Week 45 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 11     Compost - 1     Carry Over - 0

Valentine's day made for a great occasion to use up a bunch of ingredients from the box.  That meal alone featured spinach, celery, oranges, parsnips, and marjoram from the box, and made for three fun and flavorful courses.  Interestingly, however, it wasn't that meal that was the highlight of the week; perhaps that much good food all at once makes it more difficult to pick a favorite?  All in all, it was another great week.  We did get through most of the box, though ended up having to compost a few stalks of celery that went rubbery and one avocado that just didn't ripen. 

The Best

• This Italian wedding soup (featuring kale and fennel) was a huge hit with the entire family.  It wasn't super easy to make, but the savory, fennel flavored broth was worth every bit of effort.

 The Good

• Valentine's dinner started with a lovely parsnip soup.  This flavorful soup - with a little olive oil drizzled on as garnish - will definitely be put into rotation when parsnips are in the box.

 

• Dinner continued with this delicious spinach, celery and orange salad with candied almonds.  I'd eat this every day.

• We finished our meal with roasted chicken featuring a marjoram pesto, served over egg noodles.  I don't think I could have eaten one more bite by the time we were done!  

The Rest

• Though I can't say this featured anything from the box, my other valentine's week goal was to make cinnamon swirl bread for my kids.  It was definitely the most complicated baking project that I've ever taken on, but the final product was amazing.  Can't say that I'll do this every year, but was a fun labor of love for my mini Valentines.

 The dough after its first (of four) rises

 Adding in the 'swirl' mixture

 Filled dough is cut and braided

 Baked loaves

 Delicious swirl bread with golden raisins

Week 44 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 9     Compost - 1     Carry Over - 0

Although the outcome of the Super Bowl wasn't to the liking of most of my guests (my husband and his visiting family are all from Massachusetts), the food was great!  The box provided lots of great raw materials for our super bowl spread and - in spite of the game's outcome - at least every body who came to the party left with happy, full bellies.  The only downside of using almost the entire box for the party was the fact that there wasn't much left to use for the remainder of the week and that left me a bit unguided for the week's dinners.

• Our Super Bowl Sunday spread included cider and bacon baked beans (with apples, onions and marjoram), sweet and tangy coleslaw with fennel and orange, butternut squash muffins, and green salad with radishes.  We even used the fennel fronds as a garnish for the ribs!

Super bowl spread

The baked beans were hearty and delicious

Fennel added an interesting twist to cole slaw

Simple green salad

• I used up the spinach and onions in a simple saute with garlic and olive oil, and served that over rice with curried chicken and fresh radishes.

Week 40 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 10     Compost - 0.5     Carry Over - 0.5

I've really been enjoying these first couple of weeks of the year.  We've been enjoying amazing weather, and there have been no after school commitments pulling us in a million directions.  The end result has been great time in the kitchen after school, with me cooking while working with the boys on third grade times tables.  We ate a lot of great meals this week, leaving only a tiny bit to go into the compost pile (a handful of spinach and a small bit of cilantro).  We have a bit of carrots left over, but I've got plans for those (see week 41). 

The Best

• The sausage and lentils with fennel and carrots was amazing.  The recipe featured fennel three ways (bulb, fronds and seeds) and was a delicious blend with the lentils and sausage.  This will definitely be getting added into rotation when fennel is in the box!

The Good

• I really wanted this roasted tomatillo salsa to be amazing, and though it was good, the proportions were off.  I cut the jalapenos by half, but it was still so spicy that my kids wouldn't touch it.  It was also missing onions, even though the garlic was great.  I look forward to taking the basics of this recipe, and making my own version of roasted tomatillo salsa next week.

• The curried couscous featuring carrots, along with sesame sugar snap peas, made for a yummy vegetarian dinner for meatless Mondays. 

• We ate the chopped salad (using lettuce, spinach, and carrots) with a nice turkey meatloaf.  

• The butternut squash and leek soup made for a hearty lunch several days this week.