Posted in Recipes on August 19, 2010| 1 Comment »
For a few weeks, I made peach muffins with the beautiful peaches from my CSA share. (Chris and I aren’t big fans of the fresh peach.) But then I started getting a hankering for cobbler. I wanted to combine the convenience of muffins with the yumminess of cobbler. After browsing through some recipes, I didn’t see any reason one couldn’t make muffin-sized mini-cobblers. This week, I finally did it.
I started by defrosting some chopped peaches and plums from last month. (more…)
Posted in CSA notes, Recipes on August 10, 2010| 1 Comment »
The idea
Sunday, I pulled out all the vegetables I’d frozen over the last several months and made vegetable stock. I left a couple of bags of blanched green beans, a bag of chopped celery, and a bag of corn. Everything else got thrown in the pot.
The ingredients
The frozen assembly consisted of spinach, kale, beet greens and stems, green beans, celery scraps, Shiitake and oyster mushroom stems, Swiss chard stems, and fennel.
I also added some chopped onion and garlic cloves.
For stock, onions don’t need to be peeled or chopped. However, this onion had some powdery mold on its outermost layer, so I didn’t have a choice.
The process
First, I browned the vegetables in batches. The problem with frozen vegetables, however, is there’s a lot of moisture to get through before you get any browning action. Maybe I’ll defrost and drain them next time. And possibly roast them in the oven instead of on the stove.
Second, the more-or-less browned veggies got tossed in the stock pot, which was then filled three quarters full of water.
After bringing it to boil, I let the pot simmer for about an hour. Then I strained the stock and put it back in the pot to cook uncovered until it had boiled down to half as much. It’s easier to store concentrated stock.
To freeze the stock, I poured it into ice cube trays. (more…)
Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, Recipes on July 22, 2010| 1 Comment »
1. Watermelon salad
The combination of watermelon, sweet onion, feta cheese, mint, and vinaigrette makes a perfect summer side dish.
I’ve also read you can sub in other melons like cantaloupe and honeydew for the watermelon, but I haven’t tried that yet. I will say that this salad is best eaten the same day. If you have more melon than you can eat in a meal, just keep the ingredients separate and mix them before the next serving.
2. Grilled watermelon (more…)
Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, Recipes on June 23, 2010| Leave a Comment »
My plums from last week became individual plum upside down cakes from Simply Recipes.
First, I sliced the plums.
Then I peeled them. Probably should have reversed these two steps. (more…)
Posted in Recipes on June 18, 2010| 1 Comment »
Squash muffins
I made these squash muffins last year after seeing the pictures at Kitchen Kung Fu. The recipe is from the 7/22/09 CSA newsletter.
Ingredients
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
* 2/3 cup grated yellow squash
* 1 egg, beaten
* 3/4 cup milk
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Directions
1. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and squash in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture.
2. Combine egg, milk and oil; add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.
3. Spoon batter into lightly greased muffin pans, filling two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove muffins from pans immediately.
Yields 1 dozen.
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They were tasty (especially with butter and honey) and went great with leftover vegetable soup. They had zero squash taste as far as I could tell, and I’m not sure whether that’s a plus or a minus. Either way, I’m glad to have this recipe. I don’t seem to have extra squash much, but it’s good to have an emergency plan.
Posted in CSA notes, Recipes, Tips on June 13, 2010| 3 Comments »
Did you know you can freeze eggs?
It’s a bit of a process but really useful when you suddenly need an egg or when you need a bunch of yolks or whites.
The first step is separating the eggs. While there are tools that help with this, I find it easier to use my hands. First, crack the egg into a bowl.
Then carefully slide a hand under the yolk and pick it up. Carefully shift the yolk from one hand to the other. After a few times, all you’ll be holding is the yolk and the whites will be in the bowl.
(If you break a yolk, it’s no big deal – you’ve still got an egg. Put it in the fridge and use it in a day or two.) (more…)
Posted in CSA notes, Recipes on June 13, 2010| 2 Comments »
Chris and I have a new love – egg custard. I’ll make three servings in the morning whenever I’m planning vegetarian meals. Then we have one each that night for dessert and split the third at breakfast the next morning.
Here’s the basic recipe. It’s quick and easy without a lot of fuss. It evolved from this recipe, but I returned all the fat, replaced the Splenda with sugar, and then cut the sugar in half.
Posted in Recipes on June 4, 2010| 4 Comments »
Hey, look – I made goat cheese!
I followed this recipe from Gourmet Sleuth, paraphrased here. (more…)
Posted in CSA notes, Recipes on May 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A couple of people have asked about the emergency goat cheese biscuits I made the other day. So here’s the deal. The emergency part just means I didn’t roll out the dough and cut it. They’re also called drop biscuits.
with dried Sea Island red peas and spinach, romaine, and beet green salad
Posted in CSA reports, Farmers Fresh CSA, Recipes on April 8, 2010| 1 Comment »
I made the tofu from last week’s delivery a few nights ago and was pretty happy with it. Here’s what I did.
To prepare it for cooking, I squeezed it a little as described in How to Cook Everything. I cut the brick in half at the equator to get two thinner bricks. Then I placed them between some paper towels on a cutting board, put a cast-iron skillet on top, and left it there for 10 minutes. This removed a lot of moisture.
I made a peanut sauce based on one from How to Cook Everything. I sautéed some garlic and onion in some peanut oil and then added about half a cup of peanut butter, half a cup of soy sauce, and maybe a quarter-cup lime juice. After it had all combined, I tossed the tofu in and let it sit while I heated more oil in a pan for stir-frying.
I stir-fried the tofu and stir-fried it some more and waited for it to get crispy, as described in the recipe I posted here. But it never did. Eventually the peanut sauce got a little burned, but it was still good.
We ate it with kale, raisins, and pine nuts and an excellent sweet potato.
So, overall, I’m pleased with my first foray into tofu cooking. I’m also happy to have an easy peanut sauce recipe for future stir-fries – with or without tofu.
thoughtful consumption 