I feel like we missed an opportunity here. If only it’d been red onions and red cabbage (aka the purple kinds). Maybe even the standard beets. Purple basil! Ah. The purple CSA box will just have to reside in my dreams.
Dear John,
The oven died and took too long to fix. I kept delaying posting until we got an appliance repair person here. Hindsight, not the most helpful way to plan.
But it is fixed and we have the next box now. So I will hit publish on this one. Thank you to the repair person and to the neighbors who passed along the phone number to text.
Chioggia Beets are the pretty striped ones. They begged to be mandolined into paper thin slices for salads. Probably pair with some citrus and some of the cheese that we need for topping the sweet potatoes. Toasted hazelnuts, warm from the oven. Top with some parsley if you’re feeling fancy farm-to-table restaurant style.
That said, when we grow tired of raw storage beets (because, that is what these are, right?), maybe we try a beet tartare. (Totally inspired by me doing cntrl+f for beet on the menu at an old favorite farm-to-table restaurant. Their description is “avocado / radish / capers / egg.”)
I do tend to use the cabbage for salads. Crispy and crunchy and feeling fresh.
Our box. Minus the black turnips. Plus extra sweet potatoes and parsnips.
Dear John,
Last week, someone on the neighborhood listserv started a thread sharing lifehacks. The first responses were about grocery lists and meal planning. Bulk cooking sauces and dressings on weekends to prepare for the week ahead. Making meals large enough that leftovers get packed in lunchboxes. Having regularly occurring menus. Which a reminder that, I can still tell you that growing up Saturday morning is pancakes, Saturday dinner is pizza, Sunday morning eggs, Sunday lunch spaghetti, and Sunday dinner hot dogs and popcorn.
I contributed using a melon baller to core an apple. Truly it works quickly, and then you have a half ball of core to toss in the apple core bag in the freezer.
Because, the apple core bag, is definitely one of our more recent tricks. Apple and pear cores (and other fruit), tossed in a bag in the freezer until you have enough to make jellyandmostardaorchutney. I opted not to put that one the listserv though. It feels a bit of an advanced cooking to reduce waste move. I’ll share with you, here, though.
It led to a fun discussion of our other hacks:
Freezer scrap bags: In addition to the apple cores, we have kale and green stems that become pesto, veggie peels become stock, and one day I might figure out the secret of saving Parmesan rinds for stock
Second curtain rod over the far side of the shower for hanging washcloths to dry
Family account on one password with shared passwords
Cryptomator + shared drive for secure file sharing across computers
When mood is bad, eat something, drink water, and go for a walk and talk.
This blog for sharing the menu planning process
Speaking of….
Today’s Box
Beauregard Sweet Potatoes
Black Radishes
Celery
Parsnips
Rainbow Chard
Robins Koginut Squash
Scarlet Turnips
Shallots
Things in the fridge
Cranberries
Rutabaga (picked up from last week’s swap box leftovers)
If we want something salad-y, I think the turnips are the first thing to try. I don’t know scarlet turnips! Maybe shave them and some apples and do a mustard dressing? We can also try grating the rutabaga.
Two weeks ago, we made the parsnip soup with celery relish from Six Seasons. Honestly, it’s worth a repeat.
Oh, root vegetable tangine sounds really fun. Aka it would do exactly as titled and mix up our routine. And we have preserved lemon waiting to be used!
That blog had an older post that reminds me we can make gnocci with the root veg. We’re out of our sweet potato gnocci, so that’s tempting. But maybe one of the four pounds of rutabaga goes to that? We already have grocery store potatoes on hand.
Last week, I used the last fall squash in a winter chili adapted from Simply in Season. This one looks like it’d be fun to stuff, but maybe play on that theme? Beans and cheese and some canned tomatoes and spices with heat.
I was debating how to use the chard–it’s not quite a salad green but I wanted to get the crunchy freshness of barely cooked greens. I think returning to the pandemic winter favorite of turmeric rice with greens is the way to go. (You know if it came a week we had cilantro, I’d be making that soup.)
Last weekend we took another round of Covid tests to reassure ourselves that the cold we’d had all week was not that particular virus. And then we revived my traditional cookie party. We kept it small (peoples wise) and long (time wise). Windows cracked to increase ventilation. But, ah, it filled my heart. Thumbprints. Biscotti. Sugar cookies that spread everywhere. Rugelach with blueberry jam from last year’s fruit share. So many crumbs and so many nubbly nibbles all week long.
I think that’s going to be emblematic of my goal for us this year. Still being extra attentive to sickness and caution. Trying to find ways to socialize little bit by little bit more. We’ve made lots of progress outside, and I want to continue that. We can mask when we go to known crowds (ahem, or the grocery store). But maybe we don’t need to aim for indoor dining quite yet. Hearing the stories of long covid continues to justify our current way of life.
Cilantro! And squash! We can make the mole verde that got skipped this fall because seeds are too much fat for that diet. Hooray! (Belated realization that could’ve made the cranberry salsa. But happier for the mole verde.) Serve with squash. Then sweet potato. Sides of rice, beans, and tortillas.
I have sausage in the fridge from the hoppin’ john. Potato because we’re in the season where it’s good to have potato on hand. Let’s make kale potato soup.
Roasted sweet potatoes, sauteed greens (our turnips have greens!), and eggs for breakfast.
Sunchoke pizza is too similar to the dahlia bulb pizza we had earlier this week (with the bulbs that got sacrificed to the shovel when we dug up the plants for the winter). Burger time it is.
PS I published the drafts of the last two posts rather than let them linger. Let’s be honest, whatever meals were made and we’re moving on the new year, new foods. And I don’t remember what all got eaten in between.
Was not expecting to get lettuce this time of year. Guess the greenhouse is going!
Dear John,
What a year. Today marks the anniversary of moving into our house. There are still boxes left to unpack (there are always boxes left to unpack), but it really is feeling like home. Stockings are hung from the stairs. Mary, Joseph, and the donkey are passing the shepherd and sheep on their journey to the stable. And I have brand new teas to choose from once the kettle reaches its boil.
We’ll travel for Christmas–visiting my family and yours. No reason not to make some soup and make sure the fridge is ready with a dinner to warm when we return.
Vegetarian Cassoulet. (That’s different than what we made on Sunday night. But uses the same beans!)
Oknomiyaki. And, now that my digestive track is cooperative, we can use the pickled fennel.
We didn’t make the Thai carrot sweet potato soup last week, so we will this week.
We’ve had winters dominated by sweet potatoes and winters rolling in radishes. We got both this week and I’m so curious what the coming season will bring. (I bet the farm already has a good guess based on what they have in storage.)
The kale reminded me of the greenery in the produce aisle at the grocery store. Only that served as filler not to be eaten. How times have changed.
Dear John,
It’s a oven-baking evening. I turned it on for dinner inspired by the book I’m reading. A character was making a tahini-yogurt dressing to go on roasted butternut squash and red onion and I realized we hadn’t had the roasted squash and onion from Jerusalem yet this season. And we had 2/3 of the last squash hanging out in the refrigerator. The oven stayed hot to roast chickpeas (I cooked a pound of beans yesterday just for this). And while the oven was on we might as well toast up the squash seeds. And let’s take advantage of a hot oven to cook up your next batch of granola.
The kitchen is warm. You’re up to your elbows in dishes. There are lots of nibbles. My heart is happy.
Today’s Box
Cranberries
Fuji Apples
Honeycrisp Apples
Brussels Sprouts
Green Kale Hearts
Napa Cabbage
Orange Carrots (Really? They look purple on the outside to me.)
Things in the fridge and counter
Pears
Apples
Cranberries
Leek greens
Celery
Carrots
Red radishes
Green beefsteak tomatoes, but baby-sized
Roma tomatoes, mix of green and reddening
Potatoes
Onions, maybe one still from the CSA. Mostly there are usually onions
On Saturday, I made cranberry carrot steel cut oatmeal for breakfast. (Added maple syrup and apple cider for sweetness. Totally forgot spices beyond a dash of salt. It was delicious. Still working my way through the leftovers.) At lunch, we ate leftover squash stuffed with various things, including cranberries. For dinner, arugula salad with roasted beets and cranberries and pear-mustard dressing. Dessert, apple-cranberry crisp.
On the center of the table we have a half gallon jar filled with last week’s cabbage, the missing third of the squash that was tonight’s dinner, and more cranberries. I’m so curious how this sauerkraut will turn out. I see bubbles. Right now! They’re floating up as I type! Fermentation is weird and cool and I feel like a newbie in my fascination. (Do not think too hard about what we will do with this half gallon of cran-kin kraut. I have already decided that we should actually cook meat for one meal to pair with it. We may need to source “rye bread” for you for sandwiches. Erm….something something potatoes.)
My mom’s offered to freeze some (in anticipation of her cranberry relish next year?), but I’d rather use them now. An internet friend made cranberry salsa (they use less sugar than this recipe, maybe more cilantro). There’s this cheesecake that is all the more tempting because we did not have the cheesecakes of summer this year. And maybe we need some refrigerator pickles for the fanciest cheese plates in the coming year.
The less than perfect cranberries end up in the freezer stock bag with the apple cores. We already have a cranberry-apple chutney and cranberry-apple syrup (shhh…..the jelly didn’t set, next time do the plate test!) that can top pancakes and be mixed into drinks. Maybe we’ll manage a proper cranberry jam.
So while the fridge currently feels overtaken, this is the reminder to myself (and, I suppose to you) that we really are using a lot of cranberries right now. I have bought frozen cranberries explicitly for the purpose of smoothies before, so the fact that we already have some in our freezer is a good move. There’s only two weeks of fruit share left and then I’ll be missing all the cranberries quickly.
Love you,
Sarah
PS I know you can’t eat it, and it used dried cranberries instead of fresh, but I’m putting the cranberry-chocolate-walnut brickle on the cookie party list.
Last week went remarkably according to plan. Black Futsu was stuffed with artisan (gluten free) bread cubes, Gruyère, Emmenthal, four strips of bacon, thyme, garlic, pepper, nutmeg, cream. It really was, oh so good. A couple of days later Kabocha with wild rice, mushrooms, cranberries, carrots, celery, shallots, raisins, rosemary, oregano, thyme. Still delicious, if not quite as decadent feeling.
Cabbage was shredded with carrots, apple ginger dressing, and the seeds for the squash that was on the table. Later more was shredded, doused with garlic-lemon-anchovy dressing, topped with toasted hazelnuts and sourdough croutons (for those who could partake).
Those who would miss turkey, missed the turkey. Those who are mostly vegetarian, surely didn’t. Except, it would be nice to have the carcass to make broth for all the soups of the season. Ah well, that’s what the veggie stock bag is for.
Leek and Potato soup! More with Less has a recipe as does Good Food Cook Book. Combine those for fun.
We have radishes. With greens! Carrots. With greens! Arugula! And, of course, cabbage. Let’s have fun with the greens that won’t last before settling into the months of cabbage and storage greens. One more batch of carrot top pesto. Salads with arugula and pear and blue cheese. Or arugula with roasted beets and goat cheese. Breakfast of roasted potatoes, fried eggs, and sauteed radish greens.
I’m proud we finished the last cabbage before this one arrived. (Barely.) We did cabbage and butter pasta this weekend. May be time for okonomiyaki. Or the Polish Potato Casserole of my childhood.
We have some left over stuffings that’ll go in the squash. Make the Thanskgiving cooking last.
But, let’s work on the cranberries. I think we have ~15 cups in the refrigerator right now. (To be far, about 10 came today.) We might have to candy some or string them with popcorn. Until then, more sauce? Newtons? Make cranberry curd and freeze it? Cranapple pie?
Twice as many cranberries as last week. We’re totally making cranberry curd soon.
Happy Thanksgiving John,
We took our Covid tests this morning, in anticipation of out of state visitors arriving this afternoon. Not quite as many as we planned for. Guess that means more leftovers.
We’re skipping the turkey in favor of a pumpkin, erm, squash stuffed with delciousness. Cranberry sauce. Cranberry relish. Cranberry relish variation two. Maybe just one pie tomorrow and another on Friday or Saturday?
I can eat fat now! Which includes coconut. We can make a pumpkin curry. Use red curry paste! Toss in tofu? Or mushrooms? Or cabbage? Peanuts? Cashews? The mystery peppers we gleaned from the compost pile???
The onions are huge. I’m tempted to make french onion soup. Need to remember what the vegetarian version that I liked was. Mushroom broth?
Avgolemono soup sounds good and meets the various dietary preferences we’re hosting this week. Might be worth buying greens to be able to make it. (So weird to be planning to buy produce!)
Something potatoes. Roasted potatoes as side dish? Potato salad? Mashed potatoes for the Thanksgiving table?
Need to use the fennel. Maybe roasted with apples? And beet. *seareches* Oh! Roasted with potatoes! That’ll do. Perhaps even do for tomorrow.
The leaves have (mostly) fallen. The hard frost has arrived. And the single bronze dahlia bloom from the plant outside has been cut and brought inside.
Today’s Box
Cranberries
Goldrush Apples
Granny Smith Apples
Carnival Squash
Celery
Fennel
Green Cabbage
Onions
Things in the fridge and counter
Pears
Apples
Carrot (but not their greens)
Celery
Radicchio
Lettuce
Green beefsteak tomatoes, but baby-sized
Roma tomatoes, mix of green and reddening
Sweet Dumpling Squash
Stripetti Squash
Potatoes (purple and gold)
Garden Finale
Green tomatoes! Ours and ones other people had put in the compost *gasp*
Basil
Dahlias and marigolds and cosmos (gather seeds as we go!)
The cabbage is gorgeous. It will also keep. Let’s use the few outermost leaves that are falling off for a salad now. Stir fry?
Time to make some apple date chutney, adapted for the freezer bags of apple and pear cores and cranberries that had been in the fridge for far, far too long. And apple scrap jelly.
More of the Six Seasons celery salads. With apples! And dates! And nuts!
Stuff the stripetti squash this week. Top with the leftovers from the cauliflower steaks last week. (That topping was so good. I can’t wait to make it again.)
Meals, so often, don’t actually turn out the way I expect them to. Inspiration and actualization shift during the week. Different things come in from the garden, or the farmers market. Or time constraints get realized. Or what we’re in the mood for shifts with the weather and moods.
Last Wednesday, I took my sister to the garden plot to show off the dahlias. (After all, she gave us the tubers.) I was getting the shears to harvest some basil when another gardener approached with a veritable handful of basil (no space in hands for any more!) and asked if we could use it. Sure, here’s my bag. Oh, yeah, I can take your scrawny green peppers. Yes please, I’ll use your tiny eggplant nubs. Why not take your green tomatoes too? I sent them home with dahlias and best wishes for their international move two days later.
So I made green tomato chutney with green bell peppers from not our plot and Kung Pao peppers from my sister’s plot. We all ate omelettes with fresh basil as the greens and chevre that tasted of decadence. The honeynut squash pizzas were made with pesto (the squash was mostly there for color, turns out basil is strong when you use a lot of it). And there’s basil frozen in olive oil for some summer brightness (fall color?) in the depths of winter.
It took until last night for us to make the radicchio beet cranberry salad. I know why we didn’t make it when we had company, but if we wouldn’t serve it to my sister I’m not sure who we’ll break out this experiment of a meal for. Eating it, I remembered my impression from the first time, that this was my fanciest salad. The thing that I have cooked most likely to end up on a restaurant menu. Because who’s serving radicchio and cranberries at home on a Tuesday night? And at a (pretentious) farm to table place, because that is where you get the beets and hazelnuts and chèvre on a salad. It’s so good. Maybe next time we’ll share with company. (Or maybe we’ll eat it all ourselves.)
Today’s Box
Bosc Pears
Jonagold Apples
Green Kale Hearts Swapped for Celery
Purple Broccoli
Romanesco Cauliflower
Stripetti Squash
Things I think are in the fridge or on the counter
Pears
Apples
Beets (but not their greens)
Cranberries
Carrot (but not their greens)
Radicchio
Lettuce
Green beefsteak tomatoes, but baby-sized
Roma tomatoes, mix of green and reddening
Eggplant
Sweet Dumpling Squash
Potatoes (purple and gold)
Straggling in from the Garden
Basil
Dahlias and marigolds and cosmos (gather seeds as we go!)
I wanted to swap the kale for the celery because 1) we’ve had a lot of kale already and 2) the apple, celery, date, and parm salad sounded so good in my mind. Adapt from Six Seasons.
While Six Seasons is out, flip over to cauliflower. Let’s try the cauliflower steaks with provolone and pickled peppers please.
Debating about the broccoli. I recently remembered Friday nights 15 years ago, cooking up Mollie Katzen’s peanut-butter molasses broccoli tofu stirfry (Enchanted Broccoli Forest), and am craving it. But we made that with frozen broccoli and this looks so good for the roasting. Maybe in a soup?
Seeing the eggplant has me craving eggplant with soba noodles. You can’t eat soba noodles. This should be my lunch on the day you go to the office.
The internet says stripetti is a cross between spaghetti squash and delicata squash. I vote we use it the same as we would spaghetti squash and bake them as bowls.
We made it through surgery. And, as I write the letter part of this five days after pickup, support visits from family. I think I won’t go back to the dishes everyone made. A decision completely separate from my lack of remembering what those dishes were…..
Then garden’s coming to the end of it’s time. We planted greens (Kale! Swiss chard! Mustard greens!) and they’ve sprouted. We’ll see whether they make it through the cold ahead. Ditto the radishes and turnips that are growing bit by bit. When we went to the plot this weekend, I had you pick most of the tomatoes off the vines. There might be a bit before they frost comes. Maybe. Or we can make more chutney and ferment. And enjoy the green from the end of the season.
The dahlias, however, are a delight. We didn’t prune as much as we should’ve this season. And they ran wild. Enough to have a bouquet on the table and on the counter and to give to a friend and hand out blooms to strangers just because.
Meals to eat with company when we have our own food restrictions
Those beet greens are gorgeous, but take up a ton of space. We should use them tonight! Coconut rice?
Speaking of greens, we still have carrot tops from last week. And new ones. Make both the pesto and the salsa verde from Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds.
Getting radicchio and beets and and cranberries reminds me of this salad, which we first made with rhubarb and later made with frozen cranberries and can totally make with cranberries this go around.
We used the leek bottoms, but still have many leek tops. Scraps, Wilts, Weeds recommends cutting them into skinny strips, about three inches long and stir-frying them. Let’s try that! Along with tofu?
Have some radishes and turnips from our garden plot. They have greens, but it’s just a few roots, so fewer leaves. Cook up some lentils an for a salad with some of the greens stirred in at the end?
Honeynut peeled into strips and topping a pizza crust with lemons and goat cheese, a la Melissa Clark.
Let’s go ahead and get the sour cream and onion to make Mama Stamberg’s cranberry relish. It can wait in the freezer until Thanksgiving.
I love the veins of purple in the dark green kale, and the streaks of red as the ginger changes from light yellow to green.
Dear John,
Your mom and aunt are arriving later today. They’ve got the truck loaded with a dining room set, carefully restored after the flood. The set was purchased by your great-aunt at an estate sale in the ’60’s. Tomorrow the movers will come help unload. And then, the re-settling process will begin. I’m hopeful that with this delivery we’ll be better at getting the house into more permanent feel. Less of the boxes in the corners look.
For today, I’m about to start prepping the squash to be risotto. Figure that’s a meal that we can have on the stove whenever they make it in. And getting the squash prepped for use this week seems like a good strategy!
The cold arrived last week. We’re searching for sweaters and sweatshirts. Pulling out the pants and quilts. We made two different lentil squash soups last week. Autumn is arriving and we’re almost prepared!
If I had looked at the predicted contents, I would not have made aloo mater yesterday. I should’ve made Priya’s aloo gobi today. Instead, we’ll try this one and be sad about missing the roasted goodness. (And oil. I’m still sad about missing oil.)
Beet greens blending with dandelion and kale. But the squash stands out!
Dear John,
The radishes and turnips we planted have sprouted–we should put in more the next time we go to the garden. One of the edamame plants has emerged, the others I’ll assume were eaten by birds. Beans are starting to dry on the vine. The kale that we’ve been eating all season was getting covered in enough bugs that I just harvested it all. The new greens are sprouting. The chard seeds have been put in the ground. They’re spikier than I would’ve guessed! The tomatillos won’t last much longer. The tomatoes, might hold out a bit more. The peppers are dwarfed by the dahlia and the marigold. I cut back the flowers, but not sure it’s doing the peppers much good. I put some cilantro seeds in the ground. Wondering if we’ll eat any this fall, if it will be a spring surprise, or if it will sprout at all.
Little miracles all of them. Larger miracles all of us. And yet still, so incredibly small.
Kale + apple + red pepper from the garden + beet yogurt + chickpea croutons
I looked back at last winter and fall for other ideas of how to use squash with minimal fat. Really, soup is where it’s at, because the roasting wants the oil. Apple, squash, ginger soup from Simply in Season is a traditional easing in to soup season. Tomato butternut bisque (less tempting when I won’t eat grilled cheese). There’s risotto. AKA more rice porridge for me.
Was also reminded of the beet and pear salad with mustard vinaigrette. I think we’ll be out of greens before we’re through with salad plans this week.
Really excited about the pawpaw. It’s what looks like the largest pear.
Hi John,
In the past week, one of us went to urgent care in the middle of the night and the other of us spent a birthday banished in the basement due to fever. In between the unwell periods, we managed a trip to harvest the garden and used up all of the vegetables from last week’s box. I’m impressed with us.
Today’s Box
Kiwiberries
PawPaw
Yellow Bartlett Pears
Bicolor Sweet Corn
Red Beets
Young Fresh Ginger
Green Okra
Things I think are in the fridge
Peach (maybe one left)
Cantaloupe (just a little bit left)
Pears
Plums
Roma tomatoes
Green tomatoes
Cranberries
Spaghetti squash
Coming in from the Garden
Basil
Kale
Surprise carrots!
Tomatillos
Roma tomatoes
Occasional ground cherries
More peppers?
Dahlias and marigolds
Papalo when we want it
Rosemary
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Noting for the future that this is the lima beans in tomato dill sauce recipe that I riffed on. Don’t trust the internal oven sensor. Check the thermometer so it actually cooks.
Avocado and cotija mean this Mexican corn kale salad isn’t as low fat as written. But it looks yummy and we can ration the fat out.
Despite being from the south, I don’t know how to cook okra. Let’s try this so we can use tomatoes and beans too.
Roast the beets. Mix with yogurt. Maybe grate some ginger in there. Have a spread for my crackers or bread. (And maybe try planting some ginger? It seems fun. Though it is harvest time and not planting time.)
Currently we have leftover congee and risotto in the refrigerator. If we make more rice porridge, tossing in fresh corn kernels is nice.
Love you,
Sarah
PS We need to do a grocery run to make that salad and the sheet pan recipe on hard mode requires peeling tomatoes and cooking beans. I don’t want a fourth day in a row of rice porridge. Wanna get takeout tonight?
We made a garden trip on Friday. It’s amazing how well our plot is doing, considering how much less attion we’ve been able to give it this summer. Would the beans be doing better if they got regular waterings? Probably. Ditto the tomatillos? Perhaps, but we’ve still made at least four cups of salsa verde. The tomatoes? Almost for sure, but there’s still enough coming in that we’ll make a pasta sauce sometime this week. When I tried pulling up garlic, it wasn’t yet ready for harvest. Now the remaining plants are blooming. Ah, well. It’s a hobby plot not a sustenance plot. The flowers are pretty and make the pollinators happy.
We started our first rows for fall radishes and turnips and lettuce. Planted the last of the stir-fry greens seed pack–the one whose previous planting gave us kale all season long. I forgot to pack cilantro. We need to see if we can pick up heirloom collards at our local store or if we should order. Seasons are changing and still full of the promise.
Today’s Box
Bartlett Pears
Italian plums
Magness Pears
Delicata Squash
Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
Rainbow Chard
Red Little Gem Romaine Lettuce
Things I think are in the fridge
Peach
Cantaloupe
Pears
Nectarines (farmers market)
Blackberries (farmers market)
Roma tomatoes
Cranberries
Celery
Spaghetti squash
Jerusalem Artichokes
Coming in from the Garden
Basil
Kale
Tomatillos
Roma tomatoes
Green tomatoes from when I pruned some errant tomato stems
Occasional ground cherries
More peppers?
Dahlias and marigolds
Papalo when we want it
Rosemary
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
The changing seasons–when there are pears and watermelon.
Hi John,
It’s getting easier to come up with recipes for this extra low-fat regimen. I miss cheese and the ease of drizzling oil into the pan. I would’ve fried an egg instead of soft-boiling it. And I do miss the pies and ice cream and brownies. Also hummus.
But we’ve figured out risottos. And made pizza from scratch with me weighing out the cheese so I actually do go as lightly as I should. (It still beat the calzone.) Actually measuring the oil at the beginning of a recipe, and using a fraction of what the recipe calls for, has brought back the pasta dishes and fried rice. It seems worth documenting that my salad dressings have been replaced with no-fat yogurt. Yogurt with salt and lime. Yogurt with turmeric, paprika, and cumin. It’s not the same as a version with fat, but it’s working.
Today’s Box
Italian plums
Mini Red Seedless Watermelon
Red Bartlett Pears
Baby Green Bok Choy
Banana Peppers
Green Beans
Green Zucchini
Things I think are in the fridge
Peach
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Nectarines (farmers market)
Blackberries (farmers market)
Roma tomatoes
Eggplant
Cranberries
Celery
Sweet corn
Greens: Kale
Spaghetti squash
Jerusalem Artichokes
Coming in from the Garden
Basil
Kale
Tomatillos
Roma tomatoes
Occasional ground cherries
More peppers?
Dahlias and marigolds
Papalo when we want it
Rosemary
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Banana peppers are already pickling. One batch in reused brine. One batch loosely following this.
Plums will become prunes.
I really want to pair the pears with nuts and cheese. Maybe wine. And while we could try poaching them, even that wants a dollop of whipped cream. Instead, let’s get the ice cream maker out of storage. Invite friends for a porch hang where we make pear sorbet. Molly Moon has a recipe. You decide if we go electric or hand crank.
Low-fat diet continues. I’ve been microwaving popcorn without oil (and learning, ah, that’s what diet popcorn tastes like), roasting chickpeas with abandon (and spicing them with abandon too), baking tofu (because we realized the store brand wasn’t gluten free, so it’s on me to eat), and eating no-fat yogurt (like I’m a smiling lady in an advertisement). We haven’t ended up back at the doctor this week, which I’m counting as a win. Even though there were a couple of times when maybe we should’ve gone? Managing new health conditions is a challenge!
Today’s Box
Little Sweetie Cantaloupe
Yellow Peaches
Watermelon
Green Kale
Ping Tung Long Eggplant
Red Tomatoes
Spaghetti Squash
Things I think are in the fridge
Fennel fronds
Canary Melon
Peach
Nectarines (farmers market)
Blackberries (farmers market)
Roma tomatoes
Tomatillos
Cranberries
Edamame
Yummy peppers
Celery
Sweet corn
Centercut squash
Greens: Kale
New Potatoes
Jerusalem Artichokes
Coming in from the Garden
Basil
Kale
Tomatillos
Roma tomatoes
Occasional ground cherries
More peppers?
Dahlias and marigolds
Papalo when we want it
Rosemary
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Fruit salad with honey yogurt dressing (~1 generous tablespoon of honey for each half cup of fat free yogurt)
Rice-stuffed tomatoes (reducing oil in the cooking)! Is it risotto in another form? Yes. But I NEED other forms of my rice porridge right now. Do you know how much congee I ate last week?
I expect we’ll keep making tacos with roasted veggies or scrambled eggs. There’s brown rice in the fridge. Beans already cooked. Let’s roast the tomatillos to make some salsa and the meal will be ready for quick prep whenever we need it.
I don’t especially want to try spaghetti squash with kale and beans and marinara and no cheese. It should keep for a couple of months. Let’s see when the surgery is scheduled and maybe save until then.
I love eggplant! With oil. *cue the sad trombones* I may decide to roast the eggplant and mix with yogurt and spices. Or may say this is perfect time to make more preserved eggplant from Six Seasons to ration throughout the rest of the year.
A final note, not for using up produce: Last week, my loaf from the Neighborhood Bread Lady’s monthly subscription was an apricot sourdough with fennel and coriander and maybe some other spices. When my friend picked up our loaf, NBL said to “think of it like a cheeseboard.” It was amazing. I have found a recipe for apricot fennel bread that I may need to make. Even though it won’t be sourdough and I’ll use dried apricots instead of fresh.
I had a surprise hospital stay since the last post. You were able to successfully pause the CSA for a week. And the family that came into town to help care for us in the recovery also helped us catch up on produce. I’m doing better, though you’re still going to be on cooking intensive. Plus, there’s new dietary restrictions to follow. If anyone has suggestions for very low fat desserts (beyond fruit or straight up spooning sugar into my mouth), let me know.
Today’s Box
Athena Cantaloupe
Canary Melon
Yellow Peaches
Bicolor Sweet Corn
Centercut Squash
Collards
Mixed Yummy Peppers
New Red Potatoes
Things I think are in the fridge
Fennel fronds
Watermelon
Cranberries
Edamame
Shisito peppers
Celery
Greens: Kale
Sweet potato
Jerusalem Artichokes
Coming in from the Garden
Basil
Kale
Tomatillos
Roma tomatoes
Occasional ground cherries
More peppers?
Dahlias and marigolds
Papalo when we want it
Rosemary
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Collards and tofu. Probably with brown rice instead of the quinoa. Maybe with kale instead of the collards.
Speaking of collards and kale. Normally we save the stems for pesto. I can’t eat that! So pickled stems? Or dehydrate to powder them? Maybe I’ll like the kale in green smoothies better that way. Can’t hurt to try.
Similarly, no basil pesto for me. And since our freezer is full, I guess we’re dehydrating basil for winter use? So wrong, but so right.
There’s a recipe in the Indian cookbook for baby potatoes and tomatoes. We don’t have enough tomatoes at home right now, but I bet we will after the next garden visit. Cut most of the ghee though. Sad face.
Though Simply in Season’s stoplight salad could also use the corn and not much oil.
The squash wants to be grilled or roasted. (Or sauteed in a pan, but there’s that dang oil popping in.) Perhaps we stick to it as a side? Or in a bowl with some grains and a lime-basil-yogurt dressing? Topping for congee or risotto?
Save the melon guts and juice for my muesli fix. Honestly, I’m so glad that I tried Lindsay-Jean Hard’s recipe before I got sick. Oats + chia seeds + no fat yogurt + honey + spices prepped the night or two before, topped with fresh fruit when I’m ready to eat have been a great midnight snack/breakfast. Skipping the nuts and most of the seeds for now. Omitting dried fruit because there’s so much good fresh fruit.
Pie has too much fat in the crust. And crisps have the fat in the topping. But I think a fruit cobbler might work. Especially if we use the no-fat milk. So peach cobbler?
Golden reds and oranges and yellows in the peaches and tomatoes
Hi John,
Saturday we walked to the garden, a feat unto itself. We pulled up some weeds and nibbled on berries from the common area. And we harvested. Edamame! Kale! Tomatillos! Roma tomatoes! And, some beautiful beefsteak tomatoes. That night, I snuck into the kitchen and cut the tomato into thick slices. Sprinkled with salt. Set on plate with knife and fork in hand. One of the moments of sheer, summer perfection.
Today’s box makes it clear that we are IN tomato season. And honestly, a few more meals like that Saturday night snack sounds just right.
Actually in Today’s Box
Yellow Peaches
Red Seedless Watermelon
Bicolor Sweet Corn
Malabar Spinach
Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes
Things I think are in the fridge
Blueberries (farmer’s market)
Peaches
Fennel
Cucumber (farmer’s market)
Cranberries
Lemon squash
Green peppers
Celery
Greens: Savoy Cabbage, Kale
Green Daikon radish
Sweet potato
Jerusalem Artichokes
Coming in from the Garden
Edamame
Basil
Kale
Tomatillos
Aunt Ruby’s German Green (Beefsteak) tomatoes
Roma tomatoes
Occasional ground cherries
Shishito peppers
Jimmy Nardello pepper
Dahlias and marigolds
Papalo when we want it
Rosemary
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
A meal of appetizers/sides. Edamame. Blister the shishito peppers. Maybe this tomato salad (note the ginger substitution). Or maybe the tomatoes and eggs. Side of rice.
Missing: peaches. But this week we got all the bread!
Hi John,
In the heat wave that’s been happening, I have not wanted you to turn on the oven. Last night, the temperature came down enough that we finally got to use the pizza dough that’s been sitting in the fridge, make those candied nuts I’ve been asking for, and refill my crouton stash.
I’m a bit nervous about how we’re going to use the produce this week. A cousin is bringing dinner tomorrow. Your parents are here this weekend. On the one hand it’s more mouths to make a dent in the burgeoning list of things in the fridge. On the other hand, I’m ceding the meal planning to all y’all and I don’t know your intentions. Letting go of control is hard, even when I desperately want to.
Supposedly in Today’s Box
Peaches
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Carmen Peppers
Green Beans
Green Zucchini
Mixed Heirloom Tomatoes
Things I think are in the fridge
Blueberries (farmer’s market)
Peaches
Fennel
Cucumber (farmer’s market)
Cranberries
Lemon squash
Green bell pepper
Celery
Greens: Napa Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage, Kale
Black radishes, Purple Daikon radish
Sweet potato
Jerusalem Artichokes
Coming in from the Garden
Edamame
Basil
Kale
Tomatillas (just a few, but they’re here!)
Tomatoes (only two so far, but again, they’re here!)
Occasional ground cherries
Peppers? Soon?
Garlic? Perhaps
Dahlias and marigolds and nasturtium
Rosemary for remembrance
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Meals that probably won’t get made because of that aforementioned letting others plan the meals scheme
I’ve dissected the cantaloupe into its various parts. Already mixed up the muesli-like cantaloupe-pulp oats from Lindsay-Jean Hard‘s book. Seeds are drying and can be roasted the next time the oven is on. Fruit is chopped up in the fruit drawer for snacking, and freezer for a papaya-melon-dragon fruit smoothie. But…if the bounty of summer fruit overtakes us, I am very intrigued by this risotto.
You’re making peppers stuffed with lemon squash (adapted from the Moosewood New Classics cookbook) for dinner tonight. I’m considering the Enchanted Broccoli Forest’s green pepper and zucchini enchilada filling for later. Bet it’d go well with a tomatillo-tomato salsa.
Missing: green peppers and cabbage that were forgotten in the backpack. (Which is one step better than the bread forgotten at the pick-up site. Memory is not our strong suit these days.)
Hi John,
The predicted contents for today’s CSA included corn, so I was all excited for the annual eating of Half Baked Harvest’s Grilled Corn and Basil Salad (with Blueberries). Then today’s email arrived and instead of corn we’re getting green bell peppers. Womp womp.
Maybe we’ll have stuffed bell peppers soon? (Help! My Apartment Has a Dining Room has a couple of recipes as do many other of the books on the shelf I’m sure.) And maybe we’ll buy corn at the market this week.
Supposedly in Today’s Box
Peaches
Blueberries
Celery
Green Bell Peppers
Green Kale
Green Savoy Cabbage
Malabar Spinach
Things I think are in the fridge
Blueberries (farmer’s market)
Peaches
Fennel
Cucumber
Cranberries
Lemon squash
Gold zucchini
Neighbor’s garden zucchini
Greens: Napa Cabbage, Kale
Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes
Sweet potato
Jerusalem Artichokes
Growing in the Garden
Edamame
Basil
Kale
Tomatillas (surely ripening soon?)
Tomatoes should start to come in this month
Occasional ground cherries
Peppers? Soon?
Garlic? Perhaps
Dahlias and marigolds and nasturtium
Rosemary forever
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Meals that you can maybe make in the coming days (slash weeks)
Noodles with veggies! Peanut noodles + edamame and radish. Noodles with zukes.
We’ve somehow managed to stock up on eggs. Crustless quiche to the rescue! But maybe a veggie shakshuka is in order soon. Or maybe we should boil eggs for the snacking.
I’m intrigued by the popcorn on a salad idea. More purposes for that corn we’ll buy…
Continue with the beans and greens. (But maybe freeze some of the beans we cooked last night.) Also consider bean salad (compare to bean salad recipe in Simply in Season).
It’s been month with you doing the bulk of kitchen duty and me being too otherwise occupied to menu plan in advance. And, spoilers, I’m guessing that’ll hold for the next month too.
We’ll hang out in the air conditioning–letting you take quick trips to the garden and I’ll do a stroll around the neighborhood in the breaks we manage. Now is the time to let friends come visit us (instead of trying to get to them). To spend time together relaxing (as best we can). And to eat whatever you make (or order)!
Predicted for the Next Box
Celery
Slicing Cucumbers
Sweet Fresh Onions
Yellow Patty Pan Squash
Red Seedless Watermelon
Yellow Peaches
Things I think are in the fridge
Blueberries (farmer’s market)
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Fennel
Cranberries
Greens: Stirfry mix, Napa Cabbage, Lettuce
Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes
Potatoes: Sweet
Jerusalem Artichokes
Growing in the Garden
Edamame
Dahlias
Basil
Tomatillas (maybe ripening soon?)
Tomatoes should start to come in this month
Peppers? What are the peppers doing?
Garlic? How’s it looking? Will I make it to the garden again anytime soon to see for myself?
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Meals that you can maybe make in the coming days (slash weeks)
Salad with blueberries and cucumbers. Lettuce and shredded beets and blue cheese and walnuts. Watermelon, feta, and basil. Cantaloupe, fresh mozz, and basil. The celery salads from Six Seasons.
Fennel and Kale Pasta from the greens cookbook I checked out of the library. Turn the leftovers into a frittata/spaghetti pancake by adding egg, cheese, and raisins.
Spring rolls to eat salad in another form.
Agua fresca with watermelon or cantaloupe
Smoothies with all the fruits. (Just don’t dehydrate them and try to rehydrate….)
From the box: Broccoli and Bok Choy. Lettuce and asparagus.
Dear John,
The past month has brought lots of heartburn and plenty of fatigue. Meal planning has been sparse at best, partly because it’s hard to know what I’m going to be up to eating.
I think we went three weeks between garden visits at one point? The radishes came! The spinach bolted! The cilantro is off to seed! The mixed stirfry greens have filled many grocery bags with their leaves already! The peas didn’t take off, but the nasturtium are looking pretty leafy. The dahlia that we neglected to dig up last fall has already started blooming.
We bought starts for peppers and tomatoes and tomatillos and ground cherries and herbs. They’re in the ground in the garden and in pots at the house. The sunchokes are in giant pots and earlier today I thought I saw the barest beginnings of a sprout. (The potato that had sprouted went mouldy before we got it in a pot. It is in the compost instead.)
At the house, the lead service line is finally replaced. Without having done any soil testing of our yard, I don’t want to plant edibles there. Flowers sound lovely. A couple more dahlia bulbs. Seed bomb from a friend’s CSA. Extra zinnias and nasturtium. Why not? We can see what wins out in the rocky, bricky, soil + weeds underneath the mulch.
In The Most Recent Box
Asparagus
Bok Choy
Broccoli
Head Lettuce
Still in the Fridge
Strawberries (farmer’s market)
Cranberries
Greens: Kale
Alliums: Green Garlic, Garlic Scapes, White Scallions, Red Scallions
Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes, Rainbow radishes
Turnips
Potatoes: Sweet
Jerusalem Artichokes
Growing in the Garden
Radishes
Stirfry greens
Nasturtium leaves (as we thin the plants)
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Dill pickle juice
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Meals that use the greens when heartburn makes things tricky
Still trying to eat salads. This week was greens + potatoes + hard boiled eggs + radishes or turnips + parm + mustard vinaigrette. Also arugula or other greens + strawberries + turnips + chevre + almonds + rosemary infusing olive oil. (It’s a new batch and the rosemary flavor isn’t strong yet.)
Omelettes. Scrambled eggs with greens. Breakfast tacos with greens. We haven’t made a quiche yet, so I think that’s coming soon.
Summer rolls (aka salad you can eat with your hands) with peanut butter dipping sauce
Coconut turmeric rice (if coconut milk is available. *sighs at supply chains and decades old planting decisions and climate change and sighs*) with added beans and greens.
Saag aloo, nearly omitting the peppers. Womp womp. But it meant I could sleep at night.
Do not make pizza. Even if it’s kale stem pesto instead of tomato sauce and has plenty of cheese. It took a couple of days to recover an appetite after that single meal.
Spring is green indeed. All the leaves blended together, so went artsy for the photo.
Hi John,
It’s a new CSA season! We’re at a new site, picking up on Tuesdays (after a pandemics worth of Thursday pickups). We’re back to getting a small box every week instead of splitting every other week.
Meanwhile, we’re getting back to the garden plot. Despite our rapid abandonment of the plot once we were under contract, some plants survived the winter. We have some spinach that’s finally mature enough to start picking. The cilantro that I started from seed, survived the transplanting and the season, and is thriving. The carrot seeds that never took off last fall, are actually growing this spring. The garlic that we planted at the end of fall, looks to be coming up. The dahlia returned, despite not harvesting the tuber for safer preservation over the winter. And of course the rosemary and oregano are thriving.
We’ve planted short rows of radishes. Spattering of a mix of stir-fryable greens. A bean tent with a variety of peas. Dill, though I’m not sure if what’s coming up is volunteers or from our seeds. A half border of nasturtium. Planning on buying starts for the basil and tomatoes and tomatillos and peppers and maybe a cucumber or three. Hoping the ground cherries have self-sown, as promised/threatened. We’ll see what the season truly brings.
In This Week’s Box
Green Garlic
Green Kale
Red Butterhead Lettuce
Red Chard
Still in the Fridge
Strawberries (farmer’s market)
Cranberries
Mushrooms
Greens: Lettuce, Cabbage, Microgreens
Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes, Winter Radishes
Potatoes: Sweet
Jerusalem Artichokes
Growing in the Garden
Spinach
Radish sprouts as we thin them
Radishes
Cilantro (as we want)
Weedy wild onions (if we trust our nose)
Open Preserves
Preserved eggplant
Dill pickle juice
Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
Riffing off this, let’s try risotto with sunchokes and the mushrooms
We did not make okonmiyaki last week, after all (though did make multiple shaved cabbage salads). Offer visitors a choice between that and cabbage with glass noodles?
Planning Inside The Box 