Cooking in Kenzo

Finally, a post!

2012-03-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend's radio silence has been brought to you by "catching up at work" and "baby with the stomach bug that's going around." I started this post on a Sunday night, in a darkened living room, watching an awesome show on the Cooking Channel about a pop-up restaurant with the sound turned down fairly low so that my sick baby will stay asleep on the couch next to me. It will likely be completed before or after a trip to the pediatrician on Monday. This is the veritable definition of parenthood, I'd say.

Getting back to my Monday format of answering a question and giving the menu, even though it's Tuesday -

Do you watch cooking shows? (No. Really. Someone asked me this.)

Why yes, I do. In fact, I've gotten into the habit of watching a lot of Cooking Channel on the weekends while I'm cleaning, working, or...cooking. For new shows, I'm a fan of Bitchin' Kitchen (she's so corny, she's awesome), Chuck's Day Off (easy, simple dishes with gourmet touches that make them special - plus the host is hot), and Food(ography) with Mo Rocca...because he's Mo Freakin' Rocca, people. I also love the vintage offerings on the Cooking Channel. Usually I am drawn to Two Fat Ladies (it's the moped with the side car - you gotta love it!), Good Eats (it appeals to the super nerd within me), and the creme de la creme of fun shows, The Supersizers Go... If you haven't heard of that last one, it's because they only filmed one season a couple years ago, but it is one season that I could watch endlessly. The show stars a British food critic and his actress friend and they essentially immerse themselves in the culture, dress, and most importantly the food, of a particular era. For example, this past weekend I saw an episode on the French Revolution where they lived for a week in a French chateau, dressed like Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, and ate the exact foods that were recorded on royal menus from the time. The research and effort that goes into these cultural experiments just astounds me - and the hosts are ridiculously funny, too. I want to start a movement to bring this show back.

I also like a lot of the reality-style contestant shows but my heart will always belong to Top Chef because they always keep it classy. I do enjoy a little Chopped, Sweet Genius, and Iron Chef on the side. Shows that make me change the channel? There is really only one - Hungry Girl (disgusting combinations of processed foods based solely on calorie count - this is NOT a cooking show, it's an eating disorder tutorial).

And now on to the menu, which is truncated due to my poor time management skills...

Tuesday - A chicken recipe I'm working on
Wednesday - Lemongrass pork chops
Thursday - Coffee-rubbed brisket in the slow-cooker
Friday - Scallops

Stilton Burger Salad

2012-03-08T20:37:00.006-08:00

I didn't do a lot of grocery shopping for this week because I knew we'd be out of town for most of it. My husband had to tend to a family emergency last night, so I was juggling baby all by myself but still wanted to cook something so I could get back on track with eating grain-free. I had some organic ground beef defrosted, a shallot, and a small hunk of Borough Market Stilton. Burgers sounded so perfect, but I didn't feel like grilling so into the broiler they went. They don't come out of the broiler looking as pretty as a grilled burger looks, but they tasted good.

A salad of spinach, pickled radishes, hearts of palm, a few craisins, balsamic vinegar, and sunflower oil provided the bed for my burger. I love the combo of savory, sweet, and sour that happened with the burger, craisins, and radishes.

Stilton Burgers
1 lb of organic ground beef
1 egg
1 small wedge of Borough Market Stilton
1 shallot diced
salt and pepper

- Preheat broiler to high
- In a bowl, combine beef, egg, stilton, and shallot and mix with hands. Season with salt and pepper.
- Spray a broiler pan with non stick cooking spray.
- Form four or five burgers, place them on the tray, and put the tray in the oven on the rack that is 3-4 inches from the heat source.
- Cook for 3 minutes, turn the tray 90 degrees, cook for three more minutes.
- Then flip the burgers and cook for another 6 minutes, turning the tray again half way through.

This post is part of Foodie Friday, Friday Food and Recipe Linky at Mom Trends, Food on Fridays, and Fresh Bites Friday

2012-03-07T20:25:00.002-08:00

After an exhausting trip back from New Haven with a kiddo who was not enjoying the ride, my nerves are fried, so I'll make this post quick. Today was NOT a good day for eating grain-free. I managed to get through breakfast (can't go wrong with bacon, eggs, and fruit), but the only protein offering at lunch was chicken with some sort of breading. I tried to scrape it off. Really, I did. But it was accompanied by a perfect salad and some delicious grilled grape tomatoes, carrots, and eggplant. Dessert was very tiny petit-fours and I'll be honest - I had one.

Dinner was a disaster that involved a NJ Turnpike rest stop. That's all I'll say about that.

We came home with a hyper, cranky baby. I rushed around to bathe him, get his stuff ready for daycare tomorrow, and unpack. When all was done, I found myself hungry and wanting something comforting. I sliced a banana and topped it with some greek yogurt. Then I remembered that I'd pickled some grapes (using this fabulous recipe) before we left. I know I know - this recipe is so not paleo or primal or whatever. Just a few of these sweet and tart grapes enlivened the dessert and made it feel indulgent.

A grain free dinner without even trying

2012-03-06T19:35:00.007-08:00

So here I am at Yale University, attending a yearly conference for people in my profession who work at Ivy League schools. (Yes, I do make a snooty chortle noise every time I type that. We also say "chin chin" and wear ascots for the entire conference.)

Anyway, when I registered for the conference they did ask if I had any dietary restrictions so I put down gluten-free in the hopes that I'd at least get meals that had a good amount of protein and veg even if I had to pick around something that had grain. It ends up I didn't even have to worry about it for the kick-off dinner tonight because most of the passed hors d'oeuvres and the entire dinner menu were grain-free!

The theme of this year's conference is going green, so the added bonus of tonight's dinner was that it was locally sourced. The most amazing part was that it was prepared and served by Yale's internal catering service. I did sidle up to the catering manager and ask her to see if any of the components of the appetizers or dinner dishes contained grains or sugars. There was a minimal amount of sugar added to the vinaigrette on the salad and the demi-glaze in the main course, but otherwise I was totally in the clear.

I savored every bite of the menu below while listening to a very interesting talk by the Yale professor who oversees the Yale Project on Climate Control Communication. He spoke about his work in studying how we can effectively educate the public on global warming and how the message needs to change depending on the person's current thoughts on the subject. I skipped the after-party to the dinner, which was "flower power" themed and had a huge, sugar-laden dessert bar. I'd like to say that I did that so I could come back and write this post for all of you, but really it was so that I could get a full night's sleep for the first time in, like, forever.

This post is part of Slightly Indulgent Tuesday

Pineapple Braised Pork Ribs

2012-03-05T15:21:00.004-08:00

It sure is hard to stay grain-free when I'm away from home. Especially when eating meals as a group with people who aren't grain free and notice that I'm passing up the pasta or rice. Yes, people, I do feel better. Why would I keep doing this if I didn't? Yes, I did read up on it. Nope, it's not the same as South Beach. Yes, I've heard of South Beach. Yes, I'm sure I don't want to just do that diet instead. The whole point is that this is not a diet. Yup, I do mean that I plan on this change being pretty much permanent. No, I didn't ask my doctor if it was okay. It's the year 2012. We're allowed to take charge of our own health in many ways, these days. Flour is a grain. Pasta is a grain. Cheerios are a grain. GRAIN IS A GRAIN.

Okay, I feel better now.

During my last trip to Whole Foods, I both got a rack of St. Louis style pork ribs and a whole pineapple on sale. I hadn't bought them with the idea of cooking them together, but as our trip to Connecticut loomed, I needed to use both of them and the idea for pineapple braised ribs came to mind.

The key to this dish is the combination of heat and sweet. I did my best to use what I had on-hand, hence the use of sriracha in the braising. I think I added too much, so I tempered the amount for this recipe. Also important - the rub. I came up with this recipe at the last minute, so I only let the ribs sit in the rub for a couple hours, but I would suggest doing that step the night before so that the meat has plenty of time to absorb all of the flavors. We ate this with cauliflower cheddar "grits" and sauteed zucchini.

Pineapple braised pork ribs

The rub

1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp mustard powder

The dish

1 rack of pork ribs - I used St. Louis style but baby backs would be fine too
2 regular onions, quartered
1 pineapple, rind and core removed, chopped into 1/2 inch chunks - save the juice if you can, too
2 cups beef broth
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 good squirt of sriracha
1 tbsp olive oil
1/8 cup honey
4 garlic cloves, minced

- Put all of the rub ingredients in a bowl and mix well
- Lay defrosted rib slab on a large piece of foil and liberally apply the rub to both sides.
- Wrap in foil and put in the fridge overnight.
- When ribs are ready, pre-heat oven to 275.
- Remove ribs from fridge and cut each rib between the bones so that the full slab is separated into individual ribs.
- Heat oil over medium-high heat in dutch oven, add ribs in batches and cook until brown on both sides.
- Add onions, pineapple, beef broth, worcestershire sauce, sriracha, honey, and garlic
- Cover and bake for 3 hours, then remove lid and cook for another hour uncovered
- When done, take out of oven, remove and plate ribs. Bring remaining pot contents to a boil and reduce to about a cup worth of liquid. Spoon liquid, onion, and pineapple over ribs and serve.

This post is part of Monday Mania and Delicious Recipes.

Coffee-rubbed Flat Iron Steak

2012-02-29T06:33:00.007-08:00

I'm really on a roll this week, readers. Inspiration seems to be coming from every angle and I'm concocting recipes en masse for the for the first time ever. I've never been very good at making up a recipe because I'm always so afraid of adding too much of this or not enough of that. Honestly? I think motherhood has made me sort of say, "Eff it. If I mess up, I'll change it around next time." So give a big golf clap to Charlie for giving his mama a big baby chill pill. If it weren't for him, I'd probably just be telling you about all the already-written recipes I've made. Not that following awesome recipes written by others is bad...this is just a nice creative burst that I didn't expect to have.

So as I've said in other posts, I'm a big fan of shopping sales at Whole Foods. Each week, they put a meat on sale for just the day on Friday, so that's usually when I go - to snatch up that protein as well as some of their other weekly sale items, usually in the butcher, produce, and cheese sections. A couple weeks ago, they advertised pastured Flat Iron steak at a steep discount. I'd never heard of the cut so I asked the butcher about it. He told me it just recently became a more popular cut. It is favored because it is cheaper than most fancy cuts, has an optimal thickness for cooking evenly, and yields a reasonable amount of marbling and significant tenderness. Taking all of this in, I shrugged my shoulders and said, "What the heck. I'll take that one." And into the freezer it went, while I tried to come up with some inspiration for cooking it.

I've been wanting to try a coffee rub on steak or pork for some time, but wasn't reminded of it until my trip to a local spice store, last week. I was going to get ingredients to make my own garam masala, but decided to pick up a few more items that I thought might work for a coffee rub. The spice store is so much fun. Buying spices whole and grinding them only when you need them is a great thing when you have a kitchen that tends to hold in humidity like mine does. I often open up pre-ground spice jars to find that the spice has solidified. Now, I just buy them whole and throw the ones I need into a semi-retired coffee grinder and chop chop.

So here's what went into the grinder last night and how it came out. There are a few pre-ground ingredients on the list but I threw it all in to the grinder to mix up.

Coffee Rubbed Flat Iron Steak

For the rub:
1/4 cup of whole coffee beans
1 tsp whole coriander
1 tsp whole black pepper
1 tsp all natural cocoa powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon or half a small cinnamon stick
5 or 6 whole cloves

For the steak:
One Flat Iron steak (usually about 1.5 lbs)
Olive oil
Sea salt

- Preheat the broiler or a grill
- Put all of the rub ingredients into a coffee or spice grinder and grind as finely as possible. You want to make sure the cloves and cinnamon are ground well because you don't want a mouthful of just those spices ever!
- Take just a bit of olive oil and spread it on both sides of the steak before laying it on a broiler pan, if you are using a broiler. I have a Misto olive oil sprayer, which I prefer to use because it coats so lightly.
- Shake salt on both sided of the steak and rub it in. I did not put the salt in with the rub mix so that the crystals would stay big and give that nice salty crunch.
- Liberally coat both sides of the steak with the rub, making sure to really massage it onto the steak so that it sticks.
- Let the steak sit with the rub for about five minutes before broiling/grilling for five minutes on each side for medium rare.
- Rest the steak for at least five minutes before slicing and serving.
- Store the remaining mixture in an airtight jar for your next meat adventure!

This post is part of Gluten Free Wednesdays, Works for Me Wednesdays, and Real Food Wednesdays.

Crusted pork loin stuffed with plums and carmelized onions

2012-02-27T17:54:00.007-08:00

Excuse the bad photo and poor butterflying/stuffing!

I think that pork is my favorite meat. Pulled pork shoulder is, in my opinion, the perfect food. Have you ever been to a pig roast? If not, get yourself to one ASAP. Bacon...well, bacon needs no explanation. The best part about the pig is that it can carry light flavors or heavy ones. I also adore the contrast of fruit flavors with the taste of pork. It basically can make any day better. Case in point - the best memory of a particularly crappy New Years, many years ago, that I spent with an awful exboyfriend, was the absolutely spectacular peach-stuffed pork loin that we made for our guests.

This recipe was inspired by that beautiful New Years platter. I bought the pork loin on sale at Whole Foods and stuck it in the freezer. Then, last week, WF had organic plums on sale. I knew they belonged inside a butterflied pork loin. A tip? Ask the butcher to butterfly the loin for you. I really hacked up this loin and most of the filling ended up as more of topping. This recipe is a heavy-handed one, so be prepared for lots of flavor. You might even want to add a touch of sugar (maybe brown?) to the stuffing to cut the tang. But I think it showcases the pork and the plums quite nicely.

Crusted pork loin stuffed with carmelized plums and onions

2lb pork loin
1 large red onion, sliced medium
4 or 5 medium sized fresh plums, pitted and cut into 1/8ths
3 tbsps olive oil, divided (see below)
2 tbsps chopped fresh rosemary, split in half
2 tbsps chopped fresh thyme, split in half
1 tbsp dried basil
4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and pushed through a garlic press
1/4 cup beef or chicken stock
3 glugs of red wine
salt and pepper to taste

- Preheat oven to 350
- On the stove, heat 2 tbsps of the olive oil in a dutch oven
- Add the red onion, reduce heat to medium or medium-high and cook - turning frequently - until they start to carmelize. Then, add the plums.
- Once plums are cooked through, add salt and pepper, 1/2 the fresh thyme and 1/2 the fresh rosemary, and deglaze with a little more than half of the stock, and the wine.
- Allow liquid to cook off a bit and then reduce heat to a simmer while getting the pork ready.
- Butterfly the pork loin and then flip it over so that the outside of the loin is facing up.
- Rub the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil on to the outer surface of the loin.
- One ingredient at a time, rub the rest of the rosemary and thyme, the basil, the smashed garlic, and some salt and pepper into the loin. Really work it in so that it sticks to the loin.
- At this point, you might want to lay out three or four pieces of kitchen twine so that you can carefully flip the loin back over and have it land on top of the twine pieces for easy tying.
- With a slotted spoon, transfer the onion/plum mixture onto the loin, but leave plenty of juices in the pan.
- Tie up the loin around the plums and onions.
- Heat up the dutch oven, with the juices in it, and then brown the pork loin on all sides before putting the top on the dutch oven and placing the whole thing in the oven.
- Bake for an hour, basting with juices every 15 minutes.

This post is part of Tasty Tuesdays, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tasty Tuesday, and Hearth and Soul Hop.

Getting the kid to eat and this week's menu

2012-02-27T09:32:00.003-08:00

This week's Q&A was partially inspired by this post over at the City Share blog. I remember the days when formula and breast milk were all we had to provide for our little guy. These days, he's not only eating homemade purees, but he's also started eating finger foods!

Today's question:

How do you get that kid to eat whatever you're eating? My kid will only eat pizza/cheesy poofs/chicken nuggets/jolly ranchers/anything but what I make!

First off, as I've said in my posts over at The Shopping Mama, I am not a judgy mcjudgerson when it comes to parenting decisions. I don't care what other moms feed their kids. (I do care what other people try to feed my kid, but that's a whole other post just waiting to happen.) Deep down inside, it certainly pains me that there are tons of kids out there who eat nothing but junk food day in and day out, but I think those issues are more symptomatic of a greater societal issue than bad individual parenting.

Secondly, my kid doesn't eat everything we eat...because sometimes he lets me know he doesn't like it by throwing it on the floor for our dog to gobble it up. But like every single kid, his likes and dislikes are never consistent. Sometimes egg ends up on the floor, sometimes it ends up in his mouth. The same mixed fate has been met by salmon and broccoli. These days, he likes fish. People think it's weird that we feed it to him. It ain't sushi, people. It's cooked protein, just like chicken. If it makes you feel any better, I let him eat a girl scout cookie (a Trefoil, but still) at a dinner party last week.

Lastly, Charlie does eat chicken nuggets...we just happen to buy the organic ones at Whole Foods. And sometimes, he eats what we eat and we wish we hadn't fed it to him. We gave him some of our delicious grain-free shepherd's pie over the weekend, and it's been working its way through his system ever since in the form of gas that will knock your socks off. It isn't always pretty, people. But you never know until they try it and we'll keep offering him what we eat because we hope it will help him acquire a varied palette and an appreciation for home-cooked food. Either that or it will keep our dog pretty well-fed.

This week's menu

Breakfast for the week - Laura's Make and Freeze Breakfast Casserole

Monday - Pork Loin (recipe in development)

Tuesday - Coffee rubbed flat iron steak (also a recipe in the making...I'm on a roll, this week!)

Wednesday - Easy baked chicken over salads

Thursday - St. Louis braised ribs in the slow cooker over cauliflower cheese grits

Friday - Stilton burgers

This post is part of Menu Plan Monday.

Eggs save the day

2012-02-26T14:11:00.003-08:00

We eat a lot of eggs in our house. I'm not a huge fan of sweet breakfast foods, so I prefer a breakfast of eggs and meat. Since going grain-free, we've started a sort of Saturday morning ritual where I make scrambled eggs for all three of us with whatever protein and veg is left in the fridge and needs to be used up. Last week it was canadian bacon, shredded american cheese, and roasted red pepper. This week, our odds and ends were kind of random: shredded chicken, cream cheese, spinach, and some left over homemade bbq sauce. They ended up making a mighty tasty scramble!

I like to find ways to make breakfasts ahead of time for the work week so that we can just pull them out of the freezer, pop them in our lunch bags, and head off to work. After adhering pretty strictly to some recipes, I decided to wing it a bit this week and make a breakfast casserole from scratch. I built the recipe around the veggies and cheese I had on hand, but you could substitute other items for the sweet onion, broccoli, and mozz.

Laura's Make and Freeze Breakfast Casserole

The "Crust"
1.5 large sweet potatoes, shredded
3/4 cup shredded mozzarella
1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp finely chopped fresh oregano
1.5 tsps garlic powder
2 eggs
3/4 cup shredded mozz

The Filling
10 Eggs
1/4 cup of half and half
1 large sweet onion, chopped
1 head of broccoli, steamed and chopped
3 tbsps organic butter
salt and pepper to taste

- Preheat oven to 375
- Shred the sweet potato and then steam lightly or just put it in the microwave for 2 mins or so
- In a large mixing bowl, combine potatoes, egg, herbs, spices and cheese
- Grease a 9x13 pan and press the mixture into the bottom of the pan and slightly up the sides
- Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the center feels cooked through

- While crust is baking, melt butter in a large pan
- Add the onions, some salt and pepper and allow to cook until transparent
- Add the broccoli and saute until warmed
- Beat eggs and half and half until fluffy

- When crust is cooked, spread onion/broccoli mixture across the top of the crust, making sure it is distributed evenly
- Pour egg mixture over everything, also making sure it is spread all over the casserole
- Bake for another 20 minutes until eggs are cooked through.

I've cut this into 10 pieces, wrapped them individually, and frozen them for easy breakfasts to-go!

Buying more, but wasting less - a lesson in cooking at home

2012-02-24T09:28:00.003-08:00

One of the great byproducts of going grain-free is that I cook almost all of our meals at home. I try to make large batches of one item that I can freeze in individual portions for breakfasts for the week and I plan each of our dinners, cooking enough so that we have stuff to make lunches for both of us the next day. Very often, we just have leftover meat and I slice that up and put it over a salad. The challenge of keeping salads interesting and varied has become one of my favorite parts of this grand experiment.

But what I've noticed most about this entire process is that while we buy almost twice as much food at the grocery store each week as we used to, we actually throw away less than we did before going grain-free!

I can't remember the last time I had to throw away a rotten piece of produce, a moldy piece of cheese (the bad kind of mold, of course), or toss something that had sat at the bottom of our storage freezer for way too long. I think the menu planning has been the biggest help with this. (Speaking of planning, check out this awesome post over at Paleo Parents about this exact topic!) I troll the circulars (especially the one for Whole Foods), select produce and meat that is on sale and then build the week around that. Last week, blood oranges were 10 for $10 and they were used in two of our recipes for the week. Those pickled carrots I made earlier in the week? They were from a 2 lb bag of carrots that I knew would be wasted if I didn't do something with them. Since we eat mostly meat and veggies each day, it's easier to use up leftover veggies because we always need an extra side dish. The simplest way to use up most of the produce that is currently in season? Chopped, tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted under a broiler for a few minutes.

Today's recipe was based on this one, but again I had items that I wanted to use up so I adjusted it to suit my needs. The last remaining carrots were roasted and eaten as a side, along with roasted zucchini, mushrooms, and brussel sprouts that were leftover from Wednesday's dinner. I re-used the chicken today as a salad topper with the final portions of roasted grape tomatoes (another use of an on-sale produce item that needed to be eaten before going bad), spinach, arugula, hearts of palm, a sprinkle of parmesan, balsamic, and olive oil.

One note about this recipe - I get my organic chickens at Costco, where they average about 3 lbs each. Big birds cannot be cooked safely in slow cookers, so only use this recipe for the little guys.

Slow Cooker Chicken
1 Small Organic Roasting Chicken - organs removed
1 large onion or two small - chopped
4 large garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1/2 cup of chicken stock
1 large lemon
Any sort of poultry friendly seasoning - I actually used Penzy's Peppercorn Ranch Salad Dressing mix!
2-3 tbsps of organic butter or ghee
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter/ghee in a frying pan until hot, then add the onions and garlic.
Stir until onions are translucent and garlic is fragrant, 8-10 minutes.
Deglaze the pan with the chicken stock then add the entire contents to the slow cooker.
Dry the bird, season inside and out.
Slice the lemon into medium width rounds.
Season the chicken inside and out with seasoning, then lift up the skin to place a few lemon slices underneath.
Place the bird breast side down in the slower cooker and put the remaining lemon slices on top.
Cook on low for 4.5 hours.
The chicken should be done when a meat thermometer is stuck in the thickest part of the breast and reads at least 165 degrees.
Remove the chicken from the crockpot and slice.
You can defat the remaining contents of the crock and then use an immersion blender to make a delicious gravy. I did this and then froze the leftovers to use on other dishes in the future.

Roasted grape tomatoes
These are so easy to make and they add a lot of good flavor to dishes! Add some whole or chopped garlic for even more bite.
1 pint of organic grape tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Chop each tomato in half length-wise.
Place on a baking sheet and toss with a bit of olive oil so that all are evenly coated. Salt and pepper to your liking.
Roast for about 30-40 minutes, but make sure to toss them at least every 15 minutes for an even cook.

This post is part of Foodie Friday, Friday Food and Recipe Linky at Mom Trends, Food on Fridays, and Fresh Bites Friday

An Ode to Hard Cheese

2012-02-22T06:55:00.000-08:00

Hey you, with the package of Kraft "cheese" slices...freeze! Put it down. Just put it down, don't argue with me! Put it down and step away from the cheese food. Slowly. That's it...

So here's one reason why I would classify our new eating habits as "primal" or "grain free" rather than "paleo": we won't stop eating cheese. GOOD cheese. Like, ever. Paleo folks say no to dairy and primal folks say yes to it as long as you are lactose tolerant, which we seem to be. Cheese is just too delicious to ditch. And we love the good stuff. The fancier the better. I read this blog with a vengeance. Not only does she love cheese, but she's also local so I can actually go to the same fabulous places she goes to buy her recommendations.

Historically, the hubs and I have been soft cheese fans. We dig triple creams like the St. Andre (my personal fave), bries, crumbly and gooey blue cheeses, and anything goat's milk based. (Um, if you want a cheese experience that will rock you to the core, try the "Truffle Tremor." Your life will never be the same.)

But the problem that arises with loving soft cheese and being grain free is what do we put the cheese on? I'm not against eating it with fingers, or crumbling it on salads, but there is something very nice about spreading a good cheese on a cracker or slice of bread. I miss that. A quick google search does yield a ton of recipes for grain-free crackers, so we plan to try that route in the near future.

Another solution we've found is to get more into hard cheese. Nowadays, I enjoy a good slice of the hard stuff as a snack while I prepare dinner. Trying something new in cheeseland has exposed us to a whole slew of cheeses that we now like just as much as our tried and true favorites. One of the best parts of this adventure has been seeing the beautiful rinds that form on some of the aged cheeses. They are seriously like works of art. We get the Havilah (pictured above) fairly regularly with our CSA. Just look at the rind on that beauty! I used to just shred it over salads or melt it for cheese sauces, but I've come to appreciate it solo or with a couple of grapes. But the best hard cheese discovery of all? Aged Gouda. The popular aging time for most aged goudas is four or five years - long enough for calcium lactate crystals to form and give a satisfying crunch to each bite. It's sweet and rich, and feels like a treat. Funny enough, we didn't realize this when we bought it, but most cheese experts would say that aged gouda is meant to be eaten alone without any accoutrements. Perfect for the grain-free eater!

We buy most of our cheese at Downtown Cheese in the Reading Terminal Market, DiBruno Bros, or Claudio's. I think every city, large or small, needs to have its own specialty food shop that includes a full-time knowledgeable cheesemonger. But if that's not possible where you live, find a Whole Foods. We got our last hunk of aged gouda at Whole Foods and it's been the best cheese I've had recently.

This post is part of Gluten-Free Wednesdays, Works for Me Wednesdays, Welcome Wednesday, and Real Food Wednesdays.

Quickly pickly

2012-02-21T09:08:00.001-08:00

We've been eating a lot of salads lately. And salads can get boring pretty quickly. I do my best to keep things interesting by making a variety of toppings each week that can add a little zing to things. This week, my salad toppings will be pickled carrots and roasted grape tomatoes. And as you can see, I do love pickled stuff. Pickled peaches are definitely on tap for this summer's canning list (they were a huge hit two years ago) as are dills and onions. But I'm also a huge fan of quick pickles for when I have a small amount of an item and I know I'm going to eat it fairly quickly.

Since I just finished off a big jar of homemade pickled onions, I decided to go for something different this week. Pickled carrots sounded good because I could throw them on a salad or eat them as a snack. They came out beautifully - salty, crunchy, and tangy.

For this recipe, I used my favorite pre-mixed pickling spice from The Spice Corner in the Italian Market. Their website is abysmal, but I find their prices to be the best of all the spice shops in the city. Some people like to mix their own spice mixes for pickling, but this one contains all the stuff I'd put in anyway - mustard seeds, chili peppers, rosemary, pepper corns, bay leaves, and cloves. If you are new to pickling, using a pre-mixed spice is a good idea and you can always adjust or mix your own as you get more adept. If you are not local to Philly, Penzey's is always a good online resource for fresh spices and they have a very good pickling mix.

One last note, this recipe did not quite fill a large canning jar, so I would suggest using two or three pints instead.

Quick Pickled Carrots

1 lb of organic carrots, peeled, cut in half and then quartered
2 cups of water
2 cups of apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp of salt
2 tbsp of sugar
6 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
Handful of pickling spice

- Fill a pot with water, bring to a boil, and blanch the carrots for 1 minute. Put them in an ice bath to cool and return the empty pot to the burner.
- Combine water, vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic, and pickling spice and heat until it is just about to boil.
- While the brine is heating, remove the carrots from the ice bath and stuff them into the jar(s)
- Once the brine is ready, pour it over the carrots until they are covered and distribute the garlic evenly
- Allow the pickles to cool to room temperature before affixing lids and placing in refrigerator
- These can stay in the refrigerator for up to a week or so

Potluck lucky

2012-02-20T07:17:00.000-08:00

We've become friends with some parents at our son's daycare. It started as a sort of means of survival as we were all battling daycare management over some issues, but then we all realized that we sorta liked each other! One of the other other couples invited us to their house on Sunday for a potluck dinner. This was exciting because a) I love potlucks, b) all the other guests were big food fans, too and c) we were gonna socialize!

I grew up in the suburbs of northern Jersey, where I attended the same Presbyterian Church as many of my friends, as well as my parents and grandparents. The potluck dinner was a frequent means of gathering among church members. I can remember being a little kid, standing at the end of a buffet table that seemed to run the entire length of our events hall, and just being in awe of the variety of foods that awaited me. Sure, there were multiple jello molds and green bean casseroles (we are talking about NJ suburbs in the 80s, after all) but I also got to taste at least one new dish each time and that was a treat for me.

There were five couples at Sunday's potluck including our hosts, plus our son and their twin girls. Among us there were artists, writers, lawyers, an academic, a scientist, and an engineer (I think that's what he does, at least!). So not only was it nice to sit down to some amazingly cooked grub, we also got to do it with some smart and talented people. Honestly, it was the first night in a long time where it felt like it used to when we ate with our friends back in New York. We had to leave fairly early to put our son to bed and I didn't want to go!

As I looked over the spread on the table before we sat down, I felt the same sense of adventure that my kid self must have felt at those church smorgasbords back in the day. The menu was eclectic but every single thing tasted delicious. The hostess made a beef bourguignon that was tender and rich and comforting. We had our bacon-wrapped cheese-stuffed jalapenos and a blood orange and fennel salad that people really seemed to like. There was a thai slaw that had a great bite to it, some sort of garlicky kale dish that I could not devour fast enough, perfect mashed potatoes, and some amazing sausages. I feel like I'm forgetting some other delicious dinner item, too. Everything was tasty.

Dessert was made by one of the guests, who is coincidentally one of my favorite Philly food bloggers, although I tried not to gush. She is basically my go-to resource for canning. When I first found her blog, and saw that someone actually managed to do what she does in far less space than I have, I realized that I can cook well in my little crappy kitchen and I can can and preserve in my dinky backyard. At the risk of being dramatic, her blog was one of the reasons why this blog exists. Anyway, she made a delectable tart that was topped with some of her homemade orange marmalade. Even though we were only able to stay for a couple of hours, it was a long-awaited couple of hours with fun people and amazing food.

I certainly hope this becomes a habit.

This week's menu and a new answer

2012-02-20T06:44:00.001-08:00

Wow, I didn't post anything but my menu last week. I think the week just got away from me. It happens with a kid who's teething AND learning to sooth himself to sleep. Oy.

This week's question is one I've been getting a lot, since we decided to go grain free:

How are you going to afford to eat all that fresh produce and meat if you have to eat only organic veggies and pastured/free-range protein?

The short answer: it won't be easy.

The long answer: It won't be easy, but it might still actually be cheaper than all the eating out we were doing before this. Since this is our first month, the jury is still out, but I do think we are going to end up spending a couple hundred dollars less each month. We ate out A LOT. And it was all junk. We like good food. When I cook, I rarely do anything half-assed. Yet we were ordering junky pasta, pizza, or bar food from crap restaurants in our neighborhood three or four times a week! Made no sense.

Anyway, I do what I can to save money and what that usually translates to is going to multiple grocery stores each weekend to get the best deals at each one. Once a month we go to Costco, and this month we got a bunch of their organic chicken breasts and ground beef. I like their meats because the chicken is pre-portioned (two breasts in each mini-pack) and the beef is already separated into 1 lb blocks. I stalk sale items at Whole Foods, too. I've been going there on Friday evenings because they always have some sort of sustainable meat on sale just for Friday - one week we even had lobster tails because they were so cheap! While I'm there, I'll buy almost any produce that is on sale, depending on what we are due to get in our CSA. I also shop the sales on beef and poultry. I almost never buy a full price item there. About twice a month, we travel out to Wegman's in NJ, which has an amazing selection of organic produce, meat, and pantry items at pretty good prices. We shop sales there, too. And last but not least, we have our CSA. They have a small farmer's market on pick-up day, and have been putting one meat on sale each week, so I always buy whatever it is. This week's shepard's pie, for example, will contain the ground veal that was 25% off this week.

And if all else fails, we eat non-organic vegetables and non-pastured/free-range meats, because I refuse to get crazed about these things.

On to the menu...

You will see some repeats this week. That's because I never got around to making these items last week either because we had to make something quicker, or we had a dinner out with family or friends. (More on the friends part in a later post.)

For breakfast for the week, we are having a sweet potato hash with breakfast sausages (on sale at Whole Foods!) and a poached egg (we get them with our CSA).

Yesterday, I made the hash/sausages, more bacon-wrapped, cheese-stuffed jalapenos and a blood orange (WF sale, yet again) and fennel salad to take to a potluck.

Monday

Leftover blood orange and fennel salad with Chicken

Tuesday

Cajun catfish, cauliflower rice, and asparagus

Wednesday

Skirt steak w/citrus marinade and brussel sprouts

Thursday

Roast Chicken in the slow cooker

Friday

Shepard's Pie

This post is part of Menu Plan Monday.

Answering some questions plus this week's menu

2012-02-12T13:57:00.000-08:00

There's no doubt we like to eat in our house. And since cooking is something I have grown to enjoy just in the last few years, it is often the focus of my posts on Facebook and Pinterest. I've been told that I post about food too much, it's been implied to me that our weight issues are tied to the fact that I cook for us (as opposed to eating frozen diet meals), and I get lots of questions about my love for cooking. I thought I'd answer one question/comment each week, as part of my weekly menu post. This week's question:

Why do you spend so much time cooking? You could just order out or eat frozen stuff. It's so much easier.

It is, indeed, easier. It also tastes like #$%^. I grew up in a house where that sort of insta-meal stuff was the norm. A typical dinner was frozen veggies and either Hamburger Helper or some sort of plain baked (and bland) protein, and a side of Rice-a-roni or mac and cheese from a box. Enjoying food, exploring different tastes, and eating fresh healthy food were not priorities. Now, part of the problem was that we did not have a lot of money when I was a kid. Meals had to be cheap and they had to be quick because both of my parents worked and my brother and I had lots of activities. But I was never exposed to different types of food until I went to college. I'd never had sushi, falafel, or real Mexican food (not tacos made from a kit) until I went off to school. It wasn't until then that I realized food was something that could be enjoyed, even if it was in moderation. I had grown up being told that affordability and "healthiness" was all that mattered. We are determined to expose our son to as many cultures as possible, and food is part of that. We are also determined to make sure he understands the value of healthy eating - not by eating anything that is labeled "lite," but by eating fresh, simply-cooked food. I get a sense of pride in cooking good food for my little family. It does take a significant amount of time - almost two hours each night (including clean-up and getting our lunches made for the next day) and half a day on Sundays when I cook a bunch of stuff for the week. But I'd rather give up that time, and maybe spend a little more on our grocery bill than if we bought meals that come in a box or bag, to enjoy what we eat. Food can be good for you and be delicious. The time I spend cooking, in my opinion, is time well spent.

This week's menu

Breakfast for the week - Pumpkin, apple, bacon, and chive biscuits with bacon and egg. I read the comments and added some coconut milk for moisture. We also added the cheese since we are still eating dairy on our grain-free plan.

Yesterday, I also cooked a free-range turkey that's been in our freezer for a while (leftovers will show up later in the week), grain-free stuffing, and roasted brussel sprouts and carrots.

Finally, I cooked up a bunch of bacon to be used in some of this week's recipes and for breakfasts.

Monday - "Spaghetti" carbonara

Tuesday - A special meal for my valentine, re-made to be grain-free

Wednesday - Turkey thai basil

Thursday - Stuffed pork chops

Friday - Grain-free shepard's pie

This post is part of Menu Plan Monday

A week and a why

2012-02-06T18:08:00.000-08:00

"OH MY GOD, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?!"

This is the panicked question that I get most often when I tell people that I'm no longer eating grains. After the panic, I usually get a series of questions about exactly which ingredients I'm eliminating. Rice? Yes. Corn?? Yes. BREAD?!?! Yes. Then, the eye roll and the shoulder shrug.

The overall attitude is usually that this is just another fad diet and I'm its latest victim. The truth is, the grain-free lifestyle has been around since long before Atkins and South Beach repackaged and marketed it. In its purest form, it is a modern reproduction of the diet that cavemen followed. Grains as a diet staple are actually a relatively new idea. Science tells us that life expectancy and overall health actually decreased when we stopped hunting and gathering and started homesteading.

But enough propoganda. The question I also get is, "Why?" The quick answer: I'm fat and I want to finally stop being fat. The longer answer: I've had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome since I was a teenager and the research says that the syndrome has the awful catch-22 of being reversed through weight loss while also making weight loss very difficult. It ties into blood sugar issues which can be leveled out with a grain-free diet. I also had gall bladder issues before pregnancy which were exacerbated by my last-minute c-section. The grain-free diet has been a way for other ladies in my situation to avoid gall bladder removal.

One thing about this decision is that it takes a lot of planning each week since I make pretty much every meal for us. I'm hoping to post the week's dinners each monday. (Lunches are usually leftovers from the night before.) Some nights I might just cook a piece of meat and throw it on a gigantic salad. I also try to pre-make breakfast foods for us, and if I do that, I'll post it as well.

A couple reminders - we are eating dairy and some tree nuts, we cook primarily with coconut and olive oils but don't require that they be absolute virgin pressings, and while we've cut out most soy I need my soy sauce.

Breakfast for the week - slices of breakfast casserole.

Monday - Gingered carrots with Mahi Mahi and sauteed tatsoi with garlic and pine nuts. (Seriously tasty!!!)

Tuesday - Lemon-baked free-range chicken cutlets over salad with homemade "house" dressing.

Wednesday - Stuffed Peppers

Thursday - Baby back ribs

Friday - Baked salmon over salad with "house" dressing.

Saturday - Red curry beef with cabbage

Sunday - Free-range roast turkey with brussel sprouts and grain-free stuffing

This post is part of Menu Plan Monday and Monday Mania.

Look what you made me do, look what I made for you...

2012-02-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

Well, hello there! I hope that all three of my regular readers will pardon my absence. My slacking is due to a lot of things including my new son (now almost 10 months old!), my regular posts for the most awesome Shopping Mama blog, and a general lack of inspiration. I started this blog as a way to chronicle our first foray into the world of CSAs, but once we became veterans, I guess I just lost interest. We're still CSAing but there's rarely a week where we get things that are unfamiliar. Although, we did get some Asian greens, this week, and I'm not quite sure what those are let alone what to do with them. Any ideas are welcome.

Anyway, this blog was started as a way of exploring a new way of eating for us. Our household cuisine has taken a couple more turns which is what inspired me to make a comeback. (Plus, my buddy over at City Share made me realize that I can still do this even if life is super busy!) First, since babies are expensive, one of our New Year's resolutions was to cook the majority of our meals in our own kitchen and stop eating out so much. And for a totally separate group of reasons, we've gone grain/sugar/gluten free. You might have heard the terms "Paleo" or "Primal" used to describe this lifestyle, but I try to avoid using them because they are so gimmicky. There's real science behind this decision. I promise.

No grains/gluten/sugar means lots of meat and veggies. There's also a feeling in the paleo/primal (shiver) communities that everything we eat needs to be organic/free range/pastured/wild caught/etc. I agree. My bank account does not. So our challenge going forward will be to find the ingredients we need at reasonable prices - a post about that is forthcoming.

In the meantime, check out what this new eating plan did allow us to eat on this Super Bowl Sunday (yay Giants!!) -

- These amazing bacon-wrapped cheese-stuffed jalapenos. I used some fabulous Farmer's Cheese and Nitrate-free bacon that we got in this week's CSA. Wow. Just wow. They fell apart a bit, though, so my only tip is to use toothpicks.

- Fresh guacamole made with organic avocados (on sale at Whole Foods this week!), organic roma tomatoes (also a WF special), red onion, and fresh lime juice.

- My brand new super duper chili recipe, detailed below. It's a spicy one, but I don't really appreciate chili spice unless it comes with some smoke, so this recipe is designed to give you a more mesquite, dark, layered flavor. And yes, I know that the beer is not "paleo." Sue me.

Ingredients:
1 poblano pepper, chopped fine
1 regular pepper (any color - I used red), diced
1 large red onion, diced
1lb or so - grass fed ground beef
1.5 to 2 lbs - grass fed stew beef
1 can of whole or crushed tomatoes (I used tomatoes I canned myself but try to find organic canned)
1 small can of diced tomatoes (again, try for organic)
1 or 2 diced fresh tomatoes (optional)
2 or 3 canned chipotle peppers, diced
6 garlic cloves, diced
2 tbsp dried oregano
2 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili pepper
1 cinnamon stick (don't use the powdered stuff unless you absolutely have to - the stick just gives a richer flavor)
12 oz of dark beer, like stout or porter (I used Flying Fish's Exit 13 Chocolate Stout - it meshed with the spice like whoa)
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
Shredded Cheese (for topping)
Salsa Verde (for topping)

- Put olive oil in a big frying pan and heat up
- Add poblano, pepper, and onion to the pan and cook until onion is carmelized - about 10 mins.
- Put cooked peppers and onions into crock pot, add a bit more oil to the pan and return to heat
- Brown the ground beef - transfer to crock with slotted spoon
- Brown the stew meat (don't cook all the way, just brown on all sides) - transfer to crock with slotted spoon
- Add all the spices, tomatoes, and the beer
- Cook on low for 6-7 hours, stirring occasionally.
- You can add the entire can of salsa verde to the crock right before serving or just throw a dollop on individual servings. Shredded cheese cuts the heat a bit, too.

Pickle Me

2011-06-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

This week's CSA share was quite a haul and we also picked up a few things at the Greensgrow farm stand. Originally, we just needed to buy a loaf of bread for dinner and some strawberries and rhubarb so that my husband could make another crisp after his first foray was not quite right. Delicious, but not quite right. But there was a $20 minimum to use our debit card and we had no cash, so I hunted around the stand to find some other good stuff that I could use.

Our share came with eight pickling cucumbers and fresh dill, so I'm hoping to make some tasty dills this week. We also got garlic scapes (my favorite CSA item!) but I already knew that I wanted to try to pickle them, too, so we picked up another bunch of scapes for cooking. We also grabbed a big bunch of scallions and I might even take half of them for pickling, like I did with spring onions recently, since we never manage to use a whole bunch of scallions. We are hoping to go to the infamous Fante's tomorrow and I plan to buy an asparagus cooker so that I can do one jar canning on our indoor cooktop. (I wish I had come up with this idea, myself, but I must credit the awesome Food in Jars maven with the inspiration.)

So here's the full list of our haul:
Picklers
Carrots
Beets
Dill
Spring mix
Yellow Squash
Garlic Scapes
Wildflower Honey
Chevre
Eggs
Strawberries (farm stand)
Rhubarb (farm stand)
Italian Loaf (farm stand)
More Scapes (farm stand)
Scallions (farm stand)
Mint (farm stand)

The mint is for the gallons of fresh iced tea that we make and drink all summer long. While we're at Fante's tomorrow, I'm sure we'll hit the spice store in the Italian Market for a bunch of beautiful tea blends for this summer's tea experiments and some more of the pickling mix.

The Song of Spring Onions & Asparagus

2011-05-31T16:52:00.000-07:00

Let's all take a moment and bow our heads in admiration for the baby swing which makes the writing of this blog post possible...

If you read this week's ShoppingMama post, you know that I've decided to make an effort to eat better, but not to worry too much about my calorie intake. I can't remember a time in my adult life that I haven't been hyper aware of the caloric value of what I was eating, even if I was eating something with a ridiculously high amount of calories. Like counting my billable hours when I still practiced law, I have spent years doing the math in my head at every meal, adding up the calories and either being proud of coming in under the wire or pushing down the shame of exceeding my limits while enjoying something sinful. But too many of the women I trust most have told me that a strict calorie count could affect my precious breastmilk supply, so I'm going to try my hardest to stop doing the math and just enjoy a good, well-balanced pig-out for the next few months.

We used the lettuce and some of the spring onions last night when we grilled a nice piece of steak and sliced it over salads. I also added some pecorino cheese that came in our last winter CSA share. My favorite salad dressing is a simple homemade one of dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper. Always a winner.

I came across this recipe in my Google Reader, yesterday, and liked it because a) it had a dijon mustard dressing and b) it could be made in starts and stops, something that is helpful when you have a little one who likes to wake up and feed just as you start to get into some sort of non-baby-related activity. It used our asparagus and a few of our spring onions, plus I love anything pickled! I did the pickling early this morning when Charlie and I got up for the day. Then I boiled the potatoes and cooked the veggies during his mid-afternoon nap. After I got him fed and into the swing, I chopped and mixed all the components and made the dressing, to be added at the last minute, before we eat. We will be pairing it with some grilled salmon steaks and BEER. Yes, beer.

Aaaaand we're back!

2011-05-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't been following my other blogging adventures over here, Charlie arrived on April 18. We've had our adventures so far, but all-in-all he's been amazing. The only unfortunate thing is that it's been awfully hard to cook a nightly dinner, so our diets have suffered greatly. Of course, I don't need to worry too much about how much I'm eating since I'm nursing Charlie, but I would like to see the quality of my food intake go back to what it was during my early pregnancy and before.

I'm hoping that our first summer CSA share, which Charlie and I picked up this morning (see picture), will put us back on track. We finally got into the summer CSA at Greensgrow, which is much closer to our house than last summer's CSA. I'll miss going to an actual farm to get our veggies, but the convenience of Greensgrow can't be beat, as well as the fact that we can purchase garden plants/flowers and other food goodies while we're there. Plus, the fact that Greensgrow sources their veggies, dairy, and meat from a number of local farmers means that we get alot more variety from week to week. Here's what we got:

Asparagus
Red Leaf Lettuce
Leeks
Sweet Onions
Strawberries (beautiful strawberries, I might add)
Rhubarb
Beets
Dandelion Greens
Misty Morning cheddar from Calkins Creamery
Eggs

The only item that I'm wondering about is the Dandelion Greens. I think we got them in last year's CSA, but they might have been one of the casualties of our first weeks when we were still trying to figure out how to use everything. With Greensgrow, half share members only pick up every other week, as opposed to going every week and just getting less stuff. I'm hoping that two weeks between pickups will make it easier to plan and use everything we get.

We did get a TON of leeks and sweet onions. Anyone have any advice for how we might cook and save those items to use in multiple recipes over the next couple weeks? I was thinking we could somehow saute them and then freeze portions. Any experience with this would be greatly appreciated.

Preparing for baby...with food.

2011-04-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

I know, I've been a bad BAD blogger. Admittedly, our food intake has been a rather boring topic since I've had to stick to a gestational diabetes diet for the last couple months. But our new son is coming tomorrow and so I've been looking forward to eating "normal food." Really, I'm just looking forward to eating carbs besides brown rice and whole wheat English muffins...oh, and condiments like BBQ sauce. Everything else I've eaten has been pretty normal. We got our last winter CSA pickup this weekend, and I figured I should challenge myself to somehow preserve as much of it as I could in dishes that could be frozen and easily prepared while holding a screaming newborn.

We had spinach left over from our last pickup and got another bunch this week, along with a bunch of kale and some leeks. We also had a bunch of eggs and milk from the CSA, as well as a hunk of romano cheese. What can easily be made with all these items? QUICHE! So I picked up a few more items (more cheese - feta and goat - some bacon, onions, and my favorite whole wheat pie crusts from the hippy section at Wegman's) and went to town, this morning.

Three varieties, and five quiches later, I had quite a supply. I liked the idea of making quiche because it can be eaten for any meal of the day. Plus, they can all be made relatively the same way by sauteing the vegetable ingredients, spreading that on the bottom of the a pie crust, adding cheese and/or cooked bacon, and then pouring a simple mix of beaten eggs and milk on top. I like to bake at a higher temp (425, usually) for about 15 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 for another 15, or until the center is solid. We got two kale/bacon/romano quiches, one leek/spinach/feta, and two leek/spinach/goat cheese. Yum!

And then, just for fun, and some tasty comfort food during that first week of insanity, I made this fancy tuna noodle casserole. I froze the whole thing before the baking step and plan to just defrost overnight and bake as per the directions.

Let's talk sloppy joes for a minute...

2011-03-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

So my latest Shopping Mama post is up here and I made a little mention about the delicious hometown specialty that was served at the party, but figured this was the place to expound upon it.

NJ sloppy joes are not what you think. They are not manwich style loose meat sandwiches on hamburger buns that are like something out of a Happy Days episode. No no no. These are serious sandwiches. Behold:

Photo courtesy of www.staceysnacksonline.com

Yes, what you are seeing is indeed called a sloppy joe in the language of Northern New Jersey natives. It consisists of two "decks," all on rye bread. One deck holds the meat (usually turkey, roast beef or ham, but there are new school varieties that I refuse to recognize), the second deck holds swiss as well as house-made coleslaw and russian dressing. I prefer the version that is served by the deli in my hometown, although residents of other municipalities are quick to argue that their local's version is better. Do not listen to these people. I've tried other versions and they either use subpar deli meats, overcrowd the sandwich with bread sliced way too thick, or do not manage to replicate the delicate balance of flavors in Millburn Deli's secret coleslaw and dressing recipes. The true key to the Millburn sloppy joe is purchasing one that was pre-made in the morning and kept in the take-out deli case. The flavors have had a couple hours to meld together and the pickle slice that comes wrapped in with the sandwich is nice and crispy. It also MUST be paired with some of the deli's homemade iced tea. No excuses.

I also want to issue a plug for the other food provider at the shower. Gian Marco Trattoria is another favorite place to "manga" in my hometown. They provided amazing bruschetta (heavy on the onion, just how I like it), a ceasar salad with egg-free dressing for the pregnant lady, fusilli con asiago (tricolor pasta with spinach, red pepper, and garlic), and a chicken rollatini that was filled to the brim with even more spinach and cheese. The pasta leftovers are still being enjoyed in our house but the chicken rollatini got scarfed within a day.

All that food, together with a delicious custard-filled cake and a chocolate fountain, made for a pretty enjoyable cheat day for this gestational diabetic.

My blood sugar can kick your blood sugar's ass...

2011-03-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been MIA. It's not because of lack of ideas for the blog...it's really just been a lack of time. I'm an educational fundraiser by day and I'm currently one person in a department that usually has three. PLUS, I'm going on maternity leave in six weeks. It's a bit crazy up in here.

But, I have had time to start writing a weekly post for The Shopping Mama blog, which was founded by my college friend and former work colleague, Kate Marsh Lord. Check out my first post here which will update you on the diabetes saga and give a little insight into what I'm doing other than working and trying to find cool things to make from CSA materials. I'd like to parallel the Shopping Mama posts with writings on here that relate to the foodie side of whatever I'm talking about. We'll see how that goes.

As far as my food life is concerned, it's a bit boring these days thanks to the ol' gestational diabetes. The one highlight has been my husband's unending support of the dietary changes I've had to make in light of this condition. It's hard to imagine, but I was most upset that I'd have to stop making super delicious meals for him every night. But he has eaten everything I have to eat and has made every effort to eat the heavily-carbed food outside of my presence (even though I tell him it's okay to munch in front of me). The other day, he asked me if lentils and bulgur were on my diet and I said yes, as long as they were measured carefully. He then took it upon himself to research and make mujadara from scratch, which we ate with light whole wheat pitas, a touch of hummus, and some pickled veg. It was awesome...and we're still working through the huge batch every day for lunch or dinner. I think it might become a staple even after the GD process is over.

Dealin' with "the sugah"

2011-02-14T20:02:00.000-08:00

So I failed my glucose screening, last week, and have been ordered to undergo the big 3-hour glucose test that will determine if I have gestational diabetes. I don't underestimate the seriousness of such a condition, but I'm okay with the idea that I'll have to eat higher protein/lower carb meals, drink even more water than I already do, and walk for exercise every day. I don't believe that my current diet is unhealthy, but I definitely kept a tighter reign on what I ate before I got pregnant. Since I got the news that I failed the screening, I've implemented a higher protein regimen, and I've also been trying to get some extra calcium and folic acid, since both of those nutrients are increasingly important now as my boy grows strong bones and a healthy nervous system.

From what I've read, GD meals don't have to be NO carb, but there does need to be a good dose of protein to balance it out. A couple weeks ago, I attempted to make an asian soup with buckwheat noodles and these delicious all natural chicken and cilantro wontons from Costco, but it came out sort of bland. The broth needed some additions and there needed to be more of a variety of ingredients than just the wontons and the noodles. So I tried again tonight, with the idea of adding protein and folic acid to the meal to make it GD and baby growth friendly. I started off again with chicken stock, but this time I added garlic and onion powders, soy sauce, and a touch of sesame oil. The resulting flavor was lovely and smelled great. As the broth came to a boil, I dropped in a couple eggs and quickly broke them up, egg-drop-soup-style. I broiled some lean pork chops from the freezer and chopped them up to add them to the soup, so between that and the eggs, the protein element was complete. I added a few wontons (but less than last time), some organic soba noodles, and the final touch - a bunch of frozen spinach. I threw a sprinkle of chopped scallion on each bowl after serving.

The result was a vast improvement over the first attempt. M added sriracha which was probably a nice touch. Next time, I might experiment a little more with the broth, but for the most part, I'd say tonight was a GD/folic acid success! (Plus it took a total of 30 minutes to make from start to finish.)

2011-02-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

Today's dinner was so good that I forgot to take a picture of it.

I had the main idea for dinner already formulated as I scrolled through my Google Reader, this morning. When I saw this biscuit recipe I knew it would be a great way to use up some of the FireFly Farms Chevre that we got in a previous CSA share. The bottoms got a little more crispy than I would have liked but they were still delicious.

Between the biscuits and two ingredients for the main course, I had to figure out ahead of time how to juggle things in and out of the oven. Timing for cooking of different portions of a meal has always been a weakness for me. I preheated the oven to 500 degrees and made the biscuit dough while it warmed up. Sliced CSA pears, tossed in a bit of sugar and melted butter, and two chicken cutlets went into the oven together to bake. I put the skillet for the biscuits in with the pears and the chicken to heat up as per the recipe. When the peaches and chix were done, I reduced the temp of the oven, buttered the skillet, scooped the biscuits into it, and put it in to bake. The recipe suggested a five minute cool-down for the biscuits, so I turned the oven off but put the pears and chicken back in to warm up a bit. Those two items were layered on top of CSA arugula, chopped walnuts and a sprinkle of parmesan. I threw on a simple dressing of olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and the meal was complete.

I think that arugula is officially my favorite green. I tend to be picky about greens, but the peppery tang of arugula is a no-fail option for me. Another one of my favorite arugula salad recipes is this Real Simple ditty, which includes shredded rotisserie chicken, potato, and a delectable dijon dressing. With both salads, there were already great flavors to compliment each other but the arugula adds that special element that leaves me practically licking the plate clean.

A night without recipes...

2011-02-08T18:29:00.000-08:00

Tonight's dinner was a good dark days meal. This week's CSA included chicken apple sausages from Griggstown Quail Farm and our choice of a variety of cheeses from Calkins Creamery. I selected a hunk of the Old Man Highlander, an aged natural-rind gouda. We had an onion left over from a previous CSA pickup, so that got carmelized over low heat and then I cooked up the sausages. One half of the bread was lightly buttered and the other was spread with whole grain mustard. And then the sandwich was built with the onion, slices of the Old Man, and halves of the sausage. It sure was tasty!

For dessert, I called up a memory of a sweet treat that my mother used to make when I was a kid: baked apples. Her method was simple - cut the core out, pack it with brown sugar, top with a dollop of butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon and bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until the apples are slightly soft and the sugar has carmelized. We topped ours with a little bit of vanilla ice cream and it was delightful.

Countdown to sushi

2011-02-07T18:43:00.001-08:00

I agree!
Photo credit: Bryan Jones

If you have never been pregnant, you might not know about the exhaustive list of foods that are forbidden during those special 40 weeks. I've been good about caffeine by indulging only occasionally in a half-caf or london fog. While I'm not really a drinker, I do love craft beer, but I've also sacrificed that indulgence for the little guy. And I've cut out canned tuna and most of the high-mercury fishes. I've admittedly half-assed it with some of the rules. There have been a few cold cut sandwiches, albeit only from places that I trust to store the stuff properly. I've eaten cheeses that were probably unpasteurized. And even though they were cooked, some mushrooms have snuck into my diet.

The one food that I've cut out entirely, mostly out of fear of food poisoning but also because of the mercury issue, is sushi. I've been a fan of sushi for a good many years, now, but it's just one of many foods that I like to eat. Inexplicably, though, I have been missing and craving it daily since finding out I was pregnant. I constantly miss the heat of a spicy tuna roll, the tang of good yellowtail, the smoke of a philly roll. I even miss my personal ritual of eating sushi: open chopsticks, rub them together (to smoothe them), pour the soy, put the wasabi in it, mix it up, put the ginger in the soy to soak, place one piece of ginger atop each piece of sushi and dig in. So precise. So tasty.

It's gotten to the point where I am keeping two time lines: how far along I am in the pregnancy and how much longer I have until I can eat sushi. I'm 29 weeks pregnant which means sushi shall be mine in about 11 weeks. Do you think I could just have a few rolls delivered to the recovery room in labor & delivery?

Catching up

2011-02-01T19:41:00.000-08:00

I sort of expected this, but we fell off the wagon a bit over the weekend. It started on Friday when, after a particularly horrific day at work, I refused to cook and demanded that we eat at our around-the-corner favorite, The Memphis Taproom. I assumed that a few meals over the weekend would not be made at home, either, but we did have a breakfast and a lunch from our own kitchen so I consider it a small victory.

We've been back on the wagon this week. Breakfasts and lunches have all been made and taken to work with us. Last night was an ultimate dark days meal as I made this with farmers market smoked sausage, CSA apples and onions, and the rest of my gigantic head of cabbage. It turned out to be a deliciously comforting dish that tasted even better today as leftovers for lunch.

Dinner tonight was laborious but resulted in the aromatic and pretty item that is pictured above. It used some CSA winter squash that we've had since the end of the summer CSA, which I baked last night while the sausage dish was cooking, to save a step tonight. I used this recipe and followed it to a tee, but if I made it again, I would use more squash, chard, and mushrooms so that there could be one extra layer to the lasagna and a little more girth to all of the layers. The recipe called for one bunch of chard but I think I've been spoiled by all the big-leafed healthy chard that we got through our summer CSA. The chard I picked up at the grocery store was a small-leafed disappointment and added a gritty quality to the lasagna despite the fact that I washed it before chopping it up.

In other news, we got another view of our little guy at yesterday's ultrasound. His head is a bit bigger than normal but still in the normal "range." We've been making fathead jokes ever since. Perhaps we should be spending our time saving money for the therapy he's going to need as a result of our sense of humor instead of cooking!

2011-01-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

Well it certainly is easy to have a spend-free day when you're snowed in! Philly was hit with something like 15 inches of snow overnight. Our street didn't get plowed until around 2 pm, city buses were not running, and the long walk to the El would require me to traverse walkways that would be mostly unshoveled. So...I declared a snow day and worked from home.

Bagels for breakfast. Leftover pork chop and pasta (withOUT pea shoot pesto, thank goodness) for lunch. Dinner was a quickly made meal of more leftover pasta, broiled chicken cutlets (from the storage freezer), defrosted BASIL pesto that was made over the summer from our veggie garden basil, and green beans (also from the deep freeze).

Dinner literally took 15 minutes to make, which was awesome. I grew up in a house with very little culinary variety, so I make a real effort to make different things as often as possible. The "30-minute" type recipes that I've found in the past are usually unhealthy or unappealing. You know the recipes I'm talking about...the ones you find on the side of a Campbell's can or at the Kraft website. I just can't do those. I learned more uses for a can of cream of mushroom soup from my mother than I care to ever remember. Sometimes, however, making a new recipe means that dinner takes for. ev. er. to get on the table.

Anyone have any good, quick recipes that are both diverse and healthy?

Pea shoots, you have forsaken me

2011-01-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

So I rewarded myself for slogging my way through the slush to get to work by purchasing a (decaf) pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks. And when I realized that we didn't actually have walnuts for tonight's dinner recipe, I had to battle the bread and milk buyers at the grocery store to get some. But otherwise I had another $0-spent day.

Breakfast was, again, a freezer bagel with cream cheese and V-8. Lunch was leftover Otsu. Snack was yogurt with some canned blackberry sauce that did NOT age well. Back to the drawing board on that one, this summer.

My original plan for dinner was to take our CSA pea shoots and stir fry them with sliced up pork chops from the freezer. But we had Asian flavors last night, so I switched the plan last minute and went with a combo of this recipe and this one. We didn't have enough pea shoots for both pesto and salad, so I used CSA lettuce and carrots for our veg. I also added some thin spaghetti pasta to use up some more of the pesto.

I'm a big fan of pesto. I like it alot. I make tons of it every summer from our garden basil. But the pea shoots version just doesn't do it for me. The basil adds a certain flavor that was missing. Maybe I should have toasted those walnuts, put in a bit more garlic, or added some extra cheese or salt, but it just didn't taste good. It added a nice tang to the pork chops, but with just the pasta it tasted too...I don't know..."greeny?" I've actually already thrown a batch of frozen basil pesto into the fridge to defrost so that we can eat it for tomorrow's dinner and make up for tonight. Next time we get pea shoots from the CSA, it's stir fry time!

OTSU!

2011-01-25T19:29:00.000-08:00

Another successful day:

Breakfast - bagel from the freezer, cream cheese, V-8

Lunch - leftover cabbage slaw, steak, and potatoes from yesterday.

Snack - more yogurt and pickled peaches, orange

Dinner - Otsu!

The aforementioned S. made Otsu for dinner one night when I was visiting and it was divine. She used this recipe from Amateur Gourmet, but replaced the out-of-season cukes with in-season cabbage. We tried it in our own kitchen a few weeks later and went with still-in-season-cabbage and it was still delicious. That was nearly two years ago and we continue to make it a few times a year. We've tried it during the summer with CSA cucumbers and I have to say it's just not as good as the cabbage-y version.

I've got a thing for cabbage...

2011-01-24T17:21:00.000-08:00

I am proud to say that on Day 1 of my "Eat from Home" week, I spent exactly $0 additional dollars on food! Here's how it broke down:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with craisins and brown sugar, all from our pantry, and CSA milk.

Lunch: Bagel (purchased over the weekend and frozen), cream cheese, can of soup from pantry, V-8 (Costco purchase). I am still obsessed with all things tomato, so I bought a case of V-8s to curtail my habit of buying one every single day.

Snack: Farmers market yogurt with pickled peaches that I canned over the summer and an orange (Wegman's).

Dinner: Grilled steak (from storage freezer), mashed potatoes with chevre and scallions (all ingredients except the scallion - a Wegman's purchase - were CSA), apple and cabbage slaw (apples from CSA, cabbage from Wegman's).

A note about the slaw - I seem to forget how much I love cabbage until winter comes and it's one of the most readily available veggies at farmers markets. I love buying a head of it and seeing how many different dishes I can make with it. My friend S. turned me on to the simple slaw that I made tonight: shredded cabbage and diced apple (she also adds diced onion) dressed with apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. It was salty, sweet, crunchy, and after a little time in the fridge to mix the flavors, it was tasty! I plan to use more of the cabbage for tomorrow's dinner recipe...another suggestion from S. that we've been enjoying for the past couple winters.

A rambling attempt to get back on track...

2011-01-23T08:37:00.000-08:00

I've cooked a few dark days meals since the last post. Local but fairly simple meals. But admittedly, over the last week or so, I've fallen off the wagon. We've eaten out almost every night and what we did make at home was usually something out of a box. I've been a bit overwhelmed by the nesting instinct that has kicked in over the last month or so. I've painted the little tyke-to-be's room...twice. We've been organizing, tossing un-needed items, and figuring out finances. It has felt great to purge and to concentrate more on the things that are important to us even though our eating habits have suffered.

We had another CSA pick-up yesterday - apples, pea shoots, lettuce, carrots, milk (it's not raw, by the way, so I drink it by the glassful), amish butter, goat cheese, focaccia rolls, and smoked turkey. Then we made our monthly trip to Costco. I know that it seems counter-intuitive to shop at a place like that when we buy other things locally, but there are still budgets to consider. One would be surprised at how many of their products (especially meat) are organic, hormone-free, free range, etc. They aren't local, but at least they are somewhat responsible in other ways. We love Costco because they treat their employees very well, work hard to maintain a low price point for their products without sacrificing quality, try to use as little extraneous packaging material as possible, and have started installing solar panels on the roofs of many of their stores! I stop myself from making impulse buys there, as the total can add up quickly when you are buying in "bulk." It can be a very helpful place if one is disciplined.

After a quick stop at Wegman's - which included the purchase of a head of locally-grown cabbage - we headed home. As I unloaded our bounty into our storage freezer, I was amazed at all of the frozen goodies that were still sitting in there and had gone unused. And so a new organizational project was born: I inventoried our storage freezer, refrigerator, and pantry shelves with the determination to plan five weekday dinners that could be made entirely from what we had in the house. And it worked! We have made a pledge to eat entirely from our own kitchen, for all three meals each day, for this entire week. And I hope to write a quick blog recap each day to track our success.

Today, in celebration of the first football game that we will watch all season (now that evil dog killer Michael Vick and his Eagles are out of the running), we will have nachos made from tortilla chips and salsa that have sat unopened on our snack shelf since Christmas, avocado, refried beans, and some leftover cheddar from our last CSA pickup. While the game is on, I'll cook the potatoes (also from the last pickup) that will be mashed for tomorrow night's meal. I'm trying to recreate the potatoes I ate last week at Kraftwork which had goat cheese mixed in. We have that chevre from this week's share to make it happen.

All of this is part of a larger plan to lighten our impact and form healthy habits, especially since we are adding another person to the world. I hope we can get back into the practice of eating at home so that it's old hat by the time the little guy is here. I'd like to set an example that good food comes from home and that even a working mama can put a healthy homemade meal on the table. The husband has taken it upon himself to replace all of our food storage containers with BPA-free versions. We're hoping that I will breastfeed for as long as possible and that we'll use cloth diapers that we'll wash at home. It's alot of work, but for a good cause...to raise our son with an awareness of his footprint.

Dark Days Inspiration

2010-12-06T07:05:00.000-08:00

Week One of the Winter CSA yielded swiss chard, beautiful carrots, a half dozen apples, purple-top turnips, garlic, chevre, eggs, yogurt, and chorizo. All of the items were from farms in PA, and the chard and carrots were actually grown right at Greensgrow. I am loving that we get dairy and meat with this CSA, and that the bi-weekly take is do-able for just the two of us. We also picked up a beautiful wreath, to adorn our front door, as well as some hand-made pulled pork pierogies from Polish Goodness.

I read a number of "eating local" blogs, most of which also talk about cooking the variety of seasonal items you can find close to home. A couple bloggers have mentioned the Dark Days Challenge, which encourages local eaters to try to cook at least one meal each week that focuses on local foods. It does indeed become a challenge in the winter months because a) there are less fresh produce items to choose from and b) they are harder to find as some farmers markets close up for the winter. There's a high level of burnout when trying to meet this challenge in the coldest months. After all, there's only so much you can do with potatoes, cabbage, and turnips. But I figured I'd at least take a stab at it, especially since our new CSA offers such a variety.

My attempt at this week's meal could have been better, had I decided to do it earlier in the day when I could have gotten my supplementary materials at the local Farmers Market. I knew I wanted to use the chorizo and the chard, since that was the veggie that would spoil the fastest. (Did I mention that Greensgrow also gives you the biweekly produce list in order of fastest spoiling to least? Brilliant, isn't it??) I found this recipe, which was perfect because I wanted to use up some wine that I had opened for some other cooking a couple weeks ago. I probably could have gotten the onion and the beans at the farmers market but I had to settle for buying them at the store, along with the tomato paste. The dish came out beautifully, though, and I threw it over some leftover pasta and sprinkled a little bit of parmesan on top before serving. I've never had chorizo that was so perfectly seasoned; it had a bite without being spicy-for-the-sake-of-being-spicy. And the chard had its share of flavor, too. The benefits of super fresh food!

Now that I've committed to trying this at least once a week, I'm looking forward to going back to the No Libs Farmers Market after rarely going this summer since our CSA share usually kept us busy enough. M&B Fairview Farm makes an amazing smoked sausage that I love to use in stew-like wintry dishes. And the bread from Big Sky in Delaware is always a treat! It helps that the market is at the Schmidt's Piazza, with cool boutiques and eateries lining the outdoor area. I'm already imagining a tasty cassoulet with smoked sausage and a delicious loaf of sourdough for dipping...next week perhaps.

Baby wants ziti

2010-11-29T18:33:00.000-08:00

Pasta Bolognese. Spaghetti and meatballs. And yes, even spaghettios. This baby wants it all. I can't get enough of tomato based sauces with meat and pasta. Today, at about 4:30 pm, I got an overwhelming craving for baked ziti...but not the baked ziti from the pizza joint down the street. I wanted homemade, melty, tasty baked ziti. So I found this recipe and went for it, mainly because it had the added benefit of spinach. Gotta get that folic acid, ya know.

The best part of this venture was that I got to use my first batch of tomatoes that I canned over the summer. They pureed into a perfect marinara with the addition of tomato paste, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders, and just a tiny bit of sugar.

Our first winter CSA pickup is this Saturday! Pickup is every other weekend, but each pickup comes with dairy, a meat, and some other type of prepared food. Some weeks will have milk, which I'm assuming will be raw milk. Looks like I'm going to be doing some cooking with milk, or having some serious talks with the OB about raw milk and pregnancy. *sigh*

This is not the end

2010-11-22T11:49:00.000-08:00

So the last week of the CSA came and went. We got a variety of root vegetables including turnips and parsnips. Knowing that we'd be outdoing ourselves with poultry later this week, I decided to make my first pot roast and use all of our wintry veggies at once.

Well...at least the meat was good. Maybe they were in the pot too long, or they weren't cut to the right thickness, or they just weren't meant for this kind of dish, but the veggies didn't pick up the flavor I'd hoped they would and there was too wide of a difference in texture and "done-ness." The meat on the other hand was tasty and done just medium enough to satisfy my pregnant lady requirements. (Normally, I would have preferred it to be a little more red and bloody.)

In a few weeks, our winter CSA should be starting. Our summer CSA was great, but we chose it because we couldn't get a summer share at the place closest to us, where we managed to get ourselves into this year's winter program. Henry Got Crops is a little to far from home for us to do it again next summer, and we had a few snafus with their sort-of-disorganized billing system for staggered payments, but we had bountiful shares each week and there is something very fun about going to the actual farm to pick up our stuff. We won't get that experience with Greensgrow but we WILL get to be just a few blocks from our house, and we'll get the extra goodies like cheeses, dairy, and meats that come with each week's share.

Please feel free to pass on your most exciting potato and cabbage recipes in advance, since I have a feeling we will need them in a few weeks.

And so, I must find ways to pass the time until new CSA adventures pop up. Last year, I baked a loaf of bread every Sunday, so I might start that up again. We also have a room to clean out and make into a nursery. And before any of that, there is the greatest food holiday of all time: Thanksgiving. I'm throwing the "go local" thing out the window in favor of tradition. I'm making the age-old spinach dip, using Knorr's vegetable soup mix. I almost had to use the Lipton brand, this year, and was relieved to find the good stuff in my back-up grocery store. I'm also reviving a custom that my grandmother used to carry out each year - homemade chex mix. My grandmother is still around, but at 86, she finds it tedious to stand over the stove to toss the mix when it needs tossing. I figured I'd take it over for her. These are just "pre-game" contributions to a meal at my aunt's house which will be feeding about 20 people. All the Thanksgiving favorites will be on that table and I (along with my 2nd trimester appetite) can't wait! Oh, and of course, I'm psyched to see the family as well. Here's a list of how I imagine the meal will be:

Appetizers
Onion dip and ridged potato chips (my dad's standard)
Cheese and crackers (ritz and wheat stones, of course)
Shrimp cocktail
Spinach dip (I will bring veggies to dip, but everyone else will stick to the triscuits)
Chex mix

Dinner
Turkey
Homemade traditional stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Green bean casserole with the onion crispies on top (we don't always have this but my brother's girlfriend is making it and I'm HAPPY!!!)
Garden salad (with about 50 dressings options since everyone likes something different)
Candied yams
Some other vegetable
Cranberry sauce (probably the canned version, but I LOVE that stuff)

Dessert
Ritz pie (another grandma specialty - I hate it, everyone else looooves it)
Apple pie
Pumpkin pie
Chocolates
Ice box cake (I hope - this is the greatest dessert ever)
Cheesecake

What's going to be on your Thanksgiving table?

Going old school

2010-11-12T15:51:00.000-08:00

So next week is our last pickup for this CSA. I'm sad that it's over, but glad to be free for a couple weeks before the Winter CSA at Greensgrow starts up. My appetite and desire to do anything more than sleep returned a few weeks ago, right at the start of my crazy work travel schedule, so this is the first weekend where I feel ready to do some serious food experimentation and actually have the time to do it. Below is the list for this week, as well as a few items from last week that are still good.

Daikon radish
Bok choy
Two different lettuce mixes
One head of butter lettuce
Collard greens
A TON of carrots
Onions
Turnips
Butternut squash
Sunchokes

I found what looks like a cool recipe for overnight pickled daikon radish, and I do love the quick pickling recipes! All of the wintry rooty veggies are going to be part of a nice slow cooker stew this weekend. The greens are easy to use up, too. But sunchokes. SUNCHOKES. Not quite sure what to do with this one. I know they are hip and a quick google gave me a good recipe, but if any of you out in the blogosphere have advice, please give it!

Eating..but not cooking...in Chicago

2010-11-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

And the work travel continues.

I did Boston for a couple days - which included a semi-private tour of Fenway for a work event and a delicious lunch at my favorite Beacon Hill Hotel.

After Boston, I spent almost a week in Los Angeles. It was my first introduction to how pregnancy can really take a toll on your stamina when traveling cross country and running to an average of five meetings each day. One meeting was a very late, but deliciously decadent, dinner at the new and outrageously too-hip-for-the-likes-of-me Red O Restaurant in West Hollywood. The paparazzi outside was sort of a guilty treat, as was the spotting of Top Chef regular Hubert Keller, who was on his way out of dinner as I was heading in. Oh and yes, there was good food, too. Traditional Mexican flavors with rich meats and just-right portions made it clear that even tacos can be gourmet. The next day, I managed to get up for an early breakfast meeting (and another awesome lunch at Elements Kitchen in Pasadena) but crashed as soon as my meetings were over at 4 pm. I wandered over to a Wolfgang Puck Bistro by my hotel for dinner, figuring that it wasn't going to be fancy but that it would at least provide better nutrition options than the nearby Carl's Jr. I was disappointed by the caesar salad (who just throws a few full leaves of romaine in a to-go container and calls it a salad?) but the spaghetti bolognese more than made up for it. I fell asleep at 6:45 PST with a belly full of spaghetti and a world series game on the TV and didn't wake up until morning.

I am currently in Chicago on a half-fun-half-work trip. The husband is a U of C graduate, so we are both here for the weekend to see college friends from both of our undergrads. It's been quite a food weekend, so I'll give the highlights...

Our first meal was post-airport at the Pork Shoppe, when we rendez-vous'd with our friends and hosts for the weekend. Almost all of us had the pulled pork sandwich, and it was certainly a delight. But the highlight of the meal was the side of cole slaw. I'm not a slaw girl, but wanted to get some form of veggie in that night. The slaw was considerably un-mayo-y, just the way I like it, and had plenty of carrots as well as raisins and apple chunks. Savory and sweet and perfect.
The most anticipated trip was the one we took yesterday morning: Hot Doug's. We've been before, but since their options change so often, it is always a new experience. The line can be intimidating (and cold), but you endure the wait for their special fries which are cooked in rendered duck fat and only served on Friday and Saturday. The husband and I happily chowed down on five separate meat dogs in a variety of flavors, including kangaroo, apple chicken, buffalo, and others. There was one with fig mustard, and the cheeses on all of the items were a variety of grandiose that can not truly be explained in mere words. Get thee to this place if you can.
Dinner was a delicious Thai meal at Opart Thai in Lincoln Square. Philadelphia has a severe lack of serviceable Thai restaurants, unless you venture out to the suburbs. I usually just withhold my Thai food cravings until we can get to our old standby, Joya, in Brooklyn. But Opart definitely gave Joya a run for its money, even though I stand by my belief that nothing can beat Joya's beef pad see yu. Ever.
Breakfast today was at Over Easy Cafe, again in Lincoln Square. I enjoyed the breakfast sandwich with pancetta and gruyere while the husband indulged in the Salty and Sweet platter, which included pancakes that had bacon inside the batter. Divine, really.

So yes, we've eaten well, albeit in a vacuum void of nutritional value. We had to miss this week's CSA share for the trip, and I'm becoming increasingly guilt-ridden about our CSA slacker-ness as of late. But next week is the last week for this particular CSA, and in a month or so, we will start the Winter CSA at a place much closer to home, so the cooking adventures should start up again, soon. The husband flies out tomorrow, but I'm here for another three days for work, so I will try to follow up with any ensuing foodie braggery. I'll leave you, though, with the best picture of the weekend...our friend Rudy's reaction to our Hot Doug's haul...

Something's been cookin', all right...

2010-10-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

I know my absence has only been staggering to the handful of people who read this blog, but I hope that this week's illustration will be an explanation. We've been cooking in Kenzo, but this dish still has a while longer to bake. Until next April, to be more precise.

We have still been getting our CSA veggies, but I admit that most of them have gone to waste. It kills me to toss perfectly good veggies, but this is the first week in about...oh, two months...that I've felt remotely able to eat anything other than soup and crackers. I'm off for some hardcore work travel in the coming weeks, but I hope to have some more interesting updates when I'm in between trips.

Somebody likes me!

2010-08-24T06:24:00.001-07:00

I am flattered to have received a blog award from Amber at Nater Tot. Her musings about life as a SAHM with her young son are full of her ridiculously awesome sense of humor, tips on making your baby's world safer, and other fun kid-related stuff. Check it.

So the way this thing works is that I must now bestow it upon my favorite bloggers so here we go:

The rules for accepting this award are:

1. Thank the person who gave this award to you. Thank you, Amber! I love reading about all your adventures with Nate and every time you make a joke, it reminds me of all the times you cracked me up at ACS.

2. Copy the award and put it on your blog.DONE!

3. List three things which you love about yourself.

I love my ability to make things.

I love my determination.

I love my choice in husbands. (Sorry Amber, just had to steal this one!)

4. Post a picture you love:

5. Tag five people you wish to pass this award on to

Cutest Little Babymakers - Okay so the writers of this blog are two of the women I love most in the whole wide world, but their blog is also very cool. It started when they were trying to conceive their first son, and has evolved into the tales of his toddlerhood adventures as well as the conception of the one that is on the way! They are funny, honest, and great parents.

The Shopping Mama - Kate is one of my college classmates and a former colleague, who has made great use of her self-proclaimed online shopping addiction for stuff for her two kids and turned it into a really informative blog. It's like Consumer Reports for toys, clothes, and other child-related items, but even better.

City Share - The writer of this blog actually found me and we have had a blog-comments-friendship ever since. Her story is similar to ours, except it takes place in our old hometown of NYC. She has great recipes and finds amazing ways to use all of her CSA goodies.

Young Fat and Fabulous - I just discovered this blog a couple weeks ago, thanks to my alma mater's Facebook feed. Its writer is an alumna of my undergrad college and has acheived a sort of stardom in the fashion world as she blogs about fashion for the girls who aren't a Size 0. She also just won a contest (by popular vote) to become MTV's first-ever Twitter Jocky. She is the shining example of a strong woman with a powerful voice.

Love and Olive Oil - I don't know the writers of this blog, but I have used a few of the recipes they have posted and they are awesome! Their stuff is creative and homey, but doesn't require any crazy expensive or hard-to-find ingredients. And it's seasonal, which is a plus when you are trying to figure out what to do with your fifth bunch of beets.

Week #13

2010-08-20T19:02:00.000-07:00

Whew! What a week. So many projects, so much excitement...but we'll save all that for later...

Let's get down to the list:

Tomatoes (3 lbs of tomatoes! Ideas please!)
Onions
Carrots
Peppers (About as many peppers as tomatoes - perhaps I will be pickling and/or roasting peppers this week.)
Chard
Squash (snore)
Cherry tomatoes
Purple string beans (just like in Paris)
Mint (will be perfect in my husband's home-brewed iced tea!)
Basil

Not a large variety of stuff, but we got ALOT of everything. I'm determined, this week, to use everything. We lost a couple items from last week's share to spoilage and I felt disappointed. Time to get back on track!

But first, mani/pedi dates, parties, and lunches, with my oldest and dearests in NJ. Later!

Me as a blogger = FAIL

2010-08-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

I know, Week #12 is practically over and I haven't posted anything. To tell the truth, I haven't had time to write because I've been spending so much time cooking...honest! This week's share didn't have any huge surprises in it, so there's not much use in recapping it, but here's a summary of the week's greatest food adventures:

Last Saturday we went to Mood's Farm, on the advice of one of my favorite blogs, Food in Jars. We picked 2.5 lbs of blackberries and got some peaches and fresh corn, too. I loved this place. It was way cheaper and felt more home-y than the huge, more popular place we've gone to in the past. We'll definitely be back!

The blackberries have been savored all week, but a bunch of them have been mashed and frozen and will be made into this jam, except that apricot season is over in PA and I couldn't find a single apricot anywhere. So I'm substituting mangoes. Not exactly local, I know, but the apricots wouldn't have been local at this time of year either, so I figure it's an even trade.

The peaches can be seen in the picture above, as I pickled them. That's right, I said pickled. But don't think of it like a dill pickle or anything. There's vinegar in there, but also a ton of sugar, cinammon, ginger, and cloves. (I used the standard recipe from the Ball Blue Book.) I can't wait to open these up this winter and serve them with some vanilla ice cream...maybe homemade!

The outdoor canning set up is also worthy of a note. We have two grills outside (gas and charcoal), but neither is big enough to accomodate a canner. Our indoor stove is electric (not our choice!) and has a glass cooktop, so canning inside is an impossibility, although the heat that is generated by the activity is enough of a deterrent. So we purchased a camping burner from LL Bean and it works GREAT! I plan on canning the jam, once it's made, but I am also looking forward to getting bunches of tomato seconds and making a big batch of sauce.

The LL Bean burner and the canning pot also came in handy a few nights ago when it was ridiculously hot, but I wanted to cook the tomatillos and Mood's Farm corn to make a salsa. I simply took the canning rack out of the pot, changed the water, brought it to a boil on the burner, and threw in the tomatillos and corn. I even threw in some boil-in-a-bag brown rice! We cooked chicken on the grill and were quite proud of our "cooked entirely outside" meal. The corn and tomatillos were joined by fresh tomatoes (both CSA and home-grown), our very own jalapenos from the backyard, some green/red peppers, onion, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a good dose of lime juice. It went on top of the chicken and rice. So simple, but really delicious.

I'll try to post this week's list before I head off to my hometown in NJ to visit friends. I'm hoping to savor some of my favorite hometown foods while I'm there, which could be worthy of a post or two as well!

Hot food

2010-08-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

Jeezum crow, it's hot in Philadelphia. I spent a magnificent day attending a work retreat at the Morris Arboretum, today, but even the tour of the grounds was a miserable experience due to the excruciating temperatures that have gone into the 90s for the last four days. Nonetheless, I will go back there when the weather is more cooperative and highly recommend it as a fine way to spend an afternoon.

We've been doing our best to eat up our CSA items while using the stove/oven as little as possible. Almost all of the tomatoes are gone and they have been eaten the way fresh tomatoes should be - raw, sliced, with just the tiniest bit of salt and pepper. But today's meal was the most delectable. We put a bunch of chicken cutlets in a citrus dill marinade and grilled those last night, so I used some of the cold leftovers to top a salad of the arugula, feta cheese, and grill-roasted carrots, beets, and last week's CSA onion. It was a multi-faceted victory for me since it was (and I'm ashamed to admit this), the first time I had actually cooked something on the grill all by myself. But I'm hooked, now. I think I'd like to try to cook a week's worth of dinners wrapped up in tin foil on the grill.

Anyway, moving on...we threw those veggies on the top of the salads and I drizzled them with balsamic and walnut oil and they were perfect.

I have a plan for a cous cous dish for the eggplant. Anyone know how to grill cous cous?

Week #11

2010-08-08T09:21:00.000-07:00

Jeez, I'm a bad blogger. I didn't write a single post since last week's list post for Week #10. Admittedly, we've been pretty busy readjusting to post-vacation life and working on some other projects that may or may not be revealed at a later date. We also tried a few recipes last week that were less than successful, so I had very little to brag about. I even lost some vegetables to spoilage because I didn't use them fast enough. Epic fail. But this experience is about the failures just as much as it is about successes, right? I'm considering this a new week and my goal is to keep it simple. It's going to be a scorcher, so I'd like us to eat as much raw or stove-top-cooked stuff as possible. Suggestions are welcome!

I thought I at least owed everyone a picture. Above is a pre-mix shot of the refrigerator dills that are currently marinating on the kitchen counter.

This week's list:

Arugula
Beets
Carrots
Eggplant
Plum tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Heirloom tomatoes
Basil
Purselane
Tomatillos
Squash (we have last week's leftover, too!)
Garlic

We've never had purselane before, but I have an idea for a cold salad with it. Everything else is pretty straight forward....although we're open to ideas for how to use a whole lot of summer squash!

Week #10

2010-07-31T14:13:00.000-07:00

We had to skip a couple of weeks due to the Europe trip, but I wanted to keep our CSA journey on track. It's technically only week #8 for us, but since the CSA is in week #10, we'll stick with that. As we drove to our pick-up, this week, I worried about being stuck with yet another week of beet and scallion overload. But clearly there was a birth of crops while we were away because this week yielded some new and exciting options that we can't wait to eat!

kale
spring mix
squash blossoms
green tomatoes
heirloom tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
cucumbers
squash
onion
carrots (they are red, purple, and yellow - just like the ones we saw in Paris!)
tomatillos

The squash blossoms and tomatillos are in red only because I've never cooked them before. I do have some ideas for them. Green tomatoes are in yellow for the same reason, except that I DEFINITELY know what I'm going to do with those! I put cucumbers in yellow because we got alot of them and I'm not quite sure how to use them all.

2010-07-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

Wait, so it's Friday already? Yikes! I won't bore you with all the "we went here and then we went there details" from the last three days. Instead, here are the highlights:

Moules (muscles) at Leon de Bruxelles, which is actually a chain restaurant in and around Paris. I had the house recipe and M. had the marinated variation. Mine came swimming in an amazing broth of creme fraiche, white wine, celery, and some spices. The muscles, themselves, were big and meaty. Quite a difference from the prix fix lunch menu muscles that I had, the very next day, at one of the non-descript cafes on the Rue de St. Germain.
After a long, long, long walk through what amounted to about 1/4 of the Louvre, we collapsed at a table at Le Petit Machon. The name translates to "the little stab," which is what we got when the waitress poo-poo'd our selection of "Coca Cola Light" over wine. Lady, I've had enough wine and all I want is a refreshing soft drink. Anyway, our hurt feelings disappeared when the food arrived. I had an amazing chicken and crayfish dish that was accompanied by a potato gratin of some sort, and all was swimming in an amazing creamy lobster sauce. M. had the steak frites and the highlight was the unique hollandaise sauce that came with it.
We made our own crepes...well we put them together on our own, last night. The Monoprix had pre-made dessert crepes, to which we added sliced banana and nutella. If there is a heaven, this is being served there, 24-7. The Monprix also yielded a surprisingly delicious pre-made pizza with proscuitto and mozz.
Cheese, cheese, and more cheese. We've been eating breakfast at the apartment, and sometimes dinner, and it always comes with some cheese! About a block away, there is a row of stores (as is typical in Paris) that each sell a different type of food item. M. has repeatedly impressed the guys in the fromagerie with his knowledge of cheese, even if he needs a little help explaining how much of it he wants. Tonight, we dined on a delectable feast of brie, morbier, bread, roasted chicken, and fresh heirloom tomato. Each food dealer seemed happy to indulge our feeble attempts at speaking their language, and some have even shown us the utmost respect by responding to our "Au Revoir"s with "Have a good night."

As far as the sights are concerned, since my last post, we have seen the Louvre, the Forum Les Halles and surrounding shopping on Rue de Rivoli, Notre Dame, the Musee D'Orsay, St. Germain, Mirais, Bastille, Pigalle, and Montmartre (my personal favorite). Our favorite activity, both here and in Amsterdam, has been photographing street art as we find it. I hope to have post a slideshow of those pictures after the trip is over.

Tomorrow we head to the Marche de L'Ave de President Wilson. It is in our neighborhood and is apparently one of the most decadent outdoor food markets in the city. I am gearing up for some pate and fresh pasta, as well as some awesome pictures.

Big fat American babies!

2010-07-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

Our food journey was not incredibly remarkable today, but we did have fun. It's only 7:30 pm here and we are already home in our rental apt, assed out on the couch with feet a' throbbing.

Last night's trip the Monoprix yielded a delicious, albeit interesting, breakfast spread. Apparently, I grabbed a camembert cheese, last night, when I meant to grab a brie. It was still delicious, especially with the fig jam I'd picked out, but it was a wee bit strong for a morning bite! We spread it on fresh bread with the jam, and also had fresh peaches and pain au chocolat.

We headed off to see the Eiffel Tower in the daytime, with pre-purchased lift tickets in hand. Going up a structure diagonally in a fast-moving elevator is quite an experience! After that, we walked over to the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, and then over the Avenue du Champs D'Elysees. We strolled all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe, doing some souvenir shopping along the way (M. for himself, me for friends' "bebes" back home). The title of this post actually refers to the funny attitude I got from a saleswoman in a store when I asked her if I should size up for an American child. She said, "Well, yes, our children's clothes are sized smaller because WE are sized smaller." Ahhhh, Paris. After a while, we were hot, sweaty, and hungry, and needed to burn some time before a recommended cheese shop reopened for the afternoon. We ended up lunching at Hippopotamus, a sort of TGI Friday's-like chain in Paris. We both had burgers that were quite good and came with endless fries and salad. It felt almost...American.

Eventually, we made it to the cheese shop, where M. used his cheese expertise to select two items. We hit a patisserie for two baguettes, a produce vendor for some fruits and veggies, and grabbed some wine and fizzy watery drinks from Mono Prix. After an early evening nap we are preparing to enjoy a small spread of these items for dinner and perhaps a post-dinner stroll around the neighborhood.

Vaarwel Amsterdam

2010-07-19T15:03:00.000-07:00

I am writing this entry from our rental apartment in Paris, but figure I should finish up our tales of Amsterdam before discussing the fledgling hours of our week in the big city.

We did indeed have a fabulous dinner on Saturday night. Our guide book suggested Pastini and we were happy with the description that said the restaurant sat at the intersection of two canals. It was a bit chilly but we sat outside anyway and enjoyed a beautiful view with food to match. With our wine came the little treat in the picture above. The spread was made of some sort of sweet butter mixed with chopped olives and a green herb...maybe basil? For mains, we both ordered pasta dishes. I had the Linguini Romano - chopped brussel sprouts, bacon, creme sauce, and parmesan on the most perfectly al dente linguini pasta I've ever had. M. had the Tagliatelle Agnello which consisted of lamb, tomato, eggplant, and parmesan cheese. So good! And in true American fashion, we were amazed at how filling the European-sized portions actually were. There was dessert, too! I had the tiramisu and M. had the torta limone, which came with a scoop of house-made ice cream that was just amazing. Dessert doesn't seem so naughty when everything you eat is properly portioned.

While we were eating, we watched one of these go by. Pretty awesome.

On our last day in Amsterdam, we visited de Hortus, one of the oldest botanical gardens in Amsterdam. The greenhouses held all sorts of rare plants from around the world, maintained in their proper habitats. After that, we had lunch at a small street cafe while we waited for The Brouwerij 't Ij to open. The cafe was notable for its awful service, but also for our second helping of bitterballen. M. had a tuna melt that wasn't much, but I thoroughly enjoyed my sandwich of goat cheese, walnuts, and pear syrup...once they managed to get my order right after trying to bring me the wrong sandwich twice. The brewery brightened our spirits. We tasted a couple beers before embarking on the tour, led by a cheeky dutchman who had lots of funny stories to tell. He also gave us a bit of the history of the place. The brewery was founded by a Dutch pop star and went totally organic in 2002. In order to get hops that are organic, the brewery has to import them from New Zealand! We tried another beer before buying a few and heading back to the hotel.

Our last night was fairly low-key. We went to the Maoz around the corner, enjoying falafel sandwiches and frites, before heading out for a walk around a square we hadn't visited yet. We hit a grocery store on our way back for some Dutch chocolate treats (our faves were Choco Moments and Orange Pims) and had a mini-picnic in our room before hitting the hay.

This morning, we headed to the Centraal Station to catch a high speed train to Paris. When we arrived at our rental apartment, we picked the one restaurant in our rather shi shi neighborhood that looked reasonable. Le Petit Retro did NOT disappoint! Not only was our waiter patient with my broken french, the restaurant had a very reasonably priced version of the one dish I was determined to have while in Paris: fois gras. As I said in a facebook status shortly after the meal, I have worshiped at the altar of fois gras and it was good. M. had the rack of lamb, which was also amazing, and we shared an appetizer of country pate that was great. The entire meal with wine, sparkling water, and coffee came to 84 euro, but that included tip. We understand that's quite a steal in this part of town.

We visited the Monoprix on our way home for some breakfast items. We are now stocked with cheese, jam, bread, some fruit, and pain au chocolat. After dropping off our bounty, we took a quick walk to the Eiffel Tower to see it twinkle and are now relaxing at the apartment, getting ready for a day of sightseeing, tomorrow!

A demain!

"Wine from Germany"

2010-07-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Amsterdam!

We arrived yesterday and have spent our almost-two days wandering around, using the hotel as home base and a place to catch quick naps in order to catch up on the sleep we lost on the overnight flight. We've tried to dedicate ourselves to using the public transportation as much as possible and it's worked out rather well. The tram system here is phenomenal and a great way to see the city if you get tired of walking.

Hunger was our main concern when we got to our hotel, yesterday. It was mid-morning but we were certainly ready for a lunch. Our hotel suggested the cafe right across the street. Cafe Kale didn't disappoint! We saw bitterballen on the menu and immediately ordered it as a starter. It came to us fresh from the fryer as is evidenced by the still-tender roof of my mouth. But my goodness, was it good. M. described it as "deep fried gravy," which doesn't do it justice but does accurately describe the sinfulness of it. We followed up with some beer and a couple of sandwiches. I had a Beemster cheese and salsa sandwich which was notable for the smoky deliciousness of the flavored gouda that is popular here, and M. had a parma ham, mozz, and salsa sammy. Both filled us up so we could take a quick nap before heading out to explore.

We woke up hungry and headed off in search of a Steakhouse, which is a popular restaurant type in the city. Our Lonely Planet guidebook suggested Steakhouse Piet de Leeuw and we found it on a little side street off of a main one. It felt like a hidden gem, and proved itself to be as we appeared to be some of the few non-Dutch that came for dinner. The steaks were perfectly cooked, and came with a "salad" (more like a slaw - not really my thing due to all the mayo) and frites. When I had a little trouble with the herring app (herring is the national fish here) that we ordered, the surly-but hilarious waiter brought us two little samples of smoked eel that ended up being quite tasty! The meal ended with a shared house-made chocolate mousse that was only slightly upstaged by the homemade whipped cream that came with it. Even with the experimental side-step of the herring, the meal was awesome.

To walk off the mousse, we strolled around the central canal district, going through and around the Red Light District. We knew we "had to see it," but I doubt I will consider it the highlight of our journey. A quick drink in a brown cafe, served by the most bad-ass female bartender I think I'll ever see here, ended the night.

Our hotel has a free breakfast and we enjoyed that this morning. The spread was more extensive than the pastries and coffee we were expecting. There were plates of meats and cheeses, fresh rolls, hard-boiled eggs, tiny tubes of liverwurst (best I've ever tasted) and other assorted goodies. We ate a small meal that still felt hearty. So far, today, we have visited the Anne Frank House (sobering but very well done), walked around the shops in Jordaan (M. purchased the world cup gear he was craving), eaten the delicious frites of the Wil Graanstra Fritehuis in Westerkerk Square, and experienced the dual beauty and madness that is the Albert Cuypmarkt.

It is dinner-time here, which means I must go out and forage for more blog material, of course. My first impressions of the city are that it is beautiful; the weather is as close to perfect as one can get; that Philly could learn alot from the coexistence of public transport, bike riders, and car drivers; and that the matter-of-fact sarcasm of the wonderfully friendly locals is something I could really enjoy on a permanent basis.

Final sprint

2010-07-14T12:05:00.001-07:00

Wow. I did it. I managed to use or preserve every portion of our CSA share over the last three days in preparation for our departure for a different continent tomorrow. This week's quiche was one of goat cheese, pureed beets (yes, beets!), and fresh sage from our backyard garden. I didn't like it so much on the first day, but this morning I found myself really enjoying the flavors. The dish pictured above was a super-combination of farm-stand tomatoes, red onion, CSA kale, CSA summer squash, and our first ripe eggplant from the backyard. It was thrown over pasta with some goat cheese crumbles. Another dish that actually tasted better the next day as leftovers.

Last night, we grilled some steak and threw it over a salad of the greens, cabbage, and scallions from the share. Easy and tasty. I made a batch of pesto with the CSA basil, as well as a couple handfuls of basil from the garden. That went into the freezer along with the green beans, to be used after we get back. The cucumbers, of course, became a second (and third) batch of quick bread and butters.

Tomorrow, we are off to foreign lands. Believe it or not, I hope to blog more while we're in Amsterdam and Paris, as I'm sure that there will be new foods to talk about at every turn. Bon voyage!

Hurry up and cook

2010-07-11T18:35:00.000-07:00

This week's challenge is to either eat, or figure out a way to freeze, all of our CSA items by Wednesday!

Salad Greens
Cabbage
Summer Squash
Kale
Basil
Scallions
Pickling Cucumbers
String beans
Beets

I have a pasta dish that might take care of the kale, squash, and scallions. The cucumbers will become another batch of bread and butters. The greens and cabbage can easily become salads. Believe it or not, I found a quiche recipe that includes beets! The basil will become pesto and will be frozen, probably along with the string beans. Now I just have to go do it all!

No pictures, today

2010-07-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

I think the heat is causing my brain to only fire on half its cylinders because I've forgotten to take pictures of what we've cooked, all week long. I think about how I will want to plate the meal for picture-taking purposes, while I'm cooking it...and then remember to take the picture after I've finished eating it.

So here's a round-up of how we've used this week's share, so far:

Weekly quiche - farmers cheese with sauteed spinach. A rousing success!

The beets, fennel, and lettuce became a delicious salad. I boiled, peeled, and sliced the beets and laid them over the lettuce, along with thinly sliced fennel, and some orange pieces. (Similar to the salad I made last week.) The hubby grilled some shrimp that I marinated in olive oil, lemon zest, and lemon & lime juices. A quick dressing of dijon, OJ, white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper brought everything together.

Yesterday, I let the slow cooker take care of our protein with this awesome pulled pork recipe that I've made before. I am slowly perfecting my own version of bbq sauce based on this recipe, but the hubs remarked that this incarnation of it was the best one yet. I took care of the CSA summer squash and some of the scallions by making this for the side. Everything tasted twice as good as lunch leftovers, today.

This evening, we ate some more pulled pork, but I made this kale and green beans recipe in an effort to use up two more CSA items. This dish has the potential to become something great, but it was pretty much a failure, tonight. It made me sad since we put so much work into getting those beans! The recipe called for way too much salt, and I wondered about it as I poured the salt into the pan, but I should have followed my instincts and made it 1 tsp instead of two. Also, I only had pre-grated parmesan cheese which a) probably had a ton of salt added to it and b) did nothing but clump up and make the dish smell weird.

Tomorrow is our last CSA pick up for the next couple of weeks. We're headed to Europe for 10 days, on a long-awaited honeymoon. (We've been married for almost two years...and we've been broke for most of that time.) In Amsterdam, we will be in a hotel, but we've rented an apartment in Paris and can't wait to frequent the local "marches" for breads, cheeses, fruits and veggies so that we can cook some of our own meals. If you've ever been to Amsterdam or Paris, we welcome suggestions of good local foods, or even reasonably priced restaurants, to try.

Week #6

2010-07-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

This entry has been delayed as we've been spending lots of time away from the computer over this holiday weekend. Our backyard fence is finally complete, so when we aren't hanging at BBQs with friends, we're putting the yard back together. I hope to have some pics of the new and improved space soon.

Our CSA pickup was a little different than usual, this week, as we actually got to go into the fields and pick some of our items! Green beans were "pick your own," which proved to be difficult since the Tuesday pick-up group had already done quite a number on the two rows of plants that we could access. It was slow-going, but we finally flipped over a couple plants to find a bounty of big, beautiful beans that quickly filled up our container. It actually felt kind of good to "harvest" part of our share, even if I spent the whole time imagining how backbreaking that work must be for the folks who do it all day long. I think the beans will be in a steak stir-fry this week. I've been envisioning lots of stir-fry meals for the nights that we don't want to grill, but where I want the stove to be hot for as little time as possible. We also got to pick our own echinacea so that we have a cute little bouquet on the dining room table - that is, when the cats are not trying to chew on them.

Here's this week's list:
Kale
Spinach
Pickle cucumbers
Scallions
Beets
String beans
Echinacea
Fennel
Squash
Lettuce

I put the scallions in yellow because we got TEN of them. What the heck do you do with 10 scallions?!?!

I took last week's bread and butter pickles to a holiday bbq and they were such a hit that I've decided to use this week's cukes to make another batch. We have our own pickling cucumber plant in the back yard, but with only one plant, the harvests are slim. I think that these quick pickle recipes will be the best way to use the cukes that we are able to get from our plant.

The beets are in green, but we are running out of things to do with just three beets every week, so it might end up being a challenge. Everything else is pretty versatile.

Last week's quiche was a ricotta/summer squash number. It was a disaster for many reasons - a crappy pre-made crust from our scary local grocery store and my failure to sautee the squash before assembling the quiche were probably the main reasons for the disaster. This week, I have re-upped the supply of well-made whole wheat crusts and plan to use the spinach (sauteed first, of course) along with some of those scallions, and local farmer's cheese from NJ. Fingers crossed!

Do it for America

2010-07-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

That's tonight's dinner up there. Arugula is seriously the best salad green ever. It has a little bit of crunch but without feeling watery and it's sooooo tangy. I boiled the beets, peeled and sliced them, and then placed them atop the arugula along with some orange pieces, goat cheese, chopped garlic scape, chopped scallion, and a freshly grilled chicken breast. The dressing was an easy combo of white wine vinegar, olive oil, dried mustard, salt, and pepper. Simple.

While I was waiting for beets and chicken to cook, I made this bread and butter pickles recipe with the pickling cucumbers. I halved it since I only had four cukes but it came out just fine. Okay, they were better than fine. I want to save them for a bbq we're going to this weekend, but I don't know if I'll be able to resist them for that long.

Tomorrow, I envision the rest of the CSA items (fennel, stir fry mix, and basil) in a stir fry with some shrimp or scallops, laid over some quinoa. Sounds good, eh?

And it's America's birthday, this weekend! We've been invited to two bbqs and I honestly have too many things that I want to make for our contribution to the festivities. We will definitely take ingredients for dark'n'stormies (rum from Barbados, ginger beer, and limes), as well as the pickles. But I've been jonesing for some of the slow cooker pulled pork and homemade bbq sauce that I made a couple months back, and I'd really like to use the peaches I canned last summer to make a nice crumble. But then there's the awesome double mustard potato salad recipe from "How to Cook Everything." That book was seriously the greatest gift my brother ever gave me, and the potato salad is one of its finest moments. Maybe I'll just honor our forefathers by making it all, and then I'll sit back with a dark'n'stormy while I happily watch my friends enjoy my food. I think Ben Franklin would appreciate that.

Week #5

2010-06-28T19:02:00.000-07:00

I got our share on Friday, as usual, but we threw veggies in the fridge and hopped in the car for a weekend trip to MA. We spent four days in lovely Montgomery, MA - one of the foothill towns to the Berkshires - with lots of friends, but without any internet. (Which was quite heavenly, I must admit!) I went to college in Western Massachusetts, and I find myself loving that region more and more, each time we go. We were there for a "wedding pig roast" and it was a smorgasbord of local foods and homemade loveliness. There was ice cream from Herrell's in Northampton (to accompany the variety of pies that were brought by guests for inclusion in the pie-baking contest!), a keg from Berkshire Brewing Co., and a locally purchased pig that was stuffed with oranges and roasted by a nice guy from CT. The "bride" hand-sewed hundreds of fabric napkins and a ton of garlands to adorn the tents where we ate the lovely meal. She also cooked all of the food, including the homemade pickles and bbq sauce. This morning, we managed a swing-by at my alma mater so I could finally add a car sticker to our rear window. Okay, and I got a sweatshirt, lounge pants, and coffee mug, too.

On to the list...

Basil
Fennel
Scallions
Swiss Chard
Beets
Pickle Cucumbers
Arugula
Stir Fry Mix
Summer Squash

We also got some flowers. I took them with us as a "thank you" gift to the relatives we stayed with on Friday night in CT.

I put the Stir Fry Mix in yellow simply because I've never made a stir fry with leafy greens before. I'm stumped on what sort of protein might do well with the strong flavor of the mix, so suggestions are welcome. Fennel is one of my favorite veggies of all time, so I'm happy to have some, although I'm used to having a bit more of it to work with. My goal this week is to try something different with the repeats. In other words, no roasting of veggie mixes, and no making my usual chicken and potato salad with the arugula. I have some pickle-plans for those cukes, inspired by my weekend in the country, so I'll have an update on that later this week.

2010-06-21T20:34:00.000-07:00

That's a great local "bouquet," right there. The cup is from the local brewery that is right around the corner from us. It is filled with fresh basil that we got at The Emerald Street Urban Farm, along with a few beets (to make the two we got from the CSA more worthwhile), and a big beautiful bunch of kale. Emerald Street is a local urban farm that has a weekly on-site farm stand. The best part about it is that it's pay-what-you-can. They give away lots of produce to local folks who need it, and of course, we do our best to give a little extra when we pay so that they can keep providing delicious produce to neighbors in need. What I really loved about our experience there was that the produce was fresh picked just for us! I sent Farmer Patrick into the field to pick my kale and basil, while I fished a few beets out of a bucket full of water. It was one of those experiences that just felt right and made me feel good about living here. I highly recommend a trip there on Saturdays, if you are just looking to get a few extra items but don't have any specific needs in mind, as they lovingly harvest only that which is ready to be picked. Here are a few more pics of the farm...

Some of that delicious Emerald Farm basil went into a lemon-basil sorbet that marked my first time using the ice-cream attachment for our Kitchenaid mixer. I can't believe I've never used it before. Changed my life. Seriously.

Tonight, we were kept long at a community meeting and wanted something fast for dinner. Before we left for the meeting, I threw some chicken breasts in a Wegman's citrus-dill marinade. When we got back, we put those on the grill and I made simple salads of fresh CSA spinach and a tiny bit of leftover goat cheese. I made a dressing of walnut oil, a finely chopped garlic scape, lemon juice, dijon mustard, some fresh thyme from our backyard garden, salt, and pepper. The chicken went on top, making for a fresh light dinner. We ended with the sorbet, of course.

Tomorrow's goal is to use more than one of our CSA veggies for dinner, so that we finish our bounty in the next couple of days. We always seem to have something left over at the end of the week, even if we already used part of it earlier in the week. Being more proactive about using all of the items is definitely in order.

Week #4

2010-06-18T18:31:00.000-07:00

We are rockin' an all green week, y'all.

Rainbow chard
Spinach
Braising mix
Spring mix
Cucumber
Beets
Turnips
Squash
Sorrel (!!!)

The hubby missed the sorrel and goat cheese quiche so that will make a return this week, but with the whole wheat pre-made crusts I got at Wegman's last week instead of the crust o' puff pastry. (Dear Wegman's, open a store in Philadelphia already.)

Lots of greens this week, but that's cool with me because it means less cooking and more salads. I did have to research the braising mix, but I was able to come up with ideas so quickly that I thought it warranted the green.

Tomorrow, I am headed a few blocks away to the Emerald Street Urban Farm for their Saturday farmers market. The farm's organizers turned a huge empty corner lot into a working farm with both community plots and crops that are sold at their market, which is pay-what-you-can. I'm excited to write an entry all about my experience, there, tomorrow! Check back later in the weekend to see it!

You take the good you take the bad...

2010-06-16T19:39:00.001-07:00

Whew! What a week. Between my full-time job, my side job, and an important art project, it's been a little hard to really sit down and write a post. This will have to be a grand summary of the week so far.

I figure if I'm going to write about the challenges of CSA cookin', I should write about my cooking failures, right?

First off was my cherry pie. The filling was delicious, but I overworked the crust so it didn't hold. Also, I trusted the hubbie to take it out of the oven with the instruction that he take it out when it got slightly browned. It came out a little early, I think. The best part about using real lard on pie crusts is that it gets that perfect flakey crunch when it browns, and that was definitely missing.

Next up was the dish I made with the ingredients shown in the picture up there. It was a pasta dish that had tomato, cilantro, shallot and garlic. It ended up tasting like salsa thrown over pasta. Blech.

In the neutral zone, I took the easy route for the zucchini, turnips and kohlrabi by doing a roasted veggie medley last night. I know it's okay to eat the same thing twice but I always feel lazy when I resort to the roasted medley.

And then there are the successes! Last night, there was a return of the mashed potatoes with garlic scapes. Yes, another repeat, but the husband had not yet experienced this delicious dish, and since one of my main goals in cooking is to make him happy, I was psyched to hear his enthusiasm for the mashed. And tonight, I made this beet, mustard green, and goat cheese risotto except I actually mixed in the greens and the goat cheese instead of crumbling on top. It was absolutely delicious. Highly recommended.

Scallions and bok choy will probably go into a shrimpy stir fry of some sort, tomorrow.

Week #3

2010-06-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

Hooray for an all green week! Well...almost. I put beets in yellow, only because I've actually never cooked with fresh beets before, and we only got two, so I'm not quite sure what to do with them. Any suggestions?

Green squash
Mustard Greens
Bok choy
Mesculin Mix
Cilantro
Kohlrabi
Turnips
Scallions
Beets

I went down to the Piazza Farmers Market, this morning, to pick up a couple of things. I found huge bunches of garlic scapes and grabbed one. I have some serious plans for those scapes, this week! And as I was walking out of the market, a new stand caught my eye. It was a fruit farm stand and they had....wait for it...pie cherries!!! I first discovered pie cherries at our favorite "pick your own" farm, last summer. I bought two quarts, called my mother-in-law, and got a day-long lesson in pie baking that resulted in the most delicious pie I've ever tasted. Tomorrow, I'm going to go at it alone and see what happens.

All wrapped up...

2010-06-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the end of week #2 and I've managed to use every item in our share, despite being home alone to eat it all. It meant eating leftovers for lunch every day. And tonight, I spent a good hour trying to convince myself that it was okay to go get Arby's for dinner before I buckled down and made the meal I'd been planning to make with the last two CSA items: bok choy and broccoli. As I moved around the kitchen, I realized that making dinner is the one time of the day when I'm completely in my own space. There's no computer screen or iphone to stare at, no coworkers coming to ask a question. Even though I occasionally earn a night of eating out, cooking my own tasty dinner is really a gift to myself in alot of ways.

So it seems appropriate that I thought up a meal that was inspired by this blog post about "fish presents." I've made this exact recipe in the past, usually with mahi mahi, as I am always a big fan of a meal that only involves one baking sheet and the oven. Today, I added my own touch to the recipe by replacing the onion with chopped ginger and using both broccoli and bok choy. The key really is to boil the green veggies for just a couple minutes. The entire thing comes out perfectly cooked; the fish is never dry because it is basically poached in the little package. The tiny bit of oil keeps the fish nice and buttery and ads flavor to the greenery. I recommend giving yourself this fine gift as soon as possible.

I also thought it might be fun to occasionally mention what we drink, as the hubby is sort of a beer fan and one of our splurges in life is buying cases of fancy microbrews more often than we should probably admit. I will preface this by saying that we rarely consider whether or not a beer "goes" with what we're eating. I'll drink red wine with red meat, and white wine with fish and chicken, but c'mon...beer is beer. This week, I've been obsessed with two varieties of Smuttynose beers. The Star Island Single is their year-round golden ale. It has a spicy vibe, sort of like a pumpkin ale, which is my favorite thing to drink in the fall. The Summer Weizen is their seasonal wheat beer...and I do love the fruity summer brews! Cheers!

2010-06-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

What a busy week! Whenever the hubby is a way, I am always balancing more household duties along with the plethora of work and community-related tasks that I pile on voluntarily. Cooking dinner almost felt more like a chore than an adventure over the last couple of days, but I did get some enjoyment out of figuring out ways to use some CSA items for meals that could be made on the quick.

The garlic scapes have been calling me since last Friday, and I finally managed to use them yesterday in a big batch of skin-on mashed potatoes. I chopped them very finely and threw them in raw, but I think the next time I'll saute them first. It went well with a nice steak on the grill. For a veggie, I used the kohlrabi, along with a bag of Trader Joe's shredded carrots in this salad. I know I mixed some typically American fare with a salad that is Asian-inspired, but I loved every bite. Kohlrabi is a really neat vegetable. It has the exterior qualities of a cabbage, and a similar taste, but with more buttery undertones.

Tonight, I came home from a community meeting that lasted twice as long as was necessary (as usual), and I wanted to eat something quickly so I could do some work on a knitting project. I have to admit that I considered ordering chinese and laughing hatefully at the kale that was waiting patiently in the crisper drawer. But I relented. I took some Trader Joe's brown rice fusili and threw that into boiling water. While it was cooking, I removed the stems from the kale and cut it into ribbons, sliced up some sundried tomatoes, and minced two garlic cloves. I heated olive oil in a dutch oven and put the garlic in to cook. Then I threw in the kale and a can of drained cannellini beans, and threw on the lid. When the kale was good and wilted, I added the cooked pasta, a little more olive oil, a squirt of lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a little bit of the water that was used to cook the pasta. I let the whole pot simmer for just a couple minutes and dished it into a bowl before topping it with a shake of parmesan. Not bad at all.

I have some greens and a couple radishes left, along with the bok choy and broccoli. I think I have some plans for those two lovelies, already...

An Ode to Sorrel

2010-06-08T07:27:00.001-07:00

OMG. STFU! I love sorrel so much that I've resorted to using pre-teen txt speak to express my excitement. I said in my Week #2 post that I was excited to get to cook with sorrel for the first time, but I had no idea that it would be this great.

The bunch that I got in this week's CSA take-home was about a handful. Technically, it went quite a long way even if I used all of it in one night's worth of cooking. I did a little internet research and found that it is most loved in the following three contexts: 1) raw in salads, 2) sauteed with butter and poured over noodles (or in a more elaborate cream sauce that can be used for pasta or salmon - too rich for me), or 3) in quiches with goat cheese. I also found a bunch of recipes for sorrel pesto, but I'm still working through last year's frozen supply of basil pesto, so I passed on that.

I walked almost all the way home (from University City to Kenzo), last night. It was too beautiful outside to exercise in a boring ol' gym. But by the time I got home, walked the dog, fed cats, and watered the newly planted back yard garden, I was HUNGRY. I needed something fast. I had two chicken breasts thawed, so I threw those on the grill to cook. I boiled some penne pasta, too. I took a small sautee pan and threw some butter in to melt on low heat. Then, I broke up about 7 sorrel leaves into smaller pieces and threw them in the pan to simmer. Once everything was smelling good, I tossed that on top of a bowl of drained pasta, tore up a chicken breast, and sprinkled a little parmesan on top. It's one step above what most parents probably feed their toddlers on any given night, but that one step makes a difference! The sorrel stood out but had the perfect flavor with hints of lemon-y tang and a sort of smooth spice. Even the pieces that had gotten a little crispy in the pan were awesome.

I also made a quick salad with some of the CSA greens and a couple radishes. Just to see how it would taste raw, I tore up three sorrel leaves and tossed them in the salad. Wow! The flavor was bold and fresh and those three little leaves went a very long way.

After savoring this easy and tasty meal, I got to work on a quiche. Last week's leek and feta quiche was a hit and made it very easy for me to take breakfast to work. The recipe I found for that first quiche suggested using puff pastry sheets for a crust instead of a pre-made crust. I must admit, it's pretty tasty. I went with that again for the sorrel quiche and based my recipe on what I did for the leek quiche. First, I put the puff pastry sheet into a shallow quiche pan and stretched it over the edges a bit. Then, I took about 6 oz of goat cheese and crumbled it all over the bottom of the quiche. On top of that, I added all of the rest of the sorrel, as well as the CSA scallion, both roughly chopped. Next, I took three eggs and beat them with about a cup of milk, 1/4 tsp of salt, and some pepper, and poured it in. I baked for 40 minutes at 375, during which the heavenly smell of cooking sorrel filled the first floor of my house.

I ate my first piece for breakfast, today, and it was what inspired the title of this post. If I could write a love song to sorrel, I would. (But I don't think anyone wants to see me try to write poetry...let alone sing it.) If you see a person digging in the herb bucket at this week's pickup, frantically muttering about needing more sorrel, it's probably me.

So, about Berlin

2010-06-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

To my handful of readers:I hope you won't mind if I also write about my gardening triumphs and mishaps. I figure it's related enough to this blog's true purpose, since I do grow things that I eat.

We drove out to Berlin, NJ, today. I was on a mission to find galvanized feeding troughs to use as raised beds in our garden, after reading this. I'm think that my hubby secretly loves my obsession with Apartment Therapy, since it almost always leads to some sort of weekend adventure that resembles a scavenger hunt, but with more irony and cold-hearted laughter. We hit the Agway in Berlin, first. While Agway's website lists steel "stock tanks," this particular store only carried the plastic variety. We decided to go to our second option, the Tractor Supply Co. which is further out in Sicklerville, but pit-stopped at the Berlin Farmers Market first.

Let me digress for a second and give this piece of advice. If anyone ever tells you that the Berlin Farmers Market is awesome, just turn around and walk away. The website says that it was started as a livestock and produce auction, but now it's nothing more than a junk parade. I'm not talking about antiques, because that's cool...I'm talking about real, live JUNK. New junk. The farmers market looked cool, but I was so nauseated by the smell of the indoor market that I couldn't even think about going over to look at produce. Blech. For friends from my hometown, it was like the Union Market...on crack.

So back to the real goal. We made it out to the Tractor Supply Co and found exactly what we were looking for. You can see what I'm talking about in the picture above. They are now sitting on bricks in the backyard, drainage holes drilled, half-filled with soil. We will be heading out to get some more compost, which I've found can be acquired for free at a startling number of places in Philly. One container will house tomatoes, exclusively. We purchased at least four varieties but made sure to get a bunch of romas for sauce-making! The other will house a variety of other veggies including peppers, pickle cucumbers, and eggplant. I'll try to post some pictures of the finished product once the yard is presentable.

Week #2

2010-06-04T15:06:00.000-07:00

Friday is finally here! What's even better is that I don't think there will be any red in this week's list. I'm confident I know, or can figure out, how to use every item we got. It's definitely going to require a trip to the farmer's market for supplements, but not for much. The hubby is away at a conference all week, too, which means I get to dine on my accomplishments all on my own. Believe it or not, he's jealous.

Here is this week's bounty:

Kale (a different type than last week, which was the kind you typically see at the grocery store - must investigate this one)
Bok choy
Kohlrabi
Broccoli
Radishes
Lettuce mix (looks like some spring greens with a little romaine in there)
Scallion
Garlic Scapes
Sorrel

Garlic scapes and sorrel! I put them in yellow type as things I would need to find a recipe for, but make no mistake, I am psyched to have them. Sorrel is a lemon-y herb that I've been dying to find a reason to use for some time now. In fact, I put back an absolutely beautiful bunch of purple, yellow, and green leafed sage once I heard there was some sorrel in the herb bucket. Garlic scapes are the twisty stems that come up out of certain types of garlic heads, sort of like the pretty flowers that we pinch back on our basil plants all summer, except garlic scapes are awesome. I'm imagining mine as a yummy addition to some mashed potatoes at some point this week.

Off to chat it up with other CSA cooks at an evening soiree...

Charmed, I'm sure. No, seriously!

2010-06-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

I imagine that the broccoli and pea shoots felt almost as victorious as Betty White must be feeling, today. They were the last ones standing, after all. I came home from work, and did a quick stir-fry with some shrimp, ginger (yeah, lots of it too!), garlic, and a shallot. The sauce was a clumsy mix of sesame oil, olive oil, and soy sauce, and the whole thing was thrown on top of buckwheat noodles. Not glamorous, but it'll do. Bet that's what Betty said.

As the shrimp hit the oil in the wok, I thought to check the date on some concert tickets that were stuck behind a magnet on the fridge. They were for our favorite band so I'd purchased them a while ago, but thought the date was far off. And of course, they were for tonight! I rushed the hubby home from work and out the door and off we went. The show was amazing, despite the fact that the joint had no A/C. They played their entire new-and-not-yet-released album plus a half-set of old stuff...including a song we used in our wedding ceremony. Love them.

That poor stirfry is waiting for me to eat it, though. Lunch tomorrow. The hubby ate his portion and said it was delicious.

In other news, I got my first social invite related to this blog thing. A friend told a friend who also spends his week pondering what to do with CSA items, and he was psyched to have some camaraderie. And I'm psyched to chat about this stuff with someone other than the man I live with who says he likes everything I cook. I'm totally warning this dude about vitamin greens, though.

Week 2 begins tomorrow. It's funny to me how nervous but also excited I am about getting tomorrow's share. I keep imagining what items from this week I'd like to get again, and guessing at what the new items could be. Could this be the new Christmas Eve for hipsters? Just a thought...

You gotta know when to roast 'em...

2010-06-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

Before we get down to business, I present (above) the evidence of what was done with the CSA arugula. This salad is based on this recipe, but I've done it a few times without the rotisserie chicken. I threw the CSA radishes on the plate for some color and completely forgot the parmesan, but it was pretty good despite all that. This entree also co-starred the bread I made with the lemon and rosemary, which didn't come out that well because I put the oven at 350 instead of 450 and didn't realize it until 45 minutes later.

I used the vitamin green and the tatsoi for this salad, which I've been eating all week for lunch. And I've realized something after eating it for a couple days now. Vitamin green is yucky. I've never been a fan of those greens that have strong flavors, like mustards and collards. We can now add Vitamin Green to that list. Much like collards, I think it could only taste good if it was boiled in mounds and mounds of some sort of highly salted animal parts. We're bound to get it again, in which case, I will have ham hocks at the ready.

The saving grace of lunch today was the fresh watermelon and feta salad (with a dash of pepper) that I packed for an afternoon snack but ended up scarfing down after eating 3/4 of the evil vitamin green salad.

Tonight, I stared at one kohlrabi, three turnips, some asparagus (not CSA), an onion, some carrots, and two fennel bulbs and felt a bit defeated. The greens on the carrots and the kohlrabi were looking pretty pathetic so I knew these veggies had little time left. I decided it was time for a mercy killing, so I chopped them all up, threw them in a roasting pan and coated with olive oil, salt, and pepper. They will join some grilled-up bratwurst for a simple dinner and I will only have the pea shoots to deal with...

Never too much of a good thing

2010-05-31T07:24:00.000-07:00

I never have a hard time figuring out how to use rosemary because it's my favorite herb, but I chopped a bunch of the rosemary from this week's CSA share and tossed it into my weekly no-knead bread batch, along with some lemon zest. I also juiced the lemon and added that to the water requirement for the bread dough. Fresh rosemary is probably my favorite scent of all time. I'm a savory foods girl, and rosemary lends itself to so many savory dishes.

Lemons. There's another thing that is very rarely local to Pennsylvania that I buy by the half-dozen on a regular basis. I slice them and throw the rounds on top of fish or chicken that's going into the broiler (or on the grill). I add zest or juice to a variety of recipes for a little bit of tang. Lemons are one of those things I won't give up for the eating local movement. Someday I will have a heated greenhouse in which I will have my own lemon tree. Mark my words.

The locally grown strawberries and rhubarb from Wegman's are indeed in the oven right now, as part of a crisp, the recipe for which can be found here. I didn't have any sugar in the raw, so I used brown sugar for that part of the recipe.

Week #1

2010-05-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

So here's how it'll work. I'll list this week's CSA share and color code the items according to my familiarity with them. Green indicates I can figure out what to do with it without any problem. Yellow means that I think I can find a recipe somewhere. Red = "help!" Throughout the week, I'll try to post my progress as I work my way through the share.

This week's CSA take:

Arugula
Pea Shoots
Kale
Tatsoi
Broccoli
Hakurei Turnips
Radishes
Vitamin Greens
Rosemary
Kohlrabi

I went to Wegman's for some non-produce items and ended up picking up some locally grown strawberries, rhubarb, and carrots, along with some fennel (my new favorite vegetable) and some potatoes. There is definitely a strawberry rhubarb crumble in our future, and I think the carrots and fennel will end up in a slaw-like salad with the kohlrabi, later in the week.

In just a few minutes, the kale will go into this recipe and will accompany some steaks that have been marinating in teryaki. One of my favorite things about summer is that we use the grill almost nightly. This year, we have our newly purchased charcoal smoker grill for when we have more time and don't want a quick meal from our propane grill. We also purchased this camping burner, mainly to use later in the summer for canning, but I'd like to experiment with cooking entire meals outside and this will aid in that endeavor.

Let's get started, shall we?

2010-05-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

I know I know. A blog about what I got in my weekly CSA and how I'm going to cook it is definitely not new. I'm about two years behind the "eating local is cool" curve. Some introductory remarks:

1. I try my best to buy local for a number of reasons, but not because I think it makes me a better person. Quite simply, it's sometimes cheaper than going to the grocery store and the produce lasts considerably longer than the stuff that's been shipped from afar. This realization has coincided with the development of a serious love of cooking, so that I enjoy the challenge of finding something new and trying to make it into something delicious.

2. I'm not the perfect or ideal vision of a "locavore" so I try not to identify as one. I occasionally supplement my CSA items or farmers market purchases with stuff that's not in season. I buy meat from Costco. I use plastic containers to store leftovers. And I've actually been known to use plastic utensils to eat my lunch at the office when I forget to bring real ones from home. Basically, if you are reading this and consider yourself a true locavore, I'm the devil.

3. I live in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. The area is a dichotomy of newbies who tend to flaunt their healthy bike-riding-local-food-eating-gastropub-loving lifestyles and the longtime locals who are personally offended by the newbie criticisms of the fly-ridden produce section at the one local grocery store. (It's worth noting that the defensiveness is punctuated by the fact that most of the grocery carts being lugged around that store have not one fresh fruit or vegetable in them.) Nonetheless, there are quite a few of us who happily exist in the middle ground of these two camps - old heads who hit the farmers market once in a while, and newbies who can be seen chowing on a cheesesteak from Slack's every once in a while.

4. Our CSA is Henry Got Crops, which is a joint venture between the largest food co-op in the city and the city's agricultural high school. I like the idea that we are supporting an urban high school that is teaching city kids about farming and veterinary sciences. Plus, we've tried to join a CSA that is closer to our house every year since we moved here and it always fills up too fast. And quite frankly, recent neighborhood events have made me pretty happy about our choice to go with Henry Got Crops.

5. The purpose of this blog is really to just serve as a clearinghouse for ideas on how to cook the seasonal items that come to us each week. It might morph into something more, but please comment, encourage, criticize, snark, or otherwise contribute. I like hearing other people's opinions almost as much as I like touting my own.