I'm Back!

Ladies and Gentleman, fans of all ages, the wait is over. Your patience is finally being rewarded, An Adventure In Beets is back online!

I know, I know, I kind of left you hanging last year. But in my defense it was a crazy year. In August I quit my steady, insurance providing, paying job, took a mini vacation to Lake George and then started my own freelance film and video sound design business. The following months consisted of hustling for jobs, slight depression from the constant thoughts of "did I make the right decision", "omg, what the hell did I do", "I'm such a failure, wow I really suck", accompanied by insomnia and an unrelated but not too surprising diagnosis of a vitamin B12 deficiency (cause still yet to be determined). Soooooo, I let the blog fall by the wayside. I hope you can forgive me.  

The good news is that I'm not a failure! I've been working very steadily and been incredibly busy, something that both Greg and I are very relieved about. My B12 deficiency is being treated and under control. I started playing volleyball again on a women's team with the best teammates I could have ever hoped for. Last month Greg and I took our first real vacation ever to St. John (breathtaking!), and I spent Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas with my amazing crew of college friends. Needless to say, life is good! And it's about to get even better because the Harvest Astoria CSA starts tomorrow!

This year we've made some changes to our order. We decided not to get fruit. Mainly because we both felt like we couldn't handle the amount we received every week, but also because I really missed going out to the farmer's markets. We figured that we'll try a year without the fruit add-on to see how it goes. If we miss it that much we can always get it again next year. We've also decided to not get the yogurt. As much as we loved it we think ordering a large container at market days will be enough for us. We've definitely decided to stick with eggs and butter though. No way we're giving those up!

Also new this year, I've volunteered as the recipe coordinator for Harvest Astoria! Recipes on that site will be wholly original or extremely modified, whereas this blog will remain a mixture of my own recipes as well as those I've found and tested from other sources. If you're joining us from Harvest Astoria, welcome! As always, please feel free to submit ideas and suggestions in the comments section.

Can't wait for garlic scapes!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.