Week 50 in Review

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

It was a good week in the kitchen.  I was able to make everything that I had planned, and only ended up losing a small bit of lettuce this week to the compost.  We have a bit of celery left over, but have plans to use that up in a tomato sauce this weekend.  The week also brought a lot of variety - from Irish, to Italian, to spins on Mexican and Indian.  Wish every week could go this smoothly! 

The Best

• We all really enjoyed the arugula pesto and sausage lasagna.  It was the most complicated of the recipes made this week, so I tackled it on the weekend when I had a bit more time.  The arugula made for a nice twist on traditional pesto, and the fresh tomatoes really livened up the sauce.  A fantastic lasagna!

 Tomato sauce in progress

Arugula pesto gets combined with ricotta

Final product

The Good

• It doesn't look fancy, but once a year, gotta love St. Patrick's Day dinner.  With green cabbage and orange carrots from the box, and a variety of potatoes from the farmer's market, it certainly was a colorful plate.

• I started with a sauteed spinach and mushroom recipe, and then added it and some cotija cheese to whole wheat tortilla to make a lovely quesadilla.

• The curried cauliflower soup was quite simple, but very delicious.  It allowed me to use up the entire head of cauliflower, as well as some left over potatoes that had been purchased for our St. Patrick's day meal. 

 All the veggies in the pot

 The soup is served

• The kids didn't love the broccoli and red pepper gratin, but I thought it went perfectly with a turkey meatloaf dinner.

Week 29 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 9     Compost - 0.5     Carry Over - 0.5

It's definitely starting to feel - and taste - like fall.  Our meals this week were of the heartier sort, and went over very well as the days start to get darker and cooler.  With the exception of the lasagna, everything was fairly quick in terms of preparation and was consumed at one setting.  Although it's hard these days to find time for meals that take more than an hour to prepare, having lots of leftovers made for a lot of tasty, easy lunches later in the week.  I'd love to find a way to make more time-intensive dishes like the lasagna on the weekend after we pick up the box.  Food for thought for future meal planning efforts!

The Best

• We all loved the chicken and grape skewers served with a quinoa pilaf.  The flavors were fantastic and it was simple to prepare.

 

The Good

• In all honesty, I was a little scared of the kale, zucchini and pinto bean enchilada recipe, but it was really yummy.  Next time, I would chop the kale even more (I left some pieces too large), but this will definitely be made again.

In process

Enchiladas after baking

• Before really reading this recipe, I was thinking that I'd just be layering in slices of tomatoes, but in reality the first step was making a tomato sauce with the tomatoes that I had.  So while the fresh tomato lasagna took a good hour to prepare (plus additional baking time), the end product was great!

• This salad was simple but good, and incorporated lettuce, cilantro and avocados from the box!

 

The Rest

• I was really hopeful that this watermelon cocktail would be good, but it was actually way too sweet.  The triple sec overpowered the deliciously sweet watermelon, and I couldn't even drink it.  Most watermelons just don't taste as good, I guess, as the ones we've been getting in our box.

Other Fun

Planting a fall garden with my son at his school

 

My other son's class has their turn to plant

Week 28 in Review

The Score
Eaters 9.5     Compost - 1     Carry Over - 0.5

This week I found myself straying a bit from the plan, due to changes in plans and changes in ingredients.  Once I had last week's bounty in hand, for example, I felt compelled to make a spaghetti alla checca with the firm, meaty tomatoes that we received.  I also had a small crop of home grown tomatillos that I needed to harvest in order to get the beds ready for a fall planting, so that sent one meal down a slightly different pathway.  The basil lost it's gusto fairly early in the week - which meant no pesto later - and some of the lettuce bit the dust as well.  All said and done, I kept things fairly simple in the kitchen this week, leaving enough time to prep the garden beds and get a good start on my fall garden.  We now have carrots, radishes, broccoli, garlic, shallots, leeks, kale and peas in the ground.  After a short mid-October heat wave, a number of the seeds have already sprouted and it looks like things are on their way!

The Best

• This chopped salad - inspired by Nancy Silverton's recipe from Pizzeria Mozza - was so good, I could eat it every day (if only it didn't require so much chopping).

The Good

• Using our garden tomatillos and garlic from the box, I threw together some chicken enchiladas after making a delicious roasted tomatillo salsa.  It was great warm in the enchiladas, and the leftover cold salsa was great with chips.  Delicious guacamole with the box's amazing avocados made for a wonderful garnish.

 

• I could eat whole wheat pasta alla checca with fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil all the time, if only my family wouldn't mind my constant bad breath.

• Our brunch was cancelled, so we lost our excuse to make watermelon mimosas, but we ate up the tomato basil quiche even though it got all little overcooked around the edges.

• The zucchini fritters were very tasty, though my frying skills still leave a lot to be desired.  The recipe suggested really squeezing all the liquid out of the zucchini, and I don't think that I got enough of the liquid out.  The outsides were nice and crispy, but the insides were a bit too wet and gooey.  

Week 26 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 10     Compost - 1     Carry Over - 1

With the exception of some lettuce that once again hit the compost bin, we ate everything except one tomato, one cucumber and a couple of onions - all of which will get consumed in the next week.  It was a week of fairly simple meals, allowing me to incorporate the box into meals that could be mostly made quickly or in advance.  I've been missing the time that I had over the summer, especially on the weekends, to cook great meals or get ingredients ready for later in the week.  Between a busy work schedule and a full fall sport schedule (soccer and baseball) these days, weekends - and evenings for that matter - have not allowed for much food preparation.  So if simple allows me to get the ingredients into our meals and bodies, I'll take it for now.

The Best

• The curried chicken salad with grapes was amazing, partially because the grapes from the box were some of the best that we've ever tasted, partially because the combinations of flavors and textures were spot on.  The meal also featured cucumbers, strawberries, and a Greek pasta salad with red peppers from the previous week's box. 

The Good

• Turkey burgers are a staple around this place, enhanced by some delicious tomato slices as well as some roasted pasilla peppers and brioche buns found at the same farmer's market where we pick up our box.

• Turkey tacos are another staple.  This week's were made that much better by the presence of fresh, simple, three ingredient salsa - all from this week's box.

 

The Rest

• I was really excited about the zucchini, carrot, banana bread recipe that I had found.  In a rush, however, I neglected to add a very important ingredient - baking soda.  The result was a flat, mushy bread that had good flavors but horrible texture.  I hope to have the ingredients to try it again and get it right.

Week 24 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 9.5    Compost - 1     Carry Over - 0.5

Back to school week in combination with birthday week was pretty crazy around this place.  Though I didn't do a good job of getting photos of most of what we ate this week, we did a fair amount of cooking and had a lot of fun as a family!  As our twins get older, it is fun to bring them more and more into the process of making the food, as opposed to just being consumers of the end product.  With that in mind, I documented our afternoon spent making their birthday dinner.  They were SO happy with the end result, and were really excited that they helped make the meal.  I see many more "family" dinners like this in our future!  Note: as you will see our twins are fraternal, but the fact that they are wearing the same t-shirt is HIGHLY unusual (they were trying to be supportive of Dad's favorite team, which sadly opened their season with a loss that day).

The Best

The well method of pasta making

Knead, knead, knead

Making rigatoni

Drying out the pasta for a few minutes

Meanwhile, carefully chopping up lots of CSA tomatoes for the sauce

Favorite sweet tomato sauce: saute 1 carrot, 1 stalk celery, 2 cloves garlic and 1 small onion (all diced) in a few Tbs olive oil for about 10 minutes; fill the pan with lots of tomatoes (whatever is fresh); after about 10 minutes the tomatoes will have broken down and sauce will start to thicken; add 8-10 leaves fresh basil, and salt and pepper to taste; run through food mill with coarse blade

Toss cooked pasta with sauce and Dad's homemade meatballs

Eat as is, or with fresh basil pesto, depending on your birthday preference

Open presents and show your best goofy face!

The Good

• With all of the tomatoes we had this week - as well as the best avocados that we've ever eaten - we ended up having a wonderful Mexican feast of fajitas, with fresh guacamole, pico de gallo, charred tomato salsa, and (for the grown-ups only) orange margaritas!

• Did I mention that our oven broke last week?  Just added to the fun.  I had to do the Kale, onion and potato frittata recipe on the stove top, which didn't fully work but tasted alright.  We also weren't able to follow the correct instructions for the the roasted Green Bean, potato and Radicchio salad.  Instead, my husband roasted the beans and potatoes on the grill, which tremendously added to the flavors!  Though I didn't get a photo, it was a delicious and quite beautiful salad. 

Week 22 in Review

I'm very late in getting last week's review up, but I think I have a good excuse... I was doing this:

For the last eight months, I've been working with a friend to plan for a learning garden at our children's school.  It's a typical urban public school, with too much asphalt and not enough green.  After a tremendous amount of generosity from community businesses, this weekend was the build, and getting ready was all consuming.  The garden is now about 80% done, and I'm ready to take a breather and get back to the rest of my life!

The Score
Eaters - 11    Compost - 0.5     Carry Over -0.5
Fueling up for the big build meant a lot of good eating.  We had friends over for dinner twice this past week, and that helped us get through almost everything.  One of the amazing avocados is still ripening up, but that will certainly get eaten up when it's ready, and a little cabbage did hit the compost bin.  All in all a great week, with some fun projects to boot.

The Best

• The meal itself was nothing fancy, but the process of making the sauce was fun and the end result was quite tasty!

 Twelve pounds of gorgeous heirloom tomatoes ready for roasting

Juicy goodness with yummy basil leaves

We got seven pints out of the batch

Heirloom tomato sauce with spaghetti and meatballs

The Good

• We made grilled fish tacos one night, but the true highlight was the pico de gallo.  I'm not sure if I've ever had sweeter tomatoes, and with the fresh cilantro, the entire bowl was gone in seconds.

• Remember that batch of sauerkraut from a few weeks back?   It was finally ready to eat, so we enjoyed it over bratwurst with a fresh garden salad and super sweet cantaloupe.  

• I can't say that I love the texture of okra, but given the fact that this was my first time preparing it, I could be partially at fault.  That said, this was a delicious veggie curry dish that could make for a great base for any variety of ingredients from the box (this batch included okra, kale, tomatoes and onions).  

Week 21 in Review

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

Our 'over the rainbow' ingredients made for several great meals this week.  So good, in fact, that this may be the first week where there were really no recipe duds at all in the meal plan.  That said, I continue to struggle using up all of the lettuce, with some hitting the compost again this week.  We also have a couple of lemon cucumbers and grapefruit left over that will follow us into next week.  On second thought, perhaps I just came up with a great idea for tomorrow morning's juice!

The Best

• The Thai beef skewers with peanut sauce and Thai (Lemon) Cucumber salad was, in my mind, one of the best meals that I've ever made.  I changed things up a bit and made a peanut sauce recipe from the Sept/Oct Cooks Illustrated magazine (the recipe for is only available if you are a magazine subscriber, or sign up for a free 14 day trial), but the combo of the marinated steak, peanut sauce and cucumber salad was really fantastic!  I didn't quite get the lime fro yo done on time for dessert, but it was enjoyed later in the week, and was wonderful too.

The Good

• The mashed potato and Kale recipe that was accompanied by chicken, chorizo and red pepper sauce was a big hit with the entire family.  The cheesy potatoes and kale will likely become a staple recipe for us; it was that good!

• The lightness of the (once purple, but after cooking) Green Beans, Grape Tomatoes with a lemon ricotta sauce over pasta made for a perfect summer dinner.

• It's hard to go wrong with (heirloom!) Tomatoes, fresh Basil, garlic and olive oil!  We used this tri-colore checca to make bruschetta, and tossed the leftovers with pasta.

• The moist Carrot muffins were enjoyed for both breakfasts and snacks, and were pretty with flecks of purple and orange (from the carrots) and yellow (from the pineapple).