Adventures in Sunday Cooking

Sunday March 21st

The Martinsville race was on TV and Dan invited his brother and the fam over to watch. Any excuse to get together right? Plus I've gotten into a great habit of cooking up a storm on Sundays and its always great to have people you love there to share it.

I started with the Applesauce. Basic but delicious and I know Kris loves it. And yes, while it is more of a dessert, even Dan likes it.

The skins and cores become compost to fertilize our land

{whenever we get around to needing that}

and then into the crockpot. 4 hours later and mmmmmmm applesauce. I use this recipe, though I usually add more apples and more cinnamon but not much more of anything else on the ingredients list. comes out perfect every time.

and my favorite oatmeal.

i make this nearly every week. its great for breakfast at work- simply add some milk and heat in the microwave. it gives you that divine homecooked hearty feeling that lasts for hours.

my newest territory is ice cream making.

i got a steal of a deal at Marshalls on a stainless steel Cuisinart puppy that i couldn't resist... and while I'm trying to eat healthy as much as i can, we all have our weaknesses right? and if i'm going to eat junk food, I'd at least like to know what's in it and what's not:

so what's in this ice cream?

organic milk

organic cream

organic sugar

vanilla

no preservatives or additives or coloring of any kind. now there's a treat i can feel good about!

so what's the verdict?

um yeah. safe to say this little guy LOVED it.

in fact, i looked over shortly after this to find Willy tipping the bowl up to drink the rest of what had melted. he didn't want to miss a drop! it was a hit!

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And on Wednesday of that week- 3/24/10- Kris and I picked up our first farm share delivery of the season. Last year I purchased a Spring, Summer and Fall Share and chickened out for the winter, but now that I'm picking up weekly again I remember what a wonderful part of my life this is.

What's better -- this year Krissy and Matt are joining me! Kris has been doing more of her own reading and watching on the subject of food purity (and mostly the lack thereof) and is now fully into the organic cult-- and I am so happy to have her on my team!

She told me last week that as much as I'd been trying to tell her this stuff, it just finally clicked with her and she's really excited about the idea of having the opportunity to give her kids organic/hormone free food right from the beginning of their lives! It is pretty cool if you think about it. Krissy is also a fantastic cook and I hope that together we can find some new recipes and creative uses for the bounty we'll pick up each week. The first week we received: Baby Bok Choi, Red Kale, Baby Spinach, Salad Mix, Romaine Lettuce Grapefruit, Apples Barley Flour Bunched Beets, Sweet Potatoes, Red Potato, Carrots Summer Squash, Zucchini Squash

MMMMMmmmmmmmm!

Looking forward to many more recipes and good times with family ahead this season!

CSA Pick up Wednesday 6-24-09

Another week, another batch of truly wonderful food.
Too busy for extravagent menu planning this week, but i'm still making a dent in it.

the strawberries are so sweet and delicious. its like experiencing a whole new fruit. i gave one to krissy last night and she agreed. perfection in a berry!

since we had pizza for Oisin's birthday party on wednesday night, i told kris i'd make something quick for us for dinner on thursday. i cheated and got her and willy a rotisserie chicken. we also enjoyed the CSA sweet potatoes with sour cream and scallions (MMMMM!) and the zucchini. accompanied by a salad with the red boston lettuce, strawberries, blueberries, cukes, 'salad fixins' and balsamic vinaigrette.

simple and easy. a contrast from last week's adventerous burst.
still yummy though and that's what counts.

my new mission for this week- finding out how to preserve spices. freezing versus drying. any expertise out there?

My first CSA Farm Share Pick-up!!

Wednesday June 17, 2009

Wednesday was my first pick-up of fresh, local organic produce that I get from Heaven's Harvest Farms. I was sooo ridiculously excited. It really was like Christmas for me! I rushed home from work. Did my walk, then flew out of the house to find the pick-up spot.

I used my handy GPS (a smart birthday gift from Dan)

I was feeling awfully green- with my car on battery mode, going to pick up my produce! I'm a serious dork, I admit that. But I was seriously almost high! LOL!!

See how happy?! Sun roof open (one of the FEW sunny days we've had this month)

Of course I still managed to get myself a little turned around... not that it was really Garmin's fault- I was too excited to pay attention I think! Oops!

This is my bundle. Its called a half-share. Supposed to feed 2 people. A full share is for a family of 4. But I figure since I eat enough veggies for two, and Dan will rarely eat any of them, this would be perfect.





I knew it would take some creative planning to find recipes for these veggies. Many of which I had never tried-- but then that's part of my reason for wanting to do this. I really am ENJOYING being a vegetarian (still fairly new- started Sept '08), but I think I needed this push to try vegetables I wouldn't normally buy.

Wednesday night I made stir fry with the summer squash and bok choy from the CSA. And used up peppers, carrots, mushrooms and ginger that I had.

I also made a cold Cucumber Couscous Salad which came out great! Recipe can be found here.

Then Thursday I invited Kris and the kids over for dinner at my house, instead of going to hers. She was glad to come, and as it turned out Matt came too- and Dan didn't have cards that night, so we had a big family dinner.

Results: I thought it was a little oily but the flavor was good. Kris liked it.

Results: I thought they were undercooked, even though I cooked them longer than the recipe called for. The flavor was just ok. Kris said, and Matt & I subsequently agreed, that they "taste good for you." It wasn't a bad flavor and the ginger/butter helped... but it wasn't something any of us will be craving in the near future.

collard greens- washed and ready to go

Results: The salad ended up being room-temp instead of warm because we were running a little behind. Dan thought he'd have liked it better warm and with a little less mustard. I thought it needed less Vinegar. Matt doesn't like sweet potatoes but he liked 'em. Kris and Matt loved the salad.

I ended up buying chicken legs and breasts, marinated them in olive oil and lemon balm and Dan cooked them on the grill.

Results: They all said the flavor was good. That's all I have to go on ;)

We also grilled some portabella mushrooms and summer squash on the grill. mmmm

I still need to experiment with the turnips, and I've got another sweet potato to enjoy this week. I'm thinking I'll indulge on a sweet potato with sour cream and the rest of the fresh chives! mmm.

Hope you've enjoyed hearing about my cooking adventures. I'll try to post some new ones each week as the produce comes in!

Countdown to Fresh, Local, Organic Produce

I am so amazingly excited about this (if you're not interested in my eco-nerddom you might want to skip this post). I mentioned before that I signed up for share in a local organic farm for the summer. It's one main farm with some support from other local farms in western MA, that has a drop off spot in Scituate (right near the library, my other new and nerdy hang out).

I just got the list of fruits, veggies and herbs that will be waiting for me on Wednesday 6/17.

Cucumbers
Hakurei Turnips
Summer Squash
Sweet Potatoes
Red Chard
Romaine Lettuce
Baby Bok Choi
Collards
Scallions
Lemon Balm
Chives
Strawberries

I am very much looking forward to tasting my old favorites in their new form (extremely fresh and completely pesticide free), and looking up recipes and uses for things I haven't tried before.

While some question how I can still be a vegetarian, I sometimes wonder "how can you not?" there are so many other great tasting things out there, that there really isn't any room left on the plate now is there? And while Dan contends, somewhat legitimately (given the menus of so many Americanized restaurants these days), that I barely eat anything- I'd say that the opposite is really true now. I eat so many more things that I simply didn't eat before because, let's face it, I didn't have to.

I can tell you honestly that before last September I would have turned my nose up to:

Hakurei Turnips, Red Chard, Baby Bok Choi, Collards, Scallions, Lemon Balm and Chives

Which, out of this list would have left me with: Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Sweet Potatoes & Strawberries.

And of course I probably won't like every new fruit or veggie I try, but I'm looking forward to the experience. If you have any recipes featuring these items, feel free to drop me a note!