Ambitious Deliciousness – Dont Eat Lazy.

My participation in the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) came to an end around Thanksgiving week. It’s hard to believe that 26 weeks went by so quickly! Since many people have been asking me questions about my experience, I thought I’d dedicate a post to the positives and the negatives, as well as share some photos.

Generally speaking, it was a good experience. I enjoyed anticipating what I would get each week by refreshing the Golden Earthworm website a bazillion times every Tuesday morning. The type of seasonal crops varied each week, as we received the best crops from that particular week. I looked forward to Tuesdays and planned my menu around the vegetables would get.

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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.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I thought I’d spare you from another what-to-do-with-Thanksgiving leftovers post. Instead, here is my latest simple yet yummy creation!

A while back, I received a shipment of pomegranate juice from POM Wonderful. Pomegranates are full of antioxidants that can help you fight free radicals, which are unstable molecules that damage the cells in your body.

As I was chomping on some dried figs, I got the idea to make a reduction using them. The sweetness of the figs contrasted well with the tartness of the sauce, resulting in this delicious creation!

Check out these gorgeous watermelon radishes from my CSA share! They deceitfully look like regular radishes on the outside, but once you cut them open, you will see the fabulous colors. I decided to eat them raw, plain and simple. Plus, it added a nice crunch to this dish.

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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.

It’s hard to believe that in a few weeks, I will no longer be receiving fresh vegetables every week! I feel like it went by so quickly but am thankful that I won’t have to when it’s cold outside. It’s been a great experience for the most part; but more on that later!

I received leeks in my CSA share. Whenever I see leeks, I think “oh- it’s a unnaturally humongous scallion.” That’s only partially true, as leeks have a complex flavor, sort of a cross between onions and scallions.

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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.

Thanks to readers Tom and Christina for pointing out that I had the wrong name of the squash in my last post. It’s good to know that my readers are paying attention!

As I mentioned before, this is the second dish that came out of all those  roasted vegetables. I realized that while kale, in all of its goodness, is a wonderful green vegetable, it can get a little bit bitter if you cook it for too long.

I added some of the squash mixture from my last post into this dish, giving the broth a slight orange color and contrasting the kale with a hint of sweetness. Some stewed tomatoes would also help cut the bitterness of the kale. The soup was also perfectly flavorful with a surprising kick of heat at the end, which I absolutely loove! Try making this with whatever vegetables you have on hand.

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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.

There was a collection of beautiful vegetables from my CSA share. I hate wasting food, so I wanted to make something to incorporate all of the goodies I had on hand. I asked for some squash suggestions on my Facebook fan page and one of them was a soup. (thanks!!)

My initial goal was to create roasted kale and butternut acorn squash soup. But after roasting and blending squash, garlic, onion and green pepper – I felt that it would be a waste of superb flavors to just dump it into the soup. So in one pot, I made a kale soup with chicken broth, roasted carrots and potatoes, and in another, was this soup. I added a hint of cream to finish.

This soup is jam packed with flavor, stemming from the flavors of the roasted vegetables. It is so yummy that I have a feeling that you’d want to make this soup at least five more times before squash season is over. It’s sweet, earthy with subtle hints of garlic and green pepper, juxtaposed with the cream, which adds a light creaminess.

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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.

My friend E (check out her awesome design work!), came over with R a couple of weeks ago. R brought wine and we were eating, laughing, and chatting it up from the moment we got there, right up until we went to sleep. Then we woke up the next morning and ate some more. Thanks for coming, friends!

I had yams from my CSA share from the week before, and wanted to incorporate it into our breakfast that day. I grated the yams like I would carrots; the color are close enough, after all!

The yams were a bit crunchy, as they were undercooked, and not as sweet as I would have liked. Next time, I will saute the yams separately first, so that it adds a nice, soft, starchy texture to the omelet. I didn’t really do a great job, as you can tell from the photo. But it was quick and yummy!

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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.

First order of business: it’s a somber Friday here in NYC, as we remember the families and the lives that were lost today, 8 years ago. Our thoughts are with you all.

Now, back to the recipe. At first, I was going to make quiche. But since I didn’t have enough ingredients for a pie crust, I took the easy way out and skipped it altogether.

Got a couple of yummy shallots and zucchini from my CSA share, along with bunches of parsley and basil. I was really happy to use incorporate all of those ingredients for this one dish.

This was a part of brunch served with some fruit salad, maple bacon, muffins from my last post and coffee. This was a scrumptious fritatta, and I would totally make it again. Next time, I’ll double this recipe and make two pans of it and save some for later!

A few friends were over, so I was distracted by good conversation and by Ava, the adorable baby that was giggling next to me! Forgive me for not getting a good final photo.

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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.

If you’ve been reading about seasonal vegetables, I’m sure you’ve heard that zucchini is in season. This is great, except that I had no idea what to do with so much zucchini! I’ve been getting at least 2 zucchini pieces from my CSA share every single week! So after some deliberation, I thought I’d turn them into muffins.

My favorite part to eat are the muffin tops, as they are often softer and more chewy than the rest. I do find it strange that people refer to their excess stomachs as muffin tops because well, that’s just gross, no?

Speaking of which, this recipe is a bit more waist-friendly. I used half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat flour, used less butter and used honey with brown sugar for sweetness. Since zucchini is not a sweet vegetable by nature, I needed to make sure there was enough sugar. I thought they came out really good!

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This classic Italian dish made of bacon, cheese and parsley was so scrumptious that I was really, genuinely sad when I was done and even wanted to eat it again the day after. I paired this pasta dish with arugula from my CSA share this week with some sweet, crunchy, seedless watermelon.

One thing to note – it’s important to time everything so that the sauce and the pasta are ready around the same time, as the heat from the pasta will help to cook the eggs. The water boiled too quickly for me, so I am suggesting that you start the sauce first, then make the pasta second.

A special shoutout to my cousins, who visited all the way from VA  One of them did a great job helping me wash the arugula and dice the parsley, while the other did an even better job of helping by eating!

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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.

Aren’t they gorgeous? I love the color of these potatoes! The outside looks like it’s covered in cocoa. It’s just dirt. Thought I’d show you what it looks like, straight from the farm, with dirt and all!

Seems that I’ve taken the long route with this recipe. I boiled the potatoes whole, about 2/3rd of the way, then sliced them in half after fishing them out of the water. I didn’t cut them before to avoid the potatoes from overcooking in the boiling water.

I like my potatoes with skin on, but feel free to remove before boiling.

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