Week 14 Maple Creek Farm CSA 2009 - September 16, 2009

Week 14 Maple Creek Farm CSA 2009 - September 16, 2009

Here is what we got this week and how I plan to use it:

Apples - Will eat for snacks for the week.
Tomatoes - the kids ate them for dinner
Potatoes - Save for cooking...maybe some potato soup?
Purple "Green" Bean - Will serve with dinner.
Beets - Cut them up and using them for three different projects
Cabbage - Some Soup? Our babysitter gave us her leftover ham bone, will make some yummy soup for a chilly fall.
Peppers - Not sure...Ideas anyone. Toddlers aren't big on spicy.
Purple Onions - Will use for cooking
Mystery Greens - I emailed Michele and she said they are mustard greens. Maybe these are Kale? I emailed iasmindecordoba, another blogger who gets the Maple Creek Farm Share, and she is thinking it is Kale too. It is much lighter and thinner than the Kale we've been getting, but I know I'll be making Kale chips out of this if it is, because we are addicted to them! I need to look up how to use them.
Watermelon - We ate it all in one night --- it was good!

3 Uses for One Bunch of Beets

3 Uses for Your Beets, originally uploaded by HiMalta.

Today we got beets in our share. I cut them up into their three parts; the beets, the greens, and the stems.

• The beets I'll roast and then cook into something.
• The greens I'll blanch and freeze for winter use in a lasagna
• The stems I boiled in water, strain out and use the dyed water to make a natural dye for my kids Play-Doh.

Disney's Family Fun magazine had a recipe for make your own dough that uses natural coloring to color the Play-Doh-like mixture, something I have been looking for for a long time.

Here is the Play-Doh recipe:
1 cup flour
3/8 cup salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Natural Dye

Natural Play-Doh Color Options:
Brown - 3/8 plus one tablespoon hot water and 4 tablespoons cocoa powder.
Fuchsia - 3/8 cup beet juice
Orange - 3/8 cup how water and 1 tablespoon paprika
Yellow - 3/8 cup water and 1 tablespoon turmeric

Week 13 Summary & Review

Heating Up Leftover Lasagna with Beet Greens.

Here is what I did with last week's share:

Cabbage - Cabbage Salad with lemon juice
Kale - Kale Chips
Watermelon - Ate for snacks through the week.
2 melons - I cut them up and my husband and I ate them for lunch
Pepper - Stuffed Peppers with quinoa and ground beef.
Tomato - Bruchetta
Squash - Shredded it and made muffins for my son's snacks for school.
Apples - snacks. We had a playgroup on Saturday, and made some caramel apple dip.
Eggplant - just roasted it tonight. They were really small, so I will probably just chop it up and add it to something...pasta sauce, a bean salad?
Corn - served with dinner.
Basil - used in bruchetta
Potatoes - stored for cooking

Dairy Free Caramel Apple Dip

Dairy Free Caramel Apple Dip Recipe

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

12 ounces of coconut milk (not light)

1/4 cup dark corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Mix the sugar, cornstarch and 1/4 cup of the coconut milk in a pan over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.

2. Add the rest of the milk and the corn syrup. Cook until it starts to bubble. Let it bubble for 2 minutes.

3. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla.

4. Let it cool. You can store it in the fridge for a couple of days.

How to Cook Eggplant

eggplant, originally uploaded by specialkrb.

Eggplant started appearing in our share this week, so I've been researching how to cook eggplant. I've cooked with it before, but never been that happy with the results, so I decided to do some research into what I might be doing wrong -- mine was always mushy.

I came across the two videos below on eggplant from Alton Brown. After watching them, I decided to make the Baba Ghannouj recipe.

The main Eggplant Cooking Tips I picked up from him are:

• Eggplants are berries
• The bigger an eggplant gets the more seeds it has; the more seeds it has, the more bitter it is.
• If you are buying a bigger eggplant, buy the male version (circle bottom) not the female version (oval bottom) because the males have less seeds.
• To store for 1-2 days, place in the coolest spot in your kitchen.  If longer, top shelf of your fridge wrapped in plastic wrap.
• You can freeze eggplant.
• To prevent mushy eggplant, you can break the cell walls, but putting some salt on each side and letting them sit.

Part One:

Part Two:

I am pretty sure that these are the two peelers he suggests in the last video:

Oxo Good Grips Swivel Peeler and Oxo Good Grips i-Series Y Peeler

btw... we don't have cable, so I don't watch Alton Brown's show (ever) but I can find most of the shows on YouTube and watch them there. This month he is coming to the local university. I can't wait to go see him!

Week 13 Maple Creek Farm CSA 2009 - September 9, 2009

Week 13 Maple Creek Farm CSA 2009 - September 9, 2009

Here is what I plan to do with this week's share:

Cabbage - Cabbage Salad with lemon juice
Kale - Kale Chips
Watermelon - eating for snacks
2 melons - I cut them up and my husband and I ate them for lunch
Pepper - Stuffed Pepper
Tomato - Bruchetta
Squash - not sure yet
Apples - snacks. We have playgroup on Saturday, might make some caramel apple dip and bring it.
Eggplant - not sure yet
Corn - served with dinner.
Basil - used in bruchetta
Potatoes - stored for cooking

Week 12 Summary and Review

Here is how I used last week's share:

2 Watermelons - Served for Leonard's 10 Years in the Mitten family get-together.
Tomatoes - Made a quiche and put one in it. I used the other one to make some Bruchetta for us for lunch one day. Walked over to the Give Thanks Bakery to get a fresh baguette to go with it.
Corn - Served over 2 dinners.
Onions - Store for cooking
Beets - I roasted them and frozen them for use during winter

Mini Tomatoes - my daughter ate 1/2 the package while I was cooking dinner, l used the 4 that were left in the aforementioned bruchetta.
Cabbage - Coleslaw
Green Pepper - Still haven't used them, making stuffed peppers tomorrow night.
Beet Greens - Ahhhh!!! What am I going to do with these things? HELP!
Squash - Still need to use them up. Might prepare them for freezing for winter.

Week 12 Maple Creek Farm CSA 2009 - September 2, 2009

Week 12 Maple Creek Farm CSA 2009 - September 2, 2009,

Here is what we got this week and how I plan to use it.

2 Watermelons - Will serve for Leonard's 10 Years in the Mitten family get-together.
Tomatoes - Made a quiche and put one in it. I have two friends who are Greek and both of them have taught me how to cook up tomatoes and eggs together and we've been doing that a lot lately. Probably will do that with the one I have left.
Corn - Hi! Served half for dinner last night, the other half tonight.
Onions - Store for cooking
Beets - Beet Salad or Beet Risotto. I roasted them last night when I got them, I just need to do something with them.
Mini Tomatoes - my daughter ate 1/2 the package while I was cooking dinner, will probably throw some in a salad during the week.
Cabbage - Coleslaw
Green Pepper - Hmmm...I need to start using them. This is my third one. I know....I'll stuff them!
Beet Greens - Maybe in a lasagna?
Squash - Not sure yet.

10 Years in the Mitten

10 Years ago this week, my husband moved to Michigan from Malta.

To celebrate we are having a little party with the family. Since we are, in a way, celebrating Michigan and the opportunities it presented, we made it a Made in Michigan party. Everything I'm making and other people are bringing are going to be Michigan products.

Here is what I have on the menu so far (it is still a work in progress)

Drinks:

• Michigan Wine (plan on hitting up Whole Foods to get some Michigan wine recommendations)
• Michigan Beer (same Whole Foods Plan)
• Faygo (pop makes an entrance about once a year at our house, I guess this will be it)

Appetizer Snacks:

• Michigan Apples with Carmel Dipping Sauce (I'll make it from Morley caramels)
• Better Made Potato Chips (see note about pop, same applies here)

Dinner:

• Coleslaw (Cabbage from our CSA share)
• Watermelon (from my share)
• Kowalski Hot Dogs
• Burgers (I'll stop at the Rochester Farmer's Market and get some grass-fed beef from a local farm)
• Buns from the Italian Bakery
• Pickels, made them myself from Dill and Cucumbers from the Lake Orion Farmer's Market

Dessert:

• My grandma is making a Traverse City Cherry pie
• My mom is brining Guernsey Ice Cream and Sanders Hot Fudge
• Coffee. I think I will get some Zingerman's roasted coffee for the occasion

I think I need another side dish for dinner. I thought about corn, but that is kind of hard to cook and have ready all at once for a bigger crowd. Leaning toward potato salad because I have a lot of those left from the last couple of weeks of the share.

Week 11 Summary and Review

Farro, Spinach and Mushroom Goodness

Spinach - Made this recipe from Whole Foods. It is fantastic and worthy of any high-end restaurant. It was really good. I used Turkey Sausage instead of pork.
Lettuce - Had my parents over and made a salad to go with our pasta.
Tomatoes - Put it in the salad and have one left.
Pepper - Still waiting for some inspiration... not quite sure, maybe a salad
Onions - Store for cooking
Melon - Dessert for when my parents come over. This was the first thing we tasted all season that wasn't that good. It wasn't bad, just bland.
Zucchini - Soup tomorrow.
Corn - We had it over the course of 2 dinners.
Potatoes - Store for cooking.
Cabbage - Made a coleslaw and brought to a party.