Now that my husband is home he will help me pick up the veggies, just as he did this past Tuesday. He brought home some beets, something called broccoli greens and the same old leafy greens as before. The beets were much smaller this time but they still looked beautiful. Since then we have been experimenting with many recipes and I am happy to say we have finally found the perfect recipe for leafy greens. Sauteed in a mixture of olive oil, butter, onion, garlic, salt, pepper and a bit of lemon juice and lemon zest we serve it with a plate of Hamburger Rice Skillet. The groundbeef is from the CSA meat of course. The recipe for the Hamburger Rice Skillet can be found at Allrecipes.com. We tweaked it up a bit by cooking regular organic rice in a separate pot. When the rice was done we served it. The hamburger meal was served on top of the rice and the sauteed leafy greens were placed on the side of it all. It was an absolutely wonderful meal to eat and it was so easy to make.
Yesterday, we had Meatball Soup (beef from CSA meet) found at www.makinglifebetter.com with Brussels Sprouts with Mushrooms found at Allrecipes. The mushrooms we used for the Brussels Sprouts with Mushrooms recipe were Shiitake. The Shiitake aren't exactly local, but it did make these local and organically grown Brussels sprouts taste absolutely wonderful. My husband said these were the best Brussels sprouts he had ever had. Was it the recipe or the fact that they are organically grown? Not sure, but it doesn't matter. We found something we liked and we are sticking to it.
This is what I like about being a member of the CSA. It is opening doors to new unique cooking. Sure I wish CSA memberships were less expensive and had more quantity, but at least we are learning to cook, enjoying it and eating healthy, safe and great tasting meals... well when we don't mess something up that is. Sometimes experiment makes for a nasty meal, but sometimes it can make for a wonderful meal. And family time is suddenly filled with talk about eating healthy and topics like experimenting with cilantro vs rosemary or together.
I believe my kids are enjoying it just as much as my husband and I. I am also trying to involve them in the cooking process. Its hard though since they are so small. The good new is that it doesn't take much to impress them. Take beets for example. A few weeks ago I peeled them for a baking recipe. The dish didn't turn out as I hoped, but some of the peels were used to color water to color eggs. We don't even celebrate Easter, but it is fun to color eggs. The rest of the peels were frozen to use later for coloring food or other thing at a later date.
Yesterday, I showed the girls how to make sugar crystals. It's not really cooking, but it does involve food and boiling water with sugar. The crystals are eatable too. Now, I'm not sure if I did the experiment correctly. I think I messed up somewhere. My point is instead of the food dye called for in the recipe I used an tiny little corner of a beet peel to color the water red. It worked. Will the crystals grow? We'll find out in a week. Either way my kids enjoyed working on this eatable science project with me. I only wish I had known how much sugar it was going to require beforehand. It panged me to have to use my not so cheap organic sugar.
Oh I almost forgot to mention the weekend og the 5th of April I made on Organic 3 layered round cake with Arrowhead Mills Organic Vanilla Cake Mix. For icing I made a lemon cream cheese icing. It was wonderful. It was the best cake and icing I have ever made. My sister the wonderful cook of the family loved the cake. I was so proud of myself. I can't believe I impressed my sister. I aksed her to helped me apply the icing to the cake. As she showed me to apply the iceing a smile poured over her face and she went into a tranze of sorts. Suddenly she wasn't teaching me anymore she was quietly and contently applying the icing until I snapper her out of it. I said, "I thought you were showing me". She realized what happend and apologized. I told her not to worry I could tell she really enjoyed this sort of stuff. She agreed. I'm finally begining to understand how she feels.
Do you see the frog in the picture above?
We haven't been experimenting with new foods lately either. Because we are limited on time we're back to some of the same old meals as before. This saddens me a bit. Last CSA came with 3 different types of squash and I would love to try new ways of eating these. I am hoping to have a little extra time this week or next to catch up. 
We haven't been experimenting with new foods lately either. Because we are limited on time we're back to some of the same old meals as before. This saddens me a bit. Last CSA came with 3 different types of squash and I would love to try new ways of eating these. I am hoping to have a little extra time this week or next to catch up. 
