first CSA share

Wednesday Zack and I got our first CSA vegetable share from Red Fire Farm:
radishes
turnips
lettuce
chives
cilantro
mesclun
spinach

We've been in salad heaven.

Cherry Apricot jam

Haymarket "farmer's market" fruits that needed some using fast so I just boiled them with sugar to make homemade jam.

Black Bean Soup

This week has been SO stressful. Between senior reviews, signing up for TPP classes (and getting billed), working, applying to day camps for work this summer, getting my school to finally defer my college payments, and studying for the MTEL test(!!!) which is TOMORROW, I've been keeping meals simple.
Last night I made black bean soup--something that I haven't had since my first trip to the Bahamas. It's the best when it's simple: lime juice, rice milk, onion, cayenne pepper, salt & pepper, & thyme.

Creamy Coconut Sauce

Monday night I think I made this because we had extra coconut milk that needed to be used. I heated the coconut milk, added corn starch, cayenne pepper, garlic, soy sauce, salt and pepper and let it thicken. And I poured it on top of stir-fried vegetables and noodles. It was surprisingly really good. Sweet & savory.

Chickpea Patties & Mushroom Gravy

Last night I made chickpea patties. They were made up of one can of mashed chick peas, whole wheat flour, bread crumbs, thyme, shredded carrots, onion, garlic, olive oil, salt & pepper. For the gravy I boiled dried porcini and straw mushrooms for about five minutes then took them out. Then I added cornstarch, salt and pepper and let thicken. Zack made the made the mashed potatoes. And for the frozen vegetables? Well, I hate them, but I always keep some on hand for when we run out of fresh vegetables (like last night).



As for dessert, we cheated. We made No Pudge brownies for the first time (www.nopudge.com). They are really good, fat free, and super easy to make...all you do is add yogurt. I added the remaining yogurt on top with walnuts and my daily dose of flax seeds.

Mung Beans

I'm sprouting mung beans. The first time I did this last year I tried sprouting way too many. These are coming along well. We had them in our peanut noodles the other night.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mung_bean

Peanut sauce & Noodles and Jalapeño Poppers

My brother stayed over the other day and we made homemade jalapeño poppers, peanut sauce and noodles, drank lots of beer, and watched four episodes of Anthony Bourdain "No Reservations".






It was interesting making the poppers because I have never eaten or made homemade ones before. I've always had the frozen ones--yuck. I like knowing what's in my food! They were really good. The only issue we had was that we couldn't touch anything with our hands after handling the peppers or else it would burn for at least 20 minutes!



The peanut sauce contained lemongrass, peanut butter, chili flakes, rice vinegar, soy sauce, raw sugar, ginger, and I forget what else. We added mint, mung beans (that I'm growing), raw broccoli, and peanuts on top of the sauce & noodles. So good and so easy!!