thoughtful consumption

This week’s stuff

• baby squash, baby eggplant, and squash blossoms
• mixed “braising” greens
• apples
• arugula
• (very large) green cabbage
• eggs
• coffee
• Asian eggplant
• garlic
• herbs

VLGC and other planetary objects

OMG! Check out my VLGC! Lucy got one as well and christened it Audrey II. I’m sticking with more scientific naming principles. A few weeks ago I got a VLNC (Very Large Napa Cabbage). I’m hoping the story of the VLGC will go better than the saga of the VLNC.

What? I forgot to share the saga of the Very Large Napa Cabbage? Prepare for a tale of fried rice, multiple cooked cabbage recipes, and, finally, cole slaw. But not until next time; I want to get this posted right away.

This week’s plans

Aren’t the baby squash adorable? Here’s a close-up.

I cut up these babies up and roasted them  according to this recipe for lunch today. They’d also make yummy stir-fry.

If any of your yellow squash has a little hole on the outside, check for a grub on the inside. I found two grubs while cutting up the little yellow squash. I threw them in the fish pond where they were snatched up  immediately. Joys of organic produce, babe. (That’s my Detective Neil Washington impression, by the way. The first three seasons of Hill Street Blues are on Hulu.com, and we’ve been devouring them along with our local produce.)

Last night, we made a salad with the beautiful wild greens and arugula.

field peas, beer bread with radish-green artichoke dip, and spicy salad

Warning: These greens make NC-17 salads – too spicy for younger eaters. Especially the wasabi mustard greens. (I’m not sure if that’s what they are called, but that’s what they taste like.)

Powerful though they were,  we enjoyed our salads and plan to make more. Adding toasted nuts and an overly-sweet vinaigrette tames the raw power somewhat. My kingdom for some goat cheese! Goat cheese would make these salads perfect.

I’m missing a winter squash according to the list taped to my box. No big deal because I’ve got a butternut squash from a couple of weeks ago and a sugar pumpkin from Trader Joe’s. (Couldn’t resist trying one.)

Squash and Pumpkin hang out on a table

I’ll drop Patricia a line, and I bet she’ll hook me up next week.

So this week, I’m dreaming of broiled butternut squash slices, spicy greens, toasted walnuts, and goat cheese. (Oh, drat –  no goat cheese! I’m going to have to find some somewhere.)

Here’s a close up of the herbs.

anise hyssop, catnip, spearmint, lemongrass, and Pennsylvania Dutch tea thyme

The lemon grass is great. I may use the stalks for cooking, and the grassy parts dry really well in the fridge. I made a pot of tea with a couple of dried fronds from my last batch of lemongrass, and it was plenty fine. So I’ll save these fronds for later.

Last night I made spearmint tea because spearmint doesn’t seem to last as long as the other herbs. I added a little catnip and hyssop, too. I’m going to try spearmint and tea thyme tonight.

Eggplant-okra trade

I traded my Asian eggplant for Lucy’s okra.

I want to try frying okra sliced longitudinally like fried eggplant. You can make Okra Parmesan, too. Here’s one recipe.  Lucy made some a while back. Said it looked awful but tasted pretty good.

When it comes to making Eggplant Parmesan, I usually wuss out and just serve the fried eggplant with a side of marinara sauce. I’m guessing the same thing will happen with the okra. Maybe something other than marinara, though. Have to wait and see.

Two (not really CSA-related) discoveries

Yesterday morning, I really wanted some peppermint tea to calm my stomach but was out of fresh mint. So I steeped two Altoids in two cups of hot water. Not better than real mint but works great for emergencies.

Last night, I finally made a bread recipe from MotherEarth News.  It’s called Dutch Oven Beer Bread, or Bread Even Susan Can Make. The recipe is as user-stupid as they come.

• 3 cups of self-rising flour (or 3 cups all purpose + 1 ½ tbsp baking power and 1 ½ tsp salt)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 bottle of beer

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a Dutch oven (if it’s not well-seasoned)
2. Mix the dry ingredients together.
3. Pour in the beer. Don’t over mix. White streaks are okay.
4. Dump the dough in the Dutch oven and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

after baking

No kneading, no rising, no nothing. And the results were awesome. That’s what Chris kept saying over supper: “This is awesome.” The bread is a little crunchy on the outside and wonderfully chewy on the inside. The beer and sugar add just enough flavor. I used an amber ale  although it’ll be fun to experiment with different beers. I could easily see us making this bread once a week this winter. Great for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. An epic win, as the kids say.