CSA Today! 9-25-14

I apologize for missing last week.  I had a bad case of vertigo that sent me to bed early.

But back at it again!  Had a wonderful delivery today! 

Fresh From the farm: Pack Choi, Tomatoes, Beets, Turnips, peppers, yellow squash, and arugula!

From Wholesale:  Bananas, grapes and a wonderful cabbage! 

I can't wait to make soup! I love to make cabbage soup! OR even recently I tried some corned beef soup... I'm anxious to give it a try in my crock pot!

I love the veggies I've been getting, but I had so many tomatoes that I couldn't use them all up. I've tossed a few into my compost pile, and tons in the freezer!  I'll have a chance to make tomato sauce this winter.  

I'm glad to see some greens come back into season, and get some variety in the box!

I've never used turnips before, I'll have to think of something to do with them.

CSA Today! 9-11-14

So, I'm guilty.  Guilty of being lazy and letting some of my wonderful veggies go bad.  I've had to throw out 2 little boxes full of tomatoes, because I just couldn't get to them fast enough.  I have even more tomatoes in today's delivery though.  I should be able to use these up. I see more freezer tomato paste in the future. 

Not to mention something with bell peppers in it.

Fresh from the Farm: Tomatoes (LOADS of them), green peppers, gourd, banana peppers, fresh dill and some kind of small dark green melon (watermelon?)

From wholesale: some bananas, and apples!

I at least did manage to use up some zucchini this week!  

I also came up with an ingenious way to get rid of excess veggies!  I had a garage sale last week, and was able to get rid of 3 ziploc bags full of potatoes!  So managed to get rid of veggies I couldn't eat and make money off them at the same time!  I believe the buyer was going to make potato salad.  I should have done that with my tomatoes. :)

CSA Today! 9-4-14

Another week, chock full of activities.  And more wonderful veggies.

Fresh From the Farm:  Radishes, potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, green peppers, hot pepper?, corn and beets.

No wholesale: all fresh farm veggies

So all these wonderful veggies, I vow to use them this week. I feel so guilty about last week's veggies.  I let them sit around the house all week and didn't use them.  My tomatoes started to go bad, my cucumbers did go bad (they were sitting in the tomato juices). I should have used them up, but I was busy with beginning school stuff, and prepping for yet another garage sale, and sending out massive amounts of resume/job applications, in addition to kung fu, and cub scouts.  This is the Busy Beaver mom blog for a reason!

So I vow this week/weekend I'll actually use them. First step accomplished. I put them away instead of just sitting them on the counter. :)

Next step will be tomorrow night. I foresee a zucchini radish tomato saute with some rice or quinoa for dinner before cub scouts.

CSA Today! 8-28-14

Another Thursday, another delivery!

Fresh From the Farm:  Carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes :), and purslane.  I'd heard of purslane, but didn't really know what it was.

From wholesale:  Bananas!  

I needed the bananas. They are a staple in my house.  One of my favorite ways to use overripe bananas is to blend them with a couple tablespoons of honey and then freeze it.  Great for a couple of bites of a sweet frozen treat without the extra calories of ice cream.

I've got to freeze all these carrots, but I forsee lots of yummy carrot soup this winter!

Evidently purslane is wonderful for you, full of omega 3 fatty acids, and vitamins.

I'll have to try it out!

CSA Today! 8-21-14

Another wonderful delivery from my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) subscription with Fulton Farms!

A pint of Tomatoes to anyone who can guess how many tomatoes I now have!
Ha Ha Ha.... Anything to use up some of these tomatoes before they go bad.
We've been eating tomatoes with breakfast, lunch and dinner.  It's AWESOME that I have a son who loves to eat tomatoes raw. I also see more tomato sauce in my future. Maybe I need to start experimenting in making ketchup.

under all those veggies are more tomatoes!

Fresh from the farm:
Corn, carrots, beet, squash, green peppers, green beans, dill, tomatoes, potatoes

From Wholesale: Nothing!  My box was totally full of fresh local produce!

I've learned, that with veggies this fresh, they stay fresh longer than most grocery store vegetables.  However, fresh corn is better used sooner than later.  If I wait a week to eat the corn, it dries out ( I leave it out, not in the refrigerator.)  The pregnant squirrel in my yard loves me right now due to the corn I leave out for them!

My favorite way to prepare fresh sweet corn: shuck and clean the corn, then put the ears on a plate or other microwave friendly dish.  Microwave them for 1 minute per ear of corn. I usually only cook 1-2-3 ears at a time.  This leaves them slightly under cooked, so they are still plump and juicy, but piping hot.

I am definitely building up a freezer stash of carrots for carrot soup this winter!

CSA Today! 8-14-14

It's a wonderful thing that my son loves tomatoes! Seriously, he eats them like you would eat an apple.

This week's delivery was full of tomatoes!

Fresh from the farm this week:  4 boxes of tomatoes, some green peppers, corn, a beautiful zucchini, green beans and a watermelon.

From wholesale: bananas and a few apples.

Then of course I just returned from a short trip to North Carolina and visited a fabulous state run farmer's market.  There I acquired, fresh peaches, blueberries, cantaloupe, and figs.

I have no idea what to do with figs..... I've never had them outside of a fig newton.  But they are fascinating little fruits. I foresee a fig recipe in the future.

Foodie Friday: Let's Salsa!

As I posted yesterday I have a plethora of tomatoes and green peppers.  I managed to find some time today to utilize as many veggies as I could.

You can see in the picture just how many tomatoes, peppers and onions there are. (4 boxes of tomatoes)

So here's what I did to make salsa today.

First the easiest way to skin tomatoes..... heat up some water.  It doesn't need to be boiling, just nice and hot.  Simmer the tomatoes for about 1-2 minutes each and remove the tomatoes from the water and into another bowl.
(You can also submerge them in cold water to keep them from cooking in the heat after you've removed them.)

Next, undress the tomatoes.   Sorry, I just had to say that. It was running through my head while peeling the tomatoes, because the skins came off as easy as taking a t shirt off on a hot day.

I used most of the tomatoes for the salsa, but saved a good amount to make spaghetti sauce as well. (Told you I have a lot of tomatoes!)

*  7 cups of chopped tomatoes
*  3 cups of chopped peppers (all mild- just whatever came in my weekly delivery)
*  2 cups of chopped onions
*  10 chopped garlic cloves

All of these chopped as fine as I could.  My technique definitely improved as I continued to chop.

peppers, onions, garlic (before tomatoes)

Place all ingredients in a pot and cook over low to medium heat.  I don't recommend boiling, but just heating up to incorporate all the flavors  and cook the peppers until soft..

I intended to only cook for about 15-20 minutes, but I went and ate dinner.  So it cooked for about 35-40 minutes.... oops. Like I said though, keep it on low-medium heat.  Luckily it wasn't ruined at all.

 Season to taste. I added the following:  (ALL Measurements are approximate - cooking is always an experiment for me :)  )

*  1 teaspoon pepper
*  3 teaspoons salt
*  1 Tablespoon garlic powder
*  1 small habanero pepper, finely chopped
*  1 packet of domino's red peppers ( you know that stuff that comes with pizza that no one uses :)  )

Looks pretty good if I do say so myself.  I have small canning jars that  I plan to put it in and then freeze. (They are freezable) This is because I'm still not confident enough for true canning.  I can't wait to try this out on chips!

This made about 6 cups of salsa, and took me about 2.5 hours to make.  Most of that time was prepping the veggies....