Popeye

One of my mother's go to vegetable side dishes was spinach with onions and sour cream. It wasn't a fancy dish, but rather something that could go alongside a meatloaf or a pork chop on a weeknight. She'd take a block of frozen chopped spinach, out of one of those waxed paper boxes, sprinkle it with dehydrated minced onions and steam it in one of the Revere Ware skillets she'd gotten as a wedding present. Just before serving, she'd stir in a big blob of sour cream. It was delicious - sort of like a tangy creamed spinach.

The other night, I was rooting around in the freezer looking for something green to go with a pork chop - it being that time of year when fresh greens are an occasional proposition - though the greenmarkets are starting to burst. Happily, I found a package of blanched spinach, from the CSA greens glut last fall. We had onions, we had the tail end of a container of sour cream, and I decided to reinvent my mother's old standby.

Spinach and Onions with Sour Cream
1 onion
2 T. butter
a pinch of cayenne
1/2 t. salt
1 package of spinach (fresh or frozen)
1/3 cup sour cream

Peel and trim the onion. Cut in half, vertically. Cut sides down, slice into little half moons about 1/8" thick. Melt the butter in a pan with a lid. Add the onions and a tablespoon or two of water. Cover and cook slowly, until the onions are tender, melted, not brown. Add spinach, cayenne and salt. Cover the pot and cook until heated through. Take off the lid - if there seems to be too much liquid, turn up the heat and boil some of it off. Off heat, stir in the sour cream. It's not beautiful, but it's awfully tasty.

Greens Greens and More Greens

Occasionally, we get behind, and the CSA vegetables take over the refrigerator. My heart sank the other day when I realized that there was an entire garden’s worth of greenery to be eaten before more was due to arrive. But I plunged into the recipe box, the plastic box that has taken up permanent residence in the dining room, the plastic box full of the recipes that I am forever ripping out of the newspaper, or printing out from Smitten Kitchen, or scavenging elsewhere on the intertubes, the plastic box which one day I will sort.

I’m fond of curry, but I tend not to cook with it all that often because although my husband will eat and like curries that are presented to him fully formed, if asked in advance he’ll reject them conceptually – something about curry having been invented to mask the flavor of spoiled meats in hot climates. But the recipe box turned up a recipe for a saag (curried greens) from a blog that I can’t remember ever having visited – and it sounded good.

Being a kind of seat of the pants cook, I started it before realizing that I was missing two sort of key ingredients, but I punted and it was just fine – delicious even. We ate it over basmati rice, with corn on the cob alongside.

The next morning over breakfast, I played executive chef and invented a pasta dish in my head, for my husband to make for dinner. He took it and ran with it, adding the fall crop peas from the farm market that I’d completely forgotten about.

And the third day, we ate enough green salad for an army, thereby making room in the fridge for more greens.

Anyway, without further ado, here are two recipes for making a huge dent in the CSA greenery – I think you can figure out a green salad on your own.

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Hearty Greens Saag
(adapted from Vic's Recipes)

2 T. butter
1 bunch swiss chard (cleaned and chopped)
1 bunch kale (cleaned and chopped)
1 cup of water
1 large onion, chopped [I was out of onions (!) so I just left it out]
1 large or 2-3 medium tomatoes, diced
1 T. curry powder
1 small hot chili, minced (or use a ¼ teaspoon of cayenne)
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced [I had none, so I used a teaspoon of ground ginger]
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
4 tablespoons heavy cream
Salt to taste

Heat the butter over medium heat in a large pan with a lid. Add the curry powder (and the ground ginger, if your pantry is as bare as mine was, and the cayenne if you’re going that route). Cook gently for a minute or two.

Add the chopped onion [if you had one], and cook 4 or 5 minutes, until soft. Add the minced ginger, garlic and chili pepper, and cook until fragrant, another minute or so. Stir in the tomatoes, greens, and water. Add salt to taste. Bring mixture to a boil, then turn the heat down to simmer, cover the pot and braise for 20-30 minutes.

Carefully, because it’s hot, transfer to a food processor and pulse it until it’s mostly chopped (not completely pureed). Return to the pot, add the heavy cream, and simmer for a few more minutes.

Serve over rice, or use as a sauce for chicken or tofu.

Note: You could make this with just about any greens, except maybe lettuce. I think it'll work with the packets of blanched collards and random asian greens that are cluttering up my freezer.

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Pasta with Arugula and Peas

2 T. butter
1 cup of freshly shelled new peas
2 big bunches of arugula (cleaned and chopped)
juice and zest of one lemon
2-4 T. olive oil
½ cup grated parmesan
Shaved parmesan for serving
Pasta
Salt and pepper to taste

Put a pot of water on to boil – for the pasta. Cook the peas in the butter, for a few minutes, until done. Transfer to a serving bowl, and add the lemon juice and zest, and the olive oil. Set aside.

Cook the pasta until done. Drain and add to the bowl with the peas. Dump all of the arugula onto the pasta, and toss – the heat of the pasta will wilt the arugula. Add the grated parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve with shaved parmesan on top.

Note: It sounds like a spring pasta, doesn't it? But my farm share has been giving us scads of arugula, and we ended up with fresh peas from the market. I asked the farmer about them; she said that she'd grown peas in the spring, then planted beans in the same area, and then found that she had volunteer peas coming up among the beans - a bonus crop!

Savory Sweet Potatoes

I know I've said this before, but one of the things about the CSA is that it is strangely liberating to have no choice in what you get. You must cook the sweet potatoes, even though you'd never have bought them in the first place. So you try to find a way to like the sweet potatoes (or fill-in-the-blank with your own personal bête noire).

Yesterday, when faced with a need to make dinner and a need to address the largish bag of sweet potatoes, I turned to Twitter/Facebook, and asked for help.



The replies poured in. Apparently people have strong feelings about sweet potatoes. Go figure. However, there’s no consensus! Lots of people want to turn them into something so sweet that it might as well be dessert:

• Brown sugar, but not a ton, butter, and cinnamon if your tastes go that way.
• Add butter and brown sugar, LOTS.
• With pecans and brown sugar. Tastes like candy.
• Marshmallows baby, marshmallows.

Then there was the mashed and/or fried contingent:

• Two tone potatoes (complete with a link provided by Thordora)
• Mash & add some fresh lime juice--brightens them up. Or sweet potato latkes.
• Mashed. Or make 'em like baked french fries in the oven.
• I love sweet potato fries.
• Sweet potato fries, made with olive oil in the oven, plus salt.
• Sweet potato fries. Why does anyone make fries with regular potatoes?

There were a bunch of outliers:

• Pie 'em.
• Roasted together with various other potatoes and balsamic vinegar.
• I make a savory gratin: thin slices, some crumbled sausage and seasoning between layers, pour white sauce over, top with bread crumbs, bake covered except the last few minutes.
• Roasted with olive oil, sea salt and brown sugar.
• I always love them in a casserole. No marshmallows, but with walnuts and bourbon.
• Sweet potatoes are nice in stew. Or candied.
• Go to Japan and get a roasted sweet potato from the yaki imo man! Delish!!!

But Midlife Mama had a whole mess of suggestions:

Roasted with rosemary, red peppers, and regular potatoes. Or cut into "fries" and roasted with a spicy mix--chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, salt. Or sliced in rounds, layered in a shallow casserole with leeks also sliced into rounds and lots of butter (sweet potatoes anna). Substituted for squash or pumpkin in breads, muffins, cakes. Then again, I love them, so anything is good.

I riffed on her first idea, and came up with something that even the husband liked - earlier he'd been insisting that sweet potatoes would make him gag. I peeled and chunked some white potatoes, some sweet potatoes and an onion. I chopped up some garlic, and a sweet red pepper. We still have rosemary in the garden, so I minced a spring of it, and tossed everything together in a baking dish, with a glug or two of olive oil, and some kosher salt. It went into a 350° oven for about 45 minutes, at which point I tossed in some chopped cooked bacon that was in the freezer, and baked it for another 15 minutes. We ate it on top of some toothy polenta that I'd found at the Greenmarket last month, with a green salad alongside. And it was good.

Executive Chef

On the other hand, the fact that my husband isn't going to work every day means that he's cooking dinner every night. Oh, he cooked a lot before, but now he's got more time to devote to it, so it's not just hamburgers and a salad alternating with pasta. And I've become the executive chef. What's been happening is I look at the list of vegetables from the CSA, the list we keep on the fridge because otherwise stuff gets skanky because we forget about it, and I say "how about you make ______?"

We had beautiful baby Red River kale, plenty of onions, and one Delicata squash. So the other day, I suggested risotto with roasted squash, kale and caramelized onions. He makes a fine risotto, though he usually sticks to ham and peas, or ham and asparagus - but he was game for the vegetable variation I suggested. Both the squash and the onions take a while to do, so it's totally not the kind of thing you start after work.

I can't give you a recipe, but he roasted the squash, pulled it out of its shell, and chopped it. He cooked four onions until they were nice and golden brown. The squash and onions were added to the risotto about midway through. The kale got rough chopped and thrown into the risotto about five minutes before the end - just enough time to wilt it. There was plenty of parmesan involved.

And it was good.

How We Have Worked

This Labor Day, this end of summer day, I cast about for something productive to do and lit upon the mountain of CSA peppers.


Somehow, what with being away for a while, and trying to eat all the vegetables that don't keep so well, we'd ended up with a dozen perfect red Carmen peppers, along with assorted other small peppers (like that yellow one - a banana pepper, maybe). In a fit of great madness, I decided to roast and marinate and can them - yes, actual mason jars in boiling water bath.

The jury's out on whether it was worth it, because it was rather a lot of work for three pints of pickled peppers. But lordy, do I feel butch.


I used a book called Well-Preserved, by Eugenia Bone - she'd gotten a write up in the Times in the spring, and the book had wormed itself onto the list in my head. It's a small, idiosyncratic cookbook, a general demystification of the canning process with lots of tips. I might actually try making sauerkraut later in the fall. I don't think I'll can my own tuna, because, um, blech.

Labor for labor day. Somehow, it seemed apt.

Mock Caponata

The thing about the CSA is that you end up with vegetables that you might not actually have bought if you saw them at the market. Like eggplant. I don’t love eggplant, but one came home the other day, along with a couple of zucchini and three different kinds of peppers and a mess of parsley and some other stuff.

But the eggplant. It sat there balefully in the fridge while I wondered what to make of it. Ha, I said, caponata – it would go well with the cold leftover steak we were going to have for dinner. I picked up the Campagna cookbook at 6:00 and instead of being dissuaded by the admonition that this "isn't one of those speedy weeknight dishes you can start cooking at 7:00 pm and have on the table at 7:30", I forged onward. Cookbooks, to me, are for inspiration - not for line by line instructions and specific measurements.

Guerrilla Mock Caponata

Dice an onion and toss it in a hot saucepan with some olive oil. Whack up a couple of peppers and toss them in – I used a sweet banana pepper, and a slightly spicy Mariachi pepper. Stir ‘em around a bit, then add a chopped eggplant and a chopped zucchini. Don’t bother salting the eggplant – who has time for that? Add a little tangy liquid – I used a couple of ounces of pomegranate juice – and slam a lid on the pot. Let it cook for a bit. Give it a stir, toss in a mess of chopped garlic, and add some more sweet and sour stuff. I used a tablespoon of pomegranate molasses, a splash of red wine vinegar and a dash of orange olive oil – along with a teaspoon of capers and a couple of tablespoons of chopped raisins. Cook, covered for a while longer, and then let cool to room temperature. Stir in some chopped parsley and serve. It’s a nice cross between a vegetable side dish and a condiment.

If I may say so myself, it was awfully tasty.

Most recipes for caponata will likely have celery and tomato and olives, and no zucchini – but to me, it's all about the sweet and tangy. I got there by using what I had around, but other things would work too - I thought of tossing in a blob of ketchup, or orange juice, or wine.

Oh, and start to finish? It took an hour, including 15 minutes on the stove unattended, and 15 minutes to cool.

Dinner For One, for Two People

Cast of Characters
1 child who wants plain buttered pasta
1 husband who had a late lunch and doesn’t want any dinner at all
1 self who is craving vegetables

Ingredients
1 bunch of almost over the hill Asian braising greens from the CSA
1 bunch of similarly almost over the hill turnip tops from the CSA
3 garlic scapes from the backyard garden
2 springs of flat leaf parsley from the CSA
2 potatoes, because they’re there
Butter
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Balsamic vinegar (the dregs of a fancy bottle rinsed out with the cheap stuff)

1. Pour glass of wine.
2. Put pot of water on to boil the child’s pasta.
3. Wash and chop the greens, tossing out all the really over the hill bits.
4. Decide that sautéed greens isn’t really enough dinner, and boil another pot of water for some potatoes.
5. Peel and dice the potatoes, and toss ‘em in the pot for 10 minutes.
6. Heat up a little olive oil in a skillet with a lid, and toss in the chopped garlic scapes.
7. Remember that you forgot to salt the now boiling potatoes and the pasta water.
8. Cook the child’s pasta.
9. Rescue the garlic scapes before they start to brown, and toss in the still wet chopped greens. Slap a lid on the pot.
10. Mince the parsley and put it someplace where you won’t forget to add it later.
11. Drain the potatoes and mash ‘em with a pat of butter.
12. Drain the child’s pasta and toss with a pat of butter. Serve.
13. Scoop the greens onto the mashed potatoes and mix it all up, gently, with another pat of butter.
14. Serve up the demented colcannon in a bowl, sprinkled with a little rubbed kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, the minced parsley and a few drops of balsamic vinegar.
15. Eat. With more wine, as necessary.
16. Don’t share when husband says “I didn’t know you were making that. It looks good.” Because it’s just enough for one.

CSA Week 1, Year 3

It must actually be summer, because we picked up our first load of CSA vegetables yesterday (and Niobe's getting hers tonight). It looked like a huge amount, but it's mostly salad ingredients, not that there's anything wrong with that!

• Salad greens
• Sorrel
• Japanese turnips, with greens attached
• Head of red leaf lettuce
• Cilantro
• Parsley
• Asian greens braising mix
• Broccoli rabe
• Scallions
• Radishes

For dinner last night, we had sorrel soup and a chopped salad.

I made Ilina's turnip salad - a tangy mix of turnip, cucumber and avocado (even though the cuke and the avocado had to come from the supermarket).

The soup was more or less invented: I simmered three potatoes (peeled and chopped) in a quart of chicken stock until done, then buzzed them with the hand blender. I then added the sorrel, which I'd cut into ribbons, and a chopped scallion, and cooked it just until the sorrel was wilted (and army green). To finish it, I poured in about a half cup of heavy cream, along with salt and pepper. Simple, easy, and tasty. And the best part might be that there was enough left for my lunch today.

We'll probably do some kind of pasta with the broccoli rabe, and braise the braising greens as a side for some meat. And the salad ingredients? We'll be having salad.

The project for the summer will be to get the girl to eat more vegetables. Any ideas?

Sauce

I married an Italian grandmother.

We went out to run errands yesterday, and ended up with a half bushel of the last of the local tomatoes. He protested that he had too many other things to do, but I reminded him of how much he would regret it in January if he didn't put up the tomatoes NOW.

We canvassed the house for mason jars, scored some more from his mother, laid in new lids from the hardware store, and he got to work.

It's a simple tomato sauce, he calls it pommarola (the way Bugialli spells it, it's more often spelled pomarola) - tomato, red onion, carrot, celery, parsley and basil - cooked gently for three hours, run through the food mill, cooked again briefly to amalgamate the goodness, and processed in a boiling water bath for 40 minutes. We ended up with fifteen and a half quarts.In mid-winter, it will be so worth it.

The tomatoes were local, the carrots were from our CSA, the parsley and basil came from our garden, and the celery and red onion came from the supermarket (and therefore from who knows where). And hours later, the house still smells divine.

CSA: Lists

There's been a viral thing going around, a meme-like compulsion to post a scan of your own handwriting. I've seen it in a number of places - at Flutter's and Chani's and Slouching Mom's and Kyla's - and probably others but I can't remember where. Most recently, I saw it at Thursday Drive - and she has astonishing handwriting.

Last summer, I compulsively blogged my CSA produce each and every week. This year, I've not been cataloging the haul in bits and bytes, but I do write down what we get each pick-up - it helps me to keep track of the stuff in the fridge and plan the next meal. And I like making lists, and crossing things off.

I have a lifetime supply of index cards - my mother worked in an office that used them as an interim data collection device en route to a computerized database. Once redundant, she'd bring the cards home - after all, the back side was perfectly usable. And they're so nice and sturdy for list-making...


So, those are the index cards currently residing on our fridge. Since I wrote them out, we've eaten the 8/6 corn and some of the 8/6 tomatoes - delicious all around. And I added red potatoes to the 8/6 list, because I'd completely forgotten to include them.

You Say Potato, I Say...

When Noble Pig decides to host a potato Ho-Down, and I have potatoes in the kitchen and herbs coming out my ears, all begging to be made into herby, tangy potato salad, I can't help but climb on the potato Ho wagon, even though my Ho name is so not a good Ho name. Whatever. This is the best potato salad ever.

The thing is, you can use whatever fresh herbs you have, and whatever onion/garlic family member floats your boat. I had parsley, basil and scallions from the CSA (on the right), a bag of freshly dug new potatoes from a farm stand, and thyme, sage, tarragon and oregano in my garden (on the left). I also had some cilantro from the CSA - but I was making this to eat with my mother, who is in the cilantro-tastes-like-soap camp, so I left it out.

I washed enough potatoes for two people, and cut them in half, mostly so they'd cook a little quicker. I dropped them into nicely salted boiling water. When they were done (stick 'em with a fork), I drained them and dumped a bowl of ice cubes on top of the cooling potatoes, still in the colander. Then I sliced the scallions and minced up all the herbs together. All the greenery went into a bowl. I then whacked the now room-temperature potatoes up into cubes and dumped them in the bowl. Everything got dressed with salt, pepper, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Bang zoom, you're done.

Yes, Virginia, there is no mayonnaise. If you wanted to be fancy, you could whip up a nice emulsified vinaigrette instead of just splashing in the oil and vinegar. If you have no tarragon, so what? If you have red onion in lieu of scallions, sure - use some. Really, it's the easiest thing ever, and probably the most forgiving. And, did I mention that it has no mayonnaise?

I keep mentioning the mayonnaise because I loathe mayonnaise (even though I think I should like it, and I keep trying it because I think I should like it). But mainly because the lack of mayonnaise means that it's a good potato salad to make in enormous quantities for a big summer party, like W. and I did for our wedding thirteen years ago.

Do you really want to know my (first pet/middle name) Ho name? Schwartz Catherine. It's a good thing I'm not walking the streets.

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There'll be a Potato Ho-Down round-up at Noble Pig on July 16th...plan to go visit!

Evidence that the World is Small

The newsletter from my CSA this week included a recipe from one of my favorite cooking blogs.

And the Times ran a front page story about community supported agriculture.

And while my CSA wasn't in the Times article, my sister's was. And the farmer at her CSA is married to the daughter of my high school flute teacher.

It's a small world.

Food Ruminations

You know that our food supply is all screwed up. It's one of the reasons I love the CSA so much - six months out of the year, I don't have to buy produce at the supermarket.

Apparently, Obama agrees. Here's a snip from an interview with him:

As president, I would implement USDA policies that promote local and regional food systems, including assisting states to develop programs aimed at community supported farms. I also support a national farm-to-school program and am pleased that the Farm Bill provides more than $1 billion to expand healthy snacks in our schools.

I hope he means it.

* * * * * * * * *

It's funny, last year I was totally into cataloging the vegetables every week, even though it became a little like a millstone (make the list, make the post, oh no!). The past few weeks, I've stood in my kitchen after the CSA pick-up, wondering what was missing. Some little OCD part of my brain wanted to make that list before putting the stuff in the fridge. So I've been scribbling the list on an index card and sticking it to the refrigerator. It's helping me keep track of what's come in, and when.

Old habits die hard.

* * * * * * * * *

I was tickled to see that Jennifer (Ponderosa) was posting her own lists - I feel off the hook, blogosphere-wise. This week her CSA delivery included "1 caterpillar".

* * * * * * * * *

I had to make something for the potluck supper at the graduation the other night, so I checked my index cards and decided to make a cole slaw. The CSA had sent out a recipe for an asian turnip slaw; I, of course, couldn't find that recipe and anyway it had peanut butter in it (a no-no at the peanut-free daycare center). So I invented.

2 carrots, grated
2 scallions, thinly sliced
6 japanese turnips, julienned with the mandoline
1 small arrowhead cabbage, shredded
a handful of parley, minced

honey
soy sauce
champagne vinegar (because that's what there was)
vegetable oil
jarred grated ginger
ground pepper

I can't give proportions for the dressing because I kept adding a bit of this and a smidge of that until it tasted right - but there was about a tablespoon of honey and the same of ginger, and about a third of a cup of soy and vinegar and oil. And it definitely needed a couple of hours in the fridge for the vegetables to wilt and amalgamate. It was good - and a good way to address the abundance of those lovely japanese turnips.

CSA Week 25 - The End

This was the last week of our CSA share - all storage vegetables:

• Potatoes (6)
• Red Cabbage (1 head)
• Carrots (2 bags)
• Onions (4)
• Beets (7)
• Butternut Squash (1)

We now have a lifetime supply of carrots, because we still have carrots from several weeks ago and because we accidentally took two bags (Miss M. dropped one in my tote while W. was picking up another and we didn't realize it until we were home). We also have at least a winter's worth of cabbage - both red and white. Luckily I've found two simple and wonderful recipes for cabbage. The first is red cabbage braised in the oven - there's hardly any preparation beyond chopping and it cooks unattended. The second is white cabbage browned in butter - in this case, it's all about the technique, and it's good in the way that browned brussels sprouts are good.

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Braised Red Cabbage (adapted from Riverford)

1 lb red cabbage (about a 1/3 of a head)
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
1 apple
1 t. ground allspice
1 T. brown sugar
3 T. red wine vinegar
salt & pepper
2 T. butter

1. Pre-heat the oven to 300F. Finely shred the cabbage, finely chop the onions and garlic and peel, core and finely chop the apples.
2. Toss together the onion, garlic, apple, allspice, brown sugar and salt & pepper to taste.
3. Arrange a layer of cabbage in the base of a large casserole then add a layer of the onions/apple mix. Alternate the layers until all the ingredients are used.
4. Pour over the wine vinegar, dot with butter, cover the dish with its lid or some foil and bake slowly in the oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

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Sauteed Cabbage (adapted from Ina Garten)

1 head white cabbage
3 T. butter
1 1/2 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. fresh ground black pepper

1. Remove the core and cut the cabbage in very thin slices, as if you were making coleslaw.
2. Melt the butter in a large saute pan over med-high heat. Add the cabbage, salt and pepper and saute for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is tender and begins to brown. Serve hot.

CSA Week 24

I took a half a vacation day yesterday because it was my day to babysit the CSA pick-up site. I got there at about 2:15 to help unload the truck and organize the boxes. And those boxes were heavy! Moving a handtruck with four crates of cabbage uphill is hard work.

But it was fun to meet all the other participants, to share cooking ideas, to bemoan the lack of leeks, to groan about more cabbage. Everyone loves onions and potatoes. Beets? Either you love 'em or you hate 'em. Everyone was sorry that we only have one more week, but thrilled that the enrollment packets for next year were available.

• Celeriac (1)
• Potatoes (a small basket, ~6)
• Carrots (1 bag)
• Sweet Potatoes (paper bag)
• Beets (3)
• Onions (2)
• Butternut Squash (1)
• Green Cabbage (1 head)

And while I was hanging out, between checking people in and rearranging the crates, I finished one Christmas present and made some headway on another. So, a productive afternoon, in lots of ways. Moral of the story? Sign up next year for a summer day - it was COLD yesterday.

CSA Week 23

It's dark now when we pick up our vegetables. And last night, the light in the barn went out just when we got there. So while someone was scrambling for a new light bulb, I was feeling around blindly in the potato bin. By the time she was back with the bulb, I could nearly see what I was doing. Still, the potatoes that came home with me are somewhat less than beautiful.

• Winterboer Kale
• Onions (3)
• Green Cabbage
• Sweet Potatoes
• Carrots
• Carnival Winter Squash (3)
• Potatoes (7)
• Tomatoes (1 quart)

Unlike the tuscan kale and red russian kale of past weeks at the CSA, the kale this week reminds me of the unloved kale of my childhood. Every year for Thanksgiving, my paternal grandfather served kale with hazelnuts. And he - I think - habitually undercooked it, because it always seemed to me to be like eating steel wool. It was not one of my favorites.

CSA - Make-up Week

I had the strangest dream last night. I was in a drugstore, and hanging on the wall, for sale, were plastic bags of onion sets. But they weren't like any onion sets that exist - they were pelletized in dirt, and had fake greenery coming out the top (like fake scallions). Peculiar.

I reported this to W. who instantly told me that it was because I hadn't yet catalogued this week's CSA produce. I do believe he's right! We'd gone out on Wednesday night, so not only had I not catalogued it, I hadn't even looked at it - my mother-in-law had picked up the vegetables.

My mind's at rest now. Here's what we got:

• Tomatoes (3)
• White Potatoes
• Salad greens
• Carrots
• Onions (5)
• Red Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Tuscan Kale

Yes, tomatoes again, a week into November. I confess that I am very nearly tired of tomatoes. I may just roast the rest of them.

CSA Week 22 - Tomatoes, Strawberries, Squash and Kale

We finally turned the heat on on Wednesday, the same day that I picked up a quart of tomatoes from the CSA. And yesterday, there were strawberries at the greenmarket. Local strawberries! In November! I bought 2 pints. How could I pass them by? But, what strange weather it's been.

• Potatoes (~3 1/2 lbs)
• Cauliflower
• Toscana Kale
• Beets (3, ~2 lbs)
• Salad Mix
• Tomatoes (quart)
• Red Onions (3)
• Parsley

Brave girl that I am, I finally tackled a squash - one of the acorn squashes from a week or two ago. It smelled revolting while I was scraping the seeds out, it smelled disgusting in the oven, it smelled nauseating while I was spooning the pulp out of the shell. But I persisted and made Pinknest's pumpkin bread - without icing, with some whole wheat flour, with dried lemon peel instead of fresh orange rind, and with freshly cooked acorn squash in lieu of canned pumpkin. It's terrific. Even the girl and the husband had some. Of course, it's not really bread. It's cake. There's no two ways about it.

For dinner tonight, I may try a recipe for the black kale that was in the Times last week - a salad of raw kale with a garlicky cheese-laced dressing. Then again, it's blustery and raw, and salad might not be in the cards.

CSA Week 21

Hmmm...

Somehow I completely forgot to post this - this was the CSA distribution for 10/24. I think there are too many posts in my drafts folder...

• Broccoli
• Red Cabbage
• Red Russian Kale
• Acorn Squash (2)
• Salad Mix
• Beefsteak Tomatoes (5)
• Collard Greens
• Onions (1)
• Red Onions (2)
• Carrots (3+ lbs)

CSA Week 20 - Of Cabbages and Kings

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes - and ships - and sealing-wax -
Of cabbages - and kings -
And why the sea is boiling hot -
And whether pigs have wings."

The "cabbages and kings" phrase popped into my head when I saw the size of the cabbages at the CSA pick-up - huge, enormous, bigger than my head. I knew the stanza from which it came, but what surprised me was realizing that whole poem is eighteen stanzas long, and the cabbages and kings one is number eleven. Why then is that one middle stanza so burned into my brain? Maybe just because it's pretty damned wonderful.

• Cabbage (1 enormous head)
• Red Russian Kale
• Broccoli Rabe
• Potatoes (6)
• Onions (2)
• Plum Tomatoes (quart)
• Salad Mix
• Parsley

Maybe it's the Irish peasant stock in me, but I'm looking forward to a batch of colcannon with the cabbage and potatoes. Colcannon is basically mashed potates with cooked cabbage (and/or kale) stirred in, but somewhere I have (or maybe my mother has) a recipe for colcannon with an unseemly amount of butter, thereby making a transcendent rendition of the peasant dish.