Cherry Soup and Green Salad

Right on schedule: sour cherry soup (aka meggyleves) and a beautiful green salad made with the CSA red leaf lettuce and some other supermarket vegetables. I also made the raspberry vinaigrette (about 1/3 cup of rasperry vinegar, 2/3 to 3/4 cup of oil, about 3 to 4 tablespoons, or more, of honey, and 1 teaspoon Kosher salt).

Other than that, lots of chocolate was enjoyed today. I can't help myself!

Menu a la Week 7/5/08 - 7/11/08

We've deciphered most of the vegetables we got this week. Some were a little tougher to identify than others, especially, the kohlrabi. I really thought it was a turnip. It's not. It's a member of the cabbage family (just like our friend broccoli). I think we have a bunch of mustard greens too. I have no idea how to cook them, though I did find a ton of recipes for mustard greens with ham hocks. "Bob," regrettably, does not really like ham (specifically, smoked versions). I found just a single recipe for mustard greens with beef; we'll be making it tomorrow.

There will also be lots of salads this week. The two heads of lettuce (red leaf and Forellenschluss romaine) are absolutely gorgeous, and they're humongous. I've never seen lettuce this large at the supermarket.

Menu 7/5/08 - 7/11/08
Saturday July 5, 2008
Green salad with homemade vinaigrette

Sunday July 6, 2008
Stir-fried beef with mustard greens

Monday July 7, 2008
Meggyleves soup and salad with dried berries and raspberry vinaigrette

Tuesday July 8, 2008
Grilled chicken and sugar snap peas with ginger and garlic (scapes)

Wednesday July 9, 2008
"Kale" and canelloni beans

Thursday July 10, 2008
Grilled chicken and kohlrabi and apple salad with creamy mustard dressing

Friday July 11, 2008
Herbed summer squash and potato torte with parmesean

Note: Please visit the Restaurant Widow blog (I've also linked to it above). There's a lot of information there about kohlrabi plus an interesting recipe for kohlrabi pickles.

Meggyleves (Hungarian Sour Cherry Soup)

When I was in Budapest for work last year, I was only there for three days. Most of that was spent in the conference hotel, so I didn't have a chance to try Meggyleves, or traditional Hungarian sour cherry soup. I don't know how traditional the recipe I've used is, but it has red wine in it so, who cares? Last night it was warm, so the chilled soup was a treat.

Meggyleves
Serves 6

1.75 - 2 lbs sour cherries (washed and pitted)
1 cup water
1 cup sugar (it could've used a bit more)
2 cinnamon sticks
3 cups red wine (Cabarnet Sauvignon)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup evaporated whole milk (or light cream)

Directions
1. In a large pan, put the pitted cherries, water, sugar, cinnamon sticks, and wine. Bring to a boil then simmer about 30 minutes (or less). It's a good idea to taste for sweetness about 1/2 way through (add sugar if necessary).
2. Gradually stir in the evaporated milk into the sour cream. Then stir this mixture into the soup (which is off the heat source!).
3. Chill and serve.

Nutrition Information per Serving
Calories: ; Carbohydrates: ; Protein: ; Fat: ; Cals./g:
*Points:

Menu a la Week 6/28/08 - 7/4/08

Yes, the menu's a bit late, but ever since half the vegetables got destroyed I've been winging it. Sunday night we had the last of the scape pesto. Instead of pasta we served it with brown rice because we didn't have enough pasta for three and we had a surprise dinner guest (Iz!). Quite honestly, though tasty, the rice wasn't delicate enough to let the pesto's bright taste truly shine. To round out the meal, we had a crudite of carrots, celery, and scallions along with the Universal Salad Dressing.

Tonight: turkey meatloaf (from the freezer, still tastes outstanding!) and another crudite, plus some cucumbers that have been marinating along with red onions in balsamic vinegar.

No dinners are planned after Wednesday. Thursday night we're going to see a play (Sam Shepard's "Kicking a Dead Horse" at The Public Theater) and Friday is the 4th so something somewhere will be grilled. Since we're down a bunch of vegetables, we're going to be making do with some leftovers (chicken) and some surprises (sour cherries from Iz's backyard).

One more important note: I'm still trying to figure out how to calcuate the E-Co$t of meals since we're now using our CSA vegetables. Since they're not priced by the vegetable, do I go with the going price at the supermarket? Do I just divide the CSA cost per week by the number of vegetable types? When I decide on a method, I'll start posting the E-Co$t again. I plan to start posting the dollar figure along with the recipe...just like the nutrition information (yes, I haven't posted that in awhile either).

Menu 6/28/08 - 7/5/08
Saturday June 28, 2008
Ginger-garlic bok choy stir-fry and some cheese and crackers

Sunday June 29, 2008
Garlic scape pesto with brown rice and crudite with Universal Salad Dressing

Monday June 30, 2008
Turkey meatloaf, crudite with Universal Salad Dressing, and cucumbers and red onions with balsamic vinegar

Tuesday July 1, 2008
Chicken panini with kale (crispy, roasted, or sauteed)

Wednesday July 2, 2008
Meggyleves (sour cherry soup)

Thursday July 3, 2008
A night out at the theater

Friday July 4, 2008
Happy 4th of July!