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CSA Week #14

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 by virginia

Sorry for the lack of posts lately; we spent most of Labor Day weekend in NJ, and now we’re back again to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. We’ve been eating nonstop and spending lots of time with family/friends. Josh stayed in the city today just long enough to do some volunteer truck unloading and to pick up our CSA share. He also arranged the produce this week and took the pics, so they may look a little different. This week our vegetable contents included:

Watermelon – 1/2
Onions – 3/4 lb
Greens – 1 lb
Tomatoes – 2 lbs
Squash – 2 lbs
Radishes – 5 each

Kale, tomatoes, watermelon, radishes, onions, squash

The original contents list we received also said celery, but unfortunately they weren’t delivered. For the greens, Josh picked kale instead of swiss chard, since we’ve had a lot of chard lately. The watermelon was another half of a yellow watermelon, which we ate with dessert tonight. It wasn’t as sweet as the previous watermelon, but everyone was fascinated by the bright yellow flesh.

The fruit share this week was basically a repeat of last week, and we really do have an overpopulation of peaches in our fridge. Claire just sent us a book about canning and preserving foods (thanks Claire!) so I’ll need to look into that, and I also heard that freezer jam is pretty good as well. This week our fruit share contents included:

Plums – 1 lb
Apples – 11 each
Peaches – 3 1/4 lbs

Apples, peaches, plums

It’s crunch time for us because we have a week and a half to go before we leave on our two-week trip to Peru. We’re really excited about our trip but we want to make sure that we use up all of our veggies and fruits before we leave, or at least find ways of storing them so that they’ll still be good when we get back. We made a pretty good dent last week so I’m confident that we won’t let anything go to waste!

Tags: Apples, Greens, Kale, Onions, Peaches, Plums, Radishes, Squash, Tomatoes, Watermelon
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CSA Week #13

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 by virginia

The weather this week has been unbearably hot, and I wonder how that has affected our CSA crops. I felt bad because Josh had to run home right after work to pick up our share, and then go out again to meet some people for a happy hour. We had a bunch of repeats this week, and our fridge is absolutely packed with squash and tomatoes. The tomatoes I don’t mind, but does anyone have good suggestions about what to make with squash? We’ve already made squash soup, ratatouille, zucchini bread, and squash pancakes (similar to potato pancakes). We’re running out of ideas, and we still have lots of squash left. This week our veggie share contents included:

Watermelon – 1/2
Peppers – 5 mini
Tomatoes – 1 1/4 lbs
Mixed Greens – 1 lb
Squash – 2 lbs
Beets – 3 each
Spearmint – 1/8 lb
Beans – 1/2 lbs

Greens, squash, watermelon, tomatoes, spearmint, pole beans, mini bell peppers, beets

I’m not sure what kind of greens we got this week. They kind of look like baby collards. Anyone have any idea? The watermelon we got has yellow flesh. I don’t think I’ve had yellow watermelon before, and I wonder if it tastes the same as pink watermelon. We also got a lot of mint, so I foresee lots of mojitos.

We got lots of fruit this week, and I think we currently have more fruit in our refrigerator than we have vegetables. I made a tasty apricot tart with our CSA apricots that were starting to get overly ripe. It was a great way to make sure the fruit didn’t go to waste. This week our fruit share contents included:

Italian Plums – 1 3/4 lbs
Apples – 1 bag
Peaches – 2 lbs

Apples, peaches, Italian plums

The apples we got were similar to macintoshes. The Italian plums this week were pretty soft so we’ll either have to eat them really quickly, or I’ll have to turn them into a dessert. Meanwhile, the peaches we’ve been getting are fantastic. They’re the juicy, sweet, white variety and I’ve been eating a few each day. Can’t believe the summer is almost over!

Tags: Apples, Beets, Greens, Mint, Peaches, Peppers, Plums, Pole Beans, Squash, Tomatoes, Watermelon
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CSA Week #11

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 by virginia

We got a note from the farm this week apologizing for some of the spoiled produce we’ve been seeing, and explaining that the cause is the weather. I understand the difficulties that they’re dealing with, it just pains me to have to throw food away but I’m sure it pains the farmers even more.

We had another week of heavy produce, and this time it was Josh who had to carry it all home by himself. This week our vegetable share contents included:

Tomatoes – 3 lbs
Melon – 1 each
Napa Cabbage – 1 each
Greens – 1/2 lb
Squash – 2 lbs
Carrots – 1/3 lb
Cucumbers – 2 lbs
Corn – 2 ears
Beets – 1 lb

Heirloom tomatoes, beets, greens, napa cabbage, squash, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melon on top

The tomatoes were much better this week, and Josh found three huge heirlooms that look juicy and ripe. For the greens, he picked up some swiss chard with yellow stems this time instead of the red stems. He also picked up a different kind of squash that is big and round, with bright yellow skin and green trim on the edges.

The fruit this week also looked MUCH better, and I was really happy with what we got. The fruit share contents included:

Nectarines – 3 1/2 lbs
Peaches – 3 1/2 lbs

Nectarines and peaches

These also look sweet and juicy, and only one peach was spoiled out of the whole bunch. We’ll have to eat these quickly though as they’re super ripe. I’ll have to look into some peach dessert recipes. Cobbler perhaps?

Tags: Beets, Carrots, Corn, Corned Beef Hash, Greens, Napa Cabbage, Nectarines, Omelets, Peaches, Squash, Swiss Chard, Tomatoes
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CSA Week #10

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 by virginia

Today’s CSA share was probably the heaviest one we’ve had so far. Josh was picking up the car from NJ (we’re dog-sitting the next two days) and I really struggled to carry our vegetables and fruits the few blocks home. According to the farm report we got, the heat wave has caused all of the melons to ripen two weeks early. We had a choice of melons this week, including the Asian variety we got last week, and I picked up one that looked like a small honeydew. For the greens, the email said we had a choice between kale and chard, but I think I picked up collard greens. I saw the kale but didn’t see anything resembling the swiss chard we got a few weeks back.

This week our vegetable share contents included:

Cucumber – 3 lbs
Squash – 2 lbs
Greens – 1/2 lb
Melons – 1 each
Tomatoes – 3 lbs
Basil – 1/2 lb
Corn – 3 each

Squash, basil, melon, tomatoes, collards, corn, cucumbers

I was thrilled to see basil again, and half a pound is a ridiculous amount. Seriously, I have like an entire basil bush right now, just waiting to be turned into pesto. I don’t want to make the same mistake as last time, letting the basil blacken prematurely, so I want to use it up right away.

I have to be honest that I was not happy with the fruit share this week. I liked the kinds of fruit that we got, but the quality was pretty bad. I noticed the same thing with the tomatoes – most of them were super soft and had split open.

Our fruit share this week included:

Donut Peaches – 1 quart
Plums – 1 lb
Apricots or Peaches – 1 lb

Donute peaches, plums, apricots, peaches

I was super excited to see donut peaches, little peaches that look like they’ve been flattened. But when I dug into the quart container, the peaches at the bottom were brown and moldy. I tried cutting off the mold and brown bits, but four of them were totally inedible. Sad.

Moldy and gross

A few of the plums had also split open, but I just washed them off and ate them right away. They were sweet and tasty, but I was pretty disappointed with the state of the fruit. Hopefully it was just because the weather has caused everything to ripen too quickly, and that this won’t happen in later weeks. We still have a hefty bounty left but I hate seeing food go to waste.

Tags: Apricots, Basil, Corn, Cucumbers, Greens, Melon, Peaches, Plums, Squash, Tomatoes
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Shrimp Scampi with Swiss Chard and Spaghetti

Monday, August 2nd, 2010 by virginia

Ruby swiss chard

Fresh onions and garlic

Josh and I weren’t quite sure what to do with the gorgeous ruby swiss chard that we got from our CSA so we decided to improvise a bit by adding it to a shrimp scampi pasta dish. We thought that the copious amounts of garlic we put in our pasta would go well with the chard, and that the chard would provide a nice veggie component to an otherwise carb-heavy dish.

First I chopped the swiss chard into one inch pieces, including the ruby red stalks because I loved the color. I knew they wouldn’t wilt down as much as the leaves and figured they could add some crunch to the dish. Then I washed the leaves thoroughly and spun them dry.

Chopped and washed chard

Meanwhile, Josh chopped up the fresh onions and garlic that we also got from the CSA, including the green stalks of each. He set those aside in small prep bowls. We also started a pot of water to boil for the pasta.

Chopped onion and garlic (including the green tops of both)

After washing and drying the shrimp (cleaning out the veins but keeping the shells on), he seared them in a hot pan with some olive oil.

Searing the shrimp

Once the shrimp were cooked on both sides and had turned pink, he removed them and set them aside. Then he added more olive oil to the same pan and sauteed the garlic and onion until they started to brown slightly. We also started to cook the pasta in the boiling water at this point.

Sauteeing the garlic and onions in olive oil

Next we added the swiss chard to the pan, cooking it with the garlic and onion. The chard absorbed most of the oil and took on a nice, garlicky flavor. We seasoned the chard with lots of salt and pepper.

Wilting the swiss chard in the garlic, onion, and olive oil

After the chard was wilted, we removed it from the pan and deglazed with vermouth and lemon juice. We let that reduce for a bit, then tossed it with the cooked spaghetti (we had to use a larger pot for that). We added back the chard and the shrimp and mixed everything together. It was a bit dry so we added some more olive oil and lemon juice, plus a little bit of pasta water to loosen everything up.

There’s really no set amount of ingredients for this recipe. Just use as much garlic and onion as you’d like, and as much olive oil/lemon juice/vermouth. The key is to season everything, and to make sure you taste everything, so that you adjust it all in the end. We plated up the pasta, arranged some shrimp on top, and garnished with some chopped parsley.

Shrimp scampi with swiss chard and spaghetti

It’s not exactly a traditional scampi recipe, but the flavors were there and this was really easy to make. The hardest part was cleaning the shrimp, but once that was taken care of it was just a matter of cooking everything in batches, and then combining it all together in the end. The pasta ended up tasting light and lemony, with just a hint of garlic and vermouth in the background. My only adjustment to this dish would be to use even more garlic!

Tags: Garlic, Greens, Onions, Pasta, Shrimp, Swiss Chard
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CSA Week #7

Friday, July 23rd, 2010 by virginia

No, I didn’t forget about CSA Wednesday. Due to a previous commitment for the church where we pick up our shares, this week our distribution was moved to Thursday. I was super excited when we got the email this morning that listed our share contents, as there were lots of new vegetables for us to try. Much to our dismay, however, when we went to get our share, three items were missing – basil, cucumbers, and purslane. We’re not really sure why those items weren’t delivered, and while our share was still pretty robust, I had already been thinking about the basil pesto I wanted to make, and I was looking forward to trying braised cucumbers, the highly touted Julia Child recipe.

Oh well. We did get some things that weren’t on the emailed list, like lettuce and greens, so I guess it works out in the end. Our share contents this week included:

Squash – 3 lbs
Fava Beans – 1 lb
Carrots – 5 each
Turnips – 4 each
String Beans – 1lb
Lettuce – 1 head
Greens – 1/2 lb

Turnips, string beans, lettuce, greens, fava beans, carrots, squash

For the lettuce, it looked like we had a choice between green leaf and Boston lettuce. Because we’ve already tried the green leaf lettuce before, we chose the Boston even though the heads were tiny. The greens turned out to be kale, which means we can make kale chips again! For the squash, there were lots of different varieties so we picked up a standard yellow one, a smaller, round yellow one, and a large, pear shaped pale green one.

Our fruit share this week was the best one yet, with several different items. The contents included:

Sugar Plums – 1 quart
Apricots – 1 quart
Red Plums – 1 pint

Sugar plums, apricots, and red plums in front

The apricots look gorgeous, and I really liked the sugar plums from last week, though the skin is a bit tart. Josh made a lovely salsa with it that I’ll be posting about. Unfortunately, Josh will be on the road for work the next two weeks, which makes it tough for me to enjoy our bounty. I don’t want him to feel like he’s missing out, but then again, he’s going to have a lot of access to great restaurants while he’s away so I’m the one who’s going to end up feeling jealous. I’ll just have to figure out some really awesome things to make so that maybe he’ll have incentive to travel less!

Tags: Apricots, Carrots, Fava Beans, Greens, Kale, Lettuce, Plums, Squash, String Beans, Turnips
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Summertime CSA Eats

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 by virginia

Gorgeous basil

We’re still trying to cook more often but with the weather so hot and muggy lately, there are some days when neither of us can bear the thought of slaving over a hot stove. And because our stove has no exhaust hood, our apartment gets hot and smokey every time we cook. As a result, we’ve been resorting to one of our favorite summertime meals – prosciutto, mozzarella, tomato, and basil on fresh bread. And with our CSA, we’ve had access to some really gorgeous basil with big, beautiful green leaves.

Even with this simple supper, Josh still fusses with presentation. Instead of cutting up some cheese and tomatoes and slapping it all together, he likes to arrange everything nicely on a large cutting board so that we can individually customize each bite. And even though I tease him about it, the lovely presentation really does make the meal seem even more appetizing.

Prosciutto di parma

Fresh mozzarella and sweet summer tomatoes

Slice of a country white boule from Amy's Bread

Everything all nicely arranged, with plenty of fresh basil leaves

I am very methodic in my constructions. I take a slice of bread, rub some olive oil on it, and top it with a large slice of prosciutto. Next I put on slices of tomato and sprinkle them with some kosher salt. Then I layer on some fresh mozzarella and top it all off with a big basil leaf. But that’s not all. To finish, I douse a bit more olive oil over everything, and drizzle on some balsamic syrup that Josh makes by slowly reducing an entire bottle of balsamic vinegar until it’s thick and rich like chocolate sauce. A few cranks of freshly ground black pepper, and voila!

Simply awesome

I’m embarrassed to say how much of this stuff we ate in one sitting but we also added some veggies to our dinner by throwing together a quick salad with CSA baby greens and radishes. Lightly dressed with just lemon juice and some olive oil, it was the perfect complement to our meal.

Baby greens and radishes from our CSA

Amy’s Bread is still our preferred bakery for baguettes. Lately, however, they’ve been running out of baguettes by the time we get there after work. The country white boule is a nice alternative, though it has a denser texture and a thicker crust. We’re also fans of the olive fougasse, which has a nice chewy texture and is studded with tons of flavorful black olives. Once you have fresh bakery bread, the stuff from the supermarkets just doesn’t compare. And to top it all off, the bread we get from Amy’s Bread is cheaper than the bread from the supermarket. How great is that?!

Amy’s Bread (multiple locations)
672 9^th Ave. between 46^th and 47^th St.
New York, NY

Tags: Basil, Bread, Greens, Mozzarella
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Spaghetti “Carbonara” with Turkey Bacon and Sauteed Greens

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 by virginia

Greens

Going back to our first batch of CSA goodies, we got 3/4 lb of “greens”. I’m not sure exactly what kind of “greens” these are, but they had a pretty tough and thick stem running through the middle. The leaves were also on the thicker side and seemed pretty hearty, so we decided to saute them instead of eating them raw. I trimmed the stems and roughly chopped the leaves into 1 inch pieces.

Cut, washed, and ready to go

We wilted the leaves in some olive oil with minced garlic, and then set them aside. Instead of having plain sauteed greens, we decided to mix them into our recipe for spaghetti carbonara. To make the carbonara sauce, we cooked about 10 ounces of turkey bacon in a large pan until rendered and crispy. In the meantime, put a pot of spaghetti on to boil.

After it was rendered, we scooped out the bacon and deglazed the pan with a bit of white wine, about a cup. We let the wine reduce until the sauce had a thicker consistency. Meanwhile, we cracked two eggs into a large bowl and beat them until smooth. After draining the pasta, we dumped it into the pan with the bacon/wine sauce and stirred it around.

Using some of the hot pasta water, I tempered the eggs so that they wouldn’t scramble when we poured the hot pasta mixture into the bowl. I stirred everything quickly while Josh slowly poured the pasta into the bowl, making sure that the egg coated all of the noodles. Then we added the cooked bacon and sauteed greens and tossed everything together thoroughly. Make sure to taste and season with salt as needed. The greens added a nice vibrant color to the pasta.

Our version of spaghetti carbonara

To finish it off, we grated some parmesan cheese on top and a few cranks of fresh black pepper. The carbonara sauce was lighter than other versions, but still had that nice glossy, velvety richness from the egg. It’s definitely an easy dish to make, and adding greens to the mix just somehow makes you feel better about eating a sauce made from bacon. At least it was turkey bacon, right? That’s what we like to tell ourselves…

Mmm bacon (and greens!)

Tags: Greens, Pasta
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CSA Week #4

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010 by virginia

It’s Wednesday again (don’t the weeks just seem to fly by?) which means it’s time for CSA! Josh actually volunteered today to help out with the distribution. All members of the CSA are required to volunteer 4-6 hours per season to either help meet the truck delivery, help with distribution, or help clean up the distribution site, which is a church near our apartment. The nice thing about this particular CSA is that all of the unclaimed/extra food is donated to the church at the end of the night so it doesn’t go to waste and it’s helping out people who probably wouldn’t normally have access to fresh vegetables and fruits.

Our share contents this week included:

Lettuce – 1 head romaine
Garlic – 3 each
Beets – 3 each
Carrots – 5 each
Onions – 4 each
Squash – 1 lb
Basil – 2 oz
Mixed Baby Greens – .25 lb

The beets and carrots widely varied in size (some were barely larger than my thumbnail), and I tried to pick out the largest ones. They weren’t super huge but I guess it’s still early in the season. The basil was gorgeous and fragrant, and 2 ounces is really a lot. Same with the mixed baby greens.

Beets, garlic, mixed baby greens, romaine, squash, carrots, onions, and basil in the middle

We also got our fruit share, which was pretty much the same as last week, except a smaller juice (boo).

Cherries – 3 pints
Juice – one bottle

We picked raspberry apple juice this time, and I liked it even better than the rhubarb apple from last week (though Josh prefers the rhubarb version).

Cherries and raspberry apple juice

According to the farm reports, the super hot weather hasn’t been good for the crops. Hopefully it cools down a bit because I’m really loving all these fresh veggies and fruits that we’re getting. And hopefully the pests stay away as well!

Tags: Basil, Beets, Carrots, Garlic, Greens, Onions, Romaine, Squash
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CSA Week #3

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 by virginia

Yet another week has gone by and you know what that means: CSA! We’ve got veggies bursting out of our fridge but we still can’t get over how great they are. Farm fresh really does make a huge difference. Our share this week included:

Lettuce – 1 large head
Garlic – 3 bulbs
Garlic scapes – 5 stalks
Radishes – 4
Onions – 4
Greens – 3/4 lb

We had a choice between romaine lettuce and red leaf lettuce so we chose the romaine, because we still had red leaf left over from last week. We also had a choice between ruby chard and kale for the greens, and we went with the kale because we had chard last week.

From left to right: onions, radishes, garlic, romaine, kale, garlic scapes

In even more exciting news, our fruit share started this week!! The email that we received regarding the contents was a bit confusing, and so we thought we were getting three pints of juice. Not exactly fruit, but we figured it was because it’s still early in the season. Turns out that we got three pints of cherries, plus a juice. There were several juices to choose from and we opted for rhubarb apple, since it seemed to be the most unusual option.

Cherries – 3 pints
Juice – one bottle

Cherries and rhubarb apple juice

The cherries are slightly tart but have a great firm, juicy texture. They’re good for snacking on their own, but I’m hoping to bake with some as well, since three pints is quite a lot of fruit.

Oodles of cherries

We’re still trying to cook more each week, and we’re getting much better about it. More recipes to come!

Tags: Cherries, Garlic, Garlic Scapes, Greens, Juice, Kale, Lettuce, Onions, Radishes, Romaine
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