Fattening week

The share gets replenished for the last time this session on Wednesday. Prior to Wed. we're eating nice fattening foods with fewer veggies. Opps!

The share:

Green Cabbage, 2 lbs Purple Top Turnips, 2 lbs Orange Carrots, 1 lb Valentine Radishes, Shoot/Claytonia Mix, Pesto (just basil and oil), 3 lbs Frozen Tomatoes, Elmore Mountain Bakery Flax Bread, Pa Pa Doodles Farm or Gopher Broke Farm Eggs, Dreuxmanna Crackers, Lazy Lady Oh My Heart Cheese


We have officially decided not to take this late winter share. We have more jams and jellies and various other oddball things than we can use. Instead, I'll try to attend the winter farmers market for the rest of the winter and I've signed up for a different farmshare for the string that does only vegetables and not the localvore items. Change is good, right? We'll still buy some of the localvore items we discovered though the share but only the ones that fit our lifestyle. It also costs about half as much. A big change but hey, I'm up for something new! The new share will start in the middle of June and run through October and then maybe we'll pick up a fall share with Pete's Greens again.

Superbowl Sunday: Chicken fricassee and salad. Of course we couldn't be snackless though so I also made guacamole and salsa which we ate with chips.

Monday: Sam's request day -- pizza of course.

Tuesday: Refried bean burritos with guacamole and salsa, salad.

Wednesday: Cheese and crackers from the share, Keilbasa and Share soup - not an official name but I made a soup from many of the vegetables we got in the share this week. Simple and tasty.

Kielbasa and Farm Share Soup

1/2 lb kielbasa, cut into small pieces
1 onion, diced
2 large turnips, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1/2 head cabbage, cut into small pieces
2-3 cups corn
Chicken stock
Salt
Pepper, lots of pepper to taste

Brown the Kielbasa. Add onions and cook until soft. Add remaining ingredients and simmer for about 45 minutes.

Thursday: Sam's school was doing a lunch for dinner program to show parents the types of fresh and local foods that are used for the school lunches. We were treated to a variety of foods. Shepards pie, soup, salad bar, fresh bread, apple crisp. It was all much better than any school lunch I've had before.


Friday: It was my birthday and I decided that I really wanted to go to the original Flatbreads in Waitsfield. Mmmm. Sam gets his love of pizza honestly. Alas, we got there at 5:00 and there was a 2.5-3 hour wait which we just couldn't do. We ended up going to a different restaurant where I got a mediocre burger and excellent sweet potato fries.

Saturday: More Julia! I made Boef Gourguignon from the Julia Child cookbook for Ben for an early Valentines Day dinner. I served it over egg noodles with a side salad. He made German Chocolate cake for me.

Ben loved the Boef Bourguignon and I thought it was....fine. It's just not the type of thing I love. It was easy but with all the separate steps, it made a ton of dishes. Oh, and I figured out why she has you boil bacon before frying it - it renders the fat without any pieces of other stuff in it so when I browned the meat in it, I could take the temperature way up. What a mess that made, even with a spatter screen! Post cooking cleaning was substantial.

Leek and white bean soup

I just learned that kale and brussels sprouts can hang out on their stalks for a good long time in the fall. I've never grown either so I had no reason to know that but it does explain why we're still getting so much kale in the share. We're not overly fond of greens in cooked form where they're easily identified but I'm finding them to be very useful and unoffensive when used in soups and stews.


Leek and White Bean Soup with Kale

1 lb dried small white beans, soaked and cooked
1 bunch (3 medium) leeks
1/2 bunch kale, cleaned, blanched and chopped small.
1/4 c butter
water
3 chicken broth cubes
pepper
1/2 tsp dried tarragon


Saute the leeks in the butter until they're soft. Add the cooked beans and enough water to cover. Puree with immersion blender at any point in the process if you're so inclined. Add the remaining ingredients.

My kale was some sort of purple kale so my soup looks like a blueberry smoothie. Very tasty!

Shareday

Mesclun greens, lettuce, Nicola potatoes, basil, sweet salad turnips, beet greens, sorrel, wild arugula, Easter egg radishes, pac choi, cilantro, red giant mustard, Vermont Cranberry Company balsamic vinegar, Vermont Butter and Cheese fresh goat cheese, and Elmore Mountain Bread pizza dough.

Lots and lots of greens today! Too much for the refrigerator so I blanched, chopped, and froze five bags of assorted greens for future use. Two bags of beet greens, three bags of a mix of turnip, radish, mustard, and arugula. We like greens just fine in soups and such but we don't really appreciate the plain old cooked greens.

I struggle with the pac choi as well. We've gotten in in the last three shares and I've ended up composting most of it.

I made potato and sorrel soup with a recipe from the share newsletter and it's pretty good although a tad thick. I used sour cream in place of the cream because that's what I had. Very rich and tangy soup.


Sorrel & Potato Soup

The recipe below is adapted from a classic French sorrel soup recipe. It is also good cold, particularly with some plain yogurt swirled in. Serves 3 or 4.

1 bunch fresh sorrel
4 cups water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2/3 pound potatoes, cubed
1 large egg
1/4 cup crème fraiche or heavy cream (or more to taste)

Wash the sorrel and de-rib the leaves if necessary. Put it in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, until the sorrel has melted into a purée and nearly all of its liquid has evaporated. Add the water and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook over low heat until the potatoes are cooked through — about fifteen minutes. If you prefer a creamy rather than a chunky soup, put the soup into a blender or food processor and then return to the saucepan. Combine the eggs and crème fraiche in a warmed serving bowl. Mix until well blended. Add a ladle of the potato and sorrel mixture and blend well. Pour in remaining potato and sorrel mixture and serve immediately.

Turkey leftovers

We had turkey left after Thanksgiving of course but within two days Ben had pretty much polished them off and expressed a desire for more. Turkeys were on sale after the holiday so I picked one up and cooked it the same day since it was fresh and I assumed it was leftover and unsold and was possibly on the way out.

Two turkeys in 4 days!

But now I've got real leftovers! I made stock from the carcasses and then made soup with some of the leftovers and the odds and ends I had from the share and other sources. Use the amount you've got floating around - my measurements are approximate



Turkey, Lentil and Barley Soup

1 onion, diced
oil
1 c dried lentils
1 c barley
2 large carrots, diced
6 small turnips, diced
1 bunch kale, chopped
turkey stock
white pepper
Water and herbs as needed

Saute onion. Add remaining ingredients. Cook until lentils and barley are done. Very good the next day.

Excellent stuff! Healthy too. I froze a bunch of it in individual containers for meals.

White Bean and Kielbasa Soup

I have greens, lots and lots of greens! Salads are good but we've also got to figure out what to do with the rest of the greens. I decided to make a soup to use the cress raab from the share since it was so bitter I couldn't see eating it in salad form.

White Bean and Kielbasa Soup

1 lb dry white beans, soaked and cooked
1/2 lb kielbasa
olive oil
1 large onion
Water
2 cubes beef bullion
3 large tomatoes, peeled and diced
2 large parsnips, peeled and diced
Large bunch of greens, chopped
3 large carrots, peeled and diced
sage
white pepper
thyme
salt

Slice the kielbasa into small pieces and brown in olive oil. Add the onion and cook until clear. Toss in the greens and cook until limp. Add water and the rest of the ingredients. Add herbs to taste.

I tried the raab in this stuff, I added some to the kielbasa, then tasted it and decided it was still way too bitter to use so I composted the rest of it. Why eat what tastes awful? I used the bok choi from the share in its place.

I'm sure you could add just about any other veggie you've got floating around the house too.

We all ate it and liked it. Alas, it's all gone.

Tomato Barley Soup

We've gotten frozen tomatoes in our share a couple of times and they were building up a bit in the freezer since I hadn't been inspired to make anything tomato based in awhile. I'm not a huge fan of tomato soup since it's pretty bland but most people seem to love it and I know that it's a favorite of Ben's so I gave it a try. Without a recipe of course.

I pulled them out, ran them under hot water to peel the skins right off and then stuck them, whole, in the oven to thaw and roast. I'd say I had about a dozen tomatoes in all.

Here's the kicker though, I also had some frozen leftover barley that I'd cooked with chicken so I got to be really lazy with this soup but it was also a good reminder of why I freeze things for future use, even if I don't know what that use will be at the time I freeze it. I love reinventing leftovers into something completely different.


Tomato Barley Soup

12 tomatoes, roasted
1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
Butter or chicken fat
Cooked barley - about four cups
Salt & pepper to taste
Basil to taste
Water or broth if necessary

Saute the onion, celery, and carrot in the fat. Add the tomatoes and any juice that may have accumulated in the tomato pan while roasting. Puree the mixture and return to the pan. Add the barley and season to taste.

Serve with a little grated parm


What did we think?

Me: It's a little bland but I guess tomato soup is supposed to be bland and tomato-y. It's ok.

Ben: I don't think it's bland, I like it.

Sam: I took a no thank you bite and I don't like it.

Potato, Roasted Garlic and Broccoli Soup

I have too many potatoes! Potato soup seemed like a natural. I love potato leek soup but I don't have any leeks. I do, however, had garlic and broccoli.

I like to add broccoli to potato soup because I like the nice green color it adds as well as the nutrients. It turns it into a meal in a bowl.

However, when the potatoes are red heirloom potatoes which means they're red all the way through, the final product looks very unappealing. Let's just say it looks like something that comes out instead of goes in.

But the flavor, oh the flavor! It's wonderful. My recommendation is to serve by candlelight. Or use white potatoes, that's probably the best solution.


Potato, Roasted Garlic and Broccoli Soup

Roasted garlic: Cut the tops off two heads (yes heads,not cloves) of garlic to expose the tops of the cloves, pour a bit of olive oil on them and wrap completely in foil. Roast until soft at 350 (or whatever temp you've got the oven for something else, just watch them closely). Use less if you don't love things very garlicy. Remove from oven, allow to cool, then squish the cloves of garlic out of the skins to use.


About 2 1/2 lbs of potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
Water or chicken broth*
One bunch broccoli, big stems removed
Milk
Salt
Pepper

When the potatoes are tender, add the broccoli and the roasted garlic and cook until the broccoli is tender.

Puree the mixture in a food processor (if I wasn't still waiting for the backordered bowl to show up) or blender adding more stock or milk if necessary.

Add pureed mixture back to the pan, add stock or milk until you get the texture you want. Add salt and pepper to taste.

*I prefer chicken broth but didn't have any so I used water and then added some drippings I had left from cooking a chicken. I froze the the drippings when I was too lazy to bother making gravy. The drippings added terrific flavor and I didn't need any additional salt.

Rating: Excellent but ugly when made with red potatoes. I won't make you suffer a picture. I didn't wait for dinner, I had it for lunch and we'll still have it for dinner.

Bacon Corn Chowder

I've got potatoes coming out of my ears. I never realized how few potatoes we normally eat around here until we began getting a regular influx of 'taters from the share. Now we've got a nice variety of potatoes beginning to go to sprout before we use them.

I also have bacon hanging around because there is a local smoker (I doubt the pigs are local though) and they had a very good deal on ends and pieces and heck, we don't care if they're full slices so I bought four pounds of the things. Four pounds of bacon is a lot of bacon even if two pounds is nicely frozen for future use. We'll suffer through it.

Bacon is apparently a very important food to many people. While searching for Harrington's website I came across this one. I think I might skip the bacon pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Anyone brave enough to give that one a try? I do have to admit that I spent some time reading as I don't seem to be able to resist bacon in written format either.

I glanced at a couple of recipes and in the spirit of making things difficult, followed none of them. Doesn't everyone cook to taste?


Bacon Corn Chowder

8 sticks of bacon, chopped into small pieces
1/2 onion, chopped
4 small white potatoes diced into 1/2" pieces
2 lbs frozen corn
a few shakes of pepper sauce
salt
pepper


Cook the bacon in the pot you'll be using for your soup. Toss in the onions, cook until soft. Throw in the potatoes and enough milk to cover it all. Heat.

Toss a couple of cups of corn in a blender, add enough milk that you can blend until it's pretty much just mush.

Toss that and the rest of the rest of the corn into the pot. Add remaining ingredients and heat to simmer.

Cook until the potatoes are tender. Now, I noticed on the comments for one or two of the recipes I looked at that they said the stuff is better on day two so I turned it off, left it on the stove and heated it up a couple more times through the day. Hey, we've got snow and freezing rain here today and when you add in a kid with a fresh new cold going out seems highly unlikely.

Rating: Excellent


I also made a loaf of Lisa's bread but spiked it with the remaining tofu so I wouldn't end up throwing it away. The addition of the tofu didn't enhance the bread in any way. It made it kind of heavy and somewhat less appealing. I don't recommend it.

Pork, Veggie and Barley Soup

I had dinner at some friends the other day, Pasta e Fagioli. It's terrific stuff and it inspired this variation of the soup to include things I have on hand. In the tradition of using leftovers, the pork chops had been baked over the barley a few days prior.


Pork, Veggie, and Barley Soup

2-3 cups cooked barley
2 cooked, diced pork chops
1 large onion, diced
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1 large stalk celery, diced
Butter
2 large carrots, diced
2 large parsnips, diced
1 can drained dark red kidney beans
1 large can diced tomatoes with juice
1 small can tomato paste
Any other random veggies
Water
Salt
pepper
Approx. 1 T dried oregano
Approx. 1 T dried basil

Saute the onions and garlic in butter. Add everything else, simmer to desired level.

Rating: Excellent!

Using up the roots

I had a bunch of misc turnips, a couple of beets, and some potatoes that weren't enough to do anything on their own so I decided to try a roasted veggie soup.


Roasted Root Vegetable Soup


Peel (those that must be peeled) & dice misc root veggies
Peel a whole head of garlic


Mix veggies above with a little olive oil, add salt & pepper then put everything on a cookie sheet (with sides). Cover and bake at 400 F until soft, about an hour.


Toss everything in the food processor, add broth or water to get to the texture you prefer.


If you added even two little beets, your soup may look like this (I like it very thick). Oh, and the only strong flavors are the garlic and rosemary. What's not to like? Excellent