Culinary Arts
Before you confidently build yourself up with excitement thinking this is yet another total-catastrophe blog regarding my domesticity, I must inform you that this entry has an almost unwavering tone of triumph all the way through it. The secret to my success (and, let's be honest, to my even attempting anything at all), is the CSA program I signed up for this spring with Avalon Acres. The idea itself was completely irresistible to me - a quarter bushel of vegetables every week of whatever was currently in season from local farmers. Though not 100% organic their focus is on sustainable family-owned farms which is exactly the type of thing I want to support. Apart from checking off all the buzz-words, I was also delighted by the idea of a surprise every week. You never knew what was going to be in that box! Surprises aside, and apart from the charming and oh-so-trendy idea of cooking within the season, there was also the attraction of the challenge. You have thirty radishes, one head of cabbage, five thousand strawberries and four days until rot. GO!
That was the idea, at least. And in practice it did work out to be true most of the time. I'll confess right now that many a veg has met my trash can because I couldn't think of anything in time, but I chalk it up as healthy organic matter being contributed to our trash piles and a contribution to education. For, much like any sensible predator sizing up an unknown quarry, I usually have a phase where I must stalk the vegetable. What exactly are you? What do you do? Ah. It seems you are an enormous scallion. What do people do with scallions? And then I attack! Or I continue stalking, it all depends on how daunting the preparation seems to be.
Thats where the cookbook comes in. Beautiful, delicious meals built on high quality ingredients where the recipe doesn't go on for miles. It's really a perfect balance for me: good enough that I don't chuck it all and order take-out from fido (I have to say I'm pretty spoiled to really well done restaurant food), and simple enough that I feel like I can really learn the flavors that go in to making food. Right now the spice rack is just so many odd looking powders. I toss them in not because I know what they do to food, but because the recipe says so. Or because it seems like it might be fun and more chef-like to sprinkle something on something, and so I embellish the recipe. Regardless - there's certainly no method to my madness.
Veggie Burgers
This was a defining moment for me. It was week 2 and I had lettuce and radishes coming out of my ears, couldn't go through the strawberries and the bread was getting dried out (I was getting a loaf of fresh bread every week). It was a sink or swim crossroads, and I remembered I had wanted to try a veggie burger recipe I had seen (which she happens to have on her website as well). I scanned through the ingredient list. Gasp! Onions! I already had them in the form of our new friend the scallion! And bread crumbs! I could use my drying leftover bread and make breadcrumbs with my brand new blender! Now I know it may not sound like much to you, but this was a big deal to me. To actually have some of the ingredients and equipment on hand without having to buy everything from scratch at the store? To find a use for a food-stuff that extends beyond a single menu? To not have to throw something away because you couldn't think of what to do with it? Such things were utterly unheard of in my world. I was thrilled to make them, loved eating them, and loved that they made individual patties so that I could put them in the fridge and pop one out whenever I felt like a sandwich. Ah Mazing.
Roasted New Potatoes and Beans
This is where I met the scape. I diced it very thinly and mixed it in the olive oil as a replacement for garlic (which I didn't have). Roasting definitely brought out a deep flavor in the veggies, but I think I want to try steaming the beans next. Must. Purchase. Steamer.
Strawberry Popsicles
For as much as I put it off, this one was super easy and completely delicious. It pains me to think of how many bins of strawberries were consumed by mold rather than me before the discovery of puree! A handful of pureed strawberries mixed with french vanilla yogurt, capped off in the molds with straight vanilla yogurt - beautiful and very tastey.
And for the leftover puree mixture? It made an amazing smoothie.
That was the idea, at least. And in practice it did work out to be true most of the time. I'll confess right now that many a veg has met my trash can because I couldn't think of anything in time, but I chalk it up as healthy organic matter being contributed to our trash piles and a contribution to education. For, much like any sensible predator sizing up an unknown quarry, I usually have a phase where I must stalk the vegetable. What exactly are you? What do you do? Ah. It seems you are an enormous scallion. What do people do with scallions? And then I attack! Or I continue stalking, it all depends on how daunting the preparation seems to be.
Thats where the cookbook comes in. Beautiful, delicious meals built on high quality ingredients where the recipe doesn't go on for miles. It's really a perfect balance for me: good enough that I don't chuck it all and order take-out from fido (I have to say I'm pretty spoiled to really well done restaurant food), and simple enough that I feel like I can really learn the flavors that go in to making food. Right now the spice rack is just so many odd looking powders. I toss them in not because I know what they do to food, but because the recipe says so. Or because it seems like it might be fun and more chef-like to sprinkle something on something, and so I embellish the recipe. Regardless - there's certainly no method to my madness.
 |  |  |  |
Veggie Burgers
This was a defining moment for me. It was week 2 and I had lettuce and radishes coming out of my ears, couldn't go through the strawberries and the bread was getting dried out (I was getting a loaf of fresh bread every week). It was a sink or swim crossroads, and I remembered I had wanted to try a veggie burger recipe I had seen (which she happens to have on her website as well). I scanned through the ingredient list. Gasp! Onions! I already had them in the form of our new friend the scallion! And bread crumbs! I could use my drying leftover bread and make breadcrumbs with my brand new blender! Now I know it may not sound like much to you, but this was a big deal to me. To actually have some of the ingredients and equipment on hand without having to buy everything from scratch at the store? To find a use for a food-stuff that extends beyond a single menu? To not have to throw something away because you couldn't think of what to do with it? Such things were utterly unheard of in my world. I was thrilled to make them, loved eating them, and loved that they made individual patties so that I could put them in the fridge and pop one out whenever I felt like a sandwich. Ah Mazing.
Roasted New Potatoes and Beans
This is where I met the scape. I diced it very thinly and mixed it in the olive oil as a replacement for garlic (which I didn't have). Roasting definitely brought out a deep flavor in the veggies, but I think I want to try steaming the beans next. Must. Purchase. Steamer.
Strawberry Popsicles
For as much as I put it off, this one was super easy and completely delicious. It pains me to think of how many bins of strawberries were consumed by mold rather than me before the discovery of puree! A handful of pureed strawberries mixed with french vanilla yogurt, capped off in the molds with straight vanilla yogurt - beautiful and very tastey.
And for the leftover puree mixture? It made an amazing smoothie.
posted by Kim at 6:12 PM
2 Comments:
MMmmm...vegetables. CSA is a wonderful idea! A farmer's daughter I know has been trying to get her dad to do a CSA for years. I suppose there are some drawbacks for the farmers... Anyway, I recommend the Farmer's Market for produce as well, since you can select what looks good and not just what the CSA wants to get rid of...plus, it's a good place to meet folks...like cute girls.
...uh...I'm an idiot. Why would you want to meet cute girls? You, of course, know this is in reference to my blog post which you kindly commented on and for which I was returning the favor...but anyone who reads my comment is going to think "...uh...he's an idiot."
Post a Comment
<< Home