I’ve been missing-in-action for a couple of week. Here’s my damage: I lost my camera. (I’ve got a camera on my phone, but it’s a major hassle to get pictures from this phone to my computer.)
Yesterday, I admitted that my camera is not going to turn up and ordered a new one. I should be back on track next week.
In the meantime, I was able to get this picture of this week’s delivery:
- eggplant
- eggs
- apples
- lettuce
- field peas
- popping corn
- dried mushrooms
- Tuscan kale
- peach butter
- sweet potatoes
- pepper cheese
- garlic
- breakfast radishes
I love this type of eggplant! It makes the best baba ghanoush. Usually, I chop the garlic in the food processor and then add the roasted eggplant. At this point, a taste test is normally not recommended. It tastes a too muddy and disappointing before the tahini, olive oil, and lemon juice. With these eggplants, however, just roasted eggplant and garlic is delicious enough.
Apples are a yummy snack this time of year. If you are unable to snack on all your apples raw, you can slice and bake them. It’s super-easy. Just put the slices in a 350-degree oven, add a couple of tablespoons of water and bake uncovered for 20-30 minutes. They’re delicious just like this. However, if you want to go a little further, mix equal parts oatmeal and flour in a bowl. Add some cinnamon and maybe a little brown sugar. Then mix in some cubed butter (about half the quantity of the flour). Put this over the top of the apples before baking, and you’ve got a wonderful breakfast. Add more sugar to make it sweeter, if you must.
Or make apple butter in a crockpot. My mom did this, and it was amazing. She sliced and cored the apples, threw them in the pot, and added water and seasonings (cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, etc.). Her son-in-law’s response was, “Tastes like Christmas!” If you want smooth butter, you can peel the apples, but I thought it was tasty with a little texture. Notice there’s no added sugar – totally not necessary with these apples!
Field peas are the best. I’m guessing these bags we’ve been getting were shelled and frozen last month. So cool because they taste just as good as fresh! We bring them to a boil with enough water to cover the peas and a tsp of bacon fat or olive oil. Then simmer for 20 minutes, give or take an hour. It’s silly how delicious and easy/idiot-proof these peas are.
Popping corn is a nice fall treat. I bought some ghee online, and I want to try coating the popcorn in that instead of butter.
I’m not particularly a fan of the dried oyster mushrooms; they always smell ammonia-y to me. Maybe it’s just the normal oyster mushroom smell, but I have a hard time using them.
Tuscan kale is wonderful. It fills you up and makes you feel proud of yourself for eating something so healthy. Here’s how we do it (from the Cartoon Kitchen):
- Wash, stem, and chop the kale. (If you’re feeling it, save the stems to dice for stir-fry.)
- Sauté ¼ cup pine nuts and ¼ cup raisins in olive oil. Remove when pine nuts have browned.
- Sauté kale in the same pan until good and wilted (a few minutes). It will cook down a lot.
- Add raisins and pine nuts back in and heat through. Serve with finishing salt.
The peach butter will be great on pancakes and English muffins, I’m thinking. It’s nice that the ingredients are just peaches and sugar.
We’ve got two varieties of sweet potato here: round, red ones and long, orange ones. The orange ones are drier, and I’ve never had any luck baking them whole in the oven. So, I’m going to peel these, cube them, toss in olive oil, and roast them instead.
The cheese from Udderly Cool is always a treat to get. This one has a red pepper kick. It’s good for snacking, but I think it would be even better on melty sandwiches or in dip.
The carrots and radishes have been starring in salads along with the lettuce and Asian turnips from a couple of weeks ago. Very crunchy, fresh, and fall-tasting.
And everything’s better with fresh garlic!
Enjoy your food!
thoughtful consumption 
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