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 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*

Miso salmon lettuce wraps and udon noodles

Ok, soon I will start taking better quality photos, but you don't know how hard it is to STOP long enough to take a photo before eating. These were delish!

The noodle dish was the first thing cooked in the new Cuisinart pan. It works beautifully for stir-fries!

My idea for the miso salmon lettuce wraps came from a restaurant called Twist in Atlanta. I love that place! It's a mix of tapas and sushi, and it has a most excellent bar! It was also across the street from where I worked for a year and a half, so I ate there two or three times a week. It's an addictive place!

So, last time I was there, the Miso Salmon Lettuce Wraps (tapas, not entrée) was $8 for some lettuce, some house-made pickle slices, and a piece of salmon about the size of one of these in the photo above. It's possible the prices have gone up in the past four years. 

This version I made broke down to:

$5.50 for the wild-caught Alaskan coho salmon at Trader Joe's

$.50 for a bit of the organic miso paste at Follow Your Heart (local health food store)

$1.38 for the half-package of organic udon noodles also at Follow Your Heart

$.15 worth of soy sauce

$1.00 worth of Thai kaffir lime chili sauce from Whole Foods

$.50 worth of organic CSA leeks

$.50 worth of organic CSA stir-fry mix

$5.00 for the bag of wild/foraged baby shiitake mushrooms 

$1.00 for the head of organic butter lettuce

This was cooked in the last of the duck fat that I rendered from my organic pastured duck some 5 weeks ago, and I also used a spot of white pepper on the salmon.

All told, that was $15.53 for dinner for two, mostly organic, wild, and super-delicious. Also, I cooked WAY too much in terms of noodles: there's another meal for two from the leftovers. Plus, Gabriel didn't finish his salmon, so he added it to his other leftover fish to become his lunch salad tomorrow.  

That rounds out to $7.76/person for two plus meals for each person, or about $3.89 a meal. And people say that you can't eat well or organically for fast food prices! Here's PROOF of the opposite! And no, it wasn't hard or time-consuming. Total prep/cook time was 23 minutes. I had the salmon in cold water to defrost it for about a half hour, but while the salmon was defrosting, I did the 10 or so minutes of noodle time: boil water, cook noodles for 5 minutes, drain, rinse, and set aside. Since this is a Sunday night, I would not expect to be able to get in a restaurant and be served in less than 20 minutes. Hell, I wouldn't even expect to have my drink by then.

As much as I love Twist, two orders of these wraps would have been $16, plus drink, plus tax, plus tip, and that doesn't even account for noodles and veggies, nor does it account for a possible price increase. We'll leave the two round-trip plane tickets to Atlanta out of the equation. ;) 

The salmon was very simple:

-pat salmon dry and cut into serving portions

-lightly oil pan and heat to medium

-mix 1 to 2 tablespoons of water into 1 tablespoon of miso paste to thin it: you want it thinly spreadable, but not runny, so start with less water and add more as needed

-sprinkle salmon with white pepper

-coat top of salmon with miso/water mixture

-place salmon in hot pan on oil, and wait 30 seconds. Then, nudge salmon to dislodge it from the pan so it doesn't stick

-cover pan and let the salmon cook for 5-7 minutes for thinner cuts. If the salmon is a thicker cut, reduce heat slightly and add 2 tablespoons of water to the pan before adding the lid. Let cook for 7-9  minutes, or to your desired doneness.

-plate and serve with washed, chilled lettuce leaves

-to eat, place a chunk of salmon in a piece of lettuce and eat it like a taco. 

-sigh with contentment

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Roasted chicken, seasoned fries, and baby green salad

This was my lunch yesterday.

Roasted chicken leftovers, pan-cooked in organic butter to warm it up, organic baby green salad, and homemade seasoned french fries.

The organic, pastured, happy roasted chicken originally cost $16, but I so far have gotten 4 meals from it, and still have 1/3 of the carcass to go. 

The greens cost about 50 cents.

The organic potato for the fries was from my CSA box, so I estimate about $1 cost. 

I used Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute and some Trader Joe's Sea Salt. 

I fried the potato in lard that I rendered from organic, hormone-free pork fat trimmings that I got from the butcher.

I'll overestimate and call it a $4.50 lunch. It took about 22 minutes to make, and it was super tasty. 

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Tuna with pancetta weapped asparagus

Super-easy dinner! 


Pancetta from Whole Foods, about $4 worth, and still have some left.
Organic asparagus from my CSA, about $2 worth.
Wild-caught hormone-and-nasty-stuff-free tuna from Trader Joe's freezer section, $3.94. 
Organic lemon from the tree over the fence, free.
Olive oil for the tuna pan, maybe 15 cents worth. Also a bit of salt and pepper.
Total cost for 2 people: $10.25, with a bit of leftover fish for Gabriel's lunch salad. Compared to what we usually would spend at a fast food place, that saved us $4. Compared to a restaurant, about $25 saved, aside from drinks and tip. Total prep and cook time: 18 minutes, or about what it would take for me to get to a restaurant and get my drink, but not yet place my order. 


Makes you think, huh? 


I'll be doing how-to's on simple, delicious dinners like these. I hope you will find them helpful.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Pork pita and cheddar

This is the leftover pork stuffed in a homemade pita, with baby greens and a few slices of grass-fed New Zealand Cheddar on the side. NUMMY. I should note that I spent $12 on two large organic, hormone-free pork chops, and that was stretched into 5 servings, plus bones for stock. Not bad at all!


Making pita at home is really easy. I followed this basic recipe on one of my favorite food forums. Sniff around, and I'll bet you'll find something fantastic! Anyway, Gabriel and I destroyed the first batch of pita very quickly, so I made another batch two days later. For the time invested, it is a very good bread to make. I'll likely make some more soon, but with whole wheat. 


I should also note that I tend to make my doughs overwet and knead them via a method called French folding. You can find a video here on the folding technique. I don't have a Kitchen Aid mixer with dough hook (yet), so I do all of my kneading by hand. I've been trolling estate sales for a mixer, but I might have to wait and get one via my wedding registry. At any rate, a mixer makes the kneading part easier, but kneading itself is kind of relaxing, and I don't mind it so much.


If you haven't baked much before, give the pita a try! 

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

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

Mmmmm... Morels!

Yes, that is ONE morel mushroom! I love my farmer's market!

-- 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!

In which I wax poetic on fame, fortune, and lacks thereof. OK, maybe not poetic.

The Weirdness That is Hollywood astounds me still.

I knew there were a lot of celebrities, both past and present oozing throughout the pores of Los Angeles county. I've run into porn stars trying to forget their porny pasts, blowhard combo-names-du-jour (Bradgelina and the like - ech), and aging boardtreaders wondering where the hell all the time went. I haven't even gotten to the musicians yet.

For instance, I am a waitress. I haven't paid my bills on time once in over eight months. I'm broke. I'm looking to move on to a *gasp* day job, and will use waiting tables to pay off old stuff while new job pays off current stuff.

So I'm applying for this job, and I get this interview. The interview goes well. I'm near Sawtelle, so I decided to grab some ramen. YUM! Asahi Ramen rocks. My feet really hurt. Again, that whole waitress thing. For the 2-3 block walk from my car, I switched to my flops - they do NOT match my ensemble. They shorten me, and make my curvy bits look more like chunky bits. I still got whistled at - SWEET! Doesn't happen much since I moved here. At home, I'm an 8, and here I'm a 4. Sucks. But I digress. Suffice it to say, I felt good about myself at the time.

So I took the window table at Asahi Ramen. The place was full, and an attractive couple wanted a table. The gentleman looked familiar, and he was very handsome. He had dark, curling hair very thoroughly shot with silver - think Clooney while on ER, and you'll have the idea. His hair coloring screamed "early to late forties", but he still seemed young for that. He seemed barely my age, and certainly the young lady was exactly that - young. Something was very poignantly familiar about his lips. I'm an artist, so I pick up on that sort of thing. I tried not to stare, but the couple were kind of in the way of the view. in order to look out the window, I must look at them. Bizarrely, I felt as though I were in a reverse fishbowl. I was a semi-ugly betta attempting to attract attention so I could beg some fish flakes, but no one was noticing. Way weird. Anyway, I can't recall the gesture he made that reminded me, but I realized that I was looking at Balthazar Getty.

He's the same age as me, as a quick google revealed. 34. He's infinitely more handsome that he was in Young Guns II (where I first saw him and sighed), and much older. I still get mistaken for 23. I doubt he's been carded for a beer in years, and he had a baby face, back in the day. When he still looked fifteen, I got mistaken for thirty. Shit's changed.

Tinseltown must weigh a fucking ton, and I never truly saw it until that moment. Yeah, if you're lucky, you get to be like him and work with David Lynch and Oliver Stone. You end up on a diet of protein shakes and botox, too.

Valentine's day amuses me to no end. It's a Christian Holiday Appropriated by Hallmark and Russell Stover, but much more thoroughly than Xmas/Easter. I celebrated by trying my first foie gras (nothing says romance like a force-fed goose!) and sharing a restaurant with David Hyde Pierce of Frasier fame. Not bad.

At my Chinese Chain Restaurant Job, Jani Lane of Warrant ended up in the kitchen while looking for a bathroom. I pointed him the right way with a smile, while Kristi joked that if he stayed in the kitchen we'd have to put him to work. He didn't laugh. He was probably embarrassed. If memory serves from my Mental Metal Edge Archives, he had a real shit job pre-rock-star, and he might have had nasty flashbacks. I'd have left, too!

He is *extremely* blond. He looks better with glasses and short hair. I smile to remember the beef in the early nineties between Matthew Nelson and him over that Bobbi Brown chick that was in the Cherry Pie video (that they played incessantly. Repeatedly. I began to pray for Snoop and Dre to come on and save me, and I was a fucking metalhead, they played that song so goddamn much!) that Jani started dating. I remember seeing exactly *one* Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous episode where Matt dropped $21k for a week's stay in a hotel with that chica, and that was just the room. Not the food! Bitch betta give great head! They spent more in one week back then what I make in a year NOW. Damn. (And now Matt's got a Fredrick's of Hollywood model for a wife. Definitely an improvement. Possibly even a cheaper one.)

Rene Auberjonois (Odo on Deep Space Nine! And also on Benson, et. al.) was my geek high of sightings! Too bad his tablemate was a douchebag. Perhaps the man is ill, but in case of him possibly ever reading this, I have a message:
Mr. Auberjonois, for you I have much respect. Perhaps there are reasons for his actions, but the man you shared a table with at my Chinese Chain Restaurant Job is hazardous to your dining experience. You were in very professional hands that evening, but I assure you that many who share in my job description do not have my scruples, or those of your lovely server. Dining out with this person will result in, and may have all ready resulted in, sullied food or drink. Stay away, for your own sake. And for god's sake, be sure you tip well enough to make up for his behavior. Apologizing to the server wouldn't hurt either. That always goes a long way with us, and we'll share behind the scenes, being sure to keep others' hands out of your food too - the kitchen staff may act in a server's defense. Just sayin'.

Alec Baldwin's publicist is a bit of a twit - there's an hour wait, no, he can't cut in line. But Alec himself was quite pleasant, and sat with his family on the patio in a light drizzle. His daughter is stunning. Then, I was reminded of who her mother is, and remembered why - she has the Holy Grail of Genetics. Nothing like the glare of expectation. I know it well, but at about 1/1000th the intensity. I got your Complete Lack of Envy right here.

So, I skipped watching the Oscars - we killed cable, and I sure as hell wasn't gonna stream the whole damn thing. I heard about the winners, and thought about it.

Heath Ledger died, possibly quite an unhappy person, and won a statue he's too dead to care about. Jani Lane's biggest claim to fame is a commercial crap song he didn't even like very much when he wrote it. Balthazar aged a lot more in ten years than he should have. Alec has some douche talking for him. Rene has to watch his food quality thanks to his tablemate. Angelina and Jennifer will forever be assumed to be locked in a struggle of hate. The worst part is people WATCHING them suffer. I slave for a tiny bit of cash that doesn't pay the bills, endure Verbal Abuse Week at my job, handle endless insult and injury while being underpaid, ache without medical coverage, and wear the same clothing over and over endlessly - and I wouldn't want to be ANY of the above-mentioned people.

I'll keep on being a Hollywood 4, since I'm used to that. Don't have to be a 10 to clean teeth or write a good story. Don't have to worry (as much) about the calories from that extra cookie. Don't have to obsess over each line or wrinkle. Don't have to be the ant under the magnifying glass. Fine by me. Now do you want white or brown rice with that?

Something New - 2/14/09

Hi all!

So, my new thing for the week: Foie Gras.

Foie Gras is the fattened liver or a duck or goose. I HATE liver!! I made my grandmother stop making giblet gravy at thanksgiving, because the liver chunks are gross-tastic!!

For Valentine's Day, Gabriel took me to Terra. The food was beyond sublime, and as an appetizer, Gabriel ordered the Foie Gras. I was grossed out, but said I would try it. I'm so glad I did!

The chef took a 1/2" thick slice of the liver and quickly pan-seared it, so it was a mite crusty. It was plated with some greens and a peach tarte tatin over what appeared to be port wine reduction. I very hesitantly cut off a bit with my fork, and was astounded at the texture. I was so surprised at the delicate flavor! It was so good! I will order it again somewhere else.

So, new for this week: foie gras, Terra, and their tasty passion fruit mojito.

Go forth and be renewed! And come back and tell me what's new with you! What have you tried that's new to you?

Something New - a new series of posts!

Hi all! I'm starting a new series of posts. It's called "Something New!"

The story behind this is a fun one, and I decided that I wanted to share with you all. Maybe you'll be inspired to do something new yourself!

A few years ago, just post-divorce, I realized how much I had stagnated. Life was not what I wanted it to be. My ex only wanted me to cook 2 things, and both of them were tomato-based. I essentially had been cooking the same 2 dishes for 9 years. I was overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated. I had no money and few positive life experiences.

After I met Gabriel, we did a few new things. For starters, I was unused to being treated well in a relationship. That was certainly new to me! But we did new things like trying new restaurants, new wines, going new places, and doing new things. I met new people and had new experiences. I heard new music, watched new films, and read new books. I was hooked!

So I made myself a promise: I will do at least one new thing a week! It can be simple or small, but it must be undone previously in this life as Jenna. Sometimes I've fallen short, but I have certainly done many new things!

In the past few years, some of my most poignant new things are:
-Finishing my first novel
-Making my first bread
-Trying Indian food for the first time (Oh, why wasn't this sooner?!?!?)
-Living out of the state of Georgia
-Standing up for myself
-Getting a new cat
-Volunteering at an animal shelter

More recently, I've made my first preserves, tried some new restaurants, and maintained blogs. But these are all new things designed to keep me vibrant and vital! I plan now to share them with you!

Try something new this week! Tell me about it here in the comments!