Ready For Some More.

I think I'm already getting addicted to this. This past week I have to admit, I got very jealous of the 1/2 bushel people. We are getting the 1/4 bushel because we didn't want to end up with veggies everywhere going to waste, but at this point I really think I could actually use it all up, or at least preserve it and make use of it later. Not that I don't love my box, it really is quickly becoming a major highlight of every week, but seeing the extras other people get (like those scrumptious looking carrots that started appearing this week) makes me want to up our order. Maybe after a couple of months when we're fully convinced we won't waste anything.

I also think I'm going to end up being a special orders person, possibly every single week. It started with the eggs. I fell in love with the eggs from the very first omelet. So I had to order another dozen on top of my 1/2 dozen. Is there an omelet overeaters anonymous? I mean, there's a group for everything else right? What's really sad is I still went and bought another 2 dozen eggs from the store to use in my baking for other people because I'm greedy and want my awesome eggs all to myself. Well, and to share with my family... if they behave. Of course once I started reading the special orders email and saw they had some of their frozen berries on sale I had to get some blackberries too. And now I am hoarding those. They look delicious, but I feel like I need to make something special with them. The average pancake topping just isn't special enough. Hmmm, maybe a cobbler. Oooh, or a cheesecake topping. Someone help me out here, I want them to shine, throw some recipes my way!

I have a few recipes to share this week since I'm behind in my posts. My youngest was sick for a couple of days, and when she's sick she's the saddest, most pathetic little thing. All she wants to do is snuggle all day (and all night, not sleeping a wink), so we basically munched on cheerios and laid on the couch for a couple of days. But if you're a fan of Carrabba's Chicken Gratella and you were lucky enough to get mint in your box, read on, because I've got a good one for you.

Of course no blog post would be complete without a picture of the newest box, complete with my special orders. Blackberries, green onions, romaine, kale, 1-1/2 dozen eggs, a whole chicken, 1 lb ground beef, scapes, kohlrabi, strawberries, broccoli,and cauliflower. Tada!

Oh! I almost forgot to share my "this is how you know it's farm fresh kale" experience. So I decided to make some kale chips the other day. I was in a bit of a rush since my youngest was asleep and I had no idea how long she'd be out for. I quickly sprayed down my kale and tossed it in the salad spinner. Once it was dryish I started massaging olive oil into it, and felt something kind of squishy and slimy. I pulled out my hand to find a caterpillar desperately trying to get away from his very unexpected olive oil bath. Of course, I immediately screamed and flung my hand, then felt bad and put him outside, hoping I hadn't just killed him. It kind of reminded me of that Saved By the Bell episode with Zack, the oil spill, and the duck Becky. Except I'm hoping the caterpillar lived. Anyway, my point is, from time to time you may find a critter or two in there, but that's how you know it came straight from the farm, and they just want to share in the wholesome goodness! Just really make sure to wash your food, unless baked caterpillars is a delicacy to you.

Until next time!
-Sam

Recipe #1 - Homemade Ranch Dressing
I've made this twice now, but I did use fresh herbs instead of dried, mostly because I had everything I needed growing on my porch. I grabbed lite mayo, fat free sour cream, and left out the chives and subbed plenty of AA green onions in their place. I also used a combination of AA scapes and a couple of large garlic cloves. I threw all the herbs and spices in my mini food processor with half of the sour cream and blended until it made a very wet paste, then stirred that into the mayo and remaining sour cream. Served with AA broccoli, AA cauliflower, and baby carrots. We scraped the bowl clean.

I had to make a double batch the second time because I knew it would be gone too quickly!

 

Recipes #2 & #3 - Roasted Garlic Pasta Salad & Knock-off Carrabba's Chicken Gratella
Having never roasted garlic before, I decided for the first time I would actually try it in the oven instead of the microwave and they did in the recipe, but the concept was pretty much the same. Slice the head of garlic, rub down with olive oil, roast. Other than that I didn't make any changes, though I did use whole grain pasta and part-skim ricotta. Normally I'm not a fan of pasta salad, but I think that has to do with so many of them served cold. Cold pasta just grosses me out. But this one is served warm, and I figured I love garlic and the rest of the ingredients, so we gave it a shot. I actually really liked it, and it was very filling, though I used less tomatoes.
As for the knock-off chicken gratella, I would say it is more inspired, less knock-off. I actually had my Mom bring me the mint since I didn't get any in my box, and I added some red pepper flakes because I remember the restaurant version being a bit spicy, but it was very good. You could easily halve this recipe and have plenty for 3 chicken breasts. I managed to get 3 meals out of the sauce. I actually bet it would be really good on a roasted whole chicken, so I may have to try it again soon!

After roasting the garlic pulls away from the skins, and it rather smushy,

Like my fancy plates, y'all? I'm all about easy cleanup.

Recipe #4 - European-Style Hearth Bread
For anyone interested in homemade bread, I do love King Arthur Flour, all their recipes, and their above and beyond customer service. I had a gift card, so I recently ordered their European-Style Artisan Bread Flour and decided to make this my first loaf. This recipe requires patience and a place dough can rise without little hands trying to grab it since it will be out for a while. If you start it the afternoon before you need it, and work on it in the morning when you wake up, you can get it read to bake pretty close to dinner time. Temperature is your best friend (or worst enemy) with this bread. Make sure your water isn't so cold the yeast doesn't activate, but not warm because you want a long proofing time for your flavor to develop. Also, I want to try this again with their normal AP flour, since the European-Style is noticeably less sweet, though the recipe may totally fail if the flour qualities are too different. Still, it was very good, chewy, with a crisp crust. 

Recipe #5 - Strawberries & Cream Scones 
I have to admit, my scones are not as pretty as the ones pictures on the recipe. But they were still a great way to use up the last of our AA strawberries. In fact, I didn't realize how many had been snacked on until I started making the recipe and realized I didn't have enough to have the sliced strawberries folded in. Since I was sure that would take away from some of the tart and sweetness, I ended up sprinkling just a smidge of powdered sugar on top. If I get more berries soon I definitely want to try these again the proper way, because even without the strawberries folded in, these were all completely gone between dinner and breakfast the next morning. Delicious! 

 

Told you they weren't pretty. But they were good!