In between making large amounts of food that can be frozen for later in preparation for the baby, we’ve been enjoying the fresh veggies and fruits from our CSA box.

On the plate: Garlic bread, Swiss chard sauteed and covered with buttered toasted breadcrumbs, and baked eggs with creamy leeks. Consensus was that Swiss chard is much tastier with bacon than with breadcrumbs. But that’s probably true of most things.
The creamy leeks with egg was a new recipe as well that turned out surprisingly good. Steve doesn’t like runny eggs and was quite suspicious of the raw-looking egg, but I had cooked the egg to the point where it was nearly crispy on top, so he ate it all!
It’s a pretty easy dish to make…
Baked eggs over creamy leeks

Slice leeks and rinse them very well, then drain. Heat a couple tablespoons of butter in a skillet and cook the leeks over medium heat until they are tender but not super-soft.

Add about a 1/4 cup of heavy cream and sprinkle salt and nutmeg. Cook, stirring, until the cream is slightly reduced.

Generously butter some ramekins or other oven-safe small bowls. Divide the leeks between the bowls (I had enough for two). Break an egg on top and sprinkle salt and pepper. If you want, you can add another tablespoon of cream on top (I ran out, unfortunately) before adding the salt and pepper. Place the ramekins in a baking pan with boiling water going up at least 1/3 of the way of the ramekins. Bake at 350 degrees for at least 8 minutes (egg will be runny) or until desired doneness (I think I baked mine for more like 15-20 minutes to get the egg cooked all the way through).

Warning: This is a surprisingly filling dish!

I’ve decided that I like arugula better cooked than raw — the slightly bitter, peppery taste is a bit too much for me when I have it raw in salads. Sauteeing the arugula mellows out the flavor, plus, it wilts down so that there’s not quite so much of it!
We got a generous bunch of arugula in our box this week, and I used half of it in a made-up combination of ravioli, sausage, and pesto. Delicious! The artichoke wasn’t in our box — I’ve been longing to eat artichokes and got some huge ones at the store.
Ravioli with sausage, arugula, and pesto
- Start boiling water for the ravioli (I used “fresh” store-bought).
- Meanwhile, cook italian sausage in a large skillet with some chopped onions.
- Cook the ravioli. Drain and add to the skillet after the sausage is fully cooked.
- Drop in several handfuls of washed arugula. Stir everything around until the arugula starts to wilt.
- Add some generous spoonfuls of pesto sauce and toss.
- Serve while warm.

Nothing in this photo is from our box, but it looked so good that I took a picture of it anyway! I tried steaming cod for the first time, laying out some slices of ginger over the fish before steaming it. I mixed together my brother-in-law’s secret sauce (okay, not so secret — a bit of veggie oil, soy sauce, and green onions) and poured it over the top after the fish was done. Awesome over rice; I added a side of basic stir-fried bok choy with a few tablespoons of oyster sauce thrown in at the end.
We still have a lot of stuff from our box:
- Chard
- More arugula
- Red and green lettuce
- Apple
- Green garlic
- Leeks
- Asparagus!!
- Carrots
- Sugar snap peas
- Spinach
- Grapefruit
- Fava beans
Neither Steve nor I like grapefruit, so that may be pawned off on a neighbor or friend (although since it’s in our box, maybe I’ll give it one more try). With the snap peas, carrots, and lettuce, I’m foreseeing some kind of delicious salad in our near future. I’ve never had fava beans, before, either, and am excited to try them!