In which I reveal just how impressionable I can be

I work in a retail setting, and although my current store is far to busy to allow me to keep up with celebrity gossip the way some of my former stores did, I do have a clear view of the magazine display at our checkout counter. For the last month, the cover of Martha Stewart Living has been teasing me, especially on the days that I don't get a chance to eat.

That deliciousness is marinated heirloom tomatoes with pasta, and it is damn near perfection for a summer dinner.

We threw this dinner together Tuesday night after I got home from work, so it's a good thing it's a quick and easy meal. It wasn't as garlicky as I thought it would be after reading the recipe, but it had a really great flavor, and it's just so pretty!

We used a mix of heirloom tomatoes from the CSA and our garden. Definitely going into the arsenal of recipes to use up tomatoes without making the typical pasta sauce.

CSA Week 11

So apparently I've skipped a couple of weeks of the CSA. There hasn't been much variety in the pick ups, so while delicious, things have not been overly interesting. Gabriella is fingerpainting at the moment though, so we can chat a bit about yesterday's pick-up.

Lettuce, two huge sweet onions, green beans, potatoes from North Star's potato breeding project, tomatillos, and a couple zucchini and eggplant.
Think it looks a little light for a farm share in the height of the growing season? You're right, it is.

Well, it's August, which means ...

TOMATOES!!

Seven pounds of tomatoes in fact. Did I mention that we have 7 purposely planted and a few volunteer plants of our own and we're swimming in tomatoes. Yeah, there will be some sauce making in the near future.

Here's the actual bounty picture from yesterday

Since last night was the official return of football, even if it was just preseason, we needed an easy to eat in front of the TV meal. Add in 7 pounds of tomatoes, and we opted for pizza again.

One of my favorite things about pizza is just how versatile it is. Start with the same simple dough and you can end up with a ton of different meals. Of course, Peter is a traditionalist, so we made another margherita for him. 

Basil pesto, fresh tomato slices and mozzarella

We piled quite a few things on "my" pizza. Yes, it was a more labor intensive preparation, but I think it was worth it

Whoa, scary hand there.

Roasted eggplant and cherry tomatoes, caramelized onions, green peppers with ricotta and mozzarella

CSA Week 7

Now we're settling into the summer crops and there isn't as much variation in our shares from week to week. I'm still a week behind, so this bounty is actually from last Thursday. We got beans, patty pan squash, lots of beets, eggplant, carrots and a head of lettuce. The big zucchini is not technically from the share, it was on the "seconds" quality table which is take whatever you can use. I grabbed that one planning for a batch of zucchini bread.

Since it was an odd number week, we also got our cheese share, which was tailor made for Peter.

Habanero cheddar and and fresh mozzarella

One of the things we're kind of struggling with when it comes to the cheese CSA is using the goods. Not that they don't get eaten, but we've both kind of got a mental block against eating them in anything but their pure form. For instance, I suggested we use the mozzarella to make pizza since it doesn't have the shelf life to keep around like the aged cheeses have. However, we both kind of hesitated - is it a waste of the "special" cheese to mix it with other ingredients, even if the end result is delicious? On the other hand, isn't it pretty silly to buy crap mozzarella from the grocery store when we've already got good stuff in the fridge?

We got past the hangup about cooking with our cheese

Technically, we compromised with the hangup. We had a few tastes of the pure mozzarella and put the rest of it on a pizza. We made two pizzas actually (in the regular oven, not the woodburning one. That thing is awesome, but a ton of work for just 2 1/2 people). The mozzarella went on one with a basil pesto base and fresh tomatoes for a slight twist on a classic margherita, and the other was spinach and onions with some of the garlic and chive chedder from week 5. The spinach one was good, but the margherita was terrific. I always forget how much I like fresh tomato on pizza until I have it, and then I'm sad that I had forgotten and deprived myself of fresh tomato pizzas for any period of time.

I wasn't kidding when I said I was born 200 years after my time

As I mentioned previously, SuperFresh had a great sale going on blueberries a couple of weeks ago. Between baking and eating, we went through most of our first 6 pints before the week was out, so I stopped by on my way home from work and got more. It was a crazy amount of blueberries for 3 people, but there aren't many things that Gabriella likes more than blueberries and peanut butter and jelly, so I wanted to make some blueberry jam.
I love making canned goods, it's really not THAT hard, but people don't do it, so when you do the general public seems to think you're amazing. I look for any opportunity to stoke my ego, trust me.
Anyhow, to make this jam you need

Fruit

Sugar

Acid (either lemon or lime juice)

Jars. Maybe. More on that in a minute

I decided to make one batch of blueberry jam and one batch of mixed blueberry and strawberry jam. For each one you need 6 cups of berries (the mixed I did in a 1:1 ratio, so 3 cups of each), 3 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup of the acid. Easy peasy recipe, just like I told Peter when he was concerned that I be able to remember and duplicate the results in the future.
For the actual jam making, you combine the fruit and sugar and cook over medium heat until it reaches the gelling point.

You then add the acid and cook for a few minutes. If you're afraid of canning, you could just refrigerate it and use it quickly, but since it makes a decent amount, it would make more sense to suck it up and learn how to can things safely.

Obviously, the big enemy with preserving food is bacteria. No one wants botulism. There are tons of resources out there which detail the correct methods to follow, so I'll sum up with clean equipment and a proper processing time at a full rolling boil if using a hot water bath method.

After boiling to sterilize, you keep the jars in hot water until the jam is ready to fill them

 After filling the jars, I boiled them for 15 minutes, then let them cool for  before taking them out of the bath. I'm pretty sure that every jar sealed as I lifted them out of the water.

The strawberry-blueberry mix set up a little better than the straight blueberry, but they are both definitely firm enough to use as jelly. I ended up with 5 half pint jars of mixed berry and 4 half pints of blueberry. We've enjoyed the mixed with peanut butter and on some delicious crepes stuffed with nutella and banana.

CSA Week 4

This week I didn't get to go to the vegetable pickup because I'm a wonderful person who switched shifts with my partner at work so that he could start his Puerto Rican vacation a day early. I have no problem doing this, even though it meant my schedule this weekend was quite draining. I'm starting to feel normal again now though.

Anyhow, Peter and Gabriella got to do our pick-up on their own. Here's what they came home with:

Spicy salad greens, a head of lettuc, basil, summer squash, fresh garlic, kohlrabi, carrots and peas.

I don't get home until nearly 11pm when I work the night shift, so we rarely have an interesting meal before I collapse. Luckily I found never mentioned our dinner from my last day off

.
Grilled steak, roasted kohlrabi and carrots, peas and braised greens.
Did you know that even though they not the main attraction, you can eat the leaves from both broccoli and kohlrabi? We have massively huge broccoli plants in our garden (only 1 tiny little head so far) and they were starting to shade my brussels sprouts, so we cut some of the biggest ones off. They're pretty bitter, but cook them up like kale, and they are quite yummy. To make these, I sauted some garlic in olive oil, then threw in the stems until they started to get soft. Then I added the leaves and let them wilt. Finally, I added a cup of chicken broth (I wanted to use beef to go with the steak, but we were out of my favorite) and simmered the whole thing covered for like 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Food catch up

Between babysitting on Thursday and the closing shift on Friday, we didn't get to eat any of our CSA goodies until after work on Saturday.
One of my favorite flavors is fresh ginger, and these recipes took full advantage of it.

Soy and ginger glazed tofu, stir-fried bok choy with ginger and garlic and plain old white rice. It was yummy, although I can not figure out how to get a nice crispy crust on tofu without it sticking to the pan. I think I'm not getting enough of the water out before I throw it in.

On Sunday, Peter brought the baby to me at work, because he went in to Collingswood so he and his dad could get an early start on tearing out the Rossi's front porch floor. After a longer than expected shopping trip to the time sucking stores of Target and Home Goods we got home right before Bella should have been in bed. Bad mommy moment, but we whipped up a very quick dinner anyhow.

Oven roasted potatoes (yes, in the toaster oven) and scrambled eggs with swiss chard and feta. OMG these eggs were absolutely delicious, and the entire meal came together in like 20 minutes. I cubed a couple of scrubbed potatoes and roasted them my usual way with the addition of garlic powder to the salt and pepper. While they were in the oven, I sauteed the chard stems in olive oil with minced garlic until they were mostly done, then added the leaves and stirred until wilted. Then I added a little bit of butter and poured some eggs over the entire thing. I was planning on cooking it like a frittata, but it was sticking more than I thought it should, so I just kept stirring it around until the eggs were cooked. Finally, I crumbled some feta over it, turned on the heat and covered it while I got our plates ready. Yum yum yum.

Monday, I decided that since Peter didn't think we should even get them, he wouldn't mind if Bella and I ate the garlic scapes. Last year, I used the scapes in a wine sauce with capers, and while I thought it was good, I didn't really get the excitement that the internets have for scapes. Most of the bloggers extolling their virtues use them in pesto, so I decided to follow the herd this year.

Garlic scape pesto with scallops and tomatoes, and green salad.
Yeah, the scapes are kind of incredible used this way. It's really funny, because they don't have an overwhelming garlic smell, but grind them up and whoa. Suffice it to say, I told Bella that we wouldn't be able to give Daddy any kisses when he got home. It is strong stuff, it was hard not to gobble down all the leftovers, but as much as I talk big, I really did want Peter to have the chance to taste the pesto.

We'd probably eat better if we spent more time at home

Yeah, so this week was not so great for the home cooked meal thing, although the only stuff I still have from last week's CSA is some arugula (we used some on our sandwiches) and the bunch of scallions, which haven't gone bad, so no guilt that they haven't been eaten yet.
Tuesday I worked the early shift, which means I get home by 4 and have time to create a delicious meal like this one

Greek salad, chicken with white wine & lemon thyme sauce, roasted kohlrabi and braised kale in rice

 I seared boneless skinless chicken breasts in olive oil and butter, then removed the chicken and deglazed the pan with white wine, added a few sprigs of lemon thyme (probably my favorite herb) and some milk and put the chicken back in to simmer until it was cooked through.
For the rice, I sauted a couple of cloves of garlic in olive oil, then added chicken broth and the kale covered, and let it cook for ~10 minutes then added a cup of basmati rice and simmered until the rice was done. This was my favorite dish of the night, so much better than plain rice and a more exciting way of cooking greens than my usual saute with garlic until wilted. Plus, I think the longer cooking time helped the flavor because kale can be really bitter.
I love roasting vegetables, but HATE turning on the oven when it's a million and a half degrees (spring? what spring?). Enter the love of my life, if I had a thing for kitchen appliances - the toaster oven. Seriously, I got it for Peter for Christmas and I think we've used it every single day since then. It's big enough for my 11 cup Pyrex baking dish and I used that to roast both of the kohlrabi from last week. I use the same basic method for roasting almost any vegetable. Cut, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and into the oven @ 400 until done, stirring half way through. Simple and absolutely delicious.
Speaking of my 11 cup Pyrex baking dish - if I had a thing for baking dishes this would be the love of my life. I have 3 or 4 of them, and they are seriously the greatest thing ever. It won't last much longer, because the baby's portion is quickly approaching real person size, but for right now it is the perfect size to make a dinner in for the three of us. I can split a regular recipe, like for lasagna, into two of these babies, pop the lid on one and throw it in the freezer, and bam! Two dinners for the amount of work of one. Love it, and the fact that they fit perfectly into the toaster oven.


CSA pickup is again today. This is a no cheese week, but we're expecting garlic scapes, broccoli, lettuce, bok choy, scallions, kohlrabi, and hopefully carrots and peas.

CSA Week 1

CSA season is here!  I'm a little surprised just how much I've been looking forward to this day. It's a little hard to explain why it's so enjoyable, but it is. I love that we have only a vague idea of what we're going to be getting. I love that both the owners and their son are at every pick-up and are not only willing, but eager to talk to everyone about what's happening on the farm. I love that they took anyone who wanted one on a half hour long tour of the farm, and explained how Farmer Ike is working to preserve heirloom varieties. I absolutely love that everyone who works on the farm clearly has a passion and love for their job.

On to the pick-up

  

 We get an email a couple of days before the pickup telling us what the farmers expect to have ready for pickup day, but as it's up to Mother Nature, there are always some surprises. Today we came home with -

Purple Peacock Kale

Kohlrabi

Broccoli

We already had the cutie patootie, but I added her for scale

Arugula

Swiss Chard

Buttercruch lettuce

Scallions

In addition to running their fruit and veggie CSA, North Star also sponsers a couple of other local companies for CSA pickup at the farm. Since today was the first day, they were all there to talk about what they offer. I'm a sucker for free samples (I have an unhealthy guilty conscience) and a daughter who loves cheese, so we left as new members of the Hillacres Pride Cheese CSA.
The cheese CSA is a pick up every 2 weeks, instead of every week, but they had this week's share available, even if you hadn't signed up ahead of time, so we got to bring home these yummies

Savory Herb chedder and fresh Feta.

One of the most fun things about the CSA is that for the most part, we don't get a say in what veggies we bring home. They do have a swap box, so if there's something you really don't want, you can exchange it for something else, but we have enjoyed trying new things.
Our dinner tonight consisted of Adorned Marlboro Man sandwiches, courtesy of The Pioneer Woman, (minus half of the butter she calls for) with CSA arugula, potato salad that my mom brought by, and baked swiss chard, loosely based on this recipe, although I added garlic when roasting the stems, used only a sprinkle of Parmesan and used ricotta cheese (whatever was leftover in the fridge, probably around 1/2 cup) instead of the cream. Truth be told, I think it had too much cheese, but I can pretty much guarantee that I was the ONLY person in this household that thought that.

Yum

And finally, just because she's too stinkin cute for words