Cake and Cumin

CSA is back!

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:12:00 -0400

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.

Cooking Disasters

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:08:30 -0400

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.

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Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:57:35 -0400

DC Power Panel

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:17:04 -0500

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...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:38:02 -0500

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

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Sun, 03 Feb 2013 11:29:53 -0500

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Tue, 15 Jan 2013 15:49:20 -0500

Winter CSA, let's call it week 5 and 6

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:07:37 -0500

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

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 16:23:41 -0500

Doughnuts done

Done ones

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:29:52 -0500

Done ones

Literally a doughnut making factory right now

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 12:28:22 -0500

Literally a doughnut making factory right now

Thanksgiving Success!

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 23:04:29 -0500

Tonight, I accomplished a new challenge… I cooked a turkey! And I cooked it well! This year, we couldn’t go away for Thanksgiving and while I usually spend my time on vegetarian cooking, this is the one night a year that the other half eats meat. One night, one kind of meat only… the turkey (okay, it’s really poultry but that’s just details). He also LOVES Thanksgiving so although there were only three of us, we cooked up a storm. Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (both courtesy of the CSA), string beans with almonds, peas, turkey, gravy, stuffing, apple cobbler and homemade pumpkin ice cream (pictures below). Additionally, this Thanksgiving was kosher meaning no butter under the turkey skin and no cream in the potatoes. My fiance was skeptical to say the least. But everything was delicious! Check out the pictures from our dinner.

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Sun, 04 Nov 2012 16:30:43 -0500

CSA Week 25 (Last week for summer CSA)

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 11:22:21 -0500

We are in the CSA weeds! We have so many potatoes and so much produce in our fridge, we don’t even know what to do about it. Fortunately, we’re getting into winter which means soup/stew season for us and potatoes goes in almost everything. So here’s what we got this week… broccoli, cabbage, sweet potatoes, parsley, spinach, red onions, potatoes, bok choy, and komatsuna (yeah, I didn’t know what it was either… still kinda don’t but it’s a green of some sort).

Using this week and previous week’s produce, here’s the plan…

We sauted up the spinach and chard with some red onion and garlic and did some dilly potato hash. I think we’ll do the same with the komatsuna. We also have collards from last week which we’ll simmer (I really need a good collards recipe…).

Tonight we’re going to have some moosewood sweet potato salad which will use the parsley and some sweet potatoes.

I really want to grill the bok choy but we don’t have a grill so we may just saute those as well just a tad until they wilt. And I’m going to steam/saute the cabbage with some onion, garlic, salt, and pepper (it’s really simple and really delicious). I still have a cabbage left so maybe some sort of slaw with the second one but not this week.

And then the red onion, potatoes, beets (from last week), and other root veges will go into a European stew.

That’s all that is planned this week. Can’t wait to see what this new winter CSA brings. (ps- there’s still room in the winter CSA is you’re interested! Pick up is at Smucker Farms on 14th and W: http://www.smuckerfarmsdc.com/?p=484)

CSA Week 24

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:58:05 -0400

We’re nearing the end of our summer CSA but have no fear!!! Smucker Farms of DC is offering a Winter CSA and we can’t wait! So, for the winter, they’ll have hothouse veggies and stuff as well as butter, eggs, and cheese (seriously, I love cheese, I can’t wait for my weekly box to include cheese!!) and I’m pretty curious about if the butter will taste different or not.

Anyway, back onto this week. We have been away the last few weeks so the CSA has gone to my sister who, I am proud to say, did some good cooking including making swiss chard for the first time! She dropped off a few of the things she wasn’t going to cook with on Thursday and we picked up this week’s box yesterday. Here’s what we have… parsley, dill, potatoes, eggplant (4 small ones), heirloom garlic, collard greens, kale, beets, celery, butternut squash, Chinese cabbage, regular cabbage, carrots, hot peppers, broccoli, and salad greens.

Eggplant and celery will go into a tempeh eggplant pot pie. Also, I want to use two of them to try to recreate this dish I had in Israel. It was this amazing pasta with an eggplant tomato garlic simmered sauce. It was amazing.

The collard greens, kale, and broccoli will be sauteed as sides at various points this week. Salad greens will be eaten as… you guessed it… salad.

The heirloom garlic we just use as garlic that goes into pretty much everything.

The chinese cabbage and carrots will be made into a soup (haven’t found an exact recipe yet, but I saw a few interesting ones) probably with parsley.

Not sure yet about the beets, butternut squash, or regular cabbage. If I’m filling ambitious next week I might use either the beets or butternut squash with some goat cheese to make some ravioli. And if the power goes out, I’m going to make an Asian slaw with the cabbage because it will take some time to go bad.

So, that’s the story. Next week is our last summer CSA box and then we’re on to the winter one!!! Now, go batten down the hatches, find a supermarket that still has water, buy some cookies, and prepare for this crazy hurricane.

CSA Weeks 20 and 21

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:50:21 -0400

Oy!! What a crazy couple of weeks! I put in my notice at work, really kicked things up a notch with Neighborsations, AND I’m leaving for Israel on Friday. Things are insane. I have still been cooking (thankfully with the help of my fiancee who is always up for cooking and taking the lead when I’m in crazy-town) but I haven’t had any time to post! So, in the past 2 weeks, here’s what we’ve gotten.

Potatoes, banana peppers, broccoli, kale, green beans, sage, lettuce greens, butternut squash, green bell peppers and hot peppers.

So, here’s what we’ve done… drying the sage and the peppers (well, some of them). Eating the lettuce greens in salad. One of the broccoli and some of the green beans went into a stir fry and the other one was steamed for a yummy side. The kale and rest of the green beans will be sauteed up tomorrow. For the butternut squash, one went into a squash/chard risotto and the other one went into some great lentil dish from Mark Bittman that I seriously can’t remember the name of right now. Today I made corn chowder with some of the green peppers and potatoes.

So, it’s official. I have 5 more work days left until...

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 17:07:53 -0400

So, it’s official. I have 5 more work days left until Neighborsations becomes my full time job. I have about a million emotions that run through my mind every day ranging from completely terrified to so excited that I want to squeal and run around the apartment. This quote kinda nails it.

CSA Week 19

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 12:59:14 -0400

I can’t believe our CSA is coming to a close :-( Fortunately, Smucker Farms is offering a winter CSA that will take us from early November all the way till April and we are excited (and a bit worried we’ll end up with more beets). Additionally, I can’t do much more than report on what we got this week, see, this was a big week. I handed in my notice at work and decided to make Neighborsations a full-time job! I’m very excited about the decision but it also means I’m now giving it everything I’ve got which means work during the day and Neighborsations every evening. Make sure you check it out! Here’s the website, facebook, and twitter. Regardless, here are the items and the plan (kinda):

This week, we got yellow beans, broccoli (a HUGE thing), curly parsley, onions, sweet potatoes, potatoes, tomatoes, and squash. So, also fortunately, most of these things will keep so here’s the plan:

Keep the potatoes and sweet potatoes in a bag under the sink with the rest of the potatoes until we can feed an army or figure out how to start using them. They’ll likely be used a few at a time in soups or tagines.

We love onions! Those will just be used in regular cooking.

The yellow beans will be sauteed… or maybe put in a minestrone soup that I’m making soon.

The broccoli and curly parsley I think I’ll put in some sort of lentil dish I’m hoping to get to mid-week.

The squash and other part of parsley will likely go into a fall risotto next week.

Finally, the tomatoes I still need to make into sauce with last week’s batch.

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Wed, 19 Sep 2012 17:29:14 -0400

CSA Week 18

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:27:32 -0400

First, a Happy New Year and Shana Tova to everyone celebrating the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah is one of my most favorite holidays because the foods you eat are all symbolic and are all delicious! You can check out a list of traditional Sephardic foods here and the family Leek omlette recipe here.

This week, we received onions, hot peppers, banana peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, green peppers, oregano, beets, yellow beans, kale, and carrots. So, here’s the plan…

The tomatoes from this week and last week, I need to find time to make into tomato sauce.

The hot peppers and banana peppers, well, I’m afraid to say I’m not much one for spice so usually my fiance just cuts those up when he wants a little more of a kick to whatever we’ve cooked.

Thank goodness we got onions because I think the CSA onions and garlic are MUCH better than what we get at the supermarket.

The oregano will be dried (so many dried spices! I need to use more spices to I have containers to put the newly dried spices in!

Recently, we have just been sauteing the yellow beans with some olive oil, coriander and sometimes a bit of fresh ginger and they have been delicious! Kale will also just be sauteed with onions and garlic.

The beets I brought home for Rosh Hashanah and they’ll be boiled up as a side.

The potatoes, carrots, and green peppers I honestly don’t have a plan for yet but usually you can through carrots and green peppers into anything and potatoes last long enough for me to ponder what to do with them.