Menu a la Week: 10/11/08 - 10/17/08

Today's dinner will be...nothing. We went to a surprise birthday party today (happy 4oth Glenn!) and ate our fill of burgers, fries, and cake.

Since we've been cooking like crazy and the freezer's full, it's time to empty out the backlog of dinners and make some room. The from-scratch cooking this week will be very limited. I noticed that the first six vegetables I listed from this week's CSA shipment (potatoes, celery, tomato, oregano, parsnips, and onions) suggested their very own soup! "Bob" will be making it on Monday or Tuesday.

Tomorrow I'm going to pick the last of the Roma tomatoes. There's a bunch of them and they're all green. With the frost coming and the sun not shining as long as it had, there's really no hope that they'll ever turn red, so I'll be using them in a recipe calling for green tomatoes. I'm leaning towards making a green tomato pie (the recipe I plan to use is from Everyday Citizen which is publishing a bunch of "end of the harvest" recipes). There are also recipes here: http://southernfood.about.com/od/greentomatoes/Green_Tomato_Recipes.htm

Menu 10/11/08 to 10/17/08
Saturday October 11, 2008
Birthday party food

Sunday October 12, 2008
Soup and salad

Monday October 13, 2008
Squash and potato torte

Tuesday October 14, 2008
Potato and parsnip soup and salad

Wednesday October 15, 2008
Stuffed peppers

Thursday October 16, 2008
Bob's summer squash?

Friday October 17, 2008
Pesto with pasta and salad

Quick CSA List

This is what "Bob" grabbed from the CSA on Thursday: 2 lbs. potatoes, one bunch of celery, one tomato, handful of oregano stems, two parsnips, four onions, two squash, three small eggplants, and some strange greens (not collard or mustard). I threw the greens in the composter because they already wilted to nearly nothing.

We'll be making beet and carrot salad this weekend (we bought beets at the supermarket last weekend).

Eat All Your Vegetables

Let me sum up this week's eating in three words: squash, beets, carrots. For the last 3 days, that's what we've been eating. Tonight we mixed it up a bit and had green beans with garlic along with the leftover summer squash and the beet-carrot salad. We also had pickles for snacks, of course. I have two little cucumbers in the fridge that I missed. I'll have to add them to the pickle juice (I think that's okay to do, even with the cold processed type).

Menu a la Week: 8/10/08 - 8/15/08

So many vegetables to eat through, so little time This coming week we're reluctant vegetarians again (largely because we have leftover veg from last week). We'll have to bring salads to work to ensure that we get through the lettuce. If we don't get to the latest batch of green beans by Thursday, I may either blanch and freeze them (I think that's the best way to preserve them) or maybe make a soup. I plan to make refrigerator pickles out of the two small cucumbers we have.

After a bunch of evening plans derailed last week's menu, we have dinner plans for tonight too. So the menu really doesn't start until tomorrow night.

Menu 8/10/08 - 8/15/08
Sunday August 11, 2008
Dinner with the folks

Monday August 12, 2008
Green beans with garlic with the neverending summer squash side dish

Tuesday August 13, 2008
Stir fry cabbage with green peppers and a salad on the side

Wednesday August 14, 2008
Carrot and beet salad with kohlrabi saute
(there's also some nice kohlrabi recipes here, especially one for a traditional kohlrabi in bechamel sauce with nutmeg)

Thursday August 15, 2008
Kohlrabi and carrots and whatever else happens to be laying around

Salads and Sides

Als usual lots of plans late in the week kept us from adhering to the menu (movies and John Hiatt at the State Theatre in New Brunswick; "Bob" and I were some of the oldest people at Wall-E and some of the youngest at the concert). We did finish up the pork though and I had the rest of the carrot soup for lunch yesterday.

So what's left? Quite a bit of our usual summer squash side dish (the one with tomatoes and peppers). As for all the unprepared vegetables we have: green beans (though we almost had them Thursday night), 2 cucumbers, 2 kohlrabi, 3 beets, 1 bunch of carrots, 2 squash, and a bit of lettuce. Add to that this week's CSA share: green beans (yup, again), red cabbage, green peppers (2 small), cucumbers (2 small), red leaf lettuce, beets (3), bunch of dill.

This can only mean one thing for this week's menu: lots of salads and side dishes.

Ay, There's the Rub: On Ham-let and Other Midsummer's Night's Meals

Sunday, we had roast pork loin with a dry rub along with the summer squash recipe. A word to the wise: make sure the ratio of summer squash doesn't overwhelm the rest of the vegetables in the recipe. It's tempting to do this because chances are you have a ton of squash to get through, but it tends to make the recipe less appealing. For the record, I'm also finding that using a few canned Italian plum tomatoes in the recipe really works a lot better than some less-than-juicy nearly-in-season tomatoes from the supermarket.

The pork was easy to prepare (since "Bob" did it all). He says the nearly 2-pound pork tenderloin was rubbed down with kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, and dry mustard and roasted for 2 hours at 350 degrees.

Monday we had a special guest (Iz!) and a new cole slaw recipe. I made paper-thin panini: a slice and a half of Swiss cheese, a few very thinly sliced pieces of pork, and grainy mustard on rye bread. I slathered the olive oil on the press and the pan, warmed both of them over a medium flame, then added the sandwiches to the pan. In a matter of 10 minutes (don't forget to flip the sandwich once and apply pressure to the press every so often) I had a pair of delicious sandwiches. "Bob" meanwhile prefered to have his cheese and meat on dry toast--his British DNA wins out over every once in while.

The cole slaw recipe we used was from this page of the Seasonal Chef web site. I've copied it below, but I would suggest that you perhaps halve the sugar amount. It was pretty sweet. Yes I know that "sweet" is in the recipe's name, but still, exercise some caution. The vegetable oil was not gross, which I had feared it would be.

Tonight we skipped ahead: hot dogs, cole slaw, and some leftover summer squash. Tomorrow we'll have the pork with a side of green beans..

Sweet and Tangy Cole Slaw

1 cabbage, finely shredded
1 medium red onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 cup vinegar
2/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions
1. Combine shredded cabbage with sliced onion.
2. Combine remaining ingredients and bring to boil.
3. Pour over cabbage and toss.
4. Cool, then refrigerate.

Menu a la Week: 8/2/08 - 8/8/08

I was out last night, so "Bob" dined solo: salad and pasta with Parmesean cheese. We didn't get around to making the beets from last week, so we'll have to use them up very, very soon. We'll try and fit salads (all that red-leaf lettuce) in all week, if not for dinner, then for lunch. We're also going to give my mom 1/2 of the green beans. We could freeze the extra, but it's better to share the bounty.

Menu 8/2/08 - 8/8/08
Saturday August 2, 2008
Carrot soup and croutons and green salad

Sunday August 3, 2008
Lunch: Carrot and beet salad
Dinner: Summer squash and pork loin

Monday August 4, 2008
Cheese panini, cole slaw (new recipe), and carrot soup

Tuesday August 5, 2008
Pork loin and green beans with garlic (this recipe from C&Z looks good)

Wednesday August 6, 2008
Cole slaw and hot dogs or hamburgers

Thursday August 7, 2008
Kohlrabi and carrots and pork loin

CSA Take

All the vegetables from this week's CSA delivery look beautiful because "Bob" got to the latest (there have been three) pick-up site earlier than usual.

Here's the haul from the CSA this week: three onions; two each of kohlrabi, cucumbers, and squash; one head each of radicchio and red-leaf lettuce; one pound of green beans; and one bunch each of carrots, dill, and basil.

It's our first delivery of cucumbers, carrots, and green beans, and I finally get to try the farm's radicchio (or is it endive? "Bob?").

Deliveries and Disasters

Tuesday night, along with some grilled chicken that I had socked away in the freezer, we had our first bites of Swiss chard. "Bob" made it using the crystallized ginger recipe and it was very tasty. Unfortunately, the crystallized ginger and lemon flavors were so pronounced, I still have no idea what Swiss chard really tastes like. Good thing that some more chard was included in today's shipment from the CSA.

Which brings me to today's topic. "Bob" was not happy at all with our CSA today. The share included: a bunch of moldy-topped onions, a blackened garlic bulb, a rotting head of lettuce, a decent head of savoy cabbage, a wilty bunch of basil, three rather small red beets, one very small flat squash, and a single average-size summer squash. The only good thing about this week's share was that it was delivered to our doorstep. "Bob" is reconsidering his desire to sign up again for next year. I guess we'll just have to see how the whole year goes before we make a firm decision. But this locavore eating has it's ups and downs.

"Bob" has some theories regarding our sad looking shares: we're either getting the worst of the batch because the farmer is selling better produce at farmer's markets (while our food is already paid for no matter what it looks like) OR we're getting the leftovers from farmer's markets. Either option is not all that appealing.

Of course, Bob is not alone in his conspiracy theory. Another disgruntled CSA-er (and friend of mine) has decided to blog about her CSA frustrations. For more laughs than you thought possible from the very, very serious topic of saving the planet through eating locally and organically, you MUST visit Complaining Jane's new I Hate My CSA blog (as with "Bob" her real identity will remain a closely held secret).

Last night I had dinner with some friends and "Bob" had the Italian turkey sausage dinner (made with chicken sausage) with pasta. When I got home, we had no electricity thanks to a large storm in our area. For a few hours I worried that all my frozen soups, meats, pesto, pot pies, and bread crumbs were going to suffer a horrible meltdown. No worries. Power was restored at about 2:30 a.m. and everything was still intact this morning (I didn't dare open the freezer last night; I didn't want to let any cold air escape).

I had a huge lunch of mussels and popcorn shrimp and fried calamari, so there's no dinner planned. The rest of this week's menu will have to be made tomorrow. I have off tomorrow so I still plan on making a dill potato salad and maybe even some cole slaw with that new cabbage head.

Poultry Sausage and a Long-Awaited Recipe

Last night we didn't have the scheduled sugar snap peas with ginger. Instead, we finished up the potato and squash torte. Though delicious, I will definitely cook the torte longer and lower at first and then jack up the heat at the end when the aluminum foil comes off. I still have that extra one in the freezer to test this out.

Tonight we had the Italian Turkey Sausage Dinner, except for a "few minor" changes: we used chicken sausage instead of turkey sausage, we also omitted the peppers, and "Bob" also deglazed the pan with white wine, whole tomatoes (from a can) instead of crushed, and Romano cheese instead of Parmesean. Along with the smashed potatoes, we also served a red-leaf lettuce salad with mustard vinaigrette, and the remainder of the broccoli and cauliflower with lemon-dill-butter sauce.

Okay, it's taken awhile but here's Bob's summer squash recipe that was served July 16.

Bob's Summer Squash

Serves 4

2 lbs squash, sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeds removed, sliced
2 Italian tomaotes, skinned and chopped
1/2 yellow onion, peeled and sliced
1 clove of garlic, chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
Freshly grated parmesean cheese
Basil, chopped fresh
Salt and pepper

Directions
1. Put onion, garlic, squash, and bell pepper into a large saucepan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Cook on high heat for several minutes to slightly soften the vegetables (do NOT overcook).
2. Once vegetables have softened, add tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add fresh basil.
4. Remove from heat, add the cheese, and cover the pan for 2 minutes to melt the cheese.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.