CSA Boxes for Last 2 weeks - Ending May 22

Potatoes, thyme, strawberries, apriums, cabbage, romaine lettuce, grapefruits, radishes, carrots, and fava beans.

I should note that this was the tiniest cabbage head in the world...

Cute, eh?

After all that veggie-putting-awayness, I had breakfast! Yogurt with apriums, strawberries, cherries, and avocado honey:

And that leaves the most recent box:

Apriums, artichokes, english peas, carrots, red spring onions, leaf lettuce, rainier cherries, and chocolate mint.

I should say that a fair portion of those cherries didn't make it home. Hell, they didn't even make it the 5 minute drive to the farmer's market!

For those of you who are wondering what an aprium is, it's a plum / apricot hybrid, with about 75% of the genetics coming from the apricot side. It's pretty tasty, and I have a lot of them. I'll probably slice some and freeze them in mini cupcake wells for yogurt in the summer.

I have some upcoming posts that will expound on the virtues of a good, organic ramen, and how to spruce up your ramen noodles with fab veggies and meats! Meanwhile, I have to cook those ramens and eat them. I'll probably end up making a series of it, so stay tuned!

Csa box...

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Oranges, mandarins, artichokes, baby shallots, sugar snap peas, red leaf lettuce, strawberries, marjoram, thyme flowers, and the first tomatoes!!! :D

Oh, what to do, what to do!

CSA Box May 1, 2010

Ooooh, tasty! The sugar snap peas made their way into some organic ramen along with one of the baby garlics and a carrot. I'm thinking that a brown butter sage sauce would be good on something this week. But what?

I need to get cracking with potatoes - I'm still 4 weeks behind in eating our supply. However, we are not getting more this week, so I can catch up maybe. I saw an interesting accordion potatoes recipe - I'll try it and see if it's good.

Also bought a flat of organic strawberries from a farm on Free Comic Book Day. Twelve baskets of berries for $16. *gasp*

So far, I've had a lot of strawberries and yogurt, chopped a lot for the freezer, and made a strawberry rhubarb jam. I still have strawberry ice cream and dried strawberries to do. Then, I have to invent other things to do with 9,000 more strawberries.

Oh, and what's coming in the CSA box this week? You guessed it! Strawberries! *facepalm*

Pickles - Cheap, easy, fresh, delicious!

Oh, pickles. How yummy you are!

I seriously destroy these as soon as I make them. They are so good! Notice how I ate half the jar in order to arrange this photo? Well, at least they're low-calorie! I'm on the point of picking up cukes every time I'm at the farmer's market now, and the pickles make a quick snack. These are not truly fermented pickles, but rather a marinated type of pickle. These don't have lovely probiotics, unless you are using raw, unfiltered cider vinegar and raw honey.

I found the original recipe here on Tasty Kitchen. However, I detest sweet pickles, and the original recipe was far too sweet. Here is the recipe with my modifications:

• 2 whole Cucumbers (this is if you are using full-size standard grocery store cucumbers. I vary with what's available, and have used 8-10 Persian cucumbers, or 3 Japanese long seedless ones. Be certain to get the ones that are not waxed - for this reason, go to the farmer's market and get organic ones. I say Organic, because you won't be peeling them, so whatever pesticides are on the cukes will stay on the cukes. Fair warning.)
• 4-8 cloves Garlic (depending on size, and how much you like garlic. I like garlic a lot.)
• 1 3/4 cup Vinegar (I used white vinegar, but apple cider vinegar would work well also)
• 1/4 cup Water
• 1 Tablespoon cups Sugar (or honey, or sucanat, or 1 teaspoon ground green stevia)
• 1 Tablespoon Salt (some people swear that you must use pickling salt, or your pickles will discolor. Mine have never lasted that long! I used raw sea salt. Feel free to use more or less salt to your taste.)
• 1 teaspoon Dill, Dried OR a few sprigs of fresh Dill
• 1 pinch Red Pepper Flakes
• 1 pinch ground Coriander or 4-5 whole coriander seeds
• 6 whole Peppercorns

The original recipe stated to slice the cukes into fine slices, like those found on hamburgers. To that, I say "Nay!" and cut them in long quarters. But these are YOUR pickles, so cut them how you like.  I trim mine to the approximate length of the jars. If you are keeping the cukes whole, poke holes in them with a fork so that the brine will penetrate the skin. 

Smash the garlic cloves a bit. If they are large, then cut them into halves or quarters. 

Put cucumbers and garlic in a bowl or jar. In the photograph, I have used two pint size wide mouth canning jars, and stuffed them to capacity. Since I used two jars, I split the garlic between them. If using fresh dill, split that between the jars also, or put it in the bowl with the cukes and garlic. The reason I use the jars is that they keep the vinegar smell in the jar, and the jars are much less likely to spill. DO NOT make these in plastic. Just saying.

Heat vinegar, water, sugar, salt, dill (if using dried dill), red pepper flakes, coriander and peppercorns in a small sauce pan until sugar and salt are dissolved. The mixture should not boil, but be a touch warm. If you are using raw vinegar for the probiotics, then heat everything else in the water ONLY, then add the vinegar once you have taken the mixture off the heat. 

Pour the heated mixture over the cucumbers and garlic (and fresh dill, if applicable).  Cover and put in refrigerator for at least two hours. Then, eat them whenever. And you will. Often. Nummy.

The organic cukes cost about $3

$.15 for vinegar

$.50 for fresh organic garlic

$.25 for spices

$.10 or less of sugar/honey 

$.25 of organic dill from my CSA

So that's $4.25 for two 16 oz. jars of fresh, organic pickles, or $2.13 each. 

They took about 5 minutes to make, and I can make them how I like (spicier, garlicier, saltier, etc.). Not bad.

CSA box for April 24

Yay, fava beans! But what to do with baby turnips? Hmmm...

The oranges on the right were free extras. The flowers are actually chamomile, and the basket has a bunch of loose chard. More potatoes and broccoli, and I still have all the 'taters from the last 3 weeks. I need to jump on this a bit more. Nothing's really going to waste yet, but my fridge is becoming a minefield of veggies. Perhaps it's time for potato leek soup and a French leek soup.

On the bright side, we are eating a ton more greens and lettuce. This is very, very good.

We've eaten from a couple of quality food trucks lately, but no fast food. We ate at a great sushi place the other night, and that was the first time we've eaten in a restaurant since our Vegas vacation three weeks earlier. This is good! Saving money is both tasty and healthy!

Green garlic soup with port wine whole grain bread

I used this recipe, but I didn't quite have enough chicken stock. I also doubled the potato, and used a bit of extra half-and-half, since what I had was about to expire. My potato was also a russet potato, because that's what I had on hand. At any rate, the soup was fantastic. Keep in mind that spring garlic or green garlic doesn't nearly have the spicy bite or scent that mature garlic has. The result was phenomenal. It made two very generous bowls and two cups left over. In fact, I'm going to go have those leftovers. Right. Now. 


Total cost for the soup was maybe $4, including the half-and-half that was about to be trashed and the rather expensive chicken broth concentrate I had on hand. Not bad at all!


The port bread was sliced and grilled in a pan with butter. Gabriel destroyed five slices, it was so good. However, it deserves its own post. That will come soon. Very soon!


Eat well, my lovelies!

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Swordfish dinner with homemade fries

Not pictured: baby greens salad. Total cost for dinner for two: $7.50. For freaking swordfish. Long live Trader Joe's! 


The potatoes were part of the CSA delivery this week, greens purchased inexpensively at the farmer's market, the pan-fried lemon was pulled from the tree branch over the fence in the yard, and the wild-caught swordfish was in the frozen section for a few cents under $6. 


The potatoes were cooked in organic, hormone-free lard which I rendered from free trimmings saved by the butcher at Whole Foods. The trimmings also yielded about a pound of free pork bits, which are ideal for stock or stir-fry. Can't argue with free! 


Yes, lard. Animal fat gets a bad rap. 

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

CSA box for April 10

Just ignore the two massive leeks on the left - they weren't even in the box! They were free additions. Well, I wanted to make leek soup, so here we go!

So, everything else was slightly less than $20. All organic, all tasty. I've never cooked artichokes before, so I suppose I better figure those out pretty quickly.

This week, I added eggs, some celery, some onions, pears, and baby greens to my farmer's market bags. I've been eating the greens like chips lately, even so far as to taking some in a bowl for the drive to work. Talk about fast food! But I am certainly feeling better lately, so I must be doing something right.

So far this week, I have made swordfish steaks with french fries and roasted chicken with a herb I've never tried before called za'atar, which is kind of like oregano on steroids and an attitude. I baked potatoes smeared in bacon fat again, and they were delish! I've started buying a pasture butter for table uses like these, and I think I'll keep on with that.

I need to put up my photo from last week, which has my green garlic soup and grilled slices of my port wine whole grain bread. SO tasty!

But the best news is this: ALBUS IS BACK!!

Albus is my kitty who got out a couple of days after Isis died, and we didn't trap him until Saturday. Oh, he is skinny! He is malnourished, dehydrated, and coated with fleas (yuk), but he's back, and I'm happy about that.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Sunday dinner, 3/21/10

Pan-seared organic pork chops, steamed pea shoots, morel mushroom risotto (made with duck fat & stock), and pancetta wrapped asparagus. Pork chops from Whole Foods, Applegate Farms pancetta, pea shoots and asparagus from Abundant Harvest Organics - our delightful CSA - morels from the Calabasas farmer's market. I used Calrose sushi rice for the risotto. Waste not, want not! :D

Um, it ended up being WAY too much for us to eat, so I sliced the remaining pork for pita sandwiches. Gabriel also took the 2 remaining asparagus spears to snack on. I slipped the last 2 macarons in his lunch bag, too.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Duck, duck, no goose yet

So, this was Thursdays' dinner: Duck breast over chanterelle mushroom balsamic risotto. I more or less followed this recipe, but added chanterelle mushrooms and quattro formaggio instead of just parmesan.

These are the duck breasts I got off the whole duck I purchased at the Calabasas farmer's market. I made a duck ragú with the legs, stock with the bones, pita filling from the meat left on the bones, and tenderloins for my organic ramen noodles. I also rendered the fat and got 1 3/4 cup of pure ducky deliciousness. All for just $26. Not bad for pastured, organic, healthy duck which has been sustainably raised! Especially since I've seen 1 1/2 cups of duck fat alone available for $18.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Csa box

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

So this is the first of my veggie boxes from my CSA, which is Abundant Harvest Organics. For slightly less than $20 a week, Gabriel and I get the small size box of veggies. It is all 100% organic, seasonal, local produce. We pick it up on Saturday mornings about 2 miles from our house. So far, the small box has more than we can eat! This CSA is just for California, but there are many CSA's around the world.

I supplement the box from the pantry and items purchased at the farmer's market. Things like chicken, eggs, beef, cheeses, etc. don't come automatically, but you can have them added on to your CSA purchases each week. I just grab those at the market.

This is an exercise in changing how we eat. By purchasing organic, we're helping our health and the environment. By purchasing locally, we're reducing our food's dependence on foreign oil, and bolstering our local economies. By buying farmer direct, we know who grew the food, whose kids we're sending to college, and paying money to the actual farmer instead of agribusiness megacorps. By getting grass-fed, pastured, organic, healthy meats and eggs, we're getting lower-fat, higher nutrient foods. We're spending less on packaging because the CSA brings the veggies in reused crates - we return the one last week to be refilled next week. We bring our own bags to the farmer's market. There's less waste in the landfills. The best part: our food tastes much better AND we're saving money. Yes, I said SAVING money.

We're buying organic, and spending less than if we went out to a cheap restaurant twice a week. Our entire food purchases are coming in less than 2 meals cost previously. WOW. And we even know every single ingredient for the meal. How nice!

The federal government allots $298/month in food stamps for a family of 2 on government support. We're able to spend about that, maybe just a few dollars more. Buying organic. What a fabulous deal! :D

I'll try to post sometimes as we get new boxes of food, and what I do with it. Should be fun!