It is unfortunate that it is only the very end of November and, already, the excitement at the winter CSA box arrival is rapidly starting to pale...I love a good root vegetable as much as the next person but the selection is getting a bit “samey” week to week, and we have gone from regular sized vegetables For many of them to giants of their genus. The potatoes this week are so big that one of them will feed both L. and me, and the other fits into my whole hand like a nice, big rock, and could be used to knock an intruder out, should we happen to have one this week.
I was crestfallen at the sight of the cauliflower that was on the very top when I opened the box this week, and appalled at the head of celery, since I am rapidly falling behind in my use of it and have a head and a half in my remainder pile already. A friend suggested that juicing it would soon take care of my entire supply but the whole point is that I don’t love the taste, and goodness knows, juicing certainly brings that particular flavor to a whole new level. Some of what feels like an entire crop of celery will go towards a salad that I attempted a few weeks ago but need to improve upon and will, and the rest should tone down nicely in a muted Cream of Celery soup. Bonus recipe time! Maybe...
The upside of all of this is that while my body would happily fall face forward into the joys of winter comfort food and good “ole” stodge as the festive season rapidly approaches, it is hard to do so with gay abandon with all these vegetables to get through before next week's box o' roots arrives! Since the holidays are right around the corner though, there will be plenty of time for stodge and delicious calorie dense food quite soon enough. I did indulge by having a socially distanced drink outside with a friend before we all hunker down for the duration, and enjoyed both the treat and the presentation (as shown below.)
For those of you who have been kind enough to reach out and ask, I have two more days to write the 50,000 words needed to complete the NanoWrimo 2020 challenge. As of this exact minute, I am officially at 49,671 (with two chapters left to write after OI hit my word goal) so I think it is fair to say that I have done fairly well at my self-imposed task. Having sat down at my desk on the morning of November 1 with only the droplet of a potential idea in my head, I am quite astonished by the story line and genre of novel that I seem to have written.
But back to food. This Week's CSA box contained:
Herbs: a bunch each of lavender and Italian parsley, a fistful of lemongrass stalks
Greens: a bunch of dinosaur kale, a bunch of collard greens
Alliums: a head of garlic, 2 small white onions, a handful of tiny shallots
Vegetables: 2 honeynut squash, 2 red beets, 2 immense potatoes, a head of celery, a baggie of Fresno peppers, an head of cauliflower, 2 gigantic parsnips, 3 carrots (one with bug eyes which stare at me each time I open the hydrator, as illustrated above), a punnet of Brussels sprouts, a small brown paper bag each of white and brown button mushrooms, and 5 turnips.
Fruit: 3 Fuji apples
Remainders: a head and a half of celery, a winter squash, some rosemary and thyme
So, with the addition of the above remainders and some form of salad greens (and minus most of the celery which has already been removed from the fridge to be made into cream of celery soup) these items will be transformed into:
Sunday “Pantry Roulette”; fridge, freezer, and pantry item dinner]
Beet Salad with Brown Butter Dressing and Walnuts
Soy Ground Pork, Lemongrass Tofu and Steamed Vegetable Buddha Bowl
Monday [Wildcard; a more complex or fiddly dish than usual to test my culinary skills]
L.’s Dad visiting – sushi dinner and tree trimming
Tuesday [Pasta]
Roasted Whole Cauliflower Salad with Tangy Remoulade Dressing
Wednesday [L.'s choice]
Gingered Brussels Sprout Salad
Roasted Carrots, Parsnips, Potatoes, and Shallots
Thursday [Fish]
Mixed Salad
Middle Eastern Spiced Crispy Skinned Steelhead Salmon
Couscous with Steamed Turnips, Preserved Lemon, and Rose
Friday [Veggie-centric]
Green Salad
Grilled Merguez
Butternut Squash Fondue Pie with Pickled Fresno Chilis
Saturday ["Picnic"; something that is easy to assemble and easy to eat in front of a movie]
Baked Ham
Mashed Potato Cakes
Comments