Behind!
Lord, I get so behind on these things. I think I should aim for one big blog post a week that includes all the info and not keep telling myself to write a post every day and then feel dumb for not getting there.
Here are your foodie updates. Or what my Mama brain can remember of them.
So far our garden has produced for us three little strawberries and three little cherry tomatoes. I think it's a funny coincidence that the garden keeps producing toddler sized veggies in threes. One for Mama, Dada, and Ollie to try together. Both of them were delicious, particularly the strawberries, reminding me how much MORE flavor strawberries are capable of having. It's like the first time I had a homegrown tomato, as opposed to those sad mealy ones you get up north, and I realized that tomatoes are in fact, delicious. I still hate the sad pale ones though, I don't bother. Like in restaurant salads. As a side note: why can't a restaurant produce a decent salad? Even at the really fancy places charging you twenty bucks for truffled mac and cheese, your salad never has peppers in it, or more than two cucumber slices, or substantial carrots. It just baffles me. How hard is it to make a salad?
Our basket of late is mostly greens. Lots and lots of greens, and mostly salad ones at that. That is part of the lack or reporting. We had a salad is not that exciting. We have had lots of salads. With the above items, peppers, carrots, radishes, etc. I've had fancy salad, with pear slices, candied nuts, and blue cheese dressing. Taco salads. Anything we can put on lettuce. We've also gotten leeks, which we used to make Cauliflower leek tart. This recipe comes from The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook by Andrea Chesman, which we bought at Half Price and has quickly become one of our favorite cook books for CSA basketing.
CAULIFLOWER LEEK TART
(makes 2 tarts)
1 head of cauliflower broken into pieces
olive oil
2 large leeks or 4 little leeks
1/2 tsp dried thyme or 1 tsp fresh
salt and pepper
unbaked pastry for tart
8 oz gruyere cheese
1. steam the cauliflower florets until tender
2. saute the leeks and thyme in a bit of olive oil, also until tender. Season with salt and pepper
3. place half the pastry on a baking sheet (it works well if you roll it out like you were making a pizza and put it on a pizza tray).
4. grate 4 oz of cheese or so onto pastry.
5. place half the cauliflower on top of the cheese.
6. Place half the leeks on top of the cauliflower
7. fold up sides of pastry dough and pinch until it is forming a bowl.
8. repeat with other half
PASTRY DOUGH
2 cups unbleached flour (I use pastry flour, though it calls for AP)
2/3 cup really good quality butter
1 tsp salt (I used shallot salt last time, that was tasty)
6-7 tbsp cold water
1. Cut the butter into small pieces and cut or mush into flour
2. Sprinkle 6 or so tbsp of water over and finish mushing
3. roll into a ball and refrigerate
4. when you roll it out you will need a fair bit more flour to keep it from sticking
This recipe is really excellent. Of course, it's butter and gruyere cheese with leeks and stuff. How could it not be? Eric isn't a cauliflower fan and this really won him over. The pastry dough is delicious, all crumbling and yummy. And I'm very picky about dough.
Tonight we made another Garden Fresh recipe (with a few changes) to use up our Broccoli Rabe, which despite it's name is a green leafy vegetable, and is not pronounced like rabe.
Broccoli Rabe Calzone
pizza dough
2 cups fat free cottage cheese
olive oil
4 cups chopped broccoli rabe
4 cloves garlic minced (we got green garlic in our basket, which is a bit different than the big white kind you get at the store, so adjust accordingly)
1 cup grated mozzerella
1/2 cup parmesean
1. saute rabe in olive oil until wilted. stir in garlic, cover, and let steam until tender. Then remove cover and saute until all the liquid is gone.
2. Drain the cottage cheese, add it, and the other cheeses to the rabe and mix. Add salt and pepper as needed.
3. Preheat oven to 350, divide dough into half (or thirds, or whatever), make into calzones.
4. bake for 30 to 40 minutes rotating as needed. Make yummy tomato sauce to go with it.
5. Eat.
Photos will come later, but right now I need to go check on the status of my blueberry cobbler.
Here are your foodie updates. Or what my Mama brain can remember of them.
So far our garden has produced for us three little strawberries and three little cherry tomatoes. I think it's a funny coincidence that the garden keeps producing toddler sized veggies in threes. One for Mama, Dada, and Ollie to try together. Both of them were delicious, particularly the strawberries, reminding me how much MORE flavor strawberries are capable of having. It's like the first time I had a homegrown tomato, as opposed to those sad mealy ones you get up north, and I realized that tomatoes are in fact, delicious. I still hate the sad pale ones though, I don't bother. Like in restaurant salads. As a side note: why can't a restaurant produce a decent salad? Even at the really fancy places charging you twenty bucks for truffled mac and cheese, your salad never has peppers in it, or more than two cucumber slices, or substantial carrots. It just baffles me. How hard is it to make a salad?
Our basket of late is mostly greens. Lots and lots of greens, and mostly salad ones at that. That is part of the lack or reporting. We had a salad is not that exciting. We have had lots of salads. With the above items, peppers, carrots, radishes, etc. I've had fancy salad, with pear slices, candied nuts, and blue cheese dressing. Taco salads. Anything we can put on lettuce. We've also gotten leeks, which we used to make Cauliflower leek tart. This recipe comes from The Garden-Fresh Vegetable Cookbook by Andrea Chesman, which we bought at Half Price and has quickly become one of our favorite cook books for CSA basketing.
CAULIFLOWER LEEK TART
(makes 2 tarts)
1 head of cauliflower broken into pieces
olive oil
2 large leeks or 4 little leeks
1/2 tsp dried thyme or 1 tsp fresh
salt and pepper
unbaked pastry for tart
8 oz gruyere cheese
1. steam the cauliflower florets until tender
2. saute the leeks and thyme in a bit of olive oil, also until tender. Season with salt and pepper
3. place half the pastry on a baking sheet (it works well if you roll it out like you were making a pizza and put it on a pizza tray).
4. grate 4 oz of cheese or so onto pastry.
5. place half the cauliflower on top of the cheese.
6. Place half the leeks on top of the cauliflower
7. fold up sides of pastry dough and pinch until it is forming a bowl.
8. repeat with other half
PASTRY DOUGH
2 cups unbleached flour (I use pastry flour, though it calls for AP)
2/3 cup really good quality butter
1 tsp salt (I used shallot salt last time, that was tasty)
6-7 tbsp cold water
1. Cut the butter into small pieces and cut or mush into flour
2. Sprinkle 6 or so tbsp of water over and finish mushing
3. roll into a ball and refrigerate
4. when you roll it out you will need a fair bit more flour to keep it from sticking
This recipe is really excellent. Of course, it's butter and gruyere cheese with leeks and stuff. How could it not be? Eric isn't a cauliflower fan and this really won him over. The pastry dough is delicious, all crumbling and yummy. And I'm very picky about dough.
Tonight we made another Garden Fresh recipe (with a few changes) to use up our Broccoli Rabe, which despite it's name is a green leafy vegetable, and is not pronounced like rabe.
Broccoli Rabe Calzone
pizza dough
2 cups fat free cottage cheese
olive oil
4 cups chopped broccoli rabe
4 cloves garlic minced (we got green garlic in our basket, which is a bit different than the big white kind you get at the store, so adjust accordingly)
1 cup grated mozzerella
1/2 cup parmesean
1. saute rabe in olive oil until wilted. stir in garlic, cover, and let steam until tender. Then remove cover and saute until all the liquid is gone.
2. Drain the cottage cheese, add it, and the other cheeses to the rabe and mix. Add salt and pepper as needed.
3. Preheat oven to 350, divide dough into half (or thirds, or whatever), make into calzones.
4. bake for 30 to 40 minutes rotating as needed. Make yummy tomato sauce to go with it.
5. Eat.
Photos will come later, but right now I need to go check on the status of my blueberry cobbler.
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