Week 2

Kicking this week off with some great new items, and a couple that are going to be a challenge!!

Strawberries
Sugar Snap Peas
Garlic Scapes
Dinosaur Kale
Boston Bib Lettuce
Head Lettuce
Broccoli

Recipes to try:
Dinosaur Kale Chips
http://anuneducatedpalate.com/2012/01/30/dinosaur-kale-chips/

Roasted Beets with Feta

Recipe from http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/roasted-beets-with-feta-recipe/index.html

Husband Friendliness: 5
Toddler Friendliness: 0 (nothing like some staining beet juice to play with!)

Prep: 10 mins     Cook: 20 mins    Total: 30 mins
2 servings

Baby beets!

Peel 6 small/4 medium beets and cut into 1/2-inch pieces. Toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste on a baking sheet. Roast at 450 degrees F, stirring once or twice, until tender, 35 minutes. Transfer to a bowl; toss with 4 chopped scallions and 2 teaspoons lemon juice. Top with crumbled feta. 

Warning: don't toss with feta, it turns hot pink! Sprinkle on the top if you're tryingto  impress someone.

Cajun Corn, Kale & Black Bean Salad

Ok so here we go!!

First recipe of the year, and I really wanted to try using Kale. Never had it before, had a very inappropriate fear of it. I got turned off to cooked greens as a kid when my mom liked highly cooked spinach drowned in vinegar. So I admit my irrational fear of slimy cooked greens. Let's meet that head on, shall we?? (and after all of the chopping, with a mojito in hand)

In looking for recipes for this week, I knew I wanted meals that kept as much of the fresh character of the food as possible, as well as those where the CSA veggies played a big role (not oh, I'll sprinkle some scallions on this and tada, CSA dish!)

So with these beauties in hand, and really wanting to tackle kale (go big or go home)

Kale, Scallions, Swiss Chard, Garlic Scape

Cajun Corn, Kale & Black Bean Salad
adapted from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/corn-and-kale-salad/detail.aspx
Husband Friendliness: 9
Toddler Friendliness: 5 for now (he's a little selective, but did eat some!)

Prep: 15 mins     Cook: 10 mins    Total: 25 mins
Original recipe makes 4 large servings

Ingredients

• 2 cups frozen corn 
• 1 bunch kale - stems removed and discarded, leaves torn into bite-size pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 Scallions
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice
  1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning, or to taste 
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder 
• 1 teaspoon onion powder 
• salt, to taste

Directions
1.    Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add corn to boiling water and turn off heat. Let corn soak in hot water for 5 minutes. Drain corn over large bowl, return water to pot. (Can also be done in microwave if inclined)

2.    Let corn cool, in meantime drain and rinse black beans, chop scallions and red pepper and add to bowl with corn and beans. Stir in pineapple juice, olive oil, cajun seasoning, garlic and onion powder.

Starting to smell awesome!

2.    Return the pot of water to a boil; add kale and 1 teaspoon salt. Boil kale until bright green and tender, about 5 minutes; drain and set kale aside to cool. Once cool enough to handle, squeeze as much liquid from the kale as you can. Separate leaves and add to bowl with corn and beans.

I think this is what "bright green" cooked kale looks like? Took about 5 minutes.

4.     Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour or more. Plate. 

5.     Bask in your CSA cooking glory.

Notes:

1. For those faint of spice, reduce cajun spice to 1 tsp. This is not a spicy dish, but there is a nice little burn.

2. What happened to the chard and garlic scape? I tossed in a few torn leaves of chard, and also put in some toasted garlic scape for fun. That said, they weren't integral parts of the recipe, hence leaving them off the list and instructions. 

3. I only used about 3/4 of a bunch of kale, and the salad easily could have used twice that. I didn't want to completely break my family though, and so used a lesser amount. Will do more in the future, as the kale blended right in with very little flavor, and NO bitterness.

3. Suggested variations: Southwestern: add chopped tomatoes, substitute onion and cilantro for scallions, substitute orange and lime juice for pineapple juice. Serve with tortillas

Husband quote: "That was great. I'd eat that on some chips too!"

Week one recipe repository

To keep myself organized this week, here are some of my inspirations (submitted by friends and through my own google searching).

Garlic Scapes
http://quietexistence.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/grilled-garlic-scape-and-kale-pizza/
http://andreasrecipes.com/cannellini-bean-dip-with-garlic-scapes/
http://www.thegardenofeating.org/2012/06/garlic-scape-pesto.html

Kale
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-kale-chips/
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/corn-and-kale-salad/detail.aspx
http://quietexistence.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/grilled-garlic-scape-and-kale-pizza/

Cannellini Bean Soup with Kale

1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
6-8 cloves garlic thinly sliced
2 tsp dried oregano
1 (6 oz) can tomator paste
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 (15 oz) cans cannellini beans drained and rinsed
salt and pepper
1 large bunch kale, ribs removed, chopped

2 quarts of chicken stock

Heat oil in large pot, add garlic and oregano and cook for no more than one minute. Add tomato paste and vinegar and cook for another minute. Add beans and stock and bring to a simmer.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add kale and simmer, partially covered, for 1 hour. Season to taste again with salt and pepper.

Swiss Chard
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/roasted-swiss-chard-with-feta/
http://www.grouprecipes.com/44287/swiss-chard-and-potatoes-for-two.html
http://thegoodfoodcollective.com/2010/colorful-chard-and-bean-salad/
http://thegoodfoodcollective.com/2010/frittata-with-chard-sausage-and-feta/

Beets
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/roasted-beets-with-feta-recipe/index.html
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/kale-with-roasted-beets-and-bacon-recipe/index.html

First delivery!!

Much thanks to Leslie for picking up our share today while I was out of town. I'm actually happy with the size of this first share, it's not too overwhelming. Somehow I thought I'd have enough kale to quilt a bedspread, but I can handle this!

(In clockwise order from lower left: garlic scapes, beets and Swiss chard, kale, lettuce, scallions, an strawberries)

For those wondering, we've had a really wet late spring/early summer here in Rochester this year. Our share was actually pushed back a week because the lack of sun has made things grow slowly. So while I can handle this small share for now, I'm also looking forward to oodles of stuff in the future. 

I'm off work at 2 tomorrow, and will be attempting my first WTF CSA adventure. Unless you count the fresh strawberry I already snuck. If you do count that, it was delicious, in case you were wondering.

Introductions and Getting Started - Week 1

Tomorrow is doom's day. Our first CSA distribution. I personally hate to let food go to waste, and therefore I REALLY want to make sure we at least try to use everything in this week's bags. That said, there was a quite a bit of mild panic on my part when I saw this week's list of produce.

To back up, I'm a mom. I live with my veggie-averse husband and a 17-month old toddler that has recently started throwing all of his vegetables on the floor. I WILL WIN THIS WAR! I personally love most vegetables, and would be perfectly fine sitting down with a snack of sliced peppers and carrots. I'm not a vegetarian, I certainly love my meat-based protein, but I also believe that we have GOT to get more vegetables and fruits in our diets. There's weight issues on both sides of our families, and I'm trying really hard to not pass that along to our son.

So, we need more vegetables. I need to be challenged to cook with more vegetables. I love to be inspired. I have passable cooking skills, enough cookware and spices, a stove, a grill and a microwave. I watch "Chopped" on Food Network whenever I can catch it, and the idea of having an ingredient thrown at me and having to figure out what to do with it seems exciting.

Yeah, I'm pretty much doomed to fail on this one :) So now you get to watch, point and laugh!

Summer Share Week 1 distribution list:
Kale
Swiss Chard
Beets
Lettuce
Scallions
Garlic Scapes
Strawberries

Ok, so lettuce and strawberries. I know those. I can make a mean salad, can use lettuce on tacos, and strawberries are the perfect snack and dessert food. Great!

Scallions and Garlic Scapes - Well, I cook things with Scallions, and garlic scapes must be similar right? Or not?

Kale and Swiss Chard - Uh oh, the dreaded leafy greens. I just barely like cooked spinach. My family is never gonna go for this.

Beets - Right. Uhmmmm. My mom likes them? I can't think of any time that I've actually tried them. I hear they can turn your pee pink??

Follow along for my attempts. My goal is to eventually have a tagged list of recipes for weird CSA items that others can use too! I even have a few friends doing this particular CSA with me, and I might rope them in as well!