Working For The Weekend

I've always looked forward to the weekends. Who doesn't look forward to two days off in a row? Because of my career choices I've always still done a bit of work on the weekend--grading, reading, etc.--but because of Jeff's career choice I've always tried to savor it, make as much time as possible for us to hang out together. I still do this because that's what you have to if you're married to a journalist. It's what you really have to do if you're married to a journalist and also happen to have chosen an ambitious and strenuous yet rewarding career path for yourself.

But now I look forward to the weekend for an extra reason: I can *almost* forget about my hip problem. When Jeff is around it just hurts. It doesn't hurt so much that all I want to do is lay around, bemoan the grogginess caused by the meloxicam that helps me get a decent night's sleep but makes doing my work much more difficult. When Jeff is at home it's easier to not feel bad about the pile of work I need to do. It's not that I'm not doing my work. I think I've done more work this summer than I have since my summers of schlepping bags of mulch into customers' cars as they made rude comments about my being a woman. Apparently being a woman means I am exempt and/or incapable of loading bags of mulch into customer cars... oh, the stories I could tell about working at Lowe's. But I digress.

I'll I've done this summer is read, take notes, and occasionally engage in tasks and activities that are supposed to keep my stress levels in check. If one looks at my social media feed it appears as though I am doing far more of the latter.

 Farmer's Market!

 Good times at one of our favorite wineries in the area (photo credit-- Jeff).

 Hanging out with my crew.

Homemade pasta. 

 Look at how neat the watermelon looks. 

 Homemade ice cream!

Ruth, discussing the next Doctor with me. She's glad it's a woman but, like me, thinks after fifty plus years a white woman, as much as we love Jodie Whittaker, the BBC could have given us more than a change of gender.

But social media hides secrets. It doesn't tell the whole story. It even helps me fool myself for a fleeting moment. It hides my pain. It withholds the truth--sometimes Jeff has to help me out of bed, there are naps between afternoon outings and evenings of pasta, and Jeff, who never seems to want to take credit, often acts as sous chef. My Instagram feed looks like I'm non-stop, go, go, go. But I'm not. I have to pause for the pain. I have to ask for help. I know that social media allows people to craft their truths, make their lives look more interesting. I knew my posts often made it seem as if I wasn't doing any work. It often looks as though I'm just faffing about, drinking wine, and buying local produce out the ass. It wasn't until recently that I thought about how I might be using it to try to hide the truth from myself. I can't go hiking... so let's post this cute picture of the kitties... let's post this picture of that beef tongue taco I tried. My posts have become a shield from reality. I can't enjoy my favorite trails, visit the one or two left on list to see, or do many of the other items I'd planned to do. I can't do the things I was SO looking forward to this summer.

I can't hide from my reality during the work week. There's no glass of wine to be had on a balcony, no sous chef (P.S. Jeff usually cooks dinner during the school year-- he deserves credit)... there's no where to go really. All there is to do is read, take notes, cross my fingers that my hip doesn't hurt too much, and hope that at some point my body shakes off the heavy exhaustion weighing it down, physically and mentally, so I can finish writing a 200 word abstract. I can't hide from the fact that I'm still too groggy to edit this to the best of my ability... I'm too groggy to craft the perfect final sentence about how all of this sucks, I know life could be worse, and that I will get through this, succeed, etc., etc. I'm just too damn exhausted.

CSA Week 7

The week got away from me-- clearly. While I love when Jeff gets a day off work, it always throws my schedule off a bit. All the housekeeping and work items I'd normally get to just sort of get thrown aside out of excitement of spending time with him during "normal people" hours. Ah, the life of being a college instructor married to a newsie!

Moving on to our week 7 box... we got a lovely bunch of carrots, blueberries, beets, cabbage, a tomato, yellow squash, garlic, oregano, and some red lettuce.

One of the first things I made was a yeast risen carrot bread. I've made it before-- it's great for breakfast also makes for a good French toast.

The recipe I use doesn't have exact measurements for every ingredient-- namely the yeast and water. My bread turned out well, but I'm still working towards getting it just a touch lighter. Normally I would try out another recipe, but this one is among the healthier carrot breads I've seen. It also uses yeast which seems to be a rarity among carrot breads, at least as far as I've seen. I hate not posting a recipe, but I'd rather get it perfected with the best measurements first. 

The rest of our plans involved taco inspired meals as well as a more traditional dish using the left over kohlrabi and some of the squash and cabbage. 

We did a vegetarian take on crispy bacon covered cabbage wedges with a traditional German kohlrabi dish (I don't have a link because I did a quick Google search, and I just sort of picked and chose what I wanted from a handful of recipes-- it's basically kohlrabi in a white sauce with some spices), and summer squash casserole. We subbed in some liquid smoke for the worcestershire. We also made everything dairy free, but if you don't have an allergy or an intolerance, there's no need. If you are like me though, I recommend Tofutti for the casserole. Their sour cream and cream cheese are the best non-dairy substitutes I've found. Both have passed for real dairy to unknowing individuals! 

Our first taco-ish meal was inspired by The Pioneer Woman. 

We are all about getting some veg into our meals (strictly for health reasons!). So we topped her egg in a hole recipe with roasted and briefly sautéed beets (roasting them gets rid of the notorious "dirt-like" taste), sweet potatoes, a bit of cabbage for crunch, colby jack, and salsa. 

Later in the week we did a bit of mixing and matching to make zucchini, summer squash, and corn open-faced tacos (yes, I made that up) with an avocado chimichurri. 

I was a bit skeptical but hopeful. I knew the filling would be fine-- I'm a fan of squash, and I've never gotten a bad recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod. We didn't follow their recipe exactly, leaving out the avocado so we could try out an avocado based chimichurri. Despite loving everything we've tried from Cookie and Kate, I was worried because I've never been a huge avocado fan. I'm glad we went for it because it offered a bit of a texture difference as well a bit of kick.

Jeff and I cooked up pasta with our favorite red sauce too. We usually use dried oregano but the fresh was a nice change of pace. 

I'll try to stay on task next week with a new CSA post on Thursday or Friday. I'll also let you know when I have the carrot bread recipe perfected. For now, I'll see on Tuesday for Tuesdays with Maggie!

CSA Week 6

We had so many plans for this beautiful box of goodies. Jeff loves blueberries, and I believe he just ate these, plain and simple. I was most excited about the kohlrabi. What's not to love about trying such an alien looking veggie?! I'd even found a promising recipe for the radishes that involved the garlic scapes and part of the dill. Unfortunately, many of our ideas and recipes never came to fruition-- if you read my last post, you know it's because of our dear Maggie.

It's hard to remain excited about trying new recipes while waiting on a pathology report. It's even harder to maintain it and follow through on cooking the chosen recipes once the pathology report comes back with bad news. We still managed cook up some goodies despite everything that's going on with our sweet girl (and yes, I do have a pillow that resembles her!).

First up on the list was a garlic scape pizza. We love pizza around here, and we needed a new way to use the scapes. We love everything we've tried so far, but part of the joy of a CSA box is trying new things. So when I ran across a recipe for a garlic scape pizza made with a beer crust, I could not resist! We didn't really follow the recipe since we lean towards a vegetarian diet, but it was certainly a source of great inspiration. It also offered a way to create your own beer dough which was important since such specialty items are often not available in our area.

We halved the dough recipe since we were cooking for two. We'd hoped to use a local beer, but the store was out of single bottles. We went with a Fat Tire since that has worked well in other recipes. Other than following the dough recipe, everything went along as any other make your pizza might go.

I topped mine with the garlic scapes, a bit of kale we snagged at the Farmer's Market, and some fake bacon along with our favorite combo of mozzarella and freshly shaved parmesan reggiano. Jeff's is the same, but he added some oyster mushrooms left over from last week's CSA box.  I highly recommend this "recipe" because the scapes made for a flavor topping, and the dough offered a light yet tasty crust. Plus, the great thing about homemade pizza is everyone can pretty much do whatever he or she wants with it.

Another highlight this week were the summer squash sandwiches (from Earthy Feast) made with both CSA and Farmer's Market goodies. The recipe came with an aioli recipe, but we ended up using a more basic aioli recipe and adapted it to use the scapes. I really just didn't feel like buying a jar of mayo that would probably not get used again. I'm sure it would taste great though as the squash turned out excellent! As a side we made cooked up some garlicky dill fries-- sweet and regular (forgive the awful picture!).

Finally, we managed to try out the kohlrabi. Saveur had a recipe for a warm potato and kohlrabi salad. I really wish it had a different name as the term "potato salad" brings terrible images to my mind. I'm sorry if you love it, but I just think of warm mayo on a hot day. Blah! Thankfully this was far from it!

To change it from a side dish to a main dish (keep in mind, we also halved this recipe too), we topped it with an egg. Our local supply is supposed to be okay despite the national shortage. I hope it remains true because an egg is such an excellent way to round out meals! We also added some of the kale because our kohlrabi didn't come with the greens, and like many people say, "Everything is better with bacon." Except we used fake bacon. It still makes everything better!

We get a new basket this evening. Hopefully with the new basket and some encouragement from Maggie (despite being a feline, she manages to inspire us because she is that awesome!), we'll be better about cooking and keeping track of it during week 7.

CSA Week 5

This week has been a whirlwind. I'm teaching a block class this summer which basically means I will be insane in about four weeks. It doesn't help that I'm not a morning person, and this class starts at 8 AM. Alas, I shall prevail! Especially since my favorite coffee shop opens at 7:30 giving me enough time to grab a hit of caffeine to help me pretend 8 AM is an excellent time of day.

Needless to say, I'm tired, and thus, my brain is fried. I reviewed some photos of this week's CSA concoctions to help jog my memory... so here we go!

I wasn't kidding about my mind-- it was going down the tubes before teaching started because I was in the middle of prepping for the block class. So I forgot to take a picture of our goodies until after we had already dug into some of them. Thankfully not too many! 

We ended up with another round of garlic scapes (I'm sad that it's our last round until next year), cucumbers, radishes, sweet white turnips, one last round of collards, romaine lettuce, a red lettuce mix, cilantro, and a jar of strawberry rhubarb jam. We also got a dozen eggs and oyster mushrooms as an add on (we do it every fourth week). 

As always, we went to the Farmer's Market, and we picked up a few more items to round out our box: red and white onions, blueberries (a Jeff favorite!), raspberries, sweet potatoes, zucchini, and green beans. I was thrilled that we made it in time for the blueberries because I was hoping to try out a fruit salsa recipe from How Sweet It Is.

Rather than use all blueberries, we did a mix of half raspberries and half blueberries. We also used a little less lime because we didn't feel like running out for another. Plus, we figured the raspberries wouldn't need as much. We also added a jalapeno for a spicy kick and omitted the avocado. I'm not one to sit around and eat chips and salsa (I know. I'm a weirdo.). So the plan for this was to use it to go with some "fish" tacos with the CSA romaine as the "taco." More on the tacos later!

First up: a light dinner including the sweet white turnips. We braised them in honey and butter, and wilted the greens just before all the liquid cooked out. It was a bit sweet for me. It needed some red pepper flakes or a spicy pairing. But this is one of the joys of being in a CSA-- learning and trying and learning from mistakes in case you get a repeat item! We'd had a heavier lunch while out and about so we just steamed some green beans and butter poached the lion's mane mushrooms. I was not pleased with the mushrooms. I don't think I will ever find a mushroom I like. At least I tried it!

On Sunday we made the collards again-- they are just so good! We had some more of the local beans along with potatoes made with a homemade garlic scape and thyme compound butter.

The recipe we used, from The Farm Girl Cooks, called for lemon thyme, but we used plain old thyme since we are more likely to use it again. I wish I had known compound butter was so easy to make-- I'd have been making it along time ago! I also made a bit of raspberry compound butter. For both I used Vegan Buttery Sticks by Earth Balance (always an excellent substitute for vegans or those of that are lactose intolerant, at least in my opinion), and it worked just fine. Great actually. Since it's just Jeff and me, I split both up into smaller servings so I can use them at a later date when I'm craving something other than regular butter.

Finally! The tacos!

As a mostly vegetarian gal (who still remembers what fish is supposed to taste like), our "fish" was pretty on point as a substitute for a white fish. If you'd prefer to use actual white fish, this recipe will work just fine as long as you omit the hearts of palm and Bragg's seasoning, and cook the fish however you would for this type of fish dish. I'm guessing we'd have used a bit of lemon juice, EVOO, and a bit of salt and pepper as the salsa was there to amp up the flavor. The only thing I didn't like was our lack of veggies. But with me starting my new semester along with a few unexpected problems, we just didn't about it until it was too late. I would have added some of the radishes had I been thinking and something to boost the protein level. All in all, a solid meal considering the circumstances.

"Fish" Tacos:

• 1 can hearts of palm
• Romaine lettuce (between four and six leaves)
• 2 small sweet potatoes or 1 large sweet potato
• Other veggies of your choice
• Corn tortillas (at least 2)
• Bragg's Sea Kelp Delight to taste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• EVOO
• Fruit Salsa (I recommend adding a jalapeno even if you do all blueberries and keep the avocado)

Now I was the coordinator of this meal rather than the chef as I was at work. I came home about midway through the process. So the order of these steps is a little sketchy to me (sorry!).

1. Peel and chop the sweet potatoes, and prep any other veggies you plan to use. 
2. Cut corn tortillas into strips, and coat with EVOO. Bake until crispy, turning them over about half way through the baking time (need the bake time? I can ask Jeff).  
3.  Sauté veggies with a bit of EVOO, salt, and pepper.
4. Coat the romaine leaves in EVOO, and either grill them or quickly sauté them in a pan on the stove top.
5. Prep the hearts of palm-- it should just sort of fall apart into a shredded meat looking appearance-- and cook it in a bit of EVOO and Bragg's Sea Kelp Delight. 
6. Once everything is done, assemble your tacos and top with the fruit salsa!

We did a few other things this week, but I've got a kitty to snuggle with today! So... until next week!

CSA Week 4

Thankfully we are done moving. Sadly, not all the boxes are unpacked. Our precious Purrcy hasn't been taking it too well. Despite Maggie's anxiety (and a temporary higher dose of medicine per the vet's orders), she is handling it quite well-- as long as we are all together with her stuff, she knows everything will eventually go back to normal. And she sleeps like a baby...

Purrcy on the other hand doesn't know what to make of the new place. He seems to like it just as much as Maggie but is still slightly unnerved-- to the point of an upset tummy. We've got some sort of cat antacid (sadly this is not our first experience with such medications because of Maggie's anxiety) that will soothe his belly. I just wish I could clearly communicate to him that everything will be exactly as it was before, just with new surroundings. For now, I will just keep looking at cute snap shots of him enjoying the windows, cuddling with Maggie, and taking more pictures of Purrcy when he does things like this...

Enough about the kitties (but if you ever need advice about cats with anxiety, let me know since we've tried just about everything-- did you know they make aromatherapy for cats?). This is supposed to be a post about food. What can I say? I love my feline children.

Week 4's CSA box was very green.

We received collards, some sort of lettuce, a red lettuce mix, broccoli, green onions, garlic scapes, and a few cucumbers. If I ever get my dream garden, it will have garlic-- so many parts of the plant can be used during the growing process!

These boxes are sort of like a choose your own adventure book except it's food. I chose to start my adventure with the garlic scapes. I found several recipes to try, but I settled on a garlic scape carbonara first. I was cooking for myself since Jeff was at work so it seemed the most appropriate. Plus, the last time I tried using the grill things did not go so well. Pasta on the stove top it was! I did hate that I had to cut the scapes up though. 

Their natural curves show off nature's beauty... I almost went digging for my good camera, but alas, I was hungry. The original recipe called for bacon, but I didn't have it on hand since we lean towards a plant based diet. To amp up the scapes, I seasoned them with a bit of poultry seasoning as they cooked in the pan. I also added some of the red Siberian kale we had left from last week's box. Overall, I enjoyed the dish. Jeff is more of a kale eater than I am so if I make this again, I hope to add spinach instead. I also think some fakin' bacon would be a nice addition too.

Over the weekend we had plenty of unpacking left to do which meant serious desires to eat out. However, we love going to the Farmer's Market (minus its early start time), especially now that we live closer. We bought yellow potatoes, zucchini, blueberries, and a few more strawberries before they go out of season here.

We ended up making a compromise, or rather, my cravings and wallet made one. We ate an early dinner at a favorite Mexican joint of mine and had a small salad for a late dinner/snack.

We have oodles of lettuce, but it's not all that appealing on its own, at least to me. So I thought we could grill the garlic scapes and zucchini for a bit more flavor. I was a bit leery about the scapes. I knew the zucchini would be great as we'd done it before following a Pioneer Woman recipe. However, the idea of eating something straight from a garlic plant seems a bit absurd-- I love the flavor of garlic, but make a funny face if I accidentally bite into a bit of a cooked clove hiding in my pasta. But the Internet raves about garlic scapes, claiming they taste almost like a green bean with a bit of extra flavor. In this instance, I bow to the Internet. The grilled scapes actually tasted as described. If you manage to find scapes, I highly recommend grilling some up! The recipe we used (from With Food and Love) paired nicely with the zucchini, and the left over oil and lemon zest we had was a nice way to dress the rest of the salad. 

On Sunday we initially planned to make collard greens and a potato parsnip mash, but I had a hankering for my Grandma's Au Gratin potatoes. Purrcy appeared to agree with me, putting his paw on the recipe in our family cookbook. We stuck with the collards and paired them with the potatoes.

I was worried about the collards, but they were actually delicious! I have to thank my brother for pointing me in the right direction. He couldn't remember the exact recipe, but he knew it involved apple cider vinegar and maple syrup. After a quick Google search I found what looked like it could be a solid recipe from Heather Crosby. Because there's only two of us, and we only had 15 leaves, we needed to adjust the recipe. We also wanted to give it a little something extra since it was being paired with meat or a protein heavy main dish. Fake bacon to the rescue! We also threw in some green garlic and green onion from the week's previous CSA box.

Our adaptions worked out well, especially since it was just the two of us, and this turned out to be one of my favorite CSA experiments. If you need left overs, I'd consider doubling the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. 15 large collard leaves
2. 3 to 4 slices of fake bacon (or real bacon if not following a vegetarian diet)
3. 1 stalk of green garlic
4. 1 green onion
5. 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
6. 1/4 cup maple syrup (preferably Grade B)
7. 1/8 cup water
8. Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Wash and rough chop the collards. Removing the stems is optional.
2. Cook the green garlic and green onion in a small pan until tender.
3. Put the collards in a large pot, and stir in all ingredients except the bacon.
4. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium to high heat.
5. Cook bacon following directions on the package, and once cooked, chop it up, and toss it into the collard mixture.
6. Reduce heat, letting it simmer until the liquid reduces completely. 
7. Eat! 

We still have items left in the box, most notably the romaine lettuce. Our plan is to grill it, and use it in place of taco shells. Other than that, we'll have a few more salads, and keep using the green garlic, the scapes, and green onion.

I wonder what we'll get in the next box!

CSA Week 3

Generally I would wait to update considering today started week 3 of our CSA adventures (we've got summer crisp and red lettuce leaf heads, cucumbers that are HUGE, more spinach, red kale, a lettuce mix which had a bit of hidden bok choy, green onions, green garlic, and homemade parmesan bread with green garlic and sea salt that smells delicious), but we are on the verge of our move. I fear if I do not share our newest adventure now, it will get lost amongst boxes and totes and everything else that comes along with moving day.

In yesterday's update I shared my excitement about the baby bok choy I happened upon. I was so excited about trying it that I actually opted out of going to brunch at my favorite vegetarian cafe and coffee shop. I suppose it helped that Jeff did bring me coffee on his way back from dropping stuff off at the new place, and we will likely hit them up tomorrow and Sunday. What can I say? I love them.

I had my heart set on grilling the bok choy rather than mudding up its natural flavors in a stir fry. I had no idea what to do until I stumbled upon an orange sesame grilled bok choy from Phoo-d. It sounded like something both Jeff and I would like as well as something that would allow the bok choy to retain its Asian origins (is that where it actually originated, or is it just used in Asian cuisine?). Now, bok choy on its own wasn't going to work for me. I needed something "hearty" to go with it. We generally aren't meat eaters at this stage in our lives so thankfully I stumbled upon a Korean BBQ marinade that was designed to be used on either ribs or tofu. I'm not a fan of many fake meat products and have found that hearts of palm can sometimes be used as an excellent substitute if your recipe needs the shredded quality of a pulled pork or taco filling. The Kitchn's recipe from Emily Han was not designed for this, but I had high hopes. 

We followed the bok choy recipe exactly as it was other than swapping out the sesame oil for EVOO and some toasted sesame seeds because we ran out of sesame oil. We did make minor changes to the BBQ recipe though. Because we have a plethora of green garlic, we used it rather than buying bulk garlic. We also used grated apple instead of pear juice. We had apples on had, and a few commenters said they actually preferred grated apple. So why spend the extra money?

Ingredients:

• 1 14 oz can of hearts of palm (whole, not pre-cut)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce *see last paragraph*
• 1/4 cup freshly grated apple 
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 cloves green garlic, chopped finely
• 1-2 scallions, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger 
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds (we toasted them on the stove top for 3 to 5 minutes)
• Dash of black pepper

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
2. Peel off the outer layer of the hearts of palm, shred it up (will do this easily), and toss in the marinade. You don't need to let it set long as the hearts of palm soaks up the flavor easily. 
3. Once you are ready (we needed to make sure the grill and bok choy were good to go), toss it in a pan to heat up, caramelize, and let some of extra juices cook out. 
4. Toss onto the grilled bok choy* 

It turned out well (it looks disgusting, but my good camera is packed away, and barbecue, even with real meat, doesn't make for a sexy photo anyway). However, in retrospect, we really needed to add some rice or cut back on the soy. The soy from the marinade plus the soy from the bok choy baste offered quite a high salt content. We will likely do this again sometime, but we will either add a bit of rice to soak up the extra liquid or simply cut back on the soy. Overall, we deemed it a success since most recipes need some fine tuning, and this was our first time using bok choy.

Do you like bok choy? If so, let me know if you have any go-to recipes!

CSA Week 2

I'm a bit late, but we are in the middle of moving so things are a tad bit crazy. If you saw the update from the last blog you know our second week was a pretty good one.

We got chives, green garlic, spinach, a spring lettuce mix, radishes, strawberries, and bok choy. I was incredibly excited about the bok choy, but because we haven't adjusted to a schedule of getting new produce on a Thursday, it wilted by the time we got to it. I was hoping to grill it, but... I'll just have to try it this week because our new box had a bit of baby bok choy snuck in with the spring mix!

In terms of how this box went, I'd say okay. It was a solid box, but I just wasn't a fan of the recipes we tried. The spinach went to good use though-- I love green eggs (we use this recipe minus the ham)! Who wouldn't love eggs that are chock full of nutritious spinach that still taste like regular scrumptious eggs?! 

Overall, joining the CSA has been a money saver so far. Right now we are getting a ton of greens which is in no way a problem, especially since good salad greens and kales are quite expensive at the grocery store. The green garlic is useful too. It can be used in unique ways (including a green garlic soup that I was not a fan of at all), but we've mostly used it in place of fully matured garlic. 

Shopping at the Farmer's Market is also quite helpful. This past week was quite the week too. We hit up the market and then went strawberry picking. As a kid I was not exposed to this wondrous task. Even as an adult, I thought I hated strawberries. As it turns out, I VERY much LOVE them. 

I was not lying. The top flat is from the market-- they are my freezing berries. The bottom two are from a solid hour of hard work in a field. If I had picked much longer, Jeff would have physically carried me away! I'm not even that good at it-- Jeff goes twice as fast since he grew up on a farm, and an older couple flew right past me! I like to think I'm just thorough, but I'm just a city gal who is hasn't quite mastered the art of quickly picking berries. But who cares? At the end of the day, I had all of these to eat (some did end up in a cobbler)! 

I also picked up some crooked neck squash at the market-- it turned into a lovely bread. It's not even wildly unhealthy (the initial recipe calls for white chocolate chips, but I just left them out). 

It's good on its own, and I'm hoping to use some of it for French Toast topped with a fresh strawberry syrup. 

CSA Week 1

Update:
I just wanted to share a few pictures as well as a preview of this week's CSA box.

One of the first items (after the cakes of course) we tried was a green garlic and asparagus soup. Getting the CSA box a few days before the Farmer's Market is quite handy as it gives us a day or so to think about how we can use the week's box and what we should keep an eye out for at the Farmer's Market to help fill in potential gaps.

 We made a few of our go-to meals such as a pasta with a tomato sauce, using the box's oregano. Jeff ate several salads, and I made some pancakes using the spinach-- it's surprising how well it hides behind the pancake flavor!

Since we were at the Farmer's Market, we picked up a flat of strawberries. We froze about half of them, and we munched on quite a few. However, I managed to save enough to make what I am for now calling a pretzel crumble. I basically took parts of three different recipes I liked to make a riff on pretzel salad. It's got a sweet yet salty pretzel crust, a sweet cream cheese layer (I used organic sugar and vegan cream cheese since I'm lactose intolerant, but regular would certainly suffice!), and a strawberry pie filling recipe from my mom. It must be topped with fresh berries too! I don't have time now, but perhaps later I can type up the recipe.

For now, here's a preview of week two:

We got chives, green garlic, spinach, a spring lettuce mix, radishes, strawberries, and bok choy. I can't wait to try out the bok choy because I've never had it outside a restaurant.

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First off: I know it's been A LONG time. I've said that the last few times, but I did have surgery (two surgeries right in a row actually). And then I had a long recovery that involved a walker for an entire month. Then I got to move to crutches. I'm finally getting back into the swing of things-- 5 months later. Pro-tip: don't develop adult hip dysplasia! If you do, have a fun surgery, and try not to tear your labrum while waiting for surgery!

Anywho. I'm going to do my best to keep up with this. Jeff and I joined a CSA, or a Community Supported Agriculture Group (General info and a place to find one in your area, but do beware that some of the info is outdated: http://www.localharvest.org/csa/). I wish I had known more about them before as I love local produce. I also like to support the local farmers and therefore the local economy. Our particular CSA is listed, but the information is not completely up-to-date. I recommend calling the farm or head farm (or find them on Facebook like I did!) with any questions you have about how it works since each one is slightly different.

So, with this new CSA adventure, I'm hoping it will be easier to keep up with the blog since we will be discovering new ingredients, and therefore recipes, as well as finding new ways to use familiar ingredients.

Welcome to week one!

It’s already been an adventure with our first box of goodies. Since it’s early in the season, this first round included lots of greens along with a few other items: red russian kale, spinach, a lettuce mix, radishes along with their greens, green garlic, fresh oregano, homemade croutons, and this lovely japanese spinach-- komatsuna.

From the research I did today, it appears to have overwinterized. According to the interwebs, it's nice to do this sometimes because the flavor changes ever so slighlty, and you get lovely edible flowers to garnish your salads.

I had no idea what to do with it other than use it in a salad or a stir fry, but I then I stubbled upon a website that mentioned using it in place of corn and parmesean in something called mushi-pan, a Japanese steamed cake. It was kind of like falling through the rabbit hole as I stumbled from there to here and finally to a recipe with American measurements.

I followed Namiko's recipe, subbing a cup of crudely puréed komatsuna (we do not have a good food processor), used almond milk since I am lactose intolerant, and hoped for the best.

I hope we can obtain a solid food processor eventually, especially since our mini one is practically busted. But for now it served its purpose as the mushi-pan turned out to be quite tasty! It's like a semi-sweet cross between a cake and a muffin. I hope to make another variety-- maybe Namiko's chocolate version with a few greens hidden away! 

As A Good Friend Would Say, "Frustration Station!"

I try to blog at least once a week, but something always seems to get in the way. It's not that I'm lazy or have nothing to blog about... I'm just absolutely distracted by God knows what, and then the week passes, and shit. No blog. Unfortunately, I may or may not be able to keep up with it like I want to for at least the next few weeks. Why?

Quite a bit has been put on my plate at work. I won't get into because it will either make you sad or it will make you cringe or both. I also avoid talking about work on my blog because I grew up in a world in which you did not talk about work on your blog. I've alluded to the fact that I'm a teacher ( I think, if not, now you know!) so just imagine the possibilities, or don't. Regardless, the "stuff" that occurred sort of made me go into what I've been referring to as turtle mode. After the semester ended, I went into my shell, and I've only come out a few times.

I've also been dealing with hip pain for an entire fucking year-- that's a year without running. Holy hell. We finally got to the MRI point. I was oh so lucky enough to have to get an arthogram before me MRI. I hope you never need either. Tomorrow I get the results of the MRI, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to cry no matter what. The doctor will either tell me I have the labral tear he thought might be there, or he'll tell me nothing was found so he has to send me to another doctor. It's a lose-lose situation. I think I've only staved off the tears because I haven't seen the MRI or heard my doctor officially speak any of these words yet. Here's hoping I can hold back the loud "Fuck, balls, shit, piss, cock, mother fucker!" until I get back to the car.

And in other terrible, horrible news, my Kitchen Aid Mixer is also hurt. She can be fixed though! But I'm spoiled rotten, and it's hot as fuck down here, so I won't be sharing any wonderful recipes with you because I won't be baking anything unless it's a box of brownies. Seriously, I only use my hand mixture to whip up the frosting for the Angel Food cake. Oh, and to mash potatoes. That's pretty much why it exists. 

So, yeah. No delicious cookies or cupcakes for a while. Which deeply saddens me because I was ready to make Strawberry Mimosa cupcakes. Thankfully our bounty of local strawberries will freeze up nicely and still workout well for the cupcakes. If only I could flash freeze them so they would thaw to a near perfect fresh berry. Or maybe we could live in a world where strawberries are always in season... or at least longer than two fucking weeks. Next year better be better! This is two short seasons in a row! Gah!

Breakfast Tacos

I've been away for a bit because I haven't been baking. Apparently several of my sweet treat loving friends celebrate lent, and most of them gave up sweet treats. If no one but Jeff and I can enjoy it, why bake it?

I haven't gotten back into baking yet, but Jeff and I did come up with our own version of breakfast tacos.

Ever since we found this green egg recipe, it's been a staple in our lunch rotation. It's especially helpful since I've moved toward a more pescatarian/flexitarian diet. I know, I know. The eggs have cholesterol in them too. However, in my opinion it's a better cholesterol than your standard bacon cholesterol that comes with a healthy dose of several other items. My move away from meat is partially an ethical move too. I'm not sure if I'll ever be a full blown vegetarian... but I digress.

While perusing Pinterest the other day, I found a breakfast taco recipe involving eggs, asparagus, and some sort of chive, ricotta cheese sauce. I do not do ricotta cheese. It's a texture thing. At first I thought I'd swap out the chives and ricotta sauce for a bit of basil and freshly shaved Parmesan. But then it hit me! Green egg tacos!

Keep in mind, these was created almost on the fly. So it lacks color other than the obvious greens. If we were to do it again, we'd make sure to have tomatoes or peppers or whatever else suited our fancy at the moment, on hand to give it some extra color and maybe even enhance the flavor of the asparagus. 

Want to make these?

For two people:
1. 4 eggs
2. 1 cup of spinach, baby spinach, or kale
3. 4 basil leaves
4. A handful of asaparus
5. Fresh Parmesean cheese
6. Taco toppings of your choice
7. Not a vegetarian? Throw in some ham or bacon or sausage!

Blend the eggs, greens of your choice, and basil leaves in a blender, and then scramble 'em up! While the eggs are cooking, prepare your asparagus as you wish-- we steamed it, but next time we plan to roast it for ten minutes with some garlic. Once everything is cooked, assemble your tacos!