir in soy milk and

broccoli. If the soup is too thin, discard the liquid you used to boil broccoli, otherwise add it back to

the soup. Bring to boil and simmer for several minutes.

Friday's Drawers - Forget Me Not Fruit

You know how when you start to get out of the habit of something, it takes all your energy to get back on track?  Yeah, that is where I am.  I get into this crazy perfectionist mode, like I need to have something really important to say or take a picture of before I actually post.

And who is this for again?

So I took pictures with our new camera Friday, and I even got some reviews from our lovely taste testers, Simon and Isabella, but I never posted.

Oops.

Enough excuses. Check out these wares from our Farm Share.

I think I left drool on my monitor.

Strawberry Review - Wish Farm

Simon: They were good!

Izzy: Delicious!

These were good.  Of course my favorite is the double butt strawberries.  I am huge fan of fruits and veggies that look natural. The "odd" shapes give food character rather than the pristine, stepford-fruit you usually find in the grocery store.

I need to take a picture of the two legged carrots we get sometimes too.  Those make me smile every time.

My fingers are still sticky from just having one.....
and what reminded me I still had an unposted blog post.

Florida Sunburst - Uncle Matt's Organics

Izzy (3yo): I like it.  And I don't like it sometimes. And I like it.  Is there more?

Simon (6yo): Tastes like juice! Good!

The Produce Geek describes sunburst Tangerines as:

Brilliant orange skin like a new construction cone, juicy-sweet tangerine taste like a, well… a burst of Florida Sunshine! Sunburst Tangerines are tangerines, NOT Clementines. Don’t get fooled at the store, Florida Sunburst Tangerines are sold loose, in 3lb bags and in 5lb Gift Boxes. People buy a gift box thinking they’re getting Florida-grown Clementines, but they are Tangerines – with seeds. Seeds? Yea, I said seeds – lots of them. If you are in the Anti-seeds Camp stick with Clementines and Satsuma Mandarins. If you like the juicy-sweet taste of Tangerines, buy them now, enjoy and repeat.

Oddly, they seem to be a November/December fruit, but we got them in February.  Regardless, bring 'em on. Because, dang, these are good!  Yes, Simon, they do taste like juice!

I don't think S & I would like to review this one.....But I bet I know who would!  We'll get to it....

And here is the remainder of the wares:

We had the red & green pepper last night raw with some hummus.  Yum! 

Pictured:
Tomatillo Hot Sauce: Real Pickles, Greenfield, MA
Covington Sweet Potatoes: ECO, N.Carolina
Green & Red Pepper: Bryson Farm, Labelle, Florida

Collard Greens: Bryson Farm, Labelle, Florida (huh. I thought that was kale too???)
Red Kale: Lady Moon, Punta Gorda, Florida
Green Leaf Lettuce: Lady Moon, Punta Gorda, FL
Sunburst Tangerines: Uncle Matt’s, Clermont, FL
Strawberries: Wish Farm, Plant City, Florida
Carrots: Winter Moon Farm, Hadley, MA

Friday's Drawers - A bit behind

Alas, I have gotten a bit behind on blogging, cooking, cleaning, reading, shows....

Lately life has been:

Family. Running. Work. And sometimes I remember to sleep and eat. 

I am kinda digging those priorities. Though I think some of the produce would much prefer get cooked and eaten sooner.....or at all. 

Soooo.... I have 2 weeks of shares to post. 

Here is last week.

Yup, those are pickle up there.  And the biggest consumer of pickles in the house.  S-man.  *Cut the pickle* And strawberries. Woot!  We mindfully ate every.one. the day we got the share. 

And the grapefruit was sweet enough that I just peel and eat. (As a kid the only way I'd ever eat a grapefruit was sliced on the equator, cut with a crazy grapefruit specific knife and with about an inch of white sugar on top.)

I still haven't tried the nuts yet. I think the only nutcrackers we have in the house are these kind....

Now here is this weeks share.  What was a light one last week turned into quite a bounty this week. And joyously!  More strawberries! 

Here is the bounty.....I have never heard of rainbow carrots!

Rainbow Carrots: Atlas Farm, Deerfield

Arugula: Dalponte Produce, Lake Placid, Florida

Cilantro: Dalponte Produce, Lake Placid, Florida

Tangelos: Eagle’s Nest Grove, Crescent City, Florida

Strawberries: Wish Farms, Plant City, Florida

Baby Spinach (Sust): Equinox Farm, Sheffield

Yellow Onions (CV): Long Plain Farm,Whately

Butternut Squash: Riverland Farm, Sunderland

Beauregard Sweet Potatoes: ECO, N.Carolina

Braeburn Apples (IPM): Apex Orchards, Shelburne

Friday's Drawers: A New Year

Now this is a fantastic share!  Eggplant, baby bok choy, parsley, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, apples, baby spinach, parsnips and butternut squash.

We've been living on soups this week, leftover lobster from Christmas dinner (thanks to my wonderful mother in law) made a  fantastic lobster bisque.  Never tried making that before and it was good, thank you David for getting me the New England Soup Factory cookbook for my birthday!

Last night was some chicken noodle and there is always our favorite, red lentil.

Looks like we will be doing some cooking this weekend....Eggplant parm anyone?  And of course more soup!  Here is my favorite curried-apple, parsnip soup and butternut squash soup.

Do you have a favorite soup?

Friday's Drawers - A picture is worth a thousand words because I don't have them in me today

potatoes, dandelion greens, navel oranges, apples, green beans,
radishes, tomatoes, beets, purple turnips, basil, zucchini & yellow squash 

I got nothin.

To say. I have nothing to say I mean. Shocker.

I did get some fresh produce.

Anyone have any ideas on those two gigundous radishes?

Friday's Drawers - Sah-weet!

Sweet Potatoes: Cottle Farm, N.Carolina

Kale: Enterprise Farm

Butternut Squash: Enterprise Farm
Red Cabbage: Enterprise Farm, Whately, MA
Grape Tomatoes: East Carolina Organics, N.Carolina
Summer Squash/Zucchini: Lady Moon, Florida

Cranberries: Cranberry Hilly Farm, Plymouth, MA

Citrus, Tangelos: Eagle’s Nest, Florida

A lot of fresh fruits and veggies in our share this week!  Sah-weet!  The tangelos are unbelievably sweet.  And if you really want to know what goes into that one tangelo I enjoyed while lazying on the couch last night, check out Mary Mitchell's story of their 20-acre grove of organic citrus and the human drama behind it.  There's some passion in those oranges! 

"Being organic means killing the bugs by hand, watering the trees by turning on a spigot, keeping blight at bay by paying attention, not by paying for chemicals." 

Keeping blight at bay and paying attention.  I love that.

Now on to the other sweets...the sweet potatoes. 

In our newsletter there was a recipe for sweet potato latkes, which looked really good.  Check it out.

Sweet-Potato Latkes from Gourmet, December 2001

1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and coarsely grated 

2 scallions, finely chopped
1/3 cup all-purpose flour 

2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt 

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

3/4 cup vegetable oil
Stir together potatoes, scallions, flour, eggs, salt, and pepper.

Heat oil in a deep 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Working in batches of 4, spoon 1/8 cup potato mixture per latke into oil and flatten to 3-inch diameter with a slotted spatula. Reduce heat to moderate and cook until golden, about 1 1/2 minutes on each side. Transfer latkes with spatula to paper towels to drain.

From enterpriseproduce.com

This looked good, but I decided to go with regular potato latkes and make my own favorite afternoon snack, cold roasted sweet potatoes.  You cannot go wrong with these. 

Cut sweet potatoes in quarters, coat with canola oil, lightly salt and roast in a 400 degree oven until tender. (about 1/2 hour).  

I container these up and take a couple to work and have them as an afternoon snack.  Usually cold.  But they reheat and freeze well too.

As for plans for the other things in the share?  Butternut squash soup for sure. This weekend. Red cabbage sattued with apples I think, the kids LOVE steamed squash, and I might try some cranberry muffins or a friend's suggestion for cranberries in steel cut oats.

How do you keep blight at bay and pay attention?  Or what is your favorite sweet potato recipe?  

Friday's Drawers - Birthday Suit

Holy produce!

I have been overwhelmingly humbled today with all the birthday wishes and new followers from RLAM after yesterday's Follow This Mother honor! It is truly amazing to find such an awesome group of people!  I hope you'll stay and comment because goodness knows I have *NOT a CLUE* what to do with all these potatoes! I need some help.

Or this big turnip! I think it's a turnip. (Yes just looked in our CSA's newletter.  It is a scarlet turnip.)



That is one funky looking turnip.



I will say this....A wonderful birthday surprise, Zero Point grapefruit!  It took all my energy hold off on eating one of these bad boys until after I took the picture!

ZERO point grapefruit!  I <3 WeightWatchers PointsPlus

The kids have actually given up on the mini carrots from the BJs.  They'd rather have me peel the funky ones from their farmer.  These really do make the best soups.

In the mean time, since it is my birthday, I am going to have this glorious chocolate rum bunt cake that my co-worker made for me, including a Chocolate Rum Glaze!  

Yeah, that isn't zero points.....but it was tasty!  Now all we needed was that 30 proof whipped cream before it's taken off the shelves!

Thanks for staying and reading. And seriously, if you have ideas on potatoes, even how to store them so the last longer.... please for all things spud, pass them on!  

*humming*

1 potato, 2 potato, 3 potato, 4......

Friday's Drawers - Leftover food, leftover fear?

This is the one week that I am actually grateful that we don't have a farm share pick-up.  We wouldn't have a place to store any of it!

There are only 2 weeks out of the year for our farm share that we don't have a pick-up, this week and one in the spring when we go from winter/spring to summer/fall shares.  It is the one time where I can play catch up on all the potatoes we get. :)

So no CSA picture today, just the picture of our filthy fridge all our leftovers from yesterday's feast!

We stayed in town for T-day and had a very wonderful dinner including a gorgeous organic, free-range turkey (Go M!) at my husband's family's home. There were seven of us from 3 to 99 (!!) and we were all feelling very grateful. It was a good day.
Kids had a good time and we have a boat load of leftovers (as you can see). I thought I could handle taking the pie....oh man. Yesterday was going to be my "free" day - aka enjoy it now, because tomorrow you are going back to meals and snacks, no grazing and limited pie. 

who can resist?

Syeah. But I dug into the pie and that was pretty much what I had for lunch today. Eeek! So much for what I said about remembering that Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas is one day! 

Good to remember that I see runs (like running).  Lots of runs in my future.  How grateful I am for those runs too.

Although....

Are you sitting down?

I am thinking about taking a week off from running.

*Thinking* about it.  Yes, with a house full of delicous leftovers, I am thinking about *not* running for a week.

Sigh.

I ran today (the first time since Sunday) and about 3 miles in, the ITB acted up again. Basically, after running for a few miles, feeling good, all of the sudding my knee is sore and gets really really stiff when I stop running.  My understanding is that it is caused by tight muscles from my hips down to my quads.

Most likely it came from the exertion and not stretching well enough after the 1/2, going back out into the cold and not doing my due dilligence to massage the legs.  I don't think it is anything major, and I learned my lesson from last time when I bitched and moaned it was all of 3 weeks for my foot to fully heal. AND! And and, looking back at my logs, I *still* got in runs and ellipticals during those 3 weeks, having only really taken 9 days off from running.

But this is now. In the beginning of winter. And I am not a full year running yet. So I have this fear of not running.  Even a day.

How is it, that even after following plans and committing to trhe full marathon, to fundraising, to training, to running, not to mention the fact that I LOVE running, that I *still* feel like if I don't run on a regular schedule I'm afraid I won't start back up? So silly.

I wonder if it is just that, or if there is more I'm afraid of? Weight gain? Loss of stamina? lack of a structured plan? Loss of my mind? What if I take a week off? What is the worst that could happen?  And the best - my muscles could actually get a break, heal and get stronger.

Training for Boston officially starts (according to my handy-dandy 18 week plan) on 12/13 and wouldn't it be nice to start at full strength. Even if it does mean a few lbs gain?