thoughtful consumption

This week I ordered some snacks separately for a business meeting. Especially because half of the people are from out of town, it will be nice to offer some local goodies.

2 kinds of mini muffins, peanut butter bars, and rosemary-nut mix

I also ordered 5 pounds of apples. Wondering how many apples is 5 pounds of apples? Here you go.

Here’s what came as part of my standing order: (more…)

Read Full Post »

Here’s what we’ve been enjoying this week from our CSA box:

blueberries, apples, peaches, nectarines, and Asian pears

basil, peach relish, onions, and garlic

field peas!, tomatoes, and fingerling potatoes

yellow beans and yellow squash

And here’s my online order

eggs, basil, Asiago cheese, and lemon verbena

Wednesday night was an all-local feast. Here’s the set-up…

basil, field peas, vinegar made from Fran’s herbs, butter, bacon fat , cornmeal, sweet onion,squash, garlic, and tomato

I cooked the field peas with a spoonful of bacon fat and a clove of garlic and topped them with the fresh basil and a splash of vinegar.

(This is vinegar I started a few months ago with an herb bundle from Fran. It’s tasty! I can’t wait till fall when the field lettuces return! In the meantime, I’ll try to remember to dress my veggies with it. The peach relish would be yummy on field peas and other veggies, too. It’s sweet from the peaches but it’s also got garlic, peppers, and ginger for some zing.)

I sliced the squash on a mandolin, tossed it with some cornmeal, chopped garlic and onion, and salt and pepper, and then sautéed the mix in butter. The tomato I just sliced and served. Chris inhaled it immediately. We enjoyed this supper so much. Fresh field peas are amazing delicious.

The rest of the basil has now become pesto. Not quite a cup’s worth. I froze half of it. If I don’t get to the other half tomorrow, I’ll probably freeze that, too, to be safe. Fresh basil doesn’t last long, but frozen pesto is terrific. I ate my last of last summer’s stash about a month ago to make room for more. It was still really good. I ate some of it with a spoon and the rest we broiled on some slices of good bread.

The tomatoes were gorgeously ripe. I didn’t get to two of them until yesterday, and they had a couple of black spots at the end. I thought, Hmm… these sure didn’t last as long as the tomatoes a month ago did. Well, duh, Susan. It’s August, and these are achingly ripe tomatoes not intended to sit on a kitchen table for long. Anyway, no worries. I cut off the small black spots and chopped up two of the most gorgeous, meaty, red tomatoes you’ve ever seen. They made incredible rustic marinara sauce (tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and red wine cooked over low for a couple of hours). So don’t let your August tomatoes sit, and don’t be scared off by some spots if you do. There’s gold in them there ‘maters.

The yellow beans were surprisingly good. A year or so ago, I had a bag of these I didn’t like so much. Maybe these are better, maybe I’m still growing up. We cooked them Southern-style with some of the aforementioned bacon fat. We roasted the potatoes after tossing them in some salt and olive oil. Very tasty little potatoes.

Asian pears are fun. They stay crisp after cooking so you can sauté them. Another idea is shredding them for slaw. Taste-wise, I think they taste more like tart apples than pears. I think I’m going to try to make a fancy-ish dessert : sautéed Asian pear slices with brandy sauce and goat cheese. We’ll see.

Enjoy your food!

Read Full Post »

First up… watermelon spritzers!

Wednesday afternoon was hot and I needed to use up some watermelon chunks from a couple of weeks ago to make space in the fridge. So I used that watermelon, some seltzer, and the stevia from this week’s herbs…

to make two of these…

Kinda fun and different. Here’s what else came in this week’s box… (more…)

Read Full Post »