Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Limping Along

Last Thursday was a good box of veggies for me. I got several types of squash, Japanese eggplant, yukon gold potatoes, tomatoes, spring onions. So...here's what I did:

1. Gave the spaghetti squash to Beth, my partner if Veggiedom. I have had spaghetti squash and do not like it.
2. Darin, the reigning Iron Chef Latke at our synagogue, will make latkes this weekend when we have guests with the Yukon Gold potatoes. They are the BEST potatoes for latkes! Score!
2. I marinated the squash and eggplant in a simple bottle-o-marinade, made shish-ka-bobs and grilled them. I LOVED them but Darin and Noah did not. This is happening a lot with our veggies. I will like what I cook and the boys do not. It is disheartening because I'm loosing my motivation to try new things to get the boys to like the veggies.
3. Spring onions were used in scrambled eggs and a pasta salad.
4. Tomatoes were just eaten raw!



Here's what I've learned from My Veggie Adventure: next year, we are planting our own garden so that we can grow what we all love! It was Darin's idea and he's never been very excited about doing a veggie garden until now, so perhaps that will be the true success of our CSA experience. It will lead us to growing our own veggies which is even better financially, environmentally, and health wise because we'll all be eating more veggies because we'll grow what we want! Will also be a "richer" experience for us a a family because we can all participate and Noah will learn so much!

Tomorrow is another veggie box pick-up. Wonder what it will contain? Ice cream, maybe?!?!?

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

I Give Up!

I give up! I hate veggies! Noah hates veggies! Darin hates veggies!

I am a failure.


Ok.....now that that's out of my system, I suppose I'll just start over. I have not done well the last month or so on my Veggie Adventure. It's been a big 'ole veggie compost adventure for most, but not all, of the veggies from my CSA. In my defense, the end of the school year for teachers is exhausting and most of our dinners from late May through the middle of June consisted of a lot of cereal and sandwiches. Lots and lots of cereal...oh yeah, and yogurt. Then, we left town for a week on vacation.

Now that we are back on town for a while, I will try to get us back on track. I listened to a very inspiring NPR interview with Mark Bittman, a cookbook author/foodie who has changed his own personal diet to include lots more fruits and veggies and less animal products this morning and that was inspiring so I had canteloup and whole wheat toast for lunch. That's a good start...right?

We don't get our CSA box this week because our farmers are on vacation but I did return from a quick trip to my mother's in S.C. with a big 'ole mess of tomatoes my brother picked from his garden yesterday. Trying to not let them spoil, I promptly froze them this morning, producing 8 quart sized bags of fresh frozen tomatoes. Any ideas other than spaghetti sauce? (Btw, I froze them raw, without the skins, cut into quarters.)

Woe is me.......

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

KISS

KISS - Keep it simple, stupid! That's not exactly what Darin said after dinner the other night, but that was the general thought....without the stupid, because Darin would never call me stupid!!

I was trying to get creative with the green beans and did a little saute with green beans, mushrooms, onions, garlic, olive oil and some red wine. I had cooked the beans a while ahead of time to soften them ( I don't like my beans al dente). I thought it was all really good but he smiled and said they were ok. He didn't want to criticize because he knows I'm trying really hard here and he's a good (and smart) man. After much pestering, I got him to admit basically this: the few veggies he does like (like regular old cooked green beans), don't mess with them! Don't do anything different with them. Fine. That's easy!

So, last night we had regular old green beans (cooked in chicken stock), some chicken in the oven with soup on it, and rice. We all loved it!!! There go my fancy ways!

Tonight's dinner was a weird combo as I was trying to eat most of the things we have before we get our new box of veggies tomorrow. We had fried eggs (a favorite at our house with toasted challah bread from McFaland's Bakery on Main Street in Hendersonville). I sauteed the spinach and beet greens with olive oil, garlic and red wine (sound familiar?). I scrambled mine with my eggs, didn't even give Noah any (he had a spinach salad with homemade challah croutons), and put Darin's greens on the side of his eggs. I loved it! I really like that green combination! Darin's just not a green eater, yet. I still don't love them, but I'm eating them a bit more than he is. I'm still hopeful about Noah and the greens!

For our after dinner snack (because they took sooooo long to cook they weren't ready for dinner), we had roasted beets, potatoes, and zuchini with olive oil and sea salt. Cooked about 1.5 hours and was fabulous!!! Crispy and sweet on the edges and tender on the insides. Small bits were broken up in the pan and crispy-licious! Best after dinner snack I've had in a long time and I have leftovers for lunch! Roasting veggies is easy and we all like the taste. I think I'll be doing more of that in the near future.

I think the mustard greens may be composted. They're still in the crisper in the fridge, so I've not given you hope yet. Will keep you updated about their status.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Great Collard Catastrophe!

My first mistake was getting cocky with collards from my first box of veggies and assuming I could cook something tasty without a recipe. I admit my mistake. Mia culpa!

Tonight's Menu:

Turkey Burgers
roasted root veggies (potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, onions)
cooked collards
sliced cucumbers (for me, only)

The burgers and root veggies were very yummy and universally appreciated! The collards, while washed well and grit-free, were tough and not tasty! I thought I recalled (ahhhhh, therein lies the mistake -- "I recalled") collards could be cooked well with olive oil, garlic, and chicken broth. I did this for about an hour. I thought that would be plenty 'o time. Alas, it was not to be. The road to wasted veggies is paved with "I thought" and "I recalled" and.... no recipe.

I actually spit out my first bite of collards because they were so tough! Then, not thinking clearly because of the disappoint of spending so much time cooking the crummy collards, I asked the DS to try them! The DH laughed and said, "really?" Then I realized how dumb that normal parental request was (we have a rule that the DS has to try one bite of everything). I let him off the hook since even I had deemed them inedible!

I still was not able to compost the cooked collards, so I bagged them and put them in the fridge. Beth, my partner in veggie-dom, walked down with her family after dinner and I told her my collard chronicle. She suggested "throwing them in a pot" with some cheese tortellini and other things and making a soup. "I do it with spinach all the time, " she said!
Spoken like a true natural cook.

"Just throw some things in a pot!' Another friend, and natural cook, Anne Marie often says the same thing. I don't really know WHAT to throw in that pot, though. Another fear is that I'll ruin a perfectly good package of cheese tortellini by putting it in a pot of crappy collards!

Do I try to reconstitute the cooked collards? Do I compost the crude crinkled collards? Or, do I admit the collards have conquered me and ask Beth to take all the rest of the collards from the boxes of veggies in exchange for some nice simple broccoli?

Oh the conundrum!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

They're Here, They're Here!!!

I picked up my first box of veggies today from Miss Karla, the farmer (as my DS is now calling her)! Beth, my neighbor/partner in veggie-dom met us at the tailgate market with her tiny baby boy in tow. After perusing all of the other goodies at the Flat Rock Tailgate market and buying a yummy cookie from Dave at Flat Rock Bakery, we got our box!

Included in our box today was:
collards (a scary surprise because remember-- no pork in our family! How do you cook collards with out bacon fat?)
two bunches of broccoli
a bag of mixed salad greens
a bag of pole beans
a bunch of beets with greens attached
4 large green onions
one cucumber
one zucchini

This being the start of the growing season, the box was not as full as it will get when all of Blackbird Farms' crops start coming in. I saw the boxes at the peak last summer and there will be plenty 'o veggies for our two small families to share! Actually, this was a nice, unintimidating quanitity for me to begin with.

Even so, I got home and almost had a panic attack! COLLARDS! A huge bunch o' collards! What do I do with them without bacon? It was 5:30 p.m. when I got home and started dinner and the DS begins bedtime routine about 7:30 and we have to get homework and bath done in there, too. So, with limited time, I scrambled for a recipe for collards! I had that beet recipe that I posted last time ready to go (but not enough time, so I'll make that this weekend); I had the swiss chard ideas from others ready to go; I had the turnip recipe ready to go...but collards!! Soooooo unprepared for the collards.

Then, it hit me, I don't have to cook the collards tonight! Yes, I know, sometimes my anxiety gets hold of me and I don't realize the obvious things right away! For dinner tonight, I decided to focus on what I knew: steaming broccoli and making a salad! I decided to make omelets for dinner (which is weird because I never make omelets) so I diced the onions and decided to try sauteing the beet greens with the onions in a little olive oil with a garlic clove. After a quick call to the MIL to get her approval of my choice, she suggested cooking the greens longer than just a saute, so I threw in some chicken broth and simmered them slowly while I cooked the omelets. Good call on her part, as usual!

I put this sauteed greens mixture into the omelet with some sharp cheddar and was done.

My DH was very good about being open minded about the mixed spring greens for the salad. He's a straight Romaine lettuce kind-of-guy and doesn't normally go for the spring greens. But tonight, he tried it and liked it, Sam-I-Am!! He also enjoyed the beet greens in the omelet but with one caveat: they were gritty!

I guess I'm so used to using store bought lettuce that has been washed pretty well that I only have to rinse that I forgot that I was getting fresh veggies straight from the farm, ie: straight out of the dirt!! So...I just lightly rinsed those beet greens and cooked them! I was really disappointed because the flavor of the greens, onion, garlic olive oil and broth together was wonderful! I really liked it and so did the DH and neither of us are big fans of greens. But the grit (aka: dirt) kinda ruined it.

Ahhhh...the lessons of a newbie! WASH YOUR GREENS REALLY WELL!!!

So here was tonight's menu:

salad of mixed spring greens
steamed broccoli
omelets with sauted beet greens and spring onions

(I took pictures of the meal but they look so dumb compared to the really yummy pics other people post of the food they cook that I couldn't bring myself to post them! I also took pics of the box o' veggies but will post that later. )

All-in-all, I'd say a fairly successful healthy, mostly local dinner!

I think Our Veggie Adventure has begun in fine fashion! Day one and No Wasted Veggies yet!

(Can you hear the battle cry? NWV!! NWV!! NWV!!)

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Five Days and Counting!

I get our first veggie box this coming Thursday, May 13th! I am looking seriously at recipes so that I can start cooking right away and not have the veggies sit in my fridge while I scour the internet for recipes. My primary source of recipes is http://allrecipes.com because they have a great way to search for recipes by ingredient and their rating system seems to be pretty much spot-on for me. Everything I've tried from that site that has a 4.5 or 5 star rating, I've enjoyed. Also, the comments that others give in the ratings on how to improve or change the recipes a little is very helpful for a novice cook like me.

I don't know exactly what will be in my first box of veggies or how much will be in there. I really have become quite the nerd about this!! I'm really, really excited about Thursday!! My partner in veggie-dom, Beth and I will pick up our first box together and take some photos to post here so you can see the "first box" (imagine the sound of trumpets here)!

Blackbird Farms Website (blackbirdcsa.com) says that in May we will get, among other things, radishes (ewwwww!) and turnips (double ewwwwww!!) and "beets with tops" (not too eewww). I have no idea what to do with the top of a beet. I'm assuming by turnips they mean the root and not the greens. The greens I could figure out how to cook with one phone call to my southern cookin' Mama! I have eaten (but never prepared) some yummy cold beet salads with balsamic vinegar but I don't think the DH and DS will go for something so obviously beety, so I found a roasted beet recipe that looks good that I'll try (see all recipes below).

For the turnips, I think I'll try a caramelized turnip recipe. Anything caramelized is good to me! Everything's better with butter!!! But, I will try to go light on the butter to stick with my healthy eating goal. For the radishes, it's either try something completely new or give them all to my sister-in-law who loves to nibble on them raw! I'll try a couple of recipes and if no one in my house eats them, I'll give them to the SIL! I think the grilled radish recipe looks interesting. What do you think?



Roasted Beet Wedges

1 pound medium fresh beets, peeled
4 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 sprigs fresh rosemary

Directions
1. Cut each beet into six wedges; place in a large resealable plastic bag. Add olive oil and salt; seal and shake to coat.
2. Place a piece of heavy-duty foil (about 12 in. long) in a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Arrange beets on foil and top with rosemary. Fold foil around beet mixture and seal tightly. Bake at 400 degrees F for 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours or until beets are tender. Discard rosemary sprigs.


Caramalized Turnips

Ingredients
3 cups diced peeled turnips
1/4 cup water
1 cube chicken bouillon
1 tablespoon butter, or more as needed
2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions
1. Place the turnips into a skillet with the water and chicken bouillon cube over medium heat, and simmer until the water has evaporated and the turnips are tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in the butter, let melt, and sprinkle on the sugar. Gently cook and stir the turnips until the butter and sugar cook into a brown, sticky coating on the turnips, about 10 minutes. Serve hot.



Grilled Radishes

20 ounces radishes, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1 cube ice
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Preheat the grill for high heat.
2. Place the radishes, garlic, butter, and ice cube on a double layer of aluminum foil large enough to wrap contents. Season with salt and pepper. Tightly seal foil around contents.
3. Place foil packet on the grill, and cook 20 minutes, or until radishes are tender.




I found all of these recipes at allrecipes.com

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Start Date: May 13

I finally have a confirmed date for my first veggie pick-up from my CSA!!! May 13th, between 3:00 and 6:00!! I’m really surprised how excited I am to be getting a box of veggies, many of which I don’t even normally eat! I feel like a kid before her birthday! I think this blog, and me running my mouth about it to friends and family, has forced me to get excited! That’s good! Again, I need, I crave, I demand that you hold me accountable!!! Remember my goal is: NO WASTED VEGGIES (NWV)!!!

I hear from our intrepid farmers at Blackbird Farms that they will give us occasional recipes, so that’s good to know! Also, my neighbor and partner in veggie-dom, Beth, is ready and determined to get going, as well! She has the bonus of a baby so she can always puree and force feed the non-speaking infant the things the rest of the family won’t eat! She will easily have NWV. But in the spirit of full disclosure, I must say that Beth and her family are light years ahead of my family in their current veggie eating habits. They are also regular runners. Not that this is a competition, but I am bound and determined to eat more veggies that those lean and fit crazy neighbors of mine!!! I will WIN!!! I will cook more, eat more veggies, I’ll have her skinny little butt begging for a Big Mac and fries when this is all over …….oh, umm….sorry…..I got a little sidetracked there. Hey Beth! Luv ya! ;)

So, here are few things you, my few readers, need to know about me and my family. We are food freaks. I mean this in a loving, self-deprecating kind of way! My DH and DS are Jewish and therefore do not eat pork or shellfish (or other bottom feeding, non-cud chewing animals, but the biggies are pork and shellfish). I, the real freak (because now that I read the previous sentence, it is just wrong to call my loved ones freaks because they adhere to religious traditions!), am currently allergic to beef, cashews and pistachios. I say “currently allergic to” because my food allergies keep increasing. Crazy, I know, but there you have it!

Therefore, if you send me recipes, which I would LOVE for you to do, they must not contain:

Pork
Shellfish
Beef
Cashews
Pistachios

We eat a lot of chicken at my house. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of chicken. Also, some turkey and some fish. Did I mention the chicken?

NWV!!!!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Chard, Schmard!

One of the veggies that I'll be receiving from my CSA in May is Swiss Chard. I am clueless about this veggie so I Googled it and found out that it is a pretty, leafy green that has a slight peppery taste and is also bitter and pungent. ICK! So, my challenge begins right away!! I've already written my check to pay for my shared half-share in this CSA and I am NOT going to throw any unused, wilted veggies into my compost bin!! We are going to eat them and we are going to ENJOY them!! Hear that, husband and son?!?! Okay, so maybe we won't enjoy all of them, but I'm gonna give it the 'ole school try and search out easy (that's my key word for cooking: EASY) recipes that are tasty. (By the way, my research about Swiss Chard also revealed that a one cup serving has more than the daily recommended amount of vitamins K, A, and C. It also has lots of iron and fiber, like all leafy greens -- and who can't use some extra fiber as we age, huh?)

Here's the first Swiss Chard recipe that I found that looks simple, easy and tasty. I love vinegar, so that's the kicker for me! Also, all of ingrediants (except the SC) are things I always have on hand. Bang! Cook it up and call it a side dish!

I found this recipe on www.Allrecipes.com.



Simple Swiss Chard
(Makes 2 servings)

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch Swiss chard, stalks discarded, leaves cut into wide ribbons
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Heat the olive oil on a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic and cook until tender and aromatic, about 2 minutes. Add the Swiss chard and balsamic vinegar; cook and stir until the chard is wilted and tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving Calories: 172 | Total Fat: 13.8g | Cholesterol: 0mg

Saturday, March 27, 2010

My First Post

Well, I guess I'm joining the world of bloggers! I read somewhere that if you are starting a new, challenging venture that it helps to blog about it, to put it out there for the world to see in order to keep you honest! I'll give it a try! In our family, we love to eat but don't always love to eat veggies. My in-laws bought a half-share in a local organic CSA (community support agriculture) farm last year and I saw some of her weekly boxes of veggies and was amazed! I love the idea of eating more organically and locally, so I thought we'd give it a try this year. My main fear was that I'd have all these beautiful fresh veggies in my fridge spoiling because I didn't eat them all. I talked with a friend and she said that they would split a half-share with us to give it a try this year! The season is 22 weeks and starts in May. Here are the items on Blackbird Farms harvest calendar for May:

May Vegetables

Mesculin Mix, Spinach, Swiss Chard, Spring Onions, Beets with tops, Turnips, Radishes, Broccoli, Asian Greens, Cabbages,Seasonal Herbs

This should be interesting! I'm slowly learning to be a better cook (inspired by the mother-in-law who is a true foodie and an amazing cook AND a sommolier!! She ROCKS a meal!!). I cannot IMAGINE what I'm going to do with turnips or Swiss Chard (I don't even know what Swiss Chard is -- it's a leafy green, right?). I'm hoping my CSA sharing partner, Beth will help me along with some recipes! Between Beth, the rockin' MIL, allrecipes.com, and this big-ole Cook's Illustrated Cookbook the MIL gave me, I'm determined to NOT let any fresh veggies spoil in my fridge! Join me as we begin our adventure in May! Between now and then, I'll be posting recipe ideas I find in preparation for delivery of our first box 'o veggies!



Here's the website for the CSA we are supporting:
http://www.blackbirdcsa.com/index.html