Asian Salad

I admit, I'm beginning to feel panic, and we're only two weeks in. My next delivery is coming tomorrow, and I still haven't used my kale or rhubarb! The pressure is mounting...

In an attempt to finish up our red romaine lettuce and green boston lettuce, I made an interesting salad tonight for our dinner.

Asian Salad

- Greens (I used romaine and boston, but you could use any salad green)
- 1 can mandarin orange segments, drained
- 1 can sliced water chestnuts
- 1 or 2 scallions, sliced thinly
- crispy ginger-garlic wonton strips (I think these are made by Fresh Express - available packaged like croutons)
- Paul Newman's low-fat Sesame-Ginger dressing

Place washed greens in a large serving bowl. Top with scallions, oranges, water chestnuts and sprinkle with wonton strips. The Paul Newman dressing goes great with this salad. Aside from the time consuming process of washing the greens, this was very easy to make.

A Class Act - Golden Earthworm

I have to mention this... Last Wednesday when I went to pick up my box the first time, I was surprised to find that it hadn't arrived yet. I came back a few hours later and it STILL hadn't arrived. I spoke to a nice woman who was also waiting who told me that she had been part of the CSA last year and they were never late. While I was debating going home and coming back for a third time, the truck arrived.

Was it a little bit of an inconvenience to have to come back twice. I suppose. But life is like that. People hit traffic. Trucks break down. Things happen. I wasn't going to hold it against them.

So imagine my pleasant surprise when later that day we get a very nice email from the farmers (Matt, James and Maggie) apologizing for the delay and attaching a $10 gift certificate to use at their stand in the farmer's market. Thank you! That was extremely considerate and left me thinking about what a class act they are. Now all I have to do is manage to get myself out of bed early enough to make it to the farmer's market at 8 am one of these Saturdays. :)

Swiss Chard, Garbanzos and Pasta

This week, our delivery included some beautiful deep green swiss chard with colorful yellow stems. I decided to combine it with chick peas (aka Garbanzo beans) in a pasta dish. This dish SHOULD serve 6-8 people. I'm embarassed to admit that the three of us ate almost the entire thing! (Guess I should have made a fresh salad to go with it!) The recipe is below. Note that I didn't measure anything, so I'm just "guesstimating" on some of the amounts.

Swiss Chard, Garbanzos and Pasta

• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• olive oil
• lemon juice
• 1 bunch swiss chard, washed and chopped
• 1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 pound linguini or any shape pasta
• hot pepper flakes
• salt, pepper, spices

Cook pasta according to directions in a large pot. Meanwhile, heat a large pan (preferably one with a cover) over medium heat. Add olive oil (somewhere around 3 tbsp). Add garlic and as many hot pepper flakes as you are comfortable with (I did about 3 or 4 shakes). Saute the garlic until softened, stirring occasionally. Add the can of garbanzo beans, a few squirts of lemon juice (depending on how lemony you like it) and the chard. Cover the pan and let cook for a bit, stir occasionally. You'll find that after about 5 minutes the chard has shrunk to about a 10th of its original size.

When pasta is cooked, drain it and return it to the large pot. Stir in some olive oil (did I mention that you should always use the BEST quality virgin olive oil - it does make a difference). Add some salt, pepper, and any spices you like (I suggest oregano, marjoram, herbs de provence, etc). I used a Mediterranean salt mix that was excellent.

Stir the chard/garbanzo mix into the pasta and add extra spices, lemon juice and/or olive oil to taste.

I wanted to get a picture of this dish, but we couldn't stop eating long enough to get the camera. Maybe next time!

Cooking Kale

Kale is not something that I've cooked before, so it presents an interesting challenge. I did some research on recipes and found several that sound good. The kale in our box this week is beautiful - deep green, firm leaves with long stems. Here are links to some recipes that may help you figure out to do with your kale this week.

• Top 20 Fresh Kale Recipes from All Recipes
• Roasted Kale (Though I don't feel like turning on my oven when it's hot, this recipe is tempting. I've found that ANY vegetable tastes great roasted.)
• Kale recipes from Epicurious. If you are not familiar with Epicurious, you should take some time to explore the site. It has an incredible warehouse of recipes of all sorts.
• Sauteed Kale
• Seven Kale Recipes from Around the World. This is really neat - especially if you like trying dishes from other countries. Included are kale recipes from China, Austria, and Italy.
• Crispy Kale - wow, this is a new one. A sort of roasted crunchy kale. Sounds great!
• Colcannon - Irish mashed potato and kale recipe.
• Bean Soup with Kale
  

If anyone tries any of these recipes, please comment and let us know how they turned out!

Chard and Cannellini Beans

My daughter Emily reminded me that last year I made a great dish that used Swiss Chard. (She remembered it with great fondness and is hoping that I'll use the new batch of chard that came in the box this week to recreate the dish). Do you have any chard that you don't know how to cook? Try this...

Chard and Cannellini Beans

- 1 large bunch of chard (green or swiss)
- 1 15-oz can of cannellini (white) beans
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 clove of garlic, sliced thinly
- crushed red pepper flakes (from ¼ tsp to ½ tsp - depending on your taste)
- salt and pepper

Wash chard well and trim the very ends of the stalks off. Slice stalks into ½ inch pieces, and chop leaves into large pieces. Boil about a cup of water in a pot. Add chard, cover and cook for about 5 minutes until wilted and reduced to about a tenth the size. Drain. In a skillet, heat the olive oil. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant. Meanwhile, drain and rinse the beans. Add the chard to the garlic and oil and gently sauté for a few minutes. Add the beans, salt and pepper, and cook for a few minutes more, until beans are heated through and flavors are blended. Serve as a topping for pasta or as a side dish.

Makes 4 servings. Per serving - 230 calories, 7 g fat, 8 g fiber.

June 11, Our Second Box

I had to go to the pick up spot twice to get this box because there was some delay in the delivery, but it was worth it. While I was standing outside, waiting for the delivery man to unload the boxes, I started talking to one of the other CSA'ers. So far, I have to say that they are a great crowd. They all seem very nice, intelligent, interested in cooking and in organic produce, and concerned about the environment. That's just an extra plus.

In our box this week is:

• Kale (I've never cooked this before - this should be interesting)
• Rhubarb (ditto)
• Swiss Chard (yum)
• Red Romaine Lettuce (gorgeous!)
• Green Boston Lettuce
• Broccoli (but sadly, the farmers had a problem with the broccoli and lost a lot of the crop, so we just got one little piece. We sort of laughed when we saw it because we couldn't imagine how the three of us would get a taste of it from that little piece. There may be more later in the season).

I was hoping for strawberries, but it seems we may get those next week instead. I already made a giant salad using some of the leftover arugula from last week, the red romaine lettuce and the Boston lettuce, topped with chopped apples and croutons and dressed in the lemon dijon dressing.

Helpful Greens Washing Tip

It's very important to wash greens (especially spinach and arugula) very well or you'll have the unpleasant experience of eating a gritty salad. I've found that the best way to be sure that ALL sand and dirt is off of greens is to do the following:

• Fill a large pot (5 or 6 quart depending on how much greens you are washing) with clean cool water.
• Drop your greens into the water and gently swish them around for a few minutes.
• Lift the greens out of the water and place them (temporarily) in a salad spinner or colander.
• Dump the water in the pot and rinse it to get rid of any remaining dirt.
• Refill pot and repeat procedure.
• After the second dunking, put the greens in a salad spinner, or dry gently in a clean dish towel.

This works very well for me -- I haven't had a sandy salad yet.