Weekend meals

Friday night we went to a make-your-own pizza party. We contributed zucchini, broccoli, sundried tomatoes, and fresh basil, along with some of the basil and garlic scape pesto I made and froze a while ago. Other contributions ranged from local goat-cheese feta to salami to fresh tomatoes to olives. Let me tell you, those were the best pizzas I've had in a while.

Tonight was a glorious day, so we barbecued salmon with zucchini marinated in a balsamic dressing, and the potato-kale-garlic scape packets that Kenneth invented a while ago. Ria discovered that string beans are much tastier and more fun when dipped in dressing, and didn't eat anything else! We still have lots of produce left - better get going before Tuesday arrives. Maybe I'll make zucchini muffins for holiday breakfast tomorrow.

Prima (Seconda?) Verde Pasta

Tonight I made pasta with fresh veggies - not exactly the first garden veggies of the season, so I'm not sure I can call it Prima Verde, but close enough. I could eat pasta like this every day of the year, I think. You'll find it a little watery if you're used to store-bought pasta sauce, but this is what I've been served in Casa Rugatino in Waterloo, Ontario - which is as authentically Italian as you'll get in Canada.

I use a big wok, and toss ingredients in in the order of toughness (ie: garlic scapes and kale stems cook longer; zucchini medium; peas at the last minute). You can use almost any vegetable: cook a little garlic (I used garlic scapes) in a bit of oil, then add vegetables, and at some point in the process add some tomatoes (fresh is best, but canned works fine) and some red wine, salt and pepper, and lots of herbs. Then toss the cooked pasta in the wok, and you're set.

Tonight I used garlic scapes, kale, aubergine (the only thing not Taproot, I think!), zucchini, and freshly shelled peas; oregano and thyme from the garden; and at the last minute stirred in lots of ripped basil.

If you're having trouble using up the box, this is a very adaptable dish that is quick and easy, and uses as many vegetables as you want - and I promise no one will mind eating vegetarian.

-Kathy

pork with yellow beans and rice

Last night Kenneth made a delicious bbq'd pork steak with some of this week's meat share. I think he kept it simple - just some barbecue sauce brushed over - but, having grown up in the era when mothers lived in fear of diseases caused by under-cooked pork, I am always startled that pork can taste succulent and juicy and not completely dried out.

Steamed yellow beans on the side - my grandmother's favourite vegetable, I think, and a hit with Ria too. But the pièce de résistance was the rice: Kenneth mixed in the callaloo leftovers and the rest of the can of coconut milk. It was a little soupy but very very tasty - spicy and creamy and everything good.

Leftover pork sandwiches for lunch today!

-Kathy

zucchini bread

As promised: the Use-Up Zucchini Bread recipe I plan to make later today. You can double the recipe and freeze a loaf if you like.

(This recipe is one I invented after a little experimenting because most recipes I found used at most a cup of zucchini, and many had oil, etc. This is about as healthy as it gets, I think! You can probably use water - or oil - instead of the milk if you want to make the recipe vegan.)

2 c grated zucchini

3/4 c white sugar

1/3 c milk

1 c white flour

1 c whole wheat flour

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/2 t cinnamon

nuts, seeds, etc. if you like

Mix zucchini, sugar and milk. Separately mix the dry ingredients. Combine. Pour into greased loaf-pan. Cook at 350 for an hour (sometimes a little more, depending on how 'wet' your zucchini is) until a toothpick comes clean.

This can also be made with frozen zucchini thawed; the batter is a little wetter but it works out the same.

-Kathy

A week of Taproot

We haven't been very good at posting lately, partly because we were away camping for the weekend. Patricia noted on the blog that some people are finding it hard to use up the whole box, so I'll let you know how we used up last week's box(es) and also suggest some emergency use-up possibilities. There are only the two of us, plus Ria (who can go through apples like you wouldn't believe but probably doesn't make too much of a dent in things), and we get a full-size box, so I think most families should be able to use up the whole box.

Breakfasts:

-strawberries, raspberries

-meat-share homemade sausages

Lunches:

-salads with lettuce, sliced peapods, carrots, balsamic-vinaigrette dressing

-broccoli salad with leftover soba noodle dressing (see below), raisins, cheese

-couscous salad with cranberries, sunflower seeds, and coriander (dressed with sesame oil, wine vinegar, lime juice and a dash of tabasco sauce)

Snacks:

-apples

-whole pea pods

-carrots

-cider

Dinners last week:

-summer vegetable stew with meat-share chicken wings, zucchini, canned tomatoes, olives, and herbs

-tilapia with bbq'd potato fries (in tin foil), couscous, zucchini and eggplant kebabs, and salad

-bbq meat-share chicken wings with potato fries and raw pea-pods

-meat-share hamburgers with cut up raw veggies

-homemade-from-meat-share bbq sausages with lettuce salad

-soba noodle salad with green onions (I've posted the recipe for this previously)

- tilapia (can you tell it's been on sale this week?) pan-fried with a Caribbean-spiced breadcrumb coating, perogies, and callaloo cooked with garlic scapes (we didn't have onion), coconut milk, butter, salt, and dried red chili peppers.

Still left over: zucchini, garlic scapes, potatoes

We've been pretty good about using everything up this year, but there are weeks we don't manage. These were some of the fall-back tricks we used last year:

-wash and chop kale and freeze. Throw into soup in the winter (I hate making soups in the summer, but like having the summer ingredients in the winter). My favourite is Italian Wedding Soup with kale, but I also have a kale tortellini soup which is good. I actually prefer kale this way to on its own

-make zucchini bread and freeze. I have created a use-up-zucchini bread recipe which I'll try to make (and post!) later today, which uses more zucchini than most recipes (and no oil).

-grate and freeze zucchini in 1 cup baggies. This can be then used to make zucchini bread in winter, or in the really really tasty (really really) rolls that are in the Simply in Season cookbook.

-apple sauce. Kenneth can't eat raw apples so many of our apples last year went into sauce; this year Ria and I are making more of a dent in them and we don't have so many leftovers. Applesauce is the easiest thing on the planet to make: peel the apples, chop into chunks, put about half an inch of water in the bottom of the pot, cover, cook on low until the apples are mush (stir occasionally) (this can take 4-5 hours but you really can let it sit on the stove and forget about it, as long as you don't let it get dry), add cinnamon and 1-2 T lemon juice, and either can or freeze.

-slice fruit (apples, peaches, plums) and put in freezer bags; use in crumbles or pies in winter

-chop carrots, celery, beans, peas (though these never last long enough in our house) and store in cup-size portions; throw into soups and stews in the winter. You're supposed to blanch these before freezing but we never do.

-cook turnip and beets and freeze in small portions for your toddler's lunches!

-make pickled carrots, beans and beets (these take a little more time but are worth it). I'll post recipes for these as I make them over the summer.

Hope that helps! I'd love to hear what works and what doesn't for you. Or if you'd like more complete recipes for any of the above, let me know.

-Kathy

Tuna Steaks with potatoes and zucchini

Tonight was a quick meal, but even the quickies taste gourmet with fresh produce.

We barbecued tuna steaks, with Taproot zucchini, potato and fennel on the side. The zucchini I just sliced lengthways, brushed with garlic scape pesto (the stuff I made a few weeks ago then froze in ice-cubes), and grilled over high heat beside the tuna. The potato I fell back on our standby bbq tinfoil packages, thrown on the bbq while I'm getting everything else ready; but I switched it up a little by slicing fennel in with the potato, tossing in a bit of fennel top green stuff, and brushing them with garlic scape pesto.

Box day tomorrow, and we still have two zucchini. Maybe I'll make zucchini bread. I'll post my custom-made Z-bread recipe: designed to use up as much zucchini as possible. Unfortunately it doesn't include kale.

-Kathy

a weekend at Swallow's Nest

Hi folks,

Sorry I haven't been blogging but we spent a lovely weekend with friends at Swallow's Nest at Taproot Farms. Actually, it wasn't even the whole weekend, since we went up there Saturday noon-ish and only stayed one night - but it was a lovely getaway, and felt like a proper holiday.

I've been meaning to put up the saag paneer recipe we made with the spinach last week - and the paneer we made with the milk that has been continually going off, even though the fridge is cold enough to freeze the stuff in the back - but it wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be. So I think I'll hold out for a better version and post that.

At Swallow's Nest we ate steaks from our friends' meat share (not Taproot, although they get the veggie box), along with roasted veggies - mostly Taproot. We contributed a salad, some of which was from our box, but some of which we just wandered out and picked from the farm. You can't get fresher! Kenneth also made rhubarb pie with the last of our rhubarb.

Saturday evening we went to see Beowulf, which is being put on by the "Two planks and a passion" theatre company at Ross Creek farm just a bit past Canning (15 minutes from Swallow's Nest). One of our friends' friends is the stage manager, and her husband looked after Ria, our friends' four-year-old, and his own two-year-old while we watched the show. A brave man - but he said everyone got along fine (with the help of a few Dora dvds and Kenneth's pie). The show was fantastic. I had had my doubts - I am a medievalist by profession, so was leery of any adaptation of Beowulf. But the performance was excellent, and the adaptation stayed far enough away from the actual text - filling in the blanks of what wasn't told, rather than retelling the story more poorly - that it worked. And they even managed some alliterative poetry that was pretty good, even though the show itself is in Modern English. I strongly recommend that you go if you get the chance; and it's in a beautiful outdoor setting that really adds to the atmosphere.

Sunday morning breakfast was fresh local strawberries, bacon, and scrambled eggs made with picked-that-morning garlic scapes, beet greens, and zucchini - not to mention copious bowls of cheerios for the kids (what is it with toddlers and those things?). The rest of the day we spent lazing around, napping (kids and adults!), and wandering around the farm. Swallow's Nest is a beautiful place, huge - we could have been twice the number and wouldn't have noticed - and fully stocked with books, kids' games, and beautiful scenery. You bring your own food but Patricia and Josh say that you can pick whatever produce you like. It was a fantastic weekend.

Hope your summer is going as well as ours!

-Kathy