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!