Category Archives: Food

Meals, CSAs, other YUM.

CSA week 8

2006CSA8

potatoes, beets, cubanelle peppers, radishes, mint, basil, tomatoes, hot peppers, chard, peaches (!), purple and thai eggplant.

leftovers:
week 5: chard
week 6: oregano, beans.
week 7: cabbage, eggplant, green pepper, cranberry beans.

I never ate that lettuce from week 4 and had to toss it this morning. I can’t remember what happened to the chard from week 5, and also, I think that week 6 beans were overlooked when I made bengali style beans from world vegetarian this week and they might not be happy anymore.

I didn’t make the tomato/eggplant risotto from world vegetarian this week like I meant to, but I will do that when I get home. it might not be BEST to keep eggplant over a week, but it works. I’ll use the rest of the eggplant for baba ganoush, just to get it all cooked.

also: this week I discovered (thanks, joy of cooking!) that cubanelle peppers are actually ITALIAN peppers and that they can be substituted with bell peppers in recipes. So I made a really yummy feta cheese/roasted pepper spread, and also some delish sauteed peppers (saute with olive oil, toss with red wine vinegar until evaporated, remove from heat and add chopped mint and garlic). I was able to use up the cubanelle peppers from weeks 6, 7 and 8. excellent!

I’m going to be away from monday-wednesday, but am going to try to get back to nj on wednesday im time to get my veggies. yay! I’m taking all my tomatoes with me and I stuck the last of the bengali beans into the freezer, I hope they come out ok. And I’ve already eaten all the peaches, they were So Good.

CSA week 7

2006CSAwk6

corn, cabbage, tomatoes, basil, cubanelle peppers, thai hot peppers, 1 eggplant, 1 green pepper, cranberry beans, other beans, and a magnificent onion.

week 4: lettuce, oregano
week 5: cubanelle peppers, hot peppers, chard, and pea pods
week 6: kale, corn, basil, oregano, cubanelle peppers, beans.

I only have a little corn left from week 6 b/c I’ve been eating it raw for lunch, and I really do need to check to see how the lettuce is doing. I ought to cook all the cubanelle peppers (dunno how yet) and all the beans this weekend. also, kale. and chard. ha!

my non-heatstroke was totally worth it.

all that cooking last night was totally worth it. In honor of stacey’s cooking blog devoted to world vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey and also my northern neighbor and friend who’s been cooking from it a lot lately, I requested the book from the library and it is AMAZING. it should be required reading for all csa members. it is about 4 inches thick and includes all kinds of vegetables and best of all, it’s indexed really really well. I’m absolutely going to buy a copy of my own.

so, all that hot sweaty cooking I referred to last night culminated in this beautiful stuffed eggplant dish:

stuffedeggplant

which is not only one of the best tasting but the easiest eggplant recepes I’ve ever made. I’m pretty scared of eggplant because it can be so bitter, but this was brilliant! It was good after I made it and it was even better today at lunch. I might eat it again for dinner. Supertasty.

CSA week 6

this week, thankfully, was not that big:
2006CSA6

I got kale, corn, basil, oregano, tomatoes, thai eggplant, purple eggplant, cubanelle peppers, beans.

leftovers:
week 4: lettuce, oregano, radishes
week 5: corn, cubanelle peppers, hot peppers, purple eggplant, chard, green pepper, and pea pods

I cooked up all the potatoes and watercress into this amazing watercress and potato bubble and squeak which I ate with poached eggs. it was SO TASTY. like gourmet hash browns. Yum.

watercresspotatoes

I also chopped a lot of the veggies (cucumber, peppers, radish) and brought them with me to work and then to rachel’s house, where I left them (sadly) in her fridge.

I stuck the rest of the beans I’d boiled into the freezer, and I blanched some of corn and will cut it off the cob and freeze as well. and the beets, well, I boiled them and have eaten maybe 1/2. there are still some left, but I took them off the list of leftovers.
I used up all of the thai eggplant and one of the hot peppers and this weeks basil by making roasted eggplant with basil lemon oil. and I’ve got a cut tomato to eat for lunch. I’m so excited that they’ve started to come in! I love tomatoes. SO GOOD.

CSA Week 5

2006csawk4

corn, beets, cubanelle peppers, hot peppers, kermit/thai eggplant, purple eggplant, chard, basil (from the take what you want bin), a cucumber, green pepper, and pea pods (I think).

week 2: potatoes

week 3: potatoes

week 4: potatoes, green peppers, lettuce, oregano, radishes, watercress

tonight I need to do things to potatoes, watercress, and also use up the avocados I bought earlier in the week. maybe this watercress quac, though I think the watercress avocado salad looks good too. oh, and look: watercress bubble and squeak! that uses watercress AND potato. perfect!

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csa week 3

Because of the 4th of July, I picked up my share on friday last week. That kind of puts the pressure on my as far as eating up this weeks veggies!
2006CSA3

pictured are 2 bags of watercress, potatoes, kale, chard bok choy, lettuce, beans, beets, and basil and parsley – just enough for a nice pesto. I don’t usually make pesto with parsley but I’ve been told that’s how you’re supposed to do it. I have a nice sack of pine nuts at home so I’ll do that tonight.

leftovers:

week 1: some radishes
week 2: potatoes, radishes, sage

I used the week 1 and week 2 cabbage to make 2 cabbage salads: with the week 1 dill I made a dill vinegrette for a coworkers bbq weekend before last, and that same weekend I used the rest of the cabbage and the cilantro to make a lime cilantro vinegrette. they were both awfully good. sadly, though, a head of cabbage is too much for one person to eat. happiily, I got to share the salads with my coworkers and with my family.

I used the week 2 swiss chard and beet greens to make a chard gratin:

chardgratin

notice the ritz cracker topping? super. I love cracker toppings.
chardgratin2

and I had used up all the beets on my amazing beet salad.
I just finished all of week 2 lettuce today. So unless I eat a whole head of lettuce tomorrow, I’ll be behind on lettuce again for next week. oh well. that’s the way that the csa goes sometimes!

csa wk 2

2006CSA2

I got swiss chard, potatoes, radishes, sage, cilantro, lettuce, purple cabbage, arugula, and some incredibly big beets.

last night I cooked all the (wk 2 and wk 1) beets and made a salad ala aurora and jesse with granny smith apples, drunken goat cheese, and some balsamic vinegar/tiny bit of olive oil. I have an incredibly huge container of this beet salad in my fridge. I also made some indian food so I could put chopped cilantro onto it. yum. and I picked up the pine nuts, so tonight I’ll try the same arugula dish only it will be potentially 10,000x better.

so many veggies to eat up!

leftovers:

week 1: some radishes, cabbage, dill.

I am going to use the cabbage from last week and this week up this weekend (need to find a good non-coleslawy cabbage salad recipe). best case is a salad that includes the dill or potentially sage. I need to also find something to do with the chard that I can also do with the beet greens – the radish greens from last week went to my worm food stash, and I’d like to actually cook the beet and radish greens this week. they’re pretty healthy but not hugely flavorful, sadly.

dinner

csa dinner last night: I steamed the chard and ate it on corn tortillas with salsa and spreadable laughing cow cheese. yum.

chard wraps

today I also have the roasted wee potatoes for lunch, but I have to eat after my dentists appointment b/c they are full of garlic.

also, tiny little sneak peak for tonight’s festivities:

CSA season!

I had the first pick up of the CSA season yesterday:

Week 1 CSA 2006

radishes (with greens), beets, lettuce, cabbage, chard, dill, small potatoes, arugula.

I ate all the arugula for dinner and lunch today:

1st arugala

I tossed spelt pasta with wilted arugula (in garlic and olive oil), some romano cheese, and nate’s “meat” balls. I really wished I had pine nuts, but I guess I’m all out.

The CSA is on the other side of my house from work now that we’ve moved offices, so it takes about an hour to get there. which is a huge bummer. I might work from the other office on wednesday but I don’t really want to! Anyway, I’m hugely excited that the season has started.

my fortune.

Got the best fortune cookie fortune today ever:
fortune

List.

Ambitious List of Things to do Tonight:

* wash dishes.
* roast eggplant under broiler, pan fry tofu, and cook in Moroccan tagine sauce from trader joe’s. enjoy with whole wheat couscous.
* do laundry.
* sort blankets/bedding for upcoming girl trip to baltimore, wash if necessary.
* finish framing posters for home.
* hang lamp over dining room table area.
* sort and put away crafty stuff. Make this more fun by separating out planned projects and photographing before restashing.
* tackle piles of crafty things over dining room table. See also pile of crafty things next to my sweet recliner.
* listen to audiobook of “pride and prejudice” while homemaking.
* drink lots of tea so as to stave off horrible cold that project manager passed along. Try not to feel sad that gym is a Very Bad Idea when you’re fighting horrible post-nasal drip.
* go to sleep early.

factoid

Johnson is also running an “economic impact” study of the experiment, comparing the average American’s $91-per-week food budget to the price of local eating. “I’ve paid $66 per week,” she says. “We’re trying to break down the fallacy that local eating is more expensive.”

from the 100-mile diet article featuring 100-mile diet groups around north america.

That’s pretty interesting. I don’t know how much I spend a week, but I estimate it’s less than $91. In the summer my CSA runs me about $28 dollars a week, and on top of that I might regularly buy $20 of milk, eggs, and cheese. During the winter I’m spending closer to $40 at the grocery store weekly. Then I’ll spend maybe $20 or $30 eating out every week or two (or even less). Amazing. If I were really into it I guess I could break it down to a finer level, but, well, go me!

links

blogs I’ve been discovering:

food
The 100-mile diet is a series written by a pair in vancouver who are trying to eat for 1 year on local foods only. it’s really neat. But then, I’m a nut about homesteading/local foods/skills that may be useful after an apocalypse. I get to it from the author’s page here.

Mighty Foods is pretty, interesting, and has got me interested in a new cookbook about healthy slowcooking.

I can’t handle how wonderful and twee and awesome vegan lunch box is. I went out and got a bento box of my own, though my meals are not as lovely as little schmoo’s.

Dork
I am so dorky, check out the kinds of comics that I stay current with. I’m pleased to tell you that after giving cathy another shot, I am off her for ever. Seriously, I thought to myself: she’s married now, I’m SURE she’s happy! I’m SURE she’s content! I’m SURE that now that she has a man to fulfill her, she’s fulfilled! but no, this strip continues to wear out every hackneyed cliche of married life, men, and women. YIKES. if anything it’s worse than it was before. seriously. you can build your own comic page here

FINALLY the new year can begin!



all of us

Originally uploaded by karinajean.


went to lovely brunch at buddha bodhai with the girls. About 4 or 5 years ago we started meeting for new year’s brunch on NYday so we could ring in the new year with our beautiful, smart, strong lady friends. we’ve slipped the last couple of years from the actual day (it’s hard when people live all over the country!), but sunday we were able to get together for vegan dim sum and of course, I made everyone get together for a dorky myself-and-another photo after the yummy yummy food. It was so great!

and FINALLY I can start the new year. I have really wonderful feelings about it from here on out. YAY.

(more photos here, including the FAMOUS VEGAN JELLYFISH DISH. Mmm, slippery and gelatinous and noodly, all at the same time.)

csa information

fyi, in case anyone is interested, here are the NJ csa links I put together last april when I was looking for a veggie home.

here’s the blog of my current farmer

two good listings of organic farmers:

in NJ (it IS the garden state!):
roadside markets
community farmers markets
and pick your own

and the robyn van en center for csa: featuring a national search. another search at local harvest.

and for NYC residents, just food

bento boxes

man, but bento boxes are awesome.

after stumbling upon the incredible vegan lunch box blog and moving from there to the bento moblog, I found myself in my local japanese dollar store buying a bento box of my own. and, of course, a matching fork and spoon.

here is my first lunch in the bento box:
bento3
not shown is the salad on the side. I’m trying to bring the veggies back into my diet.

and speaking of diet, I’m slimming. it’s nuts but since I moved to NJ I gained over 10 lbs. Since January 2005 I have gained 20 lbs. And on top of that is the 10 or so lbs I gained since my knee broke and I couldn’t go running anymore. So I am definately interested in getting rid of all of that! Plus, I have to do it for my heart.

I am impossible. Photoessay.

Y’all know I’m taking the PE on friday. This is how hopeless I am: Sat. was my day to really start studying for real. But I had a really hard time getting started.

my studies. more yuck.

I was all set up, but then I thought “maybe I should go clean out the fridge.”
refridgerator
So I also ended up making a TANG PIE, so as to use up the materials that have been in the fridge for months and months and months.

tang pie

and then I washed the dishes. To tell you the truth, I washed the dishes like, 5 times that day.

dishes

I also cleaned off the counter. it really needed it.
countertop

And then I cleaned up the hallway. Trust me, it’s much cleaner than it was.
hall

This is the best, I made to do lists for every room in the house, and taped them to the walls.
to do lists lists - living room
lists - bathroom lists - hall
lists - big closet lists - little closet

After that, I thought to myself: “self, you have a lot of teas, and you’re secretly ashamed of it. How about you sort those teas and figure out which ones you can drink right up and start getting rid of them. How ’bout it, self?”
sorted teas

And then I drank eight pots of tea. I’m not kidding. I finished off 5 different varieties of tea and put 3 more kinds into my bag for work usage.
teapot

I also did my laundry. I washed some blankets and my sleeping bag, and put the whole caboodle away.
laundry

and then I thought, hey, my friends are apple picking right now and are going to bring me apples. I’d better use up these old store-bought apples! So I baked them with brown sugar and butter. Only I didn’t have any brown sugar, so I made some from white sugar and molasses.
baked apples

and then I ate some apples. YUM.
apples

I thought I’d better start studying, but I couldn’t find any highlighters. So I got out my pencil box and sorted it out. no highlighters. I did get rid of a lot of dead pens, though.
pencil box

Then I relaxed with a nice piece of tang pie. It was super good, I only used 2/3 the amt of sweetened condensed milk and I didn’t feel like I’d catch diabetes when I ate it.
piece of tang pie.

Seriously, though, the most procrastinatory thing I did was to take pictures of everything I did to procrastinate. I am amazing at procrastination. If only THAT were on my test!

Photos

old csa: week 16

this is, as far as I know, the last week. At least, it’s the last week I have a photo for!

CSA16

kale, cabbage, potatoes, butternut squash, delicata squash, lettuce, and possibly sage.

There was a shipment of winter veggies but I don’t have a photo of that. it was mostly hard squash, some sweet potatoes, and some regualar potatoes. it was great.

old csa: week 15

almost to the end!
CSA15

swiss chard, eggplant, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, cukes, radishes, and some kind of herb in a bag that I don’t recall right now.

old csa post: wk 14

CSA14

another week I didn’t document well:
radishes, eggplant, habenero, jalepeno, yellow squash, hot peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, and a pattypan squash.