CSA Day 8: Broccoli “taco”

Yesterday was one of those “eat everything we have in the fridge before leaving for the weekend” days. In the fridge: Half a cup of leftover steamed broccoli from our produce box. Also, fixings for salad, but I wasn’t in a salad mood. I scrounged a soft corn tortilla leftover from our Tuesday church small group potluck, spread some cream cheese on top, warmed it in the toaster oven, and dumped the rest of the broccoli on top. I suppose it’s sort of like a veggie wrap, but the tortilla was too small to wrap up so I ate it more like a taco!

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m ridiculously proud of myself when I think up ways to combine leftovers. I give myself extra mental points when it’s an easy, uncomplicated solution as well.

CSA Day 3: Spinach, salad, and salmon

Day 2 passed with more mandarin oranges and the last Pink Lady apple. Saturday night, I made a late dinner with more goodies from our Eatwell Farm box.

First, I spent half an hour rinsing off the polar bear spinach. Here’s a close-up picture of what I was working with:

I found it best to tear off the leaves and rinse them under running water one at a time, gently brushing off the dirt with my fingers so as not to bruise the leaves. Not very water-conservation-y of me, but simply rinsing in a bowl wasn’t doing much! Then, I scrubbed the stem bases with a vegetable brush under running water. (I like cooking the stems, too; I like the way they squeak in my teeth.)

When the spinach was finally clean, I lined the toaster oven pan with foil and greased it with olive oil. I sprinkled salt and squeezed some lemon juice over a wild salmon fillet, laid a few sprigs of dill on top (from the freezer), and cut a few slices of lemon to lay on top. I stuck it in the toaster oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

While the salmon was baking, I washed off a few leaves of the romaine lettuce from our produce box. The lettuce had a lot of dirt on it as well but it came off much easier. I had just gotten some mushrooms and oranges from the Farmer’s Market that morning, so those got sliced into the salad along with some leftover red onion. I mixed together a quick dressing of olive oil, orange juice (from the end pieces of the orange), salt, pepper, and sugar to drizzle over the top.

With the salad ready, I mixed up some softened butter with minced garlic and spread it generously on two slices of french bread from a local bakery.

The salmon was nearly done so I started cooking the spinach. In a non-stick pan, I melted a generous chunk of butter, then added the spinach stems and let them cook down just slightly. I added minced garlic and the rest of the spinach and salted it lightly, then let it all cook down while I pulled out the salmon and quickly broiled the garlic bread.

Did the food taste better because we knew we were supporting local farmers, weren’t eating any pesticides, were getting more vitamins and antioxidants and other good stuff than with conventional produce, and had painstakingly washed the spinach with love? I’m not sure, but we both had very happy tummies at the end of the night…

CSA Day 1: Free-range egg omelet and delicious fruit

Yesterday morning I eagerly cracked open our first free-range egg from Eatwell Farm. The chickens on Eatwell Farm are pasture-raised, which means that they can graze freely on bugs and run around happily.

I’d read that free-range eggs are supposed to be more brightly colored and have more nutrients than conventional eggs. So I have to admit that I was a little disappointed when I cracked the egg open and compared it with a conventional egg. Can you tell which is which?

Although I did notice that the free range egg shell was much harder, I didn’t notice a difference in color or taste (disclaimer: I’m continuously stuffy from pregnancy sinuses, so my taste tests may not be the most accurate!). (The conventional egg is on the left, if you were curious.) But I will continue to hopefully crack open the other eggs and see how the others look!

Anyway, I used my egg to make an omelet… First, I sauteed leftover mushrooms and onions that we had in the fridge with a small bit of butter:

Setting those aside, I regreased the skillet with more butter and poured in the egg. After letting the first side settle, I flipped the omelet carefully and then added the mushrooms and onions, along with some olives, green onions, and shredded pepper jack cheese:

When the cheese was almost all melted, I carefully folded over one side and let it cook a little bit more. Delicious!

I sent one of the Pink Lady apples with Steve to work and had one myself later in the day for a snack. It was deliciously chilled, crisp, and flavorful — one of the best apples I’ve had in a while! The apple just had one tiny bruised spot that I cut out.

After Steve got off work, we snacked on Satsuma mandarin oranges, also chilled, which were extremely easy to peel and very sweet.