Radishes!

Lying in bed last night I remembered two things:

First, the strawberries. Yesterday afternoon I washed the strawberries, trimmed off their tops, laid them on some wax paper on a little plate, put the plate on the bottom shelf of the freezer, reminded myself to remember to get them out in an hour and put them into a freezer bag--and promptly forgot about them. For eight hours.

And the radishes. We had a large bunch this week in the CSA box, and I was completely ignoring them.

Thank goodness for Epicurious. (Thank double goodness for the Epicurious iPhone app.) I found this recipe for Pea Salad with Radishes and Feta Cheese. I liked it for several reasons. For one thing, I have an affection for peas. How do I love them? Let me count the ways: in my salads, pasta dishes, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes; the list goes on. Sadly, no member of my poor, tortured family shares this affection.

For another, and more important thing, I had all the ingredients in my kitchen. Not only in my kitchen, but my herb garden. Much to my delight, last year's dill made a surprise reappearance this spring.

I couldn't figure out how the salad would taste. Cumin, lime juice and feta? But it's good. Sweet peas, spicy radish, salty feta.  When I finished making it, I realized I probably should have halved the recipe. Can I eat all these peas and radishes myself? I guess I can always take the salad to work tomorrow to share with my coworkers. They love my experiments!

Coming up tomorrow:  Potato Salad Secrets REVEALED!

Greens

This week's CSA box is full of beautiful spring greens: lettuce, spicy greens, spinach, arugula, kale.  Using them all in the most efficient and delicious way possible takes diligence. We don't want anything to go to waste.

But some days you just don't feel like being in the kitchen. The allergies are acting up, you feel fatigued, cranky. Today I fought the urge to feel sorry for myself, and I got in there and took care of business.  Music is a great motivator. As I cranked the salad spinner and chopped garlic, my soundtrack helped me along. (A combination of Beatles, Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians and the Avett Brothers.)

Check the kale off the list: we ate it on Sunday, along with a big southern meal: barbeque pork, baked beans, macaroni and cheese.  Also, some of the lettuce has gone into salads. But I still had several bags of greens waiting to be used.

I've been putting the arugula in sandwiches. I used what was left to make Arugula and Walnut Pesto, very simple:

1 bunch arugula (about 3 cups)
3 cloves garlic
1/3 cup walnuts, toasted
1/3 cup olive oil
salt & pepper, to taste
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese

This all goes into the food processor (except for the cheese; if freezing pesto, add the cheese when your ready to serve it) and zoom!  I packed this into two small plastic bags and put them into the freezer.  There were some strawberries from the box that might get past their prime soon; I got into those into the freezer too. We'll use them for smoothies.

The spinach will be part of tonight's meal; I'm thinking a salad with spinach and lettuces, walnuts, dried cranberries and goat cheese. As for the rest of the meal, that will take some thought. Also, what to do with the spicy greens? I'll probably steam or saute them, maybe with a little bacon fat. But for now, my fridge is feeling a bit more clear, and so is my conscience. Think I'll go put my feet up for awhile. 

Sandwich Love

Seriously long Saturday with the kids: farmer's market, walk at Botanical Gardens, home for lunch, soccer game (Miles), haircut (Willem), stop at a friend's house, quick grocery store trip. We got home at 6:00, and I immediately fixed myself a rum and coke. Much better. Then, I made sandwiches.

Now people who know me well know about my serious love of sandwiches. Like Joey from Friends, I find them irresistible. Anything tastes better wedged between two pieces of bread. Of course, I wouldn't put just anything on one of my sandwiches. It's a fine art.

Tonight's sandwiches: Roast beef with cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, arugula, thinly sliced red onion, mayo and horseradish Dijon mustard on a roll. With a side of Kettle Chips. So great with my rum and coke.

For dessert, rainbow sherbet, and a sampling of gluten free cupcakes. Why the cupcakes?  I helped my friend Mary on Friday morning. She owns Dolci di Maria: gluten free cupcakes, muffins, cakes, tarts and brownies. Gluten free desserts do not have a reputation for being delicious; these are. I helped her mix up some dry cupcake mixes, made up some boxes and bags, and assisted her while she baked the extra special chocolate pear cake that's served at The Corner Kitchen. (We both agree that Corner Kitchen is about the best restaurant in town.) Then she showed me how to ice cupcakes, exclaiming about what a great job I was doing. And sent me home with half a dozen "rejects" to share with the family.

I'll get them perfect next time.

Anniversary Dinner

Let me just start by telling you how much I love halibut. It's really a great fish to eat grilled, as we did last night, with chimchurri and rice and greens. Chimchurri sounds like something exotic and spicy, but it is actually olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, crushed red pepper, salt & pepper and parsley. Kind of like a salad dressing.  My choice of halibut was kind of sentimental as well: I had it for dinner one night on our honeymoon (ten years ago!) and still remember how delicious that meal was.

Dinner for two was out on the front porch this year.

Right before we sat down to eat, a couple of  Mormons came by to talk to us. They come around every once in awhile, nicely dressed young men. I wanted to ask them if they were the Big Love kind of Mormons, but what I really wanted was to eat my halibut and drink my wine, so I let that go.

The wine was perfect with the fish; a Greek white called Skouras that I bought at my new favorite place, The Wine Studio of Asheville. Not only is this wine shop locally owned, but it's owned by a woman and she is a wine genius!  Using my limited wine describing abilities, I told her what I had in mind and she knew exactly what I wanted. They stock lots of great wines in the $10-12 range and does wine tastings, classes, etc. Stop in and check it out.

A Cooking Free Day

I spent the morning wrangling preschoolers, then came home to my usual afternoon of appointment making, laundry, emptying the dishwasher, fielding (and dodging) endless snack requests, etc. What I really wanted to do was sit outside on the porch with my feet up, a pitcher of something cool and refreshing at hand. Maybe this iced green tea with mint and honey.

But the tummies do rumble. And mom needs to plan a meal.

Sometimes we try to prove a point with the boys and make them eat vegetables and try things they insist they don't like. Isn't that what we're supposed to do? No substitutions, this is not a diner, no I will not make you something else. It's your own fault if you go to bed hungry. The dinnertime litany.

Last night's supper did not go over well with the kids. Later they were in their beds groaning "we're hungry."  What mother can resist her hungry children? I brought them bananas to eat in their beds, and wrestled with the question of whether this was the right or wrong thing to do. But it occurred to me that sneaking upstairs to give them a snack might be a sort of a good memory for them someday. Maybe they'll think, yeah, mom could be strict about things, but really, you always knew that she loved you. Honestly, is there anyone out there who has fond memories of their mom being a hardass?

Anyway, back to today. My wonderful husband came home from work with an easy meal for the kids, and I went to yoga and breathed for an hour. Aaahhhhhh....

No cooking required after all.

Tomorrow is our 10 year wedding anniversary, and there's two pieces of wild-caught halibut in the fridge, and thoughts about Bananas Foster (we were watching Top Chef Masters just now, and that was one of the dishes). Things might get interesting.

Lost Recipe

My friend Pat gave me a recipe for Saltine Lasagna. She found it in her cookbook Cook's Country Best Lost Suppers. She remembers making it back when she lived on "the farm": a commune she lived on way back when. I had to try it. Full disclosure: there is nothing seasonal about it, nothing from the CSA box. I used zucchini and yellow bell pepper and some lovely tomatoes and all of these came from the local (and not even organic) grocery.  

But the idea of recovering lost recipes really speaks to me. We've lost so many wonderful and vital abilities. The idea of eating seasonally was completely foreign to me for most of my life. I'm having to learn it. Using what you have, putting things up for winter, making do--these things are becoming so important again. 

Here is a link to a review of Lost Suppers which also has the recipe for Saltine Lasagna. (Incidentally, if you google Saltine Lasagna, you'll find links to several recipes for it, and then farther down the page it goes haywire and there are recipes for eating your placenta. Ew, ew, ew. And why, God, why?)

So the Saltine Lasagna was simple to make, sautee' the veggies, layer everything in the baking dish. I topped it with tomato slices and lots of mozzarella and parmesan cheese. I recommend baking it for at least 30 minutes, if not more. It's like a strata, and the egg and milk mixture need to cook through.

The kids were not fans. Because of the vegetables. Maybe next time I'll leave out the veggies and substitute sausage. I told Josh that this was a lost recipe, and he joked, "maybe it should have stayed lost." But I think he liked it. To me, it was the very essence of comfort food: creamy and cheesy. With tomato sauce. Also, I felt a like a non-repressed Betty Draper while cooking it. 

Ambitious for a Monday

Chinese dinner was wonderful, if very ambitious for a weeknight.  The grocery store had no ground pork, so Josh ended up having to grind the pork for the dumplings himself.  I know, I know. He used the meat grinder attachment for the Kitchen Aid stand mixer. This meal involved so many steps that I feel tired thinking about it. But once all the prep was done it came together pretty fast.

Making these would have been a much slower process for me.

While Josh prepared the dumplings, I got everything ready for a stir fry. I think I mentioned that stir frying is not my thing.  But I found this  NY Times recipe which I used as my guide and it really was quite simple.

We didn't have chili paste, so I threw some crushed chili flakes in the hot oil before adding the veggies, and a bit more little later on when I added the soy sauce. Also, I used chives from the garden in place of green onions, and added some CSA radish and spicy greens.

While browsing through the Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook, I found some advice which made me smile:

Rice tastes better when it sits quietly both before and after cooking. 

and this:

 The starting point is the ingredient, not the cooking method.

and finally:

Since much of Chinese cooking is improvisational, having a bit of this and a bit of that on hand is not a burden but a delight.  

The boys devoured the dumplings.

Oh, and some went in the freezer. So the meal will be that much simpler next time.

If ever you feel ambitious on a Monday, here's Josh's recipe:


Pork Dumplings 


1 lb. ground pork (fatty is better here)
Greens from one bunch of bok choy
1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
2 tbsp water
1 tsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp sesame oil
1/4 cup chives, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 package won ton wrappers


Wilt the bok choy greens in a hot wok. Remove, allow to cool, squeeze out excess water and chop finely. 
Steep the ginger in 2 tbsp water for about 5 minutes. Remove ginger from water and then add the water to the pork. Add remaining ingredients to pork and mix well. 
Place about 1 tbsp of pork mixture on each won ton wrapper and follow folding instructions.
In small batches, simmer the dumplings in hot water for about 5 minutes. 
Serve with dipping sauce of choice. 

Bok Choy

So the bok choy from our CSA box has become a jumping off point for a full-on Chinese meal. I intended to saute it with some garlic, steam with a little chicken broth and soy sauce. Something like this braised bok choy from Gourmet that I made myself for lunch one afternoon last summer. Delicious.

But, before I knew it, there we were at dinner, planning tomorrow night's dinner, discussing a stir fry and the kids had only one question: would there be dumplings? Hmmm. So Josh got out his old, battered Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook from 1966 (I'm really not sure where it came from, but he loves it).

And took over the planning, shopping and cooking. I'm happy to comply, he likes to stir-fry things and, to be honest, I'm a little afraid of using the wok. Something about the combination of hot oil and a pan that does not sit flat on the stove. So dumplings it is, with tofu and bok choy stir fry, fried rice, white rice (who knows which type the kids will eat) and dumplings.

Stay tuned for this dinner story.

The First Box

Today I'm super excited because we got our first CSA box! This is our third year in a row with Flying Cloud Farm in Fairview, NC. I do not have enough nice things to say about this beautiful organic farm and the people who run it. They work really hard. 

So, I purposely exiled greens from my diet all winter in preparation for this. Early CSA boxes are all about the greens. This weeks' is the smallest box of the season, since it's still so early. We're sharing our produce this year with my great friend Suzanne and her husband Mike and their two little boys. I went over to her house this morning to divvy things up and have a nice chat.

Here's what we got: bok choy, parsnips, radishes, spicy greens, and lettuce. Tonight I'll use the lettuce with some leftover grilled chicken, olives and feta for a Greek salad. Refrigerator meal, no cooking required. Hmm, I wonder if the kids will eat it?

Also, this lovely bunch of mint.

As much as I love to grow my own herbs, I've never planted mint. Everyone says it's really invasive. Of course, that hasn't stopped me from planting things like vinca and ivy. And yellow daisies, which are now considered a weed around here. But we don't have any mint planted, so I enjoy getting it when I can.

Also strawberries, which pretty much did not make it in the door before being devoured, so I don't have any photos. I think strawberries must be like gold for farmers. (I could be very wrong about this). I mean, everybody wants strawberries. People will come to the farm and pick their own. And pay pretty much whatever you want to charge. This would probably never happen with kale or potatoes.

The local strawberries are so delicious right now. If you manage to get your hands on some, I have three words for you: strawberries, vanilla ice cream, Nutella. Enough said.