The Last Supper

Ever since the weather turned frigid and the growing season ended, I have been out of ideas as to what to cook for my family. "Grilled cheese and clementines again Mummy?"

It used to be easy. The CSA would give me a bag of veggie each week. Each week I would plan recipes around the veggies in the bag. We would eat them. Easy smeashy.

Now I walk into the grocery store and are greeting with millions of possibilities. Too many for me to even want to chose from. Often it's just chicken pot pie again. And again.

If I was a smarter Gruppie or I possibly lived back in 1765 I would know just how to preserve those summer veggies to last all winter long. In fact, learning how to preserve food is on my it's too cold to go outside so I might as well learn something new agenda.

Last week I dug deep into the depths of my cabinet and emerged with two small sweet potatoes and a clove of garlic left over from the farm. I took them and made a Real Simple recipe of sweet potato risotto.

Yummy....Still, the question lingers. What do I cook for dinner tonight?

Last CSA of the season

Yesterday was my last pick-up of the nineteen week Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) season.

Over the season I have exposed myself and my family to many new foods are recipes. A large portion of the food we now consume has been grown or made locally. The family's diet is now primarily vegetarian..and we aren't missing having meat everyday. In fact, when we eat more than the occasional piece of meet it makes us feel ill.

That last pick-up is my signal that the freezing weather and dark days are before us. Gone are the days of playing outside in flip flops. Gone are the days of endless fresh fruit. Gone are the days shaving my bikini line.

Raise a glass of hard cider to the promise that next spring will come soon.

New To Me

My first fourteen weeks of being a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) member is still going strong. Every Thursday I show-up and am handed a bag of whatever fruits and veggies were picked on the farm that week. Easy smeeshy.

That simple brown bag of veggies has really expanded my horizons from simply potatoes and carrots all the way to bok choi (hubby wants to replace the lawn with a field of bok choi next spring) and now husk cherries.

On first glance, husk cherries resemble tiny paper lanterns. Delicate and paper like.

When it finally dawns on you to tear open the covering, you will find perfect pale-red spheres. When it finally dawns on you to taste one, you will notice a taste somewhat like a sweet tomato with hints of something I can't put my finger on.

In this week's CSA newsletter the farm included a recipe for husk cherry pie. Gosh, stick anything into a pie crust, add sugar and I will be your best friend.

1 unbaked pie shell
1 cup husked cherries
2 eggs
1/8 tsp. salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 table. flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line pie pan with the pastry and fill with the husked cherries. Beat eggs with salt. Add sugar and flour. Add milk and vanilla and stir well. Pour over the husk cherries and bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 25 -30 minutes or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve Plain or with whipped cream. http://www.recipezaar.com/

The plan is to cook the pie after soccer practice (Little Guy's. I don't pretend to have the ability to kick a ball). I'll update you then.

Update: The pie was a little too custerdy for my liking. OK, so I ate a piece anyway. Gilrie and Hubby wouldn't touch it.

Cute, but I will have to try a different recipe next season.

In Season Cooking

Challenges are good in life. They help you grow, change, blahhh, blahhh, blahhh. I'm sure you've head that line before.

The last four weeks of receiving shares from my local CSA have been a challenge for me. Most of the foods in my weekly share have been complete strangers to me. Like Google the names to match the vegetable strangers. Still, the guilt from possibly wasting these local, organically grown veggies has driven me to step-up my cooking.

Here are a couple of the recipes from Wild Carrot Farm that the entire family has loved.

General Tao’s Stir Fry with Bok Choi

1 pound extra-firm tofu
¾ c. cornstarch
1-2 T peanut oil (I used olive oil and substituted peanut butter)
1 T extra virgin olive oil
3 chopped green onions
1 T minced ginger
2 T minced garlic
2.3 c. chicken or vegetable stock
2 T soy sauce
4 T sugar
Crushed red pepper flakes to taste
1 T white vinegar
1 head bok choi (thinly chopped)

Press water out of tofu and cut into 1” cubes. Place tofu in a mixing bowl with cornstarch and toss to coat tofu completely. Watch out that the cornstarch doesn’t clump at the bottom of the bowl. Heat peanut oil in pan and fry tofu until golden. Drain tofu and set aside.

Heat olive oil in pan on medium heat. Add ginger and garlic and sauté until garlic begins to turn golden. About 1 minute. Be careful not to burn garlic. Add vegetable stock, soy sauce, sugar, red pepper flakes and vinegar. Add green onions, bok choi and tofu and cook about 4 minute.

Serve immediately over rice. Super yummy!!


Garlic Scapes Pesto

1/8 pound garlic scapes
¼ c. olive oil
½ cup grated parmesan cheese

Chop scapes into ¼” sections. Blend scapes with olive oil (a food processor works best…trust me…I had a blender disaster). Remove from food processor and add parmesan cheese.

Use on bread, pasta, potatoes or as a dip.

My First Time

Lately there has been a lot of press about the sky high prices of food…gas…heating oil…everything. I like to think that there is a sliver lining of this tough prices. The lining may be that more people have started to look closer to home for their resources.

CSA’s (community supported agriculture) has been in the news a lot lately. CSAs are when a small farm sells a share of their bounty to a number of families. This fee is usually due at the beginning of the season.

The money collected helps small farms who may have been struggling to buy seeds, pay for their farming help and generally run the farm. On the consumer end, food prices can be cheaper, produce is fresh, you are supporting the local economy and contributing very few emissions from lack of transport.

Today I picked-up the family’s first share of the 19 week season over at Wild Carrot Farm.
The kids and I walked into the barn and were immediately greeted by two friendly farmers. Debbie and Carlen (like George she said) shook my hand and happily introduced themselves. I grabbed by share and off we went. Easy Smeeshy.

Debbie and Carlen were sweet enough to let me snap a photo!

Luckily, my share included a newsletter complete with a list of what was contained in this week’s share. Bok choi, cape daisy plant, garlic scapes, kale, lettuce, scallions and strawberries.

So I understand strawberries and lettuce. But the rest of the veggies are more of a mysterious challenge. The friendly farmers must have anticipated veggie-challenged people like me because they included a written description of the more exotic vegetables along with a few recipes. Garlic scape pesto anyone?

See you next week Debbie and Carlen (like George)!