Laura + Merav Member Diary for Week of June 15th

Laura + Merav

Hey guys! This blog post is coming at you from Laura and Merav. We are friends and roommates and this is our second season doing the CSA. We get a bi-weekly egg and veggie share. We share groceries and cook a lot of meals together so sharing the CSA works out really well for us. We were super excited for veggies to start and this week was definitely all about the greens. This week of cooking has basically been all about shoving greens into anything and everything that we make.

Here’s a rundown of some meals that we’ve made and how we’ve been using our shares.

Image 2 Laura and Merav

After picking up our share on Monday, I decided to make a giant salad using a lot of those salad greens since those tend to perish more quickly than some of the sturdier greens we got. Continue reading

COUGAR Member Diary

Cougar 1

In the five years we’ve been Southside CSA members, we’ve frequently planned a fall dinner party in order to share some of our haul and try out some more ambitious dishes to share in our blog post. This year we did have a party, but one of an entirely different sort. Since we welcomed Elias, our seven month old, into our family, our meals need to be fast and ideally sharable with a baby. We still like to entertain, though, so our recipes this week will feature two meals from the beginning of the weak meant to take us through a few days, a few lightning fast meals, baby friendly treats, and some party food from the Halloween bash we threw for Elias’s buddies and their parents.

This week’s share

We pick up bi-weekly, and we have the veggie, orchard, berry, egg, and meat shares. We began the week with several (still fresh!) leftover items from our previous week’s pickup due to some busy schedules, stomach viruses, and time spent out of town with our families. So, some items featured in this week’s meals are from the prior week.

Included in this week’s pickup: Apples, apple cider, red and yellow onions, decorative gourds (‘tis the season), popping corn, Swiss chard, two bunches of spinach, mustard greens, and a head of cabbage.

Beginning of the week meals

We began each of the last two weeks with soups.

Last week, we used up some of our CSA veggies with a corn chowder.

For this chowder we used:

  • Olive Oil
  • 3 strips of bacon
  • 2 onions (CSA)
  • 6 cups of chicken stock (we used a stock made from the scraps of a Northwind Farm chicken, veggie scraps, and some CSA lemongrass for kick)
  • 4 ears of corn, kernels off the cob, and two ears reserved for the soup
  • 3 waxy potatoes (store bought)
  • 2 Cups of Cream
  • Salt and Pepper
  1. We cooked the bacon in a bit of olive oil, then took it out of the pan.
  2. Then, we sautéed up a few small onions
  3. When those were soft, we added the stock and the corn. We threw in the cobs for extra flavor
  4. Then we added the potatoes. When everything was cooked through, we added cream and salt and pepper to taste.

Cougar 2

This lasted us through three dinners! Continue reading

FUNCORE Member Diary - Week of August 11th

This week we received:

  • 1 head red leaf lettuce
  • 1 bunch green beans
  • 1 dozen eggs
  • 1 quart blueberries
  • 1 bunch radishes
  • 1 bunch spinach
  • 4 ears corn
  • 4 tomatoes
  • 2 summer squash
  • 3 cucumbers
  • 1 bunch of sage

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We were going camping this weekend so we needed to strategize a bit in order to make sure we had a weeks worth of delicious lunches to bring to work, as well as 3 meals to contribute to the camping trip.

For lunch during the week, we made easy pita pockets filled with chicken breast, and thin slices of radishes, carrots and cucumber. Top it all off with homemade Goddess dressing- delicious and so easy!. Check out this neat trick I learned to help your pita keep it’s shape. Simply cut off a silver from the top then use the silver to wedge the pita open while it toasts. Voila! Life Hack!

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Here is the recipe to make your own version of Goddess dressing at home:

2 tablespoons safflower or canola oil
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
1/2 cup tahini
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup roughly chopped scallions (about 2-3 big ones)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon plus a healthy dash of tamari (or whatever soy saucy kinda thing you roll with)
3 garlic cloves
some salt and pepper to taste

Put it all in a blender or food processor and whizz it until its smooth. Better make a double batch though, cause you might just drink it out of the bottle.

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For our camping trip, we prepared in advance some whole wheat pesto pasta using ramp pesto that we had made last year and stored in the freezer. We served it with simply sauteed tomatoes, squash, carrots and green beans- a sort of rustic take on ratatouille. Continue reading

Nabemono - Japanese Hot Pot with Mizuna Greens & Carrots by Nicole of Tiny Kitchen BK

pic by Nicole Tanska

Our fave blogger Nicole sent us this post when we were still rocking that barely cold Fall weather. Now that the temp has dropped, you should really rock out her recipe. Link to the full post filled with fab photos — at Tiny Kitchen BK, followed by a post on how to eat the noodles

Although it isn’t all THAT cold in NYC, it’s chilly enough to break out the dotanabe (hot pot cooking vessel) and make a delicious soup. I couldn’t believe my luck to get mizuna greens from the CSA!

To make this soup, you’ll need:

  • 1/2 Medium Carrot, sliced in fourths
  • 1/2 Block Packaged Tofu (whatever consistency you like. For this hot pot, I like firm or medium) cut into squares
  • 250g Thinly Sliced Beef (you can get it at the butcher if you call ahead if there aren’t any Asian groceries around)
  • Enoki and/or shimeji mushroom, bottom cut off and separated
  • 1/2 cup sake
  • Kombu (Dried Kelp) to flavor
  • 1 Bunch Mizuna Greens

Directions:

In a skillet, dutch oven, nabe pot or any wide and deep cooking vessel, place the kombu sheet inside then pour 1.5 - 2 cups water and 1/2 cup sake. Turn on the heat to medium high. Place the carrot and tofu in the skillet in sections, then add the mushrooms in its own section.

When the carrots have softened and the broth is at a light boil, add the mixing greens along the side of the skillet. Lay the strips on meat on top and let it cook until done. Remove from heat and serve with cooked udon noodles (and raw egg if you’re lucky enough to have access to pasture raised farm fresh eggs).

Veggie Monster Member Diary from Oct 28th Share Week

Share pic by katerina barry This week we got butternut squash, potatoes, red onions, carrots, kale, mustard greens, cilantro, parsley, popping corn, apple and apple cider. We have a Full Monty share; We eat mostly vegan and usually have no problem getting through our fruit and vegetables each week. This is our 5th year in the CSA, so by now there are very few surprises. We have our favorite recipes for each vegetable that we return to each year.
With butternut squash, we pretty much always make a butternut squash and chickpea curry from Madhur Jaffrey’s wonderful “World Vegetarian” cookbook. Continue reading

Sugar Ladies Member Diary for the Week of Oct 14th

The shared: Pears, Butternut squash, Acorn squash, Carrots, Parsnips, Parsley, and Greens Galore (Kale, lettuce, arugula, and other green things I don’t know the proper name for).

The sharers: We are three sweet female roommates (i.e., sugar ladies).

granola crisp pic by Beth ArnoldThere are two approaches to cooking. The first is scientific, i.e., following a recipe. The other is improvisational, i.e., “winging it.” This week, we did a little of both. Continue reading

Caroline F Member Diary from Week #22 (Sept 23)

pic by caroline freedman

I had a crazy busy week and I was only able to cook two meals. So, I made an effort to use as much of my share- a MimoMex Vegetable Share & Greig Farm Berry Share — as possible in both of the meals.

Cougar Member Diary Week #15

pic by george kottas

Here’s a picture of this week’s** pick up! We have almost all of the shares, we are only missing the chicken share. Included this week are:

  • Veggie share: cucumbers, potatoes, cabbage, red onions, radishes, corn, parsley, kale, zucchini, and garlic heads
  • Berry share: Blueberries and blackberries
  • Orchard share: three kinds of plums
  • Egg share (1 dozen)
  • Meat share: A chicken, chicken wings, filet steaks, and a choice of beef cut

(**This post is from Aug 5th share. Due to vacation & life craziness of blog editor it didnt get posted till now….)

pic by melissa duphiney

Continue reading

Breakfast Banh Mi w/ Japanese Style Scrambled Eggs by Nicole

pic by nicole tanska

Want to try something new for breakfast? Got some eggs to use? Check out this savory breakfast banh mi from nicole. Original post over at her blog, Tiny Kitchen BK Continue reading

Banh Mi Sandwich by Nicole

photo by nicole tanska

Another amazing recipe from Nicole. Check out her fab blog and the original post (with more gorgeous pics) over at Tiny Kitchen BK Continue reading