thoughtful consumption

• radishes! (I’ve been looking forward to these.)
• onion
• eggs
• apples
• kale
• breathtakingly pretty lettuce
• edamame (This is about half of my order; I gave the rest to my neighbor Lucy.)
• Zephyr squash
• a large quantity of wonderful herbs

Herb bonanza!

After I put everything else away, I went through the herbs that were part of my gourmet upgrade. There was a lot to find.

Clockwise from top left: lovage, sorrel, Mexican tarragon, Nasturtium leaves, salad burnet, chives, and parcel

And more!

fennel, summer savory, chocolate mint, spearmin, mystery lemony herb

After figuring out (for the most part) what the herbs were, I bagged them wrapped them in moist paper towels according to use. And gathered the loose flowers and leaves for tonight’s salad.

Tea herbs: spearmint, mystery lemon herb, and chocolate mint. I probably won’t use the chocolate mint for tea, but it seemed like the best place to put it. I’d love to dip the leaves in chocolate like the last time, but it was such tedious work!

Girly salad: Sometime this week, I hope to have a salad of sorrel, nasturtium leaves, salad burnet, radishes, and mint and savory flowers. I’ll make a vinaigrette with some of the other herbs, too, for dressing. It won’t make enough for more than one. And if it did, I’m not sure Chris would appreciate it. I could add the sorrel and nasturtium to stretch the beautiful lettuce, but I hate to dilute the flavors. So one afternoon, I’ll make Chris some Southern green beans and eat my herb salad.

Soup herbs: Lovage, parcel, and savory will be great with a chicken soup. Or maybe onion soup. I’m totally craving French onion soup.

Vinegar herbs: The fennel and tarragon may end up as vinegar. I always have a hard time making it through the tarragon. So I’ll give it a few days to see if I come up with any other uses.

Online store order

This week I ordered two pounds of coffee and 4 ounces of mushrooms. I have no pictures of the coffee because Chris already transferred the coffee to his coffee cans to be ready for the morning. But here are the mushrooms.

I love the color! I planned to make mushroom kale pasta. But I wonder if that heavy cream sauce will cover up the taste of the mushrooms. Now I think I’ll make a mushroom and fresh herb pasta dish and a separate kale alfredo pasta. Mmmm… more pasta.

Tonight’s supper

As part of the gourmet upgrade, we got two beautiful pork chops from Gum Creek Farms.

But what do you do with two pork chops when you have three people for dinner?

I thought about drawing straws, but the odds weren’t good. What if I was the one who ended up pork chop-less? Then I considered holding a fixed drawing of straws.

Then I remembered I had some lemongrass stems left to use, so I chopped up the pork and dumped it in a lemongrass-garlic-soy sauce marinade. Everybody wins!

The only CSA meat I’ve had so far has been ground – either beef or sausage. So I was really surprised when I started working with these chops. They just felt different and cut up like butter.

I’ve frozen the two bones in the hopes of finding a good recipe or an even better dog.

The pork is marinating in soy sauce, chopped garlic, and lemongrass stems. To prepare the lemon grass, I chopped off the ends, scored the stems, and then pounded them with the butt of my knife. That way they release their oils, but they’re still easy to pick out before serving.

By the way, I love the CSA garlic because the cloves are really big. So many recipes call for one clove of garlic. So I pull out a clove and think, “Oh, yeah! One clove, comin’ up!”

I’ll stir-fry the pork and serve it over noodles maybe with some of the Asian chili oil and chopped parcel on top. I’ll also boil and reduce the marinade for a sauce.

The salad will be lettuce with radishes, salad burnet and random herb flowers. Can’t wait!

9/29 Update

Here’s how it turned out.

really yummy with chili oil

Other plans

We’ve ended up with a whole bunch of breakfast radishes. Before I saw that I had some in my box, Lucy mentioned she had some from last week. Then when I began raving about radishes, she gave me hers. I felt pretty silly when I got home and started going through my stuff.

If Lucy doesn’t want me to repatriate her radishes, we’ll have too many for salad. So I’ll slice them longways and make baked radish chips. And dip them in radish green-artichoke dip! I think there are enough usable radish greens for that.

_________

I’m going to boil the edamame for a salty snack. All the directions for edamame call for boiling the pods in salted water for 8-10 minutes and then seasoning the pods. I want to use some nice salt and some of the summer savory for seasoning. But why do you season the pods if you don’t eat them? According to The Food Virgin,

…As for eating the pods, technically, they won’t harm you if you do decide to eat one, but edamame pods are nowhere near as chewable as snow pea pods.  If you put one in your mouth, you’ll be chewing, and chewing and chewing… long after the sushi chef has packed up his knives and gone home.  Make life easy for yourself– pop the beans out into your mouth, and enjoy.

Because I don’t I want to waste savory or salt, I think I’ll shell the beans and season them directly.

_________

For the squash, I’m kind of tired of stir-fried squash, so I’m thinking squash muffins or squash tian (or both!) this week.

_________

Stay tuned for baba ghanoush and the saga of the very large Napa cabbage!

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much rain. I hope everyone’s doing okay. Looks like the farmers and CSA packers will have a couple of rough days getting this week’s orders ready. I know how drought affects what’s available. Guess we’ll see what too much rain does.

At this point, there are few bright spots to all the rain. So let me share one. We have a real creek running through our woods now! It’s usually a tiny rivulet that comes and goes. But today you can even hear it from the house. Yesterday afternoon, I took some pictures and posted them here. This was before the last 20 inches of rain and the major flooding. It was easier to be upbeat about the situation then.

Orange mint honey

What do you do at 3 in the morning because you can’t sleep from non-stop torrential rain, thunder, and lightning? Make orange mint honey and drink herbal tea!

For the honey, I followed Fran’s easy instructions from the online store: warm the honey with the mint leaves, cool, and store. I used 6 mint leaves to my 6 ounces of clover honey. The picture doesn’t show much, but the taste is great for tea.

Green beans

I’ve been making green beans by the handful for meals instead of all at once. It’s pretty easy.

1. Wash and snap enough beans for the meal.

This is enough for three because one of us still isn't crazy about green beans.

2. Put the beans in boiling water. Boil for 3 minutes after the water returns to a boil – maybe six minutes total. If you don’t let the beans boil long enough, they’re squeaky when you eat them. Still good, but squeaky.

3. Once the beans are done, plunge them into ice water to stop them from cooking and to preserve the pretty bright green bean color. Drain once they’re cool.

4. Melt a little butter in a skillet on medium-high (or use olive oil). Add anything that might flavor the butter. This week, I’ve used garlic, chopped sage and rosemary. Ginger, chopped tomatoes, and other herbs would be good, too. I tried lemon zest, but I think this is too soon to add it; all the lemon flavor disappears by the time the beans are done.

5. Toss the beans in the butter. Let them cook for a few minutes stirring occasionally so that the beans cook evenly. Add salt and pepper. (This is where I wish I’d added the lemon zest.) Taste after a few minutes to judge if they’re ready. At this point, the beans are completely cooked. It’s just a matter of how crunchy you like them.

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Just got back from Arizona visiting family. A few days in Arizona makes me appreciate the climate here. I don’t like dry, and neither do my sinuses.

Thankfully, my neighbor Lucy grabbed my CSA box Wednesday – including the largest head of Napa cabbage we’ve ever seen.

• herbs
• green beans
• muscadines
• Napa cabbage
• apples
• clover honey
• Asian eggplant
• sweet potatoes
• eggs
• nut mix

Herbs

I was happy to get a bag of mixed herbs this week. (Not that I’m complaining about the basil I’ve been lucky enough to score recently.) But it’s fun to learn about the different herbs and figure out how to use them them.

I made a pot of herbal tea last night with 1 catnip leaf, 2 bee balm leaves, some hyssop leaves and flowers, and 2 orange mint leaves. I crushed them a little before putting them in my strainer.

The result was a really nice relaxing evening tea. I added a drop of the clover honey, too. I’ll happily make at least two more pots with these herbs.

In the CSA store, Fran suggests adding orange mint leaves to warm honey for a twist. I think I’m going to try that with the clover honey. I think the orange mint flavor will show up better with the lighter flavor. Then I’ll use it in my morning (non-herbal) tea.

Green beans

These are beeyootiful green beans. I’m going to blanch and sauté some tomorrow for lunch along with leftover field peas and scrambled eggs. I don’t think I’ll go the green bean casserole route with these beauties.

We had our first with lunch today: scrambled eggs, field peas, green beans, and bread with honey butter.

I blanched the green beans first for 3 minutes. (Next time I’ll go longer, though.) Next I heated half tablespoon of butter with a chopped-up sage leaf, garlic clove, and some lemon zest. Then I sautéed the beans in the butter for a few more minutes.

Eggplant

I’m going to try baba ghanoush with Asian eggplant again. This time I’ll peel the eggplants and wrap them in tin foil and bake them whole. I think it will be easier to get more “meat” off them that way.

Napa cabbage

Do you believe the size of that cabbage?! I’ll need lots of ideas for cabbage over the next week. Right now I’m thinking coleslaw, sautéed cabbage with different seasonings, and chopped up cabbage for fried rice.

Muscadines?

Not sure what to do with muscadines yet. My husband says he’ll eat them all, but he doesn’t sound to happy about it. I know there aren’t enough to make wine…

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Chili oil

Thursday James mentioned putting chili oil on pasta, and I remembered drying hot peppers last summer and putting them away. So I dug them out and made two kinds of chili oil: Asian (with canola and dark sesame) and Italian (with olive oil).

With gloves on, I seeded and chopped the dried peppers – about 3 tablespoons. I divided that in half and put each in a jar.

I heated 1/3 cup olive oil till it was hot then let it cool for 3 minutes and poured it over the chili flakes. Then I did the same with the canola. I didn’t add the dark sesame oil till the end, though. Then I capped the jars and left them for a day.

The next day I strained the oil through a layer of cheesecloth, and here’s what I got.

We haven’t tried it yet – I hope it works! The recipe said you could use chili flakes more than once. So I saved them in case we love it and want to make more.

Egg Drop Ramen

I love egg drop soup, and James loves ramen noodles. Since he’s off to college next month, his ramen consumption will hit an all-time high. So we decided to experiment with adding eggs to ramen noodles to improve their nutritional value and deliciousness.

We cooked 3 packages of ramen for about 5 minutes on the stove. Then we beat 3 eggs and poured them slowly into the ramen for the last minute of cooking, stirring constantly. The results were delicious. The ramen was thick and eggy.

Tale of two suppers

For supper Thursday, we had flat-iron steak with the Back Porch spice rub and caramelized onions, bread, lettuce, stir-fried squash, and field peas.

The spice rub was good, but for this kind of steak I prefer marinating it in soy and Worchestershire sauce. I’ll definitely use the rub on pork, chicken, and some vegetables, too. The brown sugar and cumin make it sweet and tangy.

Last night’s supper was shrimp and grits, sweet potatoes, and sorrel. The shrimp was leftover from lemon-basil pasta earlier in the week. I also cooked some half an onion to go with it.

The sweet potato was delicious! The couple I’d gotten earlier in the season were dry and not very good. But these are so wonderful you can eat them down to the skin. The grits were from Farmers’ Fresh, too, and for the first time I cooked them without any sticking to the bottom. The secret is to catch the pot just after the water boils and stir until the heat reduces to a simmer.

Poached pears

For dessert last night, I poached the pears in wine sauce. We ended up with three pear halves because one pear was all mushy on one side. For poaching liquid, we used red wine, water, sliced lemon, and a cinnamon stick.

After the pears were poached (about 15 minutes, flipping every 5), I reduced the sauce to half a cup and poured it over the pears. It was intense and definitely a good use of pears.

Next time, I’ll try to be patient and reduce the sauce even more to make something closer to syrup.

Leftovers

Tonight we’ll finish off the egg drop ramen, sweet potatoes, and sorrel. Tomorrow we’re going out of town for a couple of days, and I think we’re okay food-wise. The basil, lettuce, and sorrel, squash, apples, and pears are finished. We still have some field peas and okra to cook, but they’ll be fine when we get back mid-week.

See you then!

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Here’s what I got this week.

• apples
• sweet potatoes
• pair of pears
• pancake mix
• basil
• lettuce
• sorrel
• field peas
• okra
• squash
• eggs
• spice rub

I also ordered onions and garlic from the online store.

However, for lunch today, we ate leftovers: sliced tomatoes, field peas and black rice, and green bean casserole that looks oddly like macaroni and cheese.

Supper was another story. We had shrimp in lemon garlic basil cream sauce over fettuccine and lettuce.

It’s my kind of dish, and I loved it. For the shrimp, I followed the “The Simplest and Best Shrimp Dish” recipe from How To Cook Everything. It does not lie. Then I deglazed the pan to make the sauce.

Tomorrow’s plans

Tomorrow night, I’ll use the spice rub on a flat iron steak. With the steak, we’ll have some more lettuce, the last tiny tomato, either stir-fried squash or fried okra, and possibly some caramelized onions. And maybe some field peas, too. My husband loves field peas – I think he’d prefer them to the steak. These field peas have a reddish tint to them. Can’t wait to see if they taste different.

I think I’m the only one that likes raw sorrel. And I love it, so I have no qualms about eating it all up myself. There are some perquisites to being Chief Food Officer.

Run down for the week

Apples will get eaten as snacks. No need to do anything else with thes’uns.

Sweet potatoes will be baked in the oven or the microwave. The last few sweet potatoes didn’t turn out so well. But these two look like they’ll be delicious.

Pears will get poached with red wine sauce. (Darn! I should’ve ordered some goat cheese!)

Basil’s already done. I used some of it in the shrimp fettuccine and turned the rest into pesto.

Lettuce and sorrel will be washed, spun, and eaten fresh with minimal dressing.

Field peas will get cooked with onions sautéed in a little leftover sausage drippings. Heat the drippings, sauté the onions, add the peas, cover with water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 20 minutes to 8 hours. So easy and good!

My okra always gets fried in cornmeal. I’ve never learned to like okra any other way. (Well, it’s okay in soup, but that’s more indifference than liking.) I may try frying it in a little olive oil instead of deep frying in canola. When I’ve been frying eggplant recently, I noticed that olive oil doesn’t smoke as easily as canola. Just keep it on medium and keep the batches coming. Wonder if I could cut the okra long ways so that the pieces would be bigger and easier to fry in less oil. More like Asian eggplant slices.

Squash will be stir-fried. Possibly some of it will be used for squash muffins.

Eggs will make us happy in many ways: cookies, pancakes, scrambled eggs…

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Green bean casserole

Green bean casserole turned out pretty yummy. I’m glad I added the wine although I used too much. I recall casseroles like this tasting kind of  insipid (if you’ll forget the horribly judgemental word). This wasn’t bad, and I’m sure we’ll do it again with some of the beans I froze earlier this summer.

Again with the Asian pear crostini

We finished up the Asian pear with another round of crostini.

I sautéed the diced pear in olive oil and then put it on top of some toasted bread smeared with a mixture of cream cheese, lemon zest, and goat cheese from Kroger.

Goat cheese from Kroger is a mean joke.

I didn’t think store-bought cheese would be as good as the fresh stuff, but, wow, what a difference. When I eat fresh goat cheese from Farmers’ Fresh, my first thought is CREAM. Then some lovely subtle flavors follow. With Kroger goat cheese, the flavor comes first. And it’s not subtle. Or lovely. Guess that’s the pasteurization. It was okay mixed with the cream cheese on the bread.

Tomato pasta

Tonight we had tomatoes, garlic, basil, and olive oil over fettuccine.

It was good except for the soap.… I don’t think the pasta pot was rinsed so well the last time it was washed. We wouldn’t have noticed it except I decided to be all chef-y and add some of the pasta water to stretch the sauce. We ate it all anyway. What are the signs of dishwashing soap poisoning?

Five Guys for lunch tomorrow

I’ll make us a plate of green bean casserole and field peas before we go so we can enjoy our burgers sans guilt. I’ll also slice up our two remaining tiny tomatoes. Aren’t they the cutest?

Or maybe they're really big...

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First the bad news…

I forgot the eggplant in the oven again. “I’ll just turn the oven off and leave them in there for a little longer,” I said. Ha! That’s the recipe for Abandoned Eggplant.

So, no baba ghanoush for me this week.

The good news…

Last night we had a nice fall supper in two courses starring mushrooms and acorn squash. (It’s in two courses because the acorn squash needed more time in the oven. From now on, I’m counting on at least an hour even for the little ones.)

For the first course we had mushroom fettuccine with honey lemon cream sauce based on this recipe. It tasted fresh and delicious, but the lemon juice was a little strong – maybe because I only had 2 cups of mushrooms instead of 4. No real complaints, though, and we wiped our plates clean with some bread. I meant to add some fresh basil from the garden but forgot.

First course: Fettuccine in mushroom lemon cream sauce

I considered trying Noodles with Mushrooms and Lemon Ginger Dressing. It sounds really good, but I didn’t think the Asian style would match the acorn squash.

Second course: Baked acorn squash with butter and maple syrup

It tastes like fall! This method of making winter squash is so easy and good. The only problem is I usually forget to add the water at the bottom of the pan. That makes the outer part of the flesh is a little dry.

Green bean casserole

I made a green bean casserole last night with the wax beans. Since it’s for tonight’s supper, I wasn’t planning to bake it last night, but when I cranked up the oven for the acorn squash, I figured it was better to get it done.

I followed Paula Deen’s recipe pretty much. I put in extra onions instead of chopped mushrooms. And I rinsed out the soup can with some of the white wine I used for the mushroom pasta. The recipe calls for boiling the beans in chicken broth and then draining them. But that makes it sound like you pour the broth down the sink! That seems kind of lame. So I kept the broth and tried to cook the mixture down before baking.

The results still look a little soupy, but I’m hoping it won’t be a problem.

If I was more familiar with green bean casserole, I might have considered using the oyster mushrooms and the farmhouse cheddar on top – Gourmet Green Bean Casserole! But it seemed like a waste. I figure when a recipe calls for a can of cream of mushroom soup, it’s not going to be about subtle flavors and fresh tastes.

Speaking of the farmhouse cheddar, it’s really yummy. We had slices on Triscuits with apple wedges for lunch yesterday. For lunch today, I’m going to heat up some tomato soup and grate some of the cheddar on top. By tomato soup, I mean a can of V-8. I can’t stand it cold, but heated up with cheese is good! And I’ll have one of the last peach muffins, too.

More plans

The green bean casserole will go well with the field peas for a couple of meals. I still have tomatoes, too. I may slice up the round ones and make another cucumber-tomato salad. The rest of them will get cooked with garlic and served on pasta or bread along with what’s left of the pesto.

I bought some chevre from Kroger to make crostini again and use up the pesto and the Asian pear. I’ll be interested to taste the difference.

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Feelin’ like fall

Is this a wonderful fall-like day or what? And it’s only September 2^nd!

This week’s produce has one foot in summer (tomatoes, basil, green beans, and eggplant) and another in fall (mushrooms, acorn squash, and apples). These kind of week’s are fun because you get a chance to appreciate the summer stuff as it peters out for the year. And you get new fall stuff to try, too.

• basil
• oyster mushrooms
• acorn squash
• green beans
• eggplant
• eggs
• cheddar cheese
• apples
• tomatoes

Pasta!

UPS delivered 20 pounds of fettuccine to my house today. Amazon had it on sale for around a dollar a pound shipped. I don’t remember what the six-pound bag of spaghetti costs at Sam, but I don’t think it was less than that. Plus, I was getting awfully tired of spaghetti.

The basil’s already pesto. We’ll have it on fettuccine some night soon or spread on some toasted bread. We can always freeze it, but I don’t think it’ll come to that.

Tonight we’re having pasta and pine nuts with green beans and tomatoes on the side. (And I’ll still be eating cabbage even if everyone else has given up.)

The rest of the tomatoes will get cooked with onions, garlic, and wine another night and then tossed with pasta. If I need some fresh basil, I’ve still got a little growing outside.

Baba ghanoush and brownies

The globe eggplants will be baba ghanoush since I’ve still got lemons, garlic, and tahini lying around. I’ll roast them in the oven tonight because eggplant’s like basil – the sooner the better. Might have to put something else in the oven with the eggplant … like brownies.

It’s been an awfully long time since we had brownies. One of the best part of Farmers’ Fresh eggs is being cool with licking the brownie bowl. Salmonella contamination is directly related to the size of the flock and the chicken’s general health. I’ve met the chickens at Red Hott Tomatoes, and they are happy, well-adjusted birds living in flocks of about 10 (compared to as many as 30,000 in an industrial chicken farm). Plus, if one of the chickens were sick, Nancy and Jacque would know (and care). Same goes with the other farmers.

I’m not suggesting downing raw eggs in mass quantities, but getting to enjoy a little brownie batter is pretty darn awesome. I appreciate the farmers’ skill, hard work, and care that allow me to pass around the joy that only brownie batter-covered bowls, beaters, and spatulas bring.

Easy fall items

I’m excited to play with the mushrooms, cheddar, and apples. I’m not quite sure what I’ll do yet, but I want everything to be simple to get at these tastes. Maybe some kind of mushroom and rice dish and then cheddar and apple snacks. I’ve also got a little Asian pear left to add to that mix.

I love acorn squash! It’s easy to make, too. Half the squash, scoop out the seedy bits, put a little butter and maple syrup in the cavities, and bake at 350 for about half an hour. Stick a fork in it to see if it’s done. When in doubt, leave it in for a little longer; it’ll only get better. It’s so good for a late supper on a chilly night.

Leftovers

Here’s what we have left to eat up from last week.

• red cabbage (just a couple of servings more!)
• peach muffins
• field peas (some cooked, some uncooked)
• Asian pear (We have about a third of a really big fruit left. Maybe I’ll revisit the stir-fry idea without all the sauce.)
• a handful of green beans (I’m cooking these tonight.)

So we’re in pretty good shape. We’ll have field peas with all the fall items and finish them up in a few days.

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Knife skills

Last night, I sat down to read the first couple of chapters from How to Cook Everything about basic techniques – including knife skills. Bittman points out that his grandmother had poor knife technique and was an excellent cook. And that proper knife technique probably only saves you 10 seconds an onion. Nevertheless, I’ve always wanted to chop better – especially now that I do lot of choppin’.

After absorbing Bittman’s comments, I found this 50-second video.

My first problem was holding the knife wrong. The right way is to hold the blade between the  thumb and forefinger instead of shaking hands with the hilt. At first it felt spooky having my fingers on the blade. However, after a handful of grape tomatoes, a small onion, and two cloves a garlic, I was sold.

I thought a new grip would take time to get used to, but it’s so much easier to control the blade! I cut myself a couple of times last week – not badly, just little slices on my fingers. I don’t think it could have happened if I’d been using this grip. (That’s not to say that I won’t find new and exciting ways to cut myself.)

I’m going back to watch the longer video on dicing technique next.

Asian pear stir-fry

Last night we had beef and Asian pear stir-fry and the final round of cabbage. The stir-fry was good, but I added soy and oyster sauce that overwhelmed the Asian pear flavor.

The cabbage was my favorite so far. I sauteed some garlic, onion, and ginger in canola and sesame oil and then added the cabbage. After ten minutes or so, I added a bunch of rice vinegar, a little sugar, and salt and pepper.

Everyone else is tired of cabbage. Too bad! We have a little left to finish with egg drop soup later this afternoon.

Pizza-Like Objects

My first plan for lunch today was top-your-own pita crisps. But I couldn’t get the pita quarters to separate. So I put them on a baking sheet, topped them with the last of the ricotta, some Italian cooked tomato goodness (tomatoes, onion, garlic, wine, olive oil, salt and pepper), and parmesan cheese, and put them in the oven. They came out great!

We added pesto, parmesan, and red pepper flakes as needed.

Tomorrow is Wednesday!

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Sometimes meals are so yummy that I forget to take pictures. And sometimes I remember halfway through.

This is James’ plate, and he always saves his favorite thing for last. He is most of the way through his red cabbage, sliced tomatoes, and mashed potatoes,  but he hasn’t touched his sausage.

We also made peach muffins with frozen peaches from last summer.

They made perfectly good muffins.

I planted some lettuce, carrots, and garlic chives Monday. No pressure, really, but I’d love to have extra lettuce this fall.

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