How'd we do?

Here's how we used each of our veggies (and fruit!) this week.  It was a truly delicious week!  Unfortunately, we had a few ... casualties.

Green basil, Carrots, Spring Onions, and Oregano - Pesto Gnocchi with Roasted Carrots & Onion

Spring Crest Peaches - Peach Cupcakes - these were divine, originated from the food of angels!

Chard and Oregano - Chard quesadilla.  Yum!

Potatoes - Summer Vegetable Potato Salad.  This was killer.

And here's where the disappointment strikes:
Cabbage - I was all set to make an Asian-inspired salad, with cabbage, snow peas, carrots, tofu, red bell peppers, and a tasty peanut dressing.  Alas, when I went to make the salad on Monday night, the cabbage had ... turned?  It wasn't pretty, and I'm pretty sure there were teeny tiny bugs involved.  I improvised and did a version of the salad with romaine instead of cabbage.  I used a Better Home & Gardens recipe as my starting point and then threw together my own version of peanut dressing, using another Vegetarian Times recipe favorite as reference.  The resultant dish was delicious!

Beets - Woe is beets.  Poor things are still lurking in my fridge.  I ... I can't.

Make this now:  If you only make one recipe from my blog this week, I suggest ... it's a tie!  It's impossible to decide between with Summer Vegetable Potato Salad and the Peach Cupcakes.  Both were super.  Do yourself a favor and make both!  They would be great Fourth of July dishes to share with friends and family at that block party.

(You'll see us behind the table at the College Glen neighborhood association's Family Night Out on July 2, serving up complimentary beverages - "orange drink, anyone??" - and wishing we were noshing on Peach Cupcakes!)

How'd we do? Plus Bing cherries star in a cherry clafoutis.

Here's how we used up all our box ingredients this week:

Sugar snap peas - A simple tofu and sugar snap pea curry, over rice.

Strawberries - Smoothies! 

Arugula & Spring Onions - Food on bread*, i.e. Greek Flatbread Pizzas with Grilled Onions, Zucchini, and Feta.

Chard - Food on bread*, i.e. Braised Greens & White Beans on Toast

Parsley & Spring Onions - Played supporting roles in Spelt Salad.

Lettuce - Big Salad!  Our mix included dried cherries, carrots, green onions, parmesan, chickpeas, and hardboiled egg.  Tasty!

New potatoes & Parsley - Potato Salad.  Yummmmmmmm. 

  I also had to pick up some cherries after I saw the bag of glorious Bing cherries that a co-worker bought at our Wednesday downtown farmer's market.  The cherry season is fleeting, and those fruits beckoned.  I have never cooked with cherries, and I worried that they would be difficult to pit.  Not so!  I meant to pick up a pitter while I was out and about last Saturday, but I never did.  So I took matters into my own hands - literally - and pitted the pound of cherries all by myself.  And it was really easy!  The only bad thing was that the dark cherry juice stained my cuticles for a few days, but that was just the price that had to be paid for succulent, sweet, and juicy cherries.  Here's what I made:

Cherry clafoutis - a traditional French dessert/breakfast.  It's like a baked custard dish, and with all the almond extract I added (twice the recommended amount!), it tasted like my Southern favorite, Chess Pie.

And here's the link to the base recipe.  I made the following changes: doubled the almond extract, didn't do the almond-pulverizing-milk-soaking step (I just used plain milk), before baking, topped the clafoutis with about 1/4 cup blanched slivered almonds.  This was a super delicious and relatively healthy dessert, and it made an awesome breakfast the next morning.  Three cheers for cherries!

P.S. You can make clafoutis with other fruits, such as raspberries or plums.  Yum!

Make this now: If I had to pick just one recipe to recommend you try, it would be ... drumroll please ... Spelt Salad!!  Everything that I cooked this week was delicious, so it's hard to pick a favorite, but I think it's important to experiment with new ingredients.  I'm betting that most people have never cooked spelt in their home kitchen.  Try it!  You will be pleasantly surprised.  If you can cook beans (and believe me, you can), you can successfully cook this ancient form of wheat.  You can find it at your health food store and probably at Whole Foods or another health-focused retailer. 

*Food on bread sure had its moment this week, didn't it???

How'd we do?

It was an exciting week - we celebrated our first outside dinner of the season!  Here's the roundup of how we used the produce in our box this week:

Asparagus - Shaved asparagus pizza.  Go make this!

Sugar Snap Peas - An easy stir-fry with teriyaki sauce, tofu, and couscous.

Strawberries - Pureed with a bit of sugar and lemon.  We are going to eat this spooned over frozen yogurt any minute!

Lettuce - BIG Salad!  Our salad contained carrots, red spring onions (from the box), red bell pepper, apple, dried cranberries, chickpeas, cashews, and feta.  I ate mine with homemade vinaigrette: balsamic, a splash of olive oil, dijon mustard, honey, salt, and a dash of herbs de provence.

New Potatoes - Part of our BBQ extravaganza.  We grilled them!  Parboil for about five minutes, then brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper and pop on the grill for about 8 minutes, flipping once halfway during cooking.

Carrots (+Red Spring Onions) - We ate these in one of my most favorite carrot dishes - carrots and red bell peppers with cashews.  Pictures below.  I will definitely feature this recipe at some point in the future - it is easy, quick, and delicious, with a sauce of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar.  Savory!

Make it: If I had to pick just one recipe to recommend, I would encourage you to make the Shaved Asparagus Pizza!  Unique and delicious.  My other favorite this week was the romesco sauce, but that didn't use any of our box produce.  You can find the recipe under the "BBQ extravaganza" link above.

It was another great week!

How'd we do? Plus a big salad.

Last week, we used up the bulk of our veggies one seriously veggie-intensive recipe.  We spent Memorial Day weekend cooking, eating, drinking, and hanging out with my parents in Clear Lake.  What a fabulous way to celebrate California's spring bounty!  The weekend revolved around food and wine, and it was wonderful.

Here's the roundup:

* Asparagus, Sugar Snap Peas, Carrots - Spring vegetable stew.  Everything tastes better at the lake!

* Carrots & Lettuce - Big Salad, served with cheese toast.  See some lovely photos below.

* Strawberries - We ate these for breakfast on Saturday morning, alongside a fried egg and some toast.  May I just say, now that lemon curd is back in my life, I am feeling decadent.

* Dino Kale & Spring Onions - Ohhhh be still my beating heart!  I actually declared affirmatively, out loud, that kale is my new favorite vegetable.  That's right.  Kale.  Eat it like so in a frittata and you may begin to share my passion.  Frittata is also a new obsession, now that I have conquered my fear of melting my pan handles under the broiler.

And here are some pictures of the lovely Big Salad.  This was crisp and satisfying.  The only downside was having to omit the feta since it had gone slightly off after a couple weeks tightly wrapped in the fridge.  But we soldiered on.  I made not-so-light Cooking Light brownies, amped up with THREE TIMES the chocolate called for in the recipe, for dessert.  A wonderful end to the box week!

 Our salad contained box lettuce, carrots, red bell peppers, green onions, apple, dried cranberries, cashews, and chickpeas.  I had mine with my favorite vinaigrette: a dab of dijon mustard, a small pour of olive oil, generous amounts of balsamic vinegar, and a touch of honey.  Plenty of fresh ground pepper and you're in business!

How'd we do?

Erm.  Well.  How did we do?

Food-wise, this week was fabulous.  Blog-wise, not so much.  I fell behind on posting about our lovely meals, and I frantically tried to play catch-up to showcase some of the best of our meals this week.  Unfortunately, you never got to see this:

It melds two amazing broccoli treatments into one dish.  The pesto is broccoli- and almond-based, and I tossed roasted brocc on top for some savory measure.  Fabulous.  Check out the base recipe here, but know that I added a few things; I roasted the broccoli, and I added vegetable lovelies like French breakfast radishes and carrots to beef (ahem) the dish up.  (To anti-beef?)  I also omitted the avocado because I am one of those rare vegetarians who can't stand the thing.  (What is it anyway?  Alien fodder?)

You also missed out on this:

It's a green coconut curry with golden pan-fried tofu, roasted broccoli on the side (yes, I am obsessed).  We ate this last night over brown basmati rice, and it hit the spot.  It was mild and comforting.  The leftovers made a creamy and delicious lunch.  I used a recipe from my new Deborah Madison cookbook, "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone."  It relied on (gasp) bottled curry paste!  And you know what?  That bottled green curry paste is pretty awesome (I used Thai Kitchen brand, available pretty much everywhere).  The ingredients list is short and easy to pronounce.  The paste is sweet and tangy and a bit spicy.  And I had dinner on the (coffee) table in 45 minutes flat, in time to tune in to the (painfully long) Biggest Loser finale!  (Go Michael!!!)

So without further ado, here's the narrative about how I used up all the goodies from our box:

• Strawberries - Sliced and eaten like candy.  Oh, and a star ingredient in our fruit smoothies.
• Chard - Chickpea and chard stew with Moroccan flavors.  Part of our North African feast!
• Carrots- Carrot and Feta Salad with Spice Vinaigrette.  Another component of the North African feast.
• Spring Onions - I used these in the chickpea and chard stew.
• Spinach - The old standby: grilled cheese and sauteed spinach.
• Broccoli & French breakfast radishes - Double broccoli quinoa.  Base recipe here, see tweaks above.
• Lettuce - Big salad!  I also tossed in some carrots and French breakfast radishes.

How'd we do?

This was a very productive and adventurous week.  In conquered a new cooking technique (yeast bread!), and we ate like a king and a queen.  Spring has just been so plentiful!  Last Wednesday seems so long ago now...

* Asparagus & Spring Onions - Asparagus Gnocchi - a rich and tasty dish with butter, goat cheese, and veggies galore!  Easy for a weeknight.

* Fava Beans - in a puree for a rich-tasting and unique appetizer.  

* French Breakfast Radishes - I didn't get any pictures, but the best use of the radishes this week was a take on the buttered toast approach (toast + radish + butter + salt; the French way of eating them).  I toasted a poppyseed bagel and slathered both sides with light cream cheese.  Then I added thin slices of the radishes cut lengthwise, plus freshly ground pepper.  Divine!  We also at the radishes in salad and in the wraps seen above in the fava puree link.

* Strawberries - snacks!

* Collards & Spring Onions - Ricotta-and-veggie-stuffed collard green rolls.

* Lettuce - As the base of a big salad and lining the inside of the wraps.

Lovely week! If you make only one recipe, let it be collard green rolls.  Oh, wait - run, don't walk, into your kitchen to make the incredible Braided Lemon Bread.  No box ingredients but 100% delicious.

How'd we do?

This was a highly delicious week, packed full of greens and vitamins.  Here's the roundup of all the fabulous recipes that graced my (coffee) table this week:

* Asparagus - Spring panzanella - part of our Amazing Race celebration.

* Strawberries - Sliced and eaten fresh.  Some were a little tart, others sweet.  I loved the contrast.

* Sugar Snap Peas, Spinach, Bok Choy, Spring Onions - Greens-packed stir fry with pan-glazed tofu.

* Spring Onions - Part of our Cinco de Mayo burrito feast - they were included in the Mexican rice component.  Then the leftovers from Cinco de Mayo were used to make a Mexican version of arancini - Mexican Rice Balls!

* Salad Mix - Salad!  One of my first and greatest loves.

A satisfying week!

How'd we do?

Here's how we used all the wonderful goodies from our box this week:

Asparagus, Fava Beans, & Green Garlic - Spring minestrone. Simply fantastic - the essence of spring!

Mixed Chard - Rice with Chard, Tofu, and Poached Egg. I conquered poaching eggs!

Karanata Kale & Tokyo Turnips - Kale, Turnips, & Potatoes.

Salad Mix - Salad, alongside Chickpea Sandwiches (aka Too-No-Fish).

Spinach - Orange Tofu and Spinach with Couscous. I didn't share the recipe, but please see the photo below! I used my sauteed spinach technique featured here, and pan-fried the tofu and added a sauce of orange juice and veggie broth (1/3 cup each), plus smoked paprika (1/8 teaspoon), cumin & cinnamon (1/4 teaspoon each), salt and pepper. Add the sauce to the cooked tofu and simmer for a couple of minutes until thick and syrupy. Yum!




It was another great week!

How'd we do?

Last week was filled with greens, greens, and more greens! We thoroughly enjoyed all of them, and now my husband is on his way to pick up our new box. I am going to tackle a new technique tonight during dinner preparation - I'm a little nervous! I will be sure to document for the blog.

So how'd we do? Here is how all our veggies were consumed (or ... not consumed):

Asparagus, Green Garlic, & Tokyo Turnips (whew!) - They made a late but significant showing at dinner last night, in a polenta dish topped with herbed ricotta and sauteed veggies, with roasted asparagus and turnips on the side. Mmmmmm.

Arugula - One word: calzones.

Chard - I made one of my favorite Chinese recipes, complete with homemade crepes. Moo shu veggies!

Spinach - Made a lovely partner to a decadent and satisfying grilled cheese sandwich. Sauteed with olive oil, garlic, and balsamic vinegar.

Salad Mix - We ate a big salad which was unfortunately not featured on the blog this week. It contained the salad mix, carrots, red bell pepper, green onions, cranberries, cashews, feta, cubed mozzarella, and chickpeas. I made a quick vinaigrette with olive oil, balsamic, dijon mustard, and a dab of honey. Delicious! We ate the salad with Trader Joe's baked sweet potato fries. A quick and easy meal after a long day.

Sage - Poor sage. I forgot to use it! It was at the bottom of the crisper that held all the other various greens, so it was overlooked. Hopefully I can find a use for it in the next couple of days before I have to bid it farewell ... such a bummer too, because I absolutely LOVE sage!

Well, it was another fine week of thinking about and eating food! We had a few extra "I can't/don't want to cook right now" moments this week, leading us to a brewery for dinner (Hoppy Brewery on Folsom Blvd - I really wanted our East Sacramento fancy pizza joint, OneSpeed, but it was a 45 minute wait and it was already 8 pm) and the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op for lunch (I heart their salad bar!!! Tofu-based green goddess dressing = heaven).

Thanks for reading!

How'd we do?

It was a delicious week, and we definitely ate well! Here's the dish roundup:

Asparagus & Green Garlic- A spring-inspired strata recipe. Out of this world!

Mixed Chard - A tasty, though possibly culturally confused, tortilla lasagna.

Red Russian Kale - In heaven, the lawns won't be grass - they will be kale. I just love this stuff. Seriously. We had it atop sweet potatoes and ricotta for a healthy twist on baked potatoes (Martha + kale = love at first bite).

Salad Mix & Red Round Radishes - Yum, salad! We ate it alongside the strata, topped with various goodies (cheese, carrots, bell pepper, onions, cranberries), plus a smattering of radishes.

Braising Mix - Ohhh this one was a keeper. In line with my obsession with food on toast, I made a lip-smacking take on beans and greens. I tossed in some of the green garlic for good measure, and to ward off baby vampires (it's not strong enough to keep the big daddies at bay, but none of the offspring will be chomping down on my in my sleep!).

Winter Savory - Erm. I'm pretty sure that there was some kind of mix-up. Here's what the Internet told me to expect. Here's what I got. I'm no scientist, but those just can't be the same plant ... so, I didn't do anything with what I got. Oh well!

GOLD STAR of the week goes to .... beans and greens on toast! If you make just one of these recipes, make it that one.

Great week, here's to another week of fine food and great company ... oh, and if you are wondering, there was no Amazing Race this week. It was on hiatus for a week so that the Country Music Awards could air. I am thankful that AR is back this weekend ... I've already got a plan, and it's a classic.

How'd we do?

We had a delectable and productive week! I tried a couple of new recipes and managed to use up almost everything from the box.

Asparagus - sauteed and added to a wheatberry salad. This was just so yummy - a definite keeper, and an accomplishment for me. It was the first time that I cooked wheatberries at home and used them in a dish.

French breakfast radishes - a pure and simple radish sandwich. Also tossed a couple in with the Big Salad and the wheatberry salad.

Chard - We made chard tacos again! These suckers are good. See my post about them from a prior week here.

Cippolini onions - Roasted onions and carrots. Yum!

Salad mix - used in The Big Salad. This lettuce is out of this world!

Oranges from Guru Ram Das Orchards in Esparto - ate out of hand - DELICIOUS. They were juicy and petite and very orangey.

Sun-dried peaches - erm. After eating them snack-style a few weeks ago, I just wasn't in the mood. These little guys were like rocks. I still don't know what I'm supposed to do with them - soak to plump?

How'd We Do?

Here's this week's roundup. It was a delicious week!

• Asparagus & Green Garlic - Asparagus pizza!
  
• Carrots & Chard - Tortellini with Chard, Caramelized Onions, and Carrots - check it out.
  
• Red Russian Kale - Kale & Cheddar Frittata! Yes, please. I ate the leftovers as a recovery lunch after my 5.5 mile run on a windy, rainy day. It was perfect.
  
• Spinach - Sauteed with garlic and lemon, to accompany the less-virtuous-but-delightful potato and spinach quesadilla.
  
• Sun Dried Onions - I ate some of these as a snack, and we also added them as a garnish to a side salad one evening. Tasty and a bit strange, they look like alien sea creatures!
  
• Baby Beets - My bravery never surfaced. Alas, the baby beets met their demise this evening when I cleaned out the fridge. I know, I know. Wasteful and very unadventurous of me. I need to commit myself to beets the next time they pop up in our box. This is like dieting. It's always easy to say you'll start tomorrow ... sigh.

And we're already off and running with our new box - dinner is in the oven right now. It's going to be fabulous.

How'd We Do? (TGIW)

Today is Wednesday - my husband is on his way this very minute to collect our box. Hooray! Tuesdays are tough in our house because they are the last day before the new delivery. Tuesday is the new Friday! I used to do all my grocery shopping and meal planning on the weekends, so by the time that Friday rolled around, our cupboards were bare. Now, it's Tuesdays. But today is Wednesday; we get our new veggies and the planning has already begun!
Last week was a productive and delicious week. Here's how we used the veggies from our box:

• Pea Greens - We sauted the greens in olive oil, with a touch of lemon juice. Served with ooey gooey grilled cheese. See the details here.

• Chard - Chard and Tofu in tangy marinade. Served on a grain medley. Details here.

• Baby Lettuce & Carrots - The Big Salad. (That's a kitchen sink salad - anything goes! Leftover tofu, chickpeas, bell peppers, red onion, dried onion, cranberries, cheese, almonds ... whew! Delicious. We ate this for dinner, lunch, and dinner again!)

• Asparagus & Green Garlic - These two were featured in Asparagus & Leeks on Cheese Toast. I could eat this again RIGHT NOW. Delectable.

• Sun Dried Peaches - We nibbled on a few of these, snack style. But they were HARD as rocks. I wonder if they were meant to be rehydrated?

• Oregano - Oh my goodness, I forgot this was hanging out in the bottom of the crisper drawer, begging to be added to something, anything. I love oregano! I hope it can hold on for another day or two because I have a couple recipes in mind that would really benefit from an oregano bump.

All in all, a great week! Since we started our CSA, we have really limited eating out. I feel much less stressed about menu planning each week, since I have base ingredients around which to construct meals. It's a strangely structured freedom, but I am loving it!

And thank goodness it's Wednesday!

How'd we do?

Here's what our box contained last week, and how we used each item.

Chard, Potatoes, & Fresh Garlic - Chard, Chickpea, and Potato Stew

Asparagus - Roasted, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, alongside tofu sauted in a pan sauce of maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, and veggie broth, atop couscous.

Navel Oranges - In The Big Salad (see below) and out of hand.

Salad Mix, Carrots - The Big Salad! We ate a lovely salad mixed with lots of veggies, cheese, chickpeas, green onions, crunchy fried onions, and more! Accompaniment: cheese toast.

It was a great week! My favorite item? Either the tofu and asparagus dish or the Big Salad. Both were wonderful. (We ate Big Salad twice!)

How'd we do?

Last week (3/10 through 3/16), we had an amazing spring celebration of a CSA box. Here's how we used each of the items that we brought home:

Fresh Garlic & Red Russian Kale = Kale Breakfast Pizza

Carrots = Carrot & Red Bell Pepper Saute, served with grain medley. Adapted from Mollie Katzen. Here are the basics:

Chop about 6 medium carrots, one bell pepper, one red onion. Chop a clove or two of garlic, and mince a tablespoon of fresh ginger. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan, and saute the carrots, onion, and ginger over high heat for five minutes. Add the red bell pepper and garlic and saute for five minutes. Add three tablespoons balsamic vinegar and one tablespoon soy sauce; saute for two minutes, stirring constantly. Serve over the grain of your choice, topped with cashews and/or chopped pineapple. (This is seriously incredible!)


Asparagus - Eggs & Asparagus on Feta Toast

Potatoes & Fennel - We ate these roasted in the oven, doused in olive oil with herbs de provence and S&P for about 50 minutes. Served with organic ketchup. Yummmm ...

Broccoli - Roasted broccoli accompanied our potatoes and fennel. We served these two dishes accompanied by a piece of sourdough cheese toast with dijon. This is the simplest, most delicious comfort food.

Meyer Lemon from Good Humus Produce - Surprise baked good!! I will reveal this soon ...

We did pretty darn good last week - we put everything to good (and tasty) use!

How'd we do?

Moment of truth - what did we do with all those CSA veggies last week? Here's a round-up of our meals and how we used each ingredient.

Asparagus - Asparagus & Red Onion Quesadillas (recipe from Epicurious). I love the method used to quickly roast and char the veggies: chop up asparagus, slice onion into rings, toss with olive oil and S&P, and roast both at 500 for 10 minutes. It sets off the smoke alarm but it's worth it! The recipe then has you build the quesadillas (cheese + veggies), brushing the tortillas with olive oil and then sticking back under the broiler for a few minutes on each side. I tried the broiling method this time and didn't like it as much as the tried-and-true pan method. You have better control of the melting and browning when finishing the quesadillas on the stovetop. However, you also generate an extra dirty dish, so there are tradeoffs! Top off the quesadillas with salsa and a quick cumin sour cream - sour cream + cumin + lime juice. Yum!

Broccoli Romanesco - See the post here. Roasted veggies with the romanesco, sweet potatoes, and brussel sprouts, tossed in a light pomegranate vinaigrette. Round two used the leftover veggies in a couscous salad the next day.

Broccoli - Roasted, accompanying grilled cheese! My absolute favorite broccoli treatment, learned from Kim O'Donnell (former Washington Post food blogger and now True/Slant blogger and cookbook author). Chop broccoli into florets. Add spices - I like garlic (either fresh or powder works), cayenne and/or paprika, and ginger as suggested by Kim. I also enjoy garlic plus a dash of balsamic vinegar. Add plenty of S&P and pop in the oven at 400 for 12 minutes. Stir once or twice during the roasting. Bliss.

Carrots - I used a couple in the Romanesco Part 2 couscous salad, but there are still some left. They might appear at tonight's dinner ...

Chard - Chard tacos.

Fresh Onions & Potatoes - These were both showcased in the German potato salad. These potatoes are just delicious.

Beets - I have a confession. These are still sitting in the crisper, unloved and untouched. I don't know if they are going to make it onto our table ... I am red-veggie-averse (beets ... red cabbage ... ugh).

A great week! Tonight we pick up our new bounty, and I'm already planning a week of amazing meals. Plus ... a French baked good surprise!