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 8 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 8.5   Compost - 1   Carry Over - 1.5
It feels like we cooked a TON of food this week, but somehow still did not get through all of the box.  A lot of our recipes involved baking, and that didn't lend itself to us getting through the greens that we more typically eat uncooked.  One head of lettuce wilted beyond repair, and we just didn't get around to the spinach, though it is still in great shape and will get used up this week.  We also still have a few carrots left over from the gigantic bunch that we got in last week's box; thankfully, there are none coming in the box this week, so we'll have a chance to use them up as well.

On the recommendation of a reader, I'm going to start these reviews by highlighting the best recipe of the week.  Of course, it will be my very subjective opinion - but will consider taste, enjoyment by the family, and overall ease of preparation.  It will be my way of saying 'if you're going to try one of these, try this!'

The Winner

• Our first winning recipe would have to be the mini chicken pot pies with bacon, Marjoram and Carrots.  The flavors were delicious, the presentation was lovely, and - using a store bought rotisserie chicken, and frozen puff pastry - it was quite easy to throw together.  We all loved it, and there sadly were no leftovers at all!

The Good

• This one shocked me.  I was pretty sure going in that this was going to be a colossal waste of time, making crust from scratch, then a pretty involved recipe for the filling that I was convinced would turn out all mushy.  Honestly, it was the only semi-edible looking recipe I could find when searching for a recipe that contained both zucchini and swiss chard.  But you know what?  The provencal Zucchini and Swiss Chard tart was good!  The boys weren't super excited about it, but we grown-ups quite liked it.

• The pasta with Sugar Snap Peas, asparagus and parmesan was a perfect spring pasta recipe.  The Peas from the box were oh so sweet, and it was one of those delicious, just-a-few-ingredients recipes that show what good Italian-inspired cooking is all about.

• Nothing like a summery crisp recipe to enjoy on a hot spring - but wishing it was summer - afternoon.  Yum!

 

The Rest

• My husband made several pizzas on the grill last weekend, and experimented making a white pizza with Summer Squash, Zucchini and ricotta.  It wasn't bad, but the pizza lacked a bit of pizzazz. 

• The pot roast from our meat CSA was quite delicious, as were the monstrous but sweet roasted Carrots.  I'm just not sure how one makes a pot roast dinner look very pretty when serving it?