Saturday, July 23, 2011

CSA Share Week 4





Our shares are starting to get bigger! Still plenty of lettuce and cabbage, and I have to admit, at time of posting I have 2 1/2 heads of cabbage in my refrigerator. In my own defense, I also went out of town for a few days following the pick up of this week's share, so I didn't cook for a few days. I've begun sharing some of my share with my good buddy Erica, as our garden is also starting to produce and I've already got squash coming out my ears. I think squash pickles are going to be in our future!!

This week was lemon balm, lettuce, yellow squash and zucchini, swiss chard, garlic scapes, a broccoli crown, and some cabbage.

Not pictured -- I made a big pitcher of iced tea with the lemon balm. It isn't pictured because it tasted like cough drops and I ended up dumping it. It was worth a shot. haha.

I gave one yellow squash to Erica and she can tell you what she did with it! The other I sauteed with some olive oil, garlic, parsley and some shell peas from the garden. This was served with Tuscan Baked Beans made in the crock pot (great to keep the kitchen cool!) and a Kalamata roll from the co-op.


Lettuce and broccoli were both used in my tofu lettuce wraps and sauteed broccoli. I simmered tofu in some broth infused with sesame oil, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and cilantro from the garden. I then sauteed up some bell peppers, celery and carrots and crumbled in the tofu and added some black sesame seeds. It was served in lettuce leaves alongside some broccoli sauteed in the rest of the tofu simmering liquid.

So neat and tidy!

I then had a "cleaning up the veggie drawer" night where I made EPIC VEGETABLE PASTA!!! It has mushrooms, corn, zucchini, garlic scapes, broccoli, eggplant, chard, spinach, garlic, fresh parsley and basil from the garden. Basically every veg drawer scrap there was!


I didn't get to the cabbage this week... hence the reason they're building up. I think one will go home with Erica this weekend. Maybe I'll make her contribute to this project too!!

CSA Share Week 3

Now the problems come in. Now I actually have to remember what 3 weeks ago looked like. Oof, got all caught up in life and things. I did get results from said medical tests back - my digestive system is permanently screwed up from some infections I had, I have cyclical nausea and vomiting syndrome, and have gastritis. At this point it's just a battle to manage symptoms. I think the moral of this story is don't let your appendix burst.

Onto happier things... CSA SHARE!

This week we got some more nappa cabage, cilantro, spinach, squash, garlic scapes, and red leaf lettuce.

The squash, along with some other veggie friends, got seasoned and quick roasted under the broiler.
Took them, along with some of the fresh spinach and hummus and made some lovely vegetable wraps, which we enjoyed with some sweet corn on the cob.
The cabbage got turned into Asian cole slaw with jicama, carrots, apples, and a peanutty dressing. Shown here with a Southwestern Tofu Burger and some of Kali's awesome tofu.

The lettuce was turned into a giant taco salad, with black beans seasoned with cumin and chili powder and tomato paste and some of the fresh cilantro. The rest of the cilantro and some garlic scapes went into the zesty cilantro lime dressing.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

CSA Share Week 2

I actually just picked up CSA Share Week 4... so I'm a few weeks behind, as usual. I had busy things, and sick things, and medical procedure things, and vegan potluck BBQ things, so BUSY!


Week 2's share contained Easter Egg Radishes, Nappa Cabbage, Lettuce, Spinach, and Garlic Scapes.

Garlic Scapes met up with Broccoli this week in a Broccoli Pesto stirred into whole wheat elbow macaroni, served along side carrots sauteed in Earth Balance and Dill and Gardein Crispy Tenders.



I sauteed the cabbage and spinach with red bell pepper, carrots, more garlic scapes, and what was supposed to be thin sliced 5 spice seitan, but my food processor mostly turned into ground seitan.

The lettuce and radishes went into a salad with a homemade vinaigrette and topped with a modified version of Chickpea Hijiki Salad from VwaV (no carrots; diced celery, dill). The boy looked at me like I was insane when I put this on his plate.... then ate two massive plates full of salad.

Now, with any luck, I'll get week 3 posted before week 5!