Eating Local

I haven't talked as much about the Harvest Box here as I thought I would. The summer has kind of gotten away from me and I haven't been cooking quite as elaborately as last summer. It may have something to do with now having evening meetings almost every day of the week (whatever happened to the work day ending anyway?).

Tonight it was just me for dinner, but today was also the day we receive this week's box of veggies and I felt maybe at least a little inspired. As I ate my dinner of pesto pasta with oven roasted tomatoes - basil and garlic from our CSA, sungold tomatoes from our garden, and hazelnuts from the farmer's market - I felt lucky and excited to have so much of this food available right in my own backyard. I don't think it will ever be a perfect commitment to eating entirely locally - I love things like coffee and avocados too much - but I think it's great that I can get a lot of my food from right here, either in my own backyard or from the farm over the hill.

I have some photos of our own garden that I want to share, but I actually have another meeting to run to - it never ends!

More to come.

-C

Garden Progress and The Best Potato Salad Ever

It's been two weeks since I last took some photos of our garden progress and now that we finally have some nice weather again I thought I'd share a few more! Things are progressing pretty well except that we seem to have a problem with slugs this year. It's mostly affecting the plants in the covered bed so maybe they like that it's warmer at night. I was reading that they don't like to cross sharp or gritty things, so I'm thinking of lining the edges of the bed with some gravel and egg shells and see how that goes.




The uncovered bed isn't doing quite as well - I'm not sure if it's too cold or if the starts just didn't transplant very well. The peas are having a tough time, but I'm still hoping they'll rebound. Same with the delicata squash plant - and I reeeaaallly hope that one bounces back because I love delicata squash! The fava beans and the carrots and onions are starting to sprout though, so that's exciting!


I need to think of a few more things to plant in the little space that we have left - any suggestions? I also need to start my herb garden but the planter I used last year is currently in use for the radishes and spinach - I think a trip to Bi-Mart is in store for tomorrow.








But now on to the good stuff - potato salad. I've always thought mayonnaise was gross and when I stopped eating eggs it wasn't even an option, so I've never actually had a typical potato salad. Then one time while browsing through Parent's magazine in a doctor's office waiting room I came across a recipe for a different kind of potato salad - one with a vinaigrette dressing and corn and red onions, all things I love.

I think my search to find this recipe on the Parent's magazine website is what lead to the internet assuming that I have children (Have you tried searching for information on yourself? It can be quite entertaining.) Anyway - I finally did find the recipe and after making a few modifications for personal taste ended up with what I think is the best potato salad ever.

Red Potato and Corn Salad
1 lb red potatoes
3 ears of corn
1/2 red onion
1/3 c. olive oil
3 Tbs cider vinegar
1/2 Tbs fresh thyme leaves
2 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped
salt & pepper

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 15 minutes or until tender, drain and set aside to cool.
2. Boil the ears of corn for about 5 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water. Cut the corn off of the cob with a serrated knife into a large bowl.
3. Dice the red onion and add it to the corn.
4. Cut the cooled potatoes into bite size chunks and add it to the corn and onions.
5. Whisk together the oil, vinegar, and herbs - add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss together with your hands - I think this is the most effective way since the potatoes are a little bit delicate.

This salad works with all kinds of potatoes, but red potatoes are classic. I think my favorite are the purple viking potatoes but I can only find those at the farmers market (and hopefully in my garden shortly)!

Harvest Box - Week 1

I am so very excited today. Not only because it is a four day week, and not only because we were technically done with work early to enjoy a beer bust, but because today is the first week of our second year with the Harvest Box from Denison Farms!

This week came with a pretty decent assortment: lettuce, carrots, red potatoes, zucchini, red onion, Walla Walla onion, basil, garlic, and strawberries! I love the local strawberries more than just about anything - the only good part about Jonathan being gone the next two weeks will be that I will get all of the strawberries and not have to share!

Since we've been out of town several of the last few weekends which is when we normally do our grocery shopping we're still a little low on supplies so I'm going the simple route tonight and making Zucchini-Black Bean Quesadillas based on a recipe my friend Sara makes. I had no actual peppers to add but I did have some canned chipotle chillies in adobe sauce in the fridge so I added one of those - the chipotle will be a slightly different twist on what I usually make so I hope it's still just as good!

Update: Zucchini-Black Bean Nachos instead because Jonathan was so eager to get back home and hang out with me that he forgot to stop and get the tortillas. Or at least I will just pretend that's what happened.  :)

More updates soon on our latest trip to Houston to visit Jonathan's sister and her boyfriend and how awesome it was to not be the only vegetarian in the group for a change!!

-C

New Happenings

I've been working on some updates to the blog recently - I have made sections for posting recipes as well as restaurant reviews. So far I've tried to share a lot of the things I cook with you guys, but I don't necessarily post the recipes - I am going to try to get better about that! I also seem to have a lot of opinions about the various restaurants I eat at and I thought those might be fun to share. It will probably take me a little longer to get going on those since there is a total of about four places that I eat at here in Corvallis!

Also new - Spring quarter starts next week and I decided to try to find some classes to take through the local community college for fun. Unfortunately the class I was most excited for - Chocolates, Confections, and Frozen Desserts - was full and I am wait listed... keeping my fingers crossed I can get in, I think it sounds really fun! I also signed up for a Hip-Hop dance class but I won't go into details on that (no need to embarrass myself any more than I already do!). I'm hoping these classes serve multiple purposes - give me something fun to do and new to learn, but maybe also meet some more people in the area. Let me tell you - Corvallis is a bit of a tough town for getting to know anyone!

By the way - it's finally Spring now and that means we're getting close to CSA time! If you have one nearby I highly recommend them. We get ours through a farm just over the hill from us called Denison Farms, but there are several in the area. I love getting a surprise box of vegetables and fruit every week, except that I am a planner so not knowing what I will be able to cook until that afternoon (at least on the pick up day) is tough for me. I get over it though because it's so so worth it! Besides the great produce I think it's kind of cool to be a part of something in the community. If you haven't done one before really think about it - I bet you'll love it too!

Lingering Harvest Box

I haven't been cooking very much lately. I mean, I have been baking and making candies, but I haven't been doing as much cooking cooking. I think partially because we don't have a new box full of produce each week to use up now, and partially because the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is just so chaotic.

We do still have some Harvest Box items hanging around... mostly squash though which should keep for some time so I haven't been rushing to use it. I had been eyeing this recipe in Vegetarian Times for a stew served in an Acorn squash for awhile, but earlier this week I stumbled on a recipe for a sausage and apple stuff squash. Tonight I decided to take that idea and run with it - I combined crimini mushrooms, apple-sage field roast, onions, apples, and hazelnuts with some bread crumbs and filled each half of an acorn squash that had been roasted with a garlic sage butter with the mixture. So, so good.

I also made some caramel last night - I'm really into the candy making right now. I had also never made caramel before, really my experience in candy making prior to this has been making english toffee. I didn't have enough corn syrup for the recipe I was following, but I decided to give it a try anyway (I reeeaally like caramel).

Boiling delicousness

 The caramel making was easier than the fudge making from the other day, but it still took quite a bit of time. I also had to switch pots once it started boiling because it nearly boiled over...  oops!

Caramel!

It turned out pretty good - or at least my coworkers didn't mind eating it all. It's a good thing stuff like this disappears at work so I don't have to keep it at home (otherwise I would definitely eat it all).

One last thing worth mentioning - Pixel's bow tie arrived today. Most.Adorable.Thing.Ever. He will be by far the fanciest dressed at the party this weekend.