thoughtful consumption

I had a long meeting in Atlanta and did not make it back in time to pick up my veggies Wednesday evening. I wish them well wherever they wound up.

So instead of photos of my regular haul, here are some notes about things we ate this week.

Kohlrabi greens

Kohlrabi greens are tasty sautéed with raisins and chopped walnuts. This recipe is our greens default, and Chris and I love it. (Pine nuts are expensive! Walnuts are almost as good and very healthy.)

kohlrabi greens and root

What I’ve finally learned is that with greens like kohlrabi, I want to spread them around and cook them to the point where I first get a whiff of, “Oh, no! I’ve burnt the greens!” Then the greens come out dry and tasty rather than green balls of soggy cud.

Kale, Komatsuna, and dandelion greens cook up fast and dry. Beet greens, chard, and kohlrabi are greens that need more time in contact with the heat.

Beets, goat cheese, and sorrel

This is my favorite food in the world.

Because no one else in my house likes sorrel, I hoard all the beets and goat cheese and then have a glorious feast for me!

The beets are prepared ahead of time. I wrap them in tin foil and put them in a pan so they won’t leak in the oven. Then they go in the oven for half an hour to two hours depending on the size of the beets. After being roasted, the beets chill them in the fridge. After a few hours or overnight, they are super easy to peel and chop.

(Roasting beets is not tricky. You could, for instance, start a fire, bury them in the coals, and get excellent results. I usually put the beets in the oven with whatever else I’m cooking at whatever temperature the other stuff needs. After 45 minutes or so, I’ll unwrap a beet and poke it with a fork to check for doneness. When they are soft, they are done. You can also leave them roasting until you smell “Beets!” That works, too. They don’t burn or ruin easily. You’d have to leave them overnight and ignore a kitchen that smells like beets to do so. )

Once you have chilled beets, all that is left is the construction. You take out a sorrel leaf, plop some goat cheese on it, add some diced beets, roll it up burrito or taco style, and take a bite. Or shove it in your mouth cookie-monster style.

The sweetness of the beets, the fresh/cool/creaminess of the goat cheese, and the lemony spike of the sorrel are perfect together.

Sam’s rotisserie chicken

We should all buy and eat locally and humanely raised chickens for a variety of excellent reasons.

But there are times when you just need something quick to go with all your veggies. At Sam’s, six bucks gets you a seasoned roasted chicken that’s really quite good. I used to pick up a box of fried chicken from Mrs. Winner’s for the same purpose, but this rotisserie chicken is better.

We carved some breast meat for the first meal. Then we pulled the meat and made dreamy chicken sandwiches. Finally, we made a stock with the carcass.

Frozen pizza crusts from Kroger

I like making things that start with a base of tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and wine. And Chris likes eating them.

Often it turns into bruschetta. That’s easy. You lightly toast some nice slices of bread, add tomato stuff, and broil.

Recently, I’ve been cooking tomatoes with Riverside Farm grits and making some kind of polenta dish.

(Here I cooked yellow squash with the tomatoes and used white wine instead of red. While that was cooking, I started the grits in CSA veggie stock. When the grits were maybe halfway done, I added them to the tomatoes to finish cooking along with some diced Parmesan rind for richness. The peas and green onions were added at the last minute. It was tasty and satisfying and used up mondo leftovers.)

This week, we made pizzas using some frozen pizza crusts from the natural foods section of Kroger. I cooked a can of tomatoes with local zucchini and the requisite garlic, olive oil, and red wine. Then I browned a pound of Gum Creek sausage and added the tomato stuff to it. I left it simmering together for probably an hour while I toddled off and did other stuff.

Then we topped the pizza crusts and added some sliced onions and Parmesan cheese and baked them according to the directions – 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

I don’t have any pictures, but the results were delicious.

These crusts were gluten-free, which I didn’t like. They are made from rice flour and tapioca crust. I found the crusts too melty and not dense and chewy enough (that would be the gluten, I guess). These crusts had a texture more like fresh donuts than fresh bread.

I got them because I wanted frozen crusts. The idea of the preservatives required to store pizza crust dough at room temperature spooked me, and the only frozen kind at Kroger were gluten-free. Maybe Publix, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s will yield a gluten-full variety.

Enjoy your food! I’ll be back in a few days to report on next week’s delivery.