6/28/12 CSA SHARE DISTRIBUTION #5

 POST #758

Here is what we got and what I came home with:

Zucchini – 4 pcs
Cipollini Onions – 1 bun
Fennel -OR- Kohlrabi – 1 bun…We got broccoli instead, I traded for more kale
Baby Spinach – 1 bag
Radicchio – 1 hd
Swiss Chard – 1 bun………………I traded for more kale
Toscano Kale – 1 bun
Red Boston Lettuce – 1 hd…..…We got a HUGE bunch of escarole instead

I traded the broccoli because it was mostly yellow, and I don’t care for broccoli that much anyway.

I kept the radicchio because I have never eaten radicchio, and I can’t know if I don’t like it until I try it.  Wish me luck.

I was going to trade the onions for something, but they are so nice and big – I have some store-bought onions, which will last for a while, but these nice fat onions will be good in salads for the next week, I think.

I just made it through last week’s escarole (gasp!), and now I’m saddled with more.  Oh well. Wraps worked last week, I can deal with a salad or two, and then, of course, there are (yuck) green smoothies.  (I was just checking my skin today to see if I have turned green from all the green smoothies occasioned by the farms insidious desire for me to consume green leaves.)

I will be up by Fairway market tomorrow afternoon, so I will stop in there and pick up some cabbage (I’m out of sauerkraut), tomatoes, mushrooms (I want to make a cashew/jalapeno/mushroom cheeze filling for kohlrabi ravioli with the kohlrabi I still have left), and some more lentils to sprout (I really do love lentil sprouts)

BTW, last week, I bought this bag of sprouting grass for the cats from the supermarket, and it turned out to be wheat mixed with vermiculite.  I opened the bag wrong, so I ended up putting a paper towel in my old Kitchen Garden sprouter.  I have never seen wheat sprout that fast!  It grew to be short grass (standing up and everything) in 2 days.  I watered it twice a day for about 5 days, then set it out for the cats, who would have nothing to do with it – oh well, I guess they are not into healthy food.  Meanwhile, I saw it was so easy, I am thinking about growing wheat grass for me (mind you, I am still in the thinking stage. I could probably put a window box inside the kitchen window – our only window that gets sun).

It’s really hot here, but, I’m happy to say that my last living fan (2 died over the winter) is cooling my room off nicely.  Yea!

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LAST SHARE OF THE SEASON! What they said, what I got, what I took home, and what I’m going to do with it

Here is the reality of our last share, and how I made out

WHAT THEY SAID	WHAT I GOT/WHAT I TRADED FOR
Potatoes – 2 lbs	Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes– 5 lbs	Sweet Potatoes
Carrots – 3 lbs	Carrots
Red Kale – 1 bun	Kale
Rutabaga – 1-2 pcs	Rutabaga
Watermelon Radish – 1-3 pcs	Red Radishes/Watermelon Radishes
Cilantro – 1/8 lb	NONE!!! A nice member gave me hers
Kohlrabi – 1 pc	Kohlrabi
Butternut Squash – 1 pc	Bok Choi/ Cilantro
Broccoli – 1-2 pc	Broccoli/ Sweet Potatoes

I was slow!  Some guy went into the share box and took out about 8 rutabagas! How is that possible? Did he trade his entire box for rutabagas?
(or is it that they only watch when I pick things out of the box, to make
sure that I put a share portion in for the share portion I take out)   Oh well! Maybe he knows somebody.

I was hoping to score some extra kale, but it was not to
be.  I’ll have money for food in 2 weeks, and I’ll get some then, if they have it in the cheap market (actually, it is probably better – I’ve found that kale is not very good for me right now – I hope that will change, because I do love my kale).   This kind of kale is not very good for kale chips – it is not very “solid”… how can I say… the leaves are fingery.  It will chop well, but it is not large enough to make kale chips.

My kohlrabi is a nice size – I will make ravioli with it.  Come to think of it, those watermelon radishes might make nice ravioli, as well.

I did keep the potatoes because Mrs. Murphy, next door, seems to enjoy them (I tried to give her a mess of sweet potatoes, but she would have none of it, yet, when I offer her potatoes, she waxes ecstatic – she’s 83 – she can blow me off is she wants to – I drop by and offer her parts of my share, and she tells me what she’ll take.  Too bad we did not have a lot of potatoes this year.  She doesn’t much care for greens, which is what we mostly get).

I am really excited about the more sweet potatoes, since my
Thanksgiving sweet potato recipe turned out so well, and, yet, gave me a couple
of new ideas to try (and, fortunately, I have most of the ingredients in-house,
so I won’t have to spend much to do the new ideas)  I am also going to experiment with
some “few ingredient” recipes with them, since I have so many.

6/17/10 CSA SHARE: What we got

This is what we got.

• Toscano Kale 1 bunch
• Red Beets
• Red Boston Lettuce
• Kohlrabi
• Baby Arugula I traded for more kale – yumm!
  
• Garlic Scapes
• Baby Spinach

I made some marinated greens with 1 bunch of the kale.  Yesterday I made a green drink with 1/2 of the lettuce, 1 small beet, an apple, and 2 tomatoes.  It wasn’t so bad, but I wouldn’t use the apple again in that mix– maybe another tomato would work.  I plan to make a cheeze with the garlic scapes, some cashews, and some jalapeno, so I can make raviolis with the kohlrabi.  I’ll figure out what to do with the rest shortly — I need food to carry to work next week.  I would like to make some kale chips at some point.

DINNER TONIGHT: FULL MENU FOOD COMBINING

Lately, I have been reviewing my Natural Hygiene/Food-Combining information, and I am working at keeping the food-combining rules when I make my meals.  It is actually not that difficult – I just must make simple recipes (and make sure that all the ingredients in the recipes work together well), and then make sure that all the ingredients in all the recipes for the food I am going to put on the plate work together.)  It gets easier if we consider that I am working from the CSA box, and keeping to what is that box mostly (I do add in nuts, seeds, tomatoes, onions, and sprouts!)

TONIGHT’S REPAST:

KOHRABI RAVIOLI WITH “JALAPENO CASHEW CHEEZ” & SHIITAKE FILLING

This is a very simple recipe.

INGREDIENTS
2 C Shiitake mushrooms, sliced
1/4 C nama shoyu
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil

1 C cashews, soaked for 2 hrs., drained, and rinsed
1/2- 1 jalapeno pepper, sliced (for milder flavor, discard seeds)
1/2 t sea salt, or to taste (I used about 1/4 less)
1/8 – 1/4 C water (as needed to make a fine paste)

1 med. kolrabi, peeled, sliced paper thin with a mandoline

• Place sliced shiitake mushrooms in a bowl with nama shoyu and olive oil.  Toss to thoroughly coat mushrooms.  Marinate for 20 minutes.
• In a food processor, combine the cashews, jalapeno, sea salt, and water as needed and process to a smooth thick paste, to make the jalapeno cheez.
• Squeeze the oil/nama shoyu mixture from the shiitake mushrooms as well as possible.
• Chop the mushrooms fine.
• On one paper-thing slice of kohrabi, place a small dab of the jalapeno cheez on one half.
• Lay a thin line of mushroom pieces at the top of the cheez.
• Fold the kohlrabi slice over the mushrooms and cheez and press down to “seal” with the cheez.
• Continue until you have made all the raviolis you want.

If you have more mushrooms left over, you can sprinkle them over the raviolis as a garnish, or add them to a salad.

MASSAGED MARINATED GREENS
I used the greens from the kohlrabi, as well as some chard and spinach that I had left over.

3 C dark leafy greens (kale, collards, cabbage, spinach, etc.)
1/4 C scallions (or onion), chopped fine
1/4 C garlic scapes, finely grated in food processor
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T chili powder, or to taste
5 – 10 kalamata olives, chopped fine

• Strip the greens leaves from the thick center stems.
• Lay 4 – 5 leaf pieces one on top of another, roll them up horizontally into cigar shapes, then slice each roll horizontally, to ribbons.  Place in a large mixing bowl.
• Add all other ingredients to bowl, and mash, or massage, until bulk is reduced by at least 1/3.
• Allow to marinate for 1/2  – 1 hr.

SALAD
Few leaves Boston lettuce, chopped
1/4 C scallions, finely chopped
1/2 campari tomato, finely chopped, with juice
1 T kohlrabi, finely julienned
1 t extra virgin olive oil, or more, to taste
1 t apple cider vinegar, or more, to taste

• Place lettuce on plate
• Sprinkle on scallions
• Spinkle on julienned kohlrabi
• Distribute chopped tomato and juice over all.
• Drizzle olive oil over the salad.
• Drizzle apple cider vinegar over the salad.

The concentrated protein in this meal (aside from any protein available from the vegetables) is from the cashews.
The fat in the recipe is from the cashews and the extra virgin olive oil.
The green vegetable carbohydrates are all low glycemic.
The tomatoes are your only wild card, but they do not disturb the food combining rules.