brainstorming meals

Who cares about the box when we’re sick? November 4 & 11

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Dear John,

I’m writing at the end of the workday, closing out two (work) weeks of sickness. It’s been 50-some odd hours since we’ve had to run to the bathroom, and I really, really, really hope we’re on the other side.

At some point, after a friend had dropped off Gatorade and bananas, I sent you to the store. We came up with a list. To save us the trouble of finding it in the Notes app the next time we need it, I’m putting my updated version here, broken out by category of foods that are usually being used around the kitchen, the food lives on the sick food shelf established early 2020, and food that we don’t eat often enough to keep on hand. I’m including both the food for the clear liquid and BRAT diet phase and making sure there are ingredients for a few meals once we’re truly on the mend.

Probably on Hand

  • Bananas
  • Apple
  • Lemon
  • Ginger
  • Garlic
  • Onions
  • Carrot
  • Celery
  • Potatoes
  • Jasmine rice
  • Noodles
  • Bread
  • Water crackers
  • Peppermint tea
  • Apple juice
  • Yogurt
  • Cheddar cheese
  • Milk
  • Eggs

Sick Food Pantry

  • Jello
  • Applesauce
  • Coconut water
  • Gatorade/Pedialyte
  • Chicken stock (frozen)

Buy Now

  • Chicken
  • Saltines

Later in the week, well after the Zofran script was necessary, when I was tired of gatorade and jello and bananas and applesauce on toast, I made another batch of Instant Pot congee and sent out the call to friends, besides Chicken Noodle Soup, what foods do you make when recovering from sickness?

Barely beyond BRAT

  • Yogurt with a spoonful of applesauce
  • Yogurt with a sliced banana
  • Toast with applesauce, maybe even sprinkled with cinnamon
  • Smoothie of yogurt + coconut water + banana. Maybe even sprinkled with nutmeg.

From the vegans, food great for upper respiratory infections, if not for the GI days.

Variations on Chicken Soup

  • Start with a chicken stock. (Or start with the congee and then use the bones from that chicken to make a stock.)
  • I make chicken/ginger/lemon broth to drink – it’s great for nausea after anesthesia. Juice the lemon at the end so it tastes fresh. I freeze the broth in 8oz mason jars so I can easily thaw single servings.
  • The congee I listed above is excellent in it’s flexibility. My first batch was garlic, ginger, rice, salt, water, and chicken. My second I put dried mushrooms through the spice grinder before adding them to the water. If someone is healthy, they can use the fun toppings.
  • Perhaps the “Chicken and Wild Rice” soup I get from the store
  • Tomato Ginger Chicken and Rice soup
  • Creamy chicken noodle soup with potatoes
  • Avgolemono Chicken Soup With Gnocchi . Without having tried this, my instinct is to do it as written if we have gnocchi on hand and do traditional rice if we don’t.
  • Chicken and dumplings (Recipe found online when I pointed out that dumplings normally have gluten, so not tested. As an aside, this blog has an idea for a dinner party that feels so church lady fun that I want to attend one.)
  • Then there’s my standby miso soup with (gluten) dumplings. Frozen potstickers. Covered with boiling water. Cook. When done put a spoonful of miso in a bowl, dissolve into some of the not-quite-boiling-anymore water. Pour into the pot. Then serve.
  • Mine is more of a soup my mom made a million times, but is very simple. Most importantly, you cook the orzo (always orzo) separately and top with pecorino cheese
  • What about a Sancocho? I’ve never made it but I know my MIL swore by it when she was sick her whole pregnancy with [husband]
  • One of our cold weather faves is ebbeh. I just tried to find a recipe and couldn’t find a simple one, but you basically just boil up a lot of cassava and sweet potato, add lots of onion, garlic and pepper and smoked fish. Really hearty and comforting.
  • I’m going to link the the NPR healing soups mini–series, even though most of these recipes call for something we don’t have.

Variations on Noodles

  • Ramen from Trader Joe’s
  • We get white chicken flavored ramen from the Japanese grocery store and eat that, and add eggs and veggies as we feel better.
  • Butter noodles
  • Mac and cheese

Topping a carb

  • Baked potato topped with herb yogurt (I had a yogurt sauce of wild onion + tahini + yogurt in the fridge, when that was done I made one with garden parsley + tahini +yogurt); Later in the week, I made chicken stock. When I filtered the stock, I pulled aside the chopped carrots and little bits of meat. Added them to a potato with some cheddar and the parsley sauce. Honestly, a trick to try again.)
  • Pancakes with applesauce (we did this, only I was so done with applesauce that we made the instant pot apple topping)
  • French toast (with more of the apple topping)

Eggs

  • Egg Hash
  • Steamed egg

Tonight I’m making quiche to ease some more fibrous vegetables into the diet. Here’s hoping we get to return to our regularly scheduled menu planning soon!

In sickness and in health,

Sarah

Boxes from June into July

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Dear John,

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
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Applesauce
  • Cranberry orange marmalade-ish
  • Probably still more uninventoried

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.
  • Zucchini tuna melts from Six Seasons. Zucchini butter spaghetti. Zucchini tacos. Squash and beans.
  • Saag Feta. Aloo Saag. Beans and greens.
  • 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….)

So much love,

Sarah

Catching up

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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
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Applesauce
  • Cranberry orange marmalade-ish
  • Probably still more uninventoried

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.
  • Twice baked potatoes.
  • Risotto with turnips and their greens.
  • Pad see ew with stirfry greens
  • 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.

Hoping the heartburn dissipates soon!

Sarah

Boxing Day, April 26

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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
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Applesauce
  • Cranberry orange marmalade-ish
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Meals for now, meals for later

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, April 14

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So many greens! (All the more so because we gave up this week’s sweet potatoes. We got dandelion greens and lettuce last week.)

Dear John,

Happy Easter! We walked to the cemetery this morning for Sunrise Service. As we snuck out of our house, a neighbor was across the street scattering eggs for a hunt. (Kid is two, you don’t really hide them yet.) The sign at a church we passed illuminated a “Happy New Year!” message, and while I know it hasn’t changed in months, spring really does feel like a resetting of the calendar. We found our place in the gathering crowd. The trees had confettied the graves with pink petals–a celebration of life in the midst of death. The promise that life continues, beyond all our fears.

In This Week’s Box

  • Cilantro
  • Green Cabbage
  • Green Kale
  • Green Romain Lettuce
  • Mixed Winter Radishes
  • Red Scallions
  • Rainbow Chard

Still in the Fridge

  • Asparagus (farmer’s market)
  • Strawberries (farmer’s market)
  • Cranberries
  • Celery
  • Greens: Dandelion, radish, kale
  • Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes
  • Turnips
  • Potatoes: Sweet
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

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
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Applesauce
  • Cranberry orange marmalade-ish
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Meals for now, meals for later

  • As soon as I post this, I’m heading to the kitchen to start a galette of onions and scallions and goodness. (Goodness=cheese.)
  • I bought asparagus and strawberries at the farmers market and will probably be buying more strawberries. We’ve made the asparagus lemon pasta from Simply in Season, which needs to be done at least annually. Maybe easiest to roast the rest? Maybe use on flatbread/pizza? Maybe a quiche?
  • We used up the last cabbage in okonmiyaki. And, while it feels weird to do the same thing immediately, it was a successful enough meal series that I’m absolutely okay with a repeat.
  • Beans and greens. Let’s do the dandelion + miso + beans from Cool Beans. And maybe also a version of the Hoppin’ John Pilaf.
  • I tempted to try a preserved daikon radish recipe. I didn’t buy any on my latest run to Hmart, but I did get goji berries and the recipe uses them both with congee.
  • Debating the favorite chard and cilantro soup. It’s known and good and I have plenty of stale bread at the moment. May be convinced to switch to a lentil version though.
  • We got some potatoes from the store. Twice bake’em, stuffed with kale and scallions and cheese?

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, March 31

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Last week we got purple daikon radishes from our CSA share splitters. This week we left them the green cabbage.

Hi John,

This week the house’s internal network is being rewired, we’re getting quotes for replacing the lead service line, and we’ve reached out to a couple of companies for advice about whether to get quotes for solar panels before or after we replace the roof. Home ownership is fun?

[Edited to add that the one of the plumbers who we gave a quote for the service line advertised discounts on additional services done at the same time. And our home inspector did say that we should replace the water heater soon. So, we have also been researching the merits of electric tank vs electric tankless vs heat pump aka hybrid water heaters. All the contractors are pro-gas tankless, but anti-electric tankless. The hybrid is more expensive up-front, but our calculations show that the energy cost savings should be substantial. And the warranty is four years longer.]

In This Week’s Box

  • Cremini Mushrooms
  • Garnet Sweet Potatoes
  • Green Garlic
  • Mixed Specialty Lettuce
  • Red Radishes
  • Red Russian Kale
  • Rutabaga (not turnip like you think)

Still in the Fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Celery
  • Greens: Green Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes, Purple Daikon radishes
  • Turnips
  • Potatoes: Sweet
  • Onions
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle juice
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermented habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Cranberry orange marmalade-ish
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Successful meals we’ve made

I’m late posting this week, which has the benefit of knowing what we actually ate. (If not the help of figuring out what we could eat.)

  • Salad greens + radish + avocado + grapes + toasted walnuts + goat cheese + either balsamic dressing or simply rosemary olive oil = a happy salad (It would’ve been great if there was still broccoli for it, but that has already been finished in twice baked potatoes.)
  • Kale + pinto beans + radish + carrots + sweet and spicy vinegary dressing = a solid salad
  • Spinach + quick cook sweet potato + black beans + radish + homemade ranch = the salad I kept eating last week.
  • Sunchoke burgers used half the mushrooms
  • Spaghetti with mushroom marinara use the other half. (And honestly would’ve been better with more mushrooms, but we were out. Need to go to the Asian market and stock up on dried mushrooms too.)

Less success

  • Rutabaga rosti. I’d seen a video that talked up potato rosti the week before. So when I looked for ideas with rutabaga and saw a post about rosti it sounded like it’d fill a craving I hadn’t known I’d had. But cooking in the cast iron skillet and otherwise trying to follow the video, well, it was a less successful dish. I kept burning the bottom layer and it never really stuck all together. Next time, let’s consider going closer to latkes. They can still get topped with sour cream and the green garlic.

Yet to come

  • More sweet potato! (This time at least we only got a single three pounder.) I’ve been going through our frozen gnocci stockpiles, so maybe more there? More roasted on tacos and salads? Thai curry with radish greens?
  • Actually make that root vegetable lasagna that I posted last time.
  • Finish off the cabbage. More of the shaved salad with lemon garlic parmesan dressing?
  • Eventually, I really should try to pickle those black radishes.

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, March 17

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We had enough sweet potato from the last box. We gave our fellow share splitters the sweet potatoes from this week.

Hi John,

Friday afternoon I was curled up in your office, just starting the next book for bookclub, when you answered a phone call from my dad. Everything’s fine. But they were on the road home from visiting my sister and realized that the weather for the weekend wasn’t conducive for travel. With three hours notice, we managed to prepare for our for guests since we moved–slightly organize the moving chaos, wash the towels, and make dinner.

We’ve done minimal hosting these past two years. Occasional picnics with friends. Two visits from my sister, once where we had my cousin come over for dinner the day after he moved to town. Sometimes taking a dish over to a friends’ house. I think that’s it.

So it was reassuring to realize that we could still cook for more people (than just us). We had turnip fried rice, butternut and bean soup (using the volunbeans!), shaved cabbage salad with a lemon-garlic dressing, baked oatmeal, and wood ear mushroom congee. Successful hosting! Without intentionally stocking up for the visit! Or running to the grocery store! (To be fair, we have been able to keep a stocked fridge and pantry. And, while I’m trying to stockpile fewer dry goods than I was at this point of 2020, we still try to keep food on hand so that we could quarantine for two weeks.)

In This Week’s Box

  • Broccoli
  • Cilantro
  • Flat Leaf Spinach
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Orange Carrots
  • Purple Topped Turnips
  • White Scallions

Still in the Fridge

  • Cup of cooked volunbeans
  • Cranberries
  • Broccoli
  • Mushrooms
  • Celery
  • Greens: Green Cabbage
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes, Red radishes, Breakfast radishes
  • Turnips
  • Potatoes: Sweet
  • Onions
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle juice
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermented habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Cranberry orange marmalade-ish
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Meals for now (and maybe later)

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, March 3

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End of day photo means the greens look a bit wilty. It’s okay. Water will perk them up.

Heya John,

After two years of pandemic, a flood, a rebuilding, a death, and I don’t even remember what else, we made the trip to visit your parents at their home. The snow was timed perfectly for us to be able to go skiing. (Though my rental skis resisted sliding so it was somewhere between skiing and snow-shoeing in long, narrow shoes.) You provided tech support. We both considered which furniture might be worth making the cross-country move. And, we mostly let your mom do the cooking.

There are more unused veggies this week than sometimes. I think we’re making a dent in them, but it might be time to make some meals to freeze.

In This Week’s Box

  • Beauregard Sweet Potatoes
  • Broccoli
  • Celery
  • French Breakfast Radishes
  • Italian Parsley
  • Purple Top Turnips
  • White Mushrooms
  • Green Kale Hearts

Still in the Fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Greens: Red Cabbage, Green Cabbage
  • Kohlrabi
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes, Red radishes, Winter radishes
  • Turnips
  • Squash: Butternut
  • Potatoes: Sweet, Purple
  • Onions
  • Jerusalem Artichokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle juice
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermented habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Cranapple
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Can we talk about that sweet potato?

That is seven pounds + nine point two ounces.

In the back of the veggie pile, the potato looks large. But then you actually see pick it up and realize that is closer to the size of my head than a baby’s head.

It’s a lot of sweet potato.

My plan is to wash it, prick it, and then put it in the instant pot for, oh, let’s start with an hour. It should go quicker if I cut it up first. But it looks a bit unwieldy for the cutting.

Anyway, later today we should have much sweet potato mash. Once it’s cooled, I’ll put it in the freezer. We can use it for sweet potato waffles/kofkas/crème brûlée/whatever. Presumably for quite a while. (Especially considering we have other sweet potatoes to use between now and then.)

Meal-spiration

Love you,

Sarah

Boxing Day, February 17

planorcanLeave a comment
We took mushrooms last week and left beets and turnips this week. Sharing!

Hi John,

We have not made the shepherd’s pie, yet. So it feels like a lot of last week’s veggies are still hanging around. But! I did use the spaghetti squash (from October?). The seeds inside had almost universally started sprouting and the whole thing tasted bitter. Maybe it shouldn’t be stored for months and months at room temperature? (And we should probably prioritize that butternut squash too. Pizza with goat cheese?)

We also, finally, made the sunchoke veggie burgers and used up the Jerusalem Artichokes. I know. Those have been sitting in the back of the fridge since before I started keeping track of what’s still in the fridge. So of course this week’s box replenishes our supply.

I’m excited about it though. Despite what one might think from them being our lingering food, I’ve found I like sunchokes. Those veggie burgers are amazing! (They take a while to make. But the serving size on that post is way off. I made a half recipe and we got 6 normal size patties and 1 small one. And they freeze well! Once a batch is made it’s easy to make into a meal.) I like putting thin slices on a pizza. I liked Bryant Terry’s sunchoke cream for when we’re cooking a creamy vegan dish (though would use real cream if I wasn’t trying to serve a vegan meal). I like artichoke relish when we have sausage in the summer. And smashed sunchokes with siracha mayo.

All to say, there are plenty of ways we can use the new ‘chokes. I think one of them might need to be looking for eyes on the tubers we got and putting them in a five-gallon bucket. I don’t want to curse anyone, including ourselves, with a plant they can’t get rid of. And the tubers have a reputation of proliferating. So contain. And then see what happens.

In This Week’s Box

  • Collards
  • Garnet Sweet Potatoes
  • Green Cabbage
  • Jerusalem Artichokes
  • Purple Carrots
  • Red Onions

Still in the Fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Greens: Red Cabbage
  • Kohlrabi
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes, Red radishes, Winter radishes
  • Turnips
  • Squash: Butternut
  • Potatoes: Sweet, Purple

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle juice
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermented habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Cranapple
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Dishes to dine on (that aren’t mentioned above)

  • We’ll cook up the collards. How’s the peanut and greens stew sound? It uses sweet potato too!
  • While I was looking for that recipe, I saw a coconut carrot curry soup. I think I’m intrigued. I haven’t tended to try these before because I didn’t like cooked carrots when I was a kid. But we’ve got carrots accumulating, so now is the time. And this recipe also uses a sweet potato! (Which means we will either use two of our sweet potatoes OR we will weigh a potato and use half of it in each recipe.)
  • Cabbage + carrots + onion does sound like we might make okonomiyaki again. Check Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds for recipe guidance.
  • And please, let’s make that shepherd’s pie. We have all the ingredients! Just need to decide to do it on a cooler day instead of one where we’re feeling the warmth of spring.

Sarah

Boxing Day, February 3

planorcanLeave a comment
Not pictures, sweet potatoes we left for the box sharers.

Hi John,

The boxes are fewer, though it still feels like they surround me in most rooms. The kitchen is inching towards usability, and in fact gets cooked in most days. At least the counters mostly make sense. We haven’t figured out a good place for dishes to go between being washed and dried, but I could clear a space to pose for this week’s produce picture.

That said, my summary of the past few weeks is that for someone who wants to be less consumption focused, I sure am spending a lot of time shopping. Both you and the friends who have heard this comment remind me that there’s good reason for that. We’re at a confluence of life transitions. Getting furniture now that fits the house we expect to be in for years makes sense. For instance, we’re currently on the lookout for the right kitchen island/cart. The cabinets don’t actually have a place that fits most pots and pans. Or the baking sheets. It’s a bit of a problem. While a kitchen remodel is probably in the long-term plans for the house (along with figuring out better insulation in that space), it’s not the top priority. So, we get to figure out what we can add that will make the existing facilities more functional. A 44 inch kitchen cart sounds promising.

In This Week’s Box

  • Cilantro
  • Kossak Kohlrabi
  • Rainbow Carrots
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Red Radishes
  • Purple Top Turnips

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: last of the season
  • Cranberries
  • Greens: Red Cabbage
  • Celery
  • Carrots
  • Parsnip
  • Black radishes
  • Red beets
  • Squash: Spaghetti, Butternut
  • Potatoes: Sweet, Purple
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle juice
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermented habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Cranapple
  • Probably still more uninventoried

What to eat

  • We’ve already discussed that next time you are making soup, consider making one and a half recipes so you’d use all the parsnips instead of leaving a single, half pound, parsnip in the fridge. That said, I’m thinking some sort of shepherd’s pie situation is in order. Probably want to buy some mushrooms for it. Consider having the topping include kohlrabi as well as potatoes.
  • Oh! Buy enough mushrooms to use some more in the Freekeh, Mushrooms, Turnips, and Almonds recipe from Six Seasons. We’ll substitute another grain, of course. Perhaps sorghum? Or maybe change it to French lentils.
  • Chard and Cilantro means we get to make this soup again! Bonus for using some of the dried volunbeans.
  • Confession: I haven’t touched the beets. I think it might be time to roast, puree, and freeze. (To be added to hummus or yogurt or the beet pistachio soup from Midnight Chicken at some later date.) Maybe save one or two to shred for a salad with carrots and walnuts and some citrus. This might actually be sounding good. Use up the rest of the cabbage to go with it or nah?

Sarah

Boxing Day, January 20 aka So many boxes II

planorcanLeave a comment
We don’t have a great place to take photos of food at the moment. What with our coffee table being a pile of boxes and all.

Hi John,

Our CSA doesn’t do small boxes in winter, and we’d gotten behind enough in consumption that we very nearly didn’t participate for the season. Then someone asked the listserv about splitting a box. So now, we have a box every other week.

Meanwhile, we have very, very many boxes in the house. Someday, we’ll retrieve our car from the shop and head to a store in search of some extra kitchen storage. Until then, the dining room will be a jumble of boxes and piles of plastic containers and pictures that haven’t yet been hung on the walls. Someday, we’ll find a dresser that suits me and then there will not be a stack of boxes holding clothes in the other bedroom. Someday, we will decide which bookshelves need replacing and, maybe, which books we no longer need. Of course, plenty of boxes are unpacked and collapsed and waiting for someone to respond to our Freecycle post. It’s just that moving is a process and it still feels

In This Week’s Box

  • Beauregard Sweet Potatoes
  • Black Radishes
  • Green Kale
  • Parsnips
  • Red Beets
  • Red Cabbage
  • White Mushrooms
  • Yellow Popcorn

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: last of the season
  • Cranberries
  • Greens: Mustard greens, parsley
  • Celery
  • Carrots
  • Red beets
  • Squash: Spaghetti, Butternut
  • Potatoes: Sweet, Purple
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle juice
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermented habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel stems with orange
  • Spicy pickled fennel stems
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Sour cherry chutney
  • Freedom berry jam
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Dishes that will hopefully yield leftovers so we have fewer cooking days

  • Earlier this week you made the peas and the rice for the Hoppin’ John Pilaf in Cool Beans. One day we will actually make the pilaf. And that day we will cook up the mustard greens.
  • Kale and mushroom lasagna from Six Seasons. I’m so excited that we get to try this again!
  • Parsnip soup with celery leaf relish, also from Six Seasons
  • We’ve been eating sweet potato on pizza with last summer’s pepperonata pulled from the freezer. That can be repeated another time or two. Maybe another round of the sweet potatoes stacked with chevre and celery. (I’m not certain how much celery we have though.) Maybe baked and stuffed with black beans, or as filling for enfrijoladas?
  • Red cabbage shredded into salads. One with craisins and carrots. Another with sesame or peanuts and ginger.
  • Oh gosh, we need to use beets and I am just not in a beet mood recently. Maybe try that beet and pear salad but with apples instead of pears. Beet gnocci? Roasted beet and citrus salad (adapting from Six Seasons)? Beet risotto to dehydrate for future camping trips? I dunno. I expect these will be with us a while.
  • I’m similarly uncertain about the black radishes. After the winter of radishes (Was that 2016 or 2017?), I actually enjoy radishes. Black radishes are my least favorite though–I don’t love the sharper flavor or the rougher exterior texture. Maybe that’s a reason to try pickling them? I don’t think I’ve tried pickling black radishes before. And I do like a pickled radish for tacos.

Here’s hoping that by the time I write again the kitchen will be more functional and the boxes will be a bit fewer!

Sarah

Boxing Day, October 7

planorcanLeave a comment
Cabbage is playing peek-a-boo.

Hi John,

This week I curled up with a storybook. Layers of tales, echoing past each other. Before the hardback was returned to the library, I’d downloaded the audio reading.

The next book I picked up is for book club. It is not a book for Sarahs. At least not yet. We discuss it in a week and I’m thinking there’s a good chance I won’t finish it.

That switch, from the story that I want to rehear over and again to the story that I struggle to get in, is so familiar. I think it’s why the beloved stories are treasured so. Their power to imagine a world that I want to experience, to explain a part of existence, to create the actions required.

In This Week’s Box

  • Bartlett Pears
  • Empire Apples
  • All Blue Potatoes
  • Collards
  • Edamame
  • Green Beans
  • Green Cabbage
  • Mixed Yummy Peppers
  • Spaghetti Squash
  • Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

Garden Potential

  • Starfish pepper
  • Deciding how long to wait on the final jalapenos
  • Lombok peppers if we want them
  • Few tomatillos, hopefully
  • Volunbeans
  • Maybe a tomato?
  • Dahlias

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: Honeycrisp?, Gala
  • Greens: NONE. We ate them all.
  • Herbs: Fennel tops
  • Peppers: Yummy, Lombok, Starfish
  • Squash: Delicata, Red Kabocha, Carnival
  • Sweet onions
  • Garlic
  • Fingerling Potatoes
  • Celery
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Pickled cucumber skins
  • Lacto-fermented & Lacto-fermenting green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Lacto-fermenting habanda jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Sour cherry chutney
  • Blueberry peach jam
  • Apple butter
  • Quince jelly
  • Veggie stock
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Garden Update

I pulled up the cucumber a few weeks ago. Then you helped turn the compost and rescued some volunteer greens.

They tried, but they didn’t survive.

We took out a basil and a tomato that were done. Stopped by the store to get some seeds.

And now we have sprouts!

Radishes. Carrots. Spinach. Stir-fry mix of greens.

I’m not sure what will make it. The soup beans we planted mid-summer are dying instead of climbing. I put a second batch of radishes in the center of their tent-poles. Willing the roots down deep.

I’ve been thinking about Rachel Held Evans’ posts on Madeline L’Engle’s reflections on planting onions. L’Engle was talking about planting onions in the spring being an act of faith in the future when she was afraid for our planet. But I’m considering planting them this fall, and the faith it requires that we will come through winter to more growth. (Confession: I did not heed the warnings in the emails and did not reserve shallot bulbs. Maybe we see if we can plant from the garlic the CSA sent last week? Maybe we let it go for this season.)

I’m trying to save seeds, even though we can’t do the isolated crops that are recommended. Beans are obvious, easy. Just don’t eat them all. Cilantro was straightforward. Basil’s proving fiddly to separate, since we don’t have a screen. I’m currently fermenting seeds from our volunteer cherry tomato. Doing the action that faith calls forth.

Faith-filled Meals During Changing Seasons

  • Dessert first! There’s enough pears to make baked pears with balsamic and goat cheese and so we will do that.
  • Our first taste of sungolds this season! So late. Still will use the “stuff my face” method of consumption.
  • The roasted potatoes and green beans with pine nut vinaigrette the other week was good stuff. Let’s consider that for our fall green beans recipe.
  • Edamame as a side
  • I’ve held off on decreeing it soup season. But consider making a sweet potato, peanut, and kale soup only with squash instead of sweet potato and collards instead of kale.
  • Similarly, is it risotto season? Because a squash risotto is always yummy. Can use Six Seasons recipe, but be mindful about the fat if we want to dehydrate for backpacking meals.
  • Cabbage season is starting up again I see. Using the cabbage is low priority, it’ll keep. But consider the braised glass noodles when we do.
  • It might be time to quickle the fennel stems. Though maybe that’s next week’s project. There are still a few fronds to adorn salads.

~s

Boxing Day, September 30

planorcanLeave a comment
I wasn’t expecting garlic and picked some at the store before I got the CSA. On the one hand, whups. On the other hard, it’s not like we won’t use garlic.

Dear John,

It’s been a busy week of writing for both of us as we usher papers out the door. Reading an evergrowing stack in the search for the right citation. Banging angrily on keyboards. Sighing heavily. Sending off to colleagues when the words are as good as they’re going to get that day. Fitzing with formatting like a student trying to match a teachers’ page requirements. Neither of us are getting graded, but the spirit remains more or less the same.

My paper’s back to the editor’s inbox. You’re about to begin the process for publishing yours. Weekend’s coming early today, and I am so ready.

In This Week’s Box

  • Gala Apples
  • Kiwiberries
  • Carnival Squash
  • French Breakfast Radishes
  • Frisee
  • Green Mustard
  • Mixed Yummy Peppers
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Yukon Gold Potatoes
  • White Garlic

Garden Potential

  • Starfish pepper
  • Paprika
  • Jalapenos
  • Lombok peppers if we want them
  • Few tomatillos, hopefully
  • Volunbeans
  • Maybe a tomato?
  • Dahlias

Still in the Fridge

  • Apples: Honeycrisp
  • Greens: Arugula
  • Herbs: Cilantro, Fennel tops,
  • Peppers: Yummy, Habanada, Paprika, Red Jalapenos
  • Squash: Delicata, Red Kabocha, Butternut
  • Sweet onions
  • Fingerling Potatoes
  • Celery
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Pickled cucumber skins
  • Lacto-fermented & Lacto-fermenting green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Pickled banana peppers with oregano, basil, and black pepper
  • Plain pickled banana peppers
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Green tomato chutney
  • Peach jam
  • Apple butter
  • Apple sauce
  • Quince jelly
  • Strawberry freezer jam from your mom
  • Veggie stock
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Comfort Food for Mindful Meals

  • The writing took up all the time, which meant I never made the mole verde squash last week. Hopefully tonight!
  • So many greens this week! Mustard greens make me hope for palak paneer or saag feta or chana saag. Frisee for salads, with radish to emphasize the kick.
  • We’ll see how the weather plays. But it may be time to start soup season. Squash Apple Ginger soup from Simply in Season, perhaps?
  • Chard garlic spaghetti from Six Seasons until we choose something else to do with it.

And a few more plans

  • I think I want to try drying paprika and grinding it to a powder. Fingers crossed!
  • Let’s roast the jalapenos and combine with the habanadas for a brine mash ferment. It’ll be another experiment.

~s

Boxing Day, September 23

planorcanLeave a comment
Welcome to fall. The watermelon have disappeared and the squash have arrived.

So John,

On Monday evening, I told a friend there was a 30% chance we’d end up buying a house by the end of the year. After a tour on Tuesday, I had our odds up to 50%–pretty likely actually. At least until we talked to our agent again today and decided not to write up an offer after all. Even in this market, 18% annual interest is a lot. Especially when it was just bought two years ago.

I’m thankful for working with an expert who tells us not to buy a place that’s overpriced. Or another place that will be awful to try to sell. Or that has more deferred maintenance than the price suggests.

I’m thankful that we have the flexibility to stay. Even if I never expected the housing search to take a year. Or if it did it was because we were losing bids. Not that we weren’t putting in offers. Nevermind winning bids and then failing inspections.

For now, I’m putting our chances of 2021 homebuying at 29%. The listings posted today weren’t inspiring. That’s okay. We’ll keep looking.

In This Week’s Box

  • Honeycrisp Apples
  • Kiwiberries
  • Arugula
  • Butternut Squash
  • Cilantro
  • Fennel
  • Mixed Yummy Peppers
  • Purple Fingerling Potatoes
  • Sweet Onions
  • Habanada Peppers

Garden Potential

  • Starfish pepper
  • Paprika
  • Jalapenos
  • Lombok peppers if we want them
  • Few tomatillos
  • Volunbeans (let ’em dry!)
  • Last of the Roma tomatoes?
  • Vorlon tomato
  • Dahlias

Still in the Fridge

  • Cucumber
  • Figs
  • Greens: Butterhead Lettuce
  • Peppers: Banana
  • Squash: Delicata, Red Kabocha, Acorn
  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Fingerling Potatoes
  • Herbs: None
  • Celery
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Quince jelly
  • Dill pickle
  • Lacto-fermented & Lacto-fermenting green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermented blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Radish kimchi
  • Sunchoke relish
  • Quince jelly
  • Kicky cranapple chutney
  • Peach jam
  • Apple butter
  • Quince jelly
  • Veggie stock
  • Probably still more uninventoried

Starting points

  • I’d forgotten the cucumber. We should use the cucumber! It’s the last cucumber from the garden. Classic cucumber, onion, and yogurt side?
  • Squash + cilantro = we can do the mole verde butternut squash. Or acorn squash. Or Kabocha squash…
  • Other cilantro + tomatillos + jalapeno for another green salsa.
  • Apple fennel salad. Because this fennel cannot last as long as the previous one did.
  • I want something light for the lettuce. Tomato and sweet pepper with a sweet vinaigrette.
  • Whereas, I thin the arugula can go loud. Blue cheese and honeycrisp and roasted sweet potato with a balsamic.

~s

Boxing Day, September 9

planorcanLeave a comment
I plum forgot the plums. Whoops

Hiya John,

So turns out that preparing on Thursday to go camping on Friday leaves little time for considering what to eat in the week ahead. It also turns out that wild cranberries and wild huckleberries and dehydrated apples combine to be an amazing oatmeal for breakfast prepared on a campstove. So not complaining. Just know that tomorrow’s still in the fridge list will probably be long.

Speaking of, since I don’t remember what was in the fridge last Thursday, we’re going with what I think is there now.

When this is how I wake up, I’m not complaining at all.

In This Week’s Box

  • Stanley Plums
  • Yellow Seedless Watermelon
  • Banana Peppers
  • Beauregard Sweet Potatoes
  • Delicata Squash
  • Italian Eggplant
  • Red Bell Peppers
  • Red Grape Tomatoes
  • Red Kabocha Squash

Garden Potential

  • Ground cherry
  • Few tomatillos
  • Volunbeans
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Roma tomatoes (The Amish paste plant is doing still thriving)
  • Jalapenos as we want them
  • Dahlias

Still in the Fridge

  • Pear
  • Watermelon
  • Greens: Carrot
  • Peppers: Cubanelle, jalapeno, bell
  • Green Beans (which I, for one, had forgotten about until now)
  • Kohlrabi
  • Carrots
  • Herbs: None (because I tossed the fennel out)
  • Onions: white and red
  • Celery
  • Sunchokes
  • Spaghetti squash

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle
  • Lacto-fermented green cherry tomatoes
  • Lacto-fermenting blueberry jalapeno hot sauce
  • Pickled red onion
  • Radish kimchi
  • Quince jelly
  • Peach jam
  • Veggie stock
  • Corn stock
  • Plenty of others that I just haven’t inventoried

Schemes for the things

  • There was a twitter thread asking for favorite quick, pantry meals. (I submitted dragon noodles, pasta e ceci, and enfrijoladas.) Most of the suggestions were meat that we wouldn’t eat. But the Mediterranean Baked Sweet Potato caught my attention. Adapted to do the 8-minute sweet potato linked to at the bottom of the post. And using the miso-tahini dressing that’s already made. And subbing carrot greens for parsley. So, y’know, totally the same dish.
  • We’re getting so many tomatoes! More pasta with cherry tomato sauce!
  • More tomatillo salsa. When the oven’s already turned on.
  • I’m nervous that this might be the last eggplant we get this season. Nevermind that the eggplant in the garden has two babies. The beans have shaded them and I just don’t trust that we’ll get the fruit I want. I’m mostly craving the soba noodle eggplant, but I want the soba noodles that you can’t eat. Roasting for a spread seems reasonable too. I dunno.
  • Pickled banana peppers? That’s what you do with banana peppers, right? Unless they go in a salsa with the tomatillos….
  • I’m leaving the squash inspiration for tomorrow’s self to come up with.

I’m still not sure what dinner’ll be tonight. Probably a squash dish just to spite myself.

~s

Boxing Day, September 2

planorcanLeave a comment
Confession: The cherry tomato box was half-filled from our garden before the CSA’s topped it off.

Dear John,

It’s been another week. Another food pantry distribution date. Another protest to stand in solidarity.

Another game night. Another book club. Another small group meeting.

Another tour. Another storm. Another meal to feed body and nurture soul.

In This Week’s Box

  • Bartlett Pears
  • Red Seedless Watermelon
  • Artisan Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
  • Cubanelle Peppers
  • Green Beans
  • Green Kale
  • Jalapeno Peppers
  • Mixed Sweet Peppers
  • Orange Carrots
  • Yellow Tomatoes

Garden Potential

  • Ground cherry
  • Few tomatillos
  • Volunbeans
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Roma tomatoes (The Amish paste plant is doing better than the San Marazano)
  • Sad-ish eggplant
  • Jalapenos as we want them
  • Bell pepper
  • A final cucumber (or two?)

Still in the Fridge

  • Blueberries
  • Figs
  • Canary Melon
  • Green Chard
  • Centercut Squash
  • Kohlrabi
  • Herbs: Fennel
  • Onions: white and red
  • Celery
  • Sunchokes
  • Spaghetti squash

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle
  • Lacto-fermenting green cherry tomatoes
  • Pickled red onion
  • Radish kimchi
  • Plenty of others that I just haven’t inventoried

Make something with it all.

  • Red curry with tofu and green beans and cherry tomatoes adapted from Dinner (but online version here)
  • Pickled jalapenos? Just a question of doing it in vinegar or lacto-fermenting them. Maybe some more peperonata with the cubanelles. The batch from last week was delightful on corn mush and on eggs.
  • Carrot greens! Let’s do the carrot top walnut pesto from Scraps, Wilts, and Weeds. (Just because the granita took us forever to use up last time. It was good though.) Carrots themselves are being saved for your birthday cake.
  • Spaghetti with cherry tomatoes for a sauce! Six Seasons has a recipe.
  • Speaking of, do we have enough tomatoes to make a sauce? Do we want to make a sauce? A salsa? (My tomatillo salsa verde last week was too little for the blender, so I’m waiting for more tomatillos than what we have so far.)
  • Gonna roast that eggplant and blend it up. Baba ganoush style? Hard to be too sad with roasted eggplant.
  • Some of the centercut squash from last week got roasted for tacos. Repeat of something like that? Or roast it with zaatar and serve with hummus?
  • Kale starts feeling like we might be heading toward salad possibilities again. Let’s try cooking some of the dried volun-beans to go with it.
  • I picked three figs from the community tree. Pair them with pears for a tart. It’s that or make a fancy looking cheese tray with some of the pickles to round out the meal.

Love,

~Sarah

Boxing Day, August 25

planorcanLeave a comment
The melons and the squash are the same yellow. The tomatoes and the peppers are the same red.

Hi John,

A week ago, we pulled over at a rest area for our final meal of the vacation. You pulled out the pocket knife to slice an apple. I unburied the last of the cheese and celery from the cooler, found the peanut butter and crackers in the food box. We took in views from the shade and then climbed back in the car for the rest of the drive. Home again, home again. To indoor plumbing, clean clothes, and freshly cooked meals.

But first, the garden…

The garden plot is even better at rooting us in community than I would’ve hoped. We don’t see our actual neighbors all that often, but there’s one family where the dad’s seen me headed to the garden a couple of times. The next time we ran into the mom, she asked about it and we encouraged them to go ahead and sign up for the waitlist.

When we were writing a note with the email address of the garden, I realized we could ask them to look after our plot while we’re gone. We haven’t seen them yet, but the thank you card they left convinces me that they appreciated doing us the favor.

The volun-beans are taking over whatever they can reach. We’re cutting them back to give the peppers and eggplant more light. I really hope that the tripod design for the soup beans works better. Dahlia looks like it’s budding. (But then it looked like it was budding two weeks ago and I don’t see any blooms.) The basil mostly went to flower while we were gone. We’ll have to decide whether we let it go to seed from here or try to cut it back.

In This Week’s Box

  • Canary Melon
  • Red Seedless Watermelon
  • Centercut Squash
  • Green Beans
  • Green Chard
  • Italian Eggplant
  • Lemon Verbena
  • Red Carmen Italian Peppers
  • Red Tomatoes
  • Spaghetti Squash

Garden Potential

  • Ground cherry
  • Few tomatillos
  • Volunbeans
  • Cherry tomatoes for days
  • Roma tomato if we want
  • A couple of lombok hot peppers
  • Jalapeno or three
  • Bell pepper or two
  • Maybe a cuke

Still in the Fridge

  • Blueberries
  • Carmen Pepper
  • Herbs: Fennel
  • Onions: white and red
  • Celery
  • Sunchokes

Open Preserves

  • Preserved eggplant
  • Dill pickle
  • Pickled red onion
  • Radish kimchi
  • Plenty of others that I just haven’t inventoried

Considering the options

  • I think I’m feeling cheesy eggplant tomato instead of a roasted eggplant dip. It’s a debate between the eggplant tomato towers from Simply in Season or eggplant parmesan.
  • Though there is ratatouille.
  • Half Baked Harvest’s approach to stuffing spaghetti squash and then baking it was my best success with the vegetable last year. Maybe pop cherry tomatoes in whole and let them pop til they sauce? Maybe cook up the chard to a green sauce?
  • Lemon verbena to tea now. And maybe straight to the dehydrator for tea later.
  • There are some potatoes remaining from when I bought at the store before the CSA delivered more. So green bean potato salad. Maybe something more vinegary this time.
  • We should do something with the peppers before they start to pile up too much. Peperonata from Six Seasons?
  • Before we left, I ended up blending half the watermelon with mint and basil. Poured into yogurt containers and popped in the freezer. Letting them spend a morning thawing, before blending again has been a lovely agua fresca. Bet we’re doing more of that.
  • There are some green cherry tomatoes on the stems I cut back. Time to try lacto-fermentation with the special lids you gave me for my birthday!
  • Smoothie of the moment: bit of coconut milk, splash of oj, handful of frozen cantaloupe (from before we left), and a bit less of frozen papaya. Served with whole blueberries.

~s

Boxing Day, July 22

planorcanLeave a comment
One watermelon. Two cucumbers. Three peaches. Three eggplant. Three peppers. Three onions. Three kohlrabi. And many, many beans.

Happy Saturday John!

I started planning for this week on Wednesday, after we received the predicted contents email. Thursday I was focused on doing the things in the kitchen. Yesterday, as you just reminded me, I was too busy looking up bike parts for you.*

So here we are, easing into the weekend. Me planning meals and you debating which dessert we should make for tonight. Later we’ll go kayaking and bike to an open house. Sometimes, having three bikes actually feels reasonable.

In This Week’s Box

  • Apricot
  • Little Baby Flower Watermelon
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Fresh Sweet Onions
  • Green Beans
  • Malabar Spinach
  • Mixed Cherry Tomatoes
  • Mixed Specialty Eggplant
  • Purple Bell Peppers
  • Purple Kohlrabi
  • Slicing Cucumbers

Garden Potential

  • Ground cherries, sometime soon I expect them to be coming in for real. Not just one at a time.
  • Volunbeans–let’s keep picking as they come. Except for the ones closer to the rosemary. Those I still want to see how they cook up as shellies and how they dry.
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Cucumber surprised me last Sunday. Two appeared seemingly overnight. I didn’t notice any yesterday, but five days from now? Who knows
  • Tomatillos, maybe before next week. Probably not. But maybe.
  • Basil! Thai or lime or purple or Italian
  • Cilantro/Green coriander
  • Blackberries from the communal briar patch

Still in the Fridge

  • Blackberries
  • Peaches
  • Blueberries
  • Herbs: Fennel, Dill
  • Greens: Savoy Cabbage, Lacinato Kale
  • Onions: white, red, sweet
  • Carmen Peppers
  • Asian Cucumbers
  • Zucchini (only half a zuke left. But half a zucchini left)
  • Centercut Squash
  • Celery
  • New Red Potatoes
  • Beet
  • Sunchokes

And now for some bean sprouts

Last week we stopped by the garden store and picked up a packet of dried soup beans. Our first intentionally planted beans in this plot! The packet said 7-10 days to germinate, and here they are.

The carrots, planted on the same day, have not yet appeared. But we’ll keep trying to plant those every few weeks until frost is nigh.

Meals for now…and for later

  • You just said that the apricot pistachio squares look interesting. Though we may still do a peach tart from Flavor Flours or Baking. That is, if I can remember what I baked when Kathy stayed with us two years ago.
  • The smashed cucumber salad was a hit last week. We did not try the other cucumber salad recipes. And I do believe we are going to be eating it again.
  • Slicing cucumbers are the ones we’ll use to actually go back for the celery and cucumber salad in Six Seasons
  • More green bean pesto potato salad! Or the green bean fennel salad!
  • Purple bell peppers, huh? I think the idea of stuffing them is the right idea. I’m not as big a fan of bell peppers, so I don’t know what to do with them beyond top salads or pizza or stirfy. Especially when we don’t yet have tomatoes. There is the roasted pepper panzanella in Six Seasons that would use some pepper and red onion and some oregano. Which may make it enough of a winner right there.
  • My memory of the malabar spinach is I didn’t love it raw. Let’s cook it with some rice and beans and use it to stuff the bell peppers. Maybe with some roasted centercut squash.
  • Oh! I bet we can dehydrate zucchini for backpacking. For a pasta recipe. Maybe something like this or a peanut noodle dish? Actually, maybe we toss the rest of the cabbage in the dehydrator while we’re at it. I’m sure we could use it in a stirfry this week, but maybe let it be a backcountry experiment. [Edit: dehydration complete!]
  • Especially since we can slice the kohlrabi for another salad this week. Saute the last of the kale and you’ve got my old favorite.
  • Speaking of the kohlrabi, see all those leaves in the picture? I cooked them up with some lentils, garlic, onions, and spices. Squeeze of lemon, handful of raisins. Served on rice for dinner on Thursday. Leftovers are already dehydrated for us to use as a cold soak salad for a backpacking lunch.
  • Our other dehydrator experiment this week was a smoothie. Yogurt + peach + a little bit of banana + frozen mango + some fresh ginger = My delicious breakfast this week. Poured into the dehydrator the fruit leather it turned into was yummy. Crumbled into the spice grinder and turned into a powder that smells divine. We’ll see next month how rehydrating on the trail actually fares.
  • The eggplant is beautiful. Dining In has a recipe for fried eggplant with harissa and dill and honestly, that sounds like it could be amazing. And we have dill that needs to be used.
  • If we buy an avocado, we could probably make a green gazpacho pretty easily
  • Watermelon by itself. Watermelon with feta and pickled red onions and basil. Mmmmmm watermelon.

I have no plans for the cherry tomatoes. They are already half eaten. They are summer’s gift and my belly is happy.

~s

Baby cuke do dooo do do do doot

* It is a sign of how much Covid messed up supply chains that the bike shop told you that they don’t expect to get the part for you bike for a year. My internet sleuthing suggests they might be overly optimistic–the supplier’s website says the inventory system is wrong and that they expect more of this $30 part in 2023.

Boxing Day, July 15

planorcanLeave a comment
There are six ears of corn hiding in the back.

Hi John,

I’m hoping that the maintenance team is successful with today’s dishwasher repair. I was hoping to be baking a pie right now (unless I was collapsed taking a nap), but with a team of three in the kitchen, I think we’re going to wait another day.

I know today is a minor inconvenience. But it does convince me more that I don’t want to buy a house where we anticipate a kitchen renovation. I’m happy to live with dated cabinets, and changing out hardware is no big deal. Appliances that are halfway through their lifecycle, well, I’d rather get five years out of the dishwasher than have it disposed prematurely. To the extent that we can avoid a remodel though, that’s not a project I’d like to take on.

In This Week’s Box

  • Blackberries
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Asian Cucumbers
  • Bicolor Sweet Corn
  • Carmen Peppers
  • Centercut Squash
  • Green Kale
  • New Red Potatoes
  • Sweet Fresh Onions
  • Sweet Thai Basil

Garden Potential

  • Occasional ground cherry
  • Volunbeans–I thought they were green beans when I picked six on Monday. I went back today and they looked like they might be a shelling bean. At least the ones I picked had more like beans inside and I wouldn’t have thought that it’d been long enough for them to be overgrown.
  • Tomato? You picked three cherry tomatoes from the volunteer yesterday!
  • Basil! Thai or lime or purple or Italian
  • Cilantro

Still in the Fridge

  • Cherries
  • Peaches
  • Blueberries
  • Herbs: Fennel, Dill
  • Greens: Dandelion, Savoy Cabbage, Lacinato Kale
  • Onions: white and red
  • Zucchini
  • Celery
  • Beet
  • Sunchokes
A different type of baby pepper. Think this is the paprika.

Considering the options

  • If we get enough green beans, then I want to make the green bean potato salad (I even bought potatoes before we heard we were getting them in the box in anticipation of this). But if we decide not to treat them as green beans then maybe not.
  • The corn and blueberry salad from Halfbaked Harvest. Need to buy an avocado for this! Soon! Before too many of the corn sugars have converted to starch.
  • Maybe we roast the peppers with a corn and rice stuffing. Or maybe we roast them and freeze.
  • We have the long cucumber and the pickled radish and the seaweed and rice to make gimbap. Especially if we use matchsticks of zucchini instead of carrots. Flavor substitute, not at all. But veggie switcharoo that might really work. Perhaps served with another Korean cucumber side?
  • Or this smashed cucumber salad
  • Or the Chinese Pickled Cucumbers from Woks of Life
  • Or the cucumber and celery salad from Six Seasons that we ate at the picnic on the 4th of July
  • More kale in my morning smoothies, I think. I don’t love the flavor, but it does help us get through the greens. I bought some extra bananas for me to consider while doing this.
  • Kale and chickpeas. What doesn’t get eaten to be dehydrated.
  • Squash and basil and parm. My dad made a side dish back in the day. Panfry/steam the squash. Add the basil near the end. Sprinkle with parm from a jar when serving. I wonder if actual cheese will replicate the taste of memory.

There are several cucumbers, so we can probably do two or three of those cucumber options. Once we can get in the kitchen again, I’m going to cook up the kale and beans in the hopes of clearing out some space. Otherwise, we probably want to focus on dishes that will help us consume the CSA basil early on. All the more reason to grab an avocado from the store to make that corn salad ASAP.

~s

Boxing Day, July 8

planorcanLeave a comment
Lots of green veggies, with hints of yellows and golds. And then there’s the blueberries.

Hi John,

This weekend we took our picnic to the local fireworks display. We found a spot on the grass, spread out a blanket, unloaded our bikes, and took off our masks. In a crowd. It felt normal and weird and like the kind of thing that shouldn’t be noteworthy but it absolutely is. I felt mostly safe? Mostly because we were outside. And because blankets make easy boundaries and everyone was still giving each other a bit more space than we would have two years ago.

It was a better viewing experience than two years ago, when we tried watching from the apartment’s roof. And better than last year when we watched the show as reflected in the windows of the grocery store across the street while eating sausage with Jerusalem Artichoke Relish by our window.

I confess to mixed feelings about fireworks. They’re pretty and can be fun to watch. They’re loud and keep me up and we don’t even have pets or small children or PTSD to have extra reasons to hate them. The environmentalist side of me will be glad when they’re gone and not adding to fire risk or traumatizing birds. And there’s still the awesomeness of sitting with your group, part of a larger crowd, all looking up together and saying, “Wow.”

In This Week’s Box

  • Blueberries
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Celery
  • Dill
  • Fennel
  • Green Savoy Cabbage
  • Green Zucchini
  • Pickling Cucumbers
  • White Spring Onions
  • Yellow Wax Beans

Garden Potential

  • Occasional ground cherry
  • Red onions
  • Basil! Thai or lime or purple or Italian
  • Some apricots and blackberries from the communal area (I even snuck some into the photo.)

Still in the Fridge

  • Cherries
  • Herbs: Fennel, Dill
  • Greens: Dandelion, Cabbage, Lacinato Kale
  • Radish: Red and French Breakfast
  • Baby Hakurei Turnip
  • Onions: white and red
  • Gold Zucchini
  • Beets
  • Sunchokes

Considering the options

  • Pickling cucumbers + dill = Probably time to try making pickles. There’s just three cucumbers, so I pulled out Joy of Cooking and went with a recipe from there. They’ll be curing in the fridge, ready to eat in a week’s time.
  • Dandelion greens and white beans from Cool Beans. They’ve been here for two weeks. They need to get used. If we don’t feel like eating the dish, I bet it’d be a good one for dehydrating for a future backpacking trip.
  • I expect we’ll do more of the Six Seasons celery salads. They’re quick and don’t require heat and right now both of those are winning propositions.
  • Peanut, tofu, and wax beans! That’s my first thought. But then I’m also remembering the Smitten Kitchen salad with green beans and fennel and red onions. And wouldn’t you know that I tossed the last of the garden plot’s inherited onions in the brine yesterday. We’ll get more green beans for the tofu dish in a week or two. I spied some on our volunbeans earlier today.
  • Zucchini pasta? The zucchini pie/pizza/quiche thing from Simply in Season?
  • Do we want to make more of the sunchoke burgers? Or use them on pizza with the zucchini?
Flower and baby pepper!

I’m not sure what I’m feeling with the cabbage and kale right now. They feel mostly too heavy for the salads I want right now (though it hasn’t stopped their appearing with chickpeas and parm for a meal or two over the past week). I don’t really want the soups that I associate with them. Maybe spring rolls? Maybe in a stir-fry? Maybe I should think more about grain bowls? I bet that beet yogurt would be pretty on a bowl.

~s

Boxing Day, July 1

planorcanLeave a comment
Pink celery doing the classic lie in front of the group pose

Hi John,

So…I’m still learning this platform. And was not feeling the best. And some weeks, apparently, I use the draft version to reference for meal planning all week instead of actually pressing publish. Here it is, belatedly. Who knows what edits came in when.

In This Week’s Box

  • Dark Sweet Cherries
  • Tart Cherries
  • 7082 Cucumber
  • English Peas
  • Fresh Red Onions
  • Gold Zucchini
  • Lacinato Kale
  • Pink Celery
  • Red Chard
  • Red Cylindra Beets

Garden Potential

  • Occasional ground cherry
  • Basil! Thai or lime
  • Oregano
  • Rosemary
  • Maybe a plum or three from the community tree

Still in the Fridge

  • Yellow Peaches
  • Cherries
  • Herbs: Parsley, Fennel, Dill, Cilantro
  • Greens: Swiss Chard, Beet Greens, Lettuce, Dandelion, Cabbage
  • Patty Pan Squash
  • Radish, Red and French Breakfast
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Onions
  • Beets
  • Parsnip
  • Sunchokes

Meals to Maybe Make

  • Patty pan squash with chickpeas is still on the menu
  • Peas on toast!
  • Pea risotto if the heat breaks?
  • Also if the heat breaks, zucchini tacos?
  • We could still roast beets to make beet yogurt. And we can keep shredding them to go on salads.
  • I was looking in Six Seasons for the celery salads that I like, but then saw this one for cucumber and celery and apricots. We are totally making that ASAP.
  • Cherry pie! We have tart cherries and I want to see how they work in the amazing cherry pie of goodness.
  • Greens jam! [Edit to add, I ended up dehydrating instead of cooking all the way to jam so we’ll have them for our backpacking trip)

~s

Boxing Day, June 24

planorcanLeave a comment

Hi John,

You’ve been busy with conference this week, so haven’t been keeping tabs on the kitchen or seeing the garden. So you didn’t know that we actually finished off our stock of lettuces at lunch yesterday. After a month or two of getting multiple varieties of lettuce each week, I think we’re shifting seasons. Appropriate, since it’s post solstice.

When I went to water on Tuesday, there were happy surprises. Our first ground cherries were ready! And our dill was too. We’ve read that dill is a good companion for tomatoes,but that mature dill isn’t. But I’m not sure what qualifies as mature dill. Guessing that it’s when the plant flowers, I pulled up what we have. It’s too early to use it for pickles, but perfect timing for your family tradition of dill dip.

In This Week’s Box

  • Blueberries
  • Dark Sweet Cherries
  • Patty Pan Squash
  • Broccoli
  • Green Cabbage
  • Green Dandelion
  • Green Kale
  • Red Butterhead Lettuce
  • Red Tomatoes
  • Spring Onions

Garden Potential

  • Occasional ground cherry
  • Raspberries for sharing
  • Thai Basil
  • Oregano
  • Rosemary

Still in the Fridge

  • Yellow Peaches
  • Herbs: Parsley, Fennel, Dill, Cilantro
  • Greens: Red Kale, Swiss Chard, Beet Greens
  • Fava beans
  • Broccoli
  • Radish, Red and French Breakfast
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Cucumber
  • Kohlrabi
  • Beets
  • Parsnip
  • Sunchokes
Two green tomatoes hiding behind a stem
Our first baby tomatoes!

Meals to Maybe Make

  • Tomato + lettuce = BLT time. I know it’s a classic, but it’s hard to get the good tomatoes in before the lettuce is disappointing. Here’s to trying anyway.
  • Dinner tonight is going to be the fava beans with potatoes and cilantro (picked from the herb plot at the garden) in a tomato sauce from Six Seasons. It looks like a play on shakshuka or eggs in purgatory and I’m so looking forward to it. Just yesterday was using garden goodies to make raspberry cheesecake and dill dip.
  • We have so much broccoli. And it’s very pretty broccoli. I may be leaning towards roasting it up with lemon and feta again. Munching on the stalks with the dill dip. Six Seasons has a pasta with broccoli and sausage that looks tempting if we want more meat.
  • If we can get more cilantro and it’s not too hot, maybe make this swiss chard soup? Include the beet greens too. And if not cilantro, we could try it with some of the remaining dill.
  • Patty pan squash with chickpeas
  • We can roast the beets to make beet yogurt. And we can keep shredding them to go on salads.
  • If we do pizza, let’s do the kale and sunchoke combo again. We don’t have a gluten free crust at the ready though, so I’m guessing no pizza.

The cherries need to be used ASAP. As amazing as that pie was, I’m not sure I want to make another one. If only because I want to eat the cheesecake first.

Last week’s greens weren’t stored the best while we went camping, so they should be cooked up sooner rather than later. We can consider whether we want to put the dandelions in with them or add to a salad.

The radish, turnips, and kohlrabi have been here fore several weeks. They’re getting used in salads and storing just fine. We’ve already cut into the cucumber, so we’ll want to keep using it up. When the salad fits.

We’re down to one parsnip lingering in the bottom of the box. Maybe we should roast it up at the same time as the beets just to get it done.

The cabbage will keep. I expect we’ll use it in a slaw sometime soon. Perhaps with leftover broccoli…

~s

Boxing Day, June 17

planorcanLeave a comment

Hi John,

So trying to pack for a camping trip and buying a house and meal planning all at once was not a success. We did not forget anything necessary for the camping trip! We got the offer in on the house! We got a contract on the house. We got earnest money deposited for the house. We did the home inspection. We walked on our contract for the house. Meals happened.

In This Last Week’s Box

  • Cherry plums
  • Yellow Peaches
  • Broccoli
  • Red Beets with Greens
  • Green Zucchini
  • English Peas
  • Fava Beans
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Red Kale
  • Sweet Basil

Still in the Fridge

  • Herbs: Parsley, Fennel, Green Onions
  • Greens: Spinach, Lettuce
  • Radish, Red and French Breakfast
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Kohlrabi
  • Parsnips
  • Sunchokes

What We Ate

  • Cherry pie using four types of foraged sweet cherries and a combination of multiple recipes
  • Campfire pocket stew with carrot and parsnip and potato and cherry tomatoes. Yours was fine. Mine got burnt.
  • Quinoa salad with turnip and raw zucchini and carrot and creamy ginger dressing
  • Pizza with pesto and mozz and lemon slices and broccoli and zucchini and feta
  • Tuna melt zucchini bake from Six Seasons
  • Peas Pasta Carbonara from Six Seasons. The gluten free pasta didn’t result in a sauce so much as a broth, but still good.

I’ll try to be back tomorrow with actual plans in advance.

~s

Boxing Day, June 10

planorcanLeave a comment

Hi John,

It’s CSA delivery day. It wasn’t too bad when I walked to pick things up, but the walk home was getting hot and humid. And then I hopped on the bike and went back for the bread and eggs that wouldn’t fit in my first bags. Still prefer that to your errand experience in this afternoon’s rainstorm. Even if we both arrived home dripping wet.

In This Week’s Box

  • Blueberries
  • Yellow Peaches
  • White Kohlrabi
  • Broccoli
  • Head Lettuce
  • Lacinato Kale
  • Slicing Cucumbers
  • Sugar Snap Peas
  • Vidalia Onions
  • White Scallions

Still in the Fridge

  • Herbs: Parsley, Fennel, Green Onions
  • Greens: Escarole, Spinach, Lettuce
  • Radish, Red and French Breakfast
  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Kohlrabi
  • Parsnips
  • Sunchokes

Brainstorming Some Meals

  • Peas on bread with the garlic chive cream cheese I made last week!
  • Roasted broccoli with feta and lemon
  • Pizza! With broccoli and feta? With radish and chevre? With spinach and sunchokes (Again? But it was so good…)
  • We have kale AND kohlrabi! So we can make the kale and kohlrabi salad that I like.
  • Clearly we need to make more salad. Maybe a cucumber, onion, and yogurt salad? Maybe maybe lettuce with cucumber, blueberries, and poppyseed dressing?
  • Betsy texted a recipe for lettuce soup that she made. We might be at the point where we need to try that. Or the stir-fried lettuce we made last year. Or lettuce wraps, though I’m not sure what I want to put in them. The spring rolls from a few weeks ago
  • We have blueberries and peaches. Do we go ahead and make the pie now? It feels early for it and I might rather get more mulberries for another cobbler first….

We really should prioritize using up the escarole–I was hoping to repeat the salad we made last year with escarole, roasted beets and rhubarb, goat cheese, toasted hazelnuts, and mustard dressing. But it’s been three weeks and we haven’t gotten beets. Maybe try with turnips, even though they’re not as sweet as beets.

I think I’m going to try to eat the peas early too. It feels like a meal I want on bread more than toast. And using some of the broccoli for dinner tonight because it is bulky and sometimes you don’t want to give things all the fridge space.

Other than that, I don’t see any obvious priorities. Eat and enjoy!

~s