thoughtful consumption

• cheeses!
• hydroponic lettuce
• apples
• butternut squash
• spinach
• eggs
• butter beans
• okra
• Shiitakes
• basil

Check out the cheeses!

That’s queso blanco, fromage blanc, and some early cheddar that some mouse got into. (Just kidding, it was me.) The cheddar has a very delicate cheddar taste if you can imagine. It’s nice and soft, too.

The queso blanco reminded me of the tomatillo sauce I bought from Farmers’ Fresh a few weeks ago. I’m going to defrost some turkey thighs and make turkey enchiladas this week.

Fromage blanc tastes like a cross between goat cheese and crème fraiche.

(Yep, it’s as wonderful as it sounds.) I might broil some eggplant slices and top them with this. Then again, according to this site,  fromage blanc comes in fat and non-fat varieties, and the fat varieties can be used like crème fraiche in sauces. This cheese does not taste non-fat to me, so I may make another creamy mushroom pasta with the Shiitakes. The final option is eat it all with a spoon while daydreaming about other recipes.

Other plans

If the Shiitakes and the fromage blanc go together, I might add some of the spinach, too. We probably won’t each this spinach as salad because we have enough salad. More likely it will be sautéed somehow.

The okra are so little and cute. But looks can be deceiving; they’re spiky little devils. I’ll either fry them or roast them as chips as Lucy did here.

The basil we ate up as pesto with linguine Wednesday night along with a salad made of the new lettuce and some of last week’s mix and radishes.

The apples are delicious snacking apples. One down, four to go! The butternut squash may stick around for a while. Butternut squash are awesome. Totally low-maintenance produce. If you listen carefully, you might hear one say, “Just cook me when you get around to it. I’ll be good over here in this cool, dry corner till then.” Hey, thanks, butternut squash.

Lima bean fun

There are two types of lima beans: baby limas are the little green ones and Fordhooks are the larger, whiter ones. Southerners know them as butter beans. I was curious to see which these beans were.

Chris loves baby limas, so this discovery made him sad.

I’m not a big lima fan either way, so my initial reaction was less intense.

On the other hand, I’ve learned to be optimistic about local produce.

So I bet these will be really yummy!