Friday's Drawers - Small CSA, Small Post

This poor little blog is getting neglected!  Just not right....but yet I feel like I am writing ALL the time!

Anyway, we decided with 2 gardens going this year - a community garden plot at work and our little squarefoot garden at home - we decided to cut back to a small share.  Frankly, while the box is smaller, it was filled to the brim and this doesn't seem all that small to me.

The asparagus was roasted in EVOO and sea salt and devoured right away.  The onions were also roasted with some green peppers from last week, the baby bok choy was used with some scrambled eggs for dinner and there is still plenty left.  I think the rest will be a little stir fry with ginger, orange juice and soy sauce....unless anyone else has any ideas.

That seems to be the issue I have.  It's only been about a year and change since I really started cooking and I am finding that I keep going back to the same old same old.  I guess I just have to remember it was ALL new just that short time ago.

Now back the to share.  The sweet potatoes will get roasted when the temperature outside drops. (See more of the delicious same) Kale chips, and salad with the lettuce/tomatoe/cuke combo.  And those were some of the best blueberries I have ever eaten. Burp.

And the fiddle heads.....well hopefully they survived over the weekend and made it to a good home.  I just couldn't bare to try again.  Sorry heads.  Maybe next year. Or maybe I'll give them to some one to show me how to make them taste better.

Friday's Drawers: CSA Loot

The loot!

Red Swiss Chard

Fresh greens

Some crazy looking parsnips

These are for dinner tonight!  Peanut Satay & Chilli Chicken with Green Beans.  YUM!

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 - 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: Such a spud

turnips, cranberries, boat load of beans, carrots, sweet potatoes,
butternut squash, onions, rosemary, sage

I have so many potatoes right now. And a 5 year old that likes silly jokes, so here is quite a mashup. Heh.

Why did the potato cross the road?
He saw a fork up ahead.

How do you describe an angry potato?
Boiling Mad.

Why didn't the mother potato want her daughter to marry the famous newscaster?
Because he was a commontater.

Why wouldn't the reporter leave the mashed potatoes alone?
He desperately wanted a scoop.

What do you say to a mean and angry baked potato?
Anything, just butter him up.

What do you call a baby potato?
A small fry!

Badumpump.

With 3 weeks (or more) of potatoes s-puttering around our house, it was time to po-ta-toe the line and cook up some 'taters.

With the help of a timely ad I fell prey too, I give you a modified recipe from Potato Goodness. (btw, I could be all super-chef-like and say I modify these recipes to make them better, but the honest to potato goodness truth is that I rarely have everything on hand that I need to follow these things to a T.  So I just go with the flow and make due.)

So on to food porn. Steak fries with TJ's Bold & Smokey Kansas City State Barbecue Sauce (Oh yum!)

Too lazy to go back downstairs and snap a pic...
so I borrowed this from jenjapan.wordpress.com

Between tossing

Better than Outback

Ingredients
• Olive oil cooking spray
• 1-1/2 lbs. Russet potatoes, scrubbed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup bbq sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse ground or cracked black pepper

Directions
Preheat oven to 425°F and spray a large baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.

Place whole potatoes (do not poke) into microwave safe dish. Cover dish. (If covering dish with plastic wrap, poke small hole in plastic.) Microwave on HIGH for 3 to 4 minutes depending on strength of microwave. Use oven mitts to remove dish from microwave; carefully remove cover from dish due to steam build-up and let cool. Cut each potato into 8 wedges. Place in a large bowl and toss with olive oil and bbq sauce; spread in a single layer on baking sheet. Sprinkle garlic, salt and pepper mixture.

Bake for10 minutes, turn wedges, bake for 10 minutes more or until fries are golden brown.

I ate more than I care to divulge. But I am definitely making these again and considering freezing some as an experiment to see if they will hold up in toaster reheating.

What is your favorite spud recipe or joke?

Friday's Drawers - How do you like them apples?

Back to our roots!

You can tell it is fall when our local farm share starts sending more root veggies than greens.

A bit ago Simon bit into an apple that we peeled up for him from the BJ's bag from the fridge then promptly stated, "This isn't organic, I don't like it." Then went back to the fridge to pick his own apple from the farm share. 

I don't think we can ever go back to getting non-organic apples from the store again. The kid can actually taste the difference. 

And he's right.  Dang, those are good apples!  

Now before he takes a bite from any apple we give him, he asks, "Is this organic?"

While a farm share is a great way to get organic produce, it isn't always possible. (Though Enterprise Produce does have a year-round share. Just sayin'.) Here is a resource we use (or try to...how DID those apples get in our fridge...mmmm) to remember what to buy organic and what you can buy organic when you can.  

Image from mypapercrane

Friday's Drawers: Silky, Smooth....

Best.Butternut.Squash.Soup.Evah.

I just have to write this down now so I don't forget.  Seriously, I wanted to drink this soup with a straw it was so dern good.

Ok, I actually did take a small sip with a straw. 

Whaa....I couldn't find my spoon and it was there.  It was clean.  Don't judge.

Ingredients

2 butternut squashes peeled & cubed (about 8ish cups)

2 onions chopped

1 big carrot chopped

1 apple peeled and cubed

3 T. butter

5 c chicken broth 

3/4 c. half and half

salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Melt the butter on med high heat and sauté the squash, onions, carrots and apple for about 12 minutes.
2. Pour in the chicken broth  and bring to a boil.
3. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.
4. Blend with a emulsion blender 
5. Stir in the half and half.
6. Salt & pepper to taste.

Makes 12 cups.

Notes:

Chicken Broth - I used my homemade broth - simmered chicken parts, leeks, onions, garlic, carrots, celery, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper

Emulsion blender - best investment ever for soups and post run smoothies...I use a Cuisinart. Local peeps, I get Bed Bath & Beyond 20% off coupons all the time.  E me if you want one.  The coupon I mean.

You can lighten this up by only doing 2 T of butter and 1/2 c of half and half, but I tried it with a little less and wanted it just a touch creamier.  

Oh yeah, and here is this week's share.

Romaine, kale, spinach, baby bok choy
buttercup squash, onions, green peppers
sweet potatoes, (no clue), apples, potatoes

I am so psyched for the return of the sweet potato.  There was something I was thinking of making with those as soon as they made their fine return and for the life of me I cannot remember right now.  

If anyone has a clue what that big 'ol white thing is in the middle, please fill me in.  It looks too big to be a parsnip and was such a solid white inside. It wasn't on the list that I could tell and it is new to me. 

Buttercup squash is a new one to me too. I think I have an untried recipe for those.  Though I am thinking about using the same recipe above for one or two of those ugly bad boys. Note to self....need more carrots.

Guess I have me some cooking to do....

Friday's Drawers - I'll gladly post on Tuesday for a....

It doesn't seem right to make a cheeseburger reference when I am looking at such a fine lot of fresh veggies.

Check that.

Who am I kidding?  I can always dream about cheeseburgers.

Mmmm cheesburger (Instert best Homer Voice here.)

*snap out of it!*

....Oh yeah, blog post.

The beauty of posting on a Tuesday with Friday's produce is that I can write what I DID rather than what I planned to do.  (Along with the confession of the items that ended up sacrificed to the golden dirt aka compost pile. Whoops.)

First, the broccoli; steamed and De-Vour-Erd by my kiddos. I didn't even get to snag a bite. Simon thinks broccoli is dessert.  Hey, I'm good with that.

Oh wait, I hope he doesn't think that because it is just an occasional thing.

Anyway, with a piece of pumpkin pie in front of him (BJs, Wellesley Farms, 4.99 with a 1.00 coupon off this week. Just sayin'.) Simon asked if he could have his pie.  Yes, he finished his chicken and broccoli.  He can have pie. And just as he said "Ok" he reaches for another spoonful of broccoli from the serving bowl.  Alrighty then.

Next.  Da' leeks. And potatoes. You guessed it....totally made yummy potato leek soup.  Enough to puree some and leave some chunky like.

Tas-ty.

The other leek made the most amazing chicken broth with the leftover roasted chicken for some home made soup.

Chard - So I tried the chard with lentils; real lentils this time.  I usually use red aka Masoor Dal.  Man-o-shevitz did that smell just awful!  Ick. I left it simmering on the stove and headed upstairs.  I had to interrupt bed time with the kids to go down and check to make sure the kitchen wasn't burning down it stank so bad.  I don't know if it was from the lentils (the noob didn't wash 'em; could that be it?) or something else in the pot, but...blech.  (Guess you won't want this recipe from me.)

Nas-ty.

Of course I a too much of a cheapass to waste it, so I containerized and had it for lunch today.  It was eh. I guess. Definitely going back to my red lentils for this soup.

I am in a total soup making mode.

I haven't made up the butternut squash, but that is next tonight. I need to wipe out the stench from the lentil debacle.

Oh yeah.  I forgot the confession.  Heh.

Sooo, I had the brilliant idea of plunking the chard, kale and arugula in a little container of water to keep it fresh a bit longer.  I wasn't in much of a cooking mood this weekend.

The chard was awesome.  Totally worked.  Leafy, fresh, not wilted at all.

The kale. Not so much.

Yesterday, it was almost completely yellow.  Same with the arugula. Ugh-rugla more like. Sigh.

Ideas on keeping kale fresh longer? Or motivation tips for cooking when I don't wanna? Or what might have happened to my lentils - Do they stink when the cook?  Or saving/freezing kale? Arugula?  Post 'em if you got 'em.

Wanna see what's in my drawers? - Watermelon and Callaloo

Friday Farm Share Post!  This week we had a 100% Local Box! I love when we have a total local farm share week. Especially during the Loving Local Blogathon Week!   But hmmm....there are things in there I haven't seen before.  Interesting....

Callaloo, Salad Mix, Basil, Watermelon, Yellow Onions, Rosa Bianca Eggplant, Loose Beets, Green Bell Pepper, Heirloom Tomatoes, Cucumber

The first thing we dug into last night was the watermelon. Seriously.  The best tasting watermelon since my little water babies I grew when I was 10 years old.  So sweet!  Screw Michael Pollan's Food Rule # whatever (Eat at the table)...I ate this bad boy at the counter.  Down to the rind. O.M.G.  Heaven.  Slllluuurp!

Enterprise Farms, please more of these next week and the week after and the week after that....please. :)

I really think watermelon should have seeds.  Don't you?

Now...about that Callaloo, that big leafy bunch in our share this week...Yes, I had to google. And guess what came up...Jimmy Buffett.  Wha????

Callaloo

Callaloo, Strange Calaloo

Mysterious curious roux

Try as you might to avoid the hoodoo

Sooner of later we're all in the stew

We got Crab and pigtail

Squid ink and fish scale

Okra and daheen leaves

Chitchat and chatter

Fill up the platter

With a garnish of pure make believe

--Jimmy Buffet

What is this interesting green?  And I don't mean Parrot heads..... Callaloo people.  Callaloo. 

According to my sources, um...wikipedia....it is a leaf vegetable (also a dish)  from the Caribbean served in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, with variants in Barbados, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Grenada, Dominica, Saint Lucia and the Virgin Islands. It is often pared with okra, meat, lobster, crab and coconut milk.  

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com that I am going to try to make this week. ..I'll keep you posted!

Callaloo Soup

Ingredients
1 pound callaloo leaves or spinach
6 cups chicken stock
1 onion, chopped
1/2 pound salt beef, fat removed and diced
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
6 tablespoons minced shallots
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 green chile pepper, chopped
1 cup okra
1/2 pound crabmeat

Directions
Remove the thick stems of the callaloo leaves, chop roughly, and put into a large saucepan. Add the chicken stock, onion, beef, black pepper, shallots, thyme, chili pepper, and crab meat. Cover, and simmer until meat is tender, about 35 minutes.
Add the okra, and cook for 8 minutes.
Remove the chili pepper. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor. Reheat, and adjust seasonings.

Time to put on some calypso and start cookin'!  

This post is part of Loving Local, a blogathon to support Mass Farmers Markets, a non-profit that helps farmer's markets. The blogathon was the idea of Tinky over at In Our Grandmothers' Kitchens. 

Fiddledee didn't work for me

So I got this mysterious looking green thing in my box of farm share produce this week.  Thing is, when I don't know what something is, I go to the weekly newsletter and check it out.  But this week, this mysterious green was not on the list.  Everything listed I recognized, but this one, not so much.  

Google is your friend. 

I google imaged searched:

Curly cue greens.  Nope, no luck. 

Greens that look like a snail.  Got a lot of snails. 

And finally....

Food greens that look like a snail.  And there they were.  

Fiddleheads. 

Yeah, never would have guessed that one. 

Apparently, fiddleheads are a New England spring delicacy that taste like a nutty asparagus and are actually a fern, the Ostrich fern.  

Huh.  Who knew.  And people eat them. Sure, if you say so.  

They are foraged rather than cultivated and have lots of tannins so should be cooked rather than eaten raw.  (Wish I read that before tasting one of them raw.  *grumble*)

Of course, this is the first I had ever heard of them and as soon as looked it up, I have already had 4 people tell me they had fiddleheads this week. With shrimp, pasta and even pickled. 

I will say, I am not a fan. I can be a fan of everything green. Try as I may. Maybe it was how I made it - in stirfry with chicken and a curry sauce.  Who knows.  

There is more coming this week, so I *may* have to try them again. I request my kids try things more than once even with the "Aww, Mom" cries.  So I will attempt a second run.  

But now all I see are snails with little tentacles sticking out. Ick!

(Here are some recipes I may try to help me get over my fiddlehead fear.)

Wanna see what's in my drawers?

Vegetables drawers that is.....

Green Beans

Cherry Tomatoes

Chard

Yellow Squash

Strawberries

Radishes

Red Kale

Spinach

Carrots

Sweet Potatoes

Asparagus

Wheat Berries

That is a LOT of fresh produce!  Have I mentioned how much I love my CSA?

Enterprise, we pick YOU up.

Every Thursday.

Want your own CSA?  Check out localharvest.org for one near you.

We have our share, now this is where the fun begins.  We get to plan out our meals!

Some things are already earmarked in my head.  I have a lunch date with a friend, so I used the spinach and sweet potatoes (roasted) for a salad.

The beans, *I* loves raw beans, so some of them will stay that way and she can chomp all she wants.  She already had some tonight.  The rest, I am going to sauté with onions, oil and butter. Yum!

The chard, I am going to make that chard lentil soup again.  We didn't even get to freeze any last time, David & I ate every single container of leftovers.  We have some church peeps that could use some meals too, so between this and the parsnip soup, I think we'll have some food to pass on.

Squash gets steamed for the kids.  They gobble that up.  Easy peasey.

Tomatoes are for my salads.  I'll do more with these once our tomatoes from our garden are ready to go.

Carrots - some will go for the chard soup and some will get sliced up for snacks with hummus during the week.

Radishes - same as carrots.  Some go with salad, some with hummus.  I might attempt the Green Bean and Radish Salad recipe that came in this week's share newsletter. Maybe.

Asparagus - I am thinking I'll just steam or roast it.  But this might call for a special peek at the Rodale cookbook to see how we might make it into a main dish.

Wheat Berries - I am definitely going to try to make the Mushroom Wheat Berry Pilaf that from the newsletter.  That looked mighty tasty!

So there you have it. Now that I know what I want to make, now it is a matter of when!

Happy cleanER cooking!

P is for Parsnip

My personal productivity was plentiful so I penned the process of preparing the plethora of parsnips n' produce puree and posted pronto. Peeps, I'd be pleased as punch if you provide pointers on possible prospects for planned parsnips in potential packs of produce.
_________

Curried-Apple, Parsnip Soup 

Ingredients
3 parsnips
3 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 large red pepper
2 cloves garlic
3 large Granny Smith apples, fresh
1 cup red lentils
1 tbsp salted butter
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1 1/2 tbsp curry powder
pinch of red pepper flakes or red pepper sauce to taste
I added a splash of apple juice just cuz.

Directions 
Wash and cut apples, parsnips and red pepper into rough pieces and put in slow cooker, leaving skins on all veggies.
Combine all recipe ingredients in slow cooker with water (omit or add some water depending on volume of ingredients in pot).
Cook on high until all ingredients are soft-about 2 - 3 hours.
Then, using a hand blender or blender and puree all ingredients in cooker until smooth.
Continue cooking on low until all flavors have combined and you're ready to eat!
Easy as pie and better for you.
Makes about 6-8 servings.

NI
Calories: 162.2; Total Fat: 2.7g; Dietary Fiber: 7.4g; Protein: 4.7g

Treating your roots

I'm clueless when it comes to hair coloring. The one or two times I did color my hair there was more dye on the towels then on my head.

The only roots I know how to treat are these babies. 

The turnip.  

(I admit, when I saw it in the CSA box, it took me a while to figure out what it was.) 

I read about "glazing" so I figured I would try it on these roots. 


Ingredients
turnips
2 T butter
1 1/2 T brown sugar
1/4 c. water

Cut up, boiled till soft...

and tossed with some water, melted butter and brown sugar....

turnips are quite tasty!

Give peas a chance. Or green beans.

Is there anything cuter?  

Most of these fresh veggies didn't even make it to the steamer. Some actually did. Thanks to a timely post from a WeWa invisipeep, we had a very tasty side dish.  

Ingredients

Green beans

Raw almond slivers

2 yellow onions

Butter

Olive oil 

Directions

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees 

1. Prep beans and throw them in to salted boiling water for 8 minutes 

2. Strain and rinse with COLD water to stop the cooking process 

3. Throw the almonds into a shallow pan for 15ish minutes to toast them 

4. You can use the same big pot you used to boil the beans... Add olive oil and 2-3 tbs of butter on med/hi heat. 

while that melts....

5. Slice onions in quarters then equal slices. Add to pot and stir often, you want them to carmelize in the butter. Season the onions with salt and pepper. 

6. the onions will take 10-15ish minutes to really caramelize 

fold the greenbeans, almonds & onions together.


*I* did end up eating both the raw beans as well as the cooked ones. She did make sure I took off all the pieces of onion.  We'll have to keep working on that one. 

Is there an app for that?

Yesterday's decadent crème brûlée left me feeling like I needed a cleanse.  So, Part Two of the birthday bash will have to wait a day.  We *only* get 35 extra points a week.  We can't spend them all on desserts...

I need some for wine this weekend.  

*raising a glass*

Here's to a cleanse!... Cheers!  

There is something leafy in my box and I don't know what it is. (bottom left corner) hmmmm.

Amazon has this app for your phone where you can snap a picture of a product (say you are in BestBuy) and it will find it and give you their price and put it in your cart if you want....Welp, I think there should be one for vegetables too. 


Yo, iPhone people, is there an app for that?

And while you're at it, can you tell me an app as in appetizer for that green leafy thing?

No? 

Well, you are in luck, I have one for you....

Epilogue
That leafy green goodness is called Russian Kale. Apparently it is a form of cabbage, freezes well and actually tastes sweeter after a frost. Who knew? I think it is tasty with bacon. But what isn't tasty with bacon? Mmmmmm bacon.

So what did I do with this luscious leaf? I found a wonderful recipe in the Rodale Whole Foods cookbook.


Ingredients
1lb Russian Kale
3 slices of bacon, cut in 1/4" pieces
1 lg red onion
1/4 t red pepper flakes
1 c. water
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper

Directions
Steam the kale in batches if necessary, until wilted.  About 3 minutes.  Then set aside.
In the large skillet, cook the bacon until crisp, then transfer with a slotted spoon to a paper towel. 

Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook until soft, about 7 minutes.  Stir in the red pepper flakes. 

Add the kale, bacon, water, salt and black pepper.  Cook until the kale is tender, about 4 minutes. 

Easy peasey.  And tasty too!  I had this today for lunch over quinoa.


The Tally:  72 cals (woot!)/3g fiber/3g fat.  Total recipe cost: $2.70 or $0.68/serving.

Whet your appetite

In the film and comic fandom world, many people love to look at pictures of the books and posters they own.

It's called shelf porn. For real.

I am into CSA porn. I love to know exactly what kind of wonderful, ripe, supple veggies and fruits people get in their share each week. Please leave a comment and let me know!

Yeah, I'm a freak like that.

Here was this week's share to whet your appetite. *rrrroooaawww*:

Kale, Hanover Salad: East Carolina Organics, N.Carolina
Baby Arugula (sustainable): Equinox Farm, MA
Salad Mix (sustainable): Equinox Farm, MA
Greenleaf Lettuce: Lady Moon Organics, Florida
Romaine Lettuce: Lady Moon Organics, Florida
Grapefruit: Spooner’s Farm, Vero Beach, Florida
Apples (IPM): Pine Hill Orchard, Colrain, MA
Parsnips: Deep Root Organics, Vermont
Sweet Potatoes: East Carolina Organics, N. Carolina
Green Beans: Internatural
Yukon Potatoes: Prince Edward Island, Canada
Green Peppers

Now we just have to plan our menu....

I think I need to use up some of these potatoes. I have spuds up to my spectacles.