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.
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.
Lettuce and spinach and dandelion greens and parsley.
Dear John,
The equinox has come. Easter is quick on it’s way. Garden scheming time is here. This weekend we pulled out our box of seeds to start scheming. I’m surrounded by slips of paper scribbled with notes. Trying to decide what goes where. This year we’re going to try planting the tall plants on the north end of the garden and the shorter on the southern end.
Currently in the north end of the plot, it turns out the plants that we thought were the garlic that we sowed but then never figured out when to harvest are actually garlic chives. Which can take over as much space as we give them. So maybe let’s give them less space? And harvest a bunch? Which means cooking a bunch. Make some compound butter. Dehydrate some and make into a salt. Try some egg noodles where the chives are the noodles. Or just some eggs. If we ever make it to the Asian grocery, pick up some dried shrimp and try these or see if the spiced tofu is gluten free and we can make this stirfry.
It feels like a stir-fry week. Mix up some sauce, put some rice in the pressure cooker, chop some veggies, and play.
We have beans in the freezer that are waiting to be cooked with dandelion greens. Let’s pick up some sausage and see if we feel comfortable pinching sage leaves from the herb plot in the garden. We have some dried if not.
Salads! We’ve been talking about adding more fish into our diet, perhaps we try a variation on a salmon salad? The ladolemono dressing sounds yummy! Or in for a vegetarian, but add oil, approach time to top with smashed sunchoke. I’m wondering if there’s a way to use the sunchokes instead of artichokes in a quinoa salad dish like this. Maybe easier to try adapting a pasta salad that’s halfway there first? (Use last summer’s pesto from the freezer!) Or just a straightforward green salad.
We haven’t been eating risotto as much recently, probably because we ate it so much for required diets previously. This sunchoke risotto intrigues me.
Beet greens blending with dandelion and kale. But the squash stands out!
Dear John,
The radishes and turnips we planted have sprouted–we should put in more the next time we go to the garden. One of the edamame plants has emerged, the others I’ll assume were eaten by birds. Beans are starting to dry on the vine. The kale that we’ve been eating all season was getting covered in enough bugs that I just harvested it all. The new greens are sprouting. The chard seeds have been put in the ground. They’re spikier than I would’ve guessed! The tomatillos won’t last much longer. The tomatoes, might hold out a bit more. The peppers are dwarfed by the dahlia and the marigold. I cut back the flowers, but not sure it’s doing the peppers much good. I put some cilantro seeds in the ground. Wondering if we’ll eat any this fall, if it will be a spring surprise, or if it will sprout at all.
Little miracles all of them. Larger miracles all of us. And yet still, so incredibly small.
Kale + apple + red pepper from the garden + beet yogurt + chickpea croutons
I looked back at last winter and fall for other ideas of how to use squash with minimal fat. Really, soup is where it’s at, because the roasting wants the oil. Apple, squash, ginger soup from Simply in Season is a traditional easing in to soup season. Tomato butternut bisque (less tempting when I won’t eat grilled cheese). There’s risotto. AKA more rice porridge for me.
Was also reminded of the beet and pear salad with mustard vinaigrette. I think we’ll be out of greens before we’re through with salad plans this week.
Offcamera, frustration at the squash that had been on display and is now rotting. Oooops.
Hi John,
It’s Wednesday and I am walking for my errands. I’ve wandered through to the next neighborhood over, because it is my favorite place to listen to episodes of a favorite podcast, and I am thinking about things I love.
I love Little Free Libraries, and pop-up protest art, and the Little Free Art Gallery that make each walk a hunt for treasure.
I love the sparrow splashing in the bird bath in the front lawn.
I love the feel of sunlight through green-brown leaves, and the shelf of fungus around the tree trunk.
I love all the different ways that parents are carting their kids on bicycles, from the dad walking his bike with his little in the seat clinging on the handlebars, to the full-on cargo bikes, to the back-wheel kiddo racks.
I love the way this neighborhood throws itself into holiday decorations and being a quaint little town, despite it’s actual location centered in the metropolis. I love the house that has become a pirate ship and the garden boxes crawling with spiders and the robotic raven that squawks whenever anyone walks by. I love the scarecrows and pumpkins and my memory of the chute that people built last year to deliver candy.
I love not knowing what the fruit is on the trees on the center of the boulevard, asking the guy who is also waiting for the light to change if he does, and the camaraderie of shared curiosity.
Soup of the week: Curried apple soup from Enchanted Broccoli Forest looks interesting. And can help keep our fruit drawer manageable.
The edamame’s been around too long wanting for the right moment. We gotta just boil it and snack on it. It is time.
It’s still looking like side salad season. Though greens + turnips + granny smith apples + blue cheese + vinaigrette = meal
Volunbeans and dandelion greens and fennel and miso! Basically follow the recipe from Cool Beans.
Time to roast up the last of the tomatillos, some onion, a few of those jalapenos for one last salsa verde. Freeze what we won’t eat immediately. It’ll be gone soon.
Broccoli should be tossed in salads or roasted or stir-fried. I don’t know how we want to use it, just that we really should.
Are the pomegranates looking good in the grocery store? My notes for the roasted cauliflower and hazelnut salad say to make again when the pomegranates are in season.
I think I’m going to hold onto the leeks for one week, in case we get potatoes next week (and make potato-leek soup). Or chard (and try to adapt the wheat berries & swiss chard with pomegranate molasses from Jerusalem).
Planning Inside The Box 