thoughtful consumption

Here’s what we got this week!

• carrots
• baby collards
• sweet potatoes
• arugula
• mixed lettuce
• Bordeaux spinach
• banana-nut muffins
• eggs
• cherry tomatoes
• red leaf lettuce (pictured below)

With the weather heating up, we might not have this wonderful lettuce much longer. So I’m grateful for every bit we got this week. The red leaf lettuce was enough for two plus scrambled eggs and carrots for supper. These eggs make plain-old-boring scrambled eggs a delicious treat.

Woo-hoo! Scrambled eggs for supper!

A cautionary tale about washing lettuce

I was in a hurry and didn’t do a good job washing the red leaf lettuce. When I sat down to eat, I noticed an inchworm in my salad. While I agreed with my husband that it wouldn’t have killed me to eat an inchworm, it certainly would have killed the inchworm, and inchworms are too cute to eat or smush, in my opinion. This particular inchworm was relocated to the holly tree just outside our kitchen.

Mixed lettuce

Friday I made a salad with the mixed lettuce. It’s a wonderful mix – like instant gourmet food. Next week, I’m going to add some of the arugula to it, too. This lettuce will make great “tuna salads.” Here’s what we do for a fast meal: Mix together some lettuce, quartered cherry tomatoes, shaved parmesan, pepper, and some nice vinegar. Then mix in a can of tuna in olive oil. The oil from the tuna combines with the vinegar to make the dressing. Chill the plates for a few minutes and serve with bread and carrots.

Spinach and Arugula

I think I’m going to take Janet up on her pizza idea – or make spinach-artichoke dip. I’ve got too much spinach, I think, to get through raw, which is my favorite way to eat it. Instead of red pizza, though, I may try a white one with spinach and arugula and lots of olive oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan. I got some really good Port Salut cheese at Sam’s, but I’m not sure how it would do on pizza, and I don’t want to risk wasting it.

Arugula has lots of uses and is always great with parmesan cheese. I’m also imagining a pasta dish with wilted arugula, cherry tomatoes, and some shrimp or hot sausage. I’ll chop the tomatoes in half and cook them with some olive oil, garlic, wine and crushed red pepper. Then I’ll add the shrimp and let it cook on low until the shrimp’s done. Finally, I’ll add some chopped arugula so it can wilt just a little before serving it over pasta with lots of parmesan cheese. If I use sausage, I’ll brown it and remove it leaving a little of the fat. Then I’ll cook the garlic, tomatoes, and olive oil for a bit along with the fat. Then I’ll add the sausage back before adding the arugula.

Amateur spotlight

This is the best year yet for our garden. We’ve got peas, lettuce, onions, potatoes, and carrot tops.

The carrot tops that my husband planted look very healthy and are growing like mad. I guess at some point we’ll have to pull a carrot top up and see if it’s making more carrot bottom. If that’s the case, we might have to make a whole new garden just for recycling carrot tops!