Stuffed Cabbage, Pickles, and a New Bounty!

The last couple bounties have brought about some interesting creations that have turned out surprisingly well. My box from a couple weeks back included a head of cabbage which I'm not very fond of. I scoured Pinterest for recipes, scrolling through endless photos of slaws and soups (boring), and stumbled upon a hearty meaty looking dish with the name 'Deconstructed Stuffed Cabbage'. Sounded promising! It's essentially a loaded sauté of onion, garlic, tomato, meat, rice, and cabbage. The recipe I used, which originated from a lovely blog named A Family Feast, acted more as a guide than a strict recipe. It called for 3 types of meat, canned tomatoes, sauerkraut, and a smidge of red wine. In my version I only used 1 type of meat (pork), fresh tomatoes, no sauerkraut, and a generous splash of red wine. It turned out delicious!

I ended up with a bunch of leftover blanched cabbage and cooked rice, so I decided to make the recipe again for my friend Geo a few days later, but this time with tofu instead of pork. Turned out great!

deconstructed stuffed cabbage w/ pork

The bounty I received last week is the most colorful yet. Another heap of bright red tomatoes, a couple oddly shaped onions, melons, way too many cucumbers, and more. Check it out:

tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, basil, eggplant, melons, zucchini, cucumbers, sweet peppers, onions

Onions, tomatoes and peppers are easy. Even zucchini. They're staples. Throw 'em in a pan with olive oil and a couple eggs, and you've got a delicious, satisfying meal! The biggest challenge in this bounty so far has been the eggplant and melons, two items I don't particularly care for. Oh, and the thousand cucumbers. 

I first tackled the cucumbers. They're "pickling cucumbers" which means they're the perfect cucumber to make pickles with. I hate pickles. But apparently all of my coworkers love them, so I decided to try my hand at making some. I used a recipe from My Frugal Adventures, which calls for dill, garlic, peppercorns, and vinegar. And a jar. Good thing I save my jars, as I needed 3 to fit in all those cukes! I haven't tried them yet, but will probably bring them into work tomorrow for a taste test. They look pretty cool chillin' in those jars though, maybe I should just keep them like that forever...

pickles

Next test: Eggplant. I've never liked eggplant. I don't like the color, the flavor, the look. It's all bad. The key is to cook the eggplant amid a sea of other delicious things so that it merely adds volume and nutritional value. Best way to do that? Eggplant Parm, of course! I chose what looked to be a cheesy, meaty looking version from Skinnytaste. Result? Total success! I couldn't taste the eggplant at all. :)

The key to making any vegetable delicious is loading it with sauteed garlic, onions, tomatoes, pork, and probably cheese if you're feeling fun. Cabbage and eggplant: defeated!

eggplant parm before going in the oven

As for the melons, I've been cutting them up and eating them with greek yogurt and granola, which kind of play the same role as the onion/garlic/tomato/pork mixture in your least favorite veggies. They make melons somewhat tolerable!

I'll leave you with a tasty tomato sauce I made tossed in a whole wheat linguine.

Tomatoes, apricots, and a lasagna!

TOMATOES! I'm thrilled to have received my first batch this week: 9 heirloom tomatoes in yellow and red. As soon as I got my bounty home, I chopped up half of the tomatoes and attempted my first roasted tomato sauce. Apricots or blueberries were the fruit share options and obviously I went for the former to try my hand at jam! I haven't made jam since I was on the farm. I've been reluctant because of 1) the time commitment, and 2) the amount of sugar needed. I made a monstrous vat of peach marmalade, i.e. jam, when I was there and it took HOURS. I was also appalled at the amount of sugar that went into it (even though I happily doused said marmalade on my breakfast bread every morning). Nevertheless, I made jam this week and am quite pleased with the results! 

Check out the pix of these and more below!

green leaf lettuce, swiss chard, onions, beets, cabbage, cucumbers, zucchini squash, yellow squash, tomatoes, apricots

tomatoes, onions, garlic, and seasonings, pre-roasting

roasted tomatoes!

After letting them cool off a bit, I tossed them in the food processor, and after a few pulses, I had roasted tomato sauce! So easy, so delicious, and so rewarding. #homemadefan  The roasted flavor is strong - you can definitely taste the smokiness in there. I threw some on whole wheat fusilli for lunch the next day and was surprised by how much the flavor died down. It wasn't nearly as potent as expected. I still have a whole jar left though and am excited to continue experimenting with it!

This sauce was inspired by a recipe I found on Brave Tart.

jarred and dangerous

Next on the menu: swiss chard lasagna, inspired by a recipe I found on the New York Times. Layers include: no-boil lasagna noodles, tomato/chard mix, ricotta, and parmsean.

tomatoes, garlic, swiss chard, beet greens

assembling the lasagna

The recipe instructed to put a layer of noodles on top with a sprinkling of parmesean and a drizzle of olive oil. It came out looking like this:

finished lasagna

The top layer of noodles came out hard and disfigured. My roommate tells me the key is to always put a layer of sauce on top to avoid the funky noodles. Noted! Despite that, the lasagna turned out mighty tasty! And I kind of liked the crunchy top :)

slice 'o swiss chard lasagna

Next up: apricot jam! I was surprised at how quick and easy this was. I will forever make my own jams from here on out! The reason the farm jam took forever was because we used like a thousand peaches, had an enormous pot, and used an antiquated fire stove:

making jam on the farm in Uruguay

old school stove

However, since I only had 5 apricots in the share, mine cooked up quick. 

boiling apricots

almost ready!

finished apricot jam in cute, little jars

The recipe I used called for a ton of sugar, but I chose to use half of the suggested amount and it still turned out very sweet. Next time I'll use less.

This week I'm planning to make a deconstructed stuffed cabbage and roasted beets with goat cheese. Let the food adventures continue!

Zucchini, Cilantro & Russian Kale!

Another week of beautiful produce! Keeping it beautiful is another story, though. I'm learning quickly that I need to properly store everything if I want to maximize freshness. When I received this batch, I didn't have much time so I ended up shoving everything in the fridge. The next day, my swiss chard and scallions had already started wilting...woops! I refuse to let anything go to waste though, so everything is now properly bagged/stored, and much has already been used!

The cilantro was more wilty than anything else, so I made sure to use it first. Guacamole seemed like an obvious choice, but I didn't want to spend the money on avocados and worried it might go bad quick if I wasn't able to eat it all. It doesn't keep long in the fridge. Instead, I scoured Pinterest for cilantro recipes and stumbled upon an interesting looking cilantro pesto. I figured I could make a bunch and freeze it. I also used up my 2 giant zucchinis this morning for a couple loaves of zucchini bread. And tonight I whipped up a creamy polenta to go with my bunch of Russian kale. Check it out!

My 7/10 Bounty:

turnips, cilantro, swiss chard, red leaf lettuce, russian kale, scallions, broccoli, blueberries, cucumbers, zucchinis

The cilantro pesto turned out delicious and much less potent than the garlic scape pesto from a couple weeks ago. You can definitely taste the cilantro, but it's not as overpowering as cilantro tends to be. I froze most of it - apparently it stays good for up to 9 months in the freezer! The recipe I used came from the food blog, A Teaspoon of Happiness, found here.

almonds, sea salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, cilantro, olive oil, parmesean, lemon juice, garlic

you can never have too much pesto — it's good on EVERYTHING

Zucchini stays fresh longer than most of my other veggies, but I've been dying to make zucchini bread so I had to use it next. I tried it once in the winter and was blown away by how good it was. You can't even taste the zucchini, but the shreds of green look pretty awesome in the bread. It's a great way to use up zucchini, and I have a feeling I'll be getting a lot of it this summer. I used this recipe from the blog Simple Bites.

incredibly moist zucchini bread

For dinner tonight I used up my Russian kale, a variety of kale I'd never had before. I read it has a pretty bitter flavor, but when cooked down becomes quite sweet. I looked up a few recipes and found one that looked rather promising: Creamy Polenta with Russian Kale and Shiitake Mushrooms, from the blog Tartelette.

polenta, russian kale, shiitake mushrooms, garlic, nutmeg

beautiful kale/mushroom sauté

creamy polenta topped w/ kale/mushroom sauté, a poached egg, and a drizzle of Sriracha

This week I plan to make a lasagna with the broccoli and swiss chard. I still need to figure out something to do with the turnips.

The other stuff is pretty easy: I've been making sandwiches with the cucumbers and lettuce. Last week I made some BBQ chicken breasts which turned out to be an unusual, yet delightful addition to the hummus/veggie sandwich ensemble. Oh and the blueberries I've mostly been eating with cottage cheese in the morning - they're divine.

More on this bounty coming soon!

Greens, strawberries, kohlrabi and scapes!

I'm so excited about my first ever CSA that I had to start a blog about it! CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, which is a fun, alternative, economical way to receive produce (and sometimes other items like dairy, bread, pasta, flowers), and to support a local farm.

I joined the Prospect Heights CSA which partnered up with Windflower Farm in Valley Falls, NY. I purchased a half-share, which means I receive a bounty of fresh vegetables and fruit every other week through October, freshly picked from the farm. The pick-up location is just a couple blocks away and all they ask in addition to a reasonable upfront fee, is that you work 1 volunteer shift during the season. I got mine out of the way last week. :)

So far I've received 2 shares and I am very pleased! It's so fun because you never know what you're going to get. I wasn't one to experiment much with my vegetable choices before this, so it's been a fun challenge figuring out what to make with the more uncommon additions like kohlrabi and garlic scapes. 

Anywho, onto the fun stuff. FOODPIX!

My 6/26 Bounty:

spinach, lettuce, dinosaur kale, scallions, zucchini, kohlrabi, cucumber, garlic scapes, strawberries, basil plant

I'm obsessed with how BEAUTIFUL this head of spinach was:

My first creation? QUICHE! I bought the crust from Whole Foods and made a slightly modified version of this Epicurious recipe. My quiche had: spinach, zucchini, scallions, cottage cheese, parmesean cheese, and pasture-raised eggs.

Before:

After:

This crappy photo doesn't do it justice.

Yes, it was incredible.

A few days later I used my garlic scapes to make a whole wheat linguine pesto. I followed another good 'ol Epicurious recipe  that calls for garlic scapes, pistachios, parmesean, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

garlic scapes

pistachios, scapes, parmesean

Delicious, but potent! My breath smelled for days!

Some other things I made (sans photo, unfortunately):

• an egg scramble with zucchini, scallions, scapes and parmesean
• a dinosaur kale sauté with zucchni, scallions, balsamic and sea salt
• a hummus, cucumber, lettuce, avocado, midnight moon goat cheese sandwich on whole wheat
• strawberries with cottage cheese

Last weekend I had a beach day and brought along some freshly cut cucumber with hummus. Look how pretty!

And finally, thanks to Jeff who recently revealed himself as a green thumb, I have a little herb garden outside my apartment! I share it with my roommate Greg who has a bunch of stuff planted already. I hijacked a couple spots for my basil plant, and thyme plant from my first week's share. Look!

Until next time!