Thursday, April 29, 2010

CSA Basket for the week of 4/29

Picked up today CSA basket and we got carrots, beets, leeks, dinosaur kale, broccoli, warrigal cabbage (also known as New Zealand spinach and a salad bag with spinach, arugula and baby lettuce.

I'm going to have the salad bags tonight for dinner with our pizza. I'll to have to figure out when I'll be using the other stuff but will let you know how it goes. I'm going to have to do some research on the NZ spinach and get more info on the kale and leeks. Probably will make a soup with part of the leeks. I'm still having fun and this is very good for expanding my cooking skills.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Accepted into Amy's Farm CSA

After applying to acquire some shares at the local CSA at Amy's Farm about a month ago, some shares opened up and I was able to get 2 shares which are enough to feed my large family. It's so exciting to have fresh produce and know where it was actually grown. And to also think that I'm contributing to our local agriculture and helping to keep some farms in the area. This is also going to make me stretch as a cook. Thank goodness for the internet and it's plethora of recipes. It's the greatest for finding recipes for the strangest things.

In this week's basket we received kale, parsnips, beets, green onions, a salad bag with spinach and arugula, a bunch of marjoram and basil, regular and purple broccoli and napa cabbage.

So what have I used so far. The first night I used one bag of the salad greens, added some feta and dried cranberries and use a red wine vinegar dressing. Next I needed to find a way to use the kale. I've never eaten or used kale so found some interesting recipes and went with one from Amy's Farm newsletter. It was called Basket Fried Rice, so I ended up using a bunch of the onions, 1 head of the napa cabbage and 1 bunch of the kale. Rich and the guys like it, I would have liked it better if I would have used my usual stir fry sauce instead of just soy sauce. Tonight we are using the beets, roasted, the beet greens, sauteed, and the parsnips, sauteed in butter, yum!

We just finished dinner and the beets were great. I love the way they came out, roasting really brings out the sugar in them. Added a little balsamic vinegar and I was in heaven. The left-overs are going to be great cold.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to make a Chinese cole slaw with the Napa cabbage. Then we will only have some kale and broccoli left. Then I'll have to see what awaits me in the baskets next week.

Getting Started

Well, I guess I'm jumping into the world of blogging. I'm hoping that I have enough to say to keep things interesting. We shall see.