Chump, Chive & Kale

I'm drawn to cheesy recipes like a moth to a flame, or Lindsay Lohan to meth.

We got a metric ton of kale, and a CSA-suggested recipe was Raw Kale Salad with Gouda, Pear, and Walnuts. Gouda is one of my most favorite cheeses, so hell yeah I made it.

I need to take food photography lessons from wholeliving.com. Look at this photo. Wooden bowl! Carefully placed matching utensils! Slightly rumpled tablecloth! And are those flowers in the salad? I expect nothing less from Martha Stewart.

Now here's mine:



Maybe I should buy a tablecloth.

Something I need to work on: Portion control. I'm super paranoid that our vegetables are going to go bad before I use them, and one day I will open the fridge to a bevy of mold, slime, and bugs. Shut up, bugs can get in the fridge. I made two BIG bowls of this salad (see?) the day before my husband left on a 5-day business trip.

I tried so hard to eat it all, I really did.  It was so tasty, but just too much.  After a few days, the sliced pears turned brown and the cheese got slimy.  Next time, I will prepare the salad in smaller portions as I go. Kale's pretty hardy; it was fine at the end of the week despite the grody toppings.

The recipe's linked above, but for the lazy:

Raw Kale Salad with Gouda, Pear, and Walnuts

1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 bunch of kale (about 1 1/4 lbs (I had a LOT more)), tough stems removed and torn into bite-sized pieces
2 1/2 oz goat's milk gouda, cut in 1/2 by 1/4 inch pieces (How snobby! Regular cow's milk gouda is fine, and cube that sucker all you want (AND ADD MORE CHEESE).)
6 chives cut into inch-long pieces
1 Anjou pear, halved, cored, and very thinly sliced crosswise

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place walnuts on rimmed baking sheet and bake until golden brown, tossing once during baking, 8-10 minutes.
2. In a medium bowl (or two, if you're me!), whisk together vinegar and oil; season with salt and pepper.  
3. Add kale, cheese, chives, walnuts and pears.
4. Toss to combine.
5. EAT.

Doing the carrot conga

Carrots galore!  We got a big bag of 'em this week, and we haven't started on our big bag from last week! 



Fair readers, I beseech you! What are your favorite carrot recipes?

Chilled Cucumber-Mint Soup and Greek Salad: 99 problems and a cuke ain't one

Remember all those cucumbers we got in my last entry? Multiply that by 4 or 5 and that's our fridge the last few weeks. My husband actually ate a cucumber for dinner one night while I was out.

Having a surplus of one vegetable (or fruit, if you're one of THOSE people) forces you to get creative. Thankfully, Justine at our CSA does that for me. She e-mails us yummy recipes each week.

My first cucumber experiment was Chilled Cucumber-Mint Soup (scroll down about halfway to get the recipe). It was also my first go-round with our big food processor. Woo!

Chilled Cucumber-Mint Soup with Yogurt or Sour Cream
Serves 4-6

4 cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped (about 4 cups)
1 to 2 cups water
2 cups plain yogurt (You can use 1 cup plain yogurt and 1 cup of sour cream instead. I used 2 cups of nonfat Greek yogurt!)
1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
fresh mint, several leaves (Don't go too crazy, a little goes a long way.)
2 tbsp fresh dill OR 1 tsp dried dill
1 tbsp honey
1 to 2 tbsp salt
2 scallions, finely chopped (about 1/3 cup)

1. Combine the chopped cucumber, 1 cup water, yogurt, garlic, mint, dill, honey, and 1 tbsp salt in a blender or food processor.
   
   
2. Puree the ingredients, adding more water until the soup is a consistency you like. Season with more salt to taste.
   (Side note: Cucumbers are really watery. You can probably do without the extra water, unless you like soupy soup. Whatever floats your boat!)
   
3. Transfer soup to large bowl and chill for several hours. Garnish with chopped scallions.

I didn't chill it for long because I was hungry! It hung out in the fridge while I made the Greek salad, which took about 10 minutes. It was flavorful and refreshing. I only used 4 mint leaves, which were enough to get a taste, but not overpower. Husband could taste the dill (which he's not a big fan of), but the combination of everything else made him not mind as much. Small victories!

However, it definitely tasted better the next day after being chilled. Recipes are meant to be followed sometimes, I guess :P

The soup took care of half of our cucumbers, so I threw together a Greek salad to use the rest. Super easy.

Good for You Greek Salad
Serves 6

3 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano (Surprised it didn't ask for fresh, but I didn't have fresh anyway.)
salt and pepper to taste (Unnecessary! The feta is salty enough.)
1 cup crumbled feta cheese (Get the nonfat kind if you can!)
6 black Greek olives, pitted and sliced (6?! Screw that. Throw in as many as you want! I got half a pound from the supermarket's olive bar.)

1. In shallow salad bowl, or on serving platter, combine tomatoes, cucumber, and onion.
2. Sprinkle with oil, lemon juice, oregano, and salt and pepper to taste. (I'm serious, you really don't need salt.)
3. Sprinkle feta cheese and olives over salad.
4. Serve!

No feta yet.

Unlike the soup, the salad tastes better if eaten right away. The leftovers were ok, but the tomatoes were mushy. I never cared for cold tomatoes though, so it could just be a preference thing. Throw some more olives and feta in and you won't notice :)

And with that, cucumber dinner is served!


Of course I used the one chipped plate for this picture.

This was the fastest I'd ever turned out a meal. Granted they weren't the most difficult of recipes, but I'm admittedly slow when it comes to preparing. I need to learn to not care as much about how big my chopped pieces and other little details are.

CSA share, aka "Is that a cucumber in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"

Whoa, nelly! Check out our CSA share this week:



From top left, clockwise:

• lettuce
• broccoli
• peas (snow or sugar snap, not sure yet)
• spinach
• basil
• cucumbers
• yellow summer squash
• zucchini
• turnips (in middle)
• CHERRIES 

The cherries are sweet and firm, the best kind.  Nothing worse than tart or mushy cherries.  I forsee a pie in our future, assuming we don't eat them all first.

And holy cucumbers, Batman!  We got seven, varying in size from "standard Kosher dill" to "five dollar footlong."  The girth on this bad boy would make Jenna Jameson blush. Maybe.



Our CSA does an awesome job of providing recipes to go with each share, so I'm eager to try the Chilled Cucumber-Mint Soup. I may also make a salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, and fresh mozzarella. Why not, right? I will also do all of this tomorrow, since I'll be out of town Friday-Monday. Wish me luck!

Relucant Domestic: 1, Broccoli Raab: 0 (cheese & bacon: infinity)

We joined a local CSA, which started up a few weeks ago. So far, we've gotten some yummy vegetables! It's a lot of food for just the two of us, but we make it work. We usually eat salads for dinner, so thanks to our shares, we haven't had to buy leafy greens or other salad veggies.

We work the other vegetables into our weekly lunch routine, which goes like this:
1. Cook a boat load of meat (usually chicken breasts).
2. Cook whatever veggies are on hand (blanch and freeze what we're not going to use).
3. Season appropriately.
4. Bring lunch-sized portions for lunch during the week.

Since we're not going out for lunch, we're saving a lot of money! Unfortunately, it can get boring after a while.

This week, we switched it up. We got broccoli raab and Swiss chard in our share, and I'm honestly not a big fan of either. What to do? The only recipe on allrecipes.com that uses both is Pasta with Greens and Sir Laurier. Pasta, pancetta and cheese? Yes, please!

When you decide to cook something at 9PM on a Friday, your grocery options are limited. The local supermarket had neither pancetta nor the mysterious Sir Laurier d’Arthabaska (which, by the way, WHAT?). I was so hopeful about the cheese, being only 4 hours from Quebec. Anyway, we improvised. We got bacon, and after consulting the internets, Crème de Brie.

We doubled the recipe, and threw in some fennel (also from the CSA). It came out great! It's not swimming in cheese, but it's enough to mask the broccoli raab's bitterness. The bacon helps, too :) So not the healthiest recipe, definitely too much to eat every day for a week, but a well-deserved splurge! Sorry no pics, I'll try to do better next time.

The CSA fruit share starts up next week, and I can't wait! I have a hard time eating fruit from the supermarket, and we've been out of town so much we've been missing the farmers markets. If the strawberries we got our first week were any indication, I think I'm in for a fruitful (har har) summer.