Cake and Cumin

Hi tumblr-world! It’s been a little while. I’m happy to announce that our summer CSA has started and it is amazing! So, here we go again… in between marathon work-sessions to make sure people know Neighborsations is the most amazing new platform to meet and make friends in your neighborhood, I’ll be listing what we got and how we’ll use it.

This week the box was HUGE. We got bibb lettuce, baby greens, red leaf romaine lettuce, another kind of lettuce/spring greens, radishes, asparagus, potatoes, swiss chard, kale, rhubarb, and spring onions.

The radishes were cooked last night… both greens and actual radishes. I love sauteing them in butter with some garlic, salt, and pepper. We threw the kale in there as well because there wasn’t a lot.

All the greens will be eaten in salads, and sandwiches (we had salmon burgers last night).

I have no idea what to do with rhubarb except make a strawberry rhubarb crisp (also what would you do besides that) so that’s what I’ll do.

The chard will be sauteed. Nothing better than the simple olive oil, salt, and pepper for that stuff.

I’m making some pasta on Wednesday with peas, mint, and parmasean, so the asparagus would be perfect in that.

Finally, at least some of the potatoes will go in to a minestrone soup. And the spring onions… geez those are like the ultimate “throw in anything” item. I add it to pasta, veggies, tofu dishes, and pretty much anything that needs a slight kick.

Although recently this blog has been more inspirational quotes and entrepreneurial journey-related things, I promise I am still cooking! The winter CSA (which is coming to an end) has been fantastic. Mostly greens and so instead of turning them into some complex recipes, most of it is chop and saute in olive oil or butter with a little salt and pepper. Serious deliciousness. But this weekend… we hit a disaster.

This past weekend I had set aside time to cook a few Syrian desserts… 1 I’ve made over a dozen times and 2 that were brand new! It was awful! For the first recipe, my dough was just not working. The dough was way too flaky, and every time I added more water, it made it border line too sticky. The goal was to make these beautiful little cheese turnovers, the result were like the ugliest things I’ve ever produced. The second cookie, greybeh, are a traditional sugar/butter cookie shaped in rings (they’re usually made for engagements or weddings). I think this was one of the most infuriating tasks I have ever attempted. The dough was so fragile and light that it practically fell apart in my hands. I made about 10 rings before “pivoting” and deciding to make thumbprint cookies instead. The third food was ka’ik, anise-flavored rings. Thank goodness these came out delicious because if I had spent 7 hours cooking and NOTHING came out, I may have lost it a little bit.

One a side note, last night I made caramel ice cream with homemade hot fudge. The fudge is unbelievable and while it took the ice cream a little longer to freeze for some reason, paired with the hot fudge, it makes me want to eat ice cream all day long.

I’m super excited to be participating in this excellent panel on Tuesday, Feb. 19th with some other amazing ladies. RSVP here if you’re in DC and interested in attending: https://mightybell.com/spaces/14219/posts/61867

I just have to keep looking at this… at least once per day! Should be the prescription for every entrepreneur.

I’ve lost track a little bit on what week we’re at for the CSA. I’ve been cooking a lot (you’ve seen some of the pictures) but not posting about cooking plans, so I’m playing a little catch-up. Last week we got spinach, cabbage, swiss chard, homemade noodles, salad greens, other kinds of salad greens, romanesco (the triangle looking things below, they are like a mix between cauliflower and broccoli), parsley, broccoli, and butter (yup, that log in the front is a huge thing of homemade butter!). This week, we got a bunch of potatoes (only 2 are shown), kale, cut kale (I think), celery, garlic, radishes, spinach, and a jar of pickled beets.

To be honest, the great thing about the winter CSA is that almost everything you just saute up with garlic and olive oil… it’s amazing. So pretty much every time you see a green, that’s what we’ve done.

This past week, we did use the chard and broccoli in a dal with veggies recipe from Mark Bittman which was delicious. The radishes we’ve been sauteing in butter with some garlic, salt and pepper and they turn out really really good. If we have parsley or some sort of herb I’ll usually throw it in there. This upcoming week, I’m thinking of doing a potato, fennel, leek soup with the potatoes and there is a plan to make Cape Cod Turkey (salt cod) which uses potatoes.

As for the cabbage… we now have two still in the fridge so I’ll have to make those sooner rather than later and all I can say for the beets is at least I don’t have to do anything with them… they’re just there whether we eat them or not.

Doughnuts done

Done ones