CSA week 4

this week

before picking up our share

we headed to lunch at pizza house

we still had time to kill after lunch

so we took a walk

through the university of michigan's

law quad

i love walking through the quad

so quite

its hard to believe state street

is just on the other side of the buildings!

it brought back so many college memories

and it was fun to take the boys there!

after our walk we headed to pick up our share

some different things this week!

leaf lettuce (i think)
green cabbage

i keep waiting for a baby to pop out

can you tell i was a cabbage patch fan?

swiss chard

radicchio

onions

beets

i also picked up more tomatoes and mozzarella

and homemade pasta from here

here is what we had for dinner thursday night:

caprese salad

pasta with chard

for the caprese salad

slice the tomatoes

slice the mozzarella

chiffonade the basil

lay it in a pile

roll it up

thinly slice

arrange the tomatoes and mozzarella

sprinkle with salt and pepper

sprinkle the basil on top

drizzle the olive oil and balsamic reduction

(or just plain balsamic vinegar)

for the pasta

cook pasta according to package directions

2 cloves garlic

mince the garlic

i used 4 onions from my share

chop the onions

chop chard

wash the chard

heat olive oil in a pan

add garlic, onions, salt and pepper

saute until soft

add the chard

pour in a good splash of white wine

cover and turn off heat
a sneak peak in the pan!

toss pasta with chard mixture

sprinkle generously with parmesan

and dinner is served!

as of a few weeks ago, i had no idea how to cook swiss chard

and then my husband's cousin's wife

caroline

shared with me her way of cooking chard

and i LOVED it!

now i can't wait to eat it!

so, if you have steered clear of chard,

go ahead...

give it a try!

CSA dinner and a movie

on monday

we headed to somerset to meet some friends for lunch

i haven't been watching the news very much lately

so imagine our surprise when we walked into the mall

and saw christmas decorations everywhere

in june!

if i had watched the news, i would have known that they were filming

"a very harold and kumar christmas"

it was fun to see a production in filming

and we even caught a glimpse of kumar
the boys were really disappointed that they weren't able to go see santa

when we got home

i started on dinner for daddy

he returned home from a 10 day work trip to scotland

on father's day

and wasn't in the mood for meat and potatoes

which is what i had been planning

but as it turned out

was all he had eaten for 10 days

so...we picked up a pizza for father's day

monday night i when i made my big meal for him

on the menu:

lemon roasted chicken (from this cookbook)

roasted veggies

steamed broccoli

strawberry pie

for the veggies

i started with the spring turnips from our share

peeled and quartered them

some fingerling potatoes that i had

i cut these into 6 pieces each

onions from our share

trimmed

in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper

*i roasted the veggies in a 400 degree oven until they were soft and started to brown

scroll down to see photo

i also steamed the broccoli from our share

here are the roasted veggies
the chicken recipe calls for croutons
so i whipped up a few

the lemon chicken done and ready to carve

our chicken was from two creeks and it was PHENOMENAL!!!!

here was daddy's plate:

is your mouth watering yet??

just wait!

on to dessert!

i used this recipe as a starting point

i baked my crust

*i added this step

i used a hand mixer and mixed 8oz cream cheese

a splash of milk

a sprinkle of sugar

and a drop of vanilla

then i spread it on the cooled pie crust

layered my berries

added the big ones!

poured over the jello/sugar/cornstarch mixture

after it set in the fridge!

(sorry its so dark!)

we had a wonderful dinner

our bellies were full

and we were SO happy to have daddy back

we missed him!

spring pea and garlic scape pesto

looking at our bounty from the market

i realized i had most of the ingredients for

spring pea and garlic scape pesto

which was one of the things the roadhouse chef had made

in his demonstration

the ingredients that i didn't have on hand

(the parmesan cheese and pine nuts)

didn't matter because i was going to freeze this

and i have heard (though not confirmed)

that when freezing pesto

you should leave out the cheese and nuts

perfect!

i started with a big bowl of pea pods

i trimmed the ends
dropped them in simmering water to blanch them

after about 3 minutes

i put them in icy cold water to stop the cooking

i dried them with a towel

chopped them roughly and put them in the food processor

i then chopped my scapes and added those to the peas

i added a generous amount of salt and pepper

pulsed a few times

then slowly drizzled in olive oil

i didn't measure, just until it made a nice paste

i scooped the pesto into little ball jars

labeled it

and i now have 6 jars of pesto in the freezer!

when we are ready to eat it

i plan on defrosting a jar

putting in back in the food processor

adding parmesan, pine nuts, and a little more oil to bring it all together!