Okay, now John and Diane are just trying to woo me into committing to them for as long as we both shall farm/eat. ;)
Look what they tucked into my bag this time:
My own husband doesn't even woo me with flowers! Not only did I get a bag full of perfect vegetables, but I also got a perfect little sunflower to brighten up my window sill while I cook.Okay, okay, Riehm farm! "I DO!" For as long as we both shall farm/eat. ;) Not that you really had to twist my arm on it...
I've already signed up for the extended season this fall, but I will definitely be signing up for 2012 as well. Check out their website if you are interested in exploring Riehm Farm's CSA as food source for your family as well. They have several different pick-up locations around the area and there is still availability for the extended fall season!
My vegetable share that was picked up on August 2nd:
My vegetable share that was picked up on August 2nd:
Contents: 4 ears sweet corn, 1 purple eggplant, 1 green pepper, 3 large potatoes, 1 each yellow squash and zucchini, 1 pint of grape tomatoes, 1 bag of mixed green and yellow beans, 1 bunch kale, 1 bunch green onions, 4 carrots (greens attached), 2 cucumbers.
{This menu is for the week of August 6-12.}
On Saturday morning, the kids and I went to the Farmer's Market downtown and came home with several bags of beautiful cherry tomatoes for recipes and plain eating, along with some fresh marjoram for a recipe and some blueberries and peaches because they're in season.
Two cups of the red and yellow cherry tomatoes went into a really delicious recipe that I will definitely be repeating soon: Chicken Breasts with Tomato Herb Pan Sauce from Bon Appetit. Have I mentioned my love for Bon Appetit? LOVE it!
The incredible flavor is in large part because of the herb butter that is used to pan fry the chicken breasts and later make the bursting tomatoes into a "sauce". Room temperature butter is "smashed" together with minced garlic, chopped fresh marjoram and sweet paprika.
I never feel confident in my ability to pan fry any meat to it's fully cooked state without burning it. I think this was pretty much cooked through, but I just got it to this yummy, golden color and then put it in the oven with my side dish (see further down) just long enough to get that temperature up to 165.
When the chicken came out of the skillet, the tomatoes went in on high heat until they started to burst. Then I pressed down on them lightly with a potato masher to release their juices and swirled in the rest of the marjoram butter. Deeeeelicious!!!
Time to plate it! Lately, we've been cooking just two chicken breasts to feed the four of us because the kids only eat a little bit off of each and Craig and I are still left with a substantial portion... But I think we all would have enjoyed a little more of this. Yum. We'll be doing three chicken breasts next time.
My side dish was an effort to use my eggplant with a recipe that came in our newsletter, but sadly, it did not taste very good. I don't dislike eggplant, but it depends on the preparation. This was eggplant Parmesan, which I know was a lot of "tomato" in one meal, but I didn't care. I have a feeling tomatoes are going to be in everything at every meal for awhile here.
Anyway, this recipe called for peeling the eggplant and setting up a 3-part breading station. I used a mixture of Panko and seasoned bread crumbs because that's what I had on hand and I drizzled tomato sauce and sprinkled Parmesan between layers. This is a baked recipe. I've never had a fried version, but I'm pretty sure it's better.
There's a layer of mozzarella melted on top at the end. But this recipe is not even worth sharing... it's just not very good.
But wait! I redeemed myself (actually, I didn't need to - the main dish was wonderful) with a zucchini cake spiced with cloves and frosted with a simple clove-seasoned icing. It definitely tasted like "spice cake", but I love spice cake and this was delicious. It was so easy and a great way to use an abundance of zucchini. I made two more of them later in the week.
Zucchini Cake
Two cups of the red and yellow cherry tomatoes went into a really delicious recipe that I will definitely be repeating soon: Chicken Breasts with Tomato Herb Pan Sauce from Bon Appetit. Have I mentioned my love for Bon Appetit? LOVE it!
The incredible flavor is in large part because of the herb butter that is used to pan fry the chicken breasts and later make the bursting tomatoes into a "sauce". Room temperature butter is "smashed" together with minced garlic, chopped fresh marjoram and sweet paprika.
I never feel confident in my ability to pan fry any meat to it's fully cooked state without burning it. I think this was pretty much cooked through, but I just got it to this yummy, golden color and then put it in the oven with my side dish (see further down) just long enough to get that temperature up to 165.
When the chicken came out of the skillet, the tomatoes went in on high heat until they started to burst. Then I pressed down on them lightly with a potato masher to release their juices and swirled in the rest of the marjoram butter. Deeeeelicious!!!
Time to plate it! Lately, we've been cooking just two chicken breasts to feed the four of us because the kids only eat a little bit off of each and Craig and I are still left with a substantial portion... But I think we all would have enjoyed a little more of this. Yum. We'll be doing three chicken breasts next time.
My side dish was an effort to use my eggplant with a recipe that came in our newsletter, but sadly, it did not taste very good. I don't dislike eggplant, but it depends on the preparation. This was eggplant Parmesan, which I know was a lot of "tomato" in one meal, but I didn't care. I have a feeling tomatoes are going to be in everything at every meal for awhile here.
Anyway, this recipe called for peeling the eggplant and setting up a 3-part breading station. I used a mixture of Panko and seasoned bread crumbs because that's what I had on hand and I drizzled tomato sauce and sprinkled Parmesan between layers. This is a baked recipe. I've never had a fried version, but I'm pretty sure it's better.
There's a layer of mozzarella melted on top at the end. But this recipe is not even worth sharing... it's just not very good.
But wait! I redeemed myself (actually, I didn't need to - the main dish was wonderful) with a zucchini cake spiced with cloves and frosted with a simple clove-seasoned icing. It definitely tasted like "spice cake", but I love spice cake and this was delicious. It was so easy and a great way to use an abundance of zucchini. I made two more of them later in the week.
Zucchini Cake 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp grd cinnamon
1/2 tsp grd cloves
1 zucchini, shredded and drained
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease square 8x8 pan. Mix brown sugar, butter, vanilla and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves. Stir in zucchini and nuts. Spread batter in pan. Bake 25-30 minutes. Cool completely and frost with clove-spiced frosting.
Clove-Spiced Frosting
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp butter, softened
1/8 tsp grd cloves
*I didn't understand how this would blend without a little bit of liquid, so I added a little splash of milk and that gave it the perfect consistency.
Just a quick look at the kids' Sunday lunch. We always stock salami for Craig because he loves it for sandwiches. The kids, however, continue to remind me that they do not care for it. They're crazy. You can see a dollop of that edamame hummus on Sophie's plate (on right) - she liked that better than Will. And he's my tomato guy, while Sophie detests them.
On Sunday, when I had more time to work with the soaking and cooking of dried beans, I prepped Cannellini Beans with Kale to go into two other extension recipes later in the week. It smelled wonderful and I love the combo of dried sage with red pepper flake and lemon. I reserved the cooking liquid for soup and chilled everything in the fridge for the days ahead.
Also on Sunday, I prepped an easy main dish of green beans, potatoes and ham with a side dish of Red and Napa Cabbage Salad with Braeburn Apples and Spiced Pecans.
The main dish was basically a throw together without even any seasoning. (It was another suggestion from my newsletter.) The salt from the ham in the cooking water kind of flavors the whole thing. So it was just simple and tasty. Just cut up pieces of ham (I eyeballed the amount), ~1# green beans (trimmed) and those 3 large potatoes (peeled and cut into a bite-size chunk). I seasoned with salt and pepper as needed later. Just boil the ham in a large stock pot of water for 15 minutes. Add green beans and cook for 20-30 minutes more. Add potatoes and cook until tender, about 30 minutes. Done!
Kids plates with pineapple and applesauce added. I bought a pineapple to use for two recipes and the kids finished off the extras.
Dinner time!
Notice she's sticking her fingers in her applesauce... I told you she eats everything in the most complicated way possible. Goofy girl. Neither kid ate the cabbage salad. ;)
Ooooohhh! I could eat this EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!!! Love it! I've made it several times before and will be making it many more times in the future. It's Avocado, Tomato and Cucumber Salsa served over grilled chicken breasts. A perfect use of my CSA grape tomatoes, cucumber and red onion. Not to mention I have jalapenos to last me a couple years growing in my garden. :)
Kids plates this night:
And because they seemed to be bottomless pits this night, the kids had two (healthy) desserts: strawberry muffins from the freezer (leftover from all our June strawberries) and the last of the peach popsicles. I wanted them to finish these up because I had a new popsicle recipe waiting to fill the molds. (Nothing is going to hold up to those peach pops though.) Little piggies tonight!
One of my pineapple recipes this week were Weelicious's Carrot Pineapple Muffins. These are one of my favorite of her muffin recipes and I used my CSA carrots in them. I ate them for breakfast most work mornings and the kids ate them as a grain with several meals.
Mmm! This soup is one of the extentions of those Cannellini Beans with Kale that I prepped on Sunday and it smelled sooooo good cooking. Neither beans nor kale are on the top of Craig's favorite foods list... ;) so I thought he'd probably turn his nose up at this. But I think the smell won him over and he said he'd like to try it. And he liked it okay! He might prefer some kind of meat and finer chopped greens, but he liked it.
This is really more of a winter meal, I think. Would be a perfect comfort meal on those cold winter evenings. In fact, it was originally posted on BA in November, but I wanted a new way to use my kale and this sounded really good. Plus it wasn't too hot the night we ate it. I got some crusty bread from the store and poured myself a glass of dry red. Perfect.
On Sunday, when I had more time to work with the soaking and cooking of dried beans, I prepped Cannellini Beans with Kale to go into two other extension recipes later in the week. It smelled wonderful and I love the combo of dried sage with red pepper flake and lemon. I reserved the cooking liquid for soup and chilled everything in the fridge for the days ahead.
Also on Sunday, I prepped an easy main dish of green beans, potatoes and ham with a side dish of Red and Napa Cabbage Salad with Braeburn Apples and Spiced Pecans.
The main dish was basically a throw together without even any seasoning. (It was another suggestion from my newsletter.) The salt from the ham in the cooking water kind of flavors the whole thing. So it was just simple and tasty. Just cut up pieces of ham (I eyeballed the amount), ~1# green beans (trimmed) and those 3 large potatoes (peeled and cut into a bite-size chunk). I seasoned with salt and pepper as needed later. Just boil the ham in a large stock pot of water for 15 minutes. Add green beans and cook for 20-30 minutes more. Add potatoes and cook until tender, about 30 minutes. Done!
After trying the cooked cabbage last week and still having 1/2 a head of cabbage leftover, I wanted to go raw with it this week. I really like the flavor of cabbage, but I like that raw crunch over the floppy stuff. So I searched Bon Appetit and came up with this salad. I bought a little Napa cabbage and a couple apples and the rest I had on hand. (I used walnuts instead of pecans.) When I was prepping the walnuts, I questioned the use of Worcestershire and the smell was throwing me off a little, but together, the whole salad came together very deliciously. It was an easy lunch to pack for the week as well.
Kids plates with pineapple and applesauce added. I bought a pineapple to use for two recipes and the kids finished off the extras.
Dinner time!
Notice she's sticking her fingers in her applesauce... I told you she eats everything in the most complicated way possible. Goofy girl. Neither kid ate the cabbage salad. ;)
Ooooohhh! I could eat this EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!!! Love it! I've made it several times before and will be making it many more times in the future. It's Avocado, Tomato and Cucumber Salsa served over grilled chicken breasts. A perfect use of my CSA grape tomatoes, cucumber and red onion. Not to mention I have jalapenos to last me a couple years growing in my garden. :)
Kids plates this night:
And because they seemed to be bottomless pits this night, the kids had two (healthy) desserts: strawberry muffins from the freezer (leftover from all our June strawberries) and the last of the peach popsicles. I wanted them to finish these up because I had a new popsicle recipe waiting to fill the molds. (Nothing is going to hold up to those peach pops though.) Little piggies tonight!
One of my pineapple recipes this week were Weelicious's Carrot Pineapple Muffins. These are one of my favorite of her muffin recipes and I used my CSA carrots in them. I ate them for breakfast most work mornings and the kids ate them as a grain with several meals.
Mmm! This soup is one of the extentions of those Cannellini Beans with Kale that I prepped on Sunday and it smelled sooooo good cooking. Neither beans nor kale are on the top of Craig's favorite foods list... ;) so I thought he'd probably turn his nose up at this. But I think the smell won him over and he said he'd like to try it. And he liked it okay! He might prefer some kind of meat and finer chopped greens, but he liked it.
This is really more of a winter meal, I think. Would be a perfect comfort meal on those cold winter evenings. In fact, it was originally posted on BA in November, but I wanted a new way to use my kale and this sounded really good. Plus it wasn't too hot the night we ate it. I got some crusty bread from the store and poured myself a glass of dry red. Perfect.P.S. - Bread is going to be my fall project. I'm going to attempt to start making all my own.
A little sprinkling of Parmesan to top it off and a little bread for dunking.
On Wednesday evening, I made two more zucchini cakes - one for work, one for home.
Leftovers the rest of the week: a smorgasbord.
A little sprinkling of Parmesan to top it off and a little bread for dunking.
On Wednesday evening, I made two more zucchini cakes - one for work, one for home.
Leftovers the rest of the week: a smorgasbord.
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