Week 10

This weeks pick-up included:

• 1 ¼ pound red potatoes
• One pint grape tomatoes
• One head of lettuce
• Three ears of corn
• ½ pound of green beans
• 1 Bunch of Leeks (2 leeks)
• 1 head of Fennel
• Purchased: One quart of raspberries, after Stella basically ate a handful from a quart on the table $4

See that sneaky hand going for the fennel? As I was putting the bounty away, she actually grabbed the head of fennel and started munching on the ends of it. I washed a few pieces and cut it up and added to her dinner. I can't even stand the smell of the stuff. I have a feeling she is going to be a black lickerish fan. When I finally give her candy that is.

Another corn eating picture. The kernels seemed really small to me.
She ate the entire half.

Week 9

This week’s pick-up is was another one done toddler free. Who-ho

Here is week 9’s booty:

• One head of lettuce (washed & eaten that evening)
• Pint of Organic Grape Tomatoes
• 4 ears of corn (brought to Cape Cod for girls weekend and grilled the next evening)
• 1 pound of tomatoes (two some-what bruised tomatoes)
• 2 pounds of (mixed): Green Peppers, Red Onions, Cucumbers (Beets were also an option, which I passed on)

Over all, a very boring couple of pick-ups. I have fixin’s for salads, but I think I am green pepper and onion-ed out. Hopefully I will be insired soon!

Stella and Aunt Cecily enjoying some fresh corn

Summer Squash is kinda bland

If only I knew this previously about summer squash... But I didn't, so I ended up with quite the boring meal the other night. But at least it was a meal, and not a side dish, right??

The main component in the dish was the summer squash received at last weeks pick up. I diced it up, brushed on some olive oil, sprinkled a little salt and pepper and placed in the 450 hot oven for about 25 minutes.

That hole in the middle was for the garlic

Along with the squash, I took two garlic cloves, wrapped them in some foil, and placed them in the middle of the squash. I thought that adding some roasted garlic, salt and pepper would be enough 'seasoning' for the dish. I sorely underestimated.

Once the squash seemed done (soft, but not mushy) I mixed it with the roasted garlic, some pre-cooked quinoa, the remainder of one of the tomatoes from the share, some of the diced red onion from the share and a tine little bit of Shredded Cheddar Cheese.

BLAND was the word on the night. Not sure what else I should add next time. To Pinterest!

#ThankYouFarmShare

Thank you, Farm Share.

Because of you, I am sitting here at my desk, snacking on cucumber slices (with salt and pepper of course)

and I am not sitting here snacking on a bag of chips, readily available from the "Snack Wall"

Week 8

Paul was off of work today, so to give me a little bit of a break he was going to pick up this weeks share. We planned on meeting after pick up in North Reading for our final review of our new kitchen plans (yeah!). But unfortunately, when he arrived right at 3:30, he was told the truck was late. He waited until about 4, but since we had to be at the lumber store by 4:30, he left with no vegetables (Insert sad face emoticon).

So, after a few schedule re-arrange acts, and a Stella switch-off, I was there to pick up the bounty right before closing time at 6:45, sans a toddler.

This weeks loot:

• one pound of cucumbers
• one yellow squash (other choices were beets or collard greens)
• two green peppers
• two 'hot' peppers (one yellow and one green. Paul tells me the green one is a jalapeno)
• one pound of tomatoes
• half a pound of tomatillos
• head of green lettuce

For dinner tonight, Paul grilled some of the green peppers and the rest of the white onions we had. Eaten with some steak tips and Quinoa for me, rice for Paul. Yum!

Prep work

Monday evening I did mostly prep stuff, while also getting Stella's lunch and dinner ready. I think Stella may be in a bit of a carrot over-load. All of the carrots we have gotten are basically earmarked for her consumption. We have frozen some of these, but she is eating away. And if you were in my high school biology class freshman year, you would be very concerned with this. That year, our teacher brought in her 11 month daughter to visit the class. And to teach us a very important lesson. A lesson about the dangers or over eating carrots. You see... her daughter was orange.
I just had to Google myself, you know, to see if I had this irrational memory and fear of too many carrots, for no reason what so ever. I guess it is true!

Hypercarotenemia, otherwise known as carotenosis, is actually a perfectly harmless effect. It’s the effect of turning spontaneously YELLOW (not actually orange), in response to eating too many carrots. But it’s not just carrots, it can also be papaw or pumpkin, or anything else with a large amount of vitamin A. The net effect looks a bit like jaundice (what with the yellow), but is distinguishable because it doesn’t effect the sclera, or whites, of you eyes.

So, I guess it is not harmful, but still. This would have you think twice about too much carrot consumption.
That being said, I decided to shred the carrots and freeze them for future muffins.

About four cups total

Next I decided to try my hand at some pickles. I saw a recipe in one of the five hundred magazines I get and thought I should give it a try, especially since everything required was on hand (minus the dill which I picked up at the store). I also was able to use some of the fresh garlic, which turned out to be purple on the inside:

The prettiest garlic I have ever seen

I am not a fan of sweet pickles, so I am not sure why I thought I would like this recipe. For some reason, it did not dawn on me that the cup and a half of sugar would result in a sweet pickle brine. Not until I smelt this did I realize what I was doing. Oh, well. Maybe we will get invited to a BBQ in two weeks, and there will be sweet pickle lovers there.

Recipe here

See you in two -to - three weeks!

My last bit of prep was to dice up the remaining red onion to use in my salads this week.

no tears were shed. amazing

Eggplant, Take 2

My first ever attempt at cooking eggplant was an utter failure. This was probably due to the amount of wine I was consuming while cooking said eggplant, but details details.

My second attempt however was much better. I may have even stumbled across an actual meal, as opposed to all these side dishes I keep making.

I am currently counting calories / carbs / fat (who isn't?) so I sort of made this recipe up after searching for a few eggplant dishes online. I wanted to use items that I had on had (like fat free Kraft singles) as well as keep it within my daily limits. (I would credit this recipe as my inspiration)

Eggplant "Parm"

• Heat oven to 450 degrees
• Wash and trim ends of eggplant
• Slice eggplant into 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices
• Brush tops of eggplant with olive oil (this is where I was really good; I actually measured out 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and only brushed it on. BIG change for me)

Sliced and ready to go

• Lay slices in a single layer, coated baking pan
• Bake in oven for 20 - 25 minutes, until browned and very soft when pressed

as you can see, I wasn't able to get just one layer. I 'snacked' on those top two.

NOTE: At this point, I had to put Stella to bed, so I just removed the eggplant from the oven and turned it off. I was totally expecting disaster. Not only was I "winging" a recipe, but I was letting it sit out for the 45 minute bath & bedtime routine... But it actually worked out!

• Top eggplant slices with cheese and sauce
• Bake for an additional 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted

The one slice with the 'good' mozzarella cheese. All the others had fat free cheese :(

Result = Yum. I would certainly do this one again (maybe splurge with some better cheese or some breadcrumbs.) This is basically a bread-less and pasta-less Eggplant Parm, but I did not miss those carbs at all. I think it is due to the thickness of the slices of the eggplant. They were substantial and yummy.

Pin this, bitches!

Week 7

This afternoon's pick up was nice as there was no rain. It was also a little exciting for Stella, because I let her walk over to the fence for the near-by dog park so we could watch the doggies for ten minutes or so. I will continue to let her think that I am just an awesome mom and love "doggies doggies doggies doggies DOGGIES!!!" as much as she does, and not that I was trying to stay out of the way while the coordinator tried to explain to a few homeless people who wondered into the veggie tent that, no, sorry, you can't take the carrots. Ahhh, #salemma

Anyway. There were no choices this pick-up. The items also had a few pre-measured portions out (so I didn't have to weigh one pound of carrots while keeping an eye on a roaming toddler.) Very handy!

This weeks pick up included all items that require no Googleing on my part:

• One pound of carrots
• One pound of pickling cucumbers
• Two Green Peppers
• One Eggplant
• One head of garlic
• One bunch of Basil

Typing it out, it seems like more, but the bag certainly seemed on the smaller side. I think the lack of a head of greens was a factor in this feeling. 

In putting away tonight's bounty, I found the Kale, which I honestly forgot about. It is not wicked hot, so Kale chip time. I feel with this batch, I went into it a little more confidently.

I made a few modifications after the last batch:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees
• One bunch of Kale - washed, spun & patted dry and broken into bite size pieces
• One tablespoon of olive oil
• In a large bowl, drizzle the olive oil over the Kale, and massage in. (Really? "Massage"? What does that even mean? Do I need to buy the Kale a drink first? I have no clue. But I did massage my Kale, so you should too.)

• Once the Kale is covered in the oil, spread evenly over two trays and place in the oven. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste

ready to go in

• Check once at 5 minutes to separate any leaves that are getting a little too cozy
• Remove from the oven after an additional 20 minutes.

You are now the owner of some crunchy Kale chips! 

I munched on these while calling the credit card company (always fun!), left some for Paul for when he gets home, and plan on crunching any extras on my lunch salad tomorrow since I used the last of the croutons this evening. Super easy to do, and much better then sauteed Kale (IMO).