CSA Update: 8/27/12

Here’s what we got last week in our Eatwell Farm CSA box:

strawberries
basil
heirloom cherry tomatoes
early girl tomatoes
heirloom tomatoes
Middle Eastern cucumbers
melon
Italian flat leaf parsley
plums
mixed sweet peppers
yellow onions
fingerling potatoes (Russian Banana variety)

As you can see, we had tomatoes coming out of our ears. The cherry tomatoes were great by themselves or in a salad. For the heirlooms, I wanted to feature them… and what better way than in a BLT sandwich? These sandwiches were great, even though I did over-toast the first batch of sourdough bread.

A BLT to die for…

We used one of two early girl tomatoes in breakfast scramble, along with farm fresh eggs, onions, and peppers. Sorry, no photos — we ate it too quickly, as we were both famished after a long run.

When I saw the fingerling potatoes, I single-mindedly decided that they shall be roasted! We roasted chicken legs too, and had a side of caramelized onions and zucchini. Simple and delicious. Also, I realized that it’s very hard to over-roast a chicken leg. Typically, I put them in the oven for 30-35 minutes at 425F. Today I forgot about them until ~ 45 minutes — they were still amazingly tender and juicy. Pretty much fail proof.

roasted stuff

The other thing we had a lot of was zucchini and potatoes. My solution? Enter the terms “zucchini and potato” into the iPhone allrecipes app and voila! Zucchini and potato bake. It looked pretty good and had great reviews, so we decided to give it a whirl. Indeed, it was a success. I altered the recipe slightly, by adding a jalapeno and more garlic. We thought it would also be good with eggs, sausage, or bacon. Anyway, it was so good that I’m including the recipe here. Enjoy!

Zucchini and Potato Bake, adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients

• 2 medium zucchini, quartered and cut into large pieces
• 4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1-3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• paprika to taste
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• optional: 1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped

zucchini and potato bake

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. In a medium baking pan, toss together the zucchini, potatoes, red bell pepper, garlic, bread crumbs, and olive oil. Season with paprika, salt, and pepper.
3. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender and lightly brown.

Get in my belly!

p.s. Can’t get enough of CSA goodies? Check out this week’s link party over at In Her Chucks!

CSA Update: 7/15/12

This will be the last CSA update for almost a month, as I’m leaving tomorrow for a 3 week trip to Taiwan! Not sure how much I’ll be blogging while I’m away… so if, for some reason, you go into willblog4food withdraw, you can always read (or re-read) my Taiwan posts from previous trips. Enjoy!

Here’s what we got in our Eatwell CSA box last Wednesday:

strawberries
basil
cherry tomatoes (!)
Roma, shady lady, or early girl tomatoes
Middle Eastern cucumbers
mixed lettuce
plums
Italian flat leaf parsley
zucchini
Wakefield cabbage
white spring onions
Colorado rose potatoes? (the ones we got were definitely not red-skinned as advertised)

Not sure if you could tell by my exclamation point above, but I was super excited about the tomatoes, and the cherry tomatoes in particular. Our first tomatoes of the season! We made Creamy Orecchiette with Cherry Tomatoes, Basil, and Garlic, a recipe included with the CSA box. It was very easy and tasty!

Mmmm, creamy pasta with sweet cherry tomatoes and loads of basil.

We also made a salad with the mixed lettuce, cucumber, and strawberries, adding some nut for crunch.

colorful summer salad

As much as we love stir-frying zucchini, I opted to make zucchini bread this time. It was good, but I’m not sure this was the best recipe. I felt like it had a little too much spice and not enough zucchini. Once I find the perfect recipe, I’ll be sure to share it with y’all. These loaves sure did look and smell great coming out of the oven, I have to say.

Zucchini bread, fresh from the oven.

I’ve been wanting to make potato salad for a while, and the red potatoes were a perfect candidate. Except that the ones we got weren’t really red… so it’s possible there was a mix up? In any case, we decided to make potato salad (American style = sweet relish, red onion, celery, mayo, and hard-boiled egg) for a BBQ Saturday with TC’s family and my sister’s family. The potato salad was just OK — we left the skins on, but I think for this variety of potato, we probably should have skinned them. We also made a green salad with walnuts, dried cranberries, apple, and homemade vinaigrette. TC’s family provided macaroni salad, grilled chicken, baked beans, corn, a dreamy chocolate pudding dessert concoction, and lemon bars. That’s what I call a BBQ!

The BBQ spread, top left going down: potato salad, green salad, baked beans, macaroni salad, corn, and chicken (on upper right).

Oh, and somewhere in the last week, we made homemade salsa with the other tomatoes and spring onion to put on top of breakfast burritos. We’ve also been dipping cucumbers slices in hummus. Delish!

p.s. Can’t get enough of CSA goodies? Check out this link party over at In Her Chucks!

CSA Update: 7/9/12

Before I start, I want to make a little request. Some of you might remember a post that I wrote a year ago, describing my decision to leave academic science. I’m in the process of writing a follow-up, which will be in a Q & A format. So, if you have any questions related to that (what I’ve been up to professionally, etc.), please either leave a comment below or email me at willblog4food [at] gmail [dot] com. Thanks!

I don’t know why, but I’ve been quite a slacker lately when it comes to CSA posts. Better late than never though, right? Here’s what we got in our Eatwell CSA box two Wednesdays ago:

strawberries
thyme
basil
lavender
Italian flat leaf parsley
chard
zucchini
beets
Wakefield cabbage
Canela potatoes
garlic for drying

We made the same zucchini, cabbage, basil and ground pork stir fry that we made last time, which was quick and delicious, as usual.

One thing we’ve been making a lot is smoothies, thanks to a blender we got from our friends SP and DP. We have a bunch of frozen strawberries from Strawberry Day that we’ve been using, in addition to: bananas, blueberries, frozen beet greens (and sometimes spinach too), yogurt, orange juice, and soy milk. It took me a while to get used to the tiny hairs from beet green stems, but now I’m OK with them. I’m looking forward to freezing stone fruits for some variety, as well as adding tropical fruits like mango, pineapple, and papaya.

Smoothie ingredients, ready to go!

Cheers to your health!

I was tired of roasting potatoes, so I ended up mashing them, using a vegan recipe from Post-Punk Kitchen. The thing I love about vegan recipes is that they are lactard-friendly, and in the case of Post-Punk Kitchen, still hella delicious. I put a ton of garlic and thyme in the potatoes too, which was tasty but left the breath a little stinky. (OK, a lot stinky.)

Who knew vegan mashed potatoes could be so tasty?

Mashed potatoes alone do not make a meal, so TC and I went crazy and cooked everything all at once: more zucchini, this time sautéed with basil and lemon (just so-so), roasted beet salad with walnuts and vinaigrette (very good), and baked chicken drumsticks in a soy garlic glaze (awesome!!). The chicken, an impromptu thing I made up, turned out so good, easy, and quick that I will share the recipe with you.

A little bit of everything.

Baked Chicken with Soy Garlic Glaze

Ingredients
chicken drumsticks (I used 9)
soy sauce (1/2-1 cup; enough to cover the drumsticks with some residual liquid for basting)
cooking wine “michu” – 2-3 Tbsp (optional)
honey, to drizzle
garlic, 2-4 cloves, minced
green onion, 2 sprigs, chopped in 1-inch pieces

Directions:
Optional: marinate drumsticks overnight in soy sauce, cooking wine, garlic, and green onion in the refrigerator in a flat bottom pan, turning occasionally. If you don’t have time, it’s still advisable to do a quick marinade before baking.
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Mix all ingredients except honey in a flat-bottomed baking dish. Drizzle the tops of each drumstick very lightly with honey. Cover with foil.
3. Bake for 30 minutes, basting 1-2 times during baking.

That’s it! I told you it was easy. The sauce is also really good over rice. Enjoy!

p.s. Can’t get enough of CSA goodies? Check out this link party over at In Her Chucks!