CSA Week #6

Another huge selection at the farmer's market this week! It's gotten to the point where I can no longer keep track of what I don't pick - there was even an extra table added for the all the produce the CSA had to offer this week. Here's what we came away with:

CSA Week #6

From left to right: zucchini, cauliflower, tomatillos, and buttercrisp lettuce. Looking forward to the delicious meals these veggies will make!

In case you have noticed that this post is a little later in the week than normal, you are right. It's taken me two days to write this post because things have been a bit busier this week than normal. This past weekend, we adopted a dog! Meet Winnie:

Winnie - official mascot of lizzilnthings

She's a 5 year-old Airedale Terrier mix (according to the vet) and is the sweetest dog in the world! All she wants to do is be around us and she follows us wherever we go...even in the kitchen! Needless to say, I've been a bit preoccupied with the cutest addition to our family!

E is for Eggplant

When I was in graduate school, my cohort and I would often have potluck dinners as an excuse to stop studying and be social. Potlucks were easy - maybe it was because we were poor grad students - and everyone always made delicious food. To spice things up, we always tried to come up with different themes for our potlucks - favorite comfort food, traditional cultural/religious dish, etc. One of our more "creative" themes was make a dish that either starts with the first letter of your name or a dish with a main ingredient that starts with the first letter of your name. My name, if you did not know by now, is Elisabeth...so I chose a dish with eggplant. Enter baba ganoush:

Baba Ganoush

Ingredients:

• 1 medium/large or 2 small eggplants
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 Tbl olive oil
• 1/4 cup tahina
•  dash of cumin
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Slice eggplants vertically and rub with olive oil. Place face down on a baking sheet. Roast eggplants for 20 minutes in an oven heated to 350 degrees, or until soft.

2. In a food processor, chop 1 clove of garlic with 2 Tbl of extra virgin olive oil. Add roasted eggplant, and chop. Transfer to a bowl.

3. Add 1/4 cup of tahina (sesame paste), salt and pepper to taste, a dash of cumin, and the juice from 1 half lemon. Stir well and enjoy - more lemon juice, salt, pepper, or garlic can be added based on personal preference.

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Prep Time!

Our CSA share came with 3 small eggplants - the first two were used for baba ganoush, and the third one was grilled, with a balsamic vinegar marinade. A marinade was made using equal parts olive oil and vinegar, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper. The eggplant was sliced, and then grilled on our grill pan for about 7 minutes on each side. We ate it with baked chicken and sautéed spinach and garlic. Delicious!

Grilled Eggplant

Adventures in Scaping

Below is a guest blog post from my friend/cousin Annie - she picked up our CSA share the week we were on vacation. She has an adorable 3-year old who is featured below!

My sous chef Carter was also a big helper. Just to recap we had cauliflower, garlic scapes, turnips and squash. 

Garlic scapes and Cauliflower

We pan seared the cauliflower in a few tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper until browned and then threw in the chopped up garlic scapes- including the bulb at the end for the last few minutes. The friendly farmer had told me they are good in anything stir fried that you want to taste like garlic- he had said to use the whole thing. The scapes have a mild garlic/onion flavor, similar to scallions but just more garlicky. They were good!

In the pan!

Then we sliced up the squash and turnips and tossed with olive, oil, salt and pepper and roasted in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. Nothing too exciting but the roasted veggies tasted good.

Roasted zucchini

Carter tasted a garlic scape (nothing else) and said he liked it. Garlic scapes are 3 year-old approved!

Sous chef Carter, hard at work adding pepper!

Thanks for the post, Annie! Glad to hear Carter was able to help and enjoy some of the produce!

Of Mice and Muggles

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy

This past week, my husband and I went on vacation with my parents to Orlando, Florida. Ever since the rumors started about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, my parents have said they'd take me as soon as it opened. Well, it took about 3 years, but we all finally were able to coordinate our schedules and plan a trip! We spent two days at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure and two days at Epcot and Hollywood Studios at Disney World.

I was a little nervous to go on vacation with my parents, considering the last time we traveled together I was still in high school. However, our trip was really great! Highlights included:

• drinking Butterbeer in Hogsmeade (yum!)
• getting soaked on all the water rides at Universal - Jurassic Park, Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, & Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges
• all-you-can-eat German buffet at the Biergarten in Epcot
• meeting Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, & Goofy
• my two favorite rides: Tower of Terror and Rockin' Roller Coaster!

The best part of the trip was when we went on Living with the Land in Epcot, a boat ride through the greenhouses in Disney World where not only some of the produce that is served in the restaurants is grown but also where agricultural research is conducted. This was one of our first rides that day, and we had already had a game plan as to what rides to wait for vs. what rides to Fast Pass, all based on the assumption we'd have no hiccups in our day. Fast Passes are a basically special tickets that allow you to skip the lines to the most popular rides by assigning you a one hour window for you to ride. They are free and every Disney guest is able to obtain them, but you can only get another Fast Pass once your ride time has passed.

As our boat approached the end of the ride, all of the boats lost power. We were stuck in the greenhouse for close to a half hour, waiting for power to be restored. Of all the rides in Disney World, this is probably the best one to get stuck on - after all, you are surrounded by lots of food! We were finally rescued by some lovely college intern who was doing botany research at Disney for the summer, and all the passengers on the boat were escorted onto dry land through the greenhouse. The best part: as compensation, Disney staff members gave us Fast Passes that were good on a number of rides in Epcot to be used at any point in the next 3 days. Somehow, my mom, dad, and husband snagged 13(!!!!), so needless to say, we did not wait for any other rides the rest of the day.

The view once we got off our broken down boat

Disney World and Universal Studios are a lot of fun, but also very tiring! On our last day, we just sat by the pool and relaxed and read. A much needed vacation from vacation.

CSA Week #5

Wow - I was shocked at how much produce was available this week at the Farmer's Market!  What a difference a week makes! I have not seen this many options since our CSA began. It's definitely prime picking time at the farm...3 types of squash, eggplants, kohlrabi, beets, spinach, broccoli, collard greens, 2 types of cucumbers, lettuce...and much more. Here's what I picked on my first week back:

I already have LOTS of idea for what to make with these veggies! Recipes to be posted soon :)

For those of you keeping track, last week I was not able to pick up the produce because we were on vacation. A dear friend picked up our share as to not let any food go to waste....and she picked cauliflower, yellow squash, turnips, and garlic scapes. Her updates will also be posted at a later date!

Happy 4th of July to all my readers from the United States! Hope you have a great celebration full of BBQs & fireworks!