Friday, September 27, 2013

Week 16 Sept 21

This week there were carrots, parsley, sunflowers, eggplant, greens, rainbow chard, beans, tomatoes, and a small watermelon.  

The large tomato was particularly meaty and perfect for sandwiches!



This lentil soup had some beans and carrots in it.  I personally hated it but the twins loved it.  I had put some rutabaga in it, and it made it too sweet or something.    


This was a sausage eggplant tomato sauce on top of spagetti squash.  delicious!


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Week 15 Sept 14


This week we got a colourful bunch of good stuff, which I didn't use in special recipes, just basically added to whatever else we were having.  Except for a particularly flavourful tuna casserole.
  

 The star of this cassarole was fennel, which went so well with the broccoli, green onions and peas in this cassarole.  I sauteed it first and added it to the cooked noodles, 2 cans of tuna and some basic white sauce.  buttered bread crumbs on top.  
Cheese would be good in here obviously,  but not for my cheese phobic twins.
  



Saturday, September 14, 2013

Week 14 Sept 7

This week we received fennel again, which I love using.  Being at the right place at the right time meant I was given 2 other box members' fennel also, so I really had an abundance.  There were also radish seed pods, which the kids recognized because of Traci's teachings at the Tahsis Community Garden.  She had the whole school over there last week, digging potatoes, saving seeds, fighting back the blackberry bushes, eating kale chips, zucchini chips and beet chips and having a great time.
    

Fennel green apple slaw, recipe here:  Tangy apple fennel slaw  it was tasty served along side Reuben sandwiches.

We enjoyed the watermelon

The patty pan squash might have been from last week, but very good sauteed up with zucchinin and sweet basil Italian sausage and onions.

I am the co-ordinator for the Breakfast Club at our local school, and we average about 20 free breakfasts each school morning.  A regular favourite is a baked egg dish similar to a strata or a fritatta.  It comes out differently every time I bake it depending on the ingredients at hand.  This week some fennel and scallions made it in there with some Italian seasonings, cheddar and some leftover croutons.  They loved it.  A bunch of kids were curious about fennel and when they smelled it they did notice it's resemblance to licorice.    


Monday, September 9, 2013

Week 13 August 31

Well, getting ready for BACK TO SCHOOL and things got crazy.  I didn't take any photos of what I made, but mostly we just ate the produce raw as we walked by the kitchen grazing.  In the interest of full disclosure this was also the week one of my daughters invented very sweet smores by sandwiching a roasted marshmallow between 2 peanut butter chocolate rice crispy squares.  This was after a meal of chili dogs and potato chips.  As Julia Roberts used to say, "Everthing in moderation, including moderation!"


Sunday, September 1, 2013

Week 12 Aug 24

Beautiful colours this week!  Salad with petals, parsley, dill, tomatoes, squash, cucumber, red cabbage, green cabbage, chard and basil.



This was a delicious curry and so easy.  cooked chicken, sauteed with all veggies you can find, then add a tbsp or so of curry powder and a couple cans of coconut milk, served over basmati with shredded basil added at the last minute.

This was a barley salad. Cook the barley and rinse cold and drain.  add a viniagrette made with lemon juice and zest, any veggies you like, and lots of garlic and parsely for a sharp green taste.  

The classic coleslaw, with ribbons of cabbage tossed with the easiest and tastiest classic coleslaw dressing ever, out of the Joy of Cooking.. basically 3/4 cup mayo, 1/4 cup cider vinegar and 2 tbsp sugar.  I add grated onion too and lots of salt and pepper.

Sauteed chard with garlic in olive oil. a side dish that's ready in about 40 seconds.


Sunday, August 25, 2013

Week 10 and 11 August 10 and 17

So I have been away for 2 weeks, first camping, then visiting my mom in the city, so the blogging took a back seat.  HOWever, we did take our veggies camping with us and had some good treats, including vegetable-heavy spagetti sauce, a creamy basil dip and a delicious salad with white radishes and squash.





Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Week 9 August 3

We received a nice generous share this week! Beans, peas, tons of Kale, beets, basil, garlic, scallions, very pretty speckled lettuce, zucchini, and squash.  







 Marion is especially happy about the Kale, one of her favourites.


Here's Marion trying to catch some local food, fishing at the river.  No bites.  (so far!) My plan is to catch and smoke some trout if possible.  


Potato corn and bacon chowder with kale:


Beans and peas sauteed with bacon, salsa and about 4 extra large CSA garlic cloves!  The girls made this and it was delicious.  


The speckled lettuce was very delicate, and only needed a light garlicy viniagrette.


Saturday, August 3, 2013

Week 8 July 27


Again, crazy week, I wasn't here on delivery day, but these are the veggies I pulled from the fridge, that I think are from the CSA!  Peas, beans, squash, zucchini, radishes, beets, bok choy, greens, salad...   it's getting very colourful this time of year! 


 A stir fry, with the beans, squash and bok choy, chicken, onion, soy sauce, garlic, sesame seeds, almonds, and a bit of sugar and hot sauce.

Proud moment:  My own garlic crop curing:  

 

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Week 7 July 20

I was away some of this week and we had company so things didn't get photographed.  But this was the delivery:  salad greens with flower petals, squash, zucchini, braising greens, chard, an artichoke, potatoes, garlic, onions and beans!





I did stir fry up a bunch of the veggies together with a bit of butter

Glyn put zucchini slices on the grill, always an easy summer side.  

Dad and Liz, after spending the school year up north in Nunavut, were very impressed with our local fresh delicious food.  They were blown away by our gorgeous weather too.  


Saturday, July 20, 2013

Week 6 July 13

This week we got some interesting things, and a special treat, garlic scape jam.  Haven't used it yet.  I'm assuming I'll do a cream cheese/cracker thing with it.  We also got baby turnip thinnings, braising greens, salad mix, baby squash, potatoes, beets, garlic and green beans.
 


So I'm starting to have an excess of garlic, which is great.  I had some store bought garlic, but it's nothing like the juicy sharp garden garlic, so I roasted some to use it up.  I've been throwing that in everything. 


The baby squash was tossed with a bunch of other vegetables, feta, and a creamy lemon salad dressing.  (equal parts mayo, sour cream and yogurt, a dash each of dijon, pureed garlic, minced onion, zest and juice of a lemon, salt and lots of pepper)


Some of the potatoes and basil made it into a fritatta made and photographed by Glyn.  I had to go to work and he was making breakfast for our visitors, so I told him as I ran out the door, "Make sure if you use and of the CSA stuff you take a picture of it before it gets eaten!"  


This isn't from our CSA, but it's a local classic, blackberry crumble.  I'm almost out of blackberries, so it's good that the blackberry season is coming soon!  This is made with blackberries and apple slices tossed with a tbsp of cornstarch (|I was out of cornstarch so I used a tbsp of Birds custard powder which is mostly cornstarch) and sugar to taste.  The topping is oats, sugar, flour, cinnamon and butter.  Dessert for breakfast!


The rest of the potatoes and beets were roasted and tossed in a salad with the greens.  The dressing was a spicy one:  1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup sugar, 5 or 6 pureed roasted garlicbulbs, zest and juice of a lime, several dashes of tobasco, several dashes of sesame oil, pepper.  I also threw a half a cantelope in there, and that was a good idea!  The sweet/spicy/salty combo really worked.    



The simplest recipe for kale:  Wash, chop into ribbons, sautee for 45 seconds with a bit of garlic, butter and a tsp. of lemon zest.  The kids love it.


This doesn't include any CSA stuff, except the basil, but I was showing off for company and made this recipe, which I think of as a Tahsis local dish.  Pasta tossed with equal parts mayo and lemon juice, a bunch of green onions, pepper, arugula (I used our fresh basil instead) and smoked salmon.  This recipe originally came from Silvie, the chef at  Tahsis Time Grill when she fed the volunteers at the community garden one afternoon, and I have made it several times since.