CSA Recap

I know we've been a bit M.I.A. these last couple weeks, and we kind of fell off our Paleo wagon.  But with a new share coming our way tomorrow, we're ready to re-focus and get back on the Paleo train.

Here's what we made with our last share:

• Butternut Squash Soup & Salad
• Butternut Squash
• Bibb Lettuce
• Green Onion
• Granny Smith Apple
• Ode to Ray's Hell Burger & Sweet Potato Fries
• Ground Beef
• Bibb Lettuce
• Sweet Potato
• Whole Roasted Chicken & Baked Sweet Potato
• Sweet Potato
• Green Onion
• Brunch
• Kale
• Spinach
• Green Onion
• Fuji Apple
• Granny Smith Apple
• St. Patrick's Day Feast
• bacon
• potatoes
• Salmon with Spinach & Kimchi Brussels Sprouts
• spinach
• green onion

We still have an apple, a few green onions, and a couple potatoes left, but I'm sure we'll find a way to incorporate them into some upcoming meals.

Soup & Salad Snowquester

For those of you living outside the District, the meteorologists/media dubbed today's storm, "Snowquester".  To our dismay, snowquester was more of a rain-quester, but Justin had the day off, and I was able to work from home, so it wasn't all a loss.  But with the cold, windy rain, it was a perfect day for a big bowl of soup and a nice fresh salad.

Since we picked up a ginormous butternut squash from yesterday's share, we turned him into soup, using the recipe we posted about here.  Rather than crumble bacon on top, we seared up a couple pieces of pork terrine.  These went on the bottom of each bowl, and we ladeled the soup over it.  That way, when you dug in for a spoonful, you'd get a bit of the terrine.

The real star of tonight's meal though was the salad with a strawberry balsamic reduction.  We started by toasting up some walnuts and pecans, and by crisping up some pancetta.

 Then we chopped up a granny smith apple, and some radishes we had on hand.

Then it was time to make the dressing.  We chopped up about 6 strawberries and threw them into a saucepan with enough balsamic vinegar to cover them.

As the vinegar reduced, and the strawberries broke down from the heat, it started to thicken, and the sweetness of the strawberries started to come through.  It developed a smell, much like strawberry jam, but still had a bit of a tang from the vinegar.  Once it had reduced down to a thick syrup consistency, we whisked in a bit of olive oil.

Then it was time to build the salad.  We used the bibb lettuce from the share as our base.  Then layered in the apple and radishes.  The panchetta and nuts were sprinkled on top, along with some crumbled goat cheese.  Then we drizzled the dressing on.

All of the components worked really well together.  The apple was tart and crunchy, while the radishes added a bit of peppery spice.  The nuts also added a nice crunch, and the panchetta added some saltiness.  There was the nice tang and creaminess of the goat cheese, balanced out by the sweetness of the strawberries and reduced balsamic.

All in all, it was a great, hearty meal to warm us up through the rain/snow-quester!

CSA Day!

Woop! Woop!  It's that time again!  It's the last share of the season, and it's a good one!  We're happy to report we did not pick up another cabbage tonight.  Although with St. Patty's around the corner and our last cabbage dish turning out so delicious we wouldn't have minded. We did score plenty of greens though, and some great meats.  Take a look!

We were hoping for more sunchokes so we could make the kale and farro dish again, but we may have to make a special trip to the store.  We're working on planning out exactly how we want to use everything, so if you have any ideas, send 'em our way!

CSA Recap

Here is our bi-weekly recap of how we used our CSA.  Here's what we picked up...

And here's what we made...

• Umami Burgers & Kimchi Brussels Sprouts
• ground beef
• brussels sprouts
• creasy greens
• Pizza & Salad
• romaine
• creasy greens
• Chicken Involtini, Roasted Turnips, and Apple Crisp
• creasy greens
• turnips
• gold rush apples
• Jambalaya
• collards
• green onions
• Sausage Stuffed Fennel
• sausage
• Chinese New Year Feast
• trout

The one thing we didn't use was the butternut squash and the cilantro, but we'll find some uses for them in the coming weeks, I'm sure.

CSA Day!

Hooray!  Time for our bi-weekly show and tell.

We're really excited to be seeing less cabbage and squashes, and more variety in the produce.  This week we have anabundance of greens...kale, collards, creasy greens, romaine, brussels sprouts.  Tonight we had a choice between a butternut or spaghetti squash, so we opted for the butternut, since it's a bit more versatile.  We also had a choice between mild or maple pork sausage, and we went with the mild.  That way we can either use breakfast or dinner.  I think the maple sausage would've pigeon-holed us into using it for breakfast.  I'm also a fan of all the herbs we've been getting.  We've managed to stretch their shelf life by wrapping them in a paper towel, and storing them them in a plastic bag in the fridge.  The paper towel helps absorb the moisture and prevent the herbs from turning all slimy.  I think we had a bunch of cilantro or mint that lasted over a month stored like that.  So there's your helpful tip of the day...free of charge!

We haven't quite figured out what we're going to cook with this week's share, but you know we always come up with something good.  Stay tuned!

CSA Recap

It's that time again!  Time for our roundup of how we used all our CSA goods over the last 2 weeks.  Here's what we started with...

And here's what we made...

• Broiled Salmon, Turnip & Parsnip Puree, & Sauteed Red Kale
• turnips
• parsnips
• red kale
• Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Cole Slaw & Sweet Potato Fries
• pulled pork
• carrot
• sweet potatoes
• Chicken & Glazed Carrots
• chicken legs & thighs
• purple carrots
• thyme
• Eggs & Sweet Potato Hash
• sweet potatoes
• candy onion
• Gnocchi Fail
• potatoes
• Trout with Farro Hash
• trout
• green kale
• sunchokes
• Chicken & Shrimp Stir Fry
• spinach
• sweet potato
• broccoli
• candy onion
• Butternut Squash Soup
• butternut squash
• thyme

We had intentions to make some kind of baked apple crumble last night as our Super Bowl dessert, but we were too full from all the other food we made.  So instead, we each took one to eat for lunch.  Tomorrow's share is looking to be like another great bundle of ingredients, and we can't wait to share our meals with you!

Yes, Soup for Us!

Winter is always a great time to cozy up with a warm bowl of soup, and tonight was no exception.  We put together a tasty butternut squash soup, and it couldn't have been easier. 

We halved our squashes and threw them into the oven to roast.  While those were cooking up, we put together a proper mirepoix...onion, carrots, and celery, all sauteed in some butter.  We also threw in a little thyme and some sage.

Once the squash was roasted, we let it cool a bit before scooping out the meat of the squash.  Into the pot it went to mix and mingle with the mirepoix.

We also threw in some cream and chicken broth and just let it simmer.  Because we didn't have any meat in this meal, we decided to cook up a few strips of bacon to crumble over the soup.

 

While the bacon crisped up, and the soup came together, I put together a nice little salad.  We spooned some goat cheese into a couple radicchio leaves, and put them into the oven, along with some mushrooms, to top off the salad.

By the time the mushrooms and cheese were done, it was time to puree the soup.  I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but my immersion blender is one of the best kitchen tools.  It easily pureed everything together, and gave us a rich, thick soup.

The salads were topped with the mushrooms, radicchio, and goat cheese, and dressed lightly with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  The soup got a light drizzle of truffle oil, and cream, a sprinkling of parsley, and a nice little pile of bacon.  This soup was even better than a certain mulligatawny.  Despite the minimal amount of meat in tonight's dinner, it was still a filling meal that definitely warmed me up!

CSA Day!

Yay Tuesday!  Yep, today was a CSA day, and boy did we pick up some treats!

So not only did we NOT get another head of cabbage or a spaghetti squash, but we got more of the pretty carrots, red kale, turnips, and sunchokes!  Plus, 3 different meats!  We're already trying to figure out exactly how we're going to use everything.  Got any ideas?

CSA Recap

Happy MLK Day, and Inauguration Day!  For as close as we both live to the Capitol, all we could hear were sirens all morning.  In preparation for our next share tomorrow, its time for a recap of how we used all the food from our previous share.

If you remember, here's what we picked up last time...

And here's what we cooked up...

• Thai Peanut Stir Fry
• purple carrots
• broccoli
• spinach
• sweet potato
• dill
• Spaghetti Squash (we spared you ANOTHER post about spaghetti squash)
• pork sausage
• Stuffed Pork Loin & Butternut Squash Polenta
• gold rush apples
• butternut squash
• Sausage Egg Scramble & Home Fries
• pork sausage
• potatoes
• Bison Steak & Kohlrabi Fritters
• bison NY strip steak
• kohlrabi
• spinach
• bibb lettuce
• romaine lettuce
• Turkey Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries
• dill
• sweet potatoes
• Pain Perdu (like fancy french toast) & Hash Browns
• pink lady apples
• onion
• potatoes

The only thing we haven't used up is the head of cabbage, though we have plans to try another kimchi recipe.  Fingers crossed we don't get another one in tomorrow's share.

Tressed to Kill

Tonight's dinner is brought to you by the letter P, for pork and polenta!

Since we have apples from the CSA, and pork tenderloin was on sale this week, it was a match made in heaven.  We've experimented before with a recipe for pork chops stuffed with apples, hazelnuts and blue cheese, so we made a few tweaks, substituting in walnuts rather than hazelnuts, and rolling it all up into a pork tenderloin.

I got to work chopping up 2 gold rush apples and toasting the walnuts.  We seasoned the pork with salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary.  Then we stuffed it with the apples and walnuts.  Our blue cheese is currently MIA, so we had to forgo the cheese.

 Justin had the pleasure of tressing the pork and making sure all the apples and walnuts stayed up inside the pork.  And since all of the apples didn't fit inside the tenderloin, we just put them in the dish around the pork while it cooked.

For our side dish, we went with a butternut squash polenta gratin.  The bulb of the squash was roasted, while the neck was just peeled and sliced.  While the squash roasted we whipped up the polenta.

The roasted squash was added to the polenta, along with a bunch of parmesan cheese.

I only had a loaf pan, so we made layers of polenta and sliced squash.  This was all topped with more cheese, some black truffle oil, and truffle salt.  Then we popped it into the oven with the pork to cook.  About 30 minutes later, dinner was ready!

The pork was perfectly cooked, the apples added a nice sweetness, and the walnuts had a nice, toasty crunch.  I did miss the tang of the blue cheese though.

With the unseasonably warm weather on the docket for this weekend, we're hoping to fire up the grill, so stay tuned to see what we do with the bison steak and kohlrabi!

Going Stir Fry Crazy!

Its Tuesday...Tuesday...gotta get down on Tuesday...

Ok, I guess it doesn't quite have the same ring to it as Friday, but it brings the same excitement since we finally had a CSA share to pick up.  It feels like an eternity since our last share, and we were both chompin' at the bit to see what we'd get today.  So ...without further ado...

Wouldn't it be our luck that we got ANOTHER cabbage!  We're really excited about our meat share...the bison NY strip steak and the pork sausages.  For the sausages we had a choice between ham with cider, or pork butt and pork bellies.  It was an obvious choice here.  I'm pretty excited about the purple carrots and the kholrabi as well.  I don't think I've eaten kholrabi, so it will be fun experimenting with it.

And since its been a while since we've whipped something up in the kitchen, we're bringing you tonight's meal...free of charge!

We thought ahead for once and defrosted some chicken overnight, knowing we'd need a protein to go with whatever veggies we picked up tonight.  To keep things simple, and since I scored a new wok for Christmas, we settled on a Thai peanut stir-fry.

So here's what we started wth...the purple carrots, broccoli, a sweet potato, spinach and some dill from the share.  The green onions and mushrooms were leftover from the weekend and needed to be used.  So  got to peeling and chopping the sweet potato and the purple carrots.

Look how pretty these carrots are!

While I finished chopping everything, Justin was busy cutting the chicken breasts into chunks.  Then he lightly coated them in some seasoned flour.  We used coconut oil to cook everything, so that went into the wok with a few cloves of minced garlic.  Once that was nice and aromatic, we threw in the carrots and sweet potatoes, since those would take the longest to cook, along with the chicken.

Once the chicken browned a bit, we threw in the broccoli.  As the chicken continued to cook, we threw in the mushrooms, spinach, and green onions.  We also threw in a bit of sesame oil for an added layer of flavor

Once the spinach wilted, it was time to make the sauce.  We started by adding the coconut milk.  Then came the peanut butter.  

We just kept mixing and stirring until the peanut butter had melted down and everything was coated in sauce.  To top off the dish, we toasted up some sesame seeds, drizzled on some sriracha, and sprinkled on some chopped dill.

It was a great way to kick off this week's share!

CSA Day!

Woohoo!  CSA day!  I'll keep this one short and sweet since its so late already.  Here's what we picked up today.

We were excited to get oysters and clams again, especially since the other meat choice was a stewing hen.  Just from the name it doesn't sound nearly as appetizing.  I'm also excited about the brussels sprouts on the stalk.  Did you know that's how they grow?!?!  We have a few things in mind for some of the food, but most of it will be on the fly.  Stay tuned!

CSA Recap

Tomorrow we pick up another share of food, so I thought I'd give you a quick recap of how we used all the items from our previous share.  As a refresher, here's what we picked up 2 weeks ago...

And here's what we made...

• Po' Boys, Clam Chowder and Sweet Potato Fries
• clams
• oysters
• sweet potato (from a previous share)
• half of the onion
• Beet Chips
• beets
• Lamb Chops with Roasted Cauliflower & Beet Greens
• lamb chops (from a previous share)
• beet greens
• cauliflower
• creasy greens (for salad)
• Gnocchi
• sweet potatoes
• butternut squash
• Spaghetti & Meatballs
• spaghetti squash
• ground beef (from a previous share)

The rest of the creasy greens were used for salads throughout the week too.  The cilantro is still in the fridge, waiting to be used, and we used the broccoli as part of a crudite spread for a party 2 weekends ago.  We haven't done anything with the cabbage yet, but we're planning on making more sauerkraut.  More to come on that.

We can't wait to pick up tomorrow's share and make some more delicious dishes.  Stay tuned!

Little Pillows of Deliciousness

aka gnocchi!  This was the 3rd share in a row that we got butternut squash and sweet potatoes, and we were getting a little tired of sweet potato fries and butternut squash soup.  Well...as tired as you can get of sweet potato fries.  Let's be honest...I won't turn them down if they're sitting on a plate in front of me (especially with sriracha ketchup), but I was ready to mix things up.  So we opted for sweet potato and butternut squash gnocchi, since we had some leftover vodka sauce.

First things first: its roasting time!

We threw the butternut squash, sweet potatoes and some garlic.  Then we tossed them in the food processor to puree them up.  That wasn't working out too well for us, so we switched to an immersion blender, probably one of the best inventions ever.

From here we added some ricotta, egg yolks, melted butter, and flour.  I think our ratio of sweet potatoes to butternut squash was out of proportion, so the dough was a bit sticky, but it was nothing a little bit of flour couldn't fix.  Ok, maybe it was more than a little bit.  Once everything was pureed, mixed, and super smooth, we started kneading.  Here's where things got a little bit messy...

Here's where we had to really add the flour so it wouldn't stick to our hands or the counter.  I took my turn at kneading the dough, and we were both too much of a mess for additional pictures.  So just imagine flour all over the counter, and dough stuck to our hands.  After lots of additional flour added to the mix, we finally had the right consistency, and we could start rolling out the dough into long, thin logs, then pinched them off into pillows of deliciousness!

We let them sit in the fridge overnight to dry out a bit.  So all that was left to do last night was boil some water, heat up our vodka sauce, and make a delicious little salad to accompany the gnocchi.

They came out a little heavy and doughy...probably because we had to add so much flour.  You're probably better off with a 2:1 ratio of sweet potatoes to butternut squash.  I think we were closer to a 1:1 ratio, leaving us with really sticky dough.  As much as we'd like to make a perfect meal every time, it doesn't always happen.  Womp, womp!