More green food

Tuesday night was farm pickup day. I got there in the late afternoon just as a line of storms was coming through. There was a lot of thunder and lightening close by so we couldn't even go into the fields to pick. Then the heavens opened up while I was gathering the produce that had been picked for us. I'll go back tomorrow for strawberries and snap peas -- yum. But we did get a lot of goodies, including several kinds of lettuce and kale, napa cabbage, zingy radishes, tiny beets that had been thinned out, fresh herbs, and some fresh mozzarella (which you pay for separately).

Oh, and garlic scapes, which are the flower stalk and bud that come shooting out of garlic plants. I think they cut them off to send more of the growing energy to the bulbs. Mr. P says they taste "oniony and peppery." They also taste like garlic without giving you that raw garlic burn. I use them in salads and stir fries.

Tuesday, I marinated tofu (hot oil, vinegar, tamari) and cooked up some onions and mushrooms, then added in the tofu. Then I mixed in and steamed (just by covering the pan) three kinds of greens -- tender beet greens, napa cabbage, and kale. I served it with a sauce of Chinese sesame paste, brown rice vinegar, and tamari over rice.

Last night, we had a small salad -- three kinds of lettuce, radishes, basil, parsley, garlic scapes, and fresh mozzarella (all from the farm) accompanied by pasta, greens, and pesto. In the last few seconds of boiling the pasta, I threw some chopped kale, napa cabbage, and mushrooms into the boiling water. When everything was cooked, I drained the pasta and veggies and tossed with the pesto.

We still have a few servings of pesto left from last summer, and now the race is on to finish it before the basil comes in in quantity. Or maybe not. Having pesto once a week throughout the year is not such a bad thing.

This time of year, meals are fairly quick to put together. Sometimes there's a lot of chopping, but there's usually not all that much cooking.

Tonight, we'll probably have the rest of that smoked and roasted salmon, which means (*sigh*) another fresh salad, perhaps with more of that yummy mozzarella. If I get a chance, I may stop by a grocery store and pick up some cherry tomatoes on my way home.

I'll be in bachelorette mode this weekend; perhaps a few simple and extremely quick meals are in order. I've been craving an omelet lately.

pretty darned good meals

On Friday night, my mother arrived after a long trip. I made dinner so we could relax and be flexible. We had spanekopita (from Costco -- they come as little triangle appetizers which you just need to bake), fresh tasty salad, and rice. I also made a stir fry of onions, mushrooms, baby turnips, and a little chopped spinach, tossed with toasted sesame oil, brown rice vinegar, and soy sauce. I took three pieces of chocolate hazelnut birthday cake out of the freezer and we slowly and dreamily ate cake for dessert. Definitely a successful meal.

Saturday morning, I made a little fruit salad from strawberries (picked at the farm), kiwi, and apple. We served it with granola, yogurt, and maple syrup. This is a favorite weekend breakfast.

And this evening, I made a light salad -- the last of last week's farm supply of greens -- escarole, red leaf and green leaf lettuce, some chopped turnips (from the farm), a cubed steamed potato, scallions (also from the farm). I tossed it with pitted black olives and capers and a dressing made of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and grey poupon mustard. Then I sliced roasted smoked peppered salmon (a great Costco find -- it comes as a pound package, half peppered, half plain) on top.

It was supposed to be a pseudo salade Nicoise, but we were missing the blanched green beans, the hard-boiled eggs, and the cherry tomatoes. No matter; it was delicious. And gosh darn it, the instructions on the salmon say to eat the rest within four days, so I might get another chance to achieve perfection before the week is out. Perhaps I can keep missing by a little bit each time so that I continue to have something to strive for.

greens greens greens

Last night, I chopped up a bunch of greens -- collard greens, a little cabbage, some spinach, rainbow chard, and escarole -- all from the farm -- then added them to a big bowl along with chopped garlic and ginger. I did a microwave steam -- didn't really need to add water because I had rinsed them earlier, so the steam came from the little droplets of water. Tossed with pesto (still more of that to use up before this year's crop comes in!) and served over rice with cheese and crackers on the side. The veggies were really tasty.

salads! fresh, green, and crunchy.

We've been eating enormous salads recently. Last night, we finished up the last bits of last week's farm goodies; tonight, we started in on this week's. I'll see if I can recreate what we put in the salad bowl tonight --
From the farm, picked today -- red leaf lettuce, escarole, spinach, turnips, scallions, fresh herbs (parsley, oregano, cilantro)
From elsewhere -- red pepper, mushrooms, grated cheddar cheese, half an avocado, cucumber
We used bottled honey-mustard vinaigrette. We had bread dipped in aromatic olive oil on the side and fresh strawberries for dessert, along with some chocolate and candied ginger.

It was all so fresh and sparkly-tasting, at least the produce part.

Tomorrow, I'm going out to dinner with a friend, one of the BTWs -- Bad (attitude) Technical Writers.

Thursday, I expect we'll try to make a dent in some of the cooking greens, including collard greeens (not sure what to do with them but we'll see if I do the right thing -- probably I'll steam them), the rest of the spinach, some escarole, and we'll see what else -- oh, rainbow swiss chard, too. No broccoli this week, but I suppose every now and then I need to eat something besides broccoli. We also have a mess of turnips. Last year, I did a cool thing where I cooked them in butter and sugar and they were quite yummy.

The game with the farm is to finish up the previous week's yield before the new week's arrives. It's so early in the season, but we're already reeling under the amount of produce we're getting. Go farmers go!

coupla nights worth

The thing that's in right now at the farm is GREENS!! It's ever so slightly overwhelming. But we're making good headway, just in time for our next delivery this coming Tuesday.

Wednesday night, we had an old favorite -- pesto, vegetables, and brown pasta. But this time, the vegetables were mostly from the farm and had a very fresh taste -- broccoli, baby bok choy, escarole, arugula, all chopped up and steamed in the microwave. I also chopped up the little bit of remaining fresh spinach.

I also cooked brown rice; it was finally cool enough to turn the stove on, so I thought I'd take advantage of the temperatures to cook ahead.

Thursday, we had more steamed greens along with chopped ginger and garlic, folded into sauteed onions and tofu, and tossed with a sauce I make of tahini, soy sauce, umeboshi plum paste (you don't use a lot at a time but it lasts forever), and a little water. We served the veggies over about half the rice.

Tonight, we had leftovers, supplemented by a small dish I made. I chopped the last of the broccoli and bok choy and some mushrooms I bought recently. I microwaved a little water and some salty chinese black beans, then added the veggies and steamed them in the microwave. I tossed in a sauce of brown rice vinegar, chinese toasted tahini, and soy sauce, adding in some of the microwaved water. The sauce was thick and delicious; the veggies were the best part of the dinner. We finished the rice tonight.

Tomorrow, we'll probably have salad. I've bought some fresh veggies to supplement the farm greens, though I think we just have a little basil and a bunch of lettuce left. Phew. I love huge dinner salads in the summer. They're refreshing and crunchy and cooling.

During the summer, I like to make iced tea. This week's edition is roasted barley ginger mint. I bought some roasted barley for tea at a Chinese grocery a while back. To boiled water, I added a couple of tablespoons of barley, some chopped ginger, and some chopped mint from out back, then let steep for a few hours until cool. I make about half a gallon of tea at a time, sometimes using pre-bagged tea, sometimes getting more creative. When it's iced, I often find it more refreshing than water. This week's recipe will probably be a repeat. Despite Mr. P's initial skepticism, even he admitted it was fairly good.

too hot to pop

Cold food again for dinner tonight. It was 112 degrees in the parking lot when I left for the farm and I actually did a little picking. (OK, it was 15 degrees cooler at the farm, but still.)

I brought home kale, two kinds of broccoli, two kinds of radishes, lettuce, escarole, tiny amounts of parsley and basil. So we had a big ol' salad with the herbs and fresh mint from the back patio. I added some low-fat mozzarella for protein and some toasted pecans for crunch. Oh, and I picked a quart of strawberries so we had a few of those for dessert. And chocolate, of course.

The temps have now gotten down to 89 degrees upstairs. This whole misery is supposed to break tonight with some thunderstorms -- hooray! Tomorrow should still be hot, but a lot cooler than it was in that darned parking lot today.

a dish best eaten cold

The title of this post refers to any dish eaten today, when the highs today reached well into the upper 90s, at least on home turf. Simple dinner tonight. I steamed some broccoli in the microwave, then plunged it into ice water to cool it off quickly. To a bowl, I added some cubed tofu, tamari, brown rice vinegar, and toasted sesame oil, tossed, added the drained broccoli and some sesame seeds, tossed again, and placed it in the fridge. We ate it on top of cold rice. It was tasty but would have benefitted from some grated ginger.

First farm pickup tomorrow! Time to get creative!

easy dinners

Last night, I set out some pesto to melt, steamed some brocolli and mushrooms, boiled some gnocchi, and mixed all the ingredients together. Easy. Delicious.

The gnocchi, from Italy via Trader Joe's, had been highly rated in a blind-taste experiment several months back. It comes in a little shelf-stable package. The gnocchis are tender and fluffy, oh so good.

We're in a bit of a race with the pesto. It seems like we still have a supply left and farm season is about to start up. I don't think we'll be getting basil for another month, but still.


Tonight, we attended a local art opening curated by a friend. We got home late. So I sauteed some chopped onions, added mushrooms, cooked covered, added a little water, some frozen edamame, and some frozen pierogi, and covered, cooking over low heat for 10-15 minutes.

I bought the pierorgi at a local church fair. They were made with love by local Slavic women and they're tender and tasty. I only bought two packages, so we'll save the other one for a special occasion.

Anyways, we flavored the dish with some ground pepper and some Bragg's, and it was perfect comfort food for a cool rainy night.

christmas in june tomato sauce

I made a simple tomato sauce tonight to go on top of whole wheat spaghetti. I chopped an onion, some garlic, about ten shrooms, and a couple of handfuls of spinach. I cooked the onion, then the shrooms. Then, when the water had boiled and the ten-minute pasta had started, I added the garlic, stirred briefly, added the spinach, stirred until just wilted, and added some chunky tomatoes (Muir Glen organic). I cooked the mixture until everything was hot, then turned the heat off on the sauce. Oh, and I added some soy sauce -- what's tomato sauce without a little soy added in?

The red tomato sauce, flecks of green spinach, and white garlic were very pretty. And the dish was tasty.

initial guess at saag paneer

Last night, I got to play in the kitchen for the first time in a while. While the kitchen has been upside down, we've either eaten out or eaten leftovers.

I tried to make Saag Paneer by guessing at the recipe. Not bad, but I have some improvements to try for next time.

Saag Paneer is that yummy creamy Indian dish made of spinach and cheese cubes. Here's what I did:
. Put fresh spinach (minus stems) in a food processor with a few Tablespoons of yogurt and some garam masala (like a curry mix). Whirred until smooth.
. Chopped an onion. Chopped some fresh paneer.
. Prepared some fresh garlic -- put it through our "indispensable tool," a Cuisinart minichopper -- until it was reduced to tiny pieces of garlic.
. Prepared fresh ginger and turmeric the same way -- chopped it to little bits.
. In a pan, heated oil, then added cumin seeds, mustard seeds, and cayenne; let them pop, threw on the onions to cool things down and lowered the heat. After a few minutes, added the paneer and let that cook with the onions.
. When the onions were cooked, added the garlic, cooked briefly, then added the spinach mixture, then the ginger and turmeric. Turned the heat way down and let things just mingle until hot.
. Served over rice with some Indian bread we had in the freezer and mango chutney.

It was fairly good. Next time, I'll probably cook the spinach a little -- maybe steam it in the microwave -- before putting it in the food processor. And I'll add some salt while cooking. Adding salt at the table vastly improved the taste.

Definitely a repeat. Perhaps I'll look at a recipe between now and then to get more ideas.


Tonight, we worked long enough to put the kitchen back together that we ended up ordering takeout. It was yummy. But we'll have more homecooked food soon.