Swiss Chard and Baked Beans

Well, I feel like I'm cheating when a CSA post starts with this:






But, moving on... this was a not-heat-wave-appropriate dish that resulted in our having to go out to dinner tonight because the apartment is too damn hot thanks to the oven. BUT, it's well worth it because we have dinner for this coming week. If you have A/C (did I mention we don't have A/C?), I highly recommend this dish right now. If you're like us, perhaps best to wait until heat wave has passed.


But I digress. Here's the inspiration.

(1) Sautee carrots, celery, onions, garlic. Add swiss chard with stems removed.

(2) Add diced meat. Yep.

(3) When all this has cooked down, add a bunch of beans, some tomato sauce (recipe called for canned tomatoes but I forgot to buy them, turned out just lovely without them), and a bunch of herbs (we have oregano and thyme; I skipped the parsley because who actually likes parsley).

(4) Simmer for a bit, then transfer into oven. Cook 30ish minutes covered then 10 minutes uncovered for delicious crispy top.

(5) Have a few bites before you go out for sushi. Put remainder in fridge for this week's leftovers.

Curry Zucchini Bread

In brief:

- See 'Zuccess' post from last season

- Substitute 2-3 tbsp curry powder for cinnamon / allspice.

Hot damn.

Back to Lettuce

Yeahy! CSA has started up again. Of course that means weeks and weeks of greens to kick us off. Though with our mild winter, berry season came early so I hope that doesn't mean we missed out on berries.


Coming back from Spain, we are still stuffed. We had such AMAZING food and need to figure out ways to recreate some of those meals. We actually bought $50 worth of jambon to bring back with us. There is an awesome olive oil too that I need to find here in the States.

However, due to our overindulgence abroad, our first at home meal was to go vegetarian. Joe made this awesome pasta with swiss chard and pine nuts. I recreated it days later (in my Bittman-like stove) with the Mizuna - I should have been more creative with this unique green which is like arugula, but the pine nut combination with bitter greens is awesome. 


Recipe: http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2005/11/penne-rigate-with-mixed-greens-and-pine-nuts
I used Angel Hair pasta because it's shorter to cook and added red pepper flakes for a punch.

Joe's original with Swiss Chard

Sweet&Spicy Drumsticks with Bok Choy

Okay so this picture doesn't tell the whole story of how we made our meal and what it looked like throughout the prep process blah blah blah - because I was just SO PSYCHED that Jessica is back from her time in Albania doing important Peace Corps stuff that I forgot to take pics along the way. And then we ate it.

Suffice it to say that we made some awesome chicken with this recipe. (The 'jam' we used was actually the strawberry rhubarb jam from the prior post, and I skipped the mirin because I don't know what that is and therefore do not have it in my pantry.) The bok choy was made by Jess, and though I'm not sure what she did with it, I think it involved garlic, olive oil and a wok.

YAY WELCOME HOME JESSICA!!! (Oh yeah, and glad to have you over to dinner too, Todd.)

Father's Day Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Coming up with a father's day present for an octogenarian puts a lot of things in perspective. Techie gadgets and fancy slippers seems sort of frivolous. But the universal gift - one that makes life wonderful - is food. Specifically: jam.

Based on this recipe.





(1) Cut up rhubarb, strawberries, a lemon. Put the lemon seeds in a cheese cloth or tea ball. Squeeze the rest of the lemon juice into bowl with water and sugar. Let sit for a while.
(2) Boil these things on high for a while. Stir a lot.
(3) Boil these things on low for a while. Stir a lot.
(4) While all this is happening, 'sterilize' a jar in boiling water.
(5) Put jam into jar. (Not the seeds, duh.)
(6) Process jar by boiling for another few minutes.

Happy Father's Day!

The First Supper

To those of you just tuning in, this is my indulgent attempt to prove I do things other than read nerdy medical articles in my spare time. Welcome to our CSA blog, where we learn to cook things we've never heard of before because we got drunk one evening and decided to give hundreds of dollars to some farm in upstate New York in exchange for losing control over what veggies we receive each week.

This week is the perfect storm:

- Young and Joe, with whom we are splitting our CSA share, are in Spain (damn you both) - so hubbie and I picked up the full share

- Hubbie and I have many dinner dates this week (deviation from the norm)

This results in me panicking when I realize that I have to figure out how to consume or store these vegetables in some sustainable way. 

I remember this problem from last year's summer spread -- many green, leafy things, most of which I've never heard of before. This week's greens included:

Green Lettuce (check)

Red Leaf Lettuce (okay, with you so far) 

Radishes (yes, I'm counting these as a green based on the recipe, see below)

Bok Choy (new to our kitchen)

Chinese Cabbage (new to my knowledge base)

Mizuna (whaaaa?)

Suehlihung Mustard (double whaaaa?)

So I threw red leaf lettuce into a bowl with vinaigrette, stored the green lettuce / cabbage / bok choy for later-in-week shenanigans, and threw the rest into: SOUP.

Based loosely on this Bon Appetite recipe.

(1) Chop up green things (radish greens, mizuna, suehlihung mustard) and non-green things (onion, carrots).

(2) Cook the non-green things in olive oil for a bit so they brown.

(3) Simmer green and non-green things with stock, canned tomatoes, white beans (substituted for the lima beans).

(4) ESSENTIAL (because cheese = essential): add rind of an old used up hard cheese if you've got one stored in the fridge (which I do); makes the whole thing taste a bit like parmesan.

(5) Serve soup with side salad and bloody mary.

(6) Make room in the freezer for 3 extra tupperwares full of leftovers.

And THAT is how you manage the first lettuce week.

It's That Special Time Again...

LETTUCE SEASON.

(...aaaaand we're back!)