Welcome to an unusually chatty weekly menu intro.
This week I was moved to clean my pantry and go through my accumulation of spices. Since I love words and collective nouns (it’s an odd thing to feel strongly about, I know, but there you have it), while I worked, I tried to think of a good name for a large number of spices. The best that I could come up with was “an aroma” of spices. Happy to hear from you if you come up with a better word than mine. And speaking of collective nouns, isn’t it delightful that options for children include a “giggle” of girls and a “blush” of boys?
This surprisingly satisfying task accomplished, I have recouped valuable pantry space, have a proper list of 67 spices (yikes) taped to the pantry door much to the gratification of my slightly OCD self (and eye rolling fodder for L.), and will certainly be taking spices more into account while planning future weekly menus. Anyone have ideas for the use of Burmese pickled tea leaves?
This week I tried out a right-on-trend CSA box of grocery store “misfits” instead of my usual selection of farm veggies. The vegetables were touted as not being as aesthetically pleasing as those that are grocery store “friendly” but pretty on the inside (and the box was less expensive than my regular box).
While I am happy with the variety of items that I received, and have no problem with receiving a circular tennis ball shaped sweet potato along with another one the length of my forearm and shaped like a lightning bolt, I think I will revert back to my farm CSA box next week. I like knowing that my vegetables were grown in Pennsylvania, on an organic farm, by proper farmers. This week’s box doesn’t mention provenance and that concerns me slightly.
And, though I am truly not a Marie Kondo fan, I must add that opening this box did not “spark joy” within me in the way my CSA box usually does. Now, that’s got to be worth the extra seven bucks, right?!
This Week's CSA box contained:
Herbs: a bunch of Italian parsley. a few sprigs of rosemary
Greens: a plastic bag of Mesclun mix
Alliums: three sweet onions
Vegetables: the two Beauregard sweet potatoes mentioned above and 2 regular looking ones, a punnet of red globe radishes, seven parsnips, a head of broccoli, a plastic container of trimmed green beans, ten Yukon gold potatoes
Fruit: four unripe Tommy Atkins mangoes, four Meyer lemons
Sweet potatoes aside, which will probably be turned into a vichyssoise of sorts or steamed for lunch, the contents of this week's box (and some additional veggies for our Shabu Shabu) will be transformed into:
Sunday [“Raid” Meal; fridge, freezer and pantry item dinner]
Monday [Wildcard; a more complex or fiddly dish than usual to test my culinary skills]
Mesclun Salad
Duck Fat Pommes Anna
Green Beans with Lemon
Tuesday [Pasta and friend to dinner]
Green Salad
Baked Ziti
Wednesday [L.'s choice of an item I have made in the past]
Salad of Salt Roasted Parsnips with Sesame Dressing
Individual Beef Pot Pies
Thursday [Fish]
Mixed Salad
Grilled Swordfish Steaks with Meyer Lemon and Herb Sauce
Steamed Broccoli
Friday [Vegetarian]
Vegetable and Soldier Bean Chili
Easy Grilled Flatbreads
Saturday ["Picnic" Dinner; something that is easy to assemble and easy to eat in front of a movie]
“Spring Roll” Bowls with Pork Meatballs
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