Week #8 tops the charts

Here's to Matt, the young cashier at Hen House located at 6900 W. 135th Street in Overland Park! It was time for me to pick up Week #8 and as soon as I approached the checkout stations, he said with a smile "Let me go get your CSA stuff." Wow, what service!

I knew what I would be receiving for Week #8 and when he came back with only one bag I began to wonder how he fit all the goods plus an entire watermelon in only one bag. Hmmm... 

3 lbs of peaches - check
1 lb ground bison - check
1 dozen eggs - check
1 loaf of Whole Wheat Bread - check

Where's the watermelon and bell peppers? Matt to the rescue! Not only did he bring back the missing items, but I even was given an extra dozen eggs for the trouble. 


Hen House CSA Week #8

Knowing that I had onion and potatoes from Week #7 and 3 ready-to-eat bell peppers this week, I found an AWESOME stuffed bell pepper recipe. I made some slight variations to the recipe like substituting bison for beef and only using 16 oz. verses the called for 24 oz.  I sautéed the onions in olive oil before cooking the meat, and I add the salt, pepper, and a mad dash of cayenne pepper to the meat while it was cooking instead of afterward.

I left the skins on the golden Yukon potatoes and made creamy mashed potatoes as the side dish, seasoned with a dash of salt and pepper.   

Voilà! Dinner is served!

This meal was savory and delectable.  Dave even called it 'baller' which is saying a lot because that terms is used for only the creme dela creme.

What's next...figuring out what to do with 2 dozen eggs!

Cheers,
Sarah

Week #7 ends with a recipe I didn't screw up

I signed up for the CSA Wednesday 5-7pm pick-up at my local Hen House grocery store, however I never make because I take a class that gets out at 7pm on the nose.  And trying to rush there between work and my class often means the food is partially cooked in the backseat of my car before getting home. Week #6 I was running even more late than normal and so I called Hen House.  To my delight, I was informed they were willing to pack my CSA items and let me pick it up after my class, and willing to do that every week going forward.  How awesome is that?!?  Since they are expecting me around 7:15pm, I feel like I get the ROYAL treatment when I actually get to the store. By the time I picked up Week #8 (my 3rd after class pick-up) the cashier (Matt) knows me by name. More on Matt to follow...

CSA Hen House Week #7

So why is this important? Week #7 came with 2 items (acorn squash and Swiss chard) I had never cooked before, and when I mentioned this at the checkout counter at Hen House they found me a Swiss Chard recipe to take home and try, courtesy of Simple Recipes.  Turns out, I really like Swiss chard!  Every recipe I found for acorn squash required brown sugar, which I had none so the end result was rather bland, but easy to grill with the medallion filets we ate.

Roughly chopped, fresh Swiss chard 

Swiss Chard Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 large bunch of fresh Swiss chard
• 1 small clove garlic, sliced
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp water
• Pinch of dried crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon butter
• Salt

Method

1 Rinse out the Swiss chard leaves thoroughly. Remove the toughest third of the stalk and discard. Roughly chop the leaves into inch-wide strips.
2 Heat a saucepan on a medium heat setting, add olive oil, a few small slices of garlic and the crushed red pepper. Sauté for about a minute. Add the chopped Swiss chard leaves. Cover. Check after about 5 minutes. If it looks dry, add a couple tablespoons of water. Flip the leaves over in the pan, so that what was on the bottom, is now on the top. Cover again. Check for doneness after another 5 minutes (remove a piece and taste it). Add salt to taste, and a small amount of butter. Remove the Swiss chard to a serving dish.

 

Almost ready to eat!

 

I added more crushed red pepper than a pinch.  I guess that's the New Mexican in me.  Once prepared, dinner was served.

(blurry photo didn't reduce scrumptiousness of meal)

Coming soon, using the potatoes and onions from Week #7 in combination of Week #8 to create my best CSA dinner yet.

Cheers,
Sarah

      

Camping Essentials

How to make good use of the CSA variety?  Go camping with friends in Missouri (#downthebigpiney)!

Combining Week #6 and Week #7 we were set to enjoy beef hotdogs  with hot n' spicy pickles from Good Natured Farms and a deliciously juicy cantaloupe. Yummy!

Freshly diced cantaloupe makes breakfast better!

Cheers!
Sarah

Kate's Week 8! Potatoes & Peaches

 Here's our week 9 bag just a wee bit late. As you can see we've got lots of onion and potatoes with an acorn squash thrown in there, so what'd we make? A veggie saute with a bunch of different stuff included. It was delicious as side dishes to our black bean burgers.

Potatoes are one of my all-time favorite veggies, so I'll probably be eating them in a multitude of ways. I'm really looking forward to some mashed potatoes. So simple, but so tasty too. 

We finished off the night with a peach crisp of sorts. It was made with oatmeal and agave syrup instead of sugar, so tasted a bit different, but man, once those peaches get baked, they sure are good. Nice and juicy.

I have a feeling I'll be eating more of it with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top. 

-Kate

Kate's Week 7

This week's bag looks a little smaller than normal, but that's because we swapped out the bison for extra peaches & eggs. What does this mean? It means there are peaches ALL OVER THE PLACE! That's definitely not a bad thing though, because there is nothing quite like fresh peaches. 

Of course everyone think of making peach pie when peaches are in season, but there are all kinds of good things one can make with peaches. I was looking at the Bader Peach website (http://www.baderpeaches.com/recipes.php) and saw a recipe for Crockpot Peach Dump Cake & Deep Fried Peaches. Two forms of cooking peaches I have never even thought of, but with all the peaches we have, we might have to start experimenting. I'll keep you posted how it goes.

As far as those eggs go, there's nothing quite like them. Did you know there is a little "tweet" from the chickens in each carton of eggs? 

This week's says:

"Good morning! The last few days turned out to be a lot more sunny after we had around 6 inches rainfall. Yesterday we were just able to attack some weeks in our organic corn & soybean fields before it rained again! The chickens run outdoors when it is not raining. Our three children enjoy watching them & so does our dog. We made a big batch of strawberry jam yest. - our favorite! See ya later!"

- Kate

Creativity, no. Deliciousness, yes!

CSA Week #6

Week 6 came with more items that I am familiar with, and buy on a regular basis...phew.  I am quickly learning that Farm To Market is spoiling me because their bread is superior to anything I normally buy.  I make a sandwich for lunch almost everyday, and for the last 6 weeks those sandwiches could consist of 2 slices of bread and I'd be one happy girl.

Simply Delicious!

With familiarity comes staple cooking.  I didn't have to get fancy or look up a recipe online.  I simply seasoned the sirloin steak from Week 4 with garlic salt, black pepper, and a little Lawry's seasoning and broiled it in the oven.  For perfection, I should've used a tenderizing hammer on the meat before broiling it because it wasn't as tender as it would've been on the grill.  Add a spinach salad dressed with Week 6 tomatoes and cucumbers, and voilà dinner is served!     

Lesson of the week: you don't have to be Julia Child to eat delicious food.  You might just need to buy better quality products.

Cheers!
Sarah

Veggie Fajitas

This week we decided to chop up the zucchini & onion from the CSA and throw it in a skillet to make veggie tacos. I mean what's better than locally-grown veggies as the center of the meal? No meat in this concoction, but we did add in some black beans & peppers. It was spiced up with cumin and ready to go.

I shredded up the colby cheese from the CSA, then chopped up the CSA-provided napa cabbage and tomatoes as garnish. Also grabbed an avocado from the store, as it is one of my favorite components to fajitas. Couldn't forget the salsa to top it all off! 

Threw some refried beans on the side and the meal was complete. Pretty simple, extremely tasty & a great use of lots of veggies.  

-Kate

Kate's Week 5 & 6!

I'm behind on posting, but also because I'm behind on cooking. Here's what our week 5 looked like:

Hot dog! We grilled those up on the 4th of July. 

We still haven't figured out what to do with the pickling cucumbers yet. The obvious answer would be to, well, make pickles, but we're not real sure how to do that, so they might go on salads instead. 

Week 6 looked a little something like this. 

So there's a theme here. Hen House really wants us to eat blueberries. Good thing we make green smoothies every morning with the little guys. I even talked Dave into trying smoothies to use up all of his blueberries.

I'm super pumped about more cheese, because, well, I love it. We haven't had the colby yet, so even better.

The cabbage and onions are a switch up from the previous weeks, so we'll find something delectable to do with them. Seems like there might be some cabbage rolls in the near future?

I'll keep you updated.
-Kate

Week 4...and we cooked!

Week 4 brought some AWESOME! 

 

Week 4 CSA

When you get Farm Fresh sirloin meat, I think it's best to make something where the meat is takes the center stage. What better than Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches! Dave sliced up the onions, yellow bell pepper and jalapenos and sautéed them in a chipotle olive oil.  Then added the Farm Fresh meat to get deliciousness.  Top it off with chipotle white cheddar cheese and BAM.  Add thyme and rosemary home fries and it's dinner time. 

Dave's soon to be famous Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich

I couldn't let Dave take all the credit this week, so it was time to put my thinking cap on and come up with a plan.  As I was prepping for our weekend float trip, I began to envision a weekend outdoors: fire pit, the sweet smell of nature, camping under the stars, burgers, brats, and COLESLAW! It just so happened that I had an entire cabbage and cucumber from CSA in the fridge.

Paula Dean's The Lady's Coleslaw (sub cuc for gr. onion)

In recent weeks, Ms. Paula Dean has taken some heat for inappropriate language, but being from the south one can't deny the woman can cook.  I went with The Lady's Coleslaw, substituting cucumber for the called for green onions because that's what my CSA bag had.  The end result enough coleslaw to feed half the campsite!

Would I make this recipe again? Yes, but next time I'd use 1/2 the called for sugar...it wasn't as tangy as I like my coleslaw to be.

I'm taking Week 5 CSA off because of July 4th, but I'm excited what Week 6 will bring.

Stay hungry!
Sarah