the boxes are always yummy

I'm soooo far behind on blogging. This was a good box. The yellow/lite green zuchini are pretty new to me - I like them as well as any other and they are pretty. More onions - I love these they are sweet and good. Not as offensive as the biggies you get at the store. Was so happy to get another bunch of spinach - I wanted more since getting the first bunch. Cucumbers are good - I like the seeded better than the long burpless. Broccoli has been tasty and thankfully wormless. I believe there is basil in this picture too. Expect lots of posts in a short time - I have to catch up!!

more stir fry

Thank God for stir fry and salad because those are the best way to use produce before it goes bad. I also juice anything that is close to going over.









This was a tasty one. I made sauce out of soy, rice vinegar, hot sauce, broth, and corn starch. There are mangoes in the stir fry that tasted so good with the salty and hot of the sauce. I'm thinking I will try to puree mangos as a component of stir fry sauce, I think it will be really good.

This was not veggie heavy, it was peas, pea pods, onion, and carrot.

boxes get better and better!

This is box 4. Every week it gets bigger and better, though I loved it right from the start.

There is 1 golden beet. They taste so much better to me. I can eat golden beets. They are much less strong tasting and don't have the earthy dirt taste that comes with the red beets. No chocolate needed for the golds. More snap peas, which I can always use. Looks like some of them will be good in pod. More red potatoes - can't ever get enough of them. More onions and they are really good onions. Good romaine lettuce for my almost daily salad and young zuchini. Anohter bunch of basil, which should make a good batch of pesto together with last week's bunch.

I'll have chocolate with my beets please

I have had beet cake before and there are plenty of beet cake recipes on the net. I picked one I figured had to be good, it had lots of butter and high quality chocolate. There are healthier recipes out there. They were fantastic the first couple days.

I'm not quite sure why this picture is so tiny, but that is the way it is.

Here is the recipe.

Chocolate beet cake

1 c butter; softened and divided

1 1/2 c packed brown sugar

3 eggs at room temp

2-3 oz dark chocolate

2 c medium beets pureed (about 5)

1 t vanilla

2 c all purpose flour

2 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

1/2 t cinamon

1/4 t nutmeg

To make beet puree: Trim, stem, and quarter the beets. Bring water to a boil and simmer beets for about 50 minutes until soft. Plunge beets into cool water and slip skins off. Puree in blender until smooth. Cool before use in cake.

In a mixing bowl cream 3/4 c butter and the sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg. Melt remaining butter and chocolate in microwave at about 20 sec intervals, stirring inbetween until smooth. Cool slightly. Add chocoate mixture, beets, and vanilla to creamed mixture .

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinamon, and nutmeg. Add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Pour into a greased and floured springform pan. Bake at 375 for 60 - 70 min or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Remove when cooled. Dust with powdered sugar. ENJOY!!

I changed a few things. I used a 10x13 pan. I sprayed with bakers joy - if I didn't have that I would never dust a chocolate cake pan with flour - I would use cocoa or even carob. I baked it for 50 ish minutes because of the different pan. I didn't dust with sugar - I usually eat my cake unfrosted. I did have chocolate ganache leftover, so did put than on one of them. I had cream cheese frosting also and put that on a couple for hubby - that junk is way too sweet for me though. My cake was rather crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. I loved it. Can't really taste the beets but could sorta tell on one of the middle pieces - may not have quite been done.

last of the carrots

I used up the last of my carrots and boy will I miss having those around every week. I made mini carrot cakes. I didn't take my own pics but its a p chef recipe so plenty of pics on the internet. Here is kinda what mine looked like.

Mine did have some bright orange fresh grated carrots and walnuts on top of the yummy frosting. Here is the recipe. Good use of the last carrots.

Mini carrot cups

cakes

1 pkg 90z yellow cake (Jiffy)

1/2 t allspice

1 egg

2 T oil

2 med carrots grated

Filling/garnish

6oz cream cheese, softened

3/4 c powdered sugar

1/2 cup cool whip thawed

chopped walnuts optional

Preheat oven to 350. Spray wells of mini muffin pan with cooking spray.

For cakes:

combine cake mix, allspice, egg, and oil in large bowl. Stir until moistened. Stir 3/4 c carrots into mixture. Divide batter evenly into 24 cups. Bake 11-13 minutes until firm to touch. Cool on wire rack.

For topping:

Whisk together cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Spoon mixture into a plastic bag and seal, set aside.

Make indentions in tops of warm cakes. Allow to cool. Remove from pan. Cut corner of bag and pipe filling/frosting onto tops of cakes. Garnish with grated carrot and walnuts.

potaotes and salad

The little red potatoes that have been coming are just awesome. Roasted with olive oil and garlic with a little lemon is perfect. They are not hard to clean up and the peels are good too. Not at all tough and old like what is at the grocery store. This was a simple dinner using the potaoes and lettuce to make the salad. Perfect with oven roasted chicken thighs , easy dinner, hardly had to think.

Another ugly picture of a good dinner

I think I have located the camera I want to buy. Nice and cheap. Should take better pictures than my phone.

I'm thinking this is the by far worst picture yet. Its probably hard to figure out whats going on. The picture is blurry as well as the food was not very colorful to start with -- its one of my pet peeves. At the time though I was trying to use up leftovers and food from the box, so ended up with a very white dinner....

So if anyone had a guess to what that mess is before reading down, I think the guess could be quite funny.

What it actually is was stuffed flounder. The stuffing was made out of butter, onion, celery, garlic, lump crab meat, and bread crumbs. It was good. I baked it with just butter, lemon, and salt for seaoning. There is leftover kohl-slaw on the plate. The other white mass is the beautiful red potatoes from the box. I mashed them with garlic and butter. Its unfortunate the camera didn't at least pick up the little red bits from the skin. Still, bad camera or not, it was a very plain plate. Tasted good though.

hot and sour carrots

A good and easy dinner.....

I've been wanting to try the hot and sour carrots recipe from Eating well and they turned out looking just like the pic in the mag and hubby liked them a bit more than I did. Recipe follows, very easy.

2 T distilled white vinegar ( I used rice wine vinegar instead)

1 T black bean sauce

1T canola oil

1 pound carrots cut lenthwise into 3 by 1/4 inch sticks

1 med white onion, thinly sliced

1/2 t crushed red pepper or to taste.

Combine vinegar and bean sauce in small bowl.

Heat oil in skillet. Add carrot, onion, and crushed red pepper. Saute stirring often until the veggies begin to brown (6-7 min) Add the sauce and cook until the vinegar has evaporated; about a minute. ENJOY!

For the rest of dinner the chic pea salad you see in the picture was just chic peas, onion, pepper, and craisins tossed together with a bit of vinegar and oil. The chicken thighs were just seasoned with basil lemon rub from pampered chef and olive oil and baked at 400 until done.

Beets

The only way so far I've found I can eat red beets is either raw with a little flax oil and salt, as juice, or pureed and hidden in chocolate cake. I've been trying to eat a little raw every day.....

Golden beets I can handle sauteed in butter.

kohl - slaw YUMMY

I followed the recipe in the newsleters that full harvest farm provides with the box and it was sooooooooo good.

Here it is.....

Kohl-slaw
In a large bowl, whisk together just to combine:
¼ cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. sugar (or 1 Tbsp. honey)
¼ tsp. celery seed
salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste
Add: 2 kohlrabis, peeled and grated
2 cups cabbage, sliced thinly
1 small onion, diced small
1 apple, cored and diced small
2 carrots, scrubbed/peeled and grated
Toss all ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours to develop the flavor.
This recipe is also quite good with ¼ cup chopped cilantro mixed in.

I did use the cilantro, which I think transforms it from good to great, but unfortunately made it inedible to the hubby. Ive got a lot of coleslaw to eat.......

I think its great they add the tips and recipes in with the weekly box of produce. I would have never come up with this on my own. I think Kohlrabi will be a new favorite for me, which is another good reason to buy into CSA - it makes you try things you might not otherwise.

I also sauteed up one of the large sqash with olive oil and garlic and it was pretty good. I'm thinking of stuffing the other one. Just haven't figured out what exactly I want to stuff into it!

Box 3

Mike picked up this box and the large zuchini were an extra freebie as well as Amish friendship bread. What we actually got in the box was more lettuce and snap peas. Beautiful red potatoes. 2 kohlrabi! A bunch of onions. Perfect carrots. And more cilantro (I feel a pesto coming on.....)

Can't wait for the 10 days to be up on the bread -- I messed up the last try on this stuff so looking forward to doing it right.

Stir Fry to use some of my veggies

There is no better way to use up veggies than stir fry and not too many dinners that are easier either. I cheated on the chicken, as I often do. Instead of stir frying it first, I seaoned it with a southwestern seasoning and olive oil and baked it in the oven while I worked on getting the veggies ready. I used boneless skinless breasts and they take the longest to stir fry, so was quicker to bake them. I often buy bulk breasts and bake them off and then slice and freeze to toss in stir frys making the cheat even easier.

I sliced up red peppers. I had carrot coins in the fridge. The pea pods were young and fresh from the box, just de-stringed and cut them. I was going to get broccoli at the store but could not resist the perfect broccoli rabe so ended up with that in there. First thing into the hot pan was couple crushed cloves of garlic and ginger root. Then the veggies longest cooking first. Last thing into the sizzling pan were the beet tops from the box. I love beet greens so much.

Chicken came out of the oven and cut up and in with the veggies. I made a quick and little disappointing sauce to finish it. Not sure what was missing or too much too little - this is what I typically do with chicken stir fry. Veggie broth, corn starch, soy sauce, sherry, rice vinegar, and honey. Not enough zing. Still the dinner was hot and good and really easy after a long first day back to work.

More salad

I'm not going to picture all my salads or write about them but salad is one of my favorite things to eat. I have to say the CSA is saving me money too - when left on my own I tend to buy packaged baby lettuce, usually Organic Girl. Its not cheap but I'm lazy and its high quality and cleaned. I still soak and spin it but don't have to work very hard. Above you can see the before picture of my salad. Lovely head of dark leafed lettuce. (Boston??)

The fresh lettuce is fantastic and it keeps longer than store lettuce which gives you an idea how long that stuff sits around before it makes it into your fridge. I put my head of lettuce into tupperware produce keeper and it was still perfect when I got home from TX. Here is my first lunch back...

I cleaned up/ tore up the lettuce. By the way anyone who loves salads really needs a salad spinner. I couldn't live without mine. Its a tupperware but P Chef and several other companies make good ones. I like the tupperware cuz its very light wt and I don't have to work terribly hard to get the lettuce dry.

Other than that its just feta cheese and some leftover salmon with pumpkin seeds. I tossed a couple torn basil leaves in there from my CSA plant too. I used my standard dressing which is just olive oil, lemon or lime juice (or vinegar) and greek seasoning.

Not food related

Ok these are not related to food or the box but too cute not to post. The TX doggies......

THis is BUBBA

AND PEANUT

Excellent salad

I love salads with dark green or red lettuces. After I cleaned up the lettuce from the box I tore it and added some canned mandarin oranges and craisins. Made a quick dressing with about equal amounts of olive oil, honey, and rice vinegar. Even the hubby liked it. I added pumpkin seeds to mine but I think almonds would be even better.

I used the rest of the lettuce in a lunch salad which I tossed leftover salmon into. This lettuce was fresh and perfect.

Good lamb

Originally planning to stick to writing about what comes in the box but I picked up some good lamb from Sendiks which came from Pinn Oak Ridge Farm in Delevan, WI. Flavor was awesome. Meat a little tough but I cook it done for hubby so that probably contributed. They are lamb steaks, little cheaper than the chops.
I marinated them in soy sauce, olive oil, and lots of garlic and greek seasoning. Then a quick broil. Would have grilled but way too hot outside.


Here they are finished. Served with some roasted potatoes and chick peas with a side of quickly sauteed veggies. YUM.

worst picture but nice box week 2

This picture makes me sad but the box made me very very happy. I want to mention for anyone who doesn't know, the box is coming from Full Harvest Farm in Hartford WI and they deliver all over the place, and here is a link to check them out. http://www.localharvest.org/search.jsp?ty=-1&nm=hartland+wi&zip=&but.x=0&but.y=


This week box is beautiful . 3 beets. I'm not a beet eater but I will likely shred them and add some olive oil and salt and eat them that way. I'm really excited to cook the tops though -- I love the greens. I may even juice the beets with carrots. Beautiful radishes can't wait to eat those - raw with salt. Again a lonely kohlrabi which will be perfect cut up on salad which I got a great head of dark leaf lettuce again. There is a parsely plant to be installed in the flower bed by the kitchen door with last weeks basil. The cilantro is perfect and I may make that into pesto. Pea pods are perfect for eating in shell this time. Couple recipe posibilties there. Everything is going to have to hold in the fridge for the weekend though cuz I'm off to TX in the morning. I have it all stored in tupperware produce storage though which tends to extend life and flavor of my veggies.

I'm behind on last week's stuff - hope to write on an awesome salad I made and some lamb steaks yet. Hope to have time and computer access on vac this weekend. We'll see!! Maybe I'll come home with a new camera too.

LOBSTER PASTA

Somehow I was set up so that my title was transliterated into Hindi - that doesn't work for me! Fixed now, good ole english words.



Looking at this picture - yeah I really need a real camera, not my phone. I need it for more than this, I want to sell some stuff on ebay and do have a family reunion next weekend -- I suspect the pictures on here next week will be better quality - U might actuall be able to tell what I ate without the description then.





I needed a good pre race dinner, so that means pasta at our house. Angel hair is hubby's preference. I did not use a specific recipe. I boiled a couple lobster tails for a couple minutes and cut up the tail meat. Cooked the angel hair. Then I sauteed the last head of fresh garlic in quite a bit of butter. The butter is Freis von Kiel butter from Kiel, WI; very tasty butter, but not the best I've ever had. I combined the cooked pasta and lobster with the garlic butter and tossed it with fresh chopped flat parsely. Simple and really good. I did a quick saute in olive oil with halved cherry tomatoes and the spinach from the box. That spinach was very good. Not at all tough and didn't leave any film on the teeth. Not at all bitter. We loved it and hope more is coming. As far as being a good pre race meal... We both ran slower than last year at the firecracker 4, but not blaming the food.

Creamy garlic pasta with shrimp and vegetables

PRETTY YUMMY! As I look at this picture though I know I need to either pick up a cheap digital camera which will beat my phone or borrow hubby's..... The quality of the food and recipes beats the pics........

I will tell you what I actually did to make this dinner first but then will post the actual recipe its based on. I had some shrimp thawed to make shrimp salad to take to a run earlier in the week, but ran out of time and didn't make it - so I had these shrimp and also whole wheat macaroni cooked up - so used them in the recipes. I found beautiful asparagus at the grocery store and had an organic red pepper in the fridge. I shelled the peas from the box - I like to do peas in the pod but they were a little too big and tough. The fresh peas were awesome - I won't eat peas usually but they taste good fresh. I used 1 head of the fresh garlic from teh box too. I didn't have plain yogurt in house for the recipe but I had some sour cream and fat free half and half, plus added fresh grated parmesan and lemon to make the sauce - quanities unknown on those - it was whatever was left in fridge - so that is why I will give a real recipe. It turned out to be a good dinner and good use of the fresh veggies for sure. The peas were awesome. The fresh garlic is a bit difficult to work with - very sticky and won't go thru the press - I had to slice it as thin as I could. It is mild compared to the usual fresh stuff from the store. I didn't have pine nuts but did have parsely. I sauteed the garlic and added the rest of components for sauce to one pan. Everything else went into the boiling pot together in the order I figured they should to get done right. Started with asparagus bottoms, then red pepppers, peas, cooked pasta, shrimp, asparagus tops last. Sprinkled with fresh parsely at the end.

Here is the real recipe though. We paired it with Funf 5 Riesling which was great.

Creamy garlic pasta with shrimp and vegetables

6 oz whole wheat spaghetti
12 oz peeled and deveined raw shrimp cut into 1 inch pieces
1 bunch asparagus trimmed and thinly sliced
1 large red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 t kosher salt
1 1/2 c nonfat plain yogurt
1/4 cup flat leaf parsely
3 T lemon juice
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 t fresh ground pepper
1/4 c pine nuts

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add spaghetti and cook 2 minutes less than package directions. Add shrimp, asparagus, bell pepper, and peas and cook until pasta is tender and shrimp are done, about 2-4 minutes. Drain well.

Mash garlic and salt in large bowl to form paste. Whisk in yogurt , parsely, lemon juice, oil, and pepper. Add to the pasta mixture and toss to coat. Serve sprinkled with pine nuts.

STRAWBERRIES

Thurs morning first thing I used from the box were the strawberries. Soaked and cleaned them and sliced into a bowl with a little sugar (organic raw) because they just were not that sweet. Lots of rain blew them up too quick. Added some organic blueberries and plain yougurt to the bowl, mixed it up and took it to work. It was very good after the flavors had a chance to mix.

The First Box and the first Blog

So I decided to write thru my first season of buying into a CSA. I bought a "couple sized" box for 20 weeks from a farm that delivers to my area and I'm going to take pictures and share recipes with friends and anyone else who cares to read this blog. Let me add the disclaimer - I'm neither a writer or chef.....





Here is a picture of the contents of the first box (nor am I a photographer!) I am using my cell phone for pics which is not the best either.

So the first box had a bag of fruitwood grilling chips (with instructions for use), 2 heads fresh garlic, 1 lonely kohlrabi, a head of dark leaf lettuce, a bunch of spinach, box of strawberries, a basil plant (which didn't make it into this picture for some reason), and a bag of peas in pods.

I was a little bummed to only get 1 kohlrabi but still very excited to get this box. Everything looked pretty good - strawberries needed to be used quick and the peas are a little larger than where I would pick them, but still better than the grocery store for sure!