thoughtful consumption

Sorry about the delayed post this week. Especially because there’s so much cool stuff to talk about.

ambrosia melon, watermelon, sprite melon, and lychees

Lychees

Lychees are cool! The peel is papery and very different from the soft insides.

We couldn’t agree on what lychees taste like. Chris thought they were very sweet. James said they reminded him of sugary grapefruit. I thought they tasted a little like honey and rose, but then I’d been primed from reading a bunch of descriptions.

Here’s a site with tons of lychee recipes. I’m torn between making a syrup and mixing it with seltzer for afternoon sodas. Or baking them with brown sugar, butter and cinnamon as suggested here. The good news is lychees will keep well in the crisper for a couple of weeks, so I don’t have to decide today.

Melons

The ambrosia melon is a muskmelon and kind of like cantaloupe. You can tell it’s an ambrosia melon from the netted skin. I’m pretty sure the smaller melon is a sprite melon. It sounds like my kind of melon – sweet and crisp. Here’s more about sprite melons at Wikipedia.

Yesterday we made our watermelon into Watermelon Salad with Mint Leaves. It’s a great recipe, and this is the second week in a row we’ve made it. Basically it’s watermelon, sliced Vidalias, feta cheese, and mint tossed in a vinaigrette.

It really works and makes a perfect summertime side dish.

blueberries, mint, and lettuce

The lettuce and blueberries are delicious as usual. The mint was great to have for the watermelon salad. Plus, last night, when I pulled the mint bouquet out to make a pot of tea, I found a few stems twisty-tied together. Turns out they were Fran’s patented stevia and chocolate mint combination. They made a wonderful pot of tea.

Asian eggplant, sweet corn, and potatoes

Asian eggplant is nice because you don’t have to peel or purge it like globe eggplant. If you need some eggplant ideas, check out these winners from the Salon.com Kitchen Challenge (especially Lucy’s “Eggplant two ways…” )

And here are some ideas for eggplant from last year.

sausage and eggs

This sausage from Nancy and Jacque at Red Hott Tomatoes is delicious! It’s got great flavor and texture. It’s almost a delicate sausage, if that makes any sense.

I also ordered a few things from the online store…

cheddar cheese, shrimp, onions, and garlic

I’m lucky in the sense that foods don’t usually call my name from inside the refrigerator – except for Flat Creek Lodge cheese. The cheddar is incredibly complex with hints of bleu at the end. I love it! I could sit down on the kitchen floor and very happily eat the entire package.

For lunch yesterday, we had sausage and grits with watermelon salad and peas.

The grits were from Riverview Farms and leftover from a CSA delivery earlier this year. The peas were from the frozen vegetable aisle at Kroger.

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One of the fun things about sticking with a CSA is that every year is different. My first year was the Year of the Eggplant. This year has been all about the fruit.

Here’s what I got this week.

peaches, blueberries, and plums

watermelon and cantaloupe

rattlesnake green beans and heirloom tomatoes

butterhead lettuce, dilly beans, and eggs

And here are the items I ordered from the online store.

duck eggs, onion, and garlic

feta cheese and whole wheat sourdough bread

bulk sausage

New directions for some things

When we’re getting this much fruit, it can’t all become baked goods. So this week I’m trying to find recipes that use fruit in other ways. For instance, I’m planning stir-fried shrimp and Chinese cabbage with plum sauce. I don’t have all the recipes pulled together yet, but here’s one plum sauce recipe that looks interesting. The Chinese cabbage is from a few weeks ago, but it’s still holding up. I’m determined to finish it this week.

This recipe for raspberry spoonbread from delish.com sounded yummy. I’m thinking about trying a half recipe with the blueberries. Another option is this blueberry-bourbon barbecue sauce.

The peaches need to ripen a few more days, so I have time to decide what to do with them. The default plan is to chop and freeze them for muffins or cobbler later.

The melons we will slice up and eat. I may try Paula Deen’s watermelon salad with the Vidalia onions and feta cheese. Melon chunks can also be frozen for later.

Same old directions for others

I bought the feta cheese from Cole’s Lake Dairy to make Chris’ favorite pasta salad – tri-color rotini and feta mixed with Good Seasons Italian dressing.  I’ll have to divide the feta between pasta salad and watermelon salad somehow. I tried a tiny piece of the feta , and it’s so good I bounced up and down. (Which is what I do when I eat something special. It’s a habit I picked up from my younger niece, Grace. I wonder if she’s outgrown it yet. Wonder if I ever will.)

I’d like to cook down the tomatoes like I’ve been doing the past couple of weeks, but I may encounter objections from family members who like fresh tomatoes. Chris said one of the little reddish tomatoes was so sweet that it tasted like a grape.

The rattlesnake green beans are tasty. I can’t remember if I like them better than the Romano beans, but I’m looking forward to jogging my memory. I’ll simmer these slowly with a little olive oil or sausage drippings.

Meal ideas

Here are some of the combinations I’m thinking about for this week.

Pasta salad, dilly beans, and melon slices

Sausage, grits, green beans, and tomatoes

Shrimp-cabbage-plum sauce stir-fry

Watermelon salad and green beans

Scrambled eggs and sautéed cabbage

Linguini with pine nuts, lettuce, and tomatoes

Blueberry pancakes and melon slices

Duck egg custard!

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Here’s a way to use tomatoes and other summer vegetables like squash, zucchini, and eggplant: create a chunky tomato concoction and then use it in a variety of ways.

Materials

This week, I chopped up tomatoes, patty pan squash, and garlic.

Last week, it was tomatoes, onion, zucchini, and a quarter pound of ground beef. Both times, I’ve thrown in a can of tomatoes to stretch the sauce because tomatoes cook down so much. I also visited Lucy’s herb garden for some thyme, oregano, rosemary, and basil.

Methods

The first step is heating some olive oil over medium. I’ve been using about a quarter of a cup. Then add the squash, onion, and garlic. (If you’re using globe eggplants, you’ll want to purge them first. Asian eggplant won’t need it, though.)

(more…)

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Now that it’s July, we’ll be getting corn regularly for a while. Here are two fast ideas for using sweet corn.

Microwave corn-on-the cob

1. Put two ears of corn, husk and all, in the microwave for 2 x2 minutes, turning half-way through.
2. Chop off the ends, get rid of the silk, and serve with butter and pepper.

Quick-cooked sweet corn

This one’s my favorite. It tastes better than popcorn. You have to go to the trouble of stripping the kernels, but it’s totally worth it. This year, I bought a kernel stripper.

(more…)

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Most mornings, Chris and I stumble into the kitchen and have some cereal, but recently we’ve had more interesting breakfasts based on products from our CSA box.

First up…

Ezekiel toaster cakes and scrambled eggs

The Ezekiel part of the toaster cakes refers to Ezekiel 4:9:

Take also unto thee Wheat, and Barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and Spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it…

These ingredients combine to make a bread (or toaster cake) that’s far more nutritious than any one grain. So Ezekiel toaster cakes are healthy and yummy and fast. If Chris and I still had morning commutes, we’d eat these for breakfast with yogurt or jam. (more…)

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Some of the nice things from last week are a quick shrimp stir-fry, roasted potatoes, an herb sparkling soda, and a frozen fruit tasting.

Yet another stir-fry-ish dish

Last Saturday night, Chris and I needed a little something to eat. So I pulled together a quick stir-fry with zucchini, Asian turnips, and garlic along with a few shrimp and an egg…

… and served it over mung bean noodles.

You know what makes me feel rich? Eating good food without having to put my shoes on. That’s the reward for the past few years of cooking and for using quality ingredients. (more…)

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This week’s post features guest photographer James Loper and his snazzy Nikon.

• beautiful hydroponic lettuce
• Back Porch Spice Rub
• eggs

• blueberries
• sweet corn
• patty pan squash

• tomatoes
• basil

• peaches
• plums (more…)

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Fruity, fruity, fruit, fruit!

The last three years haven’t been the best fruit years in Georgia. So this is my first real fruit season with Farmers’ Fresh, and I’m having lots of fun!

blueberries, peaches, plums, and blackberries

With the plums, I’m planning plum upside-down cake with half the recommended sugar. Last time it was too sweet.

The berries are already frozen. I like to eat frozen fruit because

1) it’s hot out there, and

2) I reeaallly don’t like the texture of fresh fruit.

Freezing gets me most of the flavor and none of the gag.

I’ve frozen berries many times, but today I also chopped and froze a plum and a peach in order to learn what they really taste like, i.e., not in pie or cobbler. Then one evening I’ll have a fruit morsel tasting with blueberries, blackberries, tart cherries, plums, and peaches.

Vegetables can be fun, too.

These are Romano green beans. They’re not as pretty as the rounder beans, but their flavor is terrific. They come in a range of sizes.

As usual, I’ll separate the beans into bigger and smaller halves. I’ll go ahead and cook the bigger half Southern-style (simmered for 30 minutes or so). Then I’ll blanch and sauté the smaller ones in olive oil and garlic for other meals.

eggs and lettuce

This lettuce is a treat – very sweet with a nice, delicate texture. However, I know from experience that this variety of lettuce only lasts a few days, so eat up. We ate half of ours last night and will have the rest for lunch tomorrow. The sweet flavor goes well with sliced Asian turnips from last week.

baby zucchini, fingerling potatoes, and oyster mushrooms

I’m excited about these baby zucchini, but haven’t decided what to do with them yet. Probably brown slices and then slow cook them with tomatoes and serve over pasta. Local potatoes grown in healthy soil are delicious and good for you. I plan on slicing and roasting these guys and making them the focus of a meal. And we sauteed the mushrooms last night (more below).

I also got a head of garlic this week. I love CSA garlic because it’s flavorful and because the size of the cloves makes normal recipes taste much yummier

Add one clove of garlic...

Beverages

coffee, lemon balm, orange mint, and lavender

The herbs are a wonderful treat – lavender, lemon balm, and orange mint. Fran suggests using them for iced tea, but I like my herbal tea hot. I made a wonderful pot yesterday afternoon with this mix. It would also make an excellent simple syrup to add to just about anything.

I’ve never been a big fan of fragrances and didn’t think I liked the smell of lavender. But fresh lavender smells completely different from what I’m used to. It’s sweet and makes me think of chocolate. It doesn’t really smell like chocolate as much as it smells near chocolate. I think the lavender smell receptor lives next door to the chocolate smell receptor in the brain, so the emotional reaction is similar.

many wonderful pots of afternoon tea in my future

Last night’s supper

Last night I sautéed mushrooms, onion, garlic, and fennel in butter. I chopped all of the mushrooms and divided them into thicker stems and more delicate ends.

That way I could start cooking the stems a few minutes before the thinner pieces. When the mushrooms were done, I mixed in some rice grits and served it with fresh lettuce and sliced carrots and Asian turnips.

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A rainbow of tomatoes!

grape tomatoes, slicer tomato, peaches, and golden plums

I’m going to take a break from peach muffins this week and make a crumble or cobbler with the peaches and golden plums. Cobbler is tastier, but crumble is easier. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow. (Right now, crumble would win by a landslide.) (more…)

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