thoughtful consumption

Here’s a report from my second to last CSA deliviery:

STRAWBERRIES!

I am a gush-o-phobe, so I like my berries frozen. Freezing fruit (and then thawing it slightly) turns it into a delicious, non-gushy treat. To keep the berries separate when frozen, I wash, stem, and half them and then freeze them on a cookie sheet for a few hours before transferring them to a bag.

Frozen fruit also works great for pancakes, muffins, and smoothies. Our smoothie recipe is a banana, a handful or two of frozen fruit, and about a cup of plain yogurt. It usually needs a splash of milk or water, too, to make the mixture liquid enough to blend. So yummy!

Salad fixings and greens

radishes and greens

The radish greens were nice-looking enough that I saved them to sauté. But then I didn’t get around to it, so they ended up in the bucket anyway.

green onions and oregano

It’s hard to use this much of a long-cooking herb like oregano fresh. One option is to make flavored oil or vinegar. You can search the web for instructions, but basically you steep bunches of oregano either in olive oil or vinegar for several days.

Green onions, on the other hand, are good on everything.

arugula

Bordeaux spinach

Butterhead lettuce

For Easter dinner, I brought a salad with butterhead lettuce, radishes, and green onions. I found a recipe that promised to mimic the Outback Steakhouse bleu cheese chopped salad, and it worked pretty well.

I used some pecans from a previous delivery. Instead of candying them, I just tossed them in butter and toasted them. This is a great discovery for us. Candied pecans are the most addicting thing on the planet, so it’s nice to find a less sugary alternative. The pecans were still very tasty. The toasting really brings out the pecan flavor.

Other good stuff

broccoli and cabbage

pancake mix, eggs, and coffee

If you’ve got frozen blueberries, make some blueberry pancakes. Or how about something completely different, like green onion pancakes? You could make thin, crepe-y pancakes with this mix and chopped green onions. Then use them as a wrap for some stir-fried veggies and other stuff. For more ideas, search for scallion pancake recipes.

Enjoy your food!