Morning at the Market
Ah, Sundays. I love Sunday mornings. Correction – I love lazy Sunday mornings. Few things compare with waking with the sun, brewing up a big pot of coffee, cooking a nice breakfast, and relaxing, not having to rush around. Well, today didn’t work out quite that way, but it was pretty close, with the added bonus of heading to the farmers’ market in Dupont Circle with the hubby. He had a rare weekend off, so we’ve been trying to enjoy it together as much as possible.
As a special treat to start the day, I cooked up some Oatmeal Pancakes. I discovered this recipe on the blog of the Houndstooth Gourmet, a blog I like to read (see link to the left) and they were great! The key is soaking oatmeal overnight in buttermilk (though I used skim milk). I don’t think the photos do them enough justice at all – they were filling and delicious, though they got pretty brown, even on low heat. I added chocolate chips to mine, while the hubby used some of our last strawberries.
Oatmeal pancakes
Then, it was off to Dupont Circle. On a good day – meaning hitting the trains just right – it is around 30-40 minutes away, with one change. When traveling on the weekend, though, it can be much longer, as the trains run less frequently, and if you miss one… well, it can be a long wait. Thankfully, we seemed to hit them just right, and made it in decent time. Unfortunately, the glut of tourists on the line tried my patience – as a subway commuter, they are my nemesis – and nearly got me crushed by the train doors.
Even so, we made it, and boy was it a treat! Just enough vendors, and oodles of goodies all around! I wish we could have gone a tad earlier, as it was quite busy by the time we got there, but that was a minor annoyance. We did a circuit just to get a taste of what was there, and I was captivated by the gorgeous, exotic mushrooms at one of the vendors. Amazing. My eye was also caught by a stunning array of golden-yellow and purple cauliflower, bunches of golden-orange beets and bright red and yellow chard alongside their less flashy cousin, white chard. I also saw many more varieties of kale than I had ever known existing.
Check out the cauliflower!
At the market
Seriously, it took some willpower on my part not to buy everything, but in the end, I settled with some yellow chard, golden beets, garlic scapes, and some free-range eggs (I’m planning on doing a bit of a taste test).
Our market bag, full of goodies!
Garlic scapes
Chard and beets
Beet closeup
All in all, a great morning. For lunch, we made a nice salad from the CSA butter lettuce we received yesterday, along with croissants and some grilled chicken. Simple, but perfect for really enjoying the fresh lettuce. Dinner was also a fairly simple affair, pork chops with sauteed beet greens (need to use up the skordalia) and quinoa with spring onions, dill, feta and pine nuts. The quinoa disg was one I just tossed together on the fly with some odds and ends in the fridge, and it woked out quite well.
Delicious salad!
Pickin’ in the Rain (AKA: CSA, Week 3)
It has been a long, long day. It started out with me indulging one of my (hopefully) few vanities – a brow waxing – before heading out to the farm. I look forward to these excursions into the Virginia countryside to pick up our box, and get out into the fields. Of course, just as we started driving, the skies turned gray and it started to rain. Now, when dressed properly, this isn’t a problem, but I wasn’t dressed properly at all, what with my sandals and lack of a rain jacket. The day hadn’t started out looking like it would rain, but I guess nature had other plans for us.
When we arrived at the farm, we were very pleasantly surprised to discover that there was an extra u-pick bonus for CSA members today – a 1/2 pint of black raspberries! Woo hoo! The farm was pretty quiet because of the weather, but there was no rain at this point, so we were happy to wait around for the tractor to return and head out to pick our strawberries.
On the way out to the field, the heavens opened up, and it began to pour down rain. But this didn’t stop us. Nope. We went out there anyway, pints in hand, mud and straw pooling between the rows of strawberry plants, and little red treasures hiding amid the plants.
It was awesome. Sure, I wished I had boots instead of the sandals that stain my feet black (seriously) when wet. And I definitely wished the jeans didn’t soak up all the water and get so heavy. But it was fun. No overheating. No bugs harassing us. No huge crowds. We (the hubby and I) and another plucky family braved the rain, and filled our pints, though the searching took a lot more time, since it is the end of the season and most of the berries had been picked, or were past their prime.
Our transport to the strawberry fields
The hubby, all wet after picking!
Our last strawberries 😦
All wet - and the hubby making crazy faces for some unknown reason
After picking up our half-share box, we headed out to get our black raspberries. So much easier to pick these, because they are person-height plants, and we made short work of the half pint.
Raspberry brambles
Closeup of the raspberries - the black ones are ripe!
Yum, black raspberries!
This week’s box contained some old staples, and a few new items. After so much asparagus, we were sad to see it go away, but this time around, we got some broccoli and the first of the lettuce! We also got the last of the strawberries for the season, another huge bunch of spring onions, and a small basil plant (I neglected to get a picture). I plan to transplant the basil and dill (from last week) into pots tomorrow. Hopefully I can keep them alive and have my own little herb garden!
Broccoli and spring onions
Lettuce, washed and ready to go!
I have to say, I’m happy we chose the pick up at the farm option for the CSA. It is more time consuming for us, since we have to drive out every week and it is not a short drive, but I have enjoyed picking the items myself, and spending time outdoors and with my husband. Plus, it is a total rush to find out we are getting a special treat as part of the u-pick, like today’s raspberries!
We were supposed to head to a friend’s b-day party tonight, but after running other errands, we fell asleep and woke up late. I feel badly about that, but it turned out to be good decision, because hubby realized he had an online training for work he needed to finish by midnight tonight. Yikes, almost missed that deadline!
Hope to write more tomorrow… we’re heading out to the Dupont Circle farmers market in DC and I am itching to find some new treats while I am there. I’m curious to try out garlic scapes, since I keep hearing about them (from other people’s CSAs) so I hope we find some.
A Murder in My Kitchen!
Oh wait, that’s not blood, that’s just splattering from my jam-making adventure. Seriously, when that jam got boiling, the splattering was intense. The splatter shield helped, but only when I wasn’t stirring, and since you have to stir quite a bit… well, you see the problem! Anyway, I managed the first batch without killing myself which was a huge accomplishment. I even managed to rig up a way to do the water bath at the end without a proper rack, though I wasn’t thrilled with it. Some poeple skip that, but my super cautious self didn’t think it was worth the risk – especially since I have no idea what I am doing.
Anyway, after the strawberry only version, I decided (upon consultation with the hubby) to use the other pound of strawberries, as well as some frozen blueberries I had, to make a strawberry-blueberry jam. I used the same basic recipe, subbing 1 lb of blueberries for 1 of the 2 lbs of strawberries the original recipe called for.
All in all, it worked out well. I used a no-pectin recipe for Strawberry Jam that I found. I cut back the sweetener to 3 cups, and did a 50/50 mix of sugar and Splenda.
Early in the process
Close to being done! See some of the splatters?
Finished products!
Since I was on a serious roll, I then decided to make some muffins. I’d meant to do this last week, but ran out of time. It was a recipe I found in Cooking Light, one of my favorite magazines: Limelight Blueberry Muffins. These weren’t bad – the recipe was quick, and the taste is okay. However, I used muffin liners because my over tends to overcook, and that was a bad move – the muffin stuck to it too much. Oh well, the hubby and I are not above eating off the liner! 🙂 Not sure if I would make them again though.
Limelight Blueberry Muffins
Next on the docket for the day was spanakorizo. If your curious what it is, click here, though that is not the recipe I used! In fact, I didn’t use a real recipe – I asked my mom what she does, and then used that as a blueprint for my version. I also didn’t have spinach, so I used swiss chard instead and opted to toss in a hefty bit of cayenne pepper for some zest. YUM! As you can tell from the picture below, we dug right into it!
Spanakorizo
Last but not least for the weekend cooking fest, was making an Asparagus Gruyere Tart. This was probably the biggest disappointment of the day’s cooking, and not because it didn’t taste delicious, because it did. But rather, it was an unfortunate victim of my oven’s temperature issues. It was still tasty, it would have just been nice to not have the edges overdone like they were!
All set and ready to go...
...and after the final round in the oven!
CSA Pickup: Week 2
We were up bright and early to do our CSA pick up before the hubby had to be at work. Armed with coffee we made at home, we made the trek out to Bluemont, and happily the farm was a lot less busy than last time, given it was shortly after opening.
We headed out to the strawberry fields; this time, in addition to the three pints of u-pick that came with our share, we decided to pick additional strawberries. Even at 9:45 AM, it was getting hot, so we’re super glad we made it out there early! We had a nice haul (around 3.5 lbs, in addition to what comes with our share), which hopefully will get made into some tasty jam. All in all, from our picking and the CSA box, I think we have plenty of strawberries!
Mmm... strawberries!
Our box this week had a ton of asparagus! Seriously, I counted 80 spears – almost three pounds. We also got a wee dill plant, which I will be putting in in a pot, more spring onions, strawberries (see above!), and swiss chard. The swiss chard was a surprise – we were supposed to get spinach, but there was a farm mishap, so no spinach! I’m excited to try it though. I really liked last week’s kale and I am hoping I will enjoy this as well.
Spring onions and dill plant
Asparagus... all 80+ spears!
Swiss chard
Hopefully the next post will be of some tasty treats!
Odds and Ends
After a successful weekend in the kitchen, there was a good chance the work week wouldn’t be up to snuff. I’m happy that didn’t turn out to be the case; over the course of the week, I was able to try out two new recipes, make great use of a huge ham I discovered for 50% off last month, and finish off the last of our CSA half-share from last Saturday. Not too bad!
Tuesday, I made a pasta based dish with asparagus, peas, spring onions, and hard mizithra, my favorite cheese ever. It wasn’t bad, but I probably wouldn’t repeat it – it wasn’t knock-your-socks off good.
Pasta with asparagus, peas, spring onions and mizithra
Today, I really wanted to finish off the last of the kale, and perhaps use up a bit more of that delicious ham. I found instructions on how to make a kale and potato au gratin and used it as the basis for dinner tonight, though I did leave out some of the butter (never missed it) and added a generous amount of ham to each layer. It was delicious! I wish the kale had stayed the gorgeous bright green it was when I stir fried it for the recipe but that was a minor thing!
Augratin fresh out of the oven!
...and on my plate!
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s CSA pick up and am already thinking of all the yummy things I can cook up this weekend.
Notions and Potions: Week 1
Chopping. Lots of chopping. That’s how the morning was spent. Kale, spinach, dill, parsley, basil, sweet potatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, you name it, I chopped it. I’ve learned that the cooking process goes much more quickly (and enjoyably) if you do as much prep as possible ahead of actually starting the cooking process. So, armed with a few cups of coffee, that’s how I started the day.
Once the actual cooking started, the first item on the list was Tracy B’s Callaloo soup. I found this recipe when trying to figure out what to do with kale, since I have never had it before. The hubby and I tried it (the kale) yesterday, raw, and it seemed pretty good. Back to the recipe, as usual, I didn’t follow it exactly – didn’t have okra or thyme, substituted chicken broth for vegetable, and used canned diced tomatoes (forgot I needed fresh). It was yummy, and I will definitely be keeping this recipe in the short list during the kale season. I think with some bread, this would be a lovely lunchtime meal. The colors were just great – green, orange, red – it was just so pretty to look at as well as eat!
Callaloo Soup
Next up: spanikopita. I love love love spanikopita, and I love it village style (horiatiko) , which means not using fillo dough from the store. I’ve used puff pastry in a pinch (works very well) and it is more similar to the horiatiko way of doing it. But, it is expensive. So, I mixed flour and water to make homemade fillo. I definitely do not have my mom’s technique – perhaps it is because I am mixing white and whole wheat flour, but it doesn’t roll out the way hers does. Oh well, it’s good enough! The filling is pretty easy to do, once all the chopping is finished and it will feed us for a few days. Isn’t it pretty?
Spanikopita
I used all the leftover dough bits to make a boutzaki. No idea if this is a real word, but this is what it was called in our family… grandma used to smoosh all the little bits into a flat disk and cook it. It is incredibly dense, and it is so yummy to eat with feta. Heaven!! I only had mozarella though – a poor substitute, but good enough.
Then, it was skordalia. This is quintessential Greek cuisine, but for some reason I can’t stand it. It’s not the taste – I love garlic. I think it is the smell. To be blunt, my grandfather used to eat this constantly, and smelled like it. So, when I smell skordalia, I smell grandpa. See the problem? Anyway, my husband loves it, and since I have some beets and beet greens in the fridge, I thought I would humor him.
There were some technical difficulties – the blender was not working – so I had to drag out the food processor and try that instead. It seemed to work pretty well even with the added mess (and there was mess, let me tell ya!). It seemed to be pretty good with the roasted beets and sauteed beet greens.
Roasted beets and sauteed greens
I’d hoped to make some muffins today, but it’s 8:30 PM, I am nigh pooped out, and I have a few things to finish up around the apartment, since we’ll have a guest later in the week.
Veggies, Berries and Cheese!
Today was a great day for just getting out and about!
After dropping the husband off for a short shift at work, I headed out to Burke, Virginia to visit the farmers market. I was particularly interested in this market as it is relatively close to my husband’s work (and hence easily added to my daily errands) and it requires the producers selling at the market to be located within 125 miles of the county, making it more local than some other options out there.
It was a nice sized market, not too big, not too small, with a good variety of items. The prices were reasonable – not the cheapest, but the quality was better than I’ve seen at the market. Since I knew this week’s CSA box would not include it, I picked up some lovely lettuce (two types), a bunch of beets, a huge bag of spinach, a few sweet potatoes, and some great herbs (dill, parsley, basil). I’ll be making a spanikopita (aka, spinach pie) with the dill, parsley and spinach). Unfortunately, no good pics of the spinach… just washed it and didn’t think to take one.
Parsley, Dill and Basil
Lettuces
Beets
After heading home and doing a bit of cleaning, I picked up my husband, had lunch, and then headed out to the CSA farm. It was a drive, but a relaxing one. When we got to the farm, we decided to get our u-pick limit – two extra pints of strawberries. It was kind of amusing – all the other pickers (and there were a lot of families at the farm for the strawberry festival) were trying to get the big strawberries, while we were happy to go through the sections everyone else had already gone through. There were tons of small, but nice, ripe red strawberries to be found – seems that most people weren’t interested in those, but we were! Don’t they look pretty, even if they were small?
Strawberries!
After getting back from the fields, we left with our box. It contained two big bunches of kale, spring onions, another pint of strawberries (these were bigger than the ones we harvested!), and lots of asparagus! I wasn’t expecting as much as we got, but I am looking forward to cooking it up!
Asparagus
Kale
Spring Onions
Later in the afternoon, we visited the local Greek festival at St. Katherine’s in Arlington for some gyros and loukoumades. They weren’t quite as good as my mom’s, but they hit the spot. While there, I got some feta, as well as my favorite cheese ever, called mizithra. I guess it is something like parmesan, but about a million times better! It is amazing.
Now I’m off to clean veggies and start prepping them for tomorrow’s bubbling cauldrons! More later on that…
CSA Anticipation!
This year, we signed up with a local farm’s CSA program. Basically, a CSA (community sponsored agriculture) lets people buy a share in a farm, and as the season progresses, you get a portion of the yield. In some places, you can donate time and/or money, in others, just money. It’s great because you are supporting local farmers, but of course you take on some of the risk if there is a bad year, just like the farmer.
We signed up with Great Country Farms, which is a Virginia farm located about an hour from us (there are, of course, no farms actually IN Arlington). While many people choose to have the box delivered to their home, my husband and I have decided to pick up at the farm even though it is a bit of a drive. Why is this? Well, one of the reasons I chose this farm in particular is that every week, they have ‘U-pick Bonuses.’ Meaning, CSA members can go to the farm and pick additional amounts of specific items for no additional charge. I think this is awesome, and thought that having to go out to the farm to pick up the boxes would motivate us to take advantage of the u-pick limits on a more regular basis. We also can pick additional amounts, with a bit of a discount.
I’m so excited that our first pick up is this week! Since it is the start of the growing season, we were expecting a lot of greens, and we weren’t far off: we’re getting asparagus, kale (need to learn how to use that!), spring onions, and strawberries! We also have an additional u-pick limit of strawberries, which we hope to take advantage of as well, since it is peak strawberry season and I LOVE strawberries!! Just have to wait until Saturday!
I love calendars!
Some people don’t like to plan ahead. I think my husband fits this category of people (sorry honey!) – he doesn’t seem to worry much about what he will be doing two months from now. I am the opposite. I love calendars. I love planning ahead. I usually have a print out of a MS Word calendar somewhere near me, if not in my purse, where I can scribble down important dates, potential travel, etc. I guess this isn’t so unusual, but I do need to admit that this monthly calendar is usually 1-2 years out. Yup, I carry around a calendar through December 2010, with cheat sheets for 2011-2013.
I admit it – I’m a special kind of crazy.
The Pointy Stick 