This week marked our first veggie and cheese CSA box of the season!
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Essentially, we pay a local farm directly for a bi-weekly box of their vegetables and once-a-month delivery of cheese. Our CSA is Harmony Valley Farm. A CSA isn’t for everyone, but it is perfect for me. It makes my day and inspires me. We usually know about the day before our box arrives what will be in the box. I love learning about new food and eating in season without having to do any of the gardening work. Plus, everything is organic – even the cheese!
This week’s box included: nettles, ramps, spinach, sorrel, chives, parsnips, watercress, black radishes, sunchokes, sharp cheddar, mozzarella, and garlic brebis.
When we first joined the CSA, I wasn’t familiar with many of the items in the box. Now, there are usually 1-2 items new to me in every box. For example, I had never seen black radishes before now! The outside is jet black and the inside is bright white. Crazy! They have a nice spicy bite to them, too.
Plus, this week, our balcony furniture finally arrived!
We first sat in Loll furniture at the Minnesota State Fair last year. Maybe it is because seating at the state fair is so precious, but we fell in love. Loll makes all their furniture from recycled plastic! Plus, it doesn’t need any maintenance, and we can leave them on the balcony year round. It doesn’t get any better than this! Our balcony is quite small, but we were able to squeeze two adirondack chairs and a small table onto it…barely. 🙂
Tonight, supper became like a twisted reality TV show pilot, which my husband pointed out to me afterwards.
I decided I wanted to make parsnip puree, knowing that it was just a side dish and knowing that I didn’t really have anything to go with it very well. In the process of making the parsnip puree, I dirtied a large soup pot, my Kitchenaid mixer, AND my food processor. When I was finally done, I placed the small bowl of lonely side dish on the table and looked at my kitchen’s destruction. Good to Know: when making a vegetable puree you need to use something with a sharp blade to break up the vegetable fibers, which you usually don’t need when making mashed potatoes…lesson learned…
So, then, I decided to make fried eggs for supper too. I know, they don’t really go with parsnips, but they sounded good, and I needed some protein with my meal. I had planned to cook the eggs since before I started making the parsnip puree. I even pre-heated the pan. When I went to get the eggs, I noticed that we were out of eggs… a bit of a snag.
This is where the twisted reality TV show pilot comes in. Martin’s idea was that you make the person come up with a great meal plan and in the middle of the meal plan, suddenly, the ingredients needed for one of the dishes are not available. What do you do!?
I sat down dejected.
Then, I remembered our cheese… ah ha! We have tortillas! Thus, the quesadilla idea was born!
I topped the cheddar and mozzarella quesadillas with leftover refried beans and salsa. We used whole wheat tortillas, which I didn’t like very much because they were strangely sweet, unlike some other whole wheat tortillas I have tried before.
Now, what would make me really happy is to see the sun for at least two consecutive days…wishful thinking??