Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Week 9 Pick-Up

Our Market Day yogurt came today. We got a quart of blackberry and a quart of orange yogurt. The orange yogurt is interesting. It isn't smack you in the face orangy, but just a delicious hint of orange. I'm going to make frozen yogurt with it. Should be good.




Veggies:

Greens 1lb
Peppers 3 ea.
Squash 1.15 lbs
Cucumber 1.5 lbs
Tomatoes 4.5 lbs
Watermelon 1ea.
Mint .12 lbs
Perslaine .12 lbs

Fruit:

2 pint blueberries
3lbs of apricots

I've never been a fan of tomato soup, but if i've learned anything this summer it's don't judge a food by the way it comes out of a can. The flavor in these tomatoes is incredible, and i have 4.5 lbs of them, so I'm going to see if I can make a tomato soup that I like. Stay tuned for results.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Week 8 Pick-Up

Today was the season's first market day. That means we were able to order a one time delivery of a large selection of foods from farms around the area that we don't normally get. We chose chicken legs, chicken parts and two large containers of yogurt. Unfortunately a machine broke at the dairy farm, so we didn't get the yogurt today, but the chicken was incredible! More on that later, he's what we got this week...


Veggies:

cucumbers 1.75 lbs
tomatoes 1.9 lbs
squash 1.5 lbs
greens 1 lb
beets .75 lbs
perslane .4 lbs
eggplant 1.75 lbs
peepers 1.25 lbs
melons 1 each
basil .2 lbs

Fruit:

3lbs Apricots (these are the last of the apricots)
1 pint blueberries

These blueberries are insane. I don't know if I'll actually be able to cook anything with them because I just keep eating handfuls as I walk through the kitchen. I have my eye on these baby eggplants, I'm thinking something with a curry sauce.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Hot Time in the City!

I'm really behind on my blogging, but I've been cooking like mad! A couple weekends ago temperatures in New York soared past 100 degrees, so what did I do to keep cool? I baked!! Thank god for "free" central air.

Here are some pictures of things I've baked and cooked during and after the heat wave:


Cherry Claflouti

This is a really great way to use up tons of cherries! It's sort of a cross between a cake and a crepe. The batter is very eggy and stays moist. It's great for breakfast! I got this recipe from the Larousse Gastronomique, which calls for unpitted cherries. I did not do that because I think it's just rude to ask whoever is enjoying your food to watch out for their teeth and spit out the pits. There are tons of recipes out there, google it and find one you like. It's definitely worth it!


Corn Soup

This is my favorite recipe of the summer. I came up with it a couple years ago because I wanted a healthier, more refreshing alternative to corn chowder.

4 ears of corn
1 medium white or yellow onion diced
half of 1 small jalapeno finely diced, no seeds
1 medium bell pepper diced
1 large clove garlic
1 quart chicken stock
1 tsp smoked paprika
S&P

Sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent. Add the corn, jalapeno, bell pepper, smoked paprika and S&P and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock and simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until it slightly reduces. You can either serve it as is, or put any portion you desire into a food processor or blender, puree and add it back to the soup. The more you puree the smoother your soup, so it's up to you. I prefer less blending and more chunks.

Any of the following garnishes are great with this: fat free greek yogurt, sour cream, chives, cilantro, fresh corn, fresh lime juice. You're only limited by your imagination.


French Macarons!

I have been on a personal mission to get these little guys perfect for a long time now. These are not yet perfect, but they are darn close. For this batch I used all farm share eggs, so maybe that has something to do with why they came out so good. The three fillings are cherry mascarpone, lemon curd and chocolate caramel. All were amazing.


Mu Shu Pork with Farm Share Cocktails

My favorite chinese dish is definitely Mu Shu. I love the pancakes and I love hoisin. I also love that I can easily make it myself. In this version I used the entire head of Napa Cabbage, it worked out perfect.

Also, along with dinner Greg and I made ourselves some cocktails. His is a Manhattan with fresh cherry sauce, and mine is a Rum drink with fresh apricot sauce. For the two sauces I, separately, just covered the fruit in water and added about 1/4 cup of sugar and stewed it for about 20 minutes, pureed them until smooth and then put them back on the stove to reduce to about half. These sauces are amazing. They're good on ice cream, as drink mixers, in vinaigrettes, basted on chicken or steak. Any pulpy fruit you have will work.

Week 7 Pick-Up



Veggies:
cucumbers 2.5 lbs
squash 2 lbs
greens 1 lb
eggplant 1 lb
peppers 3 each
Perslane 1/2 lbs
basil 1/3 lb
Watermelon/Melon 1 each
dandelion 1/3 lb
tomatillos .4 lbs
beans 2/3 lb
corn 2 each

Fruit:
Apricots 3 lbs
Plums 3 lbs

And of course, our Bi-Monthly eggs, butter and yogurt.

We definitely underestimated how much we were going to love this yogurt. Next year, we're getting the large container weekly.

Time to get jamming! Look at all this fruit! It's insane!....and delicious. There is definitely something to be said for food picked no more than a day before you eat it.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Week 6 Pick-Up


Veggies:

squash 2.75lbs
cukes 2lbs
peppers 0.8lb
eggplant 0.8lb
basil 0.5lb
1 lettuce
greens 1lb
purslane 0.33lb
beans 0.6lbs
pole beans 0.75lb
parsley 0.15lb

Fruit:

Plums and Cherries

That is A LOT of plums that we got...5lbs! Here is one tip, if you plan on cooking plums and don't want to add extra sugar, do NOT leave the skins on. Not like I did that....not like the plum crumble I made was pretty much inedible because it was so tart...no....that didn't happen. Of course the frozen yogurt that I made to go with the plum crumble that I may or may not have made was great. I made the recipe up from things I've pieced together and personal taste tests of various frozen yogurts around the city. Here's what I came up with:

Sarah's Frozen Yogurt (Ice Cream Maker is required)
1 cup fat free plain greek yogurt (I like Fage)
1/2 cup whipping cream
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup powdered sugar
zest and juice of 1 lemon

Whisk it all together until the sugar has completely dissolved. If the mixture is still cold you can put it directly into the ice cream maker, if not put it in the fridge to chill out. Follow your machine's instructions, then either scoop it out right away for some soft serve, or put it in the freezer to harden up.

No, this doesn't have any farm share ingredients. Sue me.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

I LIKE BEETS!!




Guess what! I like beets! After years of shunning beets and thinking that they are disgusting I've finally seen the light. I wouldn't say that they are my most favorite food ever, but they definitely taste much better than I ever thought they could.

For my first beet dinner I made a salad with spring greens, shaved fennel, orange segments, goat cheese and roasted beets with a citrus and honey vinaigrette (Thanks for the goat cheese recommendation Becky and Linda! So good). To go along with it Greg cooked up some Atlantic Salmon. It was delicious.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Ugly Vegetable of the Week! Yellow Cucumber


This sluggish looking thing is actually a cucumber! I don't know if it is a specific type of cucumber that is always yellow, or if it's a regular cucumber left to ripen to yellow. Either way, it was delicious and I decided to make a Polish cucumber salad that my Grandmother used to always make. It's easy to make and a great way to use up the summer's over abundance of cucumbers, yellow and green.


You need cucumbers, sour cream, vinegar, dill, salt and pepper.


Slice the cucumbers thin. I used a mandolin, you don't have to if you don't have one.

Salt the sliced cucumbers and let them sit for at least 30 minutes. Drain all of the water that is released.


Stir in about 2 tsp of vinegar and about 1/4 cup of sour cream. Adjust this according to how many cucumbers you're using.


Chop about a tablespoon of dill and stir it in. Add salt and pepper to taste, and that's it! The longer it sits, the better it tastes.

Lake House Weekend

This weekend Greg and I spent 4 days at his family's house up at Lake George. I love weekends up there.


It was a mini-vacation filled with relaxation and good food. Here are some of the things I made:


This is a chocolate cake frosted with whipped cream (Cool Whip, whatever! I was on vacation). To add a farm share flair to it I pitted and chopped about a cup and a half of sweet and tart cherries, mixed it with whipped cream (cool whip) and used it as the middle filling. Special thanks to Linda Tang for giving me her amazing chocolate cake recipe. It's top secret though, so I can't share it...sorry :)


Two types of grilled pizza, one with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and garlic scapes (!) and the other with ricotta, dates and prosciutto. Greg's Mom made a salad from fresh greens from her garden, blueberries and a lemon maple dressing, which was delicious!


I spent most of the day Monday reading The Hobbit and in honor of that I had a delicious second breakfast of fruit salad. CSA tart cherries are hanging out with blueberries, watermelon and cantaloupe. Perfect for a scorching hot day.


Pickles are my favorite! These are refrigerator pickles, meaning they are preserved with vinegar and not salt (although i did add a lot of salt) This recipe is 1 c apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup of white vinegar, 1/4 cup salt, 3 tbsp sugar and 1 1/2 c water simmered together until all salt and sugar is dissolved. Cut up the cucumbers and put them in the steralized jar along with 1 tbsp black peppercorns, 1 tbsp of mustard seed, 1 tbsp of dill seed and 1 tbsp of corriander seed. They are good to eat the next day and will last a couple weeks in the refrigerator, if they can make it that long.

Pick Up Week 5

BEETS!! They are finally here! We got 1 lb of beets. I'm thinking of roasting them and then making a salad with roasted peppers, fennel, goat cheese and a light honey dressing over an herb salad. That sounds do-able. I'll post picks of the process when I make it this weekend.

Here's this week's share:

Veggies:
Beets 1 lb
Napa 1 piece
Fennel 1 piece
Greens 1 lb
Pepper 3 pieces
Squash 3 lbs
Cucumber 1 lb
Broccoli .75 lbs

Fruit:
2.1 lbs White Cherries
1.3 Lbs Sour Cherries
2 lbs Apricots




We are overloaded with cherries right now, which isn't a bad thing. I'm definitely going to do some baking with this batch. I'm thinking of preserving the sour cherries, which are my favorite. Also notice that this is the first week we haven't gotten any garlic scapes. I love them, but we were sort of getting over run by them. The biggest news, however, is that we only have 1 lb of greens! We were getting so many they'd shrivel up and die before we could eat them. Last night I cut up the squash from last week, added some tomatoes, all the greens (Chard) and garlic, sauteed it, added pasta and parmesan cheese. It's practically the same thing I made for dinner last wednesday, but it's so good it's becoming a favorite of ours.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Ugly Vegetable of the Week! Turnips

Turnips!!

That's right, these ugly little guys are turnips. It looks like some bugs might have gotten at them, but luckily it's just on the surface.


These turnips are going to get pan roasted with olive oil and a little balsamic vinegar, maybe some fenugreek and S&P. Simple, yet delicious.

Week 4 Pick Up

Good news! The fruit share has started. We're getting our fruit from Red Jacket Orchards, my favorite! Still no beets though....

Here's what we got this week:

Garlic Scapes - 0.25 lbs
Cucumbers - 1.1 lbs
Red Kale - 0.25 lb
Swiss Chard - 0.65 lb
Dandelion - 0.25 lb
Turnip - 0.5 lb (looks a little rough but good taste due to heat)
Fava - 1 lb
Lettuce - 1 large or 2 small
Squash - 2.3 lbs
Sour Cherries (smaller and squishier) - .55 lb
Dark Cherries (sweet) - 2.2 lbs
juice - cranberry apple (notice the bottle is empty because I drank it as soon as i came home. It was good)


More Garlic Scapes! More Fava Beans! Does anyone have any ideas? I'm going to search a spice cookbook I have for some ideas for the fava beans. I really love garlic scapes, but a little goes a long way. If anyone would like some I have a whole drawer full!

For dinner I made what I'm calling Spring Pasta. It was delicious, and luckily I made enough to have leftovers for lunch. I didn't really measure anything so if you want to make this just use as much as you'd like.

Spring Pasta
Boil whole wheat bow tie pasta
Sautee fresh garlic and olive oil in a large pan, then add one of the green squash, cubed
After a couple mins add a can of stewed tomatoes, drained, and all of the Chard, about 2 cups, chopped
Add about 1/3 of a cup of chicken stock, salt & pepper and cook for about 5 minutes until the chard has wilted.
Right at the end throw in a handful of grated parm, some chopped garlic scapes and toss in the pasta.


This weekend Greg and I are heading up to Lake George again for a mini-vacation. I plan on making a chocolate whip cream cake. Good thing we got so many cherries because they'll be great chopped up in the middle layer. I'm going to bring a bunch of garlic scapes for pizza, salads and whatever else I can throw them in to. Also, with all these cucumbers, I definitely see pickles in my future.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Ugly Vegetable of the Week!

I'm adding a new feature to the blog called Ugly Vegetable Of The Week! IMHO the uglier the vegetable the better! So I'll be choosing the ugliest vegetable in each weeks share to be featured with it's own special dish and photo shoot. This week:

Kohlrabi!


It sort of looks like a Mandrake, doesn't it?

I've never had Kohlrabi before and a little research turned up that it is popular in Northern Africa and India. I figured that Thai Curry was close enough I decided to make Thai Green Curry over brown rice with little beauty.

For the sauce:
(hint: follow the directions on the jar, but here it is anyway)
1 tbsp (or more if you like it spicy) of Thai Green Curry Paste
1 can coconut milk
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1/3 cup of chicken stock

Simmer the coconut milk and curry paste for about 5 minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients along with:

(here is where I stopped following the recipe on the jar)
2 chicken breasts cut into chunks
1 small can of bamboo shoots
all the string beans from the CSA, about a 1/2 cup
the 3 yellow pattypan squash from last week's pick-up
the Kohlrabi cut in to about 1/4 - 1/8 inch slices

Cook all this for about 10-15 minutes, until chicken is done and all veggies are tender.

I served this over brown rice (i'm so healthy!) and thoroughly enjoyed.




Does anyone else have any ideas for kohlrabi?

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Week 3 Pick Up

Here is what we picked up this week.

greens - 1.25 lbs
fava beans - 0.75 lbs
garlic scapes - 0.35 lbs
garlic - 2
kohlrabi - 1 large
lettuce - 1 large
cucumbers - 0.5 lbs
squash - 0.5 lbs
beans - 0.5 lbs

We don't seem to have very good luck eating all the greens and lettuce in time before they wilt. Does anyone have any recipes that call for large amount of leafy greens they'd like to share?

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Pick-up Week 2

Still no beets yet!! The suspense is killing me.

This week's haul:




garlic scapes - 0.4 lbs
lettuce - 2 small
broccoli raab - 0.5 lbs
fava beans - 3/4 lbs
greens - 1 lb
mint - 2 oz
cucumbers - 0.65 lbs (10.4 oz)
squash - 0.9 lbs

More garlic scapes!! I'm starting to really like these little guys. Someone on the Harvest Astoria twitter feed mentioned that they are going to put theirs on pizza. I think that's a great idea! Greg and I are going up to Lake George for the 4th of July weekend and we always make pizza on the grill. I'll have to remember to bring a few with me.

Also, mint! I'm definitely making my blueberry and mint lemonade this weekend! Here's my recipe, feel free to adjust it to your tastes.

Blueberry Mint Lemonade

Juice of 12 juicy lemons
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup chopped mint leaves
4 cups water

Muddle the blueberries, mint and sugar in a small/medium pitcher. Add the lemon juice and water and stir. Now comes the most important part: Add the lemonade to a glass with crushed ice and a shot (or two) of bourbon, vodka or champagne.

Taste as you go and experiment with the ratios until you get your perfect summer lemonade. Substitute the brown sugar for honey, agave nectar, splenda...whatever floats your boat. Do you have strawberries or mango? Throw those in too! There are no rules, it's just lemonade.

I may also have some fava beans and a nice Chianti....no, no, ok i wont' do that.

BBQ Chicken

I never thought it would be so hard to eat vegetables.

Ok, the eating is not really the hard part, it is the figuring out what to do with/cooking the vegetables before they start to wilt that is the hard part. Since all of these vegetables are grown on a small organic farm with no help from pesticides or chemicals, they have a normal plant life cycle. There is no finding a perfectly ripe tomato in the back of your fridge that was probably pumped with Carbon Dioxide and coated in wax and beetle poison (is that a thing? I don't know, probably) here. So, we have to eat anything leafy pretty fast, and preserve anything that I don't think we're going to eat right away.

Tip of the day!: soak wilted lettuce and greens in an ice bath for a few minutes and they magically perk up!

A few days ago I wanted to have a massive salad and decided that BBQ Chicken (with my homemade BBQ sauce, yes, it is entirely my own recipe of ingredients I found in my fridge and spice rack) was the thing to have with it. I was right. It was an awesome dinner. I think that meals of giant salads and a meat "side dish" are going to be a trend this summer.




The CSA vegetables in the salad are lettuce, sliced purple and red radishes, garlic scapes, spring onions cured in olive oil and lemon juice and then i added carrots and grape tomatoes from the grocery store. With all the harsh radishy/garlicy/oniony flavors going on i went with a sweet dressing of honey, lemon juice, olive oil, and S&P.

I did end up making the garlic scape pesto, and let me tell you DO NOT put too much of it on your pasta! It isn't as strong as garlic, but it will stay with you all day. I little bit goes a long way, and I think next time I will maybe do 50/50 garlic scape and basil for a more traditional, yet spiced up sauce.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Our First Pickup




Wednesday June 22nd was our first pick up for our CSA share. Here is a list of what was available:

lettuce - 1
greens - 1 lb (mixed Kale and Beet Greens(I think)
radishes - 5 (mixed colors)
garlic - 2
garlic scapes - 8
spring onions - 4
beets - 3
6 oz container of lemon yogurt
1/2 lb of butter
1 dozen eggs

That is what was available, but for some reason, and I swear it isn't because I really hate beets, but I somehow missed them. I don't know how it happened. Maybe I was distracted by the garlic scapes, which I have never seen before. Maybe I was too excited to pick out my delicious flavor of yogurt. Whatever it was, I didn't get them. We did get Beet Greens though, so this blog title is still accurate! I also somehow missed the garlic, which is tragic because I freakin love garlic. Ah well, lesson learned.

So far I have sauteed the greens with a little olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. I think they taste incredible, Greg thinks they taste like greens. On Wednesday we had the lemon yogurt with blueberries for dessert. Yogurt for dessert might sound a little strange, but since this is probably the best yogurt I have ever had in my life it was perfect.




Tonight I plan on making some sort of salad with the head of lettuce and some of the radishes and spring onion and maybe a couple fried eggs on top. I'm going to quick pickle the onions in lemon juice and then I'll probably pickle the rest of the radishes for a snack later.

As for the garlic scapes, I found this recipe by Kim O'Donnel in The Washington Post for Garlic Scape Pesto! I'll of course switch out the walnuts for almonds most likely, but I'm really looking forward to bringing GS pesto pasta salad for lunch tomorrow.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Ingredients:
1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into ¼-inch slices
1/3 cup walnuts
¾ cup olive oil
¼-1/2 cup grated parmigiano
½ teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste

Method:
Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

For ½ pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Our First CSA

Mainly because I thought it would be fun to try new things, Greg and I joined the Harvest Astoria CSA this summer. This Blog is going to be a record of the food we get and the meals that come from it. Our first pick-up is today. Can't wait to see what we get!