back to the kitchen/csa week #4

like i said before, there has been a cooking fire of inspiration lit under my butt, and it's back to the kitchen folks. part of it came from cooking a leg of lamb for easter dinner, part of it came from knowing i have a stack of recipes to go through, part of it came from two new books i got,

and part of it came from the fact that, as i looked around the kitchen then other day, i realized that we have a crap load of food in there that needs to be eaten. i feel like i've been stock piling the non perishable items from the csa loot. i would list out what i have in the pantry and freezer, but that would just be obscene and leave you, and me, wondering, "just what have they been eating all these weeks?"

so today i'm changing it all around and making homemade lamb stock. i saved the left over bone from the roasted leg of lamb and tossed it in a stock pot with 2 onions, left over herbs, peppercorns, and some old looking garlic. making stock is such a great way to use up items from the frig that are about to go funky.

then you cover all that goodness with some water, bring to a boil, simmer for 2-3 hours, let it cool, and then strain the liquid into containers. it couldn't be any easier. i don't have any plans right now for the stock, so i'll probably divide it into jars and pop it in the freezer for a later date. perhaps some mushroom risotto cooked in the lamb stock is in the near future.

also in the spirit of eating up what's in the frig, i made potato soup for lunch out of the easter supers leftover mashed potatoes. i sauteed some spring onions in butter till soft, plopped in the mashed potatoes, and then added enough milk to thin it down to a nice silky consistency. seasoned with more slat and pepper to taste, i finished the soup off with the last of the lamb drippings gravy. see the nice little gravy design i tried to make for you. what really makes me laugh is the crass looking fred flintstone presentation of the lamb slices, (let's face it, i totally mangled the last pieces of meat that were really close to the bone) which are more like meat chunks really. but it was still tasty!!!

i also need to update you with last weeks csa loot and 3g project totals.

check it out, tomatoes!!!!!!!

spring csa week #4: $30

tomatoes

spring onions

herb bunch of sage and thyme

fresh kale 

1 pk. bratwurst

1/2 gallon chocolate milk

1 baguette

extra loot purchased at maude's market: $15.44

cashew butter

red cherry jelly

1 lb. package pig jowl bacon

from manzo's italian market: $9.11

house made yogurt x2

loaf of bread

vom fass: $4.00

basil infused olive oil

1 gallon raw milk: $10

total: $69.00

i am so looking forward to tonight's dinner of bacon and tomato sandwiches with homemade lemon thyme ailoi on manzo's italian loaf bread. 

who's enjoying their csa??

i am!!!!!!!!

brown/wild rice flavored with the csa mustard, topped with sauteed csa fresh kale, and csa pig jowl bacon.

weekend breakfast of csa oranges, whole wheat biscuit made from the csa flour, local butter and local milk, and local happy chicken scrambled eggs. 

week #11 CSA and sunflower/pea shoot love

this week's csa from maude's market is pretty darn exciting, cause we got us some ribs baby!!! not to mention the local mustard that i have been eyeballing for weeks now. let me see, ribs, mustard, and left over honey from week #2, that's a recipe for some delicious yummy goodness. now i have never, repeat, never, cooked ribs. but, i'm hoping as long as i go slow and low, i should be fine. truly, the really big decision here is whether or not to go ahead and cook them now in the oven, or wait for warmer weather and a grill. what to do, what to do?? we also got a much needed taste of the sun with some organic oranges and tree ripened grapefruit, along with missouri grown dried black beans, fresh kale, and a choice of lettuce or more pea/sunflower shoots. since i have still yet to replenish my stock of olive oil, for cooking and salad dressing, within the budget of the project, i forwent my share of lettuce for some more pea shoots. cause i love me some shoots!!!

week #11 breakdown

maude's market csa $30.00

1 lb. MO grown dried black beans

nice looking thing of baby back ribs

(from happy pigs that had one bad day)

locally made jar of mustard

pea shoots

3 organic oranges

1 tree ripened grapefruit

fresh kale (which i purchased extra of)

extra kale $1.73

1 dz. happy chicken eggs $4.05

2 extra grapefruit and 4 extra oranges $6.00

wholefoods 

(for the very last time, i hope)

1/2 gallon org. milk $4.00

parking lot

(i'll explain later)

1 gallon raw milk $10.00

total: $56.00

($4.00 going into the project bank)

here are some meals i made recently with the ever lasting sunflower shoots. 

 dried mushroom soup with rice noodles and sunflower shoots.

you know you want some.

sauteed oyster mushrooms and shoots lightly dressed with mustard and honey with scrambled eggs.

p.s. don't worry, i will be posting about "a newbie's attempt at ribs" in the future. so stayed tuned.

it's been a week of quick and easy dinners

over the last week or so, i have been the laziest cook ever. quick and easy was all i wanted to do. take this evening for example. i heated up the frozen black beans from our csa, plopped on a scoop of sour cream, and chowed it down with some tortilla chips. last night i made spaghetti with local amish made egg noodles and doctored up strained tomatoes with local grass fed ground beef sprinkle with kansas city parmesan cheese. see what i mean, easy peasy. here are some other quick fixes.....

leftover spaghetti squash sprinkled with cheese and fresh thyme

pancakes made with missouri grown whole wheat flour, frozen local blueberries brought with me from greenville, with kentucky sorghum.

local amish made egg noodles with a sauce made of local shiitake mushrooms, sour cream, and homemade turkey stock with fresh thyme.

my first little microgreen harvest

last saturday night was radish shoot harvest night.  if my calculations are correct, it took just over two weeks to get a nice little group of edible greens right here in the midst of winter. the only complaint i have at the moment is that there wasn't enough of them. so, for the next go round, i'm gonna find me a bigger container and experiment with different seeds. and for some clarification, i think i might have called these guys sprouts in an earlier post, which is not correct. sprouts come from seeds grown in water. oops. i also read today that these little gems only need 4 hours of sunlight a day. while they went to town in the south window light, i'm gonna try them in the east facing living room window that is shaded just a bit by a currently leafless tree. soon the south facing window space is gonna be taken over by the tomatoes, who are starting to get their true leaves and are in need of their first transplanting. it would be really nice if i could find some rectangular second hand containers that were at least 2 inches deep and fit nicely on the windowsill. then, once i experiment some more with different seeds, i'll start interplanting different varieties of microgreens together that will make for not only tastey, but also, pretty little displays. exciting!!!

just before the harvest.

time to trim the roots and get a wash.

sauteed in a little bit of butter with some left over radishes, topped over spaghetti squash with pasta sauced cooked with a bit of grounded bison, and all covered with a bit of kansas city cheese.

hello little local dinner.

winner, winner, the hubby gets a csa dinner.

after the gorgeous weather we had yesterday, today was nothing but a big ole let down. chilly, slightly rainy, and quite overcast. yuck. there won't be any bike riding today. so, while hanging out for the day at home, i decided to get to cooking with my csa loot. excluding the onions, olive oil, salt, and pepper, all the ingredients came from maude's market. look what i made for the hubby and me......  

butternut squash, shiitake mushroom, and onion galette.

yep, can you believe it, i got a nice big 5 lb. bag of missouri grown flour in last week's csa, which made for a very tasty crust. i served it up with a simple ground bison patty and the last of the csa sunflower sprouts. i used the very, very, tiny last bit of olive oil i had for roasting the butternut squash and onions, but i so wanted something green on the plate. instead of dressing the shouts with a homemade honey mustard vinaigrette like i usually do, i just sauteed them in a small amount of butter and they were super yummy.

not the prettiest presentation, but delicious just the same.