August 5, 2011
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Veggies Galore

It’s official. We’ve hit our CSA stride. Which means a lot of vegetables each week. This week’s box contained:

  • 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 6 pickling cucumbers
  • 3 zucchini
  • 1 summer squash
  • 1 head of lettuce
  • 1 bunch of scallions
  • 1 egg plants
  • 4 green peppers
  • 2 – 3 hot peppers
  • 1 lb green beans
  • 1 bunch basil

Seriously, what do you do with that many vegetables? The thought of eating stir fry made me sick. So I opted to do pizza last night. Not just any pizza though. Grilled zucchini, egg plant, chicken, basil, scallion, cherry tomato, mozzarella pizza.

July 31, 2011
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Organic Beef

Lately we’ve been frequenting SOWA (south end open market). This is mostly to get our grilled cheese fix/fill, but last weekend James and I decided to check out the farmer’s market portion. Since we have a CSA, we rarely buy vegetables, so we gravitated toward the meat stands. Best beef I have ever had, hands down.

The meat came from John Crow Farms and next time I’m in the SOWA neighborhood, I will be picking more up.

I made two meals from a pound of ground beef (I bought two though! One is frozen). The first night James and I had burgers on an English muffin with caramelized onions and cheddar cheese. Served with mustard greens and green beans from the CSA.

The second night, I decided to “mix it up” a bit (because who can eat hamburgers two nights in a row?) and made Shepard’s pie. Recipe is as follows –

  • 1/2 pound ground beef
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 small onion, minced
  • 1/4 lb of steamed green beans, trimmed and cut into small pieces
  • 1/2 larger yellow bell pepper, diced
  • 2 sweet potatoes
  • 1 turnip
  • Cheddar Cheese

Peal and cube the sweet potatoes and turnip. Place in a medium sauce pan with cold water. Turn heat on high and let cook for about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, on medium heat, saute the onions for a few minutes. Add the beef and brown. Add Worcestershire sauce to taste. Once the beef is coked all the way, place on the bottom of a medium casserole dish or two smaller ones.

On top of the beef, layer the green beans. Saute the bell pepper quickly and layer on top of the green beans.

Once you can pierce the potatoes and turnips with a fork, remove from heat and drain water. Add in a pat of butter if you wish, and a splash of milk. Mash. Spread on top of the green beans and pepper. Top with a slice of cheddar cheese. Pop in a 400 degree oven for 5 minutes or until cheese has melted.

July 26, 2011
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Canning

Challenge of the weekend? Canning. Oh, and pickling. Having a slew of pickling cukes, zucchini and summer squash from our CSA means having to be creative with preparing and preserving.

I had never canned before, and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the whole process was. I’m sure the more practice you have, the quicker it goes too.

I was inspired by an article in the August edition of Bon Appetit (yes, most of my inspiration comes from here!): http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/08/zucchini-dill-pickles

And figured out how to can from the Ball website: http://www.freshpreserving.com/home.aspx

Since both of those links will provide you with better instructions than myself, I do encourage you to check them out if you’re interested in doing this. But because the point of this blog is to share what I’ve done…  

Step 1: Chop your zuchinni into 4” spheres and place into a large bowl. Sprinkle with 2 Tbsp of coarse salt, cover in 4 cups of ice, then in water. Let sit sumberged for 2 hours. Afterwards, drain and rinse.

Step 2: Prepare the jars (quart size for this recipe). Fill a large pot with water and place jars in. Turn heat on medium/high and let reach to 180 degrees. At this point your jars will be steralized. If you skip this step, you may end up with moldy food. And no one wants that. Remove jars with long tongs (make sure to empty the water out) and place on a clean kitchen towel. Don’t forget to do this to your lids as well.

Step 3: Meanwhile, prepare your herbs and other innards for the jars. This includes 12 sprigs of fresh dill, 3 hot peppers sliced in half, 2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp dill seeds, 1/4 tsp saffron and 1 tsp cardamon seeds.

Step 4: When your jars are sterilized, transfer ingredients from step 3 into the jars.

Step 5: In a medium sauce pan, bring 2 1/2 cups of white vinegar, 1 1/4 cups of water, 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tbsp of salt to a boil. Cook zuchinni spears for 2 minutes until wilted and the color starts to turn khaki.

Step 6: Transfer zuchinni spears into jar.

Step 7: Wipe the rim with a clean towl. Place lid on and screw on until you hit resistance. Bring the large pan of water to a boil (I had mine simmering while I filled the jars) and place can in water bath for 10 minutes. Note, you need to ensure that you don’t start the time until the water starts to boil again AND cover the pot with a lid. After 10 minutes, let the jar sit for a few minutes before removing. Repeat if your pan is not large enough to fit all of your jars.

Step 8: Let sit out and cool. After 12 – 24 hours check to make sure the jar sealed.

You will notice that I lost a lot of liquid in the first jar. Make sure your lids are screwed on tight!

Oh, and I made regular pickles too. Mostly using the previous recipe (don’t cook the cucumber though!) and halving the amount of spices and pickling solution.

I’ll let you know how they taste next week.

July 22, 2011
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CSA Box

As everyone promised, our CSA drastically improved this week, thanks to the mid-summer crop. We received:

  • 5 ears of corn
  • 1 head of lettuce
  • 1 bunch of mustard greens
  • 2 zuchinnis
  • 1 turnip
  • 1 summer squash
  • 1 bunch of basil
  • 1 bunch of cilantro
  • green beans
  • 2 onions
  • 1 bunch of baby carrots
  • 3 cucumbers

(Please forgive photo quality!)

I’m looking forward to making pesto, and possibly some pickled zuchinni if I can get my act together. If not this week, there is always next.

July 22, 2011
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Spring Rolls

I really must apologize. I have not been updating Chomp Zone. Reason? Summer. Busy at work. Vacation. Things got in the way. So did the heat. We’ve been eating lots of salads or recipes that require minimal stove time.

For the fourth, we decided on finger foods, and being ambitious, I made spring rolls. Recipe found here.

This was the first time I used rice papers, and I must say, practice makes perfect. My first few spring rolls were sloppy and falling apart. By the end, I was a machine.

Instead of using the dipping sauce recipe suggested in Bon Appetit, I opted for a peanut citrus sauce which consisted of:

  • Juice of one orange
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 tsp orange peal, finely grated
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender minus the vegetable oil. Once well blended, slowly stream in the vegetable oil. Serve as a dipping sauce, on soba noodles, or tossed on a salad.

July 8, 2011
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Summer Time

I’ve been cooking, but I’ve also been hit by the summer love bug and a very busy work cycle. In a nutshell, I don’t get home as early as I used, and after cooking, the last thing I want to do is turn on ‘Mac to write a blog post.

I’m crazily uploading photos to Flickr, and promise to blog more soon! Maybe I’ll even pull something off this afternoon during lunch. But for a quick appeasement…

Fourth of July led to some inspired red, white and blue cupcakes (half the cake batter was dyed red and I layered white and red to fill the cup).

I also made the most amazing cherry pie pockets from Bon Appetit. Sadly, we ate them all before I snapped a picture, but here’s part of the process (and recipe).

July 1, 2011
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Feta Burgers

I was not in the mood for a burger when I made these, but they were surprisingly delicious. Here’s what you need –

  • 1/2 pound ground beef
  • 1/3 cup feta
  • 1 tsp oregano

Combine the beef, feta and oregano together and form into two patties. Cook on high heat for 4 – 5 minutes on each side. Serve with lettuce, tomato and mayo.

(Not the most glamorous picture)