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Tag: csa
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March Meals
It’s been a while since I showed off my food, so here are a few dishes I’ve made recently. First, though, many hearty thanks to T&D Willey Farms for providing so many of the fresh fruits and vegetables shown.
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CSA Haul and the resulting dinner
Last week we got several veggies and recipes from the CSA pickup.
I’d never really heard of rapini, or soba noodles, but figured I’d give the Soba Noodles with Spicy Rapini recipe a try. Unfortunately, I had to dial back the spice (stomachs are a little tender with the stress flying around), and that left the dish pretty bland. It’s not a bad base to build off of.
The other recipe was much tastier and has made the “again please” list. I made Gingered Cabbage and Turkey, just substituting ground turkey for tofu in this recipe.
First I cooked up the ground turkey and drained it. 
(See if you can find my helper in the picture!) To that I added the soy sauce, Japanese wine vinegar, and sherry. Interestingly, both recipes called for sherry tonight. That probably helped them match a little better.
From there, I tossed the cabbage in the empty skillet and cooked it until it was wilted and brown where it had cooked. Lots of mixing and the last spices and juices (lemon and cilantro) made it pop on the plate. I almost forgot the ginger, but it really perks the dish up. It makes a lot, so I’ll have left overs to enjoy.
Last week’s haul included a head of red cabbage. Jennifer immediately suggested sauerkraut and brats. A little later that week I hit the grocery store and got the ingredients. I used the recipe straight from the tdwilley site– and it was tasty.
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Cooking Recently
I’ve been in a cooking mood quite a bit more recently. I attribute it to two things: a new cookbook and joining a CSA.
The new cookbook is How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. (Site) I’ve been cooking with it since Christmas, but I’m slowly reading more of it as I go. I made some decent Crepes with cinnamon apple stuffing recently, enjoyed making Birds in the Nest for another breakfast, and am enjoying slowly exploring its pages. It has a lot of handy asides about lots of useful and interesting topics– while they’re almost always perfectly placed for the dish I’m cooking, I know I’ll want to find them again another day, and I’m not sure how they’ll work out. Sauces are prominent– something I hadn’t experimented with much, and very splashy and easy.
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It’s a lot like buying from a Farmer’s Market, but on a subscription basis. Basically, you pay a fee and they harvest and box up veggies for you to pick up once a week. It’s a very slick system– while you don’t pick what you get, they give you a good mix. It’s great for getting fresh ripe veggies and fruit, and very good at pushing us to try new things. Each week they include a newsletter with recipes matching the veggies of the week. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the variation in winter– I suspect summer will be awesome. The CSA I signed up with is T&D Willey Farms in Madera. They have a lot of pick up spots in town; ours is close to our way home– no more than 2 minutes out of line.