Switching CSAs

So my Silverbrook Farm CSA has come to an end, and I am now picking up substantial bi-weekly shares from The Kitchen Garden Farm in Sunderland, MA. I'm loving the new shares, they're large, have a wonderful variety of produce, and for what it's worth, are cleaner and nicer looking than the last few weeks of my Silverbrook shares. The style of picking up the Kitchen Garden shares is also different. The Silverbrook Farm shares would be portioned out and packaged for each person ahead of time, you just had to throw everything in your bag. The Kitchen Garden instead lays out bins of each vegetable, and posts the amount you should take of each on a whiteboard. For example, the list will say '2 pounds of potatoes', '1 head of lettuce', and '1 bunch of carrots', then you can select and bag which veggies you want. I really appreciate the opportunity for selection.

The last week of my Silverbrook Farm shares and the first week of the Kitchen Garden shares happened on Monday and Wednesday of the same week so I was bombarded with fresh veggies. My last Silverbrook share brought:

Two carnival squash, mixed greens, a head of green cabbage, a bag of arugula, cranberries, apples, red potatoes, and delectable Cloumage cheese curd from Shy Brothers Farm.

The Kitchen Garden gave me 2 pounds of beets, a bunch of carrots, broccoli, a head of radicchio, hakurei turnips, sweet potatoes, bok choy, a head of cauliflower, and red onions (the kitty was sold separately).

Apples and carrots went into Oh She Glows' lentil walnut apple loaf, which I served with smashed potatoes and butternut squash. This was my take on vegan meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and it turned out more flavorful than the real thing!

The sweet potatoes and arugula went into this flatbread recipe from The Kitchn. I swapped cloumage for the ricotta. I also made a few pumpkin pie smoothies. I couldn't find an easy recipe that I liked for these online, so I made up my own version with frozen bananas, almond milk, pumpkin puree, maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice. It was like drinking pumpkin pie filling - yum.

I stuffed the carnival squash with mixed greens, sweet potatoes, turnips and onions and baked them until soft. I love trying all the different varieties of squashes, they each have their own delicate flavor.

Upon request from GP, I made a New England boiled dinner with part of the green cabbage, potatoes and carrots. I had to replace the corned beef with pot roast though, as I was unable to find briskets anywhere in my area... I made a drizzle out of hard mustard and beer and we ate it up with plenty of cider.

More butternut squash from previous shares, along with black beans and arugula, were seasoned and sauteed, topped with cloumage and walnuts, and served on a bed of brown rice. This was a last minute throw-together-random-stuff dinner that I was pleasantly surprised by.

The remaining green cabbage went into my favorite soup of all time - hot and sour mushroom, cabbage and rice soup from The Kitchn. I've modified the recipe a bit, reducing the amount of cabbage, and adding Chinese black vinegar and lemon juice. Dotted with Sriracha, this soup will warm you to the core.

The blog Serious Eats provided me with this delicious recipe for radicchio risotto, drizzled with balsamic vinegar. I'm becoming a big fan of risotto, they're not as intimidating to make as they may seem. Whether or not the final texture on my risotto is perfect - who cares? I like them! This recipe had the savory smoothness typical of risottos, but with crunch and bitterness from the radicchio and a sour bite from the vinegar. It was incredible. 

The broccoli and cauliflower were spiced and roasted, and paired with this simple recipe for sauteed turnips, fennel and chickpeas.

Lastly, with two pounds of beets, all I could think to make was the Russian soup borscht. I have never eaten nor cooked borscht before, and this simple recipe from The Kitchn makes no pretense of being authentic. My understanding is that the real deal is very involved and includes making beef stock with bone marrow. I still look forward to one day trying legitimate borscht, but this simple one-pot meal of mushrooms, potatoes, beets and carrots simmered in seasoned broth has earned a permanent spot in my recipe box.

That's all for now! In my next post I'll share what I've been eating lately, along with my adventure cooking for Thanksgiving.

Best!

CSA Weeks 16, 17 and 18

Hello hello, and happy November! Is it awful that the moment Halloween ended, I started hearing Christmas carols in my head? I come from a family that takes Christmas very seriously, and November is just prep time for yuletide. I'm itching to break out my three Christmas trees and start baking cookies and pies!

But I'm getting way ahead of myself. I still have to tell you about the final weeks of my Silverbrook Farm CSA, and in my next post I'll feature the first share of my new bi-weekly winter pickup from The Kitchen Garden.

Week 16 of my Silverbrook CSA brought:

Butternut squash, lettuce, pea tendrils, apples, tomatoes, ground cherries, potatoes, green peppers, and grapes. I also bought cranberries, parsnips and borlotti beans.

I used the cranberries and pea tendrils in this recipe for pan-seared scallops on a bed of greens and sprouts, drizzled with cranberry and horseradish sauce. The original recipe called for mixing horseradish into prepared cranberry sauce, but I could only find horseradish in sauce form itself, so I criss-crossed the two, and was very pleased with the results. This dish looks beautiful, has a unique combo of flavors, and is filling but light. Plus, this was the first time I had made cranberry sauce from scratch, and I couldn't believe how easy and quick it was!

Next, Taco Day rolled around (which was also Vodka Day), and the lettuce, borlotti beans, peppers and tomatoes became filling for a huge batch of tacos. Spicy and delicious!

I paired the parsnips and potatoes with mushrooms to make a rib-sticking root vegetable curry inspired by The Complete Curry Cookbook. The original recipe was for a beef-stew like curry, but I replaced the meat with mushrooms and cut the cooking time in half.

Finally, the butternut squash and mixed greens went into a improvised salad with onions, red cabbage, pepitas and nutritional yeast that I loosely based on a recipe in the I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook. The salad was okay, but not great, and I worked really hard at making the sauteed shrimp flavorful, but they fell flat.

Looking back, I'm realizing that I combined the shares from Week 17 and Week 18 to make meals. I was busy and not eating a home after the Week 17 share, and before I knew it, I was picking up another haul of food. Here's what I received:

Week 17 was more grapes, pea tendrils, another butternut squash, a head of cabbage, kale, bok choy, apples, potatoes and a jar of mustard. (Once again the kale was swarming with aphids and got tossed.)

Week 18 had eggs, lettuce, pea tendrils, more mixed greens, butternut squash, apples, pears, and potatoes.

I also bought a mammoth sweet potato, which went into three different dishes. Here's a picture for scale:

First up, one third of the sweet potato went into my favorite sweet potato and black bean chili with cornbread.

The cabbage I cut into quarters and roasted, drizzling it with chili lime sauce according to this amazing recipe from The Kitchn, which I can't believe I haven't mentioned before. I paired the cabbage with pumpernickel toast and seasoned white beans on a bed of pea tendrils.

The mixed greens joined tomatoes, onions, peppers, lentils and bulgur in a batch of Protein Power Goddess Bowls from Oh She Glows (see recipe in sidebar).

The bok choy went into a large bowl of Sriracha slaw (from the Sriracha Cookbook), which I paired with lemony miso noodles.

Nothing from the CSA here, but I made a second spicy Asian dinner out of more Sriracha slaw, and bowls of Mark Bittman's kimchi soup with tofu.

More pea tendrils and random veg became a side salad to a main dish of Hipster Food's pumpkin rotini (recipe in sidebar).

Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes! What to do with them all? I turned to Smitten Kitchen, one of the most popular food blogs out there, for a great tortilla de patatas recipe, which used up a good portion of my potatoes, onions, and eggs. This is a fantastic breakfast or lunch dish that is homey, savory and filling.

Lastly, again, nothing from the CSA here, but in honor of Pumpkin Day, which also happened to be Pretzel Day, behold: pumpkin pretzels!!! This is your basic homemade soft pretzel recipe, with pumpkin puree mixed in. I couldn't decide if I wanted them to be salty or sweet, so I sprinkled them with both kosher salt and cinnamon. They were a hit!

I'll stop there before this turns into a mega-post, and deal with my last Silverbrook share and my first new CSA share in the next post.

'Til then!