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*

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