Foodmomiac

My Favorite Kale Salad

I just loved this salad. I feel like it is a LITTLE bit of a cheat because the kale isn't raw (it is lightly steamed), but it is just delicious, and I prefer the steamed texture, especially with the crunchy sunflower seeds on top. Once again, I got this recipe from my amazing Harvest Moons Farm CSA.

Kale Salad

1 bunch kale
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 medium clove garlic
1 Tb. extra virgin olive oil
 salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup crumbled feta (ricotta salata would work here too)
1/8 cup sunflower seeds 

Mince the garlic finely, and let it sit for five minutes (apparently this enhances its health-promoting properties - who knew??). Fill a steam with about three inches of water and let it come to a boil over medium high heat. While that's happening, chop your (cleaned and stemmed) kale into 1/2 inch wide slices, and then cut it again crosswise, so you have some nice bite-sized pieces. Once the water is boiling, add the kale to the steamer and cover it, steaming for a total of five minutes.

Transfer the kale (while still hot) to a salad bowl and toss it with the garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil. Let come to room temperature and serve topped with the feta and sunflower seeds. 

Note: I ate an entire bowl of this myself one day for lunch, so if you are preparing this for a crowd, you might want to multiply the recipe accordingly.

 

The Foodmomiac Summer Salad Dressing

I adapted this recipe from one that was shared in the Harvest Moon Farms CSA newsletter. They send me the newsletter every week, and for every item that is going to be in my CSA box, they provide a recipe. This one seemed too simple to be a stand-out, but I am in love. It is the perfect light vinaigrette for a hot summer day.

The agave syrup was my addition, as the originally recipe called for sugar. If you don't have agave syrup (available at health food stores like Whole Foods), feel free to go back to sugar or try maple syrup.

Simple Vinaigrette

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 Tb plus 2 tsp. sherry wine vinegar (you can also use red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar)
2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. agave syrup
2 tsp. sea salt

Combine all of the above ingredients in a salad cruet or a jar with a lid, and shake very well to combine. Store in your refrigerator for up to a month. Remove about 30 minutes before use to give the oil enough time to warm up (the dressing will separate in the fridge since it is homemade and doesn't have any stabilizers). 

Never Say Never

This post has nothing to do with Justin Bieber, but I couldn't resist using this title and showing his cute face. Dylan and I watched Never Say Never this weekend with her Aunt Megen, and we all have been struck down with Bieber fever. I am not ashamed to admit it. 

Anyway, what I REALLY wanted to write about is the fact that we signed up to do a CSA (community supported agriculture) again this summer. We are going with Harvest Moon Farms again, which is the same farm we did last year. I thought the quality was decent, but I'm mostly swayed by the fact that they have pick up just a couple of blocks from my house. You really can't beat that convenience.

I had no plans to do the CSA again, especially now that I am working from home. I really thought I would just jet around to various farmers markets and grab produce that way. However, I am just as busy at home as I was while working out of the house, and it isn't always convenient to get to a market. 

I will still ABSOLUTELY get to farmers markets throughout the summer, but I just don't want to rely on them for fresh, local produce. Anyone else out there planning on joining a CSA?

Pumpkin Muffins Made with REAL PUMPKIN!!!

Pumpkin is one of those vegetables that most people buy canned. And the purchase of canned pumpkin is considered completely OK, even for gourmet types. Growing up, my Grandma Ana (a gourmet type for SURE) was always in charge of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dessert, and she used Libby's canned pumpkin nearly every time. I distinctly remember the one time she used a fresh pumpkin. The pie wasn't quite right. It was watery and not as full of flavor.

This memory has scared me off of baking with fresh pumpkin for my entire adult life. But then, in our CSA last week, we got a cute little pie pumpkin. It was just itching to be made into something, and since I didn't feel like dealing with pie dough, I decided that the something would be muffins.

The problem with deciding to bake with real pumpkin becomes very apparent if you do a Google search (or an Epicurious search) for pumpkin desserts. Every recipe calls for canned pumpkin. I decided to wing it, and I am super pleased with the results.

The recipe I used was this one from Smitten Kitchen, but I made a few adjustments. First, I didn't have any pumpkin pie spice, so I found a recipe for THAT as well. Second, I needed to accommodate for the fresh pumpkin. This was the tricky part. I cut my cute little pumpkin into quarters and cleaned out all of the guts and seeds (the seeds were later cleaned and then roasted with salt, pepper and paprika for a tiny snack). Then, I put the pumpkin quarters skin side up in a shallow dish with about an inch of water in the bottom. This went into the oven at 375 degrees until the pumpkin was very soft. I think it was about an hour, but you'll need to just keep poking at it with a fork.

Once the pumpkin cooled a bit, I scraped the meat from the skin into a bowl. I then grabbed some cheesecloth (if you don't have this in your kitchen, grab some at your supermarket in the cooking implement aisle - I use it all the time) and used it to squeeze all of the excess liquid out of the pumpkin. When I was done, I mashed it up into a fine puree, and voila! One cup of pureed pumpkin.

Pumpkin Muffins

1-1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup pumpkin (canned or fresh, prepared as above)
1/3 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice or ground clove
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1-1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
cinnamon sugar
raw pepitas (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin tin with paper liners. Combine all of the ingredients and stir gently. It is totally fine for the batter to be lumpy. Add the batter to the muffin tin. Sprinkle each muffin with some cinnamon sugar and some raw, green pumpkin seeds (pepitas) and bake for 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

CSA Asparagus: Making risotto without any of the ingredients

We did a really great job getting through our first CSA box, but as of yesterday, I still had a gorgeous bunch of asparagus, sitting in 1/2 inch of water in my refrigerator and waiting for its turn in a dinner. As I sat at work yesterday, I decided I'd make risotto.

So, I got home and got started with my prep. First things first, I opened a bottle of white wine. Then, I washed and chopped the asparagus. I minced an onion a couple cloves of garlic. And then I opened my cabinet to grab the rest of my required ingredients. Um.... oops?

Arborio rice? Totally gone. Chicken broth? None left. I didn't even have a bouillon cube. What to do, what to do. I decided to get creative. In place of chicken broth, I grabbed a packed of Knorr's French Onion mix and boiled some water. Instead of arborio, I made an executive decision to use sushi rice, of which I had tons.

I sauteed the onion and garlic in some olive oil and then threw in the rice. Once that was fully coated in olive oil, I added a healthy glug of white wine and cooked it into it had all evaporated. Then, I added the onion soup mix and the asparagus and combined everything well. The hard part of risotto making came next. I stood over the stove, mixing and slowly adding hot water until it all came together. Once the rice was cooked, I added a small pat of butter and a bunch of grated romano cheese. Perfection!

Finally Doing a CSA! (with a great swiss chard recipe)

I have been talking and thinking about participating in a CSA for years. (I write about the CSA concept here.) Somehow, the timing was never right. This summer, the stars have aligned, and we are all in. We are doing a half share with Harvest Moon Organics. Pick up is at a wine store just a few blocks away, and is on Friday afternoons, which works really well with our work schedule. In addition to the veggie box, we also added a half dozen egg share. 

This week's haul was fun! Spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, rhubarb, cilantro, radishes, garlic scapes, and asparagus! Last night we had a salad using the lettuce and radishes, and mashed potatoes that incorporated the scapes (garlic shoots).

Tonight was more ambitious. I made Curried Red Lentil and Swiss Chard Stew.I subsituted white beans for the garbanzos, just because that's what we had, and I added the spinach because our bunch of chard was on the small side. BOTH kids ate this (Dylie more than Max), and Michael and I both thought it was terrific.

Can't wait to see what's in our CSA box Friday!

Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Welcome to my first-ever (and possibly only) book review on this site. After three years of restaurant reviews, I would be happy to never review anything again, but this book is too phenomenal and monumental to not discuss here.

Also, though I'm discussing a book, this isn't REALLY a review. I just want to share some thoughts about it. To order a copy for yourself, click here.

As regular readers no doubt realize by now, I am a big fan of eating locally, eating responsibly and teaching my children to do the same. That said, it's not always easy. As the pretty, pretty Mir pointed out a week ago, this can be an expensive proposition. Organic meat, especially, is a lot more costly than conventional, but after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I am more resolved than ever to change the way I shop for my family.

Specifically, I am going to do everything I can to buy more local, seasonally-appropriate and organic produce, dairy and meats. I am doing this for health reasons (organically-grown meat has more Omega 3's, more vitamin D and less cholesterol, not to mention the lack of chemicals) and for environmental reasons (I am tired of buying Washington apples, in the fall, when local ones are just as readily available. It's not worth the carbon footprint. It's for that same reason that I don't eat or buy tomatoes except in late summer). I just placed my grocery orders online. I ordered my staples from Peapod, but I ordered my meats, produce and dairy from Fresh Picks.

Additionally, Michael and I are going to see what we can do about creating additional food storage opportunities in our small-ish house. I'd like to be able to buy tons of tomatoes in August/September and then can them for the off months. Reading about this in Kingsolver's book was just mind-altering for me. I also think it might be nice to buy a large portion of meat (like a share in a pig or cow), and then store it in a freezer. Since I do want to buy only locally-raised, organic meat, this is the more economical option.

In the book, Kingsolver and her family eat only locally-produced food (with some very small exceptions, such as coffee) for a year. They grow and raise much of it themselves, on their farm in Virginia. Obviously, this is not entirely reasonable for me, seeing as I live on a city lot in Chicago, but the lessons taught in the book were meaningful regardless. EVERYONE can learn something from this book, even those of us living in big cities.

I have to say that at times the book is a bit preachy, but I was probably a bit more sensitive to that than others, just because with me, she was kind of preaching to the choir. That said, though much of the information in this book wasn't news to me (it's not that I was under the impression that factory farming was a good thing), it just brought it home in a new, more personal way that truly resonated.

To market. To market.

  Farmers market bounty 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac

I have been battling a crappy cold for nearly four days now, so when I woke up from my sleep, groggy and froggy and very sluggish, it totally did not occur to me that today was Farmers Market day. Luckily, I am married to a morning person who has not yet caught this bug. "Farmers Market!" he yelled down, as I was pouring a hot cup of coffee. Ah yes, Farmers Market.

It's no secret that I am in love with the Green City Market. Truly, madly in love. And, when I can get there early in the morning with my daughter, a couple of tote bags, and a pocket full of cash, things are good in the world.

We started off at the crepe stand. Two weeks ago, Dylan hated her crepe. This week, she declared that she would enjoy one if I got it for her. She promised! And, indeed, she ate almost her entire crepe. With honey this time, instead of jam. I tried the cheese and herb variety, which was delicious, but I was jonesing for something sweet when I was done. Next week I go back to the butter/sugar variety.

Following our crepes (which we ordered while dancing around to the fabulous, live music that was playing - kind of a bluegrass/blues mix), we went over to Capriole, the famous goat cheese maker from Indiana (just over the Kentucky border). That is quite a schlep, so I was THRILLED. I got one Wabash Cannonball and one slice of Sofia. The Sofia is my favorite. I could eat this cheese for days straight. It is phenomenal. (The Cannonball is great too.)

Once we were cheesed up, Dyl and I headed over to a booth with giant piles of heirloom tomatoes. She picked one of the biggest specimens I have ever seen (you can see it on the bottom left of the photo - that is just one tomato, even though it looks like three). We also got a beautiful living lettuce and some cute baby cucumbers from that booth.

Other items from our bounty include arugula, shelling peas, strawberries (outrageous, from Seedling Farm), baby beets, radishes, and some beautiful carrots.

I have no plans yet for any of the items we bought (but the tomato is already gone - I had to slice it up because it was so ripe). Any ideas??

Pork Chop, Mache Salad, Roasted Red Skins

  Pork Chop, Mache Salad, Roasted Red Skins 
  Originally uploaded by Foodmomiac.

There is a lot of pressure inherent in ordering produce from a CSA, or having produce delivered from a business like Fresh Picks. I have no philosophical problem spending more money than usual on my produce. Because the offerings were (mostly) local and all organic, I am glad to pony up a few extra bucks. But, when you get a box of produce totaling $46 delivered to your kitchen, there is a lot of pressure to actually use it all.

It's also a little awkward that Fresh Picks will only deliver to my neighborhood on Thursdays. We don't cook on Fridays and Saturdays, so the produce just sits there, taunting me. I made myself feel better this morning by making up a menu that used nearly everything that was brought. And dinner tonight was a great start. We had grilled organic pork chops (from Peapod, not from Fresh Picks), roasted red skins (from Igl Farm), and a salad made with mache (from City Farm), French breakfast radish (from JenEhr) and cucumber. The kids and Michael also had some corn (from Nature Blessed).

It was a delicious way to start diving into our box of produce. The potatoes were especially fabulous. I was amazed by how sweet they were. To prepare, I scrubbed them and cut them into wedges. I then tossed them in a ziploc with a few glugs of extra virgin olive oil, some kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, smoked paprika and garlic powder. I put the bag in the fridge for about an hour to let the flavors meld. When I was ready to cook, I put them on a baking sheet and into a 400 degree oven until they were crispy and the skin had blistered. It was probably a good 45 minutes.

Tomorrow night (if I'm home in time from my one-day business trip) is eggplant casserole and brown rice.

I'm Joining a CSA!

One of the things I am most looking forward to when we move to Ann Arbor is being able to FINALLY join a CSA. I have wanted to do this for a couple of years now, but there aside from one or two small-scale farms here in the Toledo area, no one is doing it in NW Ohio. I found one last year, but the woman didn't return my phone calls, so I just gave up.

OK, what is a CSA? I realize not everyone knows, so here is a definition from Local Harvest (a great and very important website, by the way):

Many farms offer produce subscriptions, where buyers receive a weekly or monthly basket of produce, flowers, fruits, eggs, milk, coffee, or any sort of different farm products.

A CSA, (for Community Supported Agriculture) is a way for the food buying public to create a relationship with a farm and to receive a weekly basket of produce. By making a financial commitment to a farm, people become "members" (or "shareholders," or "subscribers") of the CSA. Most CSA farmers prefer that members pay for the season up-front, but some farmers will accept weekly or monthly payments. Some CSAs also require that members work a small number of hours on the farm during the growing season.

I went on Local Harvest yesterday to find a CSA that serves the Ann Arbor area, and there were 12 to choose from! TWELVE!! I was actually overwhelmed. I had to make a chart to go over the various benefits! I think I found the one I want to do. As soon as my house sells (positive thinking - this WILL happen), I am subscribing online to the Summer Season Single Share package. Woo hoo!

Not only am I excited for bountiful amounts of glorious, organic produce, but I am also excited for the blog worthiness of a CSA. Every week I'll be getting interesting vegetables that will need to be prepared. Fun, fun, fun.