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.

Meatless Monday Brouhaha

I’ve been a big fan of Meatless Mondays since I first heard the term about a year ago.  Eating less meat is healthy in so many ways: environmentally, nutritionally, economically … I could go on and on.  Heck, “Meatless Monday” has even been a top trending Twitter topic on occasion.

So it was with a disbelieving sense of “WTF?!?” that I read this article in The Atlantic about a Baltimore school district having their own Meatless Monday in their cafeterias.  The meat industry has gone ape-shit.  The American Meat Institute and Animal Agricultural Alliance have started their own media campaign spewing misinformation and ignorance of basic nutrition.

The blog post from Ralph Loglisci at Center for a Livable Future (linked to from The Atlantic article) displays a great grasp of what the USDA actually recommend for daily nutrition, as well as a lay-persons explanation of the biochemistry of protein proving once and for all that Westerners (including American children) do not need animal protein as a daily part of their diet to be healthy.

It really chaps my arse when these meat industry yahoos who have owned Washington for far too long get out their bullhorns and spew more of their lies.  It’s time for some truth: truth about how the livestock on massive CAFOs are treated, killed and then turned into the meats we consume.  (The recent documentary Food, Inc. does a great job presenting the animal and human abuses in the agricultural-industrial complex.)

I’m not suggesting that we should all give up animal protein altogether, but I think Baltimore has made a bold move into educating youth on good nutrition and what makes a meal healthy not just for the individual but for the planet.

Rock on, Baltimore!  I hope more school systems follow your lead.

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 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 5

A lighter haul this week due to the super wet, yucky rainy weather we’ve been having lately.  I don’t think the hailstorms helped any either.

farm share - week 5

In this week’s share was Swiss chard, baby carrot, red Russian kale, red leaf lettuce, green beans and fava beans.

The green beans and Swiss chard got steamed and served with veggie dumplings.  Freshly steamed Swiss chard is so  delicious – I had no idea it could be so sweet.  The fava beans, while a pain in the ass to prep, got put into this recipe for orzo and pea salad with mint.  I used Trader Joe’s grain blend and the fava beans instead of peas and parsley instead of mint.  It came out great with a squish of lemon and makes a perfect summer lunch or dinner side.

I’ve got a recipe tagged for the kale when I get back from another wedding in Long Island this Sunday.  Should be quick and easy to put together and provide a good lunch/dinner for the week.

Also, on a whim I made this tofu strawberry tart. I wanted to keep it simple so I made a regular graham cracker crust.  I also didn’t have a tart pan, so into a regular pie pan it went.  This is a great recipe if you’re trying to get someone to eat tofu.  The texture is just like that of a light, fluffy cheesecake and the homemade strawberry jam is always a crowd-pleaser.  I served this to two picky eaters and they both liked it a lot — and had no idea it was totally vegan.  ::cue evil laughter::

Farm Share: Week 4

This just keeps getting better and better!  Week 4’s haul included beets, little white turnips, carrots, chicory, snap peas swiss chard, baby fennel and broccoli raab.  I fully confess to eating the entire bunch of chard for dinner that first night.  Gently steamed, it was a plateful of the sweetest greens I’ve ever eaten.

Week Four haul

The fennel was thinly sliced and used in this Shaved Fennel Salad.  I didn’t have any thyme but I had all the rest of the ingredients kicking around.  I will definitely make this salad again should any fresh fennel come my way.  It tastes so much lighter and sweeter when it’s fresh, rather than the pungent, licorice-y taste of the stuff from the grocery store.  The only downside was that while chopping the parsley, I chopped off a good chunk of my left ring finger.  First ever kitchen injury with a knife.  Until now, I’ve prided myself on my knife skills and always having sharp, good knives.  Ah well.  They always says pride comes before the fall.  Guess it’s time to sharpen my knives and be a little more mindful when I’m working in the kitchen.

The snap peas, raab and beet greens traveled with me to Rhode Island, where I’ll be for the 4th of July holiday.  Last night Ed and I sauteed the beet greens with a little garlic – delicious!  (We then watched 28 Days Later, which Ed had never seen.  I’ve seen it a couple times now and it still gives me nightmares.)

We’ll probably cook up the raab in the next day or so – just a simple prep of quick cooking the raab to draw out the bitterness, then sauteeing it with some garlic and onion.  Pretty basic, but will be a great side dish to some sort of healthy protein. 

As for the rest, well, I’m thinking of something southwestern-themed since I have some black beans, brown rice and a bunch of cilantro still kicking around.  I’d like to re-create the cilantro sour “cream” from Veganomicon … so maybe quesadillas or tacos?  We’ll see what I come up with on Monday night!  And then there’s all those lovely root vegetables (beets, turnips and carrots) to roast as well.  This salad really caught my eye the other day.  Perhaps something similar will find it’s way on to my plate.  All I’d need are some sweet potatoes and an avocado.

Have a happy, healthy, fun and food-filled Fourth!

Farm Share: Week 3

Week Three of the farm share brought carrots, mustard greens, Asian turnips, red Swiss chard, Bibb lettuce, escarole, red leaf lettuce and sugar snap peas.  I have an OBSESSION with snap peas and the carrots have got to be the sweetest, tastiest carrots I’ve ever eaten!

Farm Share Week Three

I found a recipe for the cabbage courtesy of a librarian-friend who suggested this amazing lemon coleslaw.

Dinner on Thursday night was a fun meal of quick fried rice (egg, rice, carrot, snap peas, a dash of soy sauce and a handful of spices) scooped into Bibb lettuce cups.  Topped with a squiggle of Siracha and they were positively delicious!

Bibb lettuce cups with fried rice

I’m picking up the last of the ingredients to make cranberry beans anad greens and a slew of dumplings today.  The dumplings are my own recipe consisting of tofu, garlic, ginger, Swiss chard and cilantro.  Stick it all in the food processor, blend, and then make your dumplings.  The local Korean market is the only place I can find to get the right kind of dumpling wrappers, so I’ll be making a visit there this morning!

The only ingredient not accounted for in these recipes are the Asian turnips.  Maybe I should jus roast them with some carrots and use as a salad topper?  Anyone worked with this veggie before?