Cabbage!

This week’s pick-up included cabbage for the first time, green beans, cucumbers, Swiss chard, kohlrabi, several kinds of sweet and hot peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant. This is a photo that I took before dividing it up between Alycia and I. Thank goodness we are sharing it!!

I’m trying to give Swiss chard plenty of chances to prove itself to me. Alycia said to give up, but I have one more recipe I’m going to try this week, which is a strudel with cheese and chard in a puff pastry. I think you could wrap just about anything with cheese in a puff pastry and I’ll eat it!

And, just for your entertainment, a picture of Daisy.

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Roasted Veggie Pasta

Yesterday, I made the best meal yet from all our produce. Since Alycia beat me to a post about fried eggplant, I will wax poetic about the Roasted Veggie Pasta I made last night.

I found a recipe for roasting Swiss chard, and since I’ve decided I’m not a huge fan of sauteed Swiss chard, I decided to try the new recipe. The idea is that the chard is really two vegetables; the leaves and the stalks. Here is a basic translation of what I did.

1 large bunch Swiss chard, well rinsed and dried, ends trimmed
1 TBSP olive oil
1 or 2 TBSP heavy whipping cream
Crushed garlic to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese, if desired

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

1. Separate the leaves from the stalks by ripping or cutting the stalk out of the leaves. I folded the leaves over to one side of the stalk and cut them off the stalk.
2. Cut the stalks into half inch pieces and place in a 9x13x2″ baking dish. Drizzle 1 TBSP olive oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Roast stalks in the oven until browned and softened, about 20 mins.
4. Meanwhile, tear or chop chard leaves into smallish pieces. This is personal preference because you might like bigger leaves as a side dish. I knew I was putting it into pasta, so I made smaller bites.
5. When stalks are done, reduce oven to 350 degrees. Place leaves on top of stalks and cover. Bake 5-7 minutes.
6. Stir leaves and stalks. Add the heavy cream and garlic and stir (this is when I added the garlic. You should probably add it earlier, but this is when I thought, “Hey, garlic might be good”.) Cover and roast 5-7 minutes or until cream is bubbly and leaves are wilted.
7. Add Parmesan cheese and stir. Bake 5 minutes or until cheese is melty.

That was the end of the recipe I tried. They meant to use it as a side dish, but I wanted it in pasta!

While all that was happening, I cut up two golden zucchini, one green zucchini, one eggplant, and one white eggplant into small pieces. I tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper. I baked them at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, stirring every so often.

Meanwhile, I cooked a bag of Ohio City Pasta that I had gotten at the West Side Market. I then tossed it with all the roasted veggies, olive oil, and more Parmesan cheese. We also had some white cheddar and chive chicken sausage, which was an excellent compliment to all that olive oil and cheese!

That giant white spot on the sausage? Melted, gooey white cheddar. Oh, so good!

So, I took my U-Haul to Alycia’s house….

Here’s the picture text I got today:

This week’s pick-up included Swiss chard, bok choy, peas, green beans, broccoli, eggplant, white eggplant, golden zucchini, regular zucchini, really ugly carrots, three kinds of peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Here is my half. Half!

My New Treat

I just made The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for Iced Coffee. Oh. My. Word. Dee-licious.

I love iced coffee. It just screams SUMMER!

No need for me to recreate her perfect recipe here. Just click the link above for directions.

A couple notes on the recipe: I made a 1/4 recipe simply because I didn’t have any two gallon containers. Also, I was told not to use a metal container, so I used a giant Pyrex bowl.

Best-o Pesto!

First, I’d like to remind everyone to carefully rinse their lettuce. I found two small slugs in mine yesterday! While I’m sure it’s an excellent source of protein, it’s an unpleasant surprise. However, as Alycia said, “And truthfully, I don’t want to eat any lettuce that a slug isn’t interested in.”

As I mentioned in my previous post, we are invited to pick fresh herbs from Dean’s Greenhouse when we pick up our CSA box. I had some left over from last week and I also picked a bunch of basil and parsley. What to make? I suddenly had a flashback from when I spent the summer in Italy and remembered all the pesto I ate. For some reason, I didn’t like it then. But, I decided to give it another try. I had some random elbow mac in the cupboard, so I threw that in a pot to cook. Then, I made pesto using all the basil, lemon basil, and parsley I had lying around. Oh, what a glorious thing to have fresh herbs just lying around!

Into the food processor they go along with some crushed garlic. Tomato photo bomb!

Give it a few pulses while adding enough olive oil to taste. I neglected to take a picture of this step. Sorry.

I scooped it out of the food processor and put it directly on the pasta. Then I mixed in some salt, pepper, and Parmesan cheese.

Meanwhile, I had some chicken cooking on the stove. I tossed up a salad from the CSA box and Voila! Dinner is served! P.S. It was delicious!

And so it begins..

This week was the first week we really had a taste of just HOW. MUCH. PRODUCE. we should expect.

This week’s haul included three kinds of peppers, yellow squash, a perfect eggplant, lettuce, kohlrabi, Swiss chard, spinach, green beans, tomatoes, snap peas, bok choy, and cucumber. Plus, there is always a sign for CSA members to “Help Yourself” to fresh herbs in giant pots outside the greenhouse. Don’t mind if I doooo.

Here’s a picture!

We’ve been warned by Dean’s Greenhouse that we will be getting more and more over the next 6-8 weeks. Kim, when is your canning class?

Categories

Hello Blog Authors!

Blauthors?

Just letting you know that I’ve added some categories for organizing our posts. See box to the right when you are writing a post and tick the appropriate box to file your post in a specific category. This will help keep things organized as we add more and more to the blog.

Also, if you have any ideas for categories, leave a comment and I will make sure it is added.

Don’t forget to add tags to your blog posts, as well. Another handy way to organize.

Elyse

P.S. Prepare to be super jealous of our CSA pick-up today. Pics to come!

Flavor Sensation

We managed to snag some jam from Kim. (I have this secret little fantasy that if anyone complains about not getting jam, Kim will turn into the Jam Nazi and refuse to part with any. “No jam for you! One year!”)

Forgive me, I digress.

Anyway, I snagged some glorious jam yesterday and cracked it open this morning. I had no crackers, but who needs crackers when you can smear Kim’s mixed berry jam on a slice of good Havarti cheese? Glorious, indeed!

Why are you still reading this?!?! Go put some of Kim’s jam on a slice of Havarti. You will thank me.

What’s that you say? No jam? That’s very sad. I would have taken a picture for you, but it is all gone…

This week’s haul and resulting deliciousness

Up here in the big city, our pick-up day is Thursday. Here’s what we got:

Spinach, peas, zucchini, lettuce, cucumber (which Alycia took), kohlrabi, Swiss chard, radishes, stevia, oregano, basil, and lemon basil.

I was a busy bee today. I went to the West Side Market to supplement our CSA produce and then came home and started cooking!

First I made a pasta dish with the Swiss chard, olives, chicken, and feta cheese, tossed in olive oil.

Then, I tried my hand at roasted vegetable salsa, using a recipe in a recent issue of Everyday Foods.

It turned out pretty good for my first try, although it is very spicy with three jalapenos. Chris loves it (I know this because that bowl was a lot more full when I first made it!)

For dinner, we had corn and sausages from the market, spinach from the CSA, and kohlrabi cakes I made from a recipe in The New Basics Cookbook. I had to halve the recipe since I only had two kohlrabi bulbs and I didn’t have any scallions, but it turned out fantastic! Sort of a cross between a hash brown and an egg roll.

Kohlrabi Cakes

4 kohlrabi bulbs
1/4 c. chopped scallions
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp dried bread crumbs
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes, crushed
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 c. olive oil

1. Peel and shred the kohlrabi bulbs. Squeeze out any excess moisture.
2. Combine all ingredients EXCEPT the olive oil in a mixing bowl. Stir until well blended.
3. Heat the oil in a large skillet, and drop the mixture into it by large spoonfuls. Saute the cakes until golden, 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels.

Here’s the finished meal, complete with some Great Lakes!

First crop!

Today was our first pick up at Dean’s Greenhouse in Westlake. Here’s a picture:

Clockwise from top left: Mixed greens, bok choi, green beans, snap peas, and spinach.

Not gonna lie, I’ll probably have snap peas for breakfast!