[local eating] Farm share, week 16, and Shabbat dinner

[magid]

The loot:

• two pounds of (pedestrian) tomatoes
  
• a third of a pound of braising greens
  
• a head of cabbage
  
• half a pound of green beans
  
• a head of escarole (left behind; I knew I wouldn't get around to it)
  
• a sunshine squash
  
• two pounds of potatoes
  
• a pound and a half of carrots
  
• three baby bok choi
  
• a bunch of radishes with greens

And there was the bulk order I'd put in for me and a friend. Except that none of the things for me showed up :-(. Next week, perhaps, beets and bulk tomatoes....

I'm invited out for a three of the meals on first days (!!), and am hosting Shabbat dinner. The only constraint was one person doesn't eat meat, so I ended up going for fish instead.

The menu:

• wine, white wheat and barley challot, local honey
  
• hummus, possibly Brie
  
• mushroom-barley soup with buttercup squash
  
• salmon baked with cranberry chutney
  
• potato salad with garlicky pickles and pickled garlic scapes
  
• green salad (either the braising greens with balsamic strawberries and feta, or a multicolored cherry tomato salad with feta)
  
• roasted wax beans
  
• sauerkraut
  
• apple crisp with boozy mulberries, husk cherries, and walnuts (except that I didn't realize I'd left a burner on low, and that's where I put the pot, so it might have burned :-( )
  
• fruit liqueurs, tea if I leave the urn on

Comments

Chag sameach!

[avivasedai.livejournal.com]

I hope you have lovely meals in sukkot this year! Your menu sounds delicious and seasonal. I hope to have a few sukkah meals too - the people at the shul I've been attending are really friendly, and I almost anticipate being invited places as services end. We'll see what plans emerge. Otherwise, oneg in the shul sukkah and home to unpack boxes.

Re: Chag sameach!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank you! So far, so good. I hope you find sukkot to eat in as well! And that the unpacking isn't onerous.

The menu worked out reasonably well, modulo the dessert being somewhat burned by accidentally putting it on a burner I'd left on (which I never do like that, of course), in addition to having too much crumb-ish topping that wasn't interesting enough.

[(Anonymous)]

Pedestrian tomatoes, holding hands as they take their walks.

I made mushroom-barley soup too! With carrots.

The strawberry-feta green salad sounds lovely. Do you by any chance know how to make the type of honey balsamic dressing they have at Milk Street? I had that on a greens-and-berries salad there. My attempt at such a dressing failed.

Applesauce made and put in the freezer before Sukkot: Do you think it will last until Chanukah?

Moed tov.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Pedestrian tomatoes, holding hands as they take their walks.

*grin* Like schoolgirls in pairs :-)

I'm not sure why I really wanted buttercup squash when I knew I had carrots, but I did, and for the soup. Mine turned out fairly well, except that I'd forgotten to put in any salt, which I think it needed. How about yours?

I ended up making a salad with the end of the cherry tomatoes I'd picked Monday, since they needed using and I hadn't brought myself to do anything to them other than eat them fresh (totally amazing). I don't know how to make the honey-balsamic dressing from Milk Street; maybe worth asking them?

If I make applesauce, I'm not using freezer space for it, but canning it instead, since that works so well, and freezer space is at a premium (I have cranberries, nuts, and meat bought commercially, also strawberries, corn, and apricots harvested locally). I suspect it would last, however, if put in proper containers.

Moed tov!

[(Anonymous)]

Schoolgirls in pairs! That's even cuter.

My soup for some reason didn't turn out as well as it usually does, though it had been a while since I'd last made any. I try to make it milchig whenever I can; usually I like to do what's traditional, but using butter instead of oil makes mushroom-barley soup amazing. But somehow the carrots and barley didn't cook down enough. I think soup with butternut squash would have been more . . . comforting.

I do like cherry tomatoes. Sun Golds are my standard, but this year I've had others a few times. Yes, I could take my own advice and ask at Milk Street. *grin* Thank you for the encouragement.

My freezer is unfortunately not as stocked, and it was only a pint of it that I froze. Someday I will be a canning maven like you. The last time I had applesauce in the freezer, it stayed there for over a decade, through two moves (and two different freezers). I finally got rid of it prior to Pesach this year. Thanks for your guess; the container isn't great but I guess it's worth trying to wait to have it with latkes.

Do we get a sukkah report this year?

[magid.livejournal.com]

I almost always default to pareve soup; it's easier in my kitchen in a lot of ways (and I assume frozen/canned things are pareve unless there are big signs all over it :-). I wonder whether your soup would do better with another simmer?

I adore Sun Golds, but of the ones I picked, a smaller red one was even more amazing (no memory of what kind, just incredibly sweet).

Canning doesn't have to be a big deal. FYI, Tag's in Porter always has canning supplies. (And I can't quite imagine moving applesauce *twice*.)

Sukkah report: the schach went up, there's wood to hold it in place, and some Xmas lights. It's not impressive, just utilitarian...

[(Anonymous)]

Parve soup makes sense. One would think further simmering would help, but it simmered for hours and didn't fall apart. Thanks for the suggestion, phrased so nicely, though!

I had some very nice red ones in July, and just now some interesting ones called Black Cherry tomatoes (Black cherry tomatoes? Black-Cherry tomatoes? Black-Cherry cherry tomatoes?).

Canning would be fun. Etrog marmalade!

Thank you for the sukkah report! *grin*

[magid.livejournal.com]

My best guess about the soup is that the barley was old, rather in the way I've read about dried beans being too old and not softening enough when cooked. Sorry to hear it.

Black Cherry tomatoes (however punctuated) sound lovely!

I don't use etrogim for canning unless I find organic ones, since they're sprayed with tons of pesticide to keep them pretty for use with lulavim. And I've never found organic ones :-(. Some year I might try to sprout the seeds and start an etrog tree or two of my own indoors (though I know it takes years and years until they're big enough to bear fruit).

[(Anonymous)]

What a smart theory! I didn't know that about aged beans. I have, however, experienced beans and lentils not fully softening and didn't know it could possibly be attributed to anything other than having added salt too early.

I didn't know that about pesticides and etrogim. I had considered making liqueur (and asking for your guidance in doing so) out of the one etrog I will have, but I am so enjoying my etrog this holiday that the idea of not having it any more, of turning it into something else that would be consumed, made me sad, so I will probably dry it or something.

Having an etrog tree would be so nice!

[magid.livejournal.com]

You could put cloves into it and dry the etrog, using it for havdalah.

[(Anonymous)]

Exactly my thoughts on all counts! Great minds . . .

[(Anonymous)]

I finally did this last night!

[(Anonymous)]

garlicky pickles and pickled garlic scapes

Somehow I missed this before. I like the mirror-image symmetry, and all the better that it has to do with both garlic and pickles!