thoughtful consumption

Without meaning to, I guess I took a month off from blogging. It was nice, but it’s good to be back!

Now let’s catch up…

Here’s what I got for the last order of the CSA season.

• Sweet potatoes
• Cauliflower
• Kabocha squash
• Cabbage
• Lettuce
• Arugula
• Spinach
• Parsley, par-cel, and chervil
• Rice
• Red peas
• Eggs
• Popping corn
• Spiced nuts

Chris and I have never been big fans of cauliflower, but we enjoyed these. (The broccoli we had the couple of weeks before was really good, too.) I just steamed the florets and added a little butter, salt, and pepper. The stems and leaves I chopped up and used for fried rice and shepherd’s pie.

The kabocha squash was incredible! Chris said it was the best squash he’s ever eaten, and I guess I agree. It tastes like a combination of butternut and pumpkin. I roasted it in the oven for a couple of hours. (Kind of forgot about it, actually.) Then it collapsed, and I scooped out the flesh and added some butter and just a little bit of maple syrup. The seeds are heftier than other squash seeds, too. So if you like roasted squash seeds, these give you more per bite.

Monster store order

I also 1) made a monster order from the store that week and 2) took an inventory of what’s in my freezer. Kind of wish I’d reversed those.

But it’s not that bad. The plan was to stock up before the break. I may have stocked up a little much, but most of what I bought from the store was meat, which I didn’t have any of in the freezer except for a half pound of pork loin. So this meat goes in the freezer and can stay there for a while if necessary.

Here’s my order:

• Bay leaves
• Rice grits
• Goat cheese
• Honey flax bread
• Mixed Asian greens
• Dozen eggs
• Beef bones for stock
• Ground beef
• Sausage
• Ground lamb
• Beef chuck

I divided the chuck roast into half pound portions and put them in the freezer. We’ve already used one to make vegetable beef soup. Yesterday, I made beef stock with the bones, some frozen celery scraps, an onion, some parsley and par-cel stems, and some garlic. (I’ll put those pics in another post with more detail.) This is a first for me, so I hope it turns out well. In a few days, I’m going to try make some beef stew with the stock. We’ll see how much of an improvement it is over bouillion.

Christmas presents

My mom and dad got me a massive amount of goat cheese for Christmas.  I also got some ingredients to make my own goat cheese. (Can I say that here? I’m not sure – especially since I drank it all before I made any goat cheese! Merry Christmas to me!)

And I got a faster computer from James, which is going to make blogging more fun.

Lingering winter produce

Last night we roasted a butternut squash. (Again, I forgot it in the oven, and I’m beginning to think that’s a valid recipe for winter squash.) It was delicious – and from 10/21. That’s nearly three months! And the squash showed no signs of age before I cooked it (and definitely none after).

I also have a bunch of sweet potatoes left from a bag I bought at the Carrollton Holiday Bazaar. They’re still in good shape, too. We’ll bake these as we need them for meals. If they start showing signs of age, I’ll just cook them all up and freeze them for sweet potato pie.  (Maybe I’ll do that anyway…)

Supper pics

Finally, here are two yummy winter suppers we had recently.

ground lamb and roasted beets with goat cheese and chervil and steamed broccoli

sausage, arugula with goat cheese, French bread, and roasted butternut squash

That’s all for now, but stay tuned. Pre-season starts January 26/27. Subscriptions are still available at www.farmersfreshcsa.com.