thoughtful consumption

This week’s box

• garlic
• sorrel
• corn (minus two ears we ate for lunch)
• Pioneer Porridge
• honey
• green beans
• lettuce mix
• watermelon
• Asian eggplant
• basil
• eggs
• yellow squash
• tomatoes

Entertaining on a small scale

I’ve invited a friend for dinner this weekend, so I’ve been thinking about menus. With all the eggplant, eggplant Parmesan is one obvious choice. The sorrel and basil are interesting, too. I’ll look around a little more and report back.

Other plans

We haven’t tried the porridge yet. I think of it more as a cold weather dish. Mmm…. cold weather. Can’t wait for sweaters, snuggling, and porridge. And French onion soup on a cold night.

The green beans are delicious. I think they’re Romano green beans. I always think they won’t be as good as the skinny french beans, but they’re better. I’ve been blanching them and then quickly sauteeing them in a little olive oil and garlic and a little sliced onion if there’s any handy. We  had some for lunch the other day along with grits, summer sausage, Leiden cheese, and cooked apples.

I’m considering making cream of tomato soup using this recipe. If I cut it in half, I think I’ll have enough tomatoes. Maybe that’ll be the soup course for my Saturday supper.

Leftovers

The chicken with lemongrass foretold in the last post was tasty, but I didn’t make enough sauce. That supper I tried something else new and added cabbage to the stir-fried squash recipe. Big mistake. The cabbage changed the ecosystem of the pan, and the whole thing was mush. Overall, not a terrific evening but we survived. Delicious cantaloupe at the end helped.

The sausage tomato zucchini supper was better. I used a whole pound of sausage, and I think it overwhelmed the sauce. But it was still really good. Here are some pictures.

I also made some fried rice with onion, cabbage, garlic, and ginger. I liked the ginger taste; I’ll do that again. I keep ginger root in a bag in my freezer and chop a hunk off when I need it. It’s probably not as good as fresh, but it keeps much longer.

With another onion and the rest of the cabbage, I made coleslaw. I like the vinegary kind. This recipe you just boil some vinegar and oil together along with dry mustard and celery salt. Then you dump it over sliced cabbage, onion, and a little sugar. Stir it up and let it marinate in the fridge over night. It makes a nice refreshing summer side dish. Goes well with corn and tomatoes.

Our peach muffins turned out great! I pretty much followed the yogurt muffin recipe from How to Cook Everything. They were moist and not too sweet. Perfect for morning and afternoon snacks.