Mooo

As some (okay most) of you already know: We're ordering one quarter of a grass fed local cow and splitting it among 8 people. This cow will meet its demise in one week. We will be able to pick up our meat on July 9th. You'll notice that I keep calling it "the cow." This is because I can't bear to give this cow, which I will never even see, a name for fear that I'll refuse to eat it when we actually get the meat. Because I am weird like that. Maybe we could call the cow "Dinner" or "Porkchop" or something. No, I think I will stick with "The Cow."

The reason for getting this cow is because I read In Defense of Food, we both watched Food, Inc., and Shawn read Food Rules.

Shawn still thinks it's all a crock though--the buying of a grass fed cow by the quarter. Since I went in with friends on getting the cow behind his back, he didn't find out about it until this last Saturday at a party. Good news: If your spouse finds out that you're ordering a quarter cow while at a party, he's less likely to kill you.

The one thing that has come out of Shawn reading Food Rules is that he wants to try his hand at making homemade bread. I think that will be something that happens this weekend. Maybe I'll even throw in making homemade pasta.

The thing that has NOT come from reading these books is the desire to eat more veggies (I, for one, think we need to eat more veggies. Shawn, while agreeing that we need to eat more veggies, does not agree that it should be in the form of fresh veggies).

Case in point: Farm to Work produce.

Now then, for $25 one usually gets an amount of vegetables and fruit that a family of 4 would eat in a week (give or take). When I do Farm to Work, I'll usually split the basket with a coworker so that there isn't a massive amount of veggies we have to go through. This is mostly because it's damn near impossible for us to go through a full basket of veggies. Especially when the basket it made up of kale, mustard greens and Swiss chard.

Anyhow, as mentioned before, I ordered the basket last week. And we managed to use all quick-perishable items (in fact, this will be the first time ever that we didn't have to throw something away because it went bad...we did, however, give away some of the veggies to his parents, also mentioned earlier). The only thing left from the order this week is the potatoes, which will last a while. The thing I didn't mention earlier is that this basket of veggies caused "The great produce crisis of 2010."

On Tuesday, for some unknown reason, Shawn got it in his head that there was no way we were going to eat all the veggies before they went bad. Because of this, he went and decided to freeze what amounts to one serving's worth of green beans. I don't know why. I would have made the green beans the next day when I cooked the corn, but whatever. So now we have one single serving of frozen green beans. Green beans that were not prepped other than being washed and having tops cut off. One serving of green beans, apparently, is the difference between "We're never going to finish it in time!" and "okay, we can eat all these, no problem."

That Mr. Shawn, sometimes he's a weird one.

"Spring" time Farm to Work

This last week, after guaranteeing that the Farm to Work basket would be food we would eat versus food we wouldn't (so squash vs. mustard greens), I went ahead and ordered a basket. Just for the two of us.

[aside] My family would be surprised to find out that squash is on our 'to eat' list. Mostly because growing up I never ate it. Ever. I remember the neighbor had an out of control zucchini plant and so they gave us zucchini and we gave them tomatoes. Those zucchinis sat on top of the fridge for about 2 weeks before my mom just threw them away. I tried spaghetti squash once in high school because the neighbor across the street loved them and told me I should try them. I think I took one bite and then threw away the rest of my dinner. So yes, it's quite the surprise that I'll eat squash now. [/aside]

The basket of food this week consisted of regular tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, cabbage, zucchini, yellow squash, blackberries, kale, green beans, red potatoes, corn, cucumber and green onions. So far we've used a zucchini, half a yellow squash, half the blackberries, the green onions, a handful of green beans, a handful of cherry tomatoes and one regular tomato.

I gave my inlaws the cabbage, 3 cucumbers (Shawn won't eat them and I can't eat them all myself), a zuchinni and a yellow squash, and half the green beans. I also gave them a handful of green onions, lemon balm, and parsley from my garden. My mother in law seemed most saddened by the fact that my tomatoes aren't setting fruit. She recommended that I get some of the fruit set spray, which I told her probably wouldn't help much at this point in time since we are very quickly arriving at the point in time where the tomatoes won't set fruit no matter what (74 degrees and above night time temperatures mean that tomatoes won't set fruit. Fruit set sprays do seem to help with too cool of temperatures).

Since we've managed to already add squash, tomatoes, onions, green beans, and blackberries to our meal last night; it means we may actually manage to get through an entire basket of stuff before anything goes bad.

Beet It! (Part 2)

So, after last night's smashing success (and insanely long time line) of roasted beet salad, we decided that we should do it again. Only being industrious, such as we are, we decided to grill everything instead. The menu is thusly:
Roasted beet salad (on the grill via aluminum packets). Sliced beets (homegrown), parsley (homegrown), butter, garlic, salt and pepper with some sliced green onion (homegrown). Spinach, beet greens, and bleu cheese to go on after cooking with homemade dressing (which is basically condensed orange juice with olive oil).
Cheesy potatoes (on the grill via aluminum packets). Sliced potatoes, butter, garlic, salt and pepper with some sliced green onion (on mine). Grated Kerry Gold Dubliner cheese to go on after.
Filet Mignon for Shawn (I refused to eat it since it's ancient)
Grilled Chicken Breast for me
And likely, for dessert:
Greek Yogurt with fresh blackberries.

See, we can do this eat healthy thing if I'm forced to use produce from the garden. Come on spring garden, get a move on!

Beet it

I made roasted beet salad for dinner tonight. With homemade salad dressing. It was pretty good, not super great, but I do like the salad dressing a lot.

I used Michael Chiarello's recipe on Food Network. So there's a ton of prep work, but still, the outcome was pretty good. Good enough that Shawn said he liked it. Actually liked it. Beet Salad. Amazing.

Since I have like 20 more beets to go, I'm guessing we'll be eating this a couple times this week.

So, let's see, all the things used from the garden:
Beets + tops
Onion
Pea Pods

Things bought at the store specifically for this:
Spinach
Bleu Cheese
Orange Juice

And I already had lemon juice, salt, pepper and olive oil on hand. So, all in all, not too bad. And it means we ate healthy for once. Go health food!

Farm to Work and Why I LOVE Alton Brown

we partook of the Farm to Work program again. I went halvsies with Bond (but somehow when I think back on it, I think I got more than half, so if you want some more greens, let me know!!)

This week we got an assortment of greens (chard, mustard, etc.), potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onions, carrots, radishes, beets, and cabbage.

Honestly I wanted in on it this week so I could make Borscht again (Yeah, I don't know why, it's not like that stuff it REALLY REALLY good or anything...it's more like I just get a random craving for it. And honestly I think it's the amount of sour cream I put on top of it more than anything.)

Anyhow, the borscht only uses the beets and cabbage (I think), and I know it doesn't use any of the greens...which means I have to figure out a way to prepare them. Last time when we got Kale, I made some type of quiche with them. it was a little bitter and I didn't really like it. so I don't want to do a quiche with the new greens.

For lack of anything better to do, I went to FoodNetwork.com and typed in "Mustard Greens". Lo and behold, there are recipes by one Mr. Alton Brown. And I love me some Alton Brown (that garlic chicken recipe is Mr. Brown's Recipe, and the flower pot smoker out back is of Mr. Brown's invention. AND we have his Gadgets for the Kitchen book.) So, I think I shall try his greens au gratin, lemon glazed greens, and possibly the pot of greens.

But, I really think I ought to make the borscht tomorrow since that will take forever. This time, purreed instead of chunky.

Farm to Work, Round 3

What we made last week:
More Refrigerator pickles
grilled crookneck and zucchini (this was delicious)
fried okra
fried green onion shoestrings
gumbo (used green onion, tomato, okra)
fruit parfaits (blackberries)
steamed green beans

we still have cabbage, and some green beans. Now then, you may point out that I didn't mention green onions last week...and this would be because i thought we were given 2 bunches of leeks. But we weren't, we were given 1 bunch of leeks, and 1 bunch of green onion. I ended up with green onion.

Unfortunately, Matt didn't eat ANY of his vegetables, so I ended up with his Leeks (Ross and Colleen ended up with his squash and cucumbers). Of course, since Matt didn't eat any of his veggies from the week before; he told me I could have all 20 lbs of fresh produce for this last delivery. I, rightfully, flipped out. I didn't know what to do with 20 lbs of veggies that we likely wouldn't be able to eat. Thankfully, Sergio hadn't done an order, and he normally does, so he paid Matt to have his half of the veggies.

So now, I have:
1 Crookneck
1 zucchini
1 lb okra (I think we're going to try it grilled this time...and I'll probably fry some as well--Shawn REALLY likes fried okra)
1 pint blackberries
1 cucumber
Romaine Lettuce
2 Potatoes
2 yellow onions
1 bunch of leeks (plus matt's bunch from last week)

I think we're having the rest of the green beans tonight...and I'll throw some onion in the meal I'm making as well...Oh, and I'll probably have a salad to use up some cucumber.

Farm to Work, Round 2

So, I guess I should finish explaining the different recipes we tried and how spectacularly we failed at using all the veggies.

Last time we did this (2 weeks ago), we ended up making the following things:
Spanish Rice (tomatoes and onion), with sauteed squash (Crookneck and zucchini)
Omelettes (onion)
Borscht (beets, half a cabbage, onion)
Frittata with Salad (Kale, romaine lettuce)
Stir Fry (broccoli, cauliflower, crookneck)
Breakfast Potatoes with fried egg (Potatoes, onion)
Refrigerator Pickles (cucumbers)
Oven Barbeque Chicken with Smashed Cauliflower (Cauliflower, potatoes, onion)

And we only threw away 1 crookneck, and half a cabbage.

[aside] Coworker Beachy's wife found a cake recipe that made use of shredded beet. It wasn't too bad actually...but I would say that I wouldn't tell people it had beet in it until AFTER they ate it. [/aside]

This week I went halvsies with one of my coworkers (who also found out that 20 lbs of fresh produce is a lot of produce to go through in 2 weeks). This week we got:
Cucumbers (lots of em) (split)
Zucchini (lots of em) (split)
3 crookneck squash (split, we got 1)
1 lb Okra (split)
1 lb Green Beans (mine)
1 head of Romaine Lettuce (Matt's)
1 small Cabbage (mine)
1/2 lb Blackberries (split)
2 bunches of Leeks (split)
8 potatoes (split)
2 tomatoes (split)
AND I managed to give away one of my zucchinis (so now I only have 1), and 2 of my cucumbers (so now I only have 3).

On the downside, I now need to figure out something to make that uses Leeks (Yes, I know, Leek and potato soup), cabbage, and Okra (actually, I think this is usually just eaten plain, or fried, the trick is just finding out how to do it).

Dinner Tonight

So, we still have veggies from the Farm to Work dealie. Thus, tonight we had:
kale and ham frittata with a romaine lettuce side salad.

Now, we only have cauliflower, cucumbers, potatoes and a squash left. Oh, and one of my coworkers who got the Farm to Work delivery today gave me a tomato (as repayment for last week--I think he missed the part where I said "here, have 2 tomatoes, I don't like them so I know I won't eat all 5 of these.")

Yeah, next week, we're going halvsies with Matt and Kate.

Borscht

Yeah, I don't think we're too keen on Borscht. Don't get me wrong, the stuff tasted pretty good and I was surprised that I actually liked it. I only used 1.25 pounds of meat (the recipe calls for a 4 pound roast), and I think if I make this again, I'll make sure and use more meat.

It was also very acidic (with a strong tomato flavor)...and I'd probably add rice or noodles or something to it.

Like the French Onion Soup, it takes forever to make: 3 hours of simmering stuff, and about an hour to prep the veggies (thankfully you simmer the meat by itself for an hour so you prep the veggies while the meat is cooking).

Yeah, I think I'd definitely have to be in the mood for this if I ever make it again (unlike French Onion Soup which is delicious and I'd eat it more frequently if it didn't take forever to make).

Items left of my 20 pounds of produce: 4 small crookneck squash, 5 new potatoes, half a head of cabbage, a head of cauliflower, a thing of kale, 3 small florets of broccoli, 1 green onion, and the two small cucumbers. I found a recipe online to make a kale frittata, and the broccoli and green onion will be added to the terriyaki stir fry pre-made meal. And I need to call my mother in law to get her recipe for refrigerator pickles. So that means that I'm down to finding recipes for crooknecks, potatoes, cabbage and cauliflower.

Re: Borscht

I found a recipe for Borscht. It is in the Colorado Cache Book. This will be the second soup I've tried from the book. Hopefully it will be delicious as the French Onion Soup.

(also, Borscht uses beets AND cabbage--and tomatoes as well, but I'm fine with buying a couple of tomatoes to make this work, you know, since I used all mine last night).

Farm to Work

Also known as "why we're eating healthier around here".

The health department at my work started something new. It is called "Farm to Work". Basically a local farmer brings a bunch of produce to the office one time a week. You get 20 lbs for $25. You don't get a choice in what you get. And you can't order less than 20 lbs (though you can go halvsies with coworkers if so desired).

This last week we were given (and everyone gets the same exact thing): Romaine Lettuce, Cabbage, Cauliflower, 3 Beets, 2 pickling cucumbers, 5 crookneck squash, 1 zucchini, 4 mutantly large green onions, kale, 5 tomatoes, 5 new potatoes, and 3 tiny florets of broccoli. I gave 2 of my tomatoes to one of my coworkers because we don't eat tomatoes much around here. Of these, I have never had Cabbage, Cauliflower, fresh beets, crookneck squash, and kale.

Now then, this is probably the amount of vegetables we're supposed to eat over a 1-2 week period. For us, this is about what we eat in an entire year (what can I say, we do MUCH better with fruits).

So tonight for dinner we had:
Zatarain's Spanish rice with the 3 tomatoes instead of the required can of diced tomatoes, and diced green onion. Sauteed crookneck squash and zucchini with some minced onion (with sea salt and fresh ground pepper as well). and for desert we had vanilla yogurt with fresh strawberries and blackberries. I was still hungry so I had the last grapefruit as well.

I think for breakfast we're having omelettes. Omelettes in which I will put a large amount of green onion in mine.

And I think I need to figure out how to make Borscht.