Cultivating Sustainability

Unfortunately, I do not have a photo to share for this week’s CSA bounty. As soon as I received the “In the Bag” email from Potomac Vegetable Farm, telling me what fabulous vegetables we would receive in this week’s share, I went to work trying to figure out what to make for dinner last night. I waited as patiently as I possibly could for my husband to come home with our veggies, however he came home later than usual, so we had to get cooking, which left no time for a photo. Oh well, I guess the photos of the recipes I make this week will have to be enough.

Here’s what was “In the Bag”:

• garlic curls
• swiss chard
• yellow squash
• zucchini
• arrow head cabbage
• beets and beet greens
• sweet peas
• red leaf lettuce
• romaine lettuce
• dill
• onions
• garlic

I am not exactly sure the exact varieties of the above mentioned vegetables, but I’m going to see if I can find out.

To supplement my Potomac Vegetable Farm CSA share, I ordered the following from Star Hollow Farm’s online CSA:

• blueberries (2 pints)
• bi-color sweet corn (4 ears)
• green beans (1 lb.)
• portabella mushrooms (1 lb.)

Her’s a list of what I have done with these vegetables:

• garlic curls
• swiss chard
• yellow squash
• zucchini
• arrow head cabbage
• beets and beet greens
• sweet peas
• red leaf lettuce
• romaine lettuce
• dill
• onions
• garlic

Last night I made Mexican Pizza with zucchini, onions, and garlic curls (check back soon for the recipe) and a simple salad with red leaf lettuce, sweet peas (removed the peas from the shells, as they were a little tough), cherry tomatoes (from Star Hollow Farm), and a lime vinaigrette (check back soon for the recipe). This was my first time making Mexican Pizza – it was quite yummy!

Well, it’s finally here!  The Licking Creek Bend CSA.  This is my first time with the spring CSA, and it turns out you DO get a lot of greens.  But I also got a nice basil plant that is doing well in my garden.  I also got a bunch of garlic scapes, which I’ve never tried before, but adored.  I made white bean and garlic scape dip (5 ingredients – a can of white beans, scapes, olive oil, salt and pepper!) and roased scapes along with my roast chicken.

Here’s the bounty:

Potomac Vegetable Farms’ summer CSA has finally started! Hooray for delicious vegetables. My husband and I signed up for the Regular share (feeds 4 or 2 people who eat a lot of veggies). Every week PVF includes a description and photo of the contents of our share. While I pride myself in being an experienced CSA member, I must admit that I had a hard time identifying the broccoli raab – it looks so much different than the grocery store variety.

Here’s what we got “in our bag”:

Garlic curls

Beets

Salad turnips

Lettuce

Sugar snap peas

Endive

Broccoli raab

With all these greens, it’s been challenging trying to figure out how to use everything. Here’s my plan…I will definitely make lots of simple green and white salads with the lettuce, raw salad turnips, and snap peas. This evening I’m going to make a simple Italian stir-fry (broccoli raab, onions, garlic, drizzled with balsamic cream vinegar and served over couscous). Tomorrow I’ll probably make a pasta with a garlic chickpea sauce, sauteed garlic curls and endive, with a beet salad on the side, and grilled sausage.

Wednesday night, with less than 24 hours before Thanksgiving, Rex and I decided to forgo a meal with our good friends, John and Sutton, for an at home feast. This was not an easy decision, after all the more the merrier. Well, last week I came down with a cold, which I gave to Rex. Wednesday evening we were both still had runny noses and a cough (not exactly the best way to start one of our favorite holidays). So instead of infecting our friends with our bug, we opted for a quiet Thanksgiving meal at home. That meant, Wednesday after work I had to run to Whole Foods and gather additional ingredients for our feast. Luckily I found one of the last 9 lb. free-range turkeys. (I was a bit disappointed I couldn’t find a small organic turkey, but at least I found an antibiotic-free, hormone-free free range turkey at such a short notice. The 9 lb.-er would have to do.) I shoved the turkey, along with some sweet potatoes, and brining kit in my backpack and made the 1 mile walk home. I felt so giddy – like a little school girl excited to come home, in anticipation of the holiday – but instead of books, I carried a turkey. What a funny sight! I completely underestimated how heavy a 9 lb. turkey and several pounds of sweet potatoes can be. Oh well, I’ll have a story to tell my kids one day – how I walked 1 hour in the cold with a turkey in my backpack!

Well as you can tell by the pictures, our turkey dinner turned out to be quite a nice little feast. After 5 years of being married, we’ve never celebrated Thanksgiving just the two of us. While we may have been recovering from colds, we made the most out of the holiday. Having never cooked a turkey, I was quite intimidated, but called my sister and my mother multiple times for instructions. Rex and I also found youtube to be quite helpful.

Our meal consisted of the following recipes. The sweet potato dish is a recent tradition in my family. The cranberry salad dates back to my dad’s childhood – an old classic American recipe of my grandma’s. And the roasted brined turkey is my sister’s favorite way to prepare a turkey. In an effort to use as much of my CSA vegetables as possible – I made a sauteed brussel sprout and green bean dish, and a variation of apple crisp.

Kim & Rex’s First Solo Thanksgiving Meal

Roasted Brined Turkey with Dried Herbs

Streuseled Sweet Potato Casserole

Green Beans & Brussel Sprouts with Balsamic Shallot Butter

Cranberry Salad

Cranberry-Apple Streusel Crisp

Last week I didn’t exactly have a meal plan because I was traveling. Basically we just ate a bunch of leftovers (made a huge pot of Moroccan Chickpea Curry with Couscous) and gave some of our CSA veggies to friends who watched our dog.

However, this is what we’ll be eating this week:

Saturday

• Breakfast | Multigrain Pancakes with Apples, Raisins and Maple Syrup | Barry’s Irish Gold Tea
• Lunch | Moroccan Chickpea Curry with Couscous (leftovers)
• Dinner | Sweet Potato Quesadillas with Tomatillo Salsa and Arugula Spinach Salad | Apple Cake and Vanilla Ice Cream

Sunday

• Breakfast | Oatmeal with Cherries, Walnuts, Bananas and Maple Syrup | Indian Chai Tea
• Lunch | Autumn Vegetable Pot Pie (leftovers) | Apple Cider and Tea Biscuits
• Dinner | Beet Soup and Pierogies | Apple Cake and Vanilla Ice Cream (leftovers)

Monday

• Breakfast | Multigrain Pancakes with Apples, Raisins and Maple Syrup (leftovers) | Barry’s Irish Gold Tea
• Lunch | Autumn Vegetable Pot Pie with a slice of toasted bread | Vanilla Yogurt and sliced Apples
• Dinner | Sweet Potato Quesadillas with Tomatillo Salsa and Arugula Spinach Salad (leftovers) | Apple Cake and Vanilla Ice Cream (leftovers)

Tuesday

• Breakfast | Cereal with Muesli, Apples and Bananas | Barry’s Irish Gold Tea
• Lunch | Chive Cream Cheese Sandwiches with Arugula & Apples | Vanilla Yogurt with sliced Apples | Parmesan & Garlic Archer Farm’s Potato Chips
• Dinner | Beet Soup and Pierogies (leftovers) | Apple Cake and Vanilla Ice Cream (leftovers)

Wednesday

• Breakfast | Cereal with Muesli, Apples and Bananas | Barry’s Irish Gold Tea
• Lunch | Chive Cream Cheese Sandwiches with Arugula & Apples | Vanilla Yogurt with sliced Apples | Parmesan & Garlic Archer Farm’s Potato Chips
• Dinner | Autumn Vegetable Pot Pie (leftovers) | Apple Cake and Vanilla Ice Cream (leftovers)

Thursday

• Breakfast | Cereal with Muesli, Apples and Bananas | Barry’s Irish Gold Tea
• Lunch | Natural Peanut Butter & Apricot Jam Sandwiches | Vanilla Yogurt with sliced Apples | Parmesan & Garlic Archer Farm’s Potato Chips
• Dinner | Beet Soup and Pierogies (leftovers) | Apple Cake and Vanilla Ice Cream (leftovers)

Friday

• Breakfast | Cereal with Muesli, Apples and Bananas | Barry’s Irish Gold Tea
• Lunch | Natural Peanut Butter & Apricot Jam Sandwiches | Vanilla Yogurt with sliced Apples | Parmesan & Garlic Archer Farm’s Potato Chips
• Dinner | Eating Out at Birch & Barley

I still had some items to use from last week’s share, and I wanted to cook some items that I could freeze for later use.  I spent a good part of Saturday prepping.  Here’s the plan for the week:

SUNDAY -

Dinner: Stuffed Cabbage

MONDAY -

Lunch: Carrot Ginger Soup, Fruit

Dinner: Potato and Cheddar Pierogi, Mixed Green Salad

TUESDAY -

Lunch: Carrot Ginger Soup, Fruit

Dinner: Roasted Vegetable Lasagne

WEDNESDAY -

Lunch: Roasted Vegetable Lasagne, Fruit

Dinner: Butternut Squash Tortellini with Brown Butter and Dried Cranberries

THURSDAY -

Lunch: Veggie and Hummus Sandwiches, Fruit

Dinner: Vegetable Stirfry

FRIDAY -

Lunch: Veggie and Hummus Sandwiches, Fruit

Dinner: ?

As you can see, I decided to cook a few of my grandmother’s traditional recipes this week (pierogi, stuffed cabbage).  I’m not sure what came over me.

This is going to be a challenging week for a few reasons.

1. I am going to be out of town for a few days, so will need to make things that my husband can eat while I’m gone.
2. We received quite a variety in this week’s CSA share.

Here’s what I’m thinking I’ll make this week:

SATURDAY – Grilled Chimichurri Flank Steak with Braised Red Cabbage and Baked Squash, Apples and Potatoes

SUNDAY – Mexican Lentil Soup with Spicy Sausage, Mustard Greens, Carrots and Nappa Cabbage with Jalapeno Corn Bread

MONDAY – Leftovers

TUESDAY – Leftovers

WEDNESDAY – This recipe will all depend on what I have left from the CSA. Maybe a stew or chili or casserol because this will keep my husband busy for a few days after I leave.

THURSDAY – Leftovers

FRIDAY – Leftovers

I completely forgot to share what I decided to cook this past week with my share. Well, it was a busy week at work and socially, so I new I would need to cook a one dish meal. Yeah, I know how could I possibly use all the vegetables we got in week 1 of the CSA in one dish. Well, it’s almost possible with a fabulous Moosewood stew recipe: Tilghman Island Stew (page 308 in Moosewood Restaurant New Classics Cook Book). For my variation see Fall Vegetable Stew with Lemon Thyme Biscuits.

I also used up the radishes, apples, pears in our lunches. The radishes were great, sliced and dipped in roasted garlic hummus.

Sunday

• Dinner – Three Bean Vegetable Moussaka and Couscous with Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts
• Preparation for lunch this week – Potato salad with cherry tomatoes, parsley and lemon vinaigrette

Monday

• Lunch – Hummus & Grilled Veggie Sandwiches with Potato Salad and Yogurt with Fruit
• Dinner – Leftovers (Three Bean Vegetable Moussaka and Couscous with Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts)

Tuesday

• Lunch – Hummus and Grilled Veggies Sandwiches with Potato Salad (me); Gouda and Heirloom Tomato and Cucumber Sandwich with Tabouli and Hummus on the side with Pita Chips (Rex)
• Dinner – Spaghetti squash, green beans, potatoes and steak

Wednesday

• Lunch – Some type of sandwich on frozen Harris Teeter Bread – either with cheese and veggies; hummus and veggies; or PBJ
• Dinner – Leftovers (Three Bean Vegetable Moussaka and Couscous with Golden Raisins and Pine Nuts)

Thursday

• Lunch – Some type of sandwich on frozen Harris Teeter Bread – either with cheese and veggies; hummus and veggies; or PBJ
• Dinner – Eating Out Before the Ra Ra Riot Concert

Friday

• Lunch – Leftovers (Moussaka and Couscous; if I decide to cook tonight)
• Dinner – all depends on what I pick up at the White House Farmers’ Market; or Leftovers (Moussaka and Couscous)