CSA Meals - The Times They Are A-Changin'

As I mentioned yesterday, the last few weeks of August have been overwhelming in the best way. Simultaneously, work is getting busier, and I've been thinking about ways to improve my blog. I'm interested in making a change and streamlining the content so I'm not just dumping a week's worth of meals into one post.

Excitement is not always the first thing I feel about my writing my weekly CSA summaries, but last week Davy and I joined forces to make a truly dynamite dinner. Aside from feeling satisfied because it was healthy, uncomplicated and composed of mostly local ingredients, I couldn't wait to share it. This led me to the idea of reporting on a "meal of the week," be it one I've made, a restaurant visit, or any memorable experience involving food. 

As our summer share comes to a close, I thought I'd start the transition with the dinner that inspired me. 

Our air conditioning was finally fixed last week, and I didn't waste any time firing up the oven (these were the first on my list). Once I got some baking out of my system, I made use of our cool kitchen to make sherry cherry tomatoes, a favorite in our house that's been neglected this year. I've written about them before, and am happy to share the recipe if any of you are interested.

It helps to start with homegrown or CSA cherry tomatoes, and the different colors made the end result even more attractive.

I love this recipe because it's extremely versatile, and could be eaten as a main course, snack, or side dish, served over pasta, smushed on top of crusty bread, mixed into a salad, or scooped up with a fork under a layer of broiled cheese. On this particular night, we chose to grill thick slices of Billy Bread in order to more efficiently shovel the tomatoes in.

While both of us probably could have subsisted on sherry cherry tomatoes alone, I'd also gotten a beautiful piece of rockfish from Yellow Umbrella (they also supplied the bread). Before Davy took it out to the grill, I adorned it with olive oil, sprigs of thyme, a spritz of lemon juice, and minced Thai chili peppers. It was extremely tender and the flavors added just enough without overpowering the fish. The before and after are below. 

At this point you're probably sick of hearing me talk about padron peppers, but I can't help myself. We grilled those, too, and they were even better than they were blistered in a pan (which I wasn't sure was possible).

There's nothing revolutionary about this meal, but it served as a timely reminder to me that simple is often better, in food and in writing.

Have a happy Labor Day weekend!

CSA Meals - Week 11

I once participated in a conversation with a group of people, including a vegetarian friend, about why she decided to give up meat and how she went about it. She said something that's stayed with me, which was that her family didn't center their dinners around meat every night. 

It struck me that, despite the fact that I consider myself to be a healthy eater, I normally start planning meals based on the protein rather than the vegetables. Even though I think about my friend's words fairly often, I never made much of an effort to put the idea into practice.

Three or four years have passed since then, and this is the first CSA season in which I'm really noticing a difference in the way I approach cooking and eating. I'm getting better about using our fresh, weekly produce items as building blocks instead of side dishes.

We still had potatoes from Week 10 and ate them thinly sliced, off the grill. Davy always manages to season them perfectly, and they accompanied grilled tile fish and raw green beans.

Wednesday marked a turning point in the summer. I was completely worn out from the heat, and had no desire to make dinner until I saw the cover of my neglected Bon Appetit. August's cover recipe is an open-faced tomato and feta sandwich. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought of it before, but it's a genius way to feature ripe tomatoes. 

I didn't even have to go to the store to make these for dinner now that we have an oregano plant, and Davy and I both loved them. 

The simplicity of this method even allowed me the time to chop a bell pepper and cucumbers from my parents' garden to use throughout the week. For not saving that much time, I certainly felt like I'd accomplished a lot whenever I took out the prepared vegetables.

We used some of them for a chopped salad with tomato, feta, and basil alongside pork nachos, and more the next night in a salad when we ordered pizza.

The weekend highlights were limited to two more rounds of tomato and feta sandwiches, along with leftover grilled potatoes converted into homefries, and a lemony shrimp pasta dish.

On Tuesday, I went home during my lunch break and made a salad with tomatoes, corn, avocado, hard-boiled egg, lime juice, basil and olive oil.

The salad was not only flavorful and refreshing, it also allowed me to clear several items from my fridge before they were past their prime, and not once did the thought of starting with meat cross my mind.

CSA Meals - Week 1

If you had to choose between a refrigerator and air conditioning, which would you pick? What about only having a refrigerator or internet?

Davy and I asked each other these types of questions after our fridge broke a few weeks ago and we had to shop for a new one. In the mean time, our chilled food supply was divided between Keith and Carrie's meat locker and two coolers in our living room. 

Sure, it's fun to think about replacing a major appliance, but it was also inconvenient to cycle through bags of ice and wonder whether or not the chutney needed to be thrown away. Ultimately, we cleared out several jars, bottles, and bags that had accumulated over nearly three years, and are still in the process of re-stocking. It was a cleansing experience, and one that reminded me how little it takes to put together meals when you have basic quality ingredients to work with.

This "simple is better" mindset was the perfect way to tackle the first of our CSA produce. We ate multiple salads with both homemade and store-bought dressing (Annie's Asian Sesame), but my favorite was the one we had the first night. I sliced some of our bright red strawberries, toasted/nearly burned some pine nuts, and tossed everything with little balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Amy's mesclun salad mix is earthy and peppery, which worked well with the berries' fruity sweetness. 
   

Along with the salad, I improvised with two recipes from How Sweet It Is to make chicken parm-ish tenders. 

We didn't have anything to dip them in, but they hit the spot with salad and roasted zucchini and squash sprinkled with grated parmesan.

On Wednesday, we celebrated a friend's birthday at Joe's Inn, and feasted off of my baked spaghetti leftovers with salad for dinner the next night.

The new refrigerator worked wonders on all of our greens, and the chard still looked fresh on Saturday. I chopped and softened half of an onion in a little olive oil, then added the chard stems to the pan.  

When everything was mostly cooked through, I stopped taking pictures, but some minced garlic, chard leaf ribbons and black beans completed the filling for cheesy lunch quesadillas on Saturday.

My parents were visiting on Mother's Day, and we had wonderful rockfish from Yellow Umbrella, which my dad graciously grilled. I made quinoa and a kale salad with feta and avocado for our side dishes. Again, no pictures, but the kale was tender and just as delicious when I ate it leftover for lunch a couple days later.

The only item left by Monday night was the baby pac choi, and it also held up nicely in our produce drawer.

I found a quick recipe for braised baby bok choy from Martha Stewart that required very little preparation and cooking. The stems retained a slight crunch, and the leaves absorbed the savory flavors from the soy sauce and chicken stock. The only change I made was to add a drizzle of sesame chili oil to give the pac choi an extra kick.

Since it had to happen, I guess I'm glad that our refrigerator stopped working when it did. It may have been a hassle to transfer and get rid of food, but it's made my approach to cooking much less complicated.

Pizza Night

My brother- and sister-in-law live in Chicago, and when we go to the beach, they're usually asked to make pizza on their assigned cooking night.  My brother-in-law is also thrilled to come to the east coast so that he can eat soft shell crabs, and this year he decided to utilize the fresh seafood in a delicious dinner for pizza night.

Cary and Brian started with my pizza crust recipe (below), topped it with my homemade pesto, added sliced jalapenos and fried soft shell crabs, and covered everything with shredded mozzarella.  The resulting pie is pictured below, and it doesn't need much more of an explanation aside from me saying that it was a delicious as it looks.

Homemade Pizza Crust

1 packet dried yeast, dissolved in 1/2 cup water

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 Tablespoon oil

Stir flour, salt, and sugar together; add oil and yeast dissolved in water

Combine and knead until smooth and elastic; form dough into a ball

Grease a large bowl with oil, turn dough to coat, and allow to rise to twice its size (up to an hour and a half)

Once the dough has risen, punch it down and knead until smooth

Press into pizza pan, brush with oil, and allow to rise for 10 minutes

Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes until the crust is slightly brown

Add toppings, and bake for another 10 minutes or so until the cheese is brown and all toppings are heated through

(If you're pressed for time, omit the resting phase and simply top the raw crust, then bake the entire pizza at 500 degrees until the cheese is brown.)