Yes, I totally dropped the ball for week one of the CSA. The plan is to actually provide you with recipes and ideas for each week's harvest, but seeing as I am picking up week two tomorrow afternoon, this is a condensed version of what I did this past week.
What I received:
-1 whole pasture raised chicken
-2 lbs organic cornmeal
-1 bunch of cilantro
-1 bunch of radishes with tops
-1 head of lettuce
-1 cucumber
-2 hothouse tomatoes
-1 quart of farmstead yogurt
-1 lb grassfed beef
-1 head bok choi
-1/2 lb mixed salad greens
-1 bunch of swiss chard
-1 jar pickled hot hungarian peppers
When I saw swiss chard I knew immediately that I wanted to make swiss chard tacos from my favorite Rick Bayless cookbook, Mexican Everyday. They may sound strange, but they are the perfect light vegetarian meal on a hot day. I added some of the mixed salad greens to the chard mix, and I used part of the cilantro on top of the tacos. I wanted to really taste the beef, so I simply sprinkled it with salt & pepper, added a couple of dashes of worcestershire (yes, I had to use spell check for that one) and made a humble hamburger. WOW. You really can tell the difference between high quality grass-fed beef and the mass produced grain-fed beef you buy at most grocery stores. Alongside the burgers I served the tomatoes sliced, drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper, and torn basil from my garden; as well as the rest of the mixed salad greens with a homemade dijon mustard vinaigrette. The chicken was roasted whole and served with southern style green beans (bought at the store), and a dairy-free cornbread made from the cornmeal. (I should probably mention that my five-month-old is sensitive to dairy, so I am currently following a dairy-free diet. And yes, it sucks.) If you currently only use a store-bought mix to make cornbread, corn muffins, etc, STOP NOW! It is so simple to make from scratch and you probably have everything you need on hand. It really is worth the extra effort and you can change it suit your tastes. I have plenty of cornmeal left over, so I will share more ideas for it in future posts. With the bok choi I made a stir fry of rice noodles and leftovers from the roasted chicken, adding some bean sprouts, chile paste, and oyster sauce from the store, and I sprinkled the remaining cilantro on top. This was not my most successful meal. The idea was good, the flavors were fine, but it definitely needs some tweaking. Good thing were getting another batch of bok choi tomorrow. I am thinking a cold rice noodle dish with peanuts?
As for the remaining items, my three-year-old loves cucumber, so he ate that for lunch one day. Since I can't have dairy, I will use the yogurt to make him smoothies and ice pops. At the suggestion of the CSA newsletter sent each week with your pick up, I pickled the radishes. I am still waiting for them to be finished, but I will share the results when they're ready. I used the leaf lettuce on sandwiches, and the hot peppers are in the fridge ready to be thrown into salads, stuffed into calzones, added to pizza, or anything else I can think of. And yes, I did have a small amount of waste. I failed to use the radish tops, which in hindsight I should have added to the swiss chard tacos, and my husband threw out the chicken bones that I could have used to make stock.
Whew. So that's week one in a nutshell. From here on out I promise to stay on top of things. Really. I swear.
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