thoughtful consumption

• Ezekiel bread
• Carolina Gold rice
• hydroponic lettuce (green and red)
• mixed leaf lettuce
• butternut squash
• Bordeaux spinach
• wildflower honey
• arugula
• strawberries
• eggs
• carrots
• Shiitake mushrooms
• oyster mushrooms
• mini-breads
• chervil, lemon thyme, and salad burnet
• Sea Island red peas
• 2 lbs shrimp!

I also ordered three things from the store

• dried herbal tea mix
• creamed honey
• Blue Farmhouse cheese

Happy bread surprises

So much of our experience of food is vision and taste. I looked at the Ezekiel bread and thought that it was probably pretty nice whole-wheat bread. But when I touched it, I fell in love.  Something about the weight and texture is really compelling. And it tastes good, too!

I also had the little blueberry muffin this morning. What a treat! It had a light, lemony taste that I wasn’t expecting but loved. And it was so soft. It’s kind of spooky to think about what food manufacturers do in order for packaged muffins to (unsuccessfully) mimic this special softness and still have a shelf life.

Salad round-up

The Bordeaux spinach is a really nice spinach with a sweet, pecan-y taste. But we probably won’t get to it till next week because the lettuces need to be eaten first. If you eat it this week as a salad, don’t forget to add sliced strawberries. (Unless you’ve already gone ahead and frozen the strawberries like me!)

Even though the arugula will also keep till next week, I’ll probably serve some with the mixed leaf lettuce. But it’s not necessary to dilute thisarugula; when it’s young and fresh, it’s delicious raw all by itself. (There are also plenty of wilted arugula recipes to try, like Pasta with Tuna Arugula and Hot Pepper.)

I’ve already washed and dried the hydroponic lettuce, and we had some last night for supper. We’ll eat the leaf lettuce soon, too. In fact, once we eat enough hydroponic lettuce to make room in the salad spinner, I’ll throw in the leaf lettuce.

Mushrooms!

We ate the Shiitakes for a late supper last night. I sautéed them in olive oil and then tossed them with minced garlic, parsley from the last delivery, and some of the lemon thyme from this week. I have to confess that I used garlic from a jar for the mushrooms. I only have two big cloves of fresh garlic left and I need them for this weekend.

Also featured were hydroponic lettuce, chervil, salad burnet, a carrot, and a little blue cheese.

How adorable are the oyster mushrooms?

Shiitakes, carrots, and oyster mushrooms

They look like something out of a fairy tale. I’m planning to combine these with a handful of the shrimp. If we have some Tom-Yum soup mix left, we’ll make that; otherwise, it’ll be another sauté with olive oil and lemon thyme, served on top of Carolina Gold rice.

Dinner guests Sunday night

We’re having friends over Sunday night, and I’m going to cook the shrimp slowly in garlic-infused olive oil according to “The Simplest and Best Shrimp Dish” recipe from How to Cook Everything. Basically you slice a clove of garlic (or two!) and cook it sloooowly in a bunch of olive oil. Once it’s golden, you turn up the heat, add the shrimp, salt, and pepper. (The recipe calls for other cumin and paprika, but we’ve just stuck with salt and pepper.)

We’ll serve the shrimp with a mixed salad and fresh beer bread. Probably won’t have a fancy appetizer – just a plate of carrot sticks, blue cheese, and crackers in case anyone’s hungry. You know these are good friends if I’m considering putting out the blue cheese. It’s absolutely dreamy. Part of me would like to play around with making a blue cheese dressing for our salad, but I just can’t risk messing up this cheese.

Peas possibilities?

I’ve got dried red peas piling up in my fridge. Natalie suggested this recipe from the Anson Mills site.  My mom has a recipe she likes, but she’s out of town this week. Anybody else got a pea recipe to share?