Pre Pick-Up Rush

July 15, 2010

If you never have the chance to eat roasted carrots before you die, then you've absolutely lived an unfulfilled life.

Before my Long Meadow Farm days, I had absolutely no idea that carrots came in any color other than orange. Next thing you know, Mother Nature will start making yellow and purple Cheetos.

I pick up our share this afternoon, so when lunchtime rolled around and I still had some vegetables to finish up, I got creative. I ended up with a dang good lunch:

I stir-fired some kale, green onions, basil and squash in olive oil. Then I added breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and noodles. If you're looking for an Italianish flavor, get crazy and add some breadcrumbs to your stir fry. Way greasy. Way good.

And just so you know, you can blanch a zillion different vegetables--not just leafy greens. If you buy it frozen at the supermarket, then you can blanch it and freeze it at home. This is blanched squash about to hit the freezer:

That way I can torture my husband in the dead of winter, too.

Accidental Vegan

June 13, 2010

I just realized, that for the last couple of days, I've unintentionally made a lot of vegan recipes. I swear, if there was a way to make animal-free steak, I'd jump on the bandwagon right this minute.

If you ignore the Ritz crackers over there, this soup is totally vegan:

I threw a whole mess of stuff into the crock pot (vegetable broth, a cubed CSA summer squash, a can of rinsed chick peas, a cup of brown rice, some CSA carrots, and 3 or 4 leaves of chopped CSA kale leaves) and let it go for a couple hours.

Believe it or not, it wasn't bad. Even my five-year-old ate a bowl without calling me any horrible, humiliating names.

Here's another fabulous vegan CSA creation:

Hash browns with rosemary, CSA green onion, and CSA kale chopped so small that I swear you don't even know it's there. We had these hash browns with grilled squash and chicken.

And this zucchini bread? It's vegan, too:

But only because I didn't have any eggs in the fridge. It actually turned out really well despite the lack of eggs. I guess a whole cup of sugar can fix anything.

Cabbage and Squash

July 10, 2010

This week, we got a whole mess of squash in our CSA basket. I love squash, James and Maggie love squash, but my husband? The man who will eat lightly breaded cow testicles? He plain old can't handle squash.

But this time around, he's been trying really, really hard.

On Thursday night, I made this:

It's nothing super special--just pasta with sauce from a jar, sliced up squash, and some fresh basil torn and tossed on top (okay, I guess that last part is pretty special). It was really easy to make--all I did was slice the squash super thin and put in the sauce to cook.

And guess what? My husband successfully swallowed two paper thin squash slices! Next thing you know, he'll be pooping in the potty! Yay!

Yesterday afternoon, I made cole slaw for lunch, and as far as cole slaw goes, this batch was particularly awesome--totally not the stuff you push off the side of your plate when you go out to eat at Friendly's:

It was really, really easy. Just toss all of this stuff in a bowl:

1 or 2 heads of chopped CSA cabbage
7 or 8 chopped CSA carrots
3 diced CSA green onions
1 bunch of CSA radhises sliced super thin
1 jar of store bought cole slaw dressing (becase I'm a cheater)
and a few sprinkles of poppy seeds

Happy eating!

Week 5: Where's My Ho? Here I Am!

July 8, 2010

It's week 5, and I'm thrilled to say that this week's CSA basket was practically vomiting up color. Sure, it was still packed tight with kale--two kinds no less--but we've moved beyond the leafy greens for the most part and into the the world of squash.

Today while I was picking up my basket, I met a fellow CSAer named Susan. Does she or does she not look like she could be the spokes model for CSAs all over the world?

That's right, she does. It's gotta be the skirt. Here's the way I see it:

Long Skirt = Organic Vegetable Lover

Knee Length Skirt = Mormon Party Goer

Mini Skirt = Natural Light Drinker

It's all very scientific.

Anyhoo, Susan isn't just any old CSA member, she's also a member of the Cold Stream Herbal CSA. For $100 extra, you get a whole mess of herbs, flowers, and homemade handicrafts.

This week, Cold Stream members got a plate of lemon balm cookies with cream cheese frosting, a tea ball, a bunch of lavender, and a ginormous load of lemon balm:

They also get all kinds of tips and directions on how to use the herbs medicinally. For example, did you know that lemon balm is fantastic for treating oral and genital herpes?

Susan told me that.

I was like, "That's great information. Let me actually just write it down on this post it note here. You know, for my mom. And my sister. But not for me....STOP STARING AT ME!"

Moving on...

This is the inside of the greenhouse at Long Meadow Farm:

As far as I can tell, they're growing plants.

This is Farmer Anna. She was toiling in the fields, so we stopped to say hi. I quickly realized that we were holding her up, so I was like, "Get back to work and grow my food, woman!" It almost feels like I have my very own lawn boy. Man, I'm loving the power!

As the kids and I were walking back to the car, Anna was like, "Where's my tool?!"

And I was all, "What?!"

And she said, "Where's my ho?!"

So I said, "I'm right here! Where's my b!tch?!"

She meant garden ho, which is fine, because I was definitely talking about a female dog.

Moving on again....

I turned around on our drive home and saw this:

It was never meant to be a cup holder, those holes in your car are actually engineered for summer squash.

And finally, a look at this week's haul:

Rainbow carrots--almost as cool as Skittles. Almost.

And the final count looks like this:

2 zucchini

4 mysterious light green squash

2 yellow summer squash

3 squatty shaped yellow squash

2 bags of rainbow carrots

2 bunches of kale

cilantro

basil

2 heads of cabbage

2 bunches of beets

3 little heads of lettuce

We had hot pockets for dinner.

Kidding, kidding...

Would You Like Salad With That?

June 15, 2010

What can I say? Today was more of the same. I had a green smoothie for breakfast--this time I added beet greens and since it tasted more like rainbows than ass, I consider it a raging success. Lunch was almost identical to yesterday:

Greens, bleu cheese, pasta, blah, blah, blah. I did spice it up with a grilled chicken thigh--because I'm awesome. Salad for dinner. You all know what salad looks like.

James thinks his CSA carrots are better than a roller coaster:

I'll put the beet recipe up tomorrow. It's late. I'm tired. It's always necessary to drink with three straws. At least in this house.

Two Worlds Collide

June 12, 2010

It's day three of our CSA, and this might be premature, but I'll say it anyway--I'm sold. For the first time in my life, I know what a carrot's supposed to taste like, and to be quite honest, it's better than a Skittle. If you know me, you understand the magnitude of that statement. The broccoli is soft and sweet, and did you have any idea that mescalin salad mix is spicy? Yeah, me neither. And when I say spicy, what I actually mean is makeyournoserunandyourcleanasawhistlehusbandsayaswearword spicy. I could get used to this.

And without further ado, here's what we ate today...

For lunch I had salad topped with soy nuts, feta cheese, and this really awesome salad dressing that had twenty-two grams of fat per serving. Hello!

After lunch, I decided to blanch some spinach. I've never blanched anything before, but I've got to say, it was super easy. Basically you boil some water, you throw the spinach into the boiling water for two seconds, you pull it out, you let it cool, you stick it in a couple of ziploc bags, and you freeze it for the winter. Here's the really unbelievable part--See this pillowcase sized bag of spinach?

Well it turned into this:

Those are sandwich sized bags, not the kind of bags that the school puts your kid's poopy windpants into. Your kid, not mine.

And then we moved on to dinner. This my friends, is where my two worlds collided--leftover Chinese takeout and organic bok choy. See?

The bok choy was super easy to make. I am no longer afraid. 

I used a the recipe provided by the CSA. In other words, I stir-fried it in a tablespoon of olive oil, added a pinch of sugar, and pinch of salt, and tossed in a tablespoon or so of toasted sesame seeds. It was really stinking good.

But James? Well, he's not a Chinese food kind of guy. He had two PB&Js with a side of CSA carrots.

He even ate the tops.

Moral of the story? You should be afraid of dragons and you should be really afraid of crack cocaine, but don't waste your time fearing bok choy. It's on our side.