thoughtful consumption

Here’s what we got this week…

Field peas!

We’ve shelled and cooked these, and they’re waiting in the fridge to be eaten. These were easy to shell, too.

tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, and onions

I’ve already roasted the eggplant for baba ghanoush. The onions I’m adding to my onion stash. I feel happy as a squirrel putting onions away for fall meals of French onion soup and beef stew.

arugula

Arugula’s pretty and smells good. Recently, it’s been too strong for me to enjoy as a salad. (Don’t know what happened to me; I used to just dress it and go to town!) I’ll mix it in with the baby spinach we got (not pictured, whoops!) for salads, and that should cut the strength some.

Another possibiltity  is barely blanching, chopping, and adding it to a cream-cheese butter sauce. Sort of like spinach alfredo. But I might stuff manicotti shells instead. Ooh! And cook down the tomatoes and garlic into marinara and top with that. Sold!

apples and figs

The apples are yummy afternoon snacks, and the figs I’ll probably broil again as compote. I’ve got a busy week, and that just sounds like the easiest thing to do.

eggs and sausage

Link sausage is easy. You brown it on two sides and then add liquid and steam. I cooked our last sausage in a bottle of beer. Not sure what will happen with this one. I suppose if you grill, you could grill these, too.

I think it’s time for some scrambled eggs. It’s been entirely too long. Some night soon, we’ll have a supper of scrambled eggs and arugula-spinach salad.

I made a relatively small online order this week…

garlic and orange mint

The mint is for making the infusion described here. I’ve got nettles around our property, so I’ll find some of those. No red clover, but no worries. Maybe I’ll make one infusion with just nettles and mint and another with nettles, mint, and catnip. That one will be for bed time! Catnip makes this non-cat relaxed and sleepy. (I’ve checked around online, and there are people and recipes that combine nettles and catnip.  So I’m not going to poison myself probably.)

Last night we had a nearly all-local supper…

spinach-sweet onion salad, braised baby potatoes with onions and garlic and cheddar cheese

We describe things that come from our CSA as “farmers” stuff. So when Chris mentioned the potatoes were good, I explained it was no surprise. They were farmers potatoes browned in fat from farmers bacon, then braised in farmers vegetable broth with farmers garlic, onion, and bay leaves, and topped with farmers cheddar cheese. The farmers spinach and onions were dressed in a heated combo of more bacon fat, vinegar from farmers herbs, and farmers honey. (Then I realized that I’d forgotten to top the salad with the farmers pecans I’d chopped up. Oh, well.)

Thanks, farmers!

Enjoy your food!