wow it's been a long time...

Sorry for the long hiatus! It's been some busy times around here and I've forgotten to blog. But I'm back now, hopefully with some regularity.

This week, our beautiful share included:
- potatoes
- carrots (2 bunches!)
- zucchini
- tomatoes
- head of lettuce
- rainbow chard
- onions
- garlic
- apples
- watermelon

beautiful fruits and veggies

I have to say, we still have a lot of last week's veggies sitting around. We had a busy week, and neither of us felt much like cooking. I am hoping we get back in our cooking groove soon!

We did do some zucchini and onion on skewers (with chicken too), and I made tzatziki again. I made the chocolate zucchini loaf, and this time used orange zest and flavouring, which turned out very well (although I do really like the cardamom and coffee, too). And we had lots of the cherry tomatoes and carrots just raw as snacks. We used some of the chard for a salad, combined with some extra lettuce a friend dropped off. And the amazing watermelon- so delicious! I think I've discovered my new favourite fruit, and I'm so glad we got another one this week. Susannah has been enjoying the watermelon too. I meant to get a picture of her, but one of her favourite things to do is to feed me watermelon, which results in both of us being a sticky mess, and is not very conducive to picture taking. But she is certainly enjoying it.




How quickly the times change
At work yesterday, a co-worker looked at my yellow watermelon cubes, and said with a confused look on her face "what's that, pineapple?" "Watermelon" I replied. She asked, "what are those?" directing her gaze to the pile of seeds I had. "Seeds" I replied, thinking it was rather obvious. "What kind?" she asked, even more confused. "From the watermelon" I said, and it finally seemed to click for her. (And this is not someone who is too young to know a seeded watermelon!) I am always surprised when people are "shocked" at the appearance of my purple carrots, yellow seeded watermelon, purple tomatoes. Was it really so long ago that these fruits and vegetables were considered usual or normal? I am so glad I am able to introduce Susannah to the beauty of different varieties of foods. I'm excited to teach her that a purple carrot is just as good as an orange one, or that a yellow watermelon can be even sweeter than a pink one.


Tonight for supper we had turkey tacos, and used some lettuce, tomatoes and onions. Yum.

Half Way

I can't hardly believe we are half way through our beautiful veggie shares. Half way! We have been thoroughly enjoying our veggies, and it has become so much a part of our lifestyle to get our produce from the farm on Wednesdays.

But there are still half the veggies left- we still have half of the veggies to come. Thinking back on how many veggies we have enjoyed already, I know there are still lots more to come. And some of my favourite veggies are fall veggies- squashes and pumpkins and sweet potatoes... roasting them in the oven, making soups, just baking them. Plus all of the new veggie varieties I'm sure we'll discover.

This week, our share consisted of:
Yellow Carrots
Broccoli
Red Potatoes
Yellow and Orange Tomatoes
Red Onions
Purple Garlic
LOTS of Green and Yellow Zucchini
LOTS of Cucumbers
Parsley

This Week's Veggie Haul

So while nothing jumps out as a defined meal, these veggies are all very versatile and can be incorporated into many "regular" meals.

I do want to repeat some recipes from previous weeks, including the chocolate zucchini loaf (going to try with orange instead of coffee), tzatziki with the cucumbers and garlic (to serve with chicken souvlaki), and bacon and tomato sandwiches.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Ok. You NEED to try this! This is one of the best recipes I have come across in a long time- it is fabulous!

A beautiful moist loaf of the tastiest, chocolatey-ist, most delicious dessert ever. It is equally good eaten by itself, or with some vanilla ice cream.

If you are not drooling yet.... here is a picture.

It is similar to a giant brownie!

I used the recipe found here, and followed it pretty much exactly, but omitted the nuts and used instant coffee instead of instant espresso, since that's what I had. I made a double batch, and even so I had 2c of shredded zucchini I put in the freezer. And that's just from ONE of the "medium-sized" zucchini!

The changes I would make next time include:
- lining the bottom of the pan with parchment paper (the loaf stuck a bit to the bottom and had some "craters")
- use half applesauce instead of "all that oil"
- leave out the coffee and cardamom, and try some orange zest (my husband is not a coffee fan)

I think a good quality cocoa powder is essential to the success of this recipe. I highly recommend the "ruddy red" cocoa powder (from the bulk barn). I have used it many times, and find it superior in taste and quality.

In other news... for dinner tonight we are having chicken skewers. The chicken has been marinating in a teriyaki marinade, and we will add zucchini, onions, and mushrooms to those, and serve with rice.

We've been eating the peas fresh, and also in stirfries, and have enjoyed the cherry tomatoes fresh, and also cut up in sandwiches with turkey bacon. Mmm... yummy.

slow week

It's been a rather slow week on the cooking front! We've been busy and away from home a few evenings, so cooking has not been happening.

Hopefully this weekend we'll get a few veggie-rific meals in. We've been using small portions of our veggies though- some peas and cherry tomatoes for lunches, some fresh herbs in omelets, green onion in chicken salad (and actually the tzatziki I made went in there too- delicious!), roasted potatoes and fresh purple, green and yellow beans with BBQ chicken.

I'm thinking a zucchini and broccoli stir fry, maybe with some kale too. And chocolate zucchini loaf- can't wait to make that.

Today though, is applesauce again. I found another 1/2 bushel of harvest apples at the Pembroke Farmer's Market today... they just can't wait to turn into applesauce.

more veggies!

Today our share included:

LOTS of zucchini
a large head of broccoli
red potatoes
purple, red, and yellow cherry tomatoes
a bunch of dill
red and white onions
dinosaur kale
purple, yellow, and green beans
sugar peas

A delicious-sounding list- we seemed to have a red/purple theme going.

It's been a busy week, and I've not put much thought into potential menu items. I know I do want to try the chocolate zucchini loaf, and tomorrow we're having friends for dinner and will be having BBQ chicken breasts, and doing dilly-garlic potatoes in the oven, and serving fresh beans with it. (And there will be apple crisp for dessert- yum!)

Some of the zucchini will likely end up on skewers on the BBQ, and the cherry tomatoes will likely get eaten as snacks. The rest... I am not sure yet.

tzatziki

When I saw we were getting cucumbers in our share this week, I knew exactly what i wanted to do with them- make tzatziki. I've wanted to try making it, cuz it's such a healthy dip and seemed like it should be easy to make. And it's delicious.

I started off with this tzatziki recipe and made my own variations based on what I had on hand. Most recipes call for mint and dill, but I only had dill on hand, so I omitted the mint. (I have seen some recipes that don't include mint too).

Tzatziki

I used 2c of "Astro Balkan-style" plain yogurt, since that is the yogurt we buy most of the time. I also did not drain it overnight, since it is a thicker yogurt to begin with, and I didn't have that much time! Since it's best to allow the tzatziki to sit overnight so the flavours combine, and I wanted to serve it the next day, I let the yogurt drip a couple hours.

While I let my yogurt drain (in a jelly bag!) I peeled and grated my 4 little cucumbers, then put them in another jelly bag and wrung out as much juice as I could. I was surprised at the amount that came out. Then I minced up 3 large cloves of garlic, and a good handful of dill which I did not measure. I also added the juice of half a lemon, which I did not measure either. I don't often measure when I cook.

Smells like tzatziki

While I waited for my yogurt to drip, I combined the rest of the ingredients, and as it sat on my counter, the smell was amazing. It smelled just like tzatziki, and made me very excited to try it.

All mixed up

When I mixed it all up, it looked a lot more green than most tzatzikis I've seen, but that's alright with me. The initial taste test told me that letting it sit overnight was indeed the best choice, as the flavours need a chance to mingle. But it also told me my recipe was a success. (Next-morning taste test says: delicious, but if you are not a huge garlic fan, you may want to use less... a lot less!)

My plan for the tzatziki is to serve it with BBQ'd chicken skewers marinated in the PC Souvlaki marinade. There will also be zucchini, pepper, and onion skewers, to go along with the chicken. And it will be served with whole wheat Greek-style pitas.

I don't often plan a meal to this level of detail so far in advance, but this one has fallen together so well, and we have my parents visiting and having a set plan in advance means anyone can get started when they have a few minutes.

Preserving

Once again, I spent a Saturday acquiring fruit and tucking it away for winter.

Today I stopped in at the Pembroke Farmer's Market (needed more garlic for making pesto) and happened across someone selling harvest apples! I was so excited, as these are the apples my mom made applesauce with when I was a kid, and I've looked for them unsuccessfully for years. They are small, greenish-yellow in colour, and fairly soft and sweet- perfect for making applesauce. I got an approximate half-bushel, which produced 13 pints of applesauce. (I prefer pint jars)

Also on today's agenda was a trip to Hugli's Blueberry Ranch to do some blueberry picking. This was my first time ever picking blueberries, and I enjoyed it. Several other pickers commented on the lack of berries, but I thought the picking was good. It took a little effort, as many of the berries liked to hide within the branches, but I didn't mind. I was fortunate enough to be serenaded by a wedding happening on the grounds.

With some of the blueberries, I made my favourite kind of jam- Blueberry Lime Ginger jam. The basic recipe comes from the Bernardin home canning cookbook, although I've tweaked it a bit.

5c crushed blueberries

zest and juice of 1 large lime (or 2 small ones)

1T fresh grated ginger

1 pkg regular fruit pectin

5c sugar

Combine berries, lime zest and juice, and ginger in a large pot. Add pectin slowly, stirring to dissolve. Bring fruit to a rolling boil. Add sugar all at once and return to a rolling boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Ladle into jars, and process for 10min in boiling water bath.

This time, it produced 8c of jam.


Our meals have not been too exciting lately. Wednesday we had burgers with broccoli. Thursday we had noodle stir fry with hoisin sauce, using broccoli, peas, onions, and chicken. Friday Susannah and I had grilled cheese with carrots (hers cooked, mine raw). Tonight we had turkey burgers with peas. Nothing real inspired, but all of it tasty. At least we've been managing to get our veggies in at each meal.

New Veggie Day

Wednesday has become my favourite day of the week, because we get to pick up our fresh veggies from the CSA farm.

Part of the enjoyment is meeting other CSA members and/or farmers. Today we met several others picking up their veggies and making their choices, and also had a lovely little visit with Kylah and Dayvah.

Today we had lots of choices to make, but we came home with:
Beets
Broccoli
Red Fingerling Potatoes
Peas
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Green Onions
Basil
Kale
Green and Purple Peppers

this week's veggies- can you find them all?

Some exciting things are in store this week. Broccoli is a favourite veggie, and we are very happy to see it make an appearance in our share. I want to try making kale chips again, and will hopefully not burn them this time. I want to try making tzatziki with the cucumbers. And my parents are coming to visit, so the peppers are for my mom!

the zucchini are so cute, Susannah loved playing with them

I think a stir-fry or two is in order this week. I want to make one again with vermicelli rice noodles and hoisin sauce. I'm thinking broccoli, green onions, some fresh basil, and maybe some peas?  (as I learned to my embarrassment today, the pods are edible... oops!)

Mommy, we can eat these!

And we want to try chicken and veggie skewers again, with the zucchini for sure, and likely some onions and fresh pineapple (from the store... alas, there are no pineapple trees at RHG).

little veggie thief

Tonight we had BBQ turkey burgers with broccoli. Yum! We all loved the broccoli.

Leftovers

Some weeks, it feels like all you're eating is leftovers. This has been one of those weeks for me. Now, don't get me wrong- I am very much enjoying what I'm eating, and I regularly eat a lot of supper leftovers for lunches at work. I guess I just feel like I haven't cooked much. Or maybe it's just that I've been busy. Because looking at the list, we've had mostly "new" meals

This week, we had several amazing meals on our menu:
- Borscht with fresh whole wheat rolls (thanks to my bread machine for a starring role in that meal)
- Grilled (local!) lamb chops with roasted garlic-dill potatoes and fresh beans
- Turnip two ways pasta (using whole spelt linguini, and feta cheese)
- Chicken kabobs (with onion and zucchini) with rice
- Homemade BBQ burgers x2 (once with fresh beans, once with salad)
- Chicken tacos (with lettuce and the beautiful cherry tomatoes, salsa, sour cream, and cheese)
- Chicken quesadillas (with lettuce and cherry tomatoes, etc.)

Also, tomorrow is "New Veggie Day" which means that anything left in my fridge becomes a leftover from the previous week. This week, we have a few carrots left, one green onion, and some chard. Otherwise, we actually ate up all our veggies! (Well, there are 2 containers of borscht in the freezer, and a meal of turnip two ways for my lunch at work, and a few extra potatoes in the fridge too.) I'm not worried about the carrots- I know they'll get eaten up, and the onion will easily get tossed into something. It's the chard that worries me! I can think of several ways I could use it, but because it's not something I'm familiar with, it gets put off in favour of meals that I know I love, and require less thinking to make. What I need is a recipe that gets me excited, that I just HAVE to make it.

Looking ahead to the list for tomorrow, there are lots of choices- some easy, some more difficult. However, I am trying not to focus on the list, as I'm sure there will be some changes by the time pick-up time rolls around. And we all know how I deal with the unexpected! But it looks like a great list- once again, I am excited to collect our veggies and start a new week of our tasty adventure.