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

Dana & Zoe Member Diary - Week of Sept 29

1 our haul

My Husband and I have half shares of vegetable, orchard, berry, egg and meat. Below is an example of how we use up all of the goodness!!

Monday night:To tired to cook, so we spent the evening sorting our share and eating leftovers- corn and turkey leg stuffed poblano peppers with tomatillo salsa.

2 Roast chicken and swiss chard

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Tomatillo Recipes from Swift Johnson Share

tasty tomatillos

Tomatillos can be a challenge for those not used to cooking with them. Share family Swift Johnson shares their favorite recipes in this Special Tomatillo edition of the Member Diary

Here are a couple of tomatillo recipes!!
tomatillos

tomatillo salsa

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Total Time: 15 min

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 pounds fresh tomatillos
  • 5 fresh serrano chiles
  • 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
  • 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
  • 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
  • 2 teaspoons coarse salt

Preparation

  • Preheat broiler.
  • Remove tomatillo husks and rinse under warm water to remove stickiness. Broil chiles, garlic, and tomatillos on rack of a broiler pan 1 to 2 inches from heat, turning once, until tomatillos are softened and slightly charred, about 7 minutes.
  • Peel garlic and pull off tops of chiles. Purée all ingredients in a blender.
  • Salsa can be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered.

fried tomatillos

Fried Tomatillos

These are SO DELICIOUS as an appetizer. Lemony and fried and super tasty! Great served with marinara or any other sauce for dipping.

Ingredients:

  • Tomatillos
  • Flour
  • Egg
  • Breadcrumbs or cornmeal
  • Salt and pepper

Preparation:

  1. Mix salt and pepper into a cup or two of flour
  2. Whisk a couple of eggs
  3. Fill a small bowl or plate with breadcrumbs or cornmeal.
  4. Slice tomatillos into 1/4 inch slices
  5. Dip tomatillo slices in flour on both sides then shake off the excess. Then dip in egg on both sides.
  6. Finally, dip both sides in bread crumbs or cornmeal and fry in vegetable oil.
  7. Eat while hot!

 

Brock Member Diary - Week of Sept 15th

brock 1

This week our vegetable share was: acorn squash, eggplant, tomatillos, poblano peppers, serrano peppers, tomatoes, lemon grass, onions, and kale. We also have a half berry share, which was a bag of apples, a pumpkin, and a (decorative?) gourd.

There are only two of us, and we try to use up or prepare and freeze everything each week. Our strategy is to eat the most perishable items first, and keep the more hardy veggies for later in the week. We didn’t get around to eating the acorn squash yet, but maybe we’ll be inspired next week.
brock 2
To start, we decided to roast all of the peppers and the tomatillos in the oven to make a green chile stew with chicken. After they were roasted, we removed the seeds and ribs of the chiles, blended them with some chicken stock, and added the puree to some onions that were cooked in a little olive oil, and some shredded poached chicken. We ate this over rice with some cilantro and lime, and it was definitely a little spicy, but we enjoyed it.
brock 3
Our next project was a snack of kale chips. We tore the kale into pieces, tossed it with some olive oil and salt and cooked it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.
brock 4

Continue reading

Curry with Butternut Squash by Nicole

pic by nicole tanska

 

Nicole shares another gem with us - Check out the recipe (and cooking tips) for Thai Red Curry with Squash & Potato over at her fab blog, Tiny Kitchen BK.

Curry using CSA Veggies by Nicole

pic by Nicole TanskaNicole sends over the details to rock a spicy Goan curry with cilantro, tomato, and serrano. Check it out over at Tiny Kitchen BK

BOTZ-GREEN Member Diary

pic by corrine botz
We are new to the Southside CSA and enjoying it immensely. We are trying to eat especially healthy as I’m expecting our first baby in October. Here are two recipes we made from our produce this week.
pic by corrine botz