Sep. 18, 2009 snap shots from Oakdale Farms
I was a bit late picking up the CSA box from Oakdale Farms yesterday,
 but the light was lovely. These Polish cockerals are named Ricky and Fred, they look like muppet teenagers to me.
 K could go up and down this ramp all day. Fortunately, B and M help me chase her and keep her out of the parking lot. |
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Sep. 17, 2009 Home Made Tortillas
My High School Classmate has an awesome website, Poor Girl Gourmet, and soon to be published cookbook that I'm sure will also be awesome. She seems to read my kids' mind.
A week or two ago, one of the boys was putting in his ideas for the menu (I'm always glad for help on the menu, because I think that the act of thinking what to cook is harder than actually doing the cooking) and he wanted to know if I knew how to make home made tortillas. Well, the next day or so, a recipe was up on Poor Girl Gourmet!
 Flattening the disks which had rested not quite long enough - we were in a hurry to get out the door to prayer meeting.
 Who, us fight? Is that the camera?
 DH flipping
 me rollign the rounds as they cooled
 Quality Control Sampler smiles, "they are good!" for Daddy |
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Sep. 11, 2009 This Week's CSA Box and Menu
| Friday – |
Pizza, B is up to the Italian unification in SOTW |
Assets: lots of zuchini, one eggplant, a huge nappa cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, corn, lettuce, green peppers |
| Saturday – nice lunch and dinner |
Ratatue -maybe the movie will make this seem special – is it possible some tomatoes from my garden have survived the blight? Perhaps they have good tomatoes at the grocery store? Garden chowder. Good green salad. |
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| Sunday – picnic lunch at church? Nice snacks, desert and light supper before evening church, Grandma is on a missions trip |
the zuchini chocolate cake – both boys have declared it a favorite. Hoggie sandwiches at church, carrots, cucumber and pepper in salad dip, popcorn, |
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| Monday – easy/quick B's flute lesson in mid afternoon |
tuna stuffed green peppers |
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| Tuesday |
Asian flavored soup with lots of Nappa cabbage, borrow Mom's deep fryer, and make eggrolls to use up the rest of the cabbage. |
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| Wednesday needs a quick supper for getting out the door by 6:30 for prayer meeting |
chicken fajita |
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| Thursday, needs a quick or start ahead supper for picking up next week's CSA box in the afternoon |
chili from the freezer |
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Sep. 4, 2009 This Week's Menu and CSA Box
| Friday – out of most stuff but veggies |
Pasta with squash, tomatoes, olive and feta – I hope there are lots of little tomatoes down at our community garden plot and corn- cause we need to eat it while it's sweet! |
| Saturday – two veggie meals to use up the corn and the rest of the squash |
corn fritters with ham and scallions, stuffed squash with Mexican seasoning because the boys asked for wraps – there is a little ground beef in the freezer too. |
| Sunday – Birthday party after church, need a good afternoon snack |
pop corn? Carrots, green pepper, cucumber with ranch dressing to dip? |
| Shish ka bobs at Mom's house (she has a gas grill) bake the chocolate zuchini cake with cream cheese frosting Does B have flute lessons today? |
Mom cooks :-) |
| Tuesday back to school, Mom over for dinner |
Eggplant parmesagne – cooks illustrated January 2003 page13, needs fresh basil for perfection – the boys aren't keen on this one, serve olives and green salad to compensate. Desert for eating motivation? |
| Wednesday needs a quick supper for getting out the door by 6:30 for prayer meeting |
wraps |
| Thursday, needs a quick or start ahead supper for picking up next week's CSA box in the afternoon |
chilli, can slice up pepper, onion and hot pepper as garnish when I get home, DH likes corn chips and chedder or sour cream too on top. |
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Sep. 4, 2009 Last week's menu and csa box
Note: the breaded squash even flopped with DH. Pizza has never been such a sad meal before. And even with pepperoni!
| Saturday, cool, boy friendly for tired, hungry, footsore museum goer's |
whole wheat pizza, see if you can use up some yellow squash by breading it, and adding it to the pizza, use up some green peppers too! Better add some pepperoni and black olives as Trojen vegitables |
| Sunday, dinner, and snack-y stuff |
hamburgers with lettuce and tomato, corn on the cob, popcorn, apple pie |
| Monday |
eggplant parmesagne with Mom. Make ahead, you have flute lessons today, roast yellow squash |
| Tuesday |
pasta and squash with tomatoes, olives and feta Cooks Illustrated 63, page 13 |
| Wednesday quick for going out to Prayer meeting |
“white chili” with green peppers and chicken |
| Thursday, Latin lesson and getting CSA box, quick and easy meal? |
Rosemary white bean soup with pasta. |
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Jul. 10, 2009 This week's CSA Box and Menu
I didn't take a photo this week because I put the veggies away already, and I was SO tired last night. K's teeth, or the itchy patches on her arm that I think might be eczama woke her up a lot.
DH is taking some of the night shifts, so we know that next week when I have to 'pump and dump' after the surgery, that we already know how to get her back to crib without nursing her.
We had:
One nappa cabbage (Mom took that one for an Asian salad for Sunday)
one small green cabbage
red lettuce head
romaine lettuce head
fresh peas
cucumbers
zuchini
yellow summer squash
rhubarb
brocholi
This after noon my in-laws are coming, Mom G mentioned a rhubarb muffin recipe she wants to try.
With the outer leaves of last week's cabbage, I attempted to re-visit a hated recipe of my childhood, cabbage leaves stuffed with hamburger and rice with a tomato sauce. I put the canned diced tomato inside with the rice and meat, I steamed the bundles in canned beef broth. Those who didn't like the dish to begin with (Me and the boys) didn't find it improved by the beef broth. Those who did like it to begin with, (My mom and DH) missed the tomato sauce. We have lots of leftovers. Not all iterations are improvements.
tofu stir fry with peas and squash
stuffed zuchini with beans and potato would work - I need to do more recipe scrounging.
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Jul. 7, 2009 This Week's CSA Box and Menu
 there were blueberries too, they got put into scones, Cooks Illustrated July/August 2007
cole slaw for 4th of July Picnic (buttermilk recipe from CSA)
rhubarb Pie (Mom used her part of the rhubarb to make a sauce for the barbequed ribs)
Salad with crutons and blue cheese dressing
creamy shells with peas and bacon Cooks country magazine charter issue
zuchini pie (from a 1980's Pilsbury promotion recipe. Whenever Mom made it, the Volunteer Fire Department had a call and Daddy had to go drive the truck. Fortunately, it's good cold too. I use a regular pie crust, but the original recipe called for crecent rolls arranged in the pie pan, spread with Dijon mustard. Remember how new Dijon mustard was then?)
I've saved the outer cabbage leaves for galopkie (sp?) meat and rice wrapped in leaves with a tomato sauce, though I'm trying to make a sauce with beef broth instead, I'm not too crazy about all that harsh acidity together. |
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Jun. 26, 2009 Third CSA Box Menu in progress
 Red-spotted curly lettuce
Boston Bib lettuce
Bright Lights Swiss Chard
Lots of fresh peas
English cucumber
Lots of zuchini
and some kale
I still have some blue cheese, so tonight there will be blue cheese dressed salad with cucumber and crutons, and some left overs maybe, the fridge is looking full, but I'm not sure of what.
I want to make the pasta with sausage and peas in cream sauce again while the peas are fresh and sweet, although, perhaps I should make an effort to cut back on the extravagance of that sauce; it has butter, cream, AND olive oil in it.
Come to think of it, peas don't last as long as lettuce (Especially with K digging in the box!) so the peas are for tonight, salad on Saturday.
I want to find a Swiss Chard recipe that keeps the lovely stem color, but curbs the bitterness of the chard.
I need another salad supper recipe, I don't think I'll do Ceasar with chicken, you really need the tough Romain for that, and Boston Bib is so tender, the curly so frothy. Time to hit the books.
Later:
I'm going to try the Sweet and Sour Swiss Chard recipe from Simply in Season Cookbook, page 97 - that meal will need some protein, think, think, think, some pork chops?
A variation on Portuguese Kale soup for the kale: tomato sauce, broth, chorizo sausage, potato, onion, garlic, and of course, kale. (this is the version I don't admit to making when my neighbors who actually are Portuguese ask about it, though all they do is laugh and call me carrida.)
Stuffed zucchini recipe from Cook's Illustrated
July 2000 magazine (I keep all my old issues in the cupboard in the kitchen, sorted my month, because the food that is in season in June is still in season in June, even if it is 10 years later) some rabbits (or perhaps K?) got into the zucchini, so I'd better serve that on Saturday.
With Sunday supper at my mom's house, I need one more dinner meal for the week: lets do black bean soup, K loves that with rice, and I have some smoked ham hocks in the freezer.
Done! TADA! Now I just need to list off the stuff to buy and I'm gold.
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Jun. 19, 2009 Second CSA Box, and Menu
This week's box was very similar to last week's box, we are still in the spring greens season
curly red lettuce
romaine lettuce
spinach
fresh peas
strawberries
rhubarb
hot house cucumbers
3 rhubarb streusel muffins
recipe for rhubarb streusel muffins
menu:
pasta with sausage, peas and parmesan (Cook's country magazine)
blue cheese dressed salad with cucumbers and croutons (dressing: 1/4 cup crumbled cheese, 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 cup sour cream or yogurt, 1/2 cup buttermilk)
ceasar salad with broiled chicken
green salad with white beans, bacon and maple/mustard dressing (Cooking Light magazine)
soup with spinach and tortellini
pizza with spinach/apple/garlic and blue cheese (a pizza recipe book at Mom's house)
strawberry scones (B's favorite, from cook's country magazine)
something yummy with the rhubarb, I'll look recipes up in, "Simply in Season"
and, "the Joy of Gardening Cookbook." I made the Simply in season rhubarb streusel muffins (quite similar to the ones from the CSA) from the rhubarb in my garden, I made a pie last week, if the "nothing must change!" contingent of the family start calling for their favorites, I'll know what to make again, otherwise, I'll try something new. I'm the only one who really loves pudding around here though, so I'd better avoid rhubarb fool, but since M loves apple sauce, rhubarb sause might be a hit.
I need to think of snack foods that are not so expencive as boxed crackers, by the time I found Grahme crackers for the kids without transfats, it got expencive, and their favorite wheat crackers are only on sale so often. The way we go through apples around here is amazing! I wonder if I can do something with potatoes? Oven fries for afternoon snack would be a huge hit, but I'd have to be awake during nap time to make them, and until the refrigerator motor wakes K up less at night, I'm napping at nap time!
Carot sticks, toast, apples slices, what if I made muffins more? What if I got B to make muffins more? Apple slices dipped in peanutbutter and honey, apple slices dipped in dolce de leche? Forget the dipping and streamline? (M will turn his beautiful blue eyes on me and make a perfectly polite request for dipping sause, then I'll be sunk)
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Jun. 17, 2009 First CSA Box and weekly menu
Our fist box held:
spinach
romaine lettuce
curly leafed lettuce
rhubarb
strawberries
hot house cucumbers
strawberry -rhubarb jam
and
a planter of herbs to put on the porch (I'd better water it!)
Menu for the week:
spinach salad with hot bacon dressing and hard boiled eggs, lace cookies
blue cheese dressed green salad with cucumber, strawberry scones
chicken Ceaser salad with rhubarb pie
mock gyro sandwiches with cucumber dressing and lettuce
whole wheat fresh herb pizza with salad
party at neighbor's house
Sunday dinner at my Mom's |
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Jan. 23, 2009 Spring Roll Photo
 I made the rolls again last night. I was out of cilantro leaves, and they did need them. I cut back on the hoisin sauce in the dipping sauce, and increased the toasted seasame oil. The rolls really need the cilantro, but they are still pretty!
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I think the hardest part of cooking is making the menu. Last Summer I was organized by what veggies were at the farmer's market. I followed MomCo3's suggestion and looked dishes up in Simply Seasonal Cookbook. But this winter I'm back to looking through my Cook's Magazine, and cooking light back issues for this month. That way the suggestions are mostly seasonally true, although there are the occasional goofy things like asparagus and winter squash salad...
This week I handed the magazines to M and B with some sticky notes. They were told to put stickies on whatever looked yummy to them. Then I looked through their suggestions and picked what I thought I could afford and pull off. Tonight we had SouthEast Asian Spring Rolls, with egg drop soup and ginger tea. The dipping sauce had too much hoisin sauce in it for our taste, we aren't into star anise much, but it was good. The translucent tapioca wrapper was so pretty with the carrot shreds and cilantro leaves showing through, like a paper crafting project with velum. |
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Dec. 9, 2008 Tasting an Unripe Persimmon
It was so beautiful in the grocery store, what a color,
 what a delicate shape. How pretty the pattern of the four leaves on the end.
 It felt like a cross between a tomato and an apple. The cook book said that a Hachia persimmon needed to be soft and ripe to be sweet and not pucker the mouth. How soft? As soft as a ripe avacado? as soft as a pillow? The cookbook said to cut it in quarters and eat to the skin. For 0.99$ I was game.
It's not so much that it was sour: it tasted like plums, grapes and flowers, and it smelled lovely. But as soon as the juice spread to my mouth my mouth gained an odd texture like felt, I finally brushed my teeth to make them feel smooth again.
I tried a few bites, DH did as well. B ate as much as I did, M licked a piece. The Fuya persimmons are supposed to not be so astringent.
So, does astringent mean, "makes your mouth feel like felt?"
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Oct. 22, 2008 Fairy Tale Eggplants
I bought these at the Rehoboth farmer's market from Oakdale farms. I made them into Thai stir fried eggplant (Cooks Illustrated recipe) with chicken sate (don't know were I got that one from, a low salt cook book in the library I think), brown rice, and peanut dipping sauce that I made up.
Peanut butter
water
smashed garlic
toasted seasame oil
fresh ginger
mixed until it tasted right.
M had trouble eating it. B and the rest of us loved it. K only got the milk version later. |
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Jul. 10, 2008 Assyrian Lentil and Bulger Pillaf - from our friend R
This is tasty, cheap, nutritious and easy to pull out when you are visited by someone who is avoiding salt and fat, or is vegetarian (or if you are yourself)
bring 3 cups water and 3/4 cups lentils to a boil. Simmer for 15 min.
add one cup bulgur. Simmer for another 15 - 20 min.
meanwhile, saute one onion in olive oil.
add onion to pilaf, add salt (unless your company is avoiding salt, then people can salt their own at table) |
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Jun. 24, 2008 Strawberry Week
DH says I never do anything by halves. We picked 15 lbs of strawberries yesterday, wanting to be sure we had enough for all the great recipes we wanted to try this year: strawberry scones from Cooks Country magazine, strawberry spinach salad from a lady at church's recipe, Strawberry/Blueberry explosion ice cream (developed by B with his MomMom) freezer jam (which didn't set up after all, but will be nice syrup on pancakes). 7lbs would have sufficed, I'll look this up next year for reference!
K didn't want me to wear her in the Ellaroo, in any way I could tie her. I used it as a blanket and laid her between the rows of strawberries. She played with the leaves hanging over her head, then rolled most of the way over (she always gets stuck on her elbow) and tried to eat the straw. I had B hold her and walk her around after that.
 The CSA we joined had to refund our money, the Lady starting the farm's Mom had a stroke just at the critical point for planting most crops, then when her Mom died, her Father needed care. So, she refunded our "pioneer member" investment, and will run a farm stand this year, maybe try a CSA again next year. Her chicken coop and green house hoops should be all built, so there will be less to do next Spring, if her Dad is well. I can't fault her priorities. So, I cashed the investment refund, and keep it in my purse for the roadside veggie stands that I passed by last year, because I only had my credit card on me. We will still eat local vegetables this year. Good thing we did plant our own garden patch though. |
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Apr. 30, 2008 Soufle not Soflat
Mrs W at church is in the hospital with a crushed foot, her car was hit by a delivery truck that was driving on the wrong side of the road. It's crushed too. While she can't come to church, her hens keep laying, so our pastor's wife is giving out the eggs to various families in a rough rotation.
We are so chatty that we are always one of the last families to leave the narthex - hence, we get given the eggs a lot. I don't know if it's the variety of hens Mrs W keeps, or that they are organic eggs, but the yolks are nearly orange, and the flavor is amazing. Cakes rise higher when I use those eggs...I could go on and on.
This week, I decided to use the eggs in a cheese soufle. I've never tried soufles before, that's the dish that always fails in sitcoms. But it came out just fine. The flavor was like cheetos corn chips without the corn. My boys didn't like it, but the rest of us did. The smooth texture fit the day too: DH had his last Wisdom Tooth extracted.
Note to self: always have DH take your picture so it comes out flattering like this one.
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Mar. 22, 2008 Improvisational Menue
I've been intrigued lately by the idea of making up a menu based on what foods are available, not the other way around, as a way of eating more seasonally.
That seems to be a Chinese way of shopping according to
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Jimmie/
And a good idea once you've joined a CSA according to my friend A.
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/momco3/Gardening/
I'm up to page 132 of Animal Vegetable Miracle by the way.
My usual practice is to root through old cooking magazines arranged by the month I'm in, list the meals that appeal, then list the ingredients I need. I figured that if I was working from a seasonal source, the recipes would be seasonal too. I still can't imagine myself going to the shopping market without a list though.
With quick trips to the grocery store out of the question until D got home from work these last few weeks of Chicken Pox, I've had to do this of necessity. No Mayonaise, I looked up the blender recipe in the cook book. I did use up the olive oil, but the mayo was yummy. No salsa, I took a can of diced tomatoes, chopped up a scallion and pickled jalapinyo, threw in some cilantro (the parts that haddn't gotten yellow or slimy in the fridge drawer), put in some chilli powder to taste, DH gave it a not bad. The kids thought it was too spicy though. I think petite diced tomatoes would have worked better than regular diced tomatoes.
Tonight I had a large amount of pizza dough, and hadn't added the basil and oregano to the tomato sauce yet. The pizza place down the street sells a "Mexican pizza" with peppers, beef, and corn chips in salsa on the pizza. I had some left over seasoned beef, with a ripe avacado in the kitchen. I was pondering the fate of the avacado, since my kids LOVE acacado, but I couldn't think of how to eat it before it went too ripe. It occurred to me I could make my own "Mexican Pizza" and put the avacado on it after it came out of the oven.
So I mixed some mild jarred salsa (We've been shopping since the salsa crisis) with the tomato sauce, put the seasoned ground beef on it, and a little mozzerella. When it came out, I added the sliced avacado. The grown ups only ate that one, B tried it and said he'd have liked it, if his mouth didn't have chicken pox and the sauce was too spicy to swallow easily (he did finish his slice though).
I'm looking forward to our box of seasonal veggies this June, I hope I will come up with good menus to keep up with the bounty.
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