Out of the Box, Part Deux

While I was being all giddy about my first CSA (“farmer’s market”) box, I was not being a good blogger and photographing what I actually did with the contents. So, this post is more “tell” than “show.” I really wanted to go with simple uses of the produce in the box to enjoy the flavors, so you won’t find any fancy cookin’ this time around. Oh, and I promise more food porn going forward, but for now… read on…

Kale and Potatoes
I used the kale and potatoes to make Mark Bittman’s Kale and Potato soup (from How to Cook Everything). The recipe is a super-simple and low-fat take on Portuguese caldo verde. With Bittman’s recipe, you simmer the potato and kale in veggie broth — each vegetable in a separate pot with its own broth — then puree the potato and use it to thicken the kale-broth mixture. With no added fat in the recipe, I felt rather healthy eating this soup, but the recipe was a bit bland. I would make it again with a few modifications: more potato for a thicker soup and more spices… possibly a bit of olive oil added.  The potato and kale flavors came through well enough, but it needed something more to give me that can’t-stop-eating-it experience.

Red Romaine, Persimmons, Apples, Pears… and Those Radishes
When I mentioned the contents of this box to a friend of mine, he said “That just sounds like one big salad to me.” Nothin’ wrong with that — I love salads! For me, making a good salad is a lot like making good chocolates: choose fresh ingredients that taste delicious and that add a variety of flavors and textures. (What do I know about making chocolate? Lots! Check out my previous gig.)

The red romaine was the foundation for my salads, then I just mixed and matched ingredients I had on hand:

• Radishes, potatoes, tuna
• Persimmons, dried cherries, goat cheese, toasted pumkin seeds
• Persimmons, pears, apples, cashews, and a sprinkling of shredded parmesan
• Smoked salmon, pears, goat cheese

You get the idea (and yes, I had a lot of goat cheese on hand)! Needless to say, I didn’t get through all of those radishes before the second box arrived. Which leads me to… tah-da!

The second CSA box in all its glory…

The rundown:
(1) small bunch Nantes carrots
(1) small bunch herbs (sage, oregano, rosemary)
(1) fennel
(1) bunch broccol
(1) butternut squash
(6) Satsuma mandarins
(2) apples
(1) container cranberries

A colorful assortment as we head into Thanksgiving week! Already I’m thinking about roasted veggies with fresh rosemary, maybe even  butternut squash soup garnished with fried sage leaves. First up, I’ll definitely be making my favorite Cranberry-Orange scones. The apples, though, are already gone. My 17-year-old kitty, Dante, absolutely loves apples, so we shared them for breakfast. It’s a good morning when I can share a sweet, organic apple with my favorite boy.