Cooking from a CSA, part 4: Making a really awesome cake instead of eating my veggies

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The third week of the CSA was a bit of a failure. I got a TON of leafy greens: three heads of lettuce, multiple bags of spinach, mustard greens, and something I never successfully identified. This on top of asparagus, turnips, beets, and tomato puree. As I spent the entire weekend out of town*, I just couldn’t get through all of it. I should have planned ahead and given more away. Major failure to plan on my part. So I mostly, had salad this week and a veggie bake with greens, tomato puree, asparagus and turnips with quinoa (not that great, so I’m not going to share it). I am, however, going to share the fabulous cake I made.

My boss’s birthday was Friday, and she is a frosting lover (and a pretty great boss), so I made her a four-layer cake piled high with plenty of buttercream frosting. Here’s a picture of the cake after 45 minutes in the office:

White cake with buttercream frosting

Not the best photo, but the cake was pretty awesome. It was gone by 10 a.m. — my new record.

As Lisa had requested white cake with buttercream frosting, so I searched the internet for the best recipes for both white cake and buttercream frosting. I went with this recipe for cake and this recipe for frosting. The frosting recipe made a huge batch, but I cut each layer in half to make four layers, and was very generous with the frosting between layers, so it worked out perfectly. Rave reviews!

Cooking from a CSA, Part 3: Week 2 and Spring-time Saute

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My second CSA box arrived with all kids of goodies:

Black Spanish and traditional red radishes

Three kinds of lettuce

Three kinds of beets

Aspargus

Leeks, green garlic, and scallions

I also received a bag of tomato puree and a 5 lb. bag of golden potatoes. Most of the this week’s goodies went into salads, and I made another pasta dish similar to last week’s, but with asparagus and leeks–oh, and I threw in pine nuts and a can of chopped clams–so good!

But my favorite thing this week turned out to be these:

Haruki Turnips

I’ve never been a fan of turnips, but when I got this adorable bunch of baby turnips, or haruki turnips as they are usually known, In my CSA box, I had to give them another try.

I started by turning to the Internet for help and found a few recipes for pasta with turnips and this recipe for gnocchi with turnips that served as my inspiration. (That gnocchi looks excellent and I have to go back and try making that sometime).

Using only what I had on hand from my latest CSA box, I whipped up a quick buttery sauté that totally turned me around on turnips! I hope I get another bunch in the box soon.

Springtime Sauté with Turnips and Potatoes

  • 2 small to medium potatoes
  • 1 bunch baby turnips, including greens
  • 1 small leek
  • 2 green garlic stalks
  • oregano
  • thyme
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • Parmesan (optional)

1. First, wash all the vegetables, taking extra care to scrub the potatoes with a brush. Dice the potatoes (skin on), and slice the leek and green garlic into thin rings. Throw the rings in a colander and give them a good wash. Remove the greens from the turnips and cut the turnips into quarters. Remove the long stems from the greens and cut the leaves into 1-in. wide strips.

2. Heat the olive oil and butter on the stove on medium-high heat, until the butter is melted. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until just starting to brown–about 5 minutes. Throw in the leeks and green garlic and cook about 2 min., until they just start to loosen up. Add a sprinkling of oregano, thyme, salt and pepper.

3. Add the turnips and cook about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

4. Add the turnip greens and cook until just wilted.

Voilá. Serve in a bowl and top with grated cheese if desired.

Cooking from a CSA, Part 2: Week 1 Wrap-Up

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My first week with the CSA was pretty much as success, except for one thing: Many of the greens wilted before I had a chance to eat them. Luckily, the CSA-blogging community (who knew such a wondrous resource existed?) came to my rescue and suggested that I bag the next batch to keep moisture in. There is a great CSA link party every week, hosted by In Her Chucks, which you can find here. It’s a great way to find other people writing about CSAs.

I made a number of  salads and sandwiches, but my two favorite dishes from the week were a great pasta with leeks, green garlic, red peppers, mustard greens, and mushrooms (I bought the mushrooms, but every thing else came from the box), and a beautiful salad with two types of beets (roasted in the oven at 300 for a few hours, then left in the fridge overnight to cool), lettuce, radishes, scallions, walnuts, and feta.

Homemade*Handmade Mothers Day

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When I went up to visit Lesley a few weeks ago, a strange role reversal happened. We sat at the kitchen table, Lesley working on our stars, and me beading. I wanted to make a beaded glasses cord for my mom (actually, she’d specifically requested it) for Mother’s Day, and obviously who better to help me than Lesley? We went to Michael’s, and I got some beads and clasps for the ends–we looked for but couldn’t find the black rubbery grips for glasses. Instead we realized that we could put large lobster-claw clasps on the ends; this would make it more interchangeable anyhow, so I think this is actually better. You can just clip the clasp onto the rubber grips–and as a bonus, you can clip the clasp together and wear the chain as a necklace.

I started with these supplies (I bought the two strands of beads and clasps, Lesley provided the seed beads and wire).

[I was really nervous when I got started–I didn’t want to write this post (I thought she should–I have no idea what I’m doing!) and I was convinced it wouldn’t look good if I did it. ]

Anyhow. I started by pulling just a few of each bead free on my flannel mat (which makes it a lot easier to not send beads flying everywhere whenever you breathe) so I could play with some layouts.

I went with the first one I tried, and the next part was pretty basic:
1. Put first bead on wire.
2. Push a few inches down.
3. Put next bead on wire.
4. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I did that until I had used up all my blue disc beads (seemed like a good place to stop). But obviously I couldn’t leave it with a loose end.

This brings us to the finishing step:
5. Have Lesley use a “crimping bead” and “crimper” (as well as “wire cutters”) to finish the end and secure the clasp.*

I did not take pictures of this step (not just because all I did was watch) because Lesley said to send you here if you want to know how to crimp. It’s step-by-step instructions for three ways to do it. You’re welcome.

And here we are, a lovely glasses cord for my lovely mother. I hope you don’t break it too quickly, Mother. Lesley did a nice job crimping it, after all.

What did you get your mother for mother’s day?

*If you do not have Lesley, my other recommendation is magic. Sorry, don’t know what else to tell you. Pretty sure that was the hard part.

P.S. Lesley made her mother a wall for Mother’s Day.Hey, if it’s what you want…

P.P.S. This is Lesley. Crimping is easy! Just watch the video Mary linked above.

Delicious Sweet-or-Savory Scones

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My first CSA box had a bag of frozen strawberries that had already thawed by the time I got home. I had to use those strawberries fast. Since thawed strawberries naturally seep out a lot of juice, they were perfect for a sauce, but (for once) I wasn’t in the mood for cake. This last weekend was chilly, dark, and rainy, so I wanted a warm treat for breakfast–and I had a guest to serve. So Mary and I made scones.

I made a rather basic scone recipe from Nigella Lawson. So basic, in fact, that it has no sugar! Fresh out of the oven, the scones were fantastic—light, airy and delicious. Crumbly, like a good scone should be. We halved them and spooned some strawberries and juice onto the bottom half. A little whipped cream and it would have been an excellent version of strawberry shortcake—as it was, it was exactly the warm treat I was looking for.

I had leftover scones for the next few days. The problem with scones is that after the first few hours, they become a little soft or soggy feeling. My solution to this was to pop them in the toaster over at 350° for a few minutes. The tops darkened slightly, but they were the perfect texture once again.
I also tried them with a savory topping with a dinner salad. I took the warm-from-the-toaster-oven scone, cut it in half, and added a slice of cheese and some roasted red peppers to the middle. It was just as good as the sweet version—the scone can be a great substitute for biscuits.
Sweet-or-Savory Scones
Adapted from “Lily’s Scones” in Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess*
  • 3 1/3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 1/4 cup cold butter, cut in small pieces
  • 2 tablespoons shortening, in small lumps
  • 1 1/3 cups milk
  • 1 large egg, beaten
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Shift dry ingredients together. Use a pastry blender to blend in butter and shortening until the mixture is even and crumbly. Add all the milk, and mix until just blended. Lay on floured surface and knead briefly–it will seem like a sticky mess.
The original recipe call for rolling out the dough and using a round cutter. I simply rolled it to a 1 in. thick rectangle and cut it into 12 equally-sized pieces.
Place scones on baking sheet–they can be close together–and bake for 20 minutes, until lightly golden on top. Serve warm or reheated.
* Nigella Lawson’s How to be a Domestic Goddess is one of my all-time favorite cookbooks! So many good recipes, with a focus on baked goods and other comfort foods. And her language is casual and food-passionate. She’s English, so I’ll admit there’s a recipe or two that I haven’t loved, but there’s at least a half dozen recipes in each of her books (and I own several) that’s in permanent rotation in my family.

Baby Socks and Onesies: Planning a Shower

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This weekend I’m co-hostessing a baby shower for a close friend. I’ve always wanted to throw a shower for someone (I’ve been a maid of honor twice, but nobody wanted a shower. Sad.) I’m hosting with two other friends of the mom-to-be, and our jobs (according to Emily) are:
Sarah: Project manager (she’s in charge of timelines, etc.)
Mary: Creative Director (invites, paper products, look)
Emily: Brings wine (it’s also at her house, so she’ll be hiring a cleaning crew, too)

The parents-to-be aren’t finding out the sex until the baby is born, so our color scheme is green and yellow. (You know where you can get plenty of gender neutral baby stuff? Yeah…me either.) I make my own cards, so I showed the girls some samples of different cards I’ve done and they picked a look they liked the most:

In retrospect, our final product looks nothing like this. But they thought it was cute!

Then I started playing with the colors I actually wanted to use, combined it with this:

And we ended up with this.

We used Emily’s (realtor) husband’s fancy color office printer to print the text in green on white cardstock. We rounded the corners (on everything–the yellow embossed sheets, the green backing and the card itself. Emily and Sarah did that part. Not. Fun.) and then attached the ribbon to the yellow piece. I wanted to make sure the oval (my new die from cuttlebug!) didn’t slide around, so I used a glue dot half on the ribbon and half on the oval to stick them to each other, then to the front. Then we just used tape to attach the ribbon where it folded over to the back. We really liked the look of the white ribbon, and so far people love the embossing (kind of hard to get a picture of, but it’s adorable).

We’ve got a whole bunch of other fun details up our (my) sleeves for the shower–can’t wait to share!

Cooking from a CSA box, Part 1: Joining a CSA

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A few months ago, I took a leap of faith and signed up for a CSA (that’s Community Sponsored Agriculture) option that was delivering to my office. Every week from late April to mid-November a bushel of vegetables will be dropped off at our headquarters cafeteria, filled to the brim with fresh-off-the-farm organic vegetables.
Why was it a leap of faith? After all, fresh organic vegetables are awesome, aren’t they?

I’ve looked into CSAs a few times and decided not to sign up for a few reasons:

1) A bushel of vegetables a week is a lot of vegetables! I hate wasting food, and I worry about my refrigerator being filled with rotten produce.
2) Members don’t have any say in what arrives in their box. So if it’s 3 lbs. of turnips or another vegetable I’m not too fond of, I’m out of luck.
3) Some of them are quite pricey, and don’t work with my food budget.
4) Trying to remember to drive over to the drop-off location, and arranging my schedule to make that happen seems very inconvenient.

The CSA offered through my office eliminated a few of my worries:

1) Since I’m a vegetarian (well, pescetarian, if you want to be technical), I eat a lot of produce anyway, so this wasn’t my strongest concern. A rep from the farm came to the office and answered a lot of my questions, including the one about the amount of food. They also offered a half-share with biweekly pick-up for the summer portion of the CSA (June through October).
2) I like trying new things, especially with food. Maybe I can learn to love turnips.
3) With the half-share and a monthly payment of $75 spread over the entire year, my concerns about the price were alleviated. Since I originally researched CSAs a few years ago, the cost of groceries has gone way up. Also, the grocery store nearest my home has TERRIBLE produce. So I often find myself running to the local organic co-op last minute, and that type of grocery shopping gets quite pricey. $75 a month for the bulk of my food will cut my grocery bill by quite a bit.
4) They deliver to my office. It can’t get easier than that–I’m there anyway!

So I’m very excited to have inexpensive fresh produce coming to me at work.

I received the first box on Thursday, and I’ll admit that I was a little overwhelmed. Look at everything inside:

Left to right, top to bottom: Mustard greens, radishes, scallions, green garlic, leeks, frozen strawberries, three types of beets, a bag of mixed salad greens, celeriac, more beets, a head of parnisse, arugula, mizuna, purple mustard greens.

Plus, there were two bonuses:

Frozen strawberries and roasted red peppers.

I didn’t start cooking until Saturday morning, when Mary and I experimented with an egg dish:

Baked Omelet filled with vegetables

Easy Baked Omelet

  • 5 eggs
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup flavorful grated cheese (we used Feddoste)
  • 1 bunch arugula, rinsed, thoroughly dried and roughly chopped
  • 1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 small leek, cut in half length -wise, then chopped. Rinsed.
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped roasted red peppers
  • 1 scant tablespoon butter
  • splash of olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
Whisk eggs and milk together. Heat butter and olive oil in a pan over medium. Add mushrooms and leeks and cook until just soft. Add arugula and stir in until barely wilted. Turn off heat and stir in red peppers. Pour vegetables into 1 qt. casserole dish and add egg mixture, salt, pepper and half the cheese, stirring to mix. Top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350° F for 20 minutes, or until the omelet is puffed and golden brown on top. Serves four.
Wish me luck as I try to work through the rest!

Introducing Mary

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Hi Mom(s)! I’m so excited to start working with Lesley on our new format.This actually reminds me of when they would introduce a new American Girl (before they got all commercial; mother is not okay with commercial): Mary is an American Girl who lives in Chicago in a _____ (adjective: spunky? refined? rustic?) apartment by herself (so if I were an actual American girl that would be weird/illegal. I’m a grown up though so we’re good). She loves playing tricks on her little sister, roller skating and helping the housekeeper (bonus! Which American Girl did I have??). [Note: I don’t actually have a housekeeper.]
 

I make this kind of expression a lot.

So, I really do live in a one bedroom apartment in Chicago. I teach high school math. I do my best to be green, including biking to work when possible, recycling and running the Green Team at my school. I wouldn’t say I’m artistic, but I like to put things together so they look good. I make all my own cards, and I like to think I’m pretty good at choosing the right paper and look and combination and then putting it together, but I can’t really draw or anything like that. I’m working on learning to do different types of lettering though!

My mom saves EVERYTHING (because you never know when it might come in handy) so whenever I get a specific idea in my head, she’s the first person I ask. And my dad is one of the handiest people I know, so he’s my go to for home repairs and the like, especially replacing light fixtures.

When I’m not decorating my Chicago condo or making some cards, I’m probably baking something (I’m trying to cook more, but I’m a baker at heart) or playing a game with friends. Lesley and I are a great team and I hope you enjoy our (mis)adventures!