I’ve been doing the Southside CSA on and off for the past 4 years and I’m back “on” again for a bunch of reasons: the food variety is better and the share has gotten larger over the years, I’m eating more meals at home, I’ve grown more comfortable in the kitchen and it’s still really convenient for me to pick up the share at The Woods. I’m a triathlete so I don’t stop eating, ever, and the full share of veggies and half share of berries and eggs has proven to be a perfect amount of food for me. I might have people over or offer some meals to my three roommates towards the end of the week, sometimes I trade baked goods for coffee at my coffee spot or bring stuff to work to share with my colleagues but ultimately there’s barely any food leftover from the previous week and I always look forward to stocking up every Monday night. Monday and Tuesdays are my days off from my job so they’re usually heavy training, eating, and cooking/food prep days for me. This keeps the fridge relatively organized, not totally overflowing with four people’s food and I don’t have to worry about cooking the rest of the week if I take care of it all right after I pick up the share.
Once again I had a huge pull this week; eggs, kale, beets, leeks, onions, basil, peas, broccoli, zucchini, squash blossoms, and blueberries, a lot of blueberries. Luckily on my walk home I saw that my bud Stefan was bartending at Isa (http://isa.gg/isa/) around the corner from The Woods, and he made me up an impromptu gin cocktail with the blueberries from the neverending bucket:
After the drink and chillin’ for a bit I got home and layed out the spread in my kitchen:
I made a quick round of blueberry corn muffins to utilize some more of those delicious blueberries (http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/13940/blueberry-cornmeal-pancakes) and then froze most of the rest. A quarter mini watermelon and a cup of frozen blueberries blended makes for a mighty good simple refreshing smoothie.
I used my sister’s Chocolate Zucchini Bread recipe (relatively top secret) which can be prepared vegan or not vegan and both versions taste utterly amazing. I use this as bait at my coffee place and I usually get a free coffee out of the trade:
I found a risotto recipe that utilized the leeks and the peas and was happy that it included bacon as well (http://www.marthastewart.com/336988/leek-bacon-and-pea-risotto) (I’m not vegan. I love me some bacon.) I didn’t realize risotto kinda takes forever to make but it was worth it:
I had never made anything with squash blossoms before but found a recipe where you fill them with a ricotta, honey, and egg white mixture then cover them in egg and cookie crumbles (http://nymag.com/restaurants/recipes/inseason/35787/) Pretty much anything filled with ricotta and honey and covered in cookies is good in my book and these little guys were super tasty:
I roasted the huge beets for-ev-er but they came out way good and whipped up a garlic dill yogurt base to lay the marinated beets over (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/health/nutrition/05recipehealth.html?_r=3) I whipped up a quick frittata with onion, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes and made a go-to kale avocado salad that I found in a vega- professional triathlete-compiled cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/Thrive-Foods-Plant-Based-Recipes-Health/dp/0738215112/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341445804&sr=1-1&keywords=Thrive+cookbook) to round out an insane dinner with all the fixins:
Usually I wouldn’t pile everything on for one meal but for the blog post I decided to make a big plate with everything on it. I’ll eat the rest of the leftovers throughout the week and my roommates have already helped me dig into the blueberries:
So I’ll be eating well again this week thanks to the Southside CSA. See you next week.
Southside CSA 