This week began with the Chinese party I'd been looking forward to for weeks. I took all my potsticker ingredients, the M-M-M-Monster Cabbage, and my pastry wraps looking for some fun. As it was the party went great! But we had too much food (including some already pre-prepared potstickers) and we ended up useing nothing that I had brought. So instead, Craig and I sat down and made a very large batch of potstickers we were able to freeze for future use.
To freeze potstickers, prepare them but do not cook them. Place them on paper plates or a wax paper lined pan in so they are not touching; then place the plate or the pan in the freezer until the potstickers are frozen solid. At that point, you can transfer them all to a big freezer bag and seal for long term freezer storage. Cooking the frozen potstickers is the same as cooking the fresh ones - heat 2 T. oil in a non-stick skillet, then add just as many potstickers as can cover the bottom of the pan (they will stick together if you layer them on top of one another.) Cook 2-3 minutes until the undersides are lightly brown. Add 1/2 cup water, then cover and let cook until all the water is absorbed. Remove when potstickers are again crispy and golden brown on the bottom.
The East Farms CSA share came with the most variety in items I've seen so far this season, including lots of summer standards and one new winter squash. Here's the lowdown:
| CSA SHARE |
| Price (Organic) |
|
|
| Price ('Normal') | Value |
0.62 lb Green Peppers (2)
|
| 1.99/lb
|
|
|
| 1.29/lb
| $1.23 |
0.79 lb Onion
|
| 1.99/lb
|
|
|
| 0.99/lb
| $1.57 |
1.83 lb Tomatoes (slicing)
|
|
|
|
|
| 1.99/lb
| $3.64 |
0.80 lb Chili Peppers (6)
|
|
|
|
|
| 1.99/lb
| $1.59 |
1.00 lb Eggplant (1)
|
| 1.99/lb
|
|
|
| 1.59/lb
| $1.99 |
1.68 lb Red Potatoes
|
|
|
|
|
| 0.69/lb
| $1.16 |
1.86 lb Spaghetti Squash
|
|
|
|
|
| 0.99/lb (asst. squash)
| $1.84 |
0.45 lb Zucchini (1)
|
|
|
|
|
| 1.29/lb
| $0.58
|
I have to admit, at this point I'm having a very hard time figuring out what to do with eggplant that is new and delicious. Despite all my attempts to dress it up, Craig is still not a fan (it's the texture, not the flavor). This eggplant I used to make a Cashew-Eggplant Casserole I found on
allrecipes.com (one of my favorite recipe sites), but sadly it didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped. The onion went into my cold storage with the potatoes, the zucchini and peppers went into my fridge (more on the peppers later), and the tomatoes sat on my counter for snacking (and as a reminder that I needed to use them.) Tomatoes tend to lose their flavor in the refrigerator, so I'll only put them there if I know I won't get to them in time to use them.
The Spaghetti Squash is the only winter squash I have experience using. Unlike the delicata I received last week, I grew up on spaghetti squash (in season) although I can't admit it was ever my favorite in my childhood. I think it's because it was clearly a vegetable trying to pose as something it wasn't - pasta. But once I reached my late teens I discovered something amazing about this vegetable - it's *really* tasty. It has a sweet flavor, one that is regrettably masked by the heavy flavors in the spaghetti sauce the vegetable is often served with. For this reason I recommend first trying spaghetti squash cooked with just a little butter and salt and pepper, to augment the already sweet and delicious flavor, before experimenting around using it in other recipes like soups or stews.
Probably the biggest reason it is often served with spaghetti sauce (aside from the fact that the vegetable produces thin tendril-like fibers, which resemble the pasta), is the sheer ease of preparation. Making spaghetti squash with sauce is probably the easiest dinner dish
ever, so long as you know what to do with a squash! (Most people don't.) So here's the lowdown on how to cook a squash, complete with a picture guide (it's the same for all squashes):
1 - Cut the squash lengthwise into two halves. 2 - Scoop out the interior seeds with a spoon, and discard. 3 - Place both halves flat-side down onto a baking sheet.
4 - Bake at 350 F for 1 hour or until the flesh is tender. 5 - Remove the flesh from the shell. 6 - Serve with marinara sauce or butter and salt/pepper. Enjoy!
The only difference between spaghetti squash and other squashes for cooking is that smaller squashes (like the delicata) will require shorter cooking times, where larger squashes (like banana or pumpkin) will require chopping up into more than 2 pieces (cook those pieces skin side down) and possibly a longer cooking time.
Bonus: save the seeds when you remove them from the squash for a yummy snack. Salt and bake in a single layer until golden brown - the same way you'd cook pumpkin seeds!
I made this particular dish for a neighbor who had just had a baby. It was simple, easy for me to do, made a ton, delivered like a casserole, and was simple to pair with vegetables and garlic bread. What with my increased work schedule recently on top of my other obligations, a simple and easy dish like this is exactly what I needed.
Speaking of work schedule, this week was the first that I had a conflict with my Borski CSA pickup. I'm surprised I didn't have a conflict earlier, seeing as how the pickup times are a firm "between 12:00 and 6:00 pm" which doesn't always sit well with many working schedules. In this case, I had to work late (well, late for me); and Craig had to have the car by 5:30 for a school appointment at 6:00 as well.
In the end I left work in Provo at 4:45 and flew home as fast as possible. Instead of passing the car off to Craig I picked him up, flew him down to the school, then zoomed up to the pickup location with 5 minutes to spare. Then of course I had to head back to the school and wait patiently for Craig to finish his appointment, but it didn't take that long. Still, it was a close call (and I am lucky I didn't get a ticket).
All that zooming around, and what should I find in my Borski CSA share? As with last week, not a peach to be seen! What a gyp! The nectarine and apple are
not a suitable substitute, that's all I have to say. At least there was a great variety of produce!
| CSA SHARE |
| Price (Organic) |
|
| Price ('Normal') | Value |
0.94 lb Mixed Peppers
|
| 1.99/lb
|
|
| 1.29/lb
| $1.87 |
0.75 lb Onions (2 sm. yellow)
|
| 1.99/lb
|
|
| 0.99/lb
| $1.49 |
0.44 lb Onions (2 sm. red)
|
|
|
|
| 0.99/lb
| $0.44 |
0.25 lb Garlic (2 heads)
|
|
|
|
| 1.99/lb
| $0.50 |
1.06 lb Nectarine (1)
|
|
|
|
| 1.99/lb
| $2.11 |
0.44 lb Apple (1 Red Delicious)
|
|
|
|
| 0.99/lb
| $0.44 |
2.38 lb Golden Potatoes
|
|
|
|
| 1.49/lb
| $3.55 |
1.31 lb Corn (2 ears)
|
|
|
|
| 3/1.00
| $0.67
|
The onions are getting smaller, and now some red ones! They all go into my pantry anyhow (and I use them regularly) but it was interesting to see how as the season goes on the size and type of vegetables will change. The apple and nectarine went on my counters for snacking (and as a constant mournful reminder that fresh peaches will nevermore to be seen for a whole year). Corn went into the refrigerator, potatoes to cold storage, and the peppers. . . .
We've received a
lot of peppers in the last few weeks from both CSAs. Sometimes they come in a big bag of 'mixed' peppers, where I must admit I am not entirely sure what is which variety. Other times it's just green peppers, which I do have recipes for - but I still can't use them fast enough. For some reason most of the recipes I can think of with peppers also use tomatoes, which we haven't been getting. So I keep putting peppers in my refrigerator, thinking that I'll be able to use them soon. But then the tomatoes have been slow in coming and sparse, and then I remember how much time it takes to prepare something like soft tacos what with the cutting up each individual vegetable for toppings, etc.
So I decided to give away some peppers, but that meant I had to actually take stock of what I had. This was easier said than done. The picture on the right shows a small sampling of the bunches of peppers I've been receiving lately. As you can see, starting from the left there are bell peppers, some kind of chiles that look like Anaheims, a darker set of peppers, a few little jalapenos, and a reddish-orange looking pepper.
I knew what to expect from the bell peppers and the jalapenos, but I am new to the Anaheim peppers and the rest. It turns out the dark green peppers are
extremely spicy, but the lone orange pepper was very mild (go figure.) The Anaheims I was told were also mild, but I had mixed results. So when preparing a meal that needed peppers (usually mild) I would grab a few Anaheim peppers, open them up, and taste a sliver. 50% of the time they were perfectly mild and easy to use, the other 50% of the time they were
AHH MY TONGUE IS BURNING hot. But they all looked the same so I couldn't tell in advance. My solution was to chop up the spicy ones and freeze them for later use before pulling out another pepper for experimental spice determination in the hopes I'd find one suitable for the dish I was preparing. Using this method I was able to go through peppers twice as fast as I expected - because I was storing half of them in my freezer.
My pepper dish this week was a great white chili (recipe follows). I made it for a family get together and Craig insisted we had to bring half of it home so he could have it for lunches. Of course, there was none left to bring home (in part because my father snitched a bowlful for
his lunch!) so I had to make it again.
Recipe for Week 15:
-----White Chili-----
1 lb white beans, cooked
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium sweet or mild peppers, diced (hot peppers may be used as desired)
1 T. cumin
1 t. oregano
1 t. black pepper
1 T. lime juice
3 c. chicken broth
1 c. medium salsa
grated cheddar
sour cream
Saute onions and garlic in 2 T oil until cooked through and starting to brown. Combine onions, chicken, beans, peppers, cumin, oregano, pepper, lime, salsa, and broth in a large saucepan. Heat until boiling, then simmer 30 minutes. Serve with grated cheddar and sour cream.
squash: Buttercup. This looks nothing like a buttercup in my opinion - we can start with the fact that it is green, not yellow; and warty, not soft. But I didn't make the rules, so we'll call it a buttercup.
