Here’s the produce that came in my CSA box this week.

Fuyu persimmons and apples

The persimmons look like tomatoes, don’t they? They’re a firm persimmon with a texture kind of like an apple and a tart, slightly spicy flavor. While, they can be eaten raw like apples, the texture wasn’t enough apple-like for me to eat a whole one raw. (Clearly, I did have a slice, though.)

Instead, I made persimmon mini-cobblers. The idea was solid. The only problem was that two persimmons makes about 1 ½ cups of diced fruit – about half of what I needed. I should have made half a dozen cobblers, but I spread the fruit thin and went with the whole dozen.

It’s tasty as cobbler, but the cobbler part completely overwhelms the persimmon part. Continue Reading »

two big, beautiful apples

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hydroponic lettuce and broccoli

The head of lettuce is very dense. It yields more salad servings than you might imagine. Also, don’t sweat the brown/yellow color on the broccoli. It’s from cold weather and doesn’t affect the taste. Steamed broccoli became the vegetable of choice at so many restaurants that I got tired of it. Local broccoli right out of the ground, however, brings the romance back. Continue Reading »

Amazingly enough, some summer veggies have lasted into November:

grape tomatoes and Asian eggplant

Last week, I made a yummy, simple pasta dish with these tomatoes. First, I heated olive oil with a crushed clove of garlic on low until the clove was just brown.

While the garlic was heating, I tore over to Lucy’s herb garden for some fresh thyme. Thankfully, the garlic takes a long time to cook on low.

Then I chopped the little tomatoes in halves and quarters and added them, the thyme, and some salt  to the pan.

Looks like I removed the garlic clove, too.

At some point, I added a little red wine and let in bubble. Continue Reading »

Get to your produce right away this week. The incredibly humid past couple of days will mess up your stash fast. My produce was practically dripping when I pulled it out of the box.

Pull it out, dry it off, and rebag it. Just turn the bag it came in inside out. If it’s leafy stuff, put a paper towel in the bag to absorb some of the moisture.

And remember it’s great to have some rain!

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There were lots of colorful things in this week’s box, but the radishes were the most amazing. They are so big, bright, and smooth.

The baby squash are really pretty, too.

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To carve or not to carve? This beautiful, dark orange pumpkin is a pie pumpkin, which means I could bake it like a winter squash and make pie, soup, or just baked pumpkin.

Or we could make a jack-o-lantern. I’ll talk it over with Chris and decide.

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Lettuce and grape tomatoes

No clever ideas necessary here – just salad with tomatoes (and beautiful radishes). These little tomatoes also make great snacks.

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Arugula smells so dreamy when you dump it out of the bag! I like arugula best as salad, but we’ve got so much salad, that I will blanch and freeze this in preparation for a creamy pasta dish in the future.

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Enormous and pretty pac choi! Pac choi leaves have wonderful color and texture. These leaves are large enough to make stir-fry “cabbage wraps.” Basically the idea is to steam the leaves just until they’re pliable. (Microwave them in a stack like tortillas, for example.) Then load them up with stir-fried vegetables or seasoned meat or curried lentils or whatever. Treat the stems like celery. Chop them up and add them to stir-fries or soup.

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Them’s baking apples, but you can snack on them in a pinch. They taste like sour apple candy. I’m going to core, peel, halve and roast these, however, to give me an excuse to make more bourbon sauce.

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Carolina Gold rice, eggs, and Sea Island red peas

The rice and the peas will hang out in the fridge for a while. I’ve got too much produce to be eaten first before resorting to dried foods. One possibility, though, is making fried rice or steaming this rice and using it as part of the pac choi wrap filling.

Fresh eggs always rock. Accept no substitute.

Lo mein is my current favorite “clean out the fridge” meal. (When you’re doing your meal planning, always leave room for at least one of these meals. Chef salads, vegetable soup, fried rice, and meaty or cheesy casseroles also work.)

This last minute lo mein was inspired by a forgotten zucchini at the bottom of my crisper.

Starring pac choi, eggs, radishes, garlic, frozen lemongrass stems, and one aging zucchini

Here’s how it went down. Continue Reading »