daily gratitude: triple threat

Saturday, 11/21/09

Grateful for quiet weekend days when I can putter around the house, run errands, do laundry, get to the yoga studio and still have time to sit with a cup of tea and read a good book.  These days are so rare they are a true gift and the best way to recharge my batteries.

Sunday 11/22/09

Grateful for good friends and good food!  Had a lovely and successful (if I do say so myself) dinner party last night with my roommates, the Husband-Elect and a couple friends in town from NYC.  Earlier in the day the H-E and I gathered with his friends from high school and college for a huge brunch hosted by the magnificent Alyssa and Rob.  It was a day of shared laughs, drinks and food.  A beautiful way to spend a Sunday.

Monday, 11/23/09

Today I am grateful (and hopeful) for my farm share.  This year was a rough year for all farmers and I am excited about the chance to sign up again for a second year.  The experience was wonderful (and much blogged about here on Perusals … check out the CSA (community supported agriculture) or Parker Farm tags for all related blogs) and I learned a ton about using, preparing and cooking a lot of new fruits and veggies.

If you’ve never done a farm share, I highly recommend it!  Your money goes to support a local farmer and in exchange you get a weekly delivery of fresh, in-season produce.  It will also cut your grocery bill in half for the summer and fall!

Check out Local Harvest for csa’s near you, as well as farmer’s markets.

daily gratitude – food

one of this summer's CSA deliveries

How often do you sit down (and I mean sit in a chair at a table) and savor every bite of the food you eat?  Pretty much never, right?

Try it tonight.

Whether it’s a homemade dinner, a review night of leftovers, or take out from the local Indian place around the corner, when you sit down to dinner, take a bite, close your eyes, and taste what you’re eating.  The final part: be grateful.

I am so thankful for access to great food, for my enjoyment of cooking, meal-planning and food gathering, and for the opportunities to share this with my roommates, the Husband-Elect and with you.

This season, in gratitude to your own abundance, consider donating to one of these organizations:

• Greater Boston Food Bank, which supports soup kitchens, food pantries and a lot of other outreach programs in the metro area
• Meals on Wheels brings food to the elderly, disabled and homebound
• Freedom from Hunger provides microloans and health education to women so they can provide healthier food choices for their families
• UNICEF fights hunger on an international level through outreach, education and the provision of food and equipment.

If you know of any other local or international food-related charities please share them in the comments.

Farmers Market 10/19/09

Stopped by the every lovely Central Square Farmer’s Market after work today.  I picked up a few Fuji apples from a great fruit and veg stand whose name is totally escaping me.  Parker Farm of CSA fame was also there and I loaded up on root veggies and squash from them.

fennel, potatoes, butternut squah, beets, parsnips and carrots

Peeled, chopped and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper they went into a 400 degree oven for 35 minutes.  I think they’ll be part of dinner tomorrow when the Husband-Elect is up for dinner.

Two or three weeks ago I got some pickling cucumbers as part of my final farm share delivery.  A few days after I found this great recipe for refrigerator pickles online.  I modified it to use celery seed instead of celery salt, added a dash of hot pepper rice vinegar (hot peppers included) and some whole garlic cloves.  The cukes got sliced and put into empty peanut butter jars and stuck in the back of the fridge for two weeks.

Refrigerator Pickles

Oh. My. Gosh.  These babies are delicious! Sweet, spicy, tangy and snappy!

I’ve been snacking on them non-stop and will be very sad when they’re all gone.  If I had known it was so easy to make pickles, I would have done thing long before now!

a snack-sized serving

Farm Share Canceled

Yesterday I learned via Twitter (thanks @eatboston!) that a large farm share in the Boston area had been canceled.  Knowing the struggles that Steve and Parker Farm had been going through, I immediately started hoping and praying it wasn’t them.  Alas, Steve has had to suspend the CSA portion of his farm.  A post on Facebook says this:

“Due to the unprecedented poor growing conditions of the 2009 season,which has caused enormous crop losses and is putting the future of the farm in grave danger,I am forced to suspend CSA drop offs for the balance of the season.I will be issuing refunds in the form of vouchers that can be redeemed at the stand at the various farmers markets I attend during the 2010 season.”

A follow up posts suggests that Steve might be trying to work something out for a final delivery, but nothing’s been finalized yet.

It’s a sad situation and my heart breaks for Steve and the rest of the crew at Parker Farm.  They worked through awful conditions and suffered the loss of so many of their crops.  What did survive brought so much joy and many, many new, good and creative meals to my little apartment.

Like many have said on Facebook and in other forums, I don’t want a refund.  That’s not the point of a CSA, short for Community Supported Agriculture.  You take the good with the bad.  This was a bad year and we all suffer the loss.  But hopefully, it’s our subscription fees for the CSA that help the farm survive through the lean seasons.

The fall harvest is just starting to ramp up, so please get out there and support your local farmer’s market.  Not sure where the nearest farmer’s market is?  Check LocalHarvest.org for a full listing.

Interested in participating in a CSA?  Sign ups start soon for the 2010 season and, again, LocalHarvest.org is a great resource for finding either a farm near you or a drop off point if you’re in a city.

Your support matters.

Farm Share – Week 15

Light week this week, which worked out great since I’m out of town Thursday to Sunday.

csa week 15

Apples, green tomatoes, green bell peppers, arugula, radishes and turnips.  No plans for any of this so if you have any recipes that use any of these ingredients, please share them.  I’d love to hear your ideas!

See you on the other side of the weekend for what I think is an interesting post and good discussion fodder on teaching yoga.  Students and teachers take note

Farm Share – Week 14

Wow — actually posting on pick up day!  I don’t think this has happened since the first week.

This week’s haul included a lot more fruit, which I’m psyched about.

week14

Kale, tomatoes, cucumber, ginger gold apples, eggplant, green bell pepper and a delicious melon that tastes like watermelon but has a beautiful pale yellow inside.  I think the eggplant are going to go into a curry dish (I’ve had a hankering for some good curry), probably along with the green peppers.  The apples will be great midday snacks, and the kale, I’m hoping, will keep until the weekend when I roast up a chicken and use the carcass for stock, because I’m thinking kale and bean soup sounds yum!  Not sure what I’ll do with the rest, but I’m sure it’ll find a home in someone’s belly!

Last week I made a bean salad from the Penzeys Spice catalog — it came out so pretty and colorful that I had to take a quick picture of it.

bean salad

The grape tomatoes came from Ed’s garden and the goat cheese is my own addition because everything’s better with cheese, right?

Also, I wanted to share this fun photo from the weekend.  What do you think it is?

?

Any guesses?

It’s bacon fat from cooking breakfast bacon, poured into two plastic cups nesting inside one another.  The inner cup warped and melted, while the outer cup stayed solid.  The color reminds me of the amber pieces that wash up on beaches in Denmark.  Who knew bacon fat could be so beautiful?!

Farm Share – Week 13

At this week’s pickup, my farmer had a sign on the back of his truck asking for any donations possible.  Due to the horrendous growing season and the loss of his original delivery truck in an accident earlier this season, he’s really strapped.  Poor guy!  I gave what I could, but it really heightened the important of local support for these farmers, especially through the lean years.  If I want the continued luxury of fresh, organic, local produce I too have to step it up and be responsible.

This week’s delivery was lovely!

week 13

Arugula, green tomatoes, orange tomatoes, a delicious reddish/purple heirloom tomato, onions, cilantro, green bell peppers, two golden delicious apples and broccoli.  The green bell peppers and onions went with me to Seekonk for a Sunday BBQ.  I’m making a three bean spicy salad from the Penzeys Spices catalog, spring 2009.  The broccoli got roasted and served alongside some panfried dumplings for a quick pre-yoga class dinner with a friend.  The rest waits for me to get home and do something with it before the next delivery on Wednesday.

Once I get back to Cambridge I’m thinking of making a cilantro pesto to keep through the week and serve over the weekend with some whole wheat pasta and roast chicken.  It must be a sign of fall that I’m craving a whole roasted chicken and all the yummy stock I can make out of it.  The green tomatoes will become a green tomato salsa.  The arugula makes a great salad base and I’m hoping to get at least one more salad that looks like the one I made last week from the leftovers of the last CSA delivery.

baked salmon salad

With green beans, roasted potatoes, tomatoes and arugula from the farm share, this was the best summer salad I ate all season.  The salmon was wild-caught from Whole Foods and it just so happened to be on ridiculous sale.  Win!

What are you cooking with this week?  Any Labor Day BBQs on your plate?

Farm Share – Week 12

Getting back on track with recording the farm share.  This week’s delivery was magnificent!

Arugula, eggplant, tomatoes, green bell peppers, cilantro, potatoes and radishes — Oh my!  The eggplant, tomatoes and two bell peppers went into a deliciouos ratatoille (recipe from Julia Child on epicurious), and the some of the radishes were used in a delicious appetizer of boursin cheese on baguette with radishes and fresh parsley.

Please forgive the lack of photos of the ratatoille.  Stewey veggies don’t photograph well in the evening with a flash. ::wink::

The arugula is going to go into a dinner salad for tonight’s dinner, along with a piece of wild caught salmon that I picked up from Whole Foods.  I’ll probably roast the potatoes since I like roasted potates served cold on salads.  Maybe that’ll go well with the salmon on arugula, too.  Mmmmmm!

Farm Share – Week 7 & 8

Yikes, this past week has been so busy I couldn’t even get to Perusals to post last week’s farm share.  The haul was pretty good: red cabbage, cauliflower, spring onions, green beans, red leaf lettuce, zucchini and mizuna.  I had to ask what mizuna was and have since learned it’s a lovely salad green.

The cabbage got used in the slaw for shrimp tostadas and the zucchini was grilled and used in an amazing zucchini and quinoa salad.  The salad is a perfect hot weather dish and a nice break from the traditional lettuce-based salad.  I modified the recipe slightly, substituting walnuts for pine nuts and sour cream for yogurt because of what I had on hand.  This new salad will definitely be made again.

This week’s farm share was another head of cabbage, leeks, spring onions, romaine lettuce, two cucumbers, and …

NEW POTATOES!

Despite the heat and humidity today, I couldn’t wait to taste the potatoes so I fired up the oven, tossed the potatoes with some Herbamare, pepper, olive oil and some thinly sliced spring onions and roasted ‘em all.  So tender and creamy and good.  I don’t generally like potatoes because I think most of the time they taste like the dirt they are grown in but these little baby beauties were delicious!

Not sure what I’ll do with the rest of the share.  I’m gone again this weekend playing bride, so maybe a leek and something quiche when I get back?  Any suggestions/recipe ideas out there?  Especially for that purple cabbage!

Farm Share: Week 6

Wow — I am totally in love with my farm share.  Especially after crunching the number to find out how much I was saving.  I wanted to give it a few weeks before making any sort of statement, but after 6 weeks, my grovery bill has consistently been $20 or less a week.  Previous to starting the farm share, my weekly grocery bill was $45-$50 per week.  If you calculate a $30 savings per week for the six months of the farm share (averaging 4 weeks a month) that’s a savings of $720.  Subtract the amount paid for the small share ($325) and that’s over $400!  Good thing, too, with a wedding coming up! ::wink::

This week brought in more little Asian turnips, red leaf lettuce, green beans, spring onions, red Swiss chard, yellow carrots and a gorgeous head of cauliflower.

week 6 delivery

I’m going to try pickling the turnips and the green beans and spring onions have already been put into a delicious little stiry fry with some tofu and a soy sauce/rice vinegar/oyster sauce/siracha glaze.  The Swiss chard is coming to Maine with me this weekend since it tastes best when eaten in the first few days and I’ll be in Maine learning to flyfish at LL Bean’s Outdoor Discovery School.

The yellow carrots and the cauliflower are going to be used in a cold noodle salad for next week.

Have a great weekend!  Regular blogging will recommence when I get back from Maine, hopefully all Zen like and knowing how to cast a fly.