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Summer Eats: Week 8-10
Our summer farm season is wrapping up. Two weeks ago we got eggplant, kale, turnips (red and white), carrots, potatoes, a yellow pepper, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and garlic. (Remember how our CSA was hit with terrible hail? More of the plants than we thought are still producing!) This week we received cauliflower, broccoli, onions, garlic, peppers, squash, one cucumber, turnips (and lots of them!) and carrots.
In the past I have had trouble with kale. I’ll eat it, but everyone else (Sam included) found it too bitter. In fact, after our first CSA, Sam’s comment was “too much kale!” and we found a different one that was a little lighter on the greens. But greens are good for us, so I was determined to try again. And I found a winner!
HappyFitMama’s Kale Blueberry Superfood Salad
She says the secrets are cutting out the stem (all the way up the leaf) and working the dressing into the leaves a little bit and letting it sit. I made it about 1.5 hours before we ate. When Momo got home from dance class, she picked all the kale out of the salad and left behind the raspberries. (I used raspberries instead of blueberries.) Can she even be my child? Perhaps not.
At the bookends of the season, I find we have a little bit of lots of different things, but sometimes not large enough quantities to make a main course out of anything. So I like to serve what we call “Potpourri,” or lots of different things on pretty plates. Above you see our popcorn, carrots, yellow squash and zucchini (which some of my kids like with Ranch dressing), bread and jam, Sesame Eggplant Obsession, and a variety of cheeses (they are at the top there, served on a gorgeous cheese board my friend made from a walnut tree that came down from his yard- how cool is that?). My friend Amy says anything tastes better in a margarita glass, and that applies to serving boring supermarket slices cheeses on a handcrafted walnut cheese board, too.
It’s not really a summer food, but I made up a recipe for Roasted Cauliflower Soup, and all my kids will eat it. So here it is. Sorry I don’t know how to make it easy to print. Feel free to cut and paste and adapt to your taste.
Roasted Cauliflower Soup
- 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
- 3 carrots, peeled and cut in 1-inch pieces
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed or diced
- 3 potatoes (Yukon Golds or Reds work well), washed a diced (no need to peel)
- 6 cups chicken stock
Wash and cut one head of cauliflower into florets. Cut 3 carrots into 1 inch pieces. Toss both with a little olive oil; dust with salt and pepper and roast at 425 degrees until they start to darken (for me it was about 20 minutes, but it will depend on how big your pieces are.) You can do this earlier in the week and store them in the fridge, or do it right before you make the soup.
Chop 2 slices of bacon and dice one medium onion. Brown the bacon for a few minutes till it starts to darken and then bottom of the pan is slick, then add the onion and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add 1 clove crushed garlic and sauté until onions and garlic are translucent.
Add 6 cups vegetable or chicken stock, 3 diced potatoes, and the roasted cauliflower and carrots. Bring to a boil and turn down to a simmer. Cook 20-30 minutes or until all the vegetables are very soft. Purée with a hand blender. Salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with crumbled bacon and crusty bread.
Another variation is to add a tart apple (peeled) with the potatoes.
I think that’s it for our Summer Eats Series. I am baking bread again, and the kids are asking for our favorite fall soups again. I hope the end of your summer wraps up well! I’ve added links to my other Summer Eats posts here.
Summer Eats: Week 7
One of our favorite ways to cook vegetables is grilled in packets. So versatile- anything goes, as long as what you put in the packet cooks in approximately the same amount of time- and easy. This week we had Japanese eggplants, red banana peppers, garlic, potatoes, and summer squash, and I chopped it all up, tossed it with olive oil and folded it into packets to grill.
Japanese eggplants. You can leave the skin on. Here you can see that I changed my mind in the middle to switch from rounds to chunks.
Toss it all with evoo, salt & pepper.
Here you can see I added the garlic cloves (peeled) whole, and whatever herbs we got from the farm this week. (I think it was basil and oregano.)
Here is a finished packet, waiting to go on the grill. Note: I spray the inside of the foil with oil just to make sure the food doesn’t stick to it. And I folded down the corner of this packet to distinguish it from the nearly identical packets of potatoes. The potatoes always take the longest to cook.
I will make packets like these with whatever vegetables we have on hand. Onions make everything taste better. And then I grill whatever meat/protein accompaniment I pulled from the freezer or was on sale that week. Tonight it was burgers.
Can I just say that the whole reason I wanted burgers was to eat one with these gorgeous tomatoes on top?
And then, because I am to only tomato-lover around here, I ate the rest of the tomatoes and left the grilled potatoes to them.
Happy eating, friends!
P.S. You can find Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, and Weeks 4-6 of the Summer Eats series here.
Summer Eats: Weeks 4-6
So I’m rocking the summer series here. Our vacation (on which I did NOT cook) threw me off, and the farm’s getting hit with a terrible hail storm threw me off further. Miraculously, we are still receiving food from the farm, so here are some more of our summer meals (though no longer neatly organized by day.) Click here for week 1, week 2 and week 3.
Martha Stewart’s Eggplant Parmesan. My husband LOVES eggplant parm and swears that this recipe (neatly printed and left on the counter for all to see) wasn’t the world’s biggest hint. We had some gorgeous eggplants* from the farm, and I used two of them for this.
Lest you think my children are into my cooking, here’s what my daughter texted to my husband as I was making it:
No photo of the actual meal, though it was good (and pretty healthy, since it was baked instead of fried and I went light on the cheese.)
Pork* Carnitas Tacos with pickled onions* and cojita cheese. These are always a hit, and sometimes (if I pack some of the meat away for the freezer) we have leftovers for a second meal later. Nothing like freezer meals for making the afternoon go better around here!
Whole Roast Chicken with Lemony Broccoli (I used zucchini* and patty pan squash* because that’s what we had, but I’m sure broccoli would be delicious.)
And then with the leftover chicken, I made a pasta salad with chicken, grape tomatoes*, green beans and a mustard-basil vinaigrette. (For the vinaigrette, I mix 2 tsp Dijon mustard, 2 tsp honey, half a teaspoon each of salt and pepper, 1 tsp fresh basil, chopped finely, 1/4 cup evoo and 3 tbsp red wine vinegar.)
Smitten Kitchen just posted a recipe for Eggplant Parmesan Melts– I haven’t made them yet, but I do have one more eggplant* waiting to be used. (Don’t tell my daughter!)
Summer Eats: Week 2
For previous posts in this series, check out Summer Eats, week 1.
Monday: Chicken Fajitas (I slice the meat in thin strips, marinate it in a mixture of chili powder and lime juice in a ratio of 1:2, and stir fry it with red onions* and peppers) with melon*.
Tuesday: Beef Noodle Bowls from Pioneer Woman (I added steamed broccoli* to ours), a beet salad (roasted golden and red beets* drizzled with balsamic glaze and sprinkled with feta cheese) and Special Cake (with zucchini* in it) to celebrate our friend’s engagement. Hooray!
Wednesday: Tacos (it was Takos Tuesday but on a Wednesday). Musk melon* (like a cantaloupe but way tastier) and green beans*.
Thursday: 3 bean salad (with green beans* and hopefully undetected zucchini*) and quiches with our eggs*, and broiled (or grilled works too) apricots* with mascarpone cheese and cinnamon.
Friday: black bean soup with avocado, lime, and corn chips. Musk melon*.
Saturday: sauteed vegetables (zucchini*, fennel*, green beans*, onions*) over pasta.
Sunday: out for a birthday dinner, and at home: birthday cake!
What’s for dinner at your house?
Learning As We Go 