Week five- zucchini bread

I am totally in love with this zucchini bread. I got this recipe out of Food and Wine a couple of years ago and have made a few adjustments along the way. I still want to make some changes to the recipe to reduce oil and sugar, but this is how it is for now, and it makes a mean loaf of bread.

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour a bread pan.

In a large bowl combine 2 c. all-purpose flour and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon if you're into that.

In a medium bowl mix 3/4 c. sugar, 2 eggs, 1/2 c. vegetable oil and 1/2 c. fat-free greek yogurt.

Add wet ingredients into dry and mix till moistened. Stir in 1 c. walnut or pecan pieces, 1/2 c. dark chocolate chips, and 1 c. coarsely grated zucchini (about one medium zucchini's worth).

Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and bake about 65 mintues, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a rack 30 mintues before removing from the pan and serving.

Week five- zucchini pie

Have I mentioned how much I love my new food processor? Look at all those sliced onions and zucchini and squash!

And look at what it turned into! Zucchini pie!

Usually I don't like taking shortcuts like using crescent rolls in place of real pie crust, but this is really yummy, and I think it's ok to eat Pillsbury crap once in awhile.



4 c. thin sliced zucchini
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 c. parsley, chopped
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
1/2 t. garlic powder
2 T fresh basil
1 t. fresh oregano
2 eggs
1 T flour
2 c. cheese, shredded
8 crescent rolls
2 t. mustard
2 T olive oil

Try to press out some of the liquid in the zucchini-- just take a paper towel and press it into the sliced zuke to get some of the moisture. Cook onion and zucchini in olive oil in a large skillet on medium 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the spices and herbs. In a large bowl combine the cheese and eggs and flour, then add the zucchini mixture. Separate the crescent rolls and press them into an ungreased pie pan to form a crust. Spread the mustard on the crescent rolls/crust, then pour in the zucchini mixture. Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes, then bring the pie out and cover the crust with foil. Return to oven and cook an additional 12 minutes or so

Let sit a bit before serving, but the first slice might be a little runny. Just a little.

Week Five

Ok, I feel like I'm almost to real-time... today we're picking up week seven's vegetables. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can be caught up.

So, for week five we got
chard
parsley
lettuce mix
cukes
a variety of zucchini/squashes

Week four- pickles

These easy, delicious pickles are a great way to use the millions of cucumbers that invade each summer. We've received a few from the CSA, and our backyard plants are going gangbusters. There are a lot of cucumbers around our house right now.

As a nice side benefit, if you have to cut an inch or so off the cuke for it to fit in the Ball jar, you can slice a couple cuke coins and place them on your tired, hot eyes.

This recipe came from Food and Wine magazine a couple summers ago.

Spicy Dill Quick Pickles

3 quart size Ball jars

veggies

3 T kosher salt

2 T sugar

1 1/4 c. distilled white vinegar (5% acidity)

2 T coriander seeds

6 cloves garlic, halved

4-6 long red or green hot chiles, halved lengthwise

16 dill sprigs

Pack veggies into 2 clean quart jars-- this takes 5-6 cucumbers. Combine the salt, sugar, vinegar, coriander and garlic in the 3rd jar. Shake to mix until salt and sugar are dissolved. Add 2 cups of water, then pour the brine over the veggies. Tuck the chiles and dill between the vegetables. Add enough water to keep the veggies submerged. Close the jars and refrigerate overnight or for up to a month.

helpful notes...

*After I shake up the brine jar, I use a spoon to scoop and evenly distribute the garlic and coriander seeds.

*I got canning jars at Meijer, and saw them at Marsh, too.

* Other veggies can be used. Zucchini perform well here, as do green beans. When using green beans, blanch them before canning. I would think broccoli and cauliflower could stand to be blanched, but carrots can be raw.

Week four- fried kohlrabi

This is a great, hearty dish that my mom told me to try. It's diced potato and kohlrabi fried with green onions in a bit of bacon grease. The bacon was added back into the dish before we ate it. It's basically just a little twist on fried potatoes-- the kohlrabi adds a unique flavor, and potatoes and onions fried in bacon grease is hard to resist.

Week four- salad dressing

I'm here to tell ya, this salad mix from the CSA is second to none. It is absolutely delicious and lasts forever in the fridge. We grilled a steak, steamed a couple red potatoes, and made this great vinaigrette to top our steakhouse salad. In addition to the salad greens we used some fresh parsley and sliced cucumber for the salad base.


Herby Vinaigrette

puree 1 hard boiled egg yolk with 3 T white balsamic vinegar, 1 T brown mustard, 1 T water, a crushed garlic clove, and a bit of salt and pepper. Using a immersion blender or magic bullet or something keep blending the vinegar mixture while slowing adding 5 T extra virgin olive oil. Stir in 2-3 T fresh herbs.

This vinaigrette was great on a big salad, but especially delicious over steamed red skin potatoes.

Week Four

Alright! Looks like week four brought us

green onions
kohlrabi
a big cuke
broccoli
cilantro
salad mix

It's been hard to use the cilantro because we don't have any tomatoes from the share or our backyard yet.

Week three- zucchini and squash

These are some dee-lish zucchini pancakes with a horseradish dill sour cream. I used a zucchini or two and that weird looking squash as well as a couple of green onions. Oh, and the cheese I used for these is from our local dairy place, Trader's Point Creamery. That's a really neat place and their cheeses are great.

Here's the recipe, because these are pretty easy and really yummy:

1 lb zucchini, shredded

1-2 green onions, chopped

1/2 c. shredded cheese

1/4 c. flour

2 eggs, beaten

salt and pepper

fresh herbs

butter and/or cooking oil

sour cream

dried dill

raw horseradish

Mix zucchini, green onions, cheese, and flour. Add the beaten eggs and salt and pepper. Add some fresh herbs if you want. Cook in a medium high skillet that has a couple tablespoons of butter and/or oil in it. Use a quarter cup measuring cup to spoon the batter into the skillet. Cook about 3 minutes a side, till browned and done.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream that you've mixed with a little bit of dried dill and raw horseradish.

Week three- cabbage and green onions

These veggies just look beautiful. We got a great head of cabbage and some wonderful green onions from the share, and since I had an extra kohlrabi I used that in my cole slaw, too. The carrots I got at (gasp) Meijer. So, I took all that stuff and.....

Pushed it all into my brand new food processor! I've been wanting one of these for a long time, and came across a great deal on one at Costco the other week. This is the best time of year to have one, of course, with all the fresh veggies that need to be sliced and grated. It made very quick work of prepping my cole slaw ingredients.

The finished product! Looks good! The only bad thing is that it gave me an overwhelming desire to eat KFC fried chicken. So one night I stopped by the KFC on my way home. The KFC was kinda gross, but the cole slaw was yummy. Maybe I need to work on a fried chicken recipe for my next batch of cole slaw. I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe for cole slaw, if you care.

Week three- broccoli and kohlrabi

We've been trying to use the grill as much as possible this summer. It feels like we haven't used it but a few times, but it's hard since we work evenings... we pretty much can only grill on the weekends. Grilling veggies is so easy and delicious, and goodness gracious, the broccoli is off the chain.

We recently tossed some cut up broccoli, kohlrabi, and onions with olive oil and salt and pepper then placed on the ceramic grill platter Phil got for his birthday. Once the vegetables get all charred and fragrant we know they're done, and we toss with whatever fresh herbs we've got out back. I think we used thyme in the above picture.

We grilled just broccoli last night and my goodness was it great. We didn't even use any herbs--just olive oil, salt and pepper.

Week Three

The weeks are just flying by! I'm blogging about week three already (I'm still behind, though... I just picked up the fifth week of veggies).

Week Three's bounty:
salad mix
peapods
broccoli
cabbage
zucchini
a weird squash that I don't remember the name of

And let me say, this produce has an incredible shelf life! We used some two-week old broccoli last night and it was so delicious. We grilled it, like we did a couple weeks ago; that's officially my favorite way to do broccoli.

CSA link

An article about what a CSA is and why it's good:

http://http://lifehacker.com/5819320/community-supported-agriculture-what-it-is-and-why-you-should-join

Week two- kohlrabi

Yum! Kohlrabi is great! It's taste is a little turnip-y and a little a little cabbage-y. It looks a little like a fennel bulb crossed with a turnip with a pretty thick skin. For this delicious lunch, I used my vegetable peeler to remove the skin, then somewhat thinly sliced the kohlrabi (as thinly as I could without a fancy gadget... just had to use my knife). I brushed a bit of olive oil on both sides of each disk, sprinkled with salt, pepper, and thyme, then baked 8-10 minutes a side at 425.

And there's more kohlrabi to come! Yes!

Week two- peashoots

Pea shoots are a pretty new veggie for me. I first got them last year at Trader Joe's as something different to add to salads and sandwiches at a time when I was kinda sick of alfalfa sprouts. Turns out I like pea shoots way more than sprouts, and more than actual peas, too. My favorite thing to do with pea shoots is to add them in at the end of scrambling up some eggs. By putting them in at the end they add a fresh taste and just a bit of crunch as well as a lot of vitamins.

Week two- salad mix and green onions

I don't have any pictures of salad greens and green onions from this week's share. You know what salad looks like, and that's what our salads have been looking like.

The onions I used in a couple different dishes. One was a pasta sauce in which I sauteed garlic and some of those green onions with some chopped up anchovies and added some crushed tomatoes. Added some basil and oregano from our garden, put it all over pasta. The other thing we did with the green onions was add them to ramen noodles. It was really good, actually. I recommend adding fresh green onions to ramen.

Week Two

Week two had some awesome treats! First off, I have to thank my brother for picking up my veggies this week, 'cause I was out of town.

Week Two:
kohlrabi
green onion
bok choy
salad mix
pea shoots

I love green onions (and white and red and yellow and whatever other color you can find), and fresh garden onions are the best. I also totally love kohlrabi and peashoots, so this week was really exciting for me.

The lettuce mix we get from the farm is proving to be really great. It's delicious and lasts a long time... this lettuce doesn't wilt!