CSA Week 5

It is hot out.

If only putting an air conditioner in our window did any good hot.

Cities are a terrible place to be in the summer hot.

Buy tickets to a 2 PM movie the day before just so you can be guaranteed some tolerable temperatures hot.

Wish you could put a kiddie pool on your roof hot.

You get the idea.

Thankfully plenty of veggies this week that require minimal cooking or can be eaten raw.

Tortellini with Carrot Top Pesto and Fresh Peas

I have been so productive on my week off--

I've organized and moth-proofed my entire yarn stash, organized the mound of papers on my desk that qualify me for an episode of Hoarders my home office, bought the coolest cherry pitter EVER, baked one of these, registered for an online-PD course for the summer, went to dinner with my new coworkers (they are all lovely), and started collaborating with this lovely lady on something exciting for our respective blogs (more on that below). And now that our washer is fixed, I'm doing laundry.

I know. I'm pretty much a rock star.

Rapini and Orzo Salad

On Sunday my knitting circle decided to forego our usual knitting and wine drinking (I'm sure it doesn't surprise any of you that my knitting circle meets in a wine bar) in order to have a yarn swap in the park (I realized after reading a comment that I had neglected to mention this...). We all brought a dish to pass, a blanket, a few skeins of yarn left over from projects, given to us by friends, or that we had just picked up at the yarn store because "it looked pretty", and (of course) some discretely hidden wine.

CSA Week 4 and A Short Rant About Seasonality

There's something you really need to understand about CSAs--and seasonal eating in general--just because you think something should be in season (like me with asparagus from whenever Easter happens to fall until it actually shows up at the market), does not mean that it actually is in season. Apparently people have been giving our CSA coordinators some, shall we say, shit for the vegetables we've been getting for the past three weeks. These are probably people who still haven't gotten the hang of seasonal eating yet, or who expect every season to be the same. When you sign up for a CSA though, you agree to get what you get and not get upset--really, that's your CSA agreement in a nutshell. Look it over.

Is Putting Greens in Your Smoothie Really a Good Idea? (Plus Recipe)

Bonus Friday post! School's out for summer...or at least until summer school starts on July 2nd...

So, I always hear about these "Green Monster" smoothies either as (1) a fad weight loss solution (not my thing), (2) a slightly sneaky way to get kids to eat their veggies, or (3) a really helpful way to use up all these greens that come your way in the summer, either from your garden or your CSA. I tried them out for the final reason (obviously). My verdict: they're really good (and way cheaper than Jamba Juice), but there are some important things to keep in mind.

Polenta Gratin with Lemony, Garlicky Escarole

I'm going to start this post by professing my absolute hatred of escarole when I was a child. It was just too bitter. Not quite green, but not really brown. When a girl who told her entire first grade class that her favortie food is spinach won't eat a green leafy vegetable, you know there's an issue. Seriously. My grandma's scarole e fagiole left me begging for a PB&J for dinner. I mean, it wasn't as bad as when she made calimari, or tripe, or that time I got the chicken heart in my soup (maybe this is why I became a vegetarian...?), but I really didn't want more than a "no thank-you helping" of that stuff.

Fast forward to age 30 and the giant (to me) head of escarole in my CSA delivery.

Pasta with Greens, Roasted Garlic Scapes and Ricotta

So Emily and I made homemade ricotta this weekend. It is the most amazing, wonderful, fantastic thing I have ever had in my life. It is nothing like store-bought ricotta. It's delicious and it's ridiculously easy. Of course, I'm not going to give you the recipe here. We got it from Smitten Kitchen and made absolutely no changes. I will, however, walk you through the process and give you a recipe for the pasta dish I made with it. 

CSA Week 3

Today Emily came over to can chutney and make ricotta. I'm so excited! (More about that tomorrow or Monday)

I'm also excited for cherries! Not nearly as excited as I was for asparagus, but pretty close.

Pasta with Carrot Top, Radish Green, and Spinach Puree

There are a number of vegetables that have edible parts we rarely use, most of these being the leafy tops of root vegetables. Turnip greens are often used, some people use beet greens, but people often don't know what to do with things like kohlrabi greens, radish greens, and carrot tops. Similarly we're often not sure what to do with cauliflower leaves and broccoli leaves and stems. There are also plants whose stems we eat, but we often forget about the delicious roots (roasted parsley root pottage, anyone?). All of these are edible and delicious.

Baked Tofu with Rhubarb Sauce

I love savory rhubarb dishes. This weekend I'm going to make my absolute favorite sweet-and-savory rhubarb chutney with Emily (recipe from Ashley English). In order to gear up for this, I made my own savory rhubarb sauce, using some similar flavors.

A CSA Season in Review and a Giveaway!

I know I already did a "thoughts on a year of blogging" post, but today is my actual "blogiversary". In honor of that I'm doing a month by month "You Liked/I Liked" retrospective and a giveaway (see below). I decided that since CSA season is starting, and my blog is (obviously) CSA focused, I would do just the CSA months (generally summer June-September), and, I hope, give CSA newbies some ideas for how to use all of those vegetables that you're going to start getting on repeat very, very soon. I've posted the top two recipes in terms of page views for every month and then one or two posts I hope get more love because they were some of my favorites. I hope you all enjoy!

CSA Week 2

I got up so early this morning so I could pick up my share before the rain started. I guess everyone else had that idea too because pick up too FOREVER. But I really have to give some credit to my CSA's coordinators. They've been working really hard to find the most efficient set up for our Saturday morning pick ups. It might take a while, but I'm sure we'll get it right!

Beet Pizza with Greens and Goat Cheese

Maybe that plate wasn't the best choice...I can see my reflection...

I am so tempted to call this a "Beetza", but I am refraining. Except I just wrote it there...so...I've failed. At least it's not in the title? I had originally planned to make some sort of beet galette or tart with the beets and their greens (far more classy and hard to turn into a bad pun), but it had been a long day and I wasn't feeling up to messing around with pastry dough. Pizza dough though--mix, knead, and ignore for an hour while I take a nap. I was all about that.

Fresh Pea and Barley Salad

I don' t think I had ever had fresh shelling peas before Saturday night. I've had frozen peas--from store-brand to Birdseye to fancy organic brands, but I've never sat at a table while the radio was playing the news in the background and shelled my own peas. Sometimes if you buy high-quality frozen veggies the taste difference is negligible. Peas, however, are so much different.

CSA Week 1

It's the first week of the 2012 CSA season. It's my second year with this CSA and my third CSA experience. I am ready to get this season started.