thoughtful consumption

Just got back from Arizona visiting family. A few days in Arizona makes me appreciate the climate here. I don’t like dry, and neither do my sinuses.

Thankfully, my neighbor Lucy grabbed my CSA box Wednesday – including the largest head of Napa cabbage we’ve ever seen.

• herbs
• green beans
• muscadines
• Napa cabbage
• apples
• clover honey
• Asian eggplant
• sweet potatoes
• eggs
• nut mix

Herbs

I was happy to get a bag of mixed herbs this week. (Not that I’m complaining about the basil I’ve been lucky enough to score recently.) But it’s fun to learn about the different herbs and figure out how to use them them.

I made a pot of herbal tea last night with 1 catnip leaf, 2 bee balm leaves, some hyssop leaves and flowers, and 2 orange mint leaves. I crushed them a little before putting them in my strainer.

The result was a really nice relaxing evening tea. I added a drop of the clover honey, too. I’ll happily make at least two more pots with these herbs.

In the CSA store, Fran suggests adding orange mint leaves to warm honey for a twist. I think I’m going to try that with the clover honey. I think the orange mint flavor will show up better with the lighter flavor. Then I’ll use it in my morning (non-herbal) tea.

Green beans

These are beeyootiful green beans. I’m going to blanch and sauté some tomorrow for lunch along with leftover field peas and scrambled eggs. I don’t think I’ll go the green bean casserole route with these beauties.

We had our first with lunch today: scrambled eggs, field peas, green beans, and bread with honey butter.

I blanched the green beans first for 3 minutes. (Next time I’ll go longer, though.) Next I heated half tablespoon of butter with a chopped-up sage leaf, garlic clove, and some lemon zest. Then I sautéed the beans in the butter for a few more minutes.

Eggplant

I’m going to try baba ghanoush with Asian eggplant again. This time I’ll peel the eggplants and wrap them in tin foil and bake them whole. I think it will be easier to get more “meat” off them that way.

Napa cabbage

Do you believe the size of that cabbage?! I’ll need lots of ideas for cabbage over the next week. Right now I’m thinking coleslaw, sautéed cabbage with different seasonings, and chopped up cabbage for fried rice.

Muscadines?

Not sure what to do with muscadines yet. My husband says he’ll eat them all, but he doesn’t sound to happy about it. I know there aren’t enough to make wine…