Stuffed Pattypan Squash

This post is a few weeks overdue. Oops. Things have been busy here with work and life, but I promise I still have been cooking! I picked up some cute little pattypan squashes from the CSA a few weeks ago but wasn't entirely sure what to do with them. I'd already sauteed them last year and it seemed like there had to be a better way to prepare them. And with the help of the internet, there was! I found this delicious (and adorable) recipe: stuffed pattypan squash! As always, I had to tweak the recipe slightly - I mixed the rice with carrots, onions, the insides of the squashes, and eggplant. The rice without any of the vegetables was AMAZING. I kind of have been fantasizing about making it again...and again. Angela at Oh She Glows was definitely on to something!

I also ended up with a little (ok, a LOT) of extra rice, so I just served it on the side. Nothing like a rice stuffed squash with a side of rice for dinner!

CSA Week 11

Carrots, raspberries, potatoes (which surprisingly were purple!), and corn.

We also celebrated our third anniversary this past week :) We had delicious crabcakes (the best we've ever had!!!) with roasted purple potatoes and corn on the cob. The crabcakes were from Faidley's, a stand in Lexington Market. They have been ranked as one of the best in all of Baltimore, so we had been wanting to try them for a while. They lived up to the hype! Very little filler, lots of crab, great flavor but not over-seasoned. Faidley's even ships all over the county! Good to know, considering we will be moving in a little less than a year!

 

Please make this and let me know if it's really wonderful (looks amazing)

That was the subject line of an email sent to me by my mother. I can always count on getting at least one email from her a month asking to make a new dish that she found. She sent me this recipe for cauliflower pizza right around the time the CSA started, and I knew I had to save it until cauliflower was available at the market. I used that recipe to make the crust but added my own toppings - mozzarella cheese and mushrooms.

Cauliflower pizza is popular on Pinterest, and it seemed easy enough...but was it? Here's how it turned out, fresh from the oven:

Looks pretty good right? Here's another close up:

And now, here's one slice:

So, did it taste like pizza? Yes and no. The crust didn't really crisp and was on the mushy side. That's probably chef error (didn't read the recipe all the way and forgot to parbake the crust first). It tasted good and had all the flavors of pizza (tomato, cheese, and basil), but it was just kind of a big ball of cauliflower, tomato sauce, cheese, and mushroom glop. Overall, the cauliflower pizza wasn't so pretty, but it still tasted good. I would definitely try this recipe again, but first I would read the recipe all the way through before I start cooking. 

CSA Week 10

I usually pick up my half share at the farmer's market every Tuesday afternoon. This past week, I went straight home from work, due to torrential rain and flooding streets...so this post is a bit delayed.

On Saturday, my husband and I took a nice little trip to the farmer's market in a nearby neighborhood where our farm also has a stand. This CSA has various pick-up locations in and around Baltimore every day of the week, so if you miss one day, there's always another market another day. The market we went to is actually closer to our home, but it is much harder to commit to picking up produce every Saturday morning than on a Tuesday afternoon. My husband had never come with me to pick out our produce, so it was a nice treat to have him with me. Here's what we picked:

Onions, jalapeño peppers, Oriental eggplant, and seedless watermelon!

We also grabbed some breakfast at other stands - Belgian waffles (with the sugar crystals baked in), a chocolate, coconut, and caramel donut, some delicious coffee, and a meatball breakfast panini. Overall, it was a lovely morning at the farmer's market!

CSA Week 9

This post is a week late - sorry! I wish I had a good excuse as to why it took so long to post. But I don't. Just plain laziness! Here's what I got LAST week at the CSA:

Cape gooseberries, chard, zucchini, and Roma tomatoes.

"Cape gooseberries?", you say. "I have never heard of such a thing!" Well, neither had I! When I asked the farmer what those funny looking things were, he just described their flavor - sweet and kinda pineapple-y. He offered me a taste, and I loved them. And then, from the next stall, where they sell delicious baked goods, I heard a voice: "They don't even taste like tomatoes!"

Cape Gooseberries in their husk...and one naked one!

WHAT. I just ate a tomato...and liked it? For my whole life, I have HATED raw tomatoes. I've tried tomatoes many times and every time I've spit them out. But this one was different. It actually tasted good! Since I've brought them home with me, I've been popping them in my mouth and adding them to salads. They taste kind of fruity and most definitely not like any tomatoes I've ever tried before. Maybe all you tomato lovers were on to something...