thoughtful consumption

Here are a bunch of leftovers from the past couple of weeks.

Cheese toast!

The Leiden cheese makes good cheese toast or good cheese and crackers for an afternoon snack. The best part about the cheese toast is the cheese is the same shape as a piece of bread.

Cheese toast also makes a good cook snack. That’s the little snack I have to have before I start prepping or cooking a whole bunch of food. Working with food when I’m even a little hungry makes me miserable. If you don’t have any cheese, half a peanut butter and honey sandwich works, too.

Mystery mint revealed

Turns out my mystery mint was chocolate mint! Here’s a list of uses. I went with dip in melted chocolate and cool for a terrific after dinner mint. I melted chocolate chips in a double boiler instead of the microwave. That way it stayed melted long enough for someone like me to dip leaves in it. (I’m not good with detail work.) It was a mess but totally worth it in the end. Especially because cleaning up includes licking your fingers.

Fennel is funny

The fennel has such a strong anise smell. I was really surprised. I ended up chopping up and freezing the stalks and fronds for stock.

I cooked the fennel bulb in chicken stock. It got mixed reviews. My husband couldn’t eat it, but he doesn’t like any licorice taste thanks to an unfortunate and gluttonous childhood experience. I liked it fine although it was better with some rice to soak up the stock. (That’s what I did with the leftovers.) Also on the plate is breaded and baked turkey legs and a delicious salad with beets, goat cheese, pecans, and strawberry vinaigrette.

I had planned to serve crisp sautéed leeks, too, but they didn’t turn out so well.

Lunch for one

One day when I was home alone, I had the rest of the fennel over rice, some summer sausage, and steamed pea pods from our garden with goat cheese and dill.

I was proud of myself because usually lunch for one consists of a bowl of cereal.

Beets

My beautiful beets have served us well: roots, stems, and leaves.

We baked and sliced the beets for salad. We added the littlest leaves to salad. And half of the stems and leaves went into a lo mein dish. The beet parts made the onions an electric red. I bet you could use beets stems to make a sweet and sour sauce without all the red dye. I used the rest of the leaves in fried rice later and added the rest of the stems to the frozen fennel for stock. Leaves and stems was a little too much beet for me.

I also got to eat one of my favorites – chilled sliced beets and peapods with goat cheese and dill.

Celery

I put some of the celery parts in the lo mein, too. The sticks I cut up and stuck in some water to cure floppy celery syndrome. A couple hours later, they were crisp and delicious. While rooting through the fridge, I found a little bit of sour cream. I mixed it up with some chopped chives, dill, and a ridiculous amount of garlic salt to make dip for the celery. I chopped up more of the celery leaves and mixed them up with lettuce, beets, and goat cheese for another salad. Man, I’m going to miss these salads in a few weeks.

See how Kitchen Kungfu made use of her CSA celery and major use of 5lb chicken.

Garlic Basil stirfry

The garlic scapes found a home in a pork stir fry. The recipe called for minced garlic added first to the oil. Instead I chopped and added scapes with the rest of the food. The taste was garlicky but mild.

Stevia syrup

I made the stevia syrup as threatened, but it’s too weak.

I used just under a cup of very warm water and about 20 crushed stevia leaves of varying size and left it sitting for 24 hours. Next time, I’m using half a cup of water and following a different recipe that uses boiling water and only a few hours steeping.