Quite Possibly My Biggest Accomplishment To Date

No, not these roasted vegetables (potatoes, turnips, and onion):

Not these roasted vegetables, either (potatoes, kohlrabi, and beets):

Not this chicken salad made with CSA onion, CSA sage, and local apples:

And most definitely not this plain old boiled zucchini:

I'm talking about green tomato relish, and I canned it all by m'dang self!

 I won't be modest here...I've run some marathons, I've earned a degree or two, and I'm married to the hottest and richest man I've ever had the pleasure of laying my eyes upon. But all that stuff completely pales in comparison to the fact that I JUST CANNED SOMETHING!

If you want to get technical about it, I only actually canned two jars. And it's a food that most of the human race would turn their nose up at. But I did it, and consequently I feel like the freaking domestic goddess of the universe.

So what is it? What did I can?

I'll tell you if you promise to keep an open mind.

Okay.

Green tomato relish.

That right, sweet relish made with green tomatoes instead of cucumbers. I had no idea what to do with six green tomatoes, and this was the answer that came to my heart when I took it up with Almighty Google. And honestly, I'm not even lying here, it's good as all get out. Tastes just like the crap you buy off the shelf at Hannaford.

You can find the whole recipe here, and just so you know, I left out the peppers and quartered the batch.

And now, without further ado, I give you the complete pictoral presentation.

First, I chopped up the tomatoes and the onion in my leeeeetle, tiny food processor:

Then, as you can see in this $%&*@! sideways picture that doesn't want to flip, I let the mush drain through some cheese cloth for an hour or so:

Then I mixed in the vinegar, sugar, spices, and let it simmer for tenish or twelvish minutes:

And then.....then.....THEN!!!!!.....

I canned it, bitch!

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!

Cake Love

July 20, 2010

This past week, a fellow CSA member gave me a life changing tip. She told me, that when zucchini and chocolate cake 'have intimate  realations', really great things happen. I followed her recipe to the very last detail, and this was the result:

Um, oh my word.

Even my nephew, who literally wretches at the sight of green vegetables, ate three pieces. The poor kid never suspected a thing. If at all possible, peel the zucchini before you grate it. This completely eliminates all signs of green vegetablishness and will sufficiently fool boys and men alike.

This next recipe, on the other hand, wouldn't fool a 90-year-old blind man with dull taste buds:

Those are homemade veggie burgers, and I swear up and down that they taste really great. I used a few different recipes to adapt my own. Here's how it works:

Empty 1 can of drained chick peas, 1/2 cup of oats, 1/4 cup of sesame seeds, 3 or 4 chopped kale leaves, and a few chunks of fresh garlic to the food processor. Mix it up until it's smooth and add 1-2 tablespoons of melted coconut oil to the mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes on each side. Put one burger on your child's plate and watch him run away--usually not a bad thing.

And finally, a quick Asian stir-fry I made last night for friends:

Yellow squash, purple cabbage, chopped kale, onion and garlic sauteed in olive oil. Add soy sauce to taste. Dump some red quinoa to the mix, and you have yourself a meal! Especially if you top it off with some of that cake.

Week 6: Dirty Girls

July 17, 2010

I don't know about you, but I think this is a fantastic view of Long Meadow Farm. Makes me want to run around naked. But I'll he honest here, a lot of scenarios have that effect on me:

Down in the front of the picture, you can see part of the pick-your-own section of the farm. There's basil, cilantro, mint, all kind of medicinal herbs that I'm 100% clueless about, and some flowers, too. I don't think the pick-your-own section is technically open yet, but technically speaking, I'm really bad at following rules. The basil's fantastic.

Here's a shot of the beautiful ladies who toil in the field to provide my family with a continuous supply of kale:

Left to right we have Caitlin, Anna, Maggie (who pooped on Anna's shirt three seconds after I took this picture), Betsey, and Michele.

Now I know they appear to be a little rough around the edges, but I'm pretty sure that if you hosed 'em down or put 'em through an electric car wash, any one of them would be completely suitable to bring to a homecoming dance.

These are Caitlin's feet:

And from everything I could tell, those mason jars are Caitlin's water bottles. C'mon now, how au natural is that?

When we got to the farm on Thursday night, Anna, Caitlin, and Betsey were getting ready to watch a movie (probably something foreign...or independent...probably not featuring Will Ferrell), and scrambling around getting their snacks ready.

Now me? When I get ready to watch a movie, I usually run down the street to Cumby's and come back with Twizzlers, some Gatorade and a bag of those Andy Capp Hot Fries. Don't judge--it's an ugly habit.

But these girls are cut from a whole different mold. Anna grabbed two little cabbages and was like, "I need to make a stir-fry before we start the movie."

And Caitlin was all, "Wait for me!!!! I just need to whip up some quick granola, it only takes a sec!"

I looked at James and said, "Let's go to Dairy Queen for dinner."

Anyhoo.

As usual, this week's haul didn't even come close to disappointing:

Before I snapped this picture, I'd already used a zucchini and and a yellow squash to make some lunch:

It's a mish-mash of squash, zucchini, frozen corn, and black beans. It's topped with salsa made from CSA green onions, garlic, and cilantro.

The grand total for this week looks like this:

2 zucchini
5 yellow squash
2 UFO-looking squashes
a whole mess of baby cucumbers
2 heads of garlic
2 bunches of kale
a bag of green beans
a bag of broccoli
2 purple cabbages
1 torpedo shaped green cabbage

Don't forget to tell your friends about the contest!!!

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.