CSA 2014 Week 1

Image from Scotch Hill Farm, Broadhead, WI

Week 1 Bounty:
Nancy butterhead bibb lettuce
Spinach
Norland Red potatoes
Curly cress
Leeks
Spicy greens mix
Oregano
Leaf lettuce mix
Romaine lettuce
Bok choi
Pink beauty radishes


A new season of vegetables!  They are all so beautiful.  When we bring home our bag of vegetables I love to have my kids help inspect them and prepare them for the fridge.  We talk about what we will eat first, what might not last long and what we are really excited to eat.  This week I was most excited about all of the gorgeous salad greens.

We usually embrace many Italian traditions that we learned while living in Italia.  One of these is eating the salad at the end of the meal.  It is supposed to be very good for digestion.  I never have any problem with this, as my family thinks that I am part rabbit, and will grab a handful of lettuce and eat it as is.  However, by the end of the meal the kids usually tell us they are too full for salad.  So we have started serving the salad at the beginning and found a dressing/topping that each likes and guess what?  They actually eat their salads!  It is ridiculously exciting!

The stir fry actually got an "mmmmm" from Greysen.  This kid is so picky that I have actually often wondered why I put so much effort into good food for my family.  But I keep on trying, so these victories, though not frequent, are so important to me.

The other big surprise of the week was the radish dip.  We had to throw something together quite quickly for a dance recital reception and I found with this recipe.  Allen raced to the store for cream cheese and a very delicious vegetable and cracker dip was made.  It was so good that I cannot wait to make it again!


Meal #1: lettuce, cress, sweet potatoes
Pan-fried Sweet Potatoes
Dice potatoes and fry in pan on medium low heat with olive oil until crisp. We add salt and seasonings (sometimes clove, sometimes tarragon or an Italian spice mix).
Hot Dogs
Salad
We use Newman's Own salad dressings.  My favorite is just oil and vinegar, but my family also thinks that I am part rabbit because I will just eat raw lettuce with nothing on it.  We usually have some nuts, seeds or sesame sticks, cress and other toppings available for each of us to create our own salad.  I found that when I make a single kind of salad inevitably someone will not like it.

Meal #2: spinach, lettuce
This slow cooker recipe was an organic creation of Allen's, so I apologize that there are no specific directions.  He just threw things in the crockpot and turned it on.  This would only end in disaster for me, but he can make it work.
  
Slow Cooker Fish, Mushroom and Quinoa
Butter
Prosecco
White fish
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Mushrooms
Spinach
Truffle oil
Onion
Quinoa
Seasoning salt
Salad (see notes above)

Meal #3: bok choi
Stir-Fried  Bok Choi with Ginger and Garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
8 cups chopped fresh bok choy
2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
Salt and ground black pepper
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and cook 1 minute. Add bok choy and soy sauce cook 3 to 5 minutes, until greens are wilted and stalks are crisp-tender. Season, to taste, with salt and black pepper.  Served with pan cooked pieces of chicken, brown rice and cashews.  * Recipe from Robin Miller at foodnetwork.com

Meal #4: lettuce
Risotto Tartufo
This is risotto with black truffles, a favorite of ours from Italia.  This is a cheat - a delicious box we found at Costco that is the closest we've gotten here to the real thing!
Salsiccia
Northern Italian sausage (with no fennel).  We have them specially made at the local meat market.  I like them best grilled the way our friends did in Italia, butterflied.  So delicious!
Salad (see notes above)

Side: radishes, garlic, spinach 
Radish Dip
4 cloves garlic, peeled
6 radishes, quartered (just used whole bunch from share)

Handful of spinach
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

Creole spice blend

Salt to taste
Place garlic in the container of a food processor, and pulse until finely minced. Add radishes and spinach and mince. Add cream cheese, and mix until well blended. Add spices to taste. Transfer to a serving dish, and chill until serving. * Recipe adapted from kgonier at allrecipes.com

Other: radish greens, spicy greens, oregano, potatoes
radish greens - steamed, pureed and frozen (to use later in sauces, eggs, smoothies, etc)
spicy greens - steamed, pureed and frozen 
oregano - hung to dry
potatoes - leftover

CSA Share Week 1

Here goes!  We are going to try and document our experience this year (our third) with our CSA share. CSA is a Community Supported Agriculture share in a farm. Each week for 20 weeks we receive a brown paper bag filled with an organic bounty of fresh vegetables and occasional fruit from Scotch Hill Farm in Broadhead, WI.

We have a 2.5 year old (who does NOT like most vegetables) and an almost five year old (who loves most veggies). It has been interesting over the past two years learning what works for us and what doesn't.

We eat what we can fresh, but when pickup day rolls around again, we must make room for the new. Last year we began steaming and pureeing some things. We then put it in ice cube trays and freeze. We've made a lot of different sauces with these cubes (pumpkin/squash, greens, various root veggies etc). We add them to pasta, risotto, cous cous...  Things with longer shelf life we keep around, but we don't like to waste a thing.

Week 1 bounty:
Chinese Cabbage
Radishes
Turnips
Lettuce Mix
Salad Selects (Mizoma greens)
Freckled Romain (a speckled variety)
Spinach
Cress
Leeks
Garlic Scapes (early cutting from plant that helps bulbs get bigger; use as you do garlic cloves)

Meal #1: Chinese cabbage and garlic scapes

The kids actually ate this whole meal!

Spicy Bok Choy in Garlic Sauce

1 pound bok choy (replaced with chinese cabbage)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root

2 cloves garlic, minced (replaced with garlic scapes)

1 tablespoon oyster sauce (didn't have, so we omitted)

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Trim off the ends of the bok choy and chop, keeping the white parts separate from the green as they will need to cook longer.  Rinse and spin or pat dry.  Set aside.  In a small bowl or cup, stir together the vegetable oil and sesame oil.  In a separate larger bowl, stir together the water, ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and red pepper flakes.  Set this aside.  Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.  Add the bok choy stems first; stir fry for a few minutes or until the pieces start to turn a pale green.  When stems are almost cooked, add the leaves; cook and stir until leaves are wilted, 1 to 2 minutes.  Remove from the heat and transfer the bok choy to a serving dish.  Pour the sauce into the skillet or wok and set over medium-high heat.  Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce has thickened slightly, about 3 minutes.  Pour over the bok choy and toss lightly to coat.  

* Recipe from allrecipes.com by Spyce

• 
  
• Ginger glazed mahi mahi

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
  salt and pepper, to taste
  2 Tbsp soy sauce
  1 Tbsp maple syrup
  couple squirts of lemon juice
  3 tilapia filets
  Cook filets with oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, salt and pepper for about 2 minutes on each side.  Add maple syrup cook another 2 minutes per side.
  
  
  Cous-cous with Cubes Sauce
  Made whole wheat cous-cous with 2 greens and 2 squash cubes (from last year's bounty).

• 
  

Meal #2: spinach, radish & turnip greens and garlic scapes

"Oscar Pasta" 

This is our own creation that the kids love.  

We steam greens (spinach, radish and turnip greens) and puree them. Usually it's just greens, butter/oil, salt and nutmeg to taste.This time we added some garlic scapes. Put the sauce on pasta.

Hot dogs

We try one meal a week to be just for the kids - all beef natural hot dogs.  This whole meal is always a guaranteed hit.  

Meal #3: radishes, turnips, leeks

Roasted Radishes and Turnips

radishes and turnips, cut into small bite-sizes
Put in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Then sprinkle with seasoning salt of choice. Toss to coat. Spread on a greased jelly roll pan. Place in oven at 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Turn vegetables every 10 minutes.

Allen's Best Burgers

1 lb lean burger

He puts a little of each of the following in our Magic Bullet: olive oil, dash of worchestershire sauce, oregano, basil, rosemary, salt and pepper, Lawry's salt (and a special new ingredient - a quarter of an onion, finely diced in our Magic Bullet). Mixed it with the burger and made patties.* Recipe from my husband :)

Pasta with leeks and last year's leftovers

We used 3 cubes of pureed greens, 3 cubes of pumpkin, 2 dashes of homemade salsa and added them to sauteed leeks.  Made a great sauce over our pasta.  The kids devoured it!

**Lettuces and cress have been eaten throughout the week with many meals (including last weeks' leftovers, which we had a lot of hence only 3 meals for 7 days).