My First Harvest! -- And CSA Week #3

Last week was very exciting as we are finally starting to get some veggies in our raised bed!  I am especially excited for the turnips and arugula because we started them from seed.  I have honestly never grown something from seed.  So amazing to see this itsy bitsy fleck because a giant leafy plant!  Also, my tomato plants are HUGE! Around 6 ft I would guess.  Each day when I go out there, I am stunned by how much they have grown.  My tomato cages are probably too small but I can't do anything about that now.  Just something to keep in mind for next year.  We have a few little green tomatoes but nothing ripe yet.

First I will show you some pictures of our CSA and my harvest.  Then there are 2 meals that I am very proud of at the bottom.  Enjoy!

CSA Week #3: Lettuce, Sugar Snap Peas, Cilantro, Strawberries, Garlic Scapes, Baby Turnips, Radishes, Mustard Greens and Fennel

Here is the line up of my herbs -- I had cilantro until this week when I needed to harvest is all since it bolted. -- Basil, Green Onions, Chives, Mint, Parsley, Thyme and Dill

First turnips!  Can't believe these were just little seeds at the beginning of May.  I pulled them early because I like both baby and regular turnips.

I also harvested a TON of arugula and our first peppers; Serrano and Banana

Now that I had all of this fabulous food, it was time to may something tasty with it.  The night I harvested all of the arugula, I just had to use it for dinner.  How neat to think that your food was in the ground only minutes before eating it!  Can't get much more fresh than that!   I made an arugula salad with roasted grape tomatoes topped with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and a side of burrata.  I made this again the next day and added roasted mushrooms as well which I really liked.  Now, sadly besides the arugula nothing else it local but I am going to make this all again soon when I can use my own tomatoes and make my own burrata.
Quick tangent...Burrata is unbelievable.  If you have never had it, PLEASE try it the next time you see it on a menu or at your grocery store.  Every time I eat it, I thank the cheese-gods for its existence.  It is seriously a religious experience for me.  Its super creamy curd stuffed inside a fresh mozzarella outside.  Just so decadent!  I got a cheese making kit for Christmas two years ago and haven't used it yet.  My hope is I can figure out how to make burrata instead of just ricotta and mozzarella separately.

Arugula with roasted tomatoes and burrata!

YAY!  Baby turnips!  That means I get to make my favorite recipe; Braised Baby Turnips.  I know I have posted this the last two years, but I have to post it again!  They are just so delicious. And the reason for the name of my blog.  I used both my turnips and the ones from the CSA.  The ones from the CSA seemed better for this since mine are really supposed to be picked when they are bigger but it was still good. Note: instead of herbed de provence, I always used thyme because I love the flavor and I can pick it fresh off my plant.

http://www.sassyradish.com/2008/06/braised-baby-turnips/

Braised Baby Turnips in olive oil and lemon juice

Our whole meal was Seared Scallops with Chimichurri, sauteed Boy Choy, braised Baby Turnips, Brazillian Cheese bread and cantaloupe.  For the Chimichurri, I used my whole cilantro plant because it started to bolt.  I love this sauce to brighten any meat, or mixed into cream cheese and smeared on a bagel.  The bok choy is sauteed with green onions from my garden and ginger in olive oil.  At the end I just added a splash of mirin, soy sauce and sesame oil.  Finally, I must mention the Brazilian Cheese bread.  I am obsessed with these little cheesy morsels!  They are actually frozen but they are from a small company in Neenah, WI.  I first tried them as a sample at the grocery store where I actually got to meet the owner.  She was so nice and her product was delicious!  Now, we always have a bag of these in the freezer.  They are a perfect companion to any meal that just needs "something else."  They also always seen to impress guests.  And one more plus, they are gluten free!

Chimichurri Recipe -->  http://eclecticrecipes.com/cilantro-chimichurri
Brazilian Bread -->  http://saborzan.com/

Sunday Dinner

Cooking Up a Storm

Well, it's official.  I love cooking.  Each night this week I have come home from work and cooked up a storm.  Monday I made scones, just because they sounded good.  Last night after making dinner for myself, I decided to make a Lovage Soup to use up the herb from the CSA.  And tonight I made a quick sauce to use this weekend  as well as a big orzo dish for dinner.  The dog is all out of sorts because he doesn't understand why I am spending so much more time in the kitchen and not petting him.  It's great having more free time this summer so I can do what I love so much!

LOVAGE SOUP

Lovage is an herb that is very similar to the leafy tops of celery.  I had never had it before but after googling it, a potato-based soup seemed like the best recipe to try it.  This soup tastes very homey and comforting.  I like how the texture is somewhere between brothy soup and a creamy soup.  I decided to add orzo to mine which I think was a necessary addition to add some substance.

http://nourishedkitchen.com/lovage-soup/

Boiling down the potatoes in chicken stock

Not the best picture, but a cup all ready to go to work with me the next day

PARMA AND SPINACH ORZO

The other day I was going through all of my Pinterest recipes noting that I never try any of them.  I ran across this one and thought it would be perfect for using up the last of my Spinach from my CSA.  Pretty basic but tasty. This made be realize I don't eat enough orzo.  What a great little pasta!

http://damndelicious.net/2014/02/10/parmesan-spinach-orzo/

Coming Up:  Pictures of this week's CSA, as well as my first harvest from my garden!

It Begins: CSA Weeks #1 and #2

Here are some pictures of my fresh local food from this past week!  Enjoy!

CSA Week #1: Rhubarb, Swiss Chard, Radishes (very spicy!), and Spinach.  A nice small spring box to ease into the CSA.

CSA Week #2: Swiss Chard, Mixed Greens, Radishes, Baby Turnips, Lovage, Baby Bok Choy and Strawberries.  Great Spring box!

My new raised bed! (Thanks to my dad!)  2 Cherry Tomato plants on the left, turnips along the back, carrots in the middle, peppers in the front and arugula on the right.

Breakfast on Sunday -- Eggs Benedict!  Madison Sourdough Country bread topped with Asparagus from the Dane County Farmer's Mkt, Sunny-sided up egg, bacon from Lodi and Hollandaise sauce.  Farm-Fresh strawberries on the side. 

Strawberries from the farm across the street for my work.  They were still warm from the sun!

I'm Back!!

Well, I’m back!  I first feel I need to apologize for my year hiatus.  I had all intentions to keep my blog going last year but it just didn’t happen.  First, we bought a new house.  With the new house came LOTS of big projects.  I honestly spent every waking moment that I wasn’t at work, working on the house.  We painted 8 rooms, tamed the garden, updated the kitchen with fresh paint and hardware on the cabinets, removed paneling, removed carpet from the stairs and so much more.  Sometimes I look around our house and forget all of the stuff we have already done.  Second, I started a new job right when we bought the house.  My new job is fabulous and I have WAY more free time but I no longer have my ½ day Fridays in the summer.  And those ½ day Fridays were primarily dedicated to writing the blog.  Without them, I was a little lost on when I had time to sit down and do it.  People may not know this about me, but writing really doesn’t come naturally for me.  It doesn’t just flow out.  It takes a lot of time and thought which means each week I was spending 1-2 hours to just recap what I made and try to write something a little witty.  Finally, one HUGE factor on why I didn’t continue the blog last summer is it did what it was supposed to.  I started the blog for myself.  A place for me to keep notes and recipes of what I made in the past.  What I liked and what I didn’t.  Last summer I found myself time and time again going back to the blog and making the same recipes as last year.  I greatly enjoyed it but I didn’t think it would be any fun for someone who was reading to see the exact same recipe as last year. 

With that being said, I am starting back up but with a slightly different format.  I will still take pictures of my CSA each week so everyone can see what I am getting; see what is in season.  I will not be recapping exactly what I do with every item each week.  Instead, I will focus on all local food I am eating.  Food I am getting from my CSA, farmer’s market and even the grocery store that is local.  Each week, I hope to post a 1-2 meals I have made that are especially inspiring and made of mainly local food.  I plan on posting some pictures, the recipes, and if I know them, the farms everything has come from.  I truly love my CSA.  I am excited every Thursday when I get to pick it up, but it’s not the only way to eat fresh local food.  It’s not the only way to support your local farmers.  And it’s not the only thing we eat. 

Also, the month of August the blog will be hijacked to document my month long European adventure.  I am fortunate enough that my husband’s company “pays” for a 4 week vacation to anywhere in the world.  (I use pays loosely because the reimbursement is still taxed).  We have decided to enjoy these wonderful 4 weeks in Europe, specifically Zurich, Monaco, Italy, Bratislava, Budapest and Croatia.  Many people of requested to see what we are doing while we are there.  As long as we have internet, I am hoping to post pictures from each day as well as a quick bullet point of what we did.  Nothing too elaborate since I want to spend my time relaxing and enjoy the culture (read: food and drink), not struggling to find the right words. 

I hope people are too disappointed with the change but I think this will be much more manageable for me.  I am excited to share all of the local food in our area.  And I encourage everyone to go out to their own farmer’s markets.  Try some that was just picked that day.  Try something new that don’t even know what to do with it or how it tastes.  You may surprise yourself, just as I did with turnips.

P.S. I plan on posting my first 2 CSA photos last today along with a few others.