Category Archives: Real Food

Red Veggie Week

Posted on September 19, 2014 by AnnieRie

When I opened my newsletter from Lancaster Farm Fresh, four of the eight items had the word “RED” in them.

I am a firm believer in eating by color. I even have the book from Williams Sonoma that tells us how great those rainbow of color veggies and fruit are for us.

According to the book, here is what red veggies bring to us.

“Red fruits and vegetables provide antioxidants for protection and healing. Promote heart health. Promote urinary tract health. Help reduce the risk of certain cancers. Improve memory function.”

Here is what we got this week. That black futsu squash (which happens to be orange at the moment). That Italian style chicory. Bok Choy. Onions. And the four “red” items.

Red radishes. Red bell peppers. Red romaine. Red potatoes.

I include the potatoes because I will parboil them and use them in potato salad, including their skin. With organic veggies, I don’t mind using the skin.

Besides the vegetables this week, my fruit share included these items.

Honey crisp apples. Asian pears, KIWIBERRIES! Again. We really like these berries. A great snack.

This was a cheese week too.

Three cheeses. Once a month. Every month is different. We have had no repeats in five deliveries. A smoked gouda. A sheep’s milk ash cheese. And, a lavender goat cheese.

We also got 2.5 pounds of chicken wings and a couple of skinless chicken breasts in our chicken share.

This basket, with our Friends and Farms basket, means no trips to the grocery store again. Unless we run out of toilet paper.

1 Comment

Posted in CSA, Food, LFFC, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

Home Cooking!

Posted on September 13, 2014 by AnnieRie

That’s what I am doing today. Getting most of the CSA and F&F items cooked or prepped to make my week easier.

Like making crock pot cauliflower leek soup.

I know we can be pressed for time, and trying to put dinner on the table is sometimes close to impossible. That’s why lately I have been cooking on one day and just reheating for a number of dinners after long busy days.

I had three leeks hanging around in the refrigerator. Got a cauliflower in the CSA basket. Scallions from Friends and Farms. I always have almond milk in the pantry. A little chicken stock from the freezer. Salt, pepper, garam masala. Made enough soup for at least two meals. Or one dinner, two lunches.

After taking it out of the crock pot, I did mash it up a bit with a potato masher, to make it creamier.

I also dry roasted the beets, for salads all week. I took four chicken breasts and put them in the oven next to the beets and baked them. I now have chicken for salad. For dinner tomorrow. And, for a stir fry.

Dinner tonight. Another one of those frittatas I rely on. The half not eaten will be lunch early this week.

This one used a few of my tomatoes. The rainbow chard from the CSA. The top half of those scallions mentioned above. The last of the Scamorza from last week. Six eggs. Seasoned with a little Italian seasoning.

I have a real head start on eating well on the three days this week that we will be running around. And I made a major dent in the meat and vegetables delivered last week.

Still need to find a nice evening to make the edamame for an appetizer. And, to make hot pepper jelly with all those peppers we got.

2 Comments

Posted in CSA, Food, Friends and Farms, LFFC, Locavore, Real Food and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, CSA, Food, Locavore, real food, value of CSA. Bookmark the permalink.

Synergy

Posted on September 11, 2014 by AnnieRie

When the whole is so much greater than the parts. Or, how we can feed ourselves wonderfully using two regional sources that add up to a week’s worth of outstanding meals.

A different take this week. Grouping.

Protein. Both of our food sources, Lancaster Farm Fresh, and Friends&Farms. It was a chicken heavy week. F&F is trying out a new supplier. Bell and Evans. This week it was boneless skinless chicken breasts. Which have already become dinner. Pics at the end of the blog post.

My LFFC chicken share (that reminds me, check fall sign up) had three packages this week. Thighs, breasts and drumsticks. I should have done a throwdown between the two suppliers.

As for the rest of the Friends and Farms protein. It was an egg week. And, smoked bacon. A half pound of Nell and Sons ground pork. I am thinking frittata with the pork and eggs. Making the bacon to use with some greens. And, with a really good potato salad.

Let’s move over to fruit.

Stanley plums and apples. From F&F. I am thinking of one huge gorgeous plum cake to take to the pot luck for Conservancy volunteers. As for LFFC. Three huge peaches. Destined to become peach pepper jelly. More on that later.

KIWIBERRIES! Check out the site to see where these lovely little gems originate. One of the real benefits of belonging to LFFC. Exotic fruits and vegetables.

There were two packages in our fruit share this week.

Vegetables. First, the LFFC half share.

We have four ears of bicolor sweet corn. Cauliflower. Hot mixed peppers. Pink radishes. Beets. Rainbow chard. Edamame and green beans in the colander. The French breakfast radishes came out of the swap box, as I gave up my green mizuna. I have enough greens in the house.

Moving over to F&F.

They advertised this week as wrap week. Using that awesome hydroponic butter lettuce. Raw peanuts. Scallions. Cucumbers. Thai basil. Heirloom cherry tomatoes. Zucchini (can you say fritters).

For the next week, like all our other weeks, we will enjoy homemade goodness, like this.

Tonight I baked, in the same large pan, the Bell and Evans chicken breasts. Two for dinner tonight. One for my husband to take for a dinner while radio contesting this weekend. Last week’s cauliflower. Covered with olive oil, white balsamic, garam masala and salt. Last week’s tomato. Split open and filled with Italian dressing. A side salad from hydroponic lettuce, cucumber and radish. That meant I used up the last of the veggies from a week ago, and I am ready to take on this week’s.

Not Your Mama’s Veggies

Posted on September 5, 2014 by AnnieRie

Cardoons. Edamame. Trombone squash. Those strange things in my garden, and in a friend’s.

Let’s start with the squash. I have to grow these next year. A friend at the Conservancy grows them. They are away for two weeks. Their instructions to us were harvest the tomatoes for the food bank, and take any squash that get longer than a foot.

I decided today to go see what grew since our Tuesday food bank day. Two new squash just went nuts over the three day period. I will be cooking them tomorrow for a pasta primavera.

As for my garden.

I harvested a half dozen cardoons. A member of the artichoke family. They are peeled. Prepped. Ready to make tomorrow night as part of my primavera.

Finally.

Only one of my edamame plants survived. I took them off the vine. Cooked them in salted water. Added them to tonight’s dinner.

Grilled Haloumi with the edamame. Grilled the tri tip from Friends and Farms. Also grilled the last of the bok choy and some fennel. Served over spring mix.

With an awesome local wine.

Hey, maybe the food around here is a bit weird, but it tastes great. And, there are some wonderful local wines out there.

Small Packages

Posted on September 4, 2014 by AnnieRie

As in good things come in small packages. If you were an individual, or a working couple who traveled or ate out more than twice a week, a CSA wasn’t always a good fit.

For us, having the option to pick a half share, or an individual basket at two local food sources here in Howard County, has been really enlightening. It gives us more freedom, while giving us affordable fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, bread and herbs.

We, being retired, do like having both options. An individual basket from Friends and Farms, and a half share CSA from the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative.

Here’s what we got and what we are doing with this week’s Friends and Farms share.

This is the vegetable and bread portion. Two lovely large red peppers. Five peaches. Two ears of corn. Green beans. Garlic. An onion. Two heirloom tomatoes. A loaf of honey whole wheat bread.

The green beans and corn were steamed for dinner tonight.

As for the protein.

Yellowfin tuna. I did order an extra piece as the individual share only gives you one portion. A small tri tip steak. Scamorza cheese, a take on mozzarella.

The tuna was slow cooked tonight with one of the tomatoes, and one of my heirloom pineapple tomatoes. Covered with lemon zest, olive oil, white wine vinegar and herbs.

Definitely a good start to using the basket. Tomorrow night. Grilled tri tip, with leftover mushrooms from last week. Caprese salad using the other tomato and some of the scamorza.

The peppers, along with some eggplant from my other source, will become a dip this weekend.

I like the way my two sources complement one another. Easy, seasonal fresh food.

Peaches and Peppers

Posted on September 1, 2014 by AnnieRie

And other things being done in the kitchen.

I’ve literally been overwhelmed with peaches this year.

There’s a few reasons for it. Besides getting peaches most weeks in the CSA, I was managing the site for a month while the site host was on vacation. Add to that, it was August. Lots of members didn’t show up. I ended up with the host’s peaches a few weeks, and a few leftover fruit shares. One week, we had six watermelons left. Food bank got most of it, but the peaches. Became a gateway to preservation.

I made peach syrup. I vacuum sealed a few bags. I have just enough left to make jelly, using the peaches and the jalapenos from my garden. We ate copious amounts of juicy fresh peaches for lunch. And breakfast.

As for the peppers.

The last week I hosted, I had my sweet pepper item, plus some from the swap box, and a share I picked up for a vacationing member. Yesterday, I blanched, sliced and froze four bags of peppers. This winter there will be lovely bright peppers on chicken, or fish, or pasta.

The beauty of having a CSA share is that ability to preserve and freeze the extras. In the dead of winter, those ingredients will liven my dinners. Grab a bag of peppers. Some tomato sauce. Some caramelized onions, maybe. Some pesto. Mix and match.

Those bright red Amish paste tomatoes in the picture above became tomato sauce. A quart of it. The slicing tomatoes met the same fate. Two pint jars. The freezer is almost full. Winter won’t be dull and dreary around here.

1 Comment

Posted in CSA, Food, Locavore, Real Food, Winter Eat Local and tagged cooking, CSA, Food, heirloom tomatoes, Locavore, real food, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Lima Beans!

Posted on August 28, 2014 by AnnieRie

Fresh. In shell. Something I have never encountered before today.

They were in the swap box today for our CSA pick up. I had to get them and gave up radicchio to do so.

Already shelled and part of a simple dinner tonight. That also included this salad.

Heirloom tomatoes and some African blue basil from my garden. That absolutely awesome mozzarella from last week’s CSA cheese share. Secolari’s white balsamic vinegar and Sevillano olive oil.

There were also potatoes and Merguez sausage for dinner.

But, let’s get back to the CSA basket.

Spaghetti squash
Amish paste tomatoes
Slicing tomatoes
Baby sweet peppers
Baby bok choy
Green Beans
Cubanelles

As for fruit.

Apples. Plums. More peaches (like we need more peaches).

Things I am thinking of making. More tomato sauce, obviously. Pickled peppers. Spaghetti squash with butter and Parm.

As for the chicken share, not pictured, there were two boneless breasts of chicken, and a package of whole chicken legs. Chicken salad will be made this weekend.

Lancaster Farm Fresh comes through again with a mix of very interesting favorites and a few surprises.

Tomorrow: What I did with the Friends and Farms Individual basket.

1 Comment

Posted in Food, LFFC, Real Food and tagged cooking, Food, foodie, heirloom tomatoes, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

Using the Crock Pot to Preserve

Posted on August 26, 2014 by AnnieRie

Sounds like a strange way to preserve food, but my crock pot is a way to easily transform excess vegetables into freezer ready meals, soups, or simple ingredients to use all winter long.

I went looking through my pictures, and some of my best preservation techniques aren’t recorded anywhere.

Like this really simple one.

Caramelized onions. Fill your crock pot halfway with sliced onion rings. Melt about half a stick of unsalted butter. Mix the butter all over the onions. Put your crock pot on low for at least 10 hours, or better than that, 12-15 hours. I then let the onions cool and put them in my largest ice cube trays. Freeze them. Pop them out and store them in the freezer in a large container. Take out one or more whenever you feel the urge to have onions, on burgers, beef, potatoes, etc. They are easily cooked in a frying pan and used for all sorts of meals.

Spiced apples are another simple recipe. Take all the apples that will fit in your crock pot. Add some cider for moisture. Some cinnamon and sugar. A little nutmeg. Slow cook for 10 hours. I cool them and put them in pint jars. To make flavored yogurt. Fill a pie crust. Make a galette. They are happily resting in my freezer waiting to be used.

Soups. Stews. Stocks. All can be easily made in a crock pot. After one meal, the rest goes into pint jars or containers in the freezer. All winter long, I can pull out chicken corn chowder, bean soups, Tuscan bean soup. Even more. Any of the soups on my compilation can be frozen to use out of season.

This soup, my Grandmother’s tomato cream soup, freezes well. Or, like in the post, can be made with frozen tomatoes and stock.

What else can be made in the crock pot? So many ways to go, with fresh or frozen ingredients.

1 Comment

Posted in Food, Real Food and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, crockpot soups, Food, real food, tomatoes. Bookmark the permalink.

Some Tips and Tricks for Food Preserving

Posted on August 23, 2014 by AnnieRie

A few random items from my food preservation program today. Things we discussed and things I forgot to mention. It was a very enjoyable morning for me, and I think all the attendees had a good time. I sent them home with herbs to dry, and a couple of them got “prizes”, like a cookbook.

Think Small

We talked about the use of ice cube trays to freeze fruit, pesto, butters and herbs. I use different sized trays for strawberry puree, mint in ice, chive butter, sage butter, basil oil, bacon fat (yes, bacon fat), blackberry or blueberry simple syrups.

I mentioned that I use those trays pictured above to make herb butters. Two sticks of butter, melted. Herbs cut in advance and placed in trays. Pour cooled butter over the herbs. Each segment of a tray holds one tablespoon of butter. Nice proportions to use for pastas, potatoes, eggs, gnocchi and more.

Freeze ingredients, as well as finished products. I freeze one cup packages of shredded zucchini to use for breads or fritters. I freeze carrots and celery leaves to use in soups and stocks. I freeze caramelized onions, just because they are awesome in so many recipes. Oven roasted cherry tomatoes. Oven dried plum tomatoes.

This way I can pull out a bunch of bags, pop them in the crock pot and make soup or sauce.

I freeze veggie scraps to make veggie broth. Carrot tops. Lettuce root ends. Celery root end. Onion skins. Green bean ends. Stems from parsley. Carrot greens. Possibilities are endless.

Keep those shrimp shells. Crab shells. Fish ends. Make fish stock from them.

Buy bulk turkey legs from Maple Lawn. Use them for soups. After making the crock pot soup, boil the living daylights out of the bones to get a small amount of very rich stock to use as a base for couscous or other grains or rice.

There’s nothing like the taste of these locally raised birds. So much flavor. I also use local chickens for stock, and buy smoked ham hocks to keep around for when I make bean soups.

I need to find some of my other recipes to add. But this is certainly a good start to using up the summer’s bounty and keeping it available to make winter just a little warmer.

Like cauliflower leek soup.

What in your freezer might inspire you this fall?

4 Comments

Posted in Food, Real Food and tagged cooking, crock pot cooking, Food, foodie, Locavore, real food. Bookmark the permalink.

On A Perfect Day

Posted on August 15, 2014 by AnnieRie

What is it with the weather around here? Every day just warm enough, with no humidity. It makes it hard to get anything accomplished. But, it does make it easier to work in the kitchen.

Usually in the summer, my food processing days are spent fighting the heat and humidity. Not today.

I even made soup. Potato leek soup in the crockpot. This picture is before the blending. I used about a dozen small leeks from my garden. A half dozen potatoes. Three small shallots. A pint of homemade chicken stock. Salt and white pepper. After about six hours in the pot, I pureed it all in the blender. It’s in a jar in the refrigerator, cooling down. I may freeze it, or I may have it for dinner next week.

I also made tomato sauce again. Since the onslaught of tomatoes never ends.

I used the roma tomatoes from the CSA. Take my advice. DON’T do it this way. I sweated the tomatoes in the same pan as I made the sauce. Splitting them open and letting them get warm enough for me to slip off the skins. This is a chunky vegetable rich sauce. I like these for short pastas. I had green pepper, shallots, leeks, garlic, carrots, zucchini and eggplant in this sauce. Yes, an eggplant, from here.

I roasted everything on this pan this morning. Then smashed up the eggplant and added it to my sauce. As a thickener. You know, you can use all sorts of things in sauces. No one will be the wiser. I ended up with two full pint jars for the freezer, and about 12 ounces in the fridge to be used for a pasta for dinner tomorrow night.

The tomatoes and peppers on that tray? Went into a pint jar and are in the freezer as well. They will make one awesome sauce sometime in the dead of winter.

Last but not least.

It’s sauerkraut time. I pulled out the crock and am making kraut. Cabbage and salt. That’s all it takes. And a cool dark corner.

Since I can’t find my cork top for the small crock, I ended up covering this with a clean dish towel. I put the saucer on top the cabbage. Weight it down with a jar. I moved it off to the far side of the kitchen where it stays out of the sunlight. I will have sauerkraut next week. But, let it ferment longer for better flavor.

I certainly did quite a bit today. How was your Friday?

1 Comment