Ambitious Delicious(ness)

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is when a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Interested consumers then purchase a share to receive a box of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season. The produce is fairly priced, local grown, and in my case, organic.

This was my first time cooking with rhubarb. I never even knew what it looked like before, to be honest. To me, rhubarb = celery + a little bit of tomato + more tart than a lemon. Would you say that is a pretty accurate description?

I can see why strawberries are so often paired with rhubarb in pies and other desserts, as the flavors harmonize very well. But I didn’t want to go in that direction.
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Remember the giveaway that I had a while back? If you recall, winner received honey and chocolate from http://www.nimli.com/.

Sean of Simple, elegant, delicious, made this scrumptious dessert using the ingredients! The profiteroles look amazing!

Check out his blog for some healthy and creative recipes!

What you see here, is Pad See Ew, a Thai dish made with dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, garlic, broad rice noodles, Chinese broccoli, egg, and some form of thinly sliced meat.

It sounds easy enough. But to my surprise, I had the most difficult time finding the noodles!

This dish is a result of harassing about five different people in my life. From calling C in Chicago to ask where she bought her noodles, to mapping out a game plan to make a run to Chinatown during my lunch break (which did not happen), exchanging 10 emails back and forth with Y (she even called her mom!), to having my coworker ask a restaurant if they’d sell just the noodles (they said they didn’t have them, which is weird), not to mention that I had to run to four different grocery stores three separate times!

But in the end, my efforts were not in vain. I was determined! Thanks to everyone who helped me! And the noodles tasted delicious!!

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What can I say about a classic Italian dessert that is as good as this one? It combines sweet mascarpone cheese with chocolate shavings, lady fingers dipped in dark rum and espresso.

This is the perfect dessert to make for Father’s Day! Impress the whole family and show your dad how much you love him! (Unless he’s diabetic.)

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Not sure if you’re aware of the latest fad taking food lovers by storm – Banh Mi sandwiches. I find this “fad” quite amusing since BanhMi sandwiches have been around for a long, long time. But to be fair, I didn’t actually try eating one until recently. What the heck was I waiting for? I have no idea.

I had a couple of friends over for dinner, and one of them suggested that we make BanhMi. While we were assembling our sandwiches, they kept referring to themselves by L and S, trying to predict what I would write in this post. And just because of that, I’m going to say their names.

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Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is when a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Interested consumers then purchase a share to receive a box of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season. The produce is fairly priced, local grown, and in my case, organic.

I hate dislike beets.

Hate is such a strong word. Since I couldn’t remember why I didn’t like it in the first place, I decided to try it. Plus, it was included in last week’s share and I couldn’t let it go to waste!

My sister wisely suggested adding it to a salad with goat cheese, which was an excellent idea. I used blue cheese crumbles, pan fried tofu for protein, with a side of homemade vinaigrette dressing over arugula.

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Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is when a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Interested consumers then purchase a share to receive a box of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season. The produce is fairly priced, local grown, and in my case, organic.

Now that I’m on this journey of exploring new kinds of vegetables, I am happy to report that I got through my first box containing rhubarb, bibb lettuce, radish, Japanese radish, romaine lettuce, bok choy, beets with only a half head of lettuce leftover. It is quite overwhelming when you have a lot of fresh produce to use before it goes bad!

This week I learned how to store lettuce – leave it unwashed, in a plastic bag, with a wet paper towel and change the towel every few days. If you do this, the lettuce will last for up to a week. It’s also super important to wash everything carefully to get all the dirt right before eating!

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I’m super excited to report that I joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) with FeistyFoodie!  You sign up in advance to receive a share of vegetables from local farmers every week for a season. The contents vary from week so you don’t really know what you’ll get. More importantly, I love supporting local farmers and getting fresh produce!

I’m sure I will come across some vegetables that I’ll have no idea what to do with. Will you help me figure it out? Please say you will!

But before I get to being crazy about how to prepare vegetables, let’s explore how to prepare a steak. Balance is necessary in life, don’t you think?

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