CSA Week 7: Cantaloupe & ginger cocktail

Cantaloupe & ginger cocktails, served along with some repeat tacos for a last-minute lunch date before leaving for South Carolina. The cocktails are made simply by pureeing cantaloupe, lime, ginger, and honey and serving over ice, with an optional shot of vodka mixed in. The tacos were filled with black beans, potato, poblano, and onion, homemade salsa, avocado, and pickled  cabbage.

CSA Week 7: Cole slaw

This basic cole slaw was born yesterday morning when I was too lazy to cook a hot breakfast and all out of cereal; I looked in the fridge and all I saw was cabbage, so cabbage it was. I was also too lazy to make this at all interesting, so it is simply: thinly sliced cabbage and carrots, cider vinegar, mayo, grainy mustard, a bit of honey, and salt & pepper. It is pretty darn good on a hot summer day (or morning), but next time I'll add in some shredded beets, minced onions and/or jalapeno, maybe some curry powder... something to make it more exciting.

CSA Week 7: Spicy summer vegetable chowder

Spicy summer vegetable chowder with potatoes, onion, corn, green peppers, and green beans. Start by chopping up all the veggies into bite-sized piece so you can move quickly once you start. Also mince up a few cloves of garlic and some jalapeno. Begin by sauteeing the potatoes and onions together with some salt on medium for a few minutes. Then add the minced garlic and jalapano, a few tablespoons of butter, a few tablespoons of flour, and some cumin and chili powder. Cook for another few minutes to make a roux. Then toss in the green peppers and green beans and add enough vegetable stock to cover the veggies. Simmer on low for a few minutes, then toss in the corn and continue to simmer until the veggies are tender. Take it off the heat and add some half-and-half to make it creamy, and puree 1/4-1/2 of the soup if that's your style. Adjust the salt, add a bunch of cracked pepper, and enjoy!

CSA week 7: Zucchini Fritters

Zucchini fritters with tzadziki.  I made these last week and made 'em again this week because they're the best thing I could think of to use up all of my cucumbers, zucchs, and yogurt.

For the tzadziki, chop up some cucumber and mix it into some greek yogurt along with minced garlic, lemon juice, EVOO, and mint. 

For the fritters, grate up some zucchs and onion, salt it in a colander, and then let it sit for a while, squeezing every few minutes to get out as much  moisture as possible.Then mix in some egg and enough breadcrumbs to make it fritter-able, plus some dill, red pepper flakes, and/or feta if that's your thing. As with latkes, you want to use as little egg and breadcrumbs as possible to hold it together so that the texture stays crispy-creamy from the veggies rather than gummy and eggy. Fry the fritters on both sides until brown and crispy, pressing with a spatula to increase the surface area. I like to fry them until they're quite dark for maximal crispiness.

CSA Week 7

Cantaloupe, peaches,  green peppers, onion, tomatoes, beets, eggs, poblanos, jalapenos, cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, parsley,green beans, corn.

CSA Week 6: white beans with basil dressing.

Baked sweet potato and white beans with basil dressing (basil, mustard, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper).

CSA Week 6: A few photoless meals

Camera was on the fritz this week, but here are the other things I cooked:

Zucchini fritters with tzadziki.

Avocado, cucumber, spinach, and carrot sushi.

More veggie tacos topped with homemade salsa and pickled cabbage. These were so excellent.

Linguine with pesto, zucchini, and white beans. I cut the zucchs and beans into long, thin strips to mimic the linguine and then sauteed them. this would be nice with some asparagus added in.

CSA Week 6: Roasted veggie sandwich

Sandwich with pesto and roasted zucchini, red pepper, and onion.

CSA Week 6: Salsa

Salsa roja made by roasting tomatoes, onion, jalapenos, green pepper and whole garlic cloves with olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar, cumin, and ancho chili powder, then pureeing it all up with some lime juice.  You can puree it more or less according to your taste, and/or add some fresh chopped veggies for crunch.

CSA Week 6: Breakfast with pesto potatoes

A nice big breakfast of toast with avocado and a fried egg, kale with mustard butter, and fried potatoes mixed up with some almond pesto.

CSA Week 6

Eggs, tomatoes, green peppers, cabbage, cucumber, onion, white beans, jalapenos, zucchini, basil, peaches, and a lonely brussels sprout that ended up in the cabbage bag.

CSA week 5: more pickles

arranged with collected items from my vacation.

CSA Week 5: Veggie tacos

 Tacos composed of chili-fried potatoes, fried zucchini and onions, steamed garlic kale, cumin black beans, and some guac on top. I was hoping to add in some fresh CSA corn, but unfortunately it was very starchy and flavorless - I guess I should have known that it was too early in the season for corn.

CSA Week 5: Warm potato & beet salad

We got three beets and a handful of little potatoes this week, some of which were yellow and some of which were pink on the inside. I roasted them up along with some white beans, put them on a bed of lettuce and kale, and topped with some chopped almonds and honey-mustard dressing.

CSA Week 5: zucchini & eggplant "parmesan"

I was away during distribution last week so I'm not sure exactly what we got, but I did come home to some beautiful striped eggplant and a giant zucchini. I used them to make fried eggplant with pasta and fresh marinara last night. 

The sauce is made by carmelizing an onion and 2 cloves of garlic with some dried oregano, red pepper flakes, salt, and sugar, then tossing in a big can of tomatoes and simmering on low for almost an hour. Then I puree it up, adjust the seasoning, and stir in some fresh chopped basil.

To make the fried eggplant and zucchini, slice up the veggies pretty thin, lay them out on paper towels, salt them, and then top them with more paper towels and put something heavy on top. Press out the moisture for at least a half hour. Then put some corn starch or flour in one bowl, egg in another, and breadcrumbs in a third, and heat some oil in a pan. Dip the slices on both sides in the flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs, then toss em in the pan and brown on both sides (they'll cook better if you press them down with a spatula as they fry). I also made a batch for my gluten-free friend by battering them in corn starch, then egg, then more corn starch. You can serve it with pasta as is and top with lots of sauce and parmesan, or you can layer the fried slices with mozzarella, marinara, and parmesan and bake it at 350 for... a while... to make traditional eggplant parm.

Interlude: Shyam's birthday cake!

A chocolate & strawberry cake for my roommate's birthday party, along with a handful of mocha cupcakes and some guac & salsa for snacking!

This cake marks the first time I have successfully made swiss meringue buttercream! Every time I tried I would get excited about my fluffy, shiny meringue and then watch in horror as it began to separate as I added butter, and then give up in frustration and toss my soupy, lumpy frosting in the trash. Turns out I just needed to keep whipping - it gradually gets even lumpier, and then suddenly thickens up and turns into a beautifully smooth buttercream. The instructions on this page are extremely helpful! It was still a lot of work to manage the buttercream after it was made, however, because the intense summer heat causes the buttercream to separate every time you move it from the fridge to the counter. I ended up re-whipping the buttercream to room temperature and then frosting the cake in my bedroom right in front on the air conditioner.

The big cake is three layers of Ina Garten's awesome chocolate cake with strawberry swiss meringue buttercream and some strawberry jam (frozen strawberries + sugar + a little gelatin cooked until thick) in between the layers. I am not good at frosting things all smooth and pretty so I went for a kind of punk rock look with red streaks in the frosting and chocolate-dipped/spattered strawberries on the sides and top. 

The cupcakes are the same chocolate cake with mocha buttercream, which I made by melting together some chocolate chips, cream, and expresso powder, then cooling and whipping into the buttercream.

Some fresh guac made from monsterously large avocados, and some Green Mountain Gringo salsa enhanced with a fresh CSA tomato and some minced onion and jalapeno.

CSA Week 4: Honey mustard pickles

Overnight honey-mustard cucumber pickles inspired by Jeremy's pickles of the same type from the farmer's market. I mixed cider vinegar, water, honey, dijon mustard, and salt over low heat to dissolve everything and then poured it over the pickles and ate them the next day!

CSA Week 4: Pesto Pasta with Veggies

Pasta with zucchini, wax beans, and garlic scape pesto.

CSA Week 4: Red lentils w/ swiss chard (and moar salad)

Curried red lentils with swiss chard - a quick lunch to use up some chard and my leftover thai red curry paste. I just cooked the lentils in curry paste and coconut milk, pureed slightly, quick-sauteed some chard (I was worried that the stalks wouldn't get soft enough if I didn't pre-cook them) and tossed it into the lentils.

always more salad; this time with rye croutons and a dressing made from honey-mustard pickle juice (thanks Jeremy!) mixed with olive oil and yogurt.

CSA Week 4: Southwest scrambled eggs

Scrambled eggs with green pepper, onion, broccoli, black beans, and avocado. I usually make these with some potatoes and salsa thrown in, but I was all out so I just added some ancho chili powder to the veggies to spice it up. I used to make this by sautéing the veggies and then just cracking the eggs in and cooking for a minute, but I’ve found that the texture is much better if you cook the eggs very gently in a separate pan and then stir in the veggies just  before they’re done.

CSA Week 4

Today during my volunteer shift at the CSA I got soaked by the rain, dried off, then got soaked again, broke both of my shoes, and had to peddle home barefoot with a very front-heavy loaded-up basket and half-gallon of milk under my arm. but there was a double rainbow!!

Another blurry webcam photo because my camera is dead.

Kale, green pepper, tons of basil, swiss chard, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, wax beans, garlic scapes, eggs, beets, garlic.

CSA Week 3: Thai Red Curry

Yummmm - Thai red curry with veggies and tofu. I made this last night for a dinner & card night with friends, and it turned out to be the most successful Thai curry I've ever made. I think the sauce was really helped out by the lemongrass that I've been saving in the freezer for a special occasion. My neighbor brought over some of his CSA snap peas and greens for salad and delicious little strawberries for dessert (hi Jeremy, p. sure you are one of my like 3 consistent readers!)

The first step to make this is to grind up the curry paste - which really definitely requires a food processor or at least a blender to cut through the fiberous lemongrass. I ground up some ginger, tomato paste, fresh tomato, lemongrass, red onion, chili sauce (a fresh red chili would work too), soy sauce, and all the "c" spices - coriander, cinnamon, cumin, and cardamom. I can't tell you the proportions - just feel it out, taste it, and adjust. Then I cubed and pressed some tofu to get out the moisture while sauteeing some sweet potatoes, broccoli, green beans, and chopped red and green peppers. After a few minutes add in a good amount of curry paste (again, use your judgement) and cook for another few minutes, then add in enough coconut milk to mostly cover the veggies. Simmer until everything is tender. Meanwhile, fry up the tofu (or just leave it soft if that's how you prefer it). Toss in the tofu before serving and top with shredded basil.

CSA Week 3: Quick pickled beets

Quick pickled beets that were ready to eat in just a few hours! I made them by baking the beets whole until fork-tender, cooling them, peeling them, and slicing them. Then I heated up some cider vinegar, water, sugar, salt, and cloves to dissolve, layered the beets in a jar, poured over the pickling liquid, and used a butter knife to get out the air bubbles. They were perfectly pickly and delicious after just a few hours in the fridge! These should last at least a week - to make them last long-term all you have to do is get out the extra air and seal the mason jar by boiling the whole jar for about ten minutes.