Ghost Schlong

So I finally managed to use that creepy ass daikon radish that came into my life two-or-so weeks ago. I'm sorry, I mean absolutely no disrespect to the hardworking farmers who toiled over that daikon, or to the innocent plant itself, but that sucker was the spitting image of a ghost penis.

I wasn't about to bite into that thing, let alone swallow it, so I took the path of least resistance, and used it to make chicken stock:

I took some meaty/bony chicken pieces, a CSA onion, some CSA herb, the diakon and let it all go in the crock pot for approximately one billion hours.

Then I threw the chicken bones and the daikon in the good old fashioned trashola, added some noodles, and had the best bowl of chicken noodle soup I've ever tasted. For real:

I made this bread to go along with it:

The picture's blurry, but that's okay--the bread sucked. It was white bread with CSA dill and oven roasted tomatoes, which sounds like such a nice idea, but it was all wrong, damnit. All wrong!

I'm trying to sound like I'm on a soap opera.

Holy Tomatoes!

You guys are good. Those tentacle-y turnipy things were in fact kohlrabi. And that totally creepy white thing (that's still in my fridge and is giving me the nervous sweats since tomorrow is CSA day and I still haven't used it up)? That's a daikon--true in the flesh. I'll let you know what comes of it.

Last Thursday we scored about one and a half million tomatoes in our CSA basket. And I won't lie, I was a little heavy handed with the overflow bin. On Monday, we still had a bazillion tomatoes sitting in the crisper, so I went to work preserving.

I know nothing (NOTHING!) about canning, so I went another route--I made 'sun dried' tomatoes, and it was super easy.

First, I cut a bunch of tomatoes in half, laid them on a cookie sheet and sprinkled them with olive oil and salt:

Then I put them in a 200 degree oven. After 3 hours, the looked like this:

After 6 hours, they achieved the enlightened state of tomato Nirvana, and looked like this:

They'll last for a long ass time in the fridge, and they're quite freezable, too. I've looked around and found that for a Roma-sized tomato or larger, you'll want to let them go in the oven for 12-or-so hours. But these were weenie little suckers.

And I made some crushed tomatoes, too. As classy as it would have been to can 'em, I didn't. So into the depths of my freezer they'll go:

My friend Brianne--who happens to be the best cupcake photographer this side of the Mississippi--has a fantastical crushed tomato tutorial on her blog. Click on over you fools!

Scenes from My Kitchen

This is a view from the share two weeks ago. The extra basket was completely overflowing, so I helped myself to an assload of purple beans. Carrots and M&Ms aren't the only rainbow veggies anymore:

This was also is the basket two weeks ago. You know how pugs are so freaking ugly that they're actually super cute? I feel the same way about this tomato--or maybe I just feel bad for it. As if its looks weren't rugged enough, it was the size of a softball on steroids--a total fat girl:

This was roasted carrots, beans and onion with bratwurst, leftover sucker sauce and rice:

$5 gas station pizza with heirloom tomatoes and some good ol' full fat ranch:

This was last week's share--thanks to the overflow basket, it was the week of the onion:

Basil, sage, cilantro, dill and parsley from the pick-your-own section. This probably would have cost $45 at Hannaford:

Pasta with caramelized onion and pesto:

And herbed salad--mescalin greens, tomatoes, green onion, dill, parsley, cilantro, basil, and a whole lotta love:

I'm so fancy I can hardly stand it:

And tonight we had grilled chicken and veggies:

Whew!

Dinner in a Pinch

You've all heard moms go on and on and on about how busy and exhausted they are, right? I can't honestly say that I'm not over scheduled or ridiculously tired, I'm just good old fashioned lazy.

That's why James ate this for dinner on Saturday:

Right. That's an unpeeled cucumber, some cheese, and a tomato with the stem still firmly in place. Not only is this meal nutritious, it also builds character.

For lunch on Sunday, James at a tomato:

Yeah, just a tomato.

And then there's Maggie. She likes her food cooked, so she got a hot dog roll:

Just holler if you want the recipes.

(...there's another new post down below.)

Week 10

Week 10's haul was probably the biggest one yet. I used my mad photography skills to take three regular pictures of the vegetables, put them together, and make one giant picture. See?

I know. My photographic talent knows no bounds. Here's the stuff from a less mutated angle:

The final count looks something like this:

2 bunches of green onions

2 bags of carrots

1 bag of tomatoes (regular and cherry sized)

3 green peppers

2 heads of broccoli

2 purple cabbage

6 yellow squash

2 zucchini

6 cucumbers

1 light green squash

2 giant white onions

2 purple onions

2 normal sized white onions

2 bags of lettuce

Lots of good stuff has been coming out of my kitchen this week. I know I've already told you about roasted carrots twice, but they really are that good:

This batch was drizzled with olive oil, tossed with dill, onion, and garlic, and baked at 450 degrees for 45ish minutes. Better than potato chips you guys--I mean that.

This pasta was a total hit:

I made a simple tomato sauce (chopped tomatoes, olive oil, salt and pepper), sauteed in some green onion and yellow squash and hoo boy we had ourselves a meal!

Last night I made black bean burritos (black beans, corn, onion, green onion, yellow squash, garlic, cumin, and chilli powder all cooked up and mushed together), with a side of cole slaw (purple cabbage, carrots, green peppers, onions, garlic, green onions, and a bottle of cole slaw dressing from the store).

Jared tried it:

Jared like it:

He prefers to communicate through dance.