thoughtful consumption

• goat cheese sampler!
• popping corn?
• crunchy sprouts
• par-cel
• eggs
• apples
• cranberry beans
• Komatsuna greens
• Asian braising (or spicy salad) mix

I also placed a store order to get us through the Thanksgiving break.

• eggs
• sorrel
• beef

How do I know it’s beef?

Goat cheese!

This goat cheese sampler includes 7-pepper, roasted garlic, Italian herb, and onion chives goat cheese. It all smells incredible! I’ll have to figure out a way to work these guys into supper tonight – even if it’s just cheese spread on Triscuits.

Update: I’m kind of surprise, but my favorite is the 7-pepper cheese. The coating is pretty darn hot, but it goes so nicely with the cool goat cheese. Yum.

This week’s greens

Can you tell from the picture how pretty the Komatsuna greens are? They’re very green and smooth. And pretty good, too. Komatsuna are the some of the easiest greens to eat cooked. I plan on cooking the leaves with raisins and pine nuts and dicing up the stems to go in shepherd’s pie. Chris will just have to deal.

The Asian mix makes a spicy salad that Chris and I like a lot. We dress it in a fruity vinaigrette, which helps tame the spiciness. The crunchy sprouts are great on salads, too. Or you can just snack on them. They’re really tasty. We’ll also add sliced Asian turnips from last week to our salads. Yep, these turnips are mild enough to use like radishes. (Hmm. I wonder if one could make baked Asian turnip chips. I might have to try that.)

Cool beans!

I laughed out loud when I started shelling these beans. Look what came out!

Aren’t they the coolest? They look like candy. And they were really easy to shell. They’re cranberry (or Borlotti or French horticultural) beans. You cook them just like regular beans, and they have a nutty flavor. Sadly, they lose their color when cooked.

We’ll probably have these tonight with a spicy salad. If I get fancy, I may cook them and then toss them with some garlic, olive oil, and pasta and top it all with some par-cel.

Popping corn… on the cob?

I’m guessing the corn was left on the cob in case people wanted to use it for decoration. Or maybe removing the kernels just falls on my half of “farm-to-table.”

But is it really popping corn? And how do I get the kernels off safely to pop them? I have visions of me using a knife and the kernels  flying EVERYWHERE. I’ll have to do some more research on before trying anything drastic.

Update: The popcorn kernels are pretty easy to pop off with your fingers. A little tedious but easy. Chris did ours.

Sorrel snack

Let’s face it: I’m never going to make sorrel sauce. Sorrel’s just too yummy fresh. I’ll add it to our salads and eat for an afternoon snack: goat cheese and crunchy sprouts wrapped in sorrel leaves. Ahhh.

Off to cook some really cool beans. Bon appétit, everyone!