[local eating] Winter share pickup, week 1 of 4, and some other food

[magid]

November and December are the "winter share" months for Red Fire's CSA (Jan-Mar are "deep winter"), and there are two pickups/month, at the incredibly inconvenient time of 2:30–6:30 Friday afternoon. Luckily, the drop off isn't too far from my house, but it does make things challenging right before Shabbat.

This week's haul:

• a stalk of Brussels sprouts
  
• a head of lettuce (I chose green leaf)
  
• a bunch of parsley
  
• a huge head of green cabbage
  
• a huge head of bok choy
  
• a third of a pound of spinach
  
• two pounds of carrots (I chose all purple)
  
• two pounds of red onions (I think, unless it was 1.5 pounds)
  
• one and a half pounds of potatoes
  
• a carnival squash
  
• a daikon (I got a medium sized one)
  
• a pound and a half of Hakurei turnips

I might make a salad tomorrow involving the lettuce, some spinach, daikon and/or turnip, and feta. Or I might not; it's hard to get inspired to make salad for one (for me, anyway). Bok choy suggestions other than stir fries are particularly welcome.

---

I had some leftover ricotta, so I mixed it with some eggs, brown sugar, and a bit of lemon juice, and am baking it now. If it comes out nicely, I have myself a new kosher-for-Passover dessert :-). Also in the oven: diced tomatoes, chickpeas, tomato sauce, black pepper, and crumbled feta. I would've added olives had I had pitted ones, but since the only ones I have include pits, I might eat some along with. Not sure why I assembled it, but it appealed, and was quick.
(I'd thought about trying to fit in an experimental batch of pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips and peanut flour before Shabbat, but that feels too ambitious for the time remaining. Perhaps Sunday.)

Earlier this week, I had run out of inspiration, and the fridge felt rather bare. A friend called up, interested in dinner, and suddenly I was able to figure out something to make from what I had around (much of it in the freezer): chicken breasts topped with cranberry chutney, baked in a very slow oven over onions, garlic, diced apples, cranberries, walnuts, halved apricots, and black pepper. I'm really glad it came out well. (And now there's a bit more room in the freezer as well, which is a definite plus.)

Last Shabbat's food experiment was a beef stew, using cubed beef I'd had in the freezer, lots of onions (too many to brown the meat properly, I think), garlic, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, and about half a bottle of red wine, in addition to some fresh rosemary and lavender picked off the plants now in the kitchen, some salt and pepper, and a small bag of already-roasted and skinned plum tomatoes. Unfortunately, there wasn't quite enough time for the carrots to get fully cooked in the size I'd cut them; the leftovers were better than the first bowls. Not bad, though.

Comments

[magid.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear.

I haven't seen it in the supermarkets yet for "the holidays".... ;-P)

[(Anonymous)]

*giggle*

In other news, got my car back from DeLeo's. Man, are they impressive! The whole process was so easy, so organized, and the work was excellent. Denise and Leo were both so nice to me, were so thorough and helpful and friendly and respectful and went out of their way to assist me in ways that weren't at all expected, and really seemed to care. I am so very grateful to you for the recommendation.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad car things went so smoothly!