Cooking My Way Through My CSA

Chickpea and Kale Stew with Herb Dumplings

2012-02-28T19:55:00.002-05:00

The thing that's made me a bit sad about the mild winter is that I haven't made nearly enough soups or stews. But this Sunday I returned to my fall/winter Sunday night soup-making and made a big batch of stew with dumplings. Dumplings--not the filled variety found in a variety of Asian cuisines or gnocchi or perogies--the kind I thought were lost to me when I gave up meat-eating. Doughy, delicious dumplings like I thought could only be found atop chicken stew.
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Potato, European Soldier Bean, and Spinach Ragout

2012-02-18T08:36:00.000-05:00

My boyfriend doesn’t understandbeans. Don’t get me wrong, he’s an extremely smart man. If you need a computerfixed, if you need something rewired, if you need to figure out how dopamineaffects people’s economic decision making, he’s your guy. Anything about foodnot related to store-bought cookies or sourdough bread....eh...not so much.Which is why when I was standing in front of the Brooklyn Bean Cocounter at the Fleaon Saturday and trying to decide which of the five varieties of beans I hadnever heard of I was going to try this week, he thought I was finding lunch.

An Apple Cake for Connie

2012-02-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

Apples are a fundamental part of the New York foodexperience. Not just New York City--“The Big Apple”--but the entire state. Iwould argue New York State more so than the City. Every fall there’s applepicking, apple festivals--with pies and cakes and ice creams and every dishimaginable made from apples. We preserve apple sauces, apple butters, and applechutneys. We make pies and cakes and crisps. Apples, to me, mean home.

Gastronomical Sovereignty--How Lo-cal Can You Go?: Vancouver Island Mac & Cheese

2012-02-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

Hooray for blog swaps! Enjoy Kristy's post and recipe below and check mine out over on her blog.

Good morning lovely readers of Cooking My Way Through My CSA!

I'm Kristy of Gastronomical Sovereignty, a food blog where I contemplate the ethical dilemmas of culinary deliciousness... With wine, of course. When Sam asked me if I wanted to swap posts over our love of happy food and mac and cheese, I jumped at the chance. Why wouldn't I want to eat local, organic, seasonal, happy cheesy goodness?? I'd have to be insane to say no. And while I do go a 'lil crazy from time to time, I'm certainly lucid enough to know I want macaroni and cheese. Anytime, anywhere.

The actual mission? Make a mac & cheese dish that is as local as possible to demonstrate what is locally available in the middle of February on both the East and West coasts. Heck yeah!

A Sourdough Journal

2012-02-05T12:41:00.002-05:00

I've been baking with yeast doughs for quite a while. But recently I've really wanted to try baking with wild yeasts. I tried making a sourdough starter before and had little luck, but then my friend Bari got me the book The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen. I absolutely love this book--information on container gardening (which I may try out on the roof this spring), information about canning and preserving, composting, home brewing, homemade eco-friendly cleaners, and sourdough bread. Spurred by our trip to San Francisco, the fact that Hot Bread Kitchen has stopped making Black Pepper-Cheddar Sourdough (which we pretty much lived off of for the month of December), and some inspiration from the book, I decided to give it a shot.

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Frittata for One

2012-01-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

I'm the only one around here who eats eggs. It's a sad, sad, fact of life. It doesn't even help that we know the names of the happy, healthy, free-range hens that lay the eggs we get (Mae, Liz, Leah, and Lynsi, if you were wondering). D just thinks that eggs are weird. I often lie about them being in baked goods. (Yes. I am a bad person.) Lord knows what will happen when he figures out that there's egg in challah (or in those egg bagels he's so fond of...no, I don't understand the logic there either). Even worse than not liking the taste or idea of eggs is that he doesn't like the smell of eggs cooking.
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Celery Root and Lentil Salad with Hazelnuts

2012-01-28T17:00:00.001-05:00

So, as you may have guessed, I've been busy. A new semester has started and I'm teaching a class. This is the second time around, so it's not too bad, but there's been a lot of prep work happening. The good news is that I plan to take a stroll down to the campus coffee shop with Kate every Thursday so we can get some tea and chat. But it's a lot of work. On top of my real work.

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Sweet Potato and Quark Ravioli with Balsamic Brown Butter and Sage

2012-01-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

I made these...oh, before Christmas and never got around to writing them up. But I took some halfway decent pictures and in spite of some sticking issues, these were quite delicious. So, since I've been kind of making pretty much nothing by stuff from my Deborah Madison cookbook that I'm now completely obsessed with, and figured I shouldn't just reproduce the entire cookbook on my blog. Mostly ethics. A little SOPA. But mostly ethics.

Penne with Roasted Winter Squash, Sage and Red Cabbage

2012-01-08T10:32:00.000-05:00

I have a new crush. It's better than my crush on the cheese monger. It's on a new cookbook. Or perhaps on the cookbook author. I haven't really decided yet. But I am smitten, that's for sure.
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Roasted Cumin Potatoes (or Lazy Woman's Jeera Aloo)

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

I think I've mentioned before that I love Indian food. I cook an approximation of it at home, but it's never quite authentic. This recipe uses authentic spices, however, the cooking method is far from authentic. The results, however, are a delicious, relatively hands-off weeknight meal when paired with some curried scrambled eggs or maybe some chana saag.

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Roasted Winter Veggies with Wheat Berries and Greens

2012-01-02T11:38:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Joyous Solstice....and a joyful whatever other holiday I've missed. I hope your winter holidays were fantastic. We spent ours in the Bay Area with D's family. I had never been to California before, so it was exciting. We spent time with his parents and sister, as well as some of his extended family. We explored Monterey and San Francisco. I met some of D's West Coast friends. Overall, it was a lot of fun.
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Focaccia with Sweet Potato, Kale and Cheddar

2011-12-18T20:57:00.000-05:00

I made this focaccia recipe in late summer, topped with tomatoes and basil and all the things that make late-summer food amazing.

And now it's late fall. Almost winter. So I'm making the same spelt focaccia again, but this time with all of the toppings that make late fall food amazing.

I couldn't get a good picture of this for the life of me, and, frankly, this whole food blogging thing is just a hobby, so I'm not buying any sort of fancy photography equipment to increase site traffic. The only thing I get from this is my own personal satisfaction. So I'm not spending money to take better pictures. It tastes good enough that I felt the need to post about it. That's all you really need to know, isn't it?
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Winter CSA Week 3

2011-12-17T12:48:00.001-05:00

The year is winding down. I promise you, for the past month I actually have been cooking. And using most of the vegetables I've gotten (except for the cauliflower that seems to think its only purpose in life is to grow mold while in my refrigerator for less than three days). I just haven't been taking pictures and posting recipes. Or I've been taking pictures and not actually managing to post the recipes. Maybe I'll get around to it during the holidays...

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Veggie Stir Fry with Spicy Pasta

2011-12-11T17:02:00.000-05:00

It's been quite the week. Work stress. School stress. Home stress. Holiday stress. Just stress, stress, stress. I just want to be on a plane to California and away from all the craziness. I have to remind myself when I'm stressed I shouldn't just eat cheese and chocolate. No matter how good an idea it seems at the time.
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Winter CSA Week 2

2011-12-03T09:59:00.001-05:00

As I write this, I'm sitting and eating some farm-fresh yogurt topped with some of the peaches from my summer CSA that I put up in July and sipping a cup of coffee, what could make a cold December day better than that?
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Broccoli Soup

2011-11-29T06:27:00.000-05:00

Another addition to "pureed vegetable soups to eat while you recover from having your wisdom teeth extracted".
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Pumpkin and Turnip Green (or not) Risotto or What Vegetarians Eat for Thanksgiving...

2011-11-25T18:46:00.000-05:00

People always ask me what we eat for Thanksgiving since we don't eat meat. And no, it's not tofurky. Do I really strike you as a girl who eats tofurky?
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Creamy Pumpkin Chipotle Soup

2011-11-20T19:55:00.000-05:00

So, I've been MIA for ~~a few days~~ almost a week. I've been fretting about getting and then having my wisdom teeth extracted. All four of them. At the same time. I probably could have posted the sorts of things I've been eating for the past few days, but it's been mostly mashed sweet potatoes, avocado, yogurt, Naked juice smoothies, and blood orange sorbet bars. And trying to get D to make me one of these (even though I can't use a straw). The good news is, this morning I ate my first non-mashed food (soft scrambled eggs with avocado and cheese). And tonight I'm having soup.

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Autumn Vegetable Hash

2011-11-16T06:28:00.001-05:00

Oh, easy weeknight meals, how I love you lately. Especially when I can have breakfast for dinner. If I didn't know that it would be so bad for my health, I would probably eat eggs at every meal. Fried, scrambled, poached, omelets, frittatas, hard boiled, quiches...Love them. One way I can trick myself into thinking I can eat eggs more often than I probably should if by pairing them with lots of vegetables.
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Sweet Potato Yeast Bread

2011-11-13T10:44:00.000-05:00

Just as our apartment has a tendency to get really hot in the summer, it also has a tendency to get really cold in the late fall and winter. When it starts to get cold, I generally decide it's time to start making my own bread again. This is problematic. If you want bread dough to rise in a timely manner, generally you want to put it in a warm, draft free place. That doesn't really work here. Especially since there's a large-ish hole in the boiler cabinet ever since they came to replace the boiler.

Cold temperatures (at least temperatures that aren't too cold) will still allow yeast doughs to rise, it just happens much more slowly. Mark Bittman actually recommends making dough before you go to work and letting it rise in the fridge all day. A slower rise also means more flavorful bread, which is a good thing. I have, however, tried out a couple of different methods to help my dough rise in a slightly more timely manner. Mostly because I get impatient.
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Tofu Dumplings with Carrot-Miso-Ginger Dipping Sauce

2011-11-11T12:23:00.001-05:00

I am a big fan of dumplings. Often, when I have a day off I'll make a ton of them, freeze them, and then cook them up a few at a time for quick meals or snacks. I've only been making dumplings for a little while, and I'm (very) slowly starting to get good a folding them. I still tear the wrappers every once in a while, but I'm getting better.
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Rustic Butternut Squash Soup

2011-11-08T12:17:00.001-05:00

I love soup. I especially like soup that doesn't take a lot of work to prep. Most often soups made with winter squash require peeling and chopping and cooking and then pureeing (which, if you don't have an immersion blender, ~~may lead to tears~~ ~~can be messy~~ may be difficult. This winter squash soup, however, requires no pureeing.
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Root to Stem Broccoli Pasta

2011-11-07T21:03:00.000-05:00

I love broccoli. Even as a kid it was one of my favorite foods. This led to a fair amount of ridicule from my peers, but so did the fact that I didn't list PE and lunch as my favorite subjects and the orthodontic headgear I was forced to endure through most of third grade. The only reason the hot-pink leggings, enormous t-shirts bunched together using a rhinestone covered clip, layered slouched socks, and hot-pink and black LA Gear sneakers didn't lead to such ridicule was the fact that it was 1988, and those things were actually awesome.
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Week 22

2011-11-05T11:01:00.000-04:00

This is the last week of the regular CSA season. I've really enjoyed my summer/fall with my CSA. At times, finishing all of the food I got was a bit stressful, but overall it was a great experience. Such a good experience that I signed up for the Winter CSA today. However, the CSA experience is not without its drawbacks as well. Simply Life beat me to it, but I'm going to post the pros and cons of my CSA experience anyway. I had already planned to. What can I say? Great minds think alike.

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Potato Leek Bake with Arugula Pesto

2011-11-02T18:57:00.002-04:00

Along with a salad, this is a perfect one pan meal. Stove top to oven. One--albeit messy--pan to wash.
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Halloween Chili

2011-10-31T06:30:00.001-04:00

When I was a kid, my mom would make specific foods for specific holidays. I'm not just talking about traditional Christmas dinners or an Easter ham. I'm talking about cheeseburgers in the shape of jack-o'lanterns with faces made out of cut up cheese slices for Halloween and heart-shaped meatloaf for Valentine's Day (or heart shaped pancakes if it fell on a weekend). Birthdays called for pancakes in the shapes of our initials. This must be part of the reason why I make this chili every year around Halloween.
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Week 21

2011-10-29T10:14:00.003-04:00

It's probably going to be one of those days....

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Seitan Saute

2011-10-28T06:29:00.001-04:00

As the school year has worn on (I know, it's barely November), I have become increasingly fond on one-pan meals. I do love to cook elaborate meals, but my general week-day meals have become simple meals. Simple meals that don't create a lot of dishes to wash afterward.
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Sweet Potato Soup with Star Anise and Ginger

2011-10-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

My favorite part of the weather getting colder is getting to eat more soup. I could do without it being dark when I wake up. And when I walk to the subway. And eventually when I walk home from the subway as well. Maybe I could do without the inevitable subzero temperatures and icy sidewalks. Bur a nice bowl of soup when you get home makes everything better.
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Apple Graham Muffins

2011-10-24T17:29:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had one of those experiences when baking where you go to taste the batter (after filling your muffin tin) and think to yourself: "Hmm...maybe I shouldn't keep licking the batter since it has raw egg in it" which brings on the sudden realization: "Oh $&*%! I didn't put in the eggs"?

Yeah.

That's never happened to me either. I don't know why I brought it up.
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Week 20

2011-10-22T10:04:00.000-04:00

There are only two more weeks of the CSA season. I've been a bit sad. Having to go shopping in the grocery store again to navigate my way through aisles of out-of-season vegetables and fruits flown in from who knows where. But yesterday I got good news: There's going to be a winter CSA! There will be deliveries every two weeks of 3-5 lbs of storage vegetables, a bag or two of frozen vegetables (these are spring and summer vegetables that the farm has frozen at an off-site freezing facility that exclusively serves small farms), and cooking and salad greens as the weather allows. I am (possibly inordinately) excited by the prospect of a winter CSA.

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Apple Macaroni and Cheese with Greens

2011-10-21T18:54:00.000-04:00

When it's cold and rainy, all you really need is some macaroni and cheese. This time, though, I didn't go for my normal super-rich Alton Brown macaroni and cheese. It takes over an hour to make and requires tempering an egg, but it is totally worth it. This time though, I wanted to do something a little different.
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Creamy Carrot, Sweet Potato and Apple Soup

2011-10-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

I love to eat soup in the fall and winter. It's healthy, filling and just warms you right up. It even cures the crankiness that comes from being stuck between stops on the 4 train for a half and hour and then transferring to the Q and ending up sandwiched between a crazy whistling Rasta man and two high school girls singing Schumann. True story.
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Roasted Delicata Squash Salad

2011-10-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

I wrote out this recipe on Saturday night when I was trying to figure out what to bring to Our Table. Then when I woke up Sunday morning and looked at it again, it occurred to me that it sounded very familiar. It was a twist on a recipe I had made several times, but there was something else that just seemed a bit too familiar.

Sure enough, I go to my cookbook shelf and flip through the pages of bookmarked recipes and there it is smack in the middle of Supernatural Everyday a recipe that is very close to the one I am going to give you today. Granted, this is also a variation of the recipe that I thought I was so cleverly riffing on. The veggies are a little different, but the basic concept of roasted squash with a spicy miso dressing is there.This got me thinking....what does it really mean to be original?

I know that a group of food bloggers is working on defining what this means, but I've been musing a bit myself.
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Tempeh Tacos with Red Cabbage Slaw

2011-10-16T07:30:00.000-04:00

I know, tacos again. I'm on a bit of a Mexican kick, what can I say?
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Week 19

2011-10-15T09:41:00.003-04:00

Only three more CSA distributions after this week! It's hard to believe the CSA season (and my little experiment in food/recipe blogging) is almost at an end. And then starts months and months of winter squashes, potatoes, and all of the things I've canned. Maybe the blogging will continue, but my cooking will probably go back to being a little less exciting. There will certainly be fewer posts per week.

But let's not dwell on that.

It's fall! And I'm leaving in a little while to go apple picking.
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BBQ Seitan and Sweet Potato Pizza

2011-10-14T20:33:00.002-04:00

I've often talked about the BBQ "chicken" pizzas I make for D when I'm having a pizza that is covered in far more veggies than he'd ever eat at one time. This is one of the few meals that I make for both of us without any alterations.
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Cardamom-Ginger Spiced Apple Crisp

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000-04:00

I have fond memories of my mom's apple crisp. She would make them throughout the fall and winter with apples we'd pick up by the 5 lb bag full at the grocery store. One thing we never lacked in Western New York was fresh, local apples available in the grocery store. Yes, we'd go apple picking and get cider and eat doughnuts as well, but mostly we just got them from the store. After she sliced up the apples to make the crisp and popped it in the oven, the entire house would smell like cinnamon and apples. Apple crisp was just a part of life.

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Spicy Broccoli and Cauliflower Gratin with Pesto

2011-10-10T07:36:00.001-04:00

Today we went to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Preserve. I didn't realize that such things even existed in New York City (in all fairness, it's so far out in Queens that it's practically in Long Island, but still...).

We walked through salt marshes and wooded areas. We saw swans and geese and sandpipers. We saw a strange pile of horseshoe crab shells and New York's only native variety of cactus. I ate a delicious picnic lunch. D ate candy.
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Butternut Squash and Tofu Curry (and Naan FAIL)

2011-10-09T08:01:00.002-04:00

I love Indian food. While what I make at home is decidedly non-traditional, it's still tasty. I would really love to take an Indian cooking class at some point or even (finally) picking up a copy of Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking. Until that happens though, I'm OK with non-traditional.
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Week 18

2011-10-08T10:53:00.000-04:00

I have a confession to make. I used the swap box again.

But it was a Napa cabbage the size of my head.

This isn't my normal hyperbole (my birthday cake wasn't really 20 pounds). The cabbage was huge. There were no small ones. There was just no way I'd be able to eat all of that cabbage before it went bad. And yes, I considered kimchi, but I don't have an appropriate vessel for fermenting cabbage.

So I got an extra bunch of arugula. I'm always sad when the arugula is gone. And now there's more. Maybe it will be a very happy week.

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Best Fall Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Apples and Spices

2011-10-06T06:24:00.000-04:00

I love fall. Apples. Pears. Winter squash. Sweet potatoes. Hot cider. Sweet and savory pumpkin-y delights. And the return of oatmeal for breakfast.
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Penne with Spicy Cauliflower and Arugula

2011-10-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

Cauliflower. Most people hear the word and shudder.

It was the thing you'd pick around when your mom microwaved a bag of "California Blend" frozen veggies and served it as a side dish to a family dinner. The carrots and broccoli fine. That mushy white stuff. No way.

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Red Cabbage and Mizuna Salad

2011-10-04T17:18:00.003-04:00

A quick lunch for the day after a rich meal at an Indian restaurant. It's light, but a full meal. You'll feel so healthy after eating it that it will make it seem like the paneer jalfrezi and aloo jeera never happened the night before.

This is one of my "oh no I didn't cook what am I going to have for lunch tomorrow" meals. And it turned out so well, I thought I'd share it with you. This one actually made my take-out-ordering lunch buddies a little jealous. And it was so little effort. I tried to get a good shot of the salad before I left for work this morning, but it didn't turn out so well. Another pictureless post, I'm afraid. But make it anyway. It's delicious.

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Party Food: Delicata Squash and Gruyere Dip

2011-10-02T11:46:00.000-04:00

So, my birthday was celebrated. People came. Wonderful, lovely friends. Wine. Cheese. Pickled asparagus. Pear chutney. Conversation. Farm fresh veggies. Hummus. Giant ice cream cake. Seriously. The thing weighed as much as a small child.

Week 17

2011-10-01T10:21:00.002-04:00

I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I'm happy to be out of green bean season. I love them, but I was running out of things to do with them. I was almost starting to (gasp) get tired of them. This week I got one of my favorite varieties of squash. And a Mystery Asian Green. OK, so this CSA gives names to it's produce not always seen in American supermarkets, so at least I can figure out what to do with it...
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Caramel Braised Sunshine Squash and Seitan

2011-09-30T12:46:00.002-04:00

I'm starting to get nervous. My birthday is Monday. Saturday, I'm throwing myself a party to celebrate. Throwing myself parties makes me nervous. I start worrying about all sorts of things. I'm also not good at the whole concept of "fashionably late", so when the start time of the party rolls around and people aren't banging down my door, I start to get worried that no one will come. I'm generaly worried that no one will come when I throw a party. I don't know why. Emotional scars from middle school?
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Concord Grape Margaritas

2011-09-28T16:50:00.002-04:00

A favorite seasonal fruit plus a favorite bevarage. How could I possibly go wrong?

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Chard and Caramelized Onion Tacos

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

So...I wasn't sure if I should share this so soon. It's pretty much what I put on my pizza on Saturday night, but in a taco. Then I realized, that's kind of the point of this blog, right? How to use seasonal foods (and maybe seasonal foods that you don't necessarily choose yourself) to make delicious meals, but not feel like you need to make the same thing over and over again. I think the leftovers from this may become some sort of eggy tacos in the morning. It's not necessarily a different dish every night, it's being creative with what you have and with your leftovers.

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Swiss Chard Pizza

2011-09-25T09:07:00.000-04:00

So...I didn't take any pictures. None. It had been a long day. I took a two hour standardized test in the afternoon. I was hungry. But it was so delicious, I just couldn't not share.

I mean, you know what pizza looks like. You can look at that picture of Swiss chard and envision is sauteed with garlic, sweet red pepper and a tiny bit of minced fresh cayenne pepper. Then you can go a step further and imagine it covering a pizza crust, golden brown at the edges, poking out from underneath a layer of melted, slightly bubbling, apple wood-smoked mozzarella. You know I need to give you this recipe even if there are no actual pictures of the pizza.

Week 16

2011-09-24T10:50:00.003-04:00

It's been a busy week. Tuesday we got a new water heater. Thankfully, I did not end up having to shower at the gym, but the guys didn't leave until 9 PM. In spite of the water-heater installation drama, we now have a very small, very efficient water heater. Wednesday was Back to School Night. This meant, for me at least, hanging around school until 6 PM when the parents came and then not leaving until 7:30 (for those of you who are counting, that's a 12 hour work day, plus 45 minutes each way on the subway). Then Thursday I wasn't feeling well, so I didn't go to class. Yesterday was September assessment deadline chaos. To finish off the week, today at 1 PM I have to take what I hope is my final NYS Teacher Certification exam. After that I'm taking a nap.

And eating those Concord grapes. I feel like I should do something fancy with them, but my taste buds are telling me they should be eaten as soon as possible and in as simple a form as possible.

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Radish, Green Bean and Leek Panzanella with Brown Butter-Mustard Dressing

2011-09-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

As I write this, there is a possibility that I will have to go to the gym tonight. No, I haven't started some strange new night training regiment. There are two very interesting plumbers in my apartment replacing our boiler. They were supposed to get here at nine. Arrived at some time after noon (I'm really not sure--D was actually the one at home waiting for them) and are still, at 8 PM, trying to make the boiler give us hot water. It works. They have the heat on full blast. Kind of like a sauna in here at the moment.
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Barley "Risotto" with Acorn Squash and Collard Greens

2011-09-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

I mentioned in a post last week that during the school year, especially during the fall and winter, I tend to make a big pot of soup or stew, or make a casserole of some sort on Sunday night and then have it for lunch all week. I love this recipe because it's great for that purpose, but components can also be made ahead, making it a great mid-week dinner as well.
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How Not to Throw a Tomato Canning Party

2011-09-18T07:30:00.000-04:00

I am not meant to be a tomato canner. Mother Nature, God, a charter school network in the Bronx...some higher power is trying to tell me so. But I have finally gotten all of those tomatoes canned. And the emotional wounds (and most of the physical ones) have healed.
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Week 15

2011-09-17T09:59:00.001-04:00

It's been a busy week. I'm still tired. I should probably take a nap. But look at all of the delicious vegetables I have to eat this week.

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Roasted Late-Summer Vegetables

2011-09-14T19:23:00.002-04:00

It's finally time to roast veggies. In spite of my ambivalence toward this in-between seasons period, I do like being able to roast summer veggies without feeling like I'm going to pass out from heat stroke.

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"Is It Fall Yet?" Pasta

2011-09-13T17:31:00.001-04:00

I love fall. I love fingerless gloves and sweaters. I love falling leaves. I love that it's just warm enough during the day to not need a jacket, but cool enough at night that you can leave the window open and cuddle under a blanket. But right now I'm just confused.
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Edamame Hummus

2011-09-12T19:45:00.000-04:00

It was a busy weekend: A going away party, reconnecting with old friends, a birthday brunch (reminding me of the next decade that's creeping up on me), and some tomato canning drama (more on that another time--after the emotional scars and my aching muscles have healed). How's a girl to get any cooking done?

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Week 14

2011-09-10T10:13:00.001-04:00

Only 8 weeks left! And the appearance of my first winter squash. How the summer flies by...
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Same Ingredients, Different Recipes #2: Green Bean Slaw (Localized)

2011-09-09T12:00:00.000-04:00

The ingredients below are going to sound familiar. I used nearly the same ingredients two nights later to make a totally different dish (which I posted yesterday--I know, in the wrong order, but that's how it goes sometimes).
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Same Ingredients, Two Recipes #1: White Wine Braised Cabbage with White Beans and Potatoes)

2011-09-08T06:00:00.000-04:00

One of the complaints people sometimes have about joining a CSA is that you need to eat a lot of the same foods over and over again. I'm posting two recipes (one now, one tomorrow) with very similar ingredients, but that are totally different experiences.
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Nectarine Ginger Cornmeal Cobbler

2011-09-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

Delicious. That is all.

Oh. And easy.

And it will make you feel better about the fact that the day after you make this is the first day of school.

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Spelt Focaccia with Tomato, Onion and Cheddar

2011-09-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

We've established that my boyfriend loves bread. Perhaps more than he loves me. Well, not quite. The thing is, I love trying breads made out of different grains and he ~~hates whole grain bread with a passion~~ will tolerate whole grain bread a bit grudgingly. That is until about a month ago when we had a gchat exchange that went like so:

2:27 PM D: maybe whole wheat bread isn't so bad. (except for pitas and bagels. those are still bad.)
6 minutes
2:33 PM me: where did you have whole wheat bread?2:34 PM D: brad's accidentally made my sandwich on it. me: ah.2:35 PM D: it tasted a bit sweet. and then i read a website about how much better it is for you. me: yes. whole grains are good for you.

So I've stopped sneaking whole grains into my breads. I've been just telling him. And he's been more willing to try them without all of the trickery. I've been doing half whole grain flour and half unbleached all purpose flour. No need to scare the boy. This focaccia is one of my latest attempts at getting him to eat something besides white flour.
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Greek Salad with Tzatziki Dressing

2011-09-05T07:30:00.000-04:00

I actually was going to share this recipe last week, but I've been trying to perfect the dressing. This is a twist on the Greek Salad, generally Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and olives with feta and some sort of vinaigrette. In this salad, the feta, cucumbers and vinaigrette have been replaced with a creamy tzatziki dressing.
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Week 13

2011-09-03T10:17:00.003-04:00

From GrowNYC

Part of a joining a CSA is accepting the same risks a farmer does when she plants her crops. Hurricane Irene devastated many farms in the Hudson Valley. As our farm's newsletter put it, "Floodsjust like these are what created these beautiful flat fields where we grow allthese great vegetables. These fields are the Delta of the Hudson Valley. However, these same floods that created theserich and loamy soils can wipe out an entire season’s worth of time andinvestment—in less than a day."
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Peach-Basil Infused Vodka

2011-09-02T08:36:00.000-04:00

Day 1

I think infusing liquors may be my new favorite hobby. It's also far less time consuming than most of my hobbies, which as the school year gets started is a plus.

Stuffed Pita with Chard and Ricotta Salata

2011-09-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

As long as you've made the pita dough in advance (which I did) this is a quick and easy meal. You can alter the filling to be almost anything you want, just make sure that it's relatively dry and that it's cooled when you add it to the dough--this is a great way to use up leftovers!
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Soy Garlic Cherry Tomatoes

2011-08-31T06:00:00.001-04:00

Why would I take something as delicious on their own as cherry tomatoes and make a pickle out of them? The same reason anyone makes pickles. There's just too much great produce and not enough people to eat it.
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Pan-Seared Peach Salad with Sweet Basil Dressing

2011-08-30T14:15:00.000-04:00

Since starting this CSA I have eaten a lot of salads. I've really begun to appreciate the fruit, nut and cheese salad. There are so many great combinations out there. A lot of times we forget that fruit is an amazing addition to a salad. Add a piece of crusty bread, and that's lunch.
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Provencal Green Beans

2011-08-29T08:33:00.000-04:00

It's amazing how changing one or two ingredients can change the flavor profile of a dish and even cuisine one would attribute that dish to. Switch out onions in favor of leeks, add some thyme and black olives and all of a sudden we've been transported from a trattoria in Firenze to a cafe in Provence.

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Gratitude After the Storm: Arugula Omelet with Feta and Raw Tomato Sauce

2011-08-28T15:19:00.000-04:00

We are fine. Our windows are fine. The basement is dry. The power is on. The stove works. I could make an omelet for lunch...
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Week 12 -- Weathering the Storm

2011-08-27T09:38:00.000-04:00

No picture today, folks. We're battening down the hatches, so to speak.

But in case you were wondering, yes, CSA pick-ups still happen under threat of hurricane.
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Beets with Millet, Lentils and Tahini Sauce

2011-08-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

So...I need to go out and stock up on bottled water and figure out what in God's name one does during a hurricane when there are no rooms with no windows. I'm going to be brief today.

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Soba with Wakame and Cucumber

2011-08-25T06:00:00.006-04:00

My brother-in-law is in China this week for work. The way he tells it they just sort of said: "Hey, Les, this company just bought one of our machines and we need someone to assemble it. How would you like to go? You have a passport, right?" And now he's someplace where it's tomorrow.
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Golden Plum Crisp

2011-08-24T06:00:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite parts of summer are fruit crisps. Of course, you all know that I try to avoid turning my oven on in the summer. This is problematic. Well, the temperature dropped below 80, so I turned the oven on and made one.
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Eggplant "Pizza" with Potato Crust

2011-08-23T06:00:00.001-04:00

I had so many ideas for the little tiny eggplant I got from my CSA this week. Roasting. Pan frying. Babaganoush. Tiny eggplant parm. Tiny vegetarian moussaka...
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Pasta with Rapini, Cherry Tomatoes and Olives

2011-08-22T09:41:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you just want salt. And you probably shouldn't give into that craving all the time. But sometimes there are days when you eat homemade pretzel bites for lunch. And decide to add olives to everything you cook. It happens. I'm sure as long as one drinks lots of water, it's probably fine. Maybe.
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Enchiladas Rojas

2011-08-21T11:20:00.000-04:00

I love fresh tomatoes and the ones I've gotten from the CSA this year have been delicious. Brightly colored (in whatever hue they may be), meaty, and had amazing texture. This batch, not so much. They were a little mealy. But while their texture may have been lacking, they were definitely flavorful. The thing to do with tomatoes like this is to make some sort of sauce. As the tomatoes cooked down, the smell that filled the apartment was incredible.
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Week 11

2011-08-20T09:53:00.000-04:00

Look at all those goodies. I couldn't actually fit all the peaches and plums into the frame!
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What I did on my vacation...

2011-08-19T18:24:00.000-04:00

So much fruit...

So, as I said in some previous posts, I was away this past week. Here are some of the highlights (some cooking & food related, some not).

Peach Coleslaw

2011-08-16T06:00:00.002-04:00

Crunchy cabbage, a sweet and tangy dressing and...peaches?
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Can-It-Forward Day Part 2: Bread and Butter Pickles

2011-08-15T06:00:00.005-04:00

Update: I'm submitting this post/recipe to Can You Can It ? on Garden of Eating

What do you do when you have a pound and a half of cucumbers and only two days in which to eat them? Make pickles. If it's Can-It-Forward Day, so much the better.
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Can-It-Forward Day Part 1: Peach BBQ Sauce

2011-08-14T07:00:00.001-04:00

Update: I'm submitting this recipe to Can You Can It

For a vegetarian/flexatarian household, we go through a lot of barbecue sauce. It goes on tofu and seitan, on pizzas, on bread. French fries get dunked in it. Neither of us is a ketchup person, but we're both barbecue sauce people. And lo and behold, one can can barbecue sauce.

CSA Week 10

2011-08-13T09:38:00.000-04:00

Happy Can-It-Forward Day!

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Blackberry Mint Cooler

2011-08-12T17:00:00.001-04:00

Summer school is over. I have just under three weeks to recover and then it starts all over again. I've spent my first day off cleaning, packing, replacing lost buttons, and cooking up the last of this week's CSA haul. As I mentioned earlier, I'm going out of town next week, so the downstairs neighbors will be getting most of next week's veggies.
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Zucchini Coconut Bread

2011-08-12T13:44:00.000-04:00

I'm leaving town on Monday for a five days, so I'm trying to use as much of what I have in my fridge as possible. I open up my fridge and there's a cucumber, two zucchini, some tofu, a partial can of coconut milk and a couple other odds and ends. I need to make things that can either be eaten in the next few days, eaten on Amtrak or frozen. There is one thing that uses most of those foods and meets those criteria: zucchini bread.

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"Sometimes all you can do is make a pasta salad..."

2011-08-10T21:12:00.000-04:00

Grief is a strange thing. It can bring out the worst in us. It can bring bring out the best in us. It can also bring out every baked good, casserole and pasta/bean/grain salad known to human kind.
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Green Beans with Seitan

2011-08-09T06:00:00.001-04:00

I've mentioned that I've been just one high-strung, weepy ball of exhaustion and stress for the past week. I've really eaten far too many things just slathered in cheese this week. And lots of bread. And probably not enough protein. Last night, that changed.
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Marinated Mozzarella with Heirloom Tomatoes

2011-08-08T06:00:00.002-04:00

Tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and crusty bread. What more can one want from summer? (Well, besides for summer vacation to start already...)

California Benedict with Lemony Dill Hollandaise

2011-08-07T06:00:00.001-04:00

I've had a rough week. Summer school is wearing me down. There's so much work (most of which is just prepping for next school year), but two days of my week are basically rendered useless by our visits to a local pool. Which is great for the kids, but exhausting for the adults. I've been overtired and crying at the drop of a hat all week. Why? I don't know. I just need a vacation.
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Week 9

2011-08-06T12:14:00.000-04:00

And....I couldn't be bothered to clean off the table again...

The final week of summer school is almost here (four more days and then two weeks before school starts). It kind of looks like I'll be making a peach pie to celebrate.

1 lb cucumbers
1 head celery
1 pint orange cherry tomatoes
0.5 lb salad mix
2 candy onions
1 bunch basil
0.5 lb green beans
1 lb Zucchini/Squash
2 Tigerella heirloom tomatoes
3 lbs donut peaches

I also found blackberries at the farmer's market and grabbed one more heirloom tomato (those are also in the picture).

I have some very leafy, skinny celery (no filling this stuff with peanut butter. I'm probably going to use the leaves to make this celery salt, then toss the rest in the stock bag. I picked up some local mozzarella at Whole Foods last night. I think marinated mozzarella with heirloom tomatoes is in my future...

Brie, Avocado and Dill Sandwiches

2011-08-05T06:00:00.002-04:00

Creamy brie and avocado with dill on crusty whole wheat sourdough. Add a glass of wine and a side of braised beets and you've got yourself a classy, yet easy dinner. And most importantly, it uses up dill.

Braised and Glazed Beets

2011-08-04T06:00:00.001-04:00

Hmm...this picture has a bit of a Dexter feel to it.
I promise, it's just beet juice on the cutting board.

Roasted beets are my favorite, but it's just too hot to roast things. But beets can be braised. Your stove is only on for about 30 minutes (rather than your oven being on for an hour). That's a definite temperature difference. And no one yells at you when he gets home for making the apartment hot with your cooking. Maybe for accidentally getting beet-juice fingerprints on the light switch, but not for heating up the apartment.
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Vegan Chocolate Mint Zucchini Cookies

2011-08-03T06:00:00.003-04:00

Sneaking some veggies into D's cookies. He mostly approved of these cookies (until he asked what the green bits were).

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Salad with Broiled Sweet Plums

2011-08-02T06:24:00.000-04:00

This salad features broiled plums paired with Dill-Dijon Dressing (surprise! more dill!) over a bed of salad greens. And maybe I added a little extra dill even though I didn't include it in the recipe. I have a lot of dill.
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Leek and Chard Fritters

2011-08-01T06:00:00.001-04:00

I woke up with a killer headache on Sunday morning (actually went to bed with a killer headache on Saturday night). I did nothing all morning. Then I went to my knitting meet up and ate this for dinner. Not a bad day overall.
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Lemony Cucumber Salad with Soba and Tofu

2011-07-31T08:00:00.005-04:00

Meet my nemesis.

CSA dill is the bane of my existence. I barely finished the bunch from last week and a got another huge bunch today. I like dill a lot. I think we forget about it if we aren't making pickles, but that it's subtle flavor compliments many different vegetables. But seriously. Two weeks in a row is a little much. I probably should have put it in the swap box, but I didn't. Oh no. I decided I'm cooking everything from this CSA and damn it, it will happen.
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Week 8

2011-07-30T10:21:00.000-04:00

Oh no! More dill! Dill, thankfully, pairs quite well with all of the other veggies in the box...
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Fried Polenta with Goat Cheese and Gooseberry-Chili Relish

2011-07-29T06:00:00.001-04:00

I have a problem. Every time I find a lovely, sophisticated place to buy exotic, briny olives and flavorful cheeses, I develop a crush on the cheese monger.

I know. I'm not single. I'm getting too old to have crushes. But like good cheese, 20-something Brooklyn men who have seemingly infinite knowledge about olives, wine and cheese are, well, pretty tasty.

Zucchini and Arugula Salad with Dill-Dijon Dressing

2011-07-28T06:00:00.001-04:00

So, the salad is nothing special. Just CSA veggies to go alongside a main course. But the dressing...

It is my new favorite thing. And it uses up a lot of dill. And as anyone with a CSA knows, at some point during the summer you will have more dill than you can possibly use.

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