cilantro

Boxing Day, September 2

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Dear John,

I’m stressed. Last week was hopeful excitement of new routines. This week is the exhausted anxiety of disruption.

Admittedly, hormones probably don’t help. And national politics definitely don’t help. The implications of those politics on personal and local affairs don’t help. The news covering the implications of those politics on the global scale is even more horrifying. It’s hard to stop the spiraling.

The disrupted routine makes it feel like there’s no time to plan. Less time to cook when I expected more. Less time to rest and reset.

I think we need to lean into the super-quick meals. Or meal prepping the night before. Or over the weekend. I also have no idea what that looks like with our actual dietary needs and produce usage.

I don’t know. Please share your ideas.

Today’s Box

  • Bartlett Pears
  • Moon & Stars Watermelon
  • Little Sweetie Cantaloupe
  • Fennel
  • Green Kale Shishito Peppers
  • Red Carmen Italian Peppers
  • Yellow Onions
  • Cilantro

Things in the fridge

  • Sunchokes
  • Muscadines
  • Pepper
  • Beets
  • Cabbage: Red Cabbage, Green Cabbage
  • Peaches
  • Pears

In the Garden

  • Handful of basil
  • Parsley that turns out to have swallowtails growing on it
  • Pint of cherry tomatoes and ground cherries
  • Another pepper
  • Few tomatillos
  • Green tomatoes
  • Sunflowers! Dahlias!

Open Preserves

  • I organized the fridge.
  • But have not inventoried
  • So off the top of my head
  • Fig jam
  • Preserved eggplant
  • Pickled banana peppers
  • Pickled fennel
  • Curdito

Pantry Beans

  • Yellow Split Pea
  • Split Red Lentil
  • Black Caviar Lentil
  • Garbanzo Bean
  • Buckeye Bean
  • Black Calypso
  • Good Mother Stallard
  • Pinto Bean
  • Flor De Junio
  • Christmas Lima
  • California Corona
  • Royal Corona
  • And maybe one more on the shelf?

Cook something. Somehow. Somewhen.

  • Pasta with sardines and fennel
  • Smashed beets with green sauce from Six Seasons
  • Roast the shishito peppers. Serve as a side with, uh, stirfry? Cabbage salad?
  • It’s an assortment of other peppers. Maybe we make pepperonata? But also, the Six Seasons recipe calls for four pounds and it’s not nearly that much. Nor do we have the tomatoes for it.
  • You picked several green tomatoes. Do we want to see how long it takes to ripen? Make green tomato chutney?
  • I don’t know when we make more curdito with the cabbage. Maybe it should be used in stirfry? Or maybe it’s make a big fridge salad and eat on it all week long?

Love,

Sarah

Boxing Day, April 20

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Psst, photographer…hide the twist ties/rubber bands. Or at least make them less prominent?

Hi John,

My parents texted this morning that they’re on the road. They’ll arrive tomorrow and be here through next Tuesday, when we switch from the one-size winter box we split to the small-size summer box that’s just us.

Today’s Box

  • Baby Hakurei Turnips
  • Cilantro
  • Green Cabbage
  • Green Dandelion
  • Orange Carrots
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Red Scallions
  • Spinach

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Red Radishes
  • Cilantro
  • Carrots of the rainbow
  • Sunchoke
  • Red Beet

In the Garden

  • Garlic chives
  • Rosemary
  • Oregano
  • Dahlia bulbs

Open Preserves

Dinners with visitors

  • It turns out that the parsley I picked up as a bonus last week is actually cilantro. And we got more cilantro today. And rotted cilantro is a heartbreak. So, let’s use this. Cabbage and peanut slaw with cilantro on breakfast tacos and maybe in spring rolls. Roasted beets and carrots in a Thai-inspired curry. Ginger-garlic-not-quite-pho. Note: all of these should also use up the scallions.
  • Usually we’ve cooked up dandelion greens with beans. But we have pizza dough left from earlier in the week. Dandelion greens, garlic, and goat cheese?
  • The cilantro slaw will presumably be our main salad of the week. But let’s have spinach + turnip + carrot as our go to side salad.

Sarah

Boxing Day, April 6

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So many onions. Such an easy staple to use, that I’m not even going to pretend to look for recipes for them.

Dear John,

Easter dinner is upon us. Macaroni and cheese. Biscuits. Triple threat galette. Simple salad. Some sort of lemon cake, or cake with lemon curd, or lemon cream tart. Friends. Family. Seemingly straightforward. With luck, we’ll have leftovers to carry through a busy week of work. (Time to raid the freezer if we don’t!)

Today’s Box

  • Asian Greens Mix
  • Broccoli Rabe
  • Cilantro
  • Onions
  • Orange Carrots
  • Rainbow Chard
  • Red Radishes
  • Spinach  

Things in the fridge

  • Cranberries
  • Chioggia Beets
  • Purple Daikon Radishes
  • Italian Parsley
  • Spinach
  • Yellow Carrots
  • Yellow Onions
  • Robins Koginut Squash
  • Shallots
  • Sunchoke
  • Red Beets

In the Garden

  • Garlic chives
  • Rosemary
  • Dahlia bulbs

Open Preserves

Quick meals for busy days

  • We have cilantro. We have chard. You know what to do.
  • Simple salads. Greens + carrots + radish. Add quinoa and a miso-tofu dressing. Add beans and the leftover oregano-lemon dressing. Switch it up for greens + beets + grapefruit + blue cheese.
  • Really the broccoli rabe is the thing that isn’t essentially a salad or soup staple these days. I vote pizza.
  • And we should see if that squash is still good…. It’s been a minute. Stuffing it would be a solid dinner.

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 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, February 3

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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, September 23

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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

Experimentation

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Dear John,

Greetings from our home laboratory. While you’re sitting at the computer presenting on your simulations, I’m a room-length away, mixing and chopping and scheming. While these concoctions simmer, I’ll be a dutiful scientist and document my four experiments. Maybe it’ll make it easier to plan something in the future.

#1 Growing

Our cilantro has all flowered and faded. We’re left with the seedheads. And, while coriander is a pantry staple, I’m more excited about the possibility of more cilantro this fall. The plant does better in cooler weather anyway, right?

I’m attempting the trick we learned from Ros of starting seeds in plastic bottles. I took a couple of water bottles out of the recycling, found a flatter circle going across the diameter and used it as a guide to cut them in half. Bottom half got a handful of potting mix. Four to six seeds poked in with a chopstick. Splash of water. I cut a slit at the top of the base so I could squeeze it together and put the top half of the water bottle back on top. Voila window sill greenhouse.

Next question, will we get sprouts? Tune back in 7-14 days.

#2 Fermenting

We decided to take the CSA jalapenos and try fermenting a hot sauce. Here’s what went in the jar:

  • 340 grams jalapenos
  • 35 grams red onion
  • 140 g wrinkly blueberries (I’ve been putting the mushy berries in the freezer. This seems like the right use for them)
  • ~1 gram of coriander seed from the garden (That which did not get planted)
  • 3% brine
  • Dash of brine from last year’s fermentation

Waiting a week, or two, to see how it tastes.

#3 Cooking

Enough of the volun-beans have dried on the vine that I can cook with them as a dry bean. I took a half cup of beans, covered them with water, added some dried rosemary, salt, and pepper corns. It’s been simmering on the stove for a while now. To be fair, I didn’t give them any soaking time. That’s supposed to be the great equalizer of beans. I figure we know these dried beans are fresh.

They’re not done yet, but the ones I’ve tested seemed nice. Trying again in, let’s say, 7-14 minutes.

#4 Reducing

Recipes for canning tomatoes start with at least a few pounds of tomatoes. Although our harvest is coming in quicker than our consumption, we haven’t amassed that much. But since the collection on the counter is all paste tomatoes and since some of them were starting to pass their peak, I’m trying my hand at making a paste. Mostly following the conserva recipe from Six Seasons. Cut them up, put them in the dutch oven with a put of olive oil. Currently they’ve cooked to sauciness. Next step is to dig out the food mill and use it to separate the seeds and the skins. (And yes, I’m going to try making tomato skin salt.) Then keep up the low and slow cooking. Decision here, maybe 7 hours. Who doesn’t love a theme?

Boxing Day, June 24

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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