thoughtful consumption

Massive fruitage!

blueberries, peaches, plums, and strawberries

I’m planning on making muffin-sized mini-cobblers with the peaches and plums this week. The strawberries are washed, chopped, and flash frozen. Chris is working his way through these blueberries fresh.

Cute summer veggies!

grape tomatoes, tomato, baby summer squash

If you are a tomato and come into my house, you are going to get cooked. Even if you’re a cute little grape tomato. I chopped these tomatoes and then called Chris to come steal some fresh tomato bites. Then I added the tomatoes to some chopped zucchini and herbs (from the other CSA program I belong to – Le Tre Lune!). Plus the requisite olive oil, red wine, and garlic.

Here’s the start from last night.

And here’s the finish.

Actually, that’s kind of an intermediate stage after spending the night in the fridge. I’ll reheat it today and spread it on some good bread for lunch or supper. It seems to me that the more times you cook, chill, and reheat a tomato dish, the yummier it becomes. So there is no need to worry about making it ahead.

Olive oil aside

Our olive oil comes from Chaffin Family Orchards in California. We ordered two gallons at the start of the year, and we’re about through with one. I think the pace will pick up, too, with tomato season on us. I keep an opened gallon in a cupboard, a smaller bottle on the table for cooking, and the unopened gallon in the fridge. The Chaffin website says the oil will be fine for a year if it’s kept in the fridge. Hooray for knowing when and where your oil was harvested!

The mid-harvest oil that we have is a little harsh out of the bottle, but with even just a little warming, it loses that harshness and is delicious. I ordered a gallon of late harvest oil last week. An email from the farmer said the harvest was small and would probably be sold out soon. Sucker I may be, but I went ahead and bought. The late-harvest oil is milder than the mid-harvest, and I’m looking forward to using it soon.

Chris and I like supporting this farm and its dogs. (You can read about them on the website.) And we like that we’re getting fresh and trusty olive oil. It’s all part of our master plan to be reincarnated as an elderly Italian couple. Chris putters about outside, and I cook simple meals with tasty ingredients. Then we eat them and take naps in the sun. There’s probably a cat somewhere, too.

Salad days

Can’t imagine field lettuce will last much longer, so I plan to enjoy this batch.

We also got a hardier head of Romaine and some carrots.

Considering the radishes still in the crisper and the beets you’ll see below, we have some delicious salads in our future.

Beets and new potatoes

I’ve roasted the beets, and they are chillin’ in the fridge. The new potatoes will get chopped tossed in olive oil and herbs and roasted. I have some carrots from Le Tre Lune as well, so I’ll probably roast those, too. And dill. Hmm… I may look into some recipes to get the most out of new potatoes, carrots, and dill.

Kale, we hardly knew ye

We ate this Red Russian kale up last night in our traditional late-night supper of kale, raisins, and walnuts. (See above master plan.)

Coffee and eggs

From the store…

I ordered a pound of beef, fresh catnip, 2 pounds of honey, and a jar of tomatillo salsa from the online store.

The beef is for shepherd’s pie. (Actually, it is officially cottage pie if you use beef.) In addition to beef, I’m going to add some kohlrabi and maybe some radishes. I’ll have to see what else is haunting the crisper. This recipe is an excellent crisper-cleaner-outer.

I make shepherd’s pie whenever we have potatoes from Kroger. I can never just buy a couple of potatoes there because the five-pound bag is way cheaper. So I use a couple and then am stick with potatoes I’m not super-excited about. Mashed potatoes in cottage pie, though, is something we all get excited about.

Catnip makes a nice calming herbal tea nightcap. A little honey is all it needs. I like honey in my tea and honey on my peanut butter sandwiches. So honey is a staple for me. I’m looking forward to peanut butter and honey sandwiches.

My mom made us peanut butter! She butterized a bunch of peanuts in the food processor. It’s delicious! I keep acting out the old Reese’s peanut butter cup commercials. I’ll break off a piece of a chocolate bar and accidentally get chocolate on my peanut butter. Or wait – is it the other way around?

Don’t have immediate plans for the tomatillo salsa. I just like it and was craving it.

Enjoy your food!