So this is my last bag of produce for at least a whole month. I’m trying to be brave about it. I bought some extra stuff from the online store to keep us going.
- lettuce
- butternut squash
- apples
- walnuts
- duck eggs
- catnip sock
The butternut squash is a linebacker of a squash, so we’ll get a bunch of dishes out of that. I’m going to cook the neck and base separately again.
I can make an argument for the lettuce, squash, and apples as staples for the coming weeks, but the walnuts, duck eggs, and catnip sock are just splurges. Merry Christmas to me!
Duck eggs are said to taste richer than chicken eggs. I guess duck embryos need more fat to develop right. But I’m not sure what’s best to do with richer eggs – how to get the most bang for my duck. Richer scrambled eggs? Richer pound cake? I’ll have to dig around and see what people say.
I’m going to make whole wheat biscotti with the walnuts. This is really good stuff for breakfast and snacking. I’ll post a recipe later. It’s not digital, so I’ll have to type it in.
Standard bag goodness
- pecans
- 3 potatoes
- 3 heads of hydroponic lettuce
- Komatsuna greens
- 4 apples (well, 3 actually, but you know how that goes. Mmm… apples.)
- honey – great for tea and baking
- Brussels sprouts
I’m definitely planning on making sugared pecans now. I’ll add these pecans to the ones I bought last week, and it’ll make a good batch. But my stepson also makes a mean pecan pie. Either way, we’ll be happy with these pecans.
One of our favorite dishes is corn chowder which calls for three potatoes. I was going to use these potatoes but decided they’re too good to throw into a soup pot. So we’ll bake and load them up like usual. They make the yummiest, creamiest baked potatoes ever.
I’m thinking we’ll spread the joy with the Komatsuna greens – either to my parents or my neighbor. We can deal with greens now, but the utility is so much higher when we give them to people who really get excited about the prospect of fresh greens.
I’m excited about the Brussels sprouts. I’ve never liked them before, but I can’t wait to try these. There are lots of vegetables that I used to think I didn’t like. Turns out I just didn’t like them overly processed or something. I haven’t looked around for recipes yet, but I’ll do that soon to try these little guys at their freshest.
Premium extras
- carrots and radishes
- spicy gourmet lettuce mix
- chicken eggs
- Ezekiel muffins (originally, 6; in the above picture, 3; ten minutes later, 0)
We’ll make lovely salads with the carrots and radishes and the lettuce mix. We’re taking salad to a friend’s house for dinner tonight, so I was happy to see all the lettuce and salad fixin’s. I’m going to mix the hydroponic lettuce with the gourmet mix because some people like their salads less intense. Still, it’s going to be one heck of a salad.
And the Ezekiel muffins! These are so good! Here are the ingredients: hard red wheat, spelt, raw honey, buttermilk, eggs, canola oil, salt, baking soda, baking powder, millet, great northern beans, red kidney beans, pinto beans, lentils, rye, and barley.
With those ingredients, you could live on Ezekiel muffins. My husband and I volunteer to try!
thoughtful consumption 
hope you don’t mind me asking, but any ideas for the komatsuna besides stir-fry? as for the duck eggs, perhaps you could really pull out all the stops and use them for a quiche or fritata. as long as you’re using cream and cheese, you might as well go all the way and use rich eggs too 🙂
My neighbor has mentioned winter greens au gratin as one of her favorite recipe. I’ll try to get that recipe from her. If the Komatsuna stays in my house, it will probably become Komatsuna-artichoke dip. And thanks for the duck eggs ideas! I’ll look for something rich like you suggest and use the duck eggs to push it over the top.
I think my neighbor’s gone out of town, so I looked up “winter greens au gratin” and found this recipe:
From http://groups.google.fm/group/alt.cooking-chat/browse_thread/thread/b3046b0e8ed7b711
Liberally butter up a 2-2.5 quart baking dish.
Beat together 3 eggs + 10 oz ricotta + 2 oz grated parmesan + 1/2 tsp salt +
1/4 tsp black pepper
In a large pan, melt 1 tbsp butter (I used butter + olive oil) and add 2
finely minced cloves of garlic then 12 oz of sliced mushrooms and a pinch of
salt. When the mushrooms are browned add 1 lb of dark winter greens
(mustard, collard, whatever’s available) and continue cooking until they’re
wilted.
Let greens cool a bit then combine them into the egg and cheese mixture.
Using tongs etc move the mixture in small batches into the baking dish. (We
do it this way to avoid transferring any residual liquid into the gratin.)
Don’t pack.
Now at this point Brown sprinkled over 1 cup of crushed Ritz crackers. I
used half a cup of crushed almonds.
He baked the gratin in a 375 F oven for “35-40 minutes”. Because almonds can
burn, I baked the dish in 190 C oven watching it like a hawk just until I
could smell the almonds. (Unfortunately I don’t remember the time but it
wasn’t anywhere near 35-40 minutes.)
Remove from oven and let rest a while.
[…] Then there’s more flexibility in what you can add on, too. I’m considering adding muffins in the hopes of getting more Ezekiel muffins. […]
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