Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Zucchini pancakes

Great recipe shared from Langwater farm. Served it with a salad, Langwater romaine lettuce, cucumber, and carrots. Whole family helped make dinner too!
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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Weekly CSA Share

  • 5 zucchini
    zucchini patties (like pancakes), grilled zucchini w/ garlic oil
  • 1 bunch carrots or turnips
    Gujarati Carrot and Peanut Salad
  • 1 bunch beets
    Roasted beets and sauteed beet greens
  • 1 bunch spring onions
    grilled spring onions
  • 1 bunch kale
    greens & beans
  • 1 bunch rainbow chard or bok choy
    stir-fry bok choy & snow peas w/ shrimp & scallops
  • 1 head lettuce
  • 1 bulb fennel
    cucumber, fennel salad
  • 1 kohlrabi
    roasted w/ parmesan cheese

Friday, June 24, 2011

mozzarella, tomato and strawberry salad - french fridays w/dorie

When my daughter was three we thought it disgusting when she dipped her strawberries in ketchup. Then my husband tried it and thought she was a genius. I guess this salad wasn't too far away from that concept! I did some modifications, even though we had beautiful, sweet, tart, local strawberries. I loved the idea of using a balsamic glaze and, can you believe, I didn't have any fresh basil? I had to use frozen, but it was still good. I turned mine into an antipasto, to make a full meal our of it. I really didn't experience any wow factor with this one, but it was tasty and a nice alternative way to eat the strawberries that I can't help buying each week. I also think that the weather didn't cooperate - as we were eating it, we mentioned it would probably be much more enjoyable if it wasn't raining and chilly. On a hot summer day I'll certainly try it again!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

CSA Share for the week

  • 1 bag spinach
    sauteed with garlic?


  • update: spinach salad w/ bacon, dijon dressing, soft boiled egg


  • 1 head broccoli
    Lemon Fettuccine with Broccoli and Pancetta "Croutons"




  • 1 kohlrabi & 1 bunch kale
    Sauteed Kale w/ Kohlrabi
    update: kale chips




  • 1 bunch beets
    still have last weeks, so big roast beet salad w/ walnuts & bleu cheese




  • 1 bunch garlic scapes
    Grilled potatoes & garlic scapes (again!)




  • 1 bunch rainbow carrots
    these are so pretty, probably add to the ginger marinated turnips we still have in the fridge




  • 3 zucchini
    grilled




  • 2 half-pints sugar snap peas
    sauteed or just out of hand - lunch snack!



  • I actually made:
    • thai bean noodles w/ shrimp, scallops, sugar snap peas, carrots, and bok choy
    • spinach salad w/ bacon, dijon dressing, soft boiled egg
    • kale chips

    Saturday, June 18, 2011

    Roasted rhubarb - french fridays w/dorie

    I'll post the photos later, but the best part about this one was the taste. I did make a special trip to a place that has local rhubarb because the last time I made it, I got it from the market and it was awful. It could have been the way I fixed it, but I don't think so.

    Anyway, tonight's made up for it, but I really used the review as a cooking guide. I didn't want go too sweet and 1/2 cup sugar was more than I needed. I was going to make Dorie's seafood pot au feu, and that called for grated ginger. The honey with rhubarb sounded very good so I mixed some of the ginger with a couple tablespoons of a wonderful grapefruit honey I got in CA in March. I didn't add anything else, but followed the baking instructions.

    It was really good and I liked this way of preparing the vegetable? We had it with vanilla ice cream and chocolate cake. My daughter's birthday party is tomorrow (today now), and there were scraps of cake that required eating. The sour, sweet, chocolate (bitter, maybe), and spicy, all tasted wonderful together. It was fun how the flavors would pop out at different times.

    Here are the pictures:
    You can see how much honey I used - not that much!








    Didn't brown like I hoped it would, but the roasting made a very nice syrup.

    Tuesday, June 14, 2011

    CSA Shares

    1 bunch beets
    roast beets w/ balsamic vinegar & bleu cheese

    2 bunches greens  (kale, chard, bok choy, or broccoli rabe)
    stir-fried shrimp w/ bok choy & broccoli rabe

    1 bunch turnips or radishes
    More pickled ginger turnips

    1 bunch spinach
    bacon and eggs and spinach salad - Dorie

    1 head broccoli
    steamed

    1 bunch spring onions
    Spring Onion & Smoked Salmon Frittata

    1 bunch garlic scapes
    Barbequed Potato and Garlic Scape Packets

    1 half-pint sugar snap peas
    seafood pot-au-feu - Dorie

    Friday, June 10, 2011

    cola and jam spareribs - French Fridays w/ Dorie

    Wow, the whole family loved these. I happened to have all the spices on hand and got some lovely ribs from the market. Though they weren't baby back, they were very meaty. The only thing I'd do differently is roast them in a smaller pan. The one I used had too much surface area and the glaze evaporated too quickly. This produced some very toasty ribs. The other flavors came through, but to me, the "burnt" taste overshadowed the more subtle citrus flavors.

    Other than that, awesome. Husband was also able to take the rest of the soda to work, because we never have that in the house. Got the 2 liter because it was just as cheap as getting a small bottle! Didn't Michael Pollan have a chapter about that in The Omnivore's Dilemma?

    The ribs lasted for a few meals, which is a great thing for a hot week. Was smart this time and made these way before the looming Friday deadline!

    Spring's Bounty

    Did a lot of cooking this week with our CSA share. Here are some highlights:

    Beautiful rainbow chard made an excellent dinner the other night. My little helper tore the chard and chopped the mushrooms, which were sauteed with garlic, prosciutto, and a can of butter beans. We all loved it. But clearly we needed more chard! I knew it would cook down to almost nothing, but the ratio was way off for us.
    
    I also picked up another quart of beautiful berries and added some into a salad and the rest just ate out of hand. Could have eaten the whole quart by myself, but wanted to share the sweetness with my sweeties!

    Wednesday, June 08, 2011

    CSA Shares

    I know I'm going to want to remember what we got for the season, so I thought this would be a good way to keep track. Also for those who would be interested in getting a CSA, I hope a nice reference.

    6/8/11 - Whole Share: 1 bunch radishes, 1 bunch hakurei turnips, 1 bunch garlic scapes, 1 bunch red russian kale or rainbow chard, 1 head lettuce, 1 bunch baby bok choy, 1 bunch broccoli raab

    6/2/11 - Whole Share: 1 bunch Hakurei Turnips, 1 bunch Red Russian Kale, 1 head Lettuce, 1 bag Mesclun Mix, 1 bunch choice of kale or turnips
    5/25/11 - Whole Share: 2 herb plants or bunch herbs, 2 bags arugula, 1 bag mesclun or arugula, 1 head lettuce, 1 bunch radishes

    Thursday, June 02, 2011

    warm weather vegetable pot au feu - French Fridays w/ Dorie

    As I was prepping the vegetables for this, I thought, "I'm getting pretty tired of asparagus", "these potatoes are far from round and full of pesticides", "Shara's going to hate all these vegetables", "this arugula is going to make this bitter", and on and on. I guess I was a little nervous making this since I couldn't get the season's best and most tender vegetables and with the vegetables being the star of the dish, though it was going to bomb. Then when the eggs and my finger hit the boiling water at close to my daughter's bedtime, and daughter refused to put out the vitamins (her job) and then decided that she wasn't going to eat dinner at all, I thought, "%$&@ this, let me get a couple of pictures and if anyone wants to eat, they can eat, I don't care."

    Husband then talks down daughter and he puts out vitamins while she comes to the table to eat, I realize the eggs aren't hard-boiled and the bowl looks and smells wonderful. Then we start eating and we're all really impressed. Daughter tries everything, including the shiitaki (hates them), leeks, and spinach (really likes). I thought it was great the way the egg yolk made the broth into a rich sauce. I topped it with an arugula/basil mix and grated parmigiana. It was so good, and really looking forward to the leftovers, even though Dorie says it doesn't keep. I think it will be fine, but really needs the egg.



    I wonder if anyone poached the eggs in the broth? I thought of trying that - always looking to cut down on the number of pots I use, but didn't want to chance it the first time making this. I'll be posting pictures tomorrow.

    Beautiful new cookbook