thoughtful consumption

• baby carrots
• strawberries
• red cabbage
• red leaf lettuce
• apples
• pecans
• blueberry muffins
• eggs
• broccoli sprouts

I’m digging our delivery this week. These are things that are so much better fresh. Plus, everything was so pretty – electric red strawberries, slender carrots, and shiny apples.

I’ve already made a couple of killer salads for work with lettuce, carrots, sprouts, and baby turnips and turnip greens leftover from last week. I’ll take my camera to work next week to get a picture.

I love red cabbage, too! I have a great red cabbage recipe to post when I get home. That’s definitely on the menu for this week. Only thing is the recipe also calls for an apple, and I’m loathe to part with a snacking apple.

The muffins are great as usual. I think we’re already down to just two of them. Which is a problem because we’ll be three for breakfast tomorrow. Hopefully, we can avoid armed conflict.

Last week I had some good success with apple rings and kale crisps.

Apple rings

I finally have a method that works. After I cored and peeled the apples, I halved them before I sliced them. That way, the slices came out much more even. I sprayed a little canola oil on the sheet and sprinkled some cinnamon on the apples. Then I baked them at 250 degrees (like Kim suggested for the kale crisps).

It took a lot longer (maybe half an hour?) but the results were much better. The only problem is it makes the apples go too quickly.

2 and a half apples inhaled in 10 minutes

Kale Crisps

This week’s kale crisps experiment went pretty well. I sliced the leafy parts of the biggest kale leaves away from the stem and tossed them in olive oil, salt, and pepper. (I kept the little leafy bits at the ends to add to fried rice.)

Then I baked them at 250 for twenty minutes or so. They didn’t burn and were pretty good, I thought. My husband said they still taste like kale. I mumbled something about pearls and swine.

Fun with cabbage

The cabbage made its way into three recipes this week: fried rice, coleslaw, and corned beef and cabbage.

The coleslaw is one of my mother’s recipes. It’s the vinegary kind and is nice and crunchy. It also lasts a lot longer than the mayo kind. I’ll post the recipe next time. We’ll eat this up with sandwiches and scrambled eggs.

The corned beef and cabbage recipe is really easy. Saute some onion, steam some cabbage with salt and pepper and then place slices of corned beef on top of the cabbage as it finishes steaming. Very easy and delicious.

I made hoppin’ john according to this recipe with the red peas, rice grits, thyme, and a bay leaf. It turned out really well, but I wouldn’t eat it before a big date or job interview.

early on in the cooking

the finished product

We’ve been making our way through the lettuce, turnip greens, and turnips via lots of salads. I did learn not to make a salad with both sliced turnips and sliced raw yellow onion. It’s just too much sharp for one plate.

I made some biscotti with two of the eggs and am looking forward to a scrambled egg supper with the others in the near future. The muffins and apples were morning and afternoon treats, respectively. Both are very good and very satisfying. Last Tuesday, Patricia and I talked about how eating better food has evened out the highs and lows we had gotten used to feeling in between meals. No more shakes (Patricia) or getting irritated at the tiniest little thing (me).

I am feeling a little guilty about the full bag of kale in my refrigerator. I just kept making salad instead this week. But I’m going to get on those kale crisps Saturday. If they turn out right this time, maybe that’s what I’ll do with the rest of it. Otherwise, it’ll be kale and pasta or kale with raisins and pine nuts. Or both.

Here’s what was in my box this week.

3/11 Family pack plus muffins

• cabbage
• green leaf lettuce
• red leaf lettuce
• Asian turnips with greens
• green onions
• ½ dozen eggs
• Rosemary
• 4 apples
• ½ dozen chocolate raspberry pecan muffins

I’m excited about the cabbage. (Clearly, I need to get out more.) Part of the cabbage will go into fried rice along with some of the Asian turnips and green onions. The rest will either become cole slaw or corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day. This fresh cabbage is nice even just steamed by itself for a side dish. Who knew cabbage could be so much fun?

More salad will be great, but I’m also going to try to use the lettuce in other ways like on sandwiches or maybe as a wrap for the stir-fry. I’ll still slice the smaller Asian turnips for salad along with the green onions, but I’ll use the larger turnips in the stir-fry. I’ve just been treating these Asian turnip greens like lettuce.  They work great raw in the salad.  And I love these green onions. It’s so handy to have the white parts and green parts to use for different things.

I’m teaching again for a couple of months, and so I’m learning how to pack CSA lunches for the daily grind. So far it’s been salad with sliced turnips and some chicken or lunch meat. I pack the lettuce separate from the turnips, meat, and dressing and then mix it all up at lunch. I’ve also taken apples along with cheese and crackers. I can’t stand brown apples, so I pack a little knife. (And fig newtons! Maybe they’re not a CSA product, but they’re an essential part of my afternoons.) Next week, I plan on taking the fried rice (and more fig newtons).

I’ve still got some eggs from last week, so I hope to do some baking this weekend. Biscotti and cookies, most likely. And scrambled eggs for supper! I tend to hoard the eggs until we’ve got a bunch. Then I go through them all in a weekend, and the cycle continues.

And the muffins! Breakfast is now a muffin and yogurt. Woo-hoo! Chocolate for breakfast is always good idea. And I like the pecans in the muffins; it’s a nice change from walnuts.

Hope you’re having as much fun as I am!

Last Tuesday, I visited the weekly packing operation at Farmers Fresh. It’s a lot of work! I got to meet Patricia, Janet, Fran, Michele, and Bryan. I even put together some cardboard boxes (although they turned out to be the wrong ones. D’oh!)

Patricia and Fran crack open the produce.

Patricia and Michelle bag amidst the bounty.

Janet repackages 25 lbs of red peas.

Bryan drops off his weekly harvest.

43 boxes - just under half of this week's deliveries

Member Dianne Cox looks pleased with her weekly order.

Here’s what was in our box for the last pre-season delivery.

this fortnight's spread

• herbs: lemon thyme, salad burnet, rosemary
• leaf lettuce
• romaine
• carrots!
• spinach
• pecans
• whole wheat bread
• turnip greens
• popping corn
• dozen eggs
• pac choi
• apples

We’ve already broken into the lettuce, salad burnet, eggs, carrots, and bread. See?

an all CSA supper!

The carrots are amazing. I’ve been scrubbing them, cutting off the tops, and eating them as is. I haven’t even bothered to cut them up. We just eat them Bugs Bunny style.

The spinach is delicious. It’s got nice texture, color, and no bitterness. The pac choi is really pretty, too. I’m thinking of chopping it and lightly cooking it like cabbage. I’ll probably serve it with pork loin cooked with some of the rosemary and thyme.

I’m giving the turnip greens to my parents. Might as well share the love, right?

I now have 2 pounds of pecans to candy. Now if I can just rope the guys in to helping me shell them this weekend…

We’re excited to try the popping corn but haven’t yet. The CSA flyer said this corn pops completely so there’s no hull left.

It seems you can’t judge an apple by its cover! I cut up a kind of sad looking red apple to eat yesterday… and it was tart, crisp, juicy, and perfect.