Taming the Mania

Note: I wrote this post on the 23rd & then had some issues getting it uploaded before I left for Baltimore. So please read it accordingly.

My home smells a bit like lovage today. Very faintly. I, as planned, stripped all the leaves off and chopped them very finely. They’re frozen in ice cube trays now. I put the stems out with hummus to see if they’d be an adequate celery snack substitute. Only Bill was willing to try them (I don’t like celery much), and he said the stems were entirely too woody for that kind of consumption. So, into the stock bag they went.

I also chopped the rhubarb into chunks and froze that on a freezing sheet1. I’ll dump that into a baggie today.… Continue reading →

CSA Delivery Tomorrow. Got Back in Town Last Night.

Bill and I got back from Baltimore late last night. I think we walked in the door about 11:45 pm or so. We got home, had a little snack, and collapsed into bed.

We were lucky1 this time around. The CSA only delivers bi-weekly during the winter, and so we left just after a delivery and the next delivery will be tomorrow night. Thus, we didn’t have to make any special arrangements for our food. That was nice.

However, it makes me want to hold off on grocery shopping. At least until the delivery hits. I have gotten a “sneak peek” of what we’ll be getting, but past experience has made me quite wary of relying on the sneak peek email. Sometimes they just can’t get you a thing they expected to pick, or sometimes you plan for a pound of turnips and they give you three baby turnips.… Continue reading →

[57] Bean and Potato Gratin (with Turnips)

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

For the vast majority of my life, beans have been involved in many meals I’ve consumed. However, each of those meals used the exact same preparation and type of beans.

Yes, I grew up in New Mexico. So I ate a lot of refried pinto beans. A lot of them. No, even more than that. Seriously. Because I really didn’t like most meat burritos, or tacos, or well, lots of things. I was basically left with eating bean burritos every time my family went for New Mexican food (except breakfast – that glorious meal). Or some variation on bean burritos. Like bean-stuffed sopapillas. Or the bean and cheese turnover at the now extinct Ron’s (Ron & Marsha’s to my parents).

Beyond that, though, I have almost no experience with beans.… Continue reading →

New Mexico

We’re in New Mexico again, visiting for my mother’s birthday (which has passed, but this was the weekend she wanted to celebrate).

As you can imagine, I’m not doing a lot of cooking right now. I have, however, decided that I’d like to get a jump start on menu planning for next week. This is somewhat augmented by the fact that I’d planned three meals for while Bill’s mother was in town, and then we did not eat at home. (Thankfully, I had not bought the ingredients for anything yet, so no money or food was wasted on those plans.)

Unfortunately, this planning is also hampered by not having my cookbooks with me, and not knowing what’s coming in our CSA. I have gotten a “sneak peek”, but planning around previous sneak peeks went poorly for us when we didn’t get any beets (among other planned for things).… Continue reading →

[17] Balsamic Strawberries with Arugula & Goat Cheese

Cover of How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

In this case, though, rather than arugula I used some lettuce we got from the CSA that resembles butterhead lettuce. That’s not what it is (since they tell us the varieties), but I don’t know which variety they listed it is.

Totally simple recipe, and I’m making it for lunch. I have to admit, it’s pretty cool to be having a lunch nearly totally made out of CSA products.

h2. Ingredients

3 c strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered
1+ tbsp excellent balsamic vinegar, to taste basically

Freshly ground black pepper

4 c arugula leaves (I used some sort of CSA lettuce. It was good.)

Salt

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Note This is a variant of the above recipe, and calls for ~4oz of goat cheese to be crumbled on just before the final toss described below.… Continue reading →