Applesauce

Faced with a surplus of apples back in January, I went digging for applesauce recipes and found this one. With the glut of apples our CSA is providing us, we've now got the process down pat. Which is good because it's hard to beat warm, just finished cooking applesauce. : )

Zucchini Brownies

Yea, you read that title right. Amanda suggested that we use our abundance of zucchini to make brownies. And since (a) I will readily agree to almost anything if chocolate is involved and (b) we were having company over. I jumped on it. I used this recipe from All Recipes and made a few slight tweaks.

Happy 4th of July!

Since today is a holiday in the US, the hubby and I both had today off work. We put the day to good use making jam from our CSA fruit.

Four hours and two (more) trips to the store later we were the proud owners of 21.5 pints of jam. To put that in perspective, that's equivalent to 43 jars of store bought jam. We also made up another batch of vegetable stock, but we ran out of steam (hah!) before making it to the pressure canning so we will do that this weekend.

The picture above shows our flavor spectrum. On the left is vegetable stock followed by black/blue berry jam, strawberry jam, strawberry/peach jam, vanilla peach jam, and peach jam.

Whew!

CSA Week 7

Last week's bundle of tastiness included blackberries, corn, (more) squash, potatoes, a green bell pepper, carrots, cucumber, the first of the tomatoes and egg plant.

We put the green bell pepper and tomatoes on a pizza. The squash will likely become soup (we have a LOT of squash), the eggplant went to my friend. The cucumber went into what was supposed to be cucumber soup and turned out to be not quite cucumber soup, not quite guacamole (more on that later). Blackberries are prepped for jam. Corn will be eaten tomorrow with burgers. Carrots and potatoes will find a happy home in one dish or another. Perhaps we will do grilled potatoes with our burgers and corn tomorrow...

Since tomorrow is a holiday here in the States, we will be celebrating by spending the day making jam. We have peaches, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries awaiting jamification and we picked up pectin and more sugar tonight. We will also pressure can the vegetable stock I made over the weekend and let another batch simmer away while we cook. This will result in a massive clean out of the freezer and a great stocking of the pantry. Huzzah!

CSA Week 6

This week's share included a large box of blueberries, green beans, potatoes, a green bell pepper, eggplant, onion, carrots, more squash, a cucumber, and more peaches!

The blueberries and peaches are in the freezer waiting to be made into jam (we are going to have a fabulous jam day here sometime soon). The eggplant went to our friend. Some of the carrots and squash we sauteed and put over pasta for dinner. Today we are going to make veggie soup as we are getting a bit overrun with vegetables that we can't quite use fast enough. So potatoes, carrots, and beets will cook first to create a creamy base, then we'll add the other veggies later so they aren't mushy--green beans, onion, bell pepper, squash, zucchini....whatever sounds good. We're totally winging it here. We'll use our homemade veggie stock as the base and make some sort of carb to go with. ^_^

I still have the monster veggies from our friend. I think the zucchini will be grated and frozen for future zucchini breads. The squash's fate is yet to be determined.

CSA--Week 5

This week's CSA share included lots and lots of peaches (yay for the fruit share!). I peeled and sliced those today and popped them in the freezer to await becoming jam. The eggplant went to a friend. Also included were some sort of greens, squash, zucchini, a green bell pepper, cucumbers, carrots, green beans, and more beets. Dinner tonight will be hamburgers with roasted vegetables, so we will throw the beets, carrots, and whatever else seems like a good idea in the oven with some olive oil and salt.

In addition to our CSA veggies we also have these monstrosities given to us by a friend last weekend. Their garden produces super vegetables.



Does the whole "slice and use instead of noodles in lasagna" trick work with zucchini and squash or are they too mushy to hold up?

CSA--Week 4

This week saw lots of good stuff--beets (I think), carrots, zucchini, squash, cucumbers, an onion, peas, strawberries, and blackberries. The zucchini have been baked into some delicious pumpkin zucchini bread (recipe coming soon!). The carrots, squash, onion, and beets are going to join some assorted beans and our vegetable stock in some vegetarian chili tomorrow night. We'll make cornbread to go with it and have that as dinner and lunches for several days. The cucumbers I may make sandwiches out of and may slice up for snacks (I ate several of the smaller ones as afternoon snacks last week, yum!). The strawberries and blackberries have been washed and frozen and are waiting for jam making time. The peas we will have with dinner some night, probably thrown in with some carrots, squash, and onion in a pasta Alfredo dish. : )

CSA--Week 3

This week we got a few more strawberries (!), a large onion, a zucchini, more summer squash, carrots, beets, three small cucumbers, green beans, purple cabbage and some sort of leafy green.

We used the carrots, zucchini, leafy green, some of the squash and about half of the onion in an amazing pasta primavera. Not the world's healthiest dish, but soooo tasty. Especially with super fresh veggies which are blissfully sweet and flavorful.

The strawberries we will eat this week with dinners. The green beans we will probably split 50/50 between steamed and frozen. The beets we will likely roast again because that was delicious with the last batch of beets. The cucumbers will be good snacks or we might make some salads and toss them in. I'm not sure what we will do with the cabbage. Salad? Coleslaw? Cook it with the summer squash and onion?

CSA--Week 2

That one lonely box of strawberries was our Fruit Lover's share for the week. Our poor strawberries have had a rough year of it (hot.cold.hot.cold.) so that may be the last of them. With any luck the blueberries should be coming in soon though... : )

Beautiful beets, broccoli, cauliflower, summer squash, zucchini, onions, and a few adorable patty pan squash. This is a week full of veggies begging to be grilled, sauteed, roasted and devoured.

Last night we roasted the beets (vegetable candy, absolutely delicious) and sauteed their greens with some onions and garlic. It was fascinating how variable the flavor of the greens was--from a touch bitter to a touch sweet. Tonight we sauteed/steamed some kohlrabi, summer squash, zucchini, onion, and garlic. The veggies were served over a bed of jasmine rice and topped with slices of lemon pepper chicken. YUM. Tomorrow, for Memorial Day, I think we are going to grill up spears of sweet potatoes (already on hand), summer squash, and zucchini. I have no idea what we will have with them--steaks maybe--but it doesn't really matter, the vegetables will be the stars.

We are planning to make up some stir fry kits with all that lovely broccoli and cauliflower. We'll probably throw the remaining Chinese Cabbage in there as well as some kohlrabi. Some of zucchini will go into zucchini bread (hopefully with some canned pumpkin I have sitting in the fridge). The strawberries have already been cleaned and frozen in preparation for jam. They smelled absolutely divine, so I have no doubt the jam will be heavenly!

CSA--Week 1

It seems like every year I start this series of posts and every year I peter out somewhere along the way. Ah, well, try try and try again, eh?

This week was our first pick up for our CSA. We have an abundance of strawberries because in addition to our usual Mini Shares, we also signed up for a Fruit Lover's Share. We have BIG plans for jams this year. ^_^

Most of these you probably recognize. The crazy bulb looking things (which I think look like the pigs from Angry Birds...) are kohlrabi which have a very neutral flavor and go well in salads, stir-fries and (according to our latest CSA newsletter) a hashbrown style dish.

We used carrots, broccoli, and onion that first night. We grilled them, together with some bell peppers and sausage and served them over jasmine rice. Nom.

We have the two larger boxes of strawberries cleaned and in the freezer in prep for making jam later. The smaller box we will eat as is. The Chinese cabbage, carrots, broccoli, kohlrabi, and green onions will make a tasty stir fry and we will probably prep several bags of "ready to go" stir fry veggies for stir fries later in the year. The beets are great on salads, and we may try pickling some. We may also try out those kohlrabi patties with omelets and do a "breakfast for dinner" meal. Radishes will go in the salads and...I dunno what else.

Any must try recipes with any of these?

CSA--Year 2--Week 3

Since we are picking up this week's box today, perhaps I should share what we got last week. The box included:

• 1 bunch of asparagus
• 1 bunch of green onions
• 1 large head of broccoli
• 1 HUGE head of cauliflower
• 1 small head of romaine lettuce
• 1 bundle of unidentified greens
• 1 head of bok choi
• 4 turnips radishes
• a whole mess of peas

The asparagus we sauted and added to a hash (potatoes, asparagus, green onions, and left over sausage). The broccoli, cauliflower, and bok choi were flash frozen to add to our stash. About half of the head of cauliflower was left out for roasting and snacking. Which reminds me, we should do that. Maybe for dinner tonight.

The romaine lettuce has been going in salads, the unidentified greens are still unidentified and, as of yet, unused. (Bad!)

I was intending to make mashed turnips with dinner but when I started peeling them the peppery scent clued me into my mistake. What I had thought were turnips were radishes. So instead, the radishes went into a delightful salsa (recipe coming soon).

The peas are destined for fried rice based on a brilliant idea left in the comment last week by one of my dear friends. So we'll be making that this weekend. : )

We also used up the head of cabbage from week two by making coleslaw for a friend's bonfire over the Memorial Day weekend.

And in case you think that the hubby and I are having all the CSA related fun, look what I found drug upstairs and left in our bedroom.



Our fierce hunters brought us a present! A dead pea!

CSA--Year 2--Week 1

After months of waiting (and waiting and waiting...) our CSA has started back up for the summer! I am excited to get back to the astonishingly fresh produce and playful cooking of last summer.

This week's box included:

• 1 box of fresh strawberries--the kind of ripe they can't sell in grocery stores because they would have rotted before they got to you. Fragrant, ruby red, and absolutely mouthwatering.
• 1 bunch of green onions
• 3 small heads of broccoli
• 1 small head of cauliflower
• 1 small head of romaine lettuce
• 1 cabbage
• 1 head (is that the right term?) of bok choi
• 1 bunch of unidentified greens

The hubby and I took one look at our haul and knew exactly what to do with it--stir fry! Our plan is to prep the stir fry friendly veggies this weekend, flash freeze them, and put together stir fry "kits" for those lazy, hungry weeknights. That will use the green onions, broccoli, cabbage, and bok choi.

The greens we will try to identify and then either have in salads or wilt and eat in pasta. (Love wilted greens!) The cauliflower I'll eat as snacks and the romaine will go in salads. As for the delicious strawberries? Strawberry pancakes for dinner tonight, with a strawberry sauce on top. ♥

We will probably modify these recipes .

The Law Of Unintended Consequences

We joined a CSA this summer because it was something I really wanted to do--we were trying to move away from so many preprocessed foods and I figured that fresh, local produce was good for us, good for the economy, and good for the environment. I just didn't realize it would be good for our wallet as well.

CSA--Week 9

This week's CSA box absolutely overwhelmed me with it's color, variety, and upcoming deliciousness. This is the very essence of summer--with produce like this, who needs processed food?

CSA--Weeks 7 and 8

With things a bit nutty at work right now, week 7 slipped by before I could post it. So before we pick up week 9's box tomorrow, here is a recap of weeks 7 and 8.

Week 7:


Eggplant, zucchini, beets, and a shot of our bea-u-tiful box.

CSA--Week 6

This week's CSA box was full of lots of summer goodness.


Cucumbers, (our first!) tomatoes, green beans, and (more) cabbage.


Another (amazing) green bellpepper, (our first!) fresh corn, onion, and (another first) eggplant.

The bellpeppers have surprised me. Normally, I find green bell peppers virtually tasteless, but these are crisp and flavorful. Last week's actually stood out in a salad we made. The eggplant however...not a fan. We grilled some up with olive oil, salt, and garlic (sounds good right?) and it was so bad we ended up throwing it out. Not sure if it was the way we prepared it, or just a lack of love for eggplant. I'll give them another try, but with caution.

CSA--Weeks 4 & 5

Last week slipped right by me, so today's post shows our CSA box from last week as well as this week.

First up, last week:


Cucumbers, green onions, lettuce, cauliflower and beets (shown in the main box).


More zucchini and cabbage and our first peas.

We made a good go of things last week, eating what we could and freezing the rest. Cauliflower, peas, and cabbage are great stir fry ingredients and we have bought cauliflower and peas frozen before, so we are hoping that our attempt at freezing them will be successful!

This week's box is overflowing with goodies:


More zucchini and cabbage.


A different variety of cucumber, beets, a large onion, and green beans!


Lettuce, squash, a green bell pepper, and a bonus item--one dozen farm fresh eggs! They are now offering them as an add on, so they gave everyone a free dozen this week to try to drum up orders. We haven't tried them yet, but I am curious to see if we can tell a difference.

I'm really impressed with the wide variety of items that we are getting. Our farm contracts with other local farms in the area, so I'm sure that is part of how they are able to provide so many different things. I often find myself wishing that we would get more of the same things a couple of weeks in a row. (Like that kohlrabi!) Not so much with the cabbage though. There are only so many things you can do with it and one head of a cabbage a week for over a month with just the two of us? That's a bit much. But I'm not feeling overdosed on anything else and am eagerly anticipating the coming corn, tomatoes, blackberries, and blueberries!

CSA--Week 3

We did fairly well with our share last week, although we still have quite a bit of cabbage leftover and apparently failed on the turnips. We didn't use them in time and they now feel squishy so I think they need a new home in the trash. : /

This week's haul is quite tasty. Fresh strawberries, more cabbage, and beets! I've only ever eaten beets from a can, never fresh, so I'm excited about these.



Also, broccoli, purple onions, green and purple Swiss chard, and zucchini. Lots of good things for steaming and grilling. I'm also hoping to find a good recipe for fried zucchini, an indulgence I fell in love with as a child but have never made at home.

CSA--Week 2

I had the pleasure of picking up our CSA share this week. There is something absolutely giddy making about seeing a neat row of pecks and berries and knowing that one of those is coming home with you.

We did quite well last week, having just a few things left over.



A bit of lettuce. (Which I think was actually cabbage, but oh well) Some broccoli. And the stems from our Swiss chard.

As for this week?



Lots of good things! Purple Kohlrabi. Turnips. Asparagus.



Broccoli. Green onions. Strawberries (we have a secret plan for these!). And more lettuce/cabbage. This week labeled as cabbage.

Coming soon, what we think of kohlrabi and what our secret plan is for the strawberries. : )

Community Supported Agriculture--Week 1

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is something I have been hearing about for years. The premise is simple: you pay money upfront to a local farmer. The local farmer uses that money to purchase seeds, fertilizer, and other farm necessities and then, for a predetermined amount of time, returns to you the results of that investment--fresh fruits and vegetables. Every farm runs their CSA program a little differently, at some you get biweekly deliveries, at others, weekly. Some offer bread or eggs or fresh flowers.

The idea has always intrigued me but the up front cost and our small kitchens (not ideal for preserving any excess) have always deterred me. But this year, this year I signed up! Yesterday evening was our first pick up and just look at the wonderfulness that came home!



That would be strawberries, lettuce, radishes, broccoli...



...Swiss Chard, and bunching onions.



I am absolutely ecstatic about our newfound bounty and I can't begin to start trying my hand at making new things. I've never cooked with radishes or Swiss chard, or bunching onions before...so this will be quite an adventure!

If you are curious what CSA programs might be in your area (or farmers markets or organic food...) check out Local Harvest to find out!