Adventures in CSA 2013: Week 1 Recipes

I'm back to share what we're making with our CSA fruits and vegetables. First up, here's your reminder of what we received this week:

Week One (Vegetables Only)

• Lettuce 
• Mizuna
• Green garlic
• Bok choy 
• Radishes 
• Green kale 
• Spinach 

And now on to the Dishes Made this Week:

Salad of Mizuna and Lettuce (not pictured) with quick-pickled red onion, kalamata olives, feta cheese, and sunflower seeds. It was dressed with oil, vinegar, and crushed fennel seeds.


Chicken Sausage and feta lettuce wraps: After a conversation about stuffed cabbage at the office on Tuesday, I knew I wanted to make more lettuce wraps this year. I think they're a great way to enjoy the crispness and mild flavor of really fresh lettuce. This night, we went super-simple and actually used them as a sort of "hot dog bun" with some chicken and apple sausages (which Dan sliced in half). Feta cheese as topping was a flavorful accompaniment.

I have started compiling a list of other combinations of ingredients for filling that I'd still like to try, so bring on the lettuce!

More Ideas for lettuce wraps
Sweet potato, onion, and carrot
Shrimp, avocado, and tomato
Turkey and guacamole
Bacon, tomato, and onion
Cashew, carrot, corn, rice, and tofu
Mushroom, rice, and black beans


Potato Salad with Grilled Green Garlic: Dan combined two potato salad recipes from the internet, and it turned out really good. Normally, I prefer a mustard-based potato salad, but this one was oil-based without being greasy, and had a fennel flavor that was pleasantly surprising. The green garlic was grilled on our grill pan, and not unlike spring onions. I think I'm coming 'round to warm potato salad.


Pickled Radishes: For this recipe, I turned to the Momofuku cookbook. They didn't discuss radishes, per se, but I mostly followed their formula for quick-pickling liquid. First, I trimmed off the tops and bottoms, then sliced the radishes thinly.  Once I put them in a jar, I mixed up and poured this concoction over the top:

1 cup hot tap water
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
6 T. sugar
2 1/4 tsp. kosher salt

The recipe suggests waiting several days before eating the pickles, but I have a feeling radishes are harder to "overcome" than some vegetables. They're so naturally sharp, after all. On day one (today) these still had a slight radish smell, which didn't mix particularly well with the smell of the brine, but they didn't taste terrible. I'll try them again tomorrow. I think they'll be better.



Kale Salad: Dan's the kale salad pro in our family, but I composed this one myself. I took one head kale (washed, trimmed and sliced into ribbons), 1 lemon (squeezed over the top), a fair amount of kosher salt, "massaged" this with tongs and let it set for a while so the lemon juice could start breaking down the kale leaves. Then we added parmigiano-reggiano cheese, avocado, and sunflower seeds. Dan completed the dish with this dijon honey mustard dressing.



Bok Choy and Spinach Stir Fry: Dan stir-fried the bok choy and spinach with peanuts, ginger, garlic, onion, and fish sauce. This turned out slightly more bitter than is usual, but I'm very forgiving of stir fry. I love this sort of dish to use up items at the end of the week.


Sooooo... that's everything for week one. I think the sausage and feta in lettuce "bun" was my favorite. It's hard to go wrong with sausage, though. That felt like a bit of a cheat. What did you make from seasonal produce (CSA or greenmarket) this week?

p.s. I received the three cotton muslin produce bags I ordered, and I'm already wishing I'd bought more.

Photo Essay: Our Baby Shower (February)

Host: Rachel





Spread: Cheese Fondue with fruit and vegetables, pickles, spice cake. I enjoyed the food so much I didn't get any photos of myself, and very few photos of any of the guests!




Decorations: Tissue paper garland (made by me), flowers and butterflies (made and donated by FEAST organizers).  Flowers.




Activity: Draw a picture for our homemade alphabet book!



Thanks, friends!
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The Green Dragon: Even More Edibles

Pickles. So many pickles.  I bought pickled garlic, and was disappointed to find the brine was sweet.




Peanut brittle.  This stuff was special. 




Peanut-butter filled pretzels.  Subtle in a swell way.



[What is The Green Dragon?] 

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Tequila with a Pickle Chip Chaser

So, I wrote about trying a Pickle Back shot duo (whiskey with a pickle juice chaser) two weeks ago.

Today, I showed up at the second day of my new internship, unopened bag of Herr's Creamy Dill Pickle potato chips in hand, and found a half-full bottle of tequila (sale price $19.99) on the reception desk.

Is the universe trying to tell me something about pickles and alcohol?  I may yet become a boozer.

p.s. Good chips!  Just enough pickle...just enough sour cream.

Birthdays at Bars

Chocolate Bourbon Birthday!

Two charming friends had birthday celebrations over the weekend.  The weather was hot and steamy here in Brooklyn, so I appreciated that both get-togethers took place at bars with outdoor spaces.

James' birthday soiree happened at The Woods.  The bar's outdoor space is large and there's a mighty fine taco truck parked out back.  This worked to my advantage, as a delicious dinner was one of my goals for the evening.  Dan had an asparagus taco and a chicken taco  ($2.50 each).  I had a chicken burrito filled with chicken, rice, corn, verde salsa, and beans ($5).  Nice.

We also enjoyed reading the geopolitical equations someone had written on our table with black marker:



My favorite, not pictured here, said "USA - Australia = Jesus Camp."  While I doubt the scribe of this sentiment really knew what he/she was talking about, I like the idea that she/he was thinking  a good dose of Australian values is the only thing keeping the U.S. from becoming one big Jesus Camp (a fine documentary, by the way).

I wasn't drinking much at the Woods, but I was talked into trying a "pickle back."  This is a shot of whiskey (often Jameson) followed by a shot of pickle brine.  Now, I love pickles and had no problem thinking about drinking the pickle juice.  The whiskey was what worried me.  But I found that once I took the plunge everything was just fine.  The pickle flavor wiped any bitter alcohol away.  I felt refreshed and ready for more.  This could be a dangerous drink for me!



The second birthday gathering I attended this past weekend was Kelly's.  She celebrated with a "day drinking" session at Spuyten Duyvil.  We enjoyed plates of cheese, pickles, and olives from the bar.  I drink a sparklng wine from Juve y Camps and a (non-alcoholic) ginger beer.  But the highlight of that afternoon was snacking on segments of mini chocolate bourbon bundt cakes from The Blue Stove.  They're quite a deal at $3 each, tasting moist and sweet like cake and frosting all swirled into one.

More summer birthdays, please!

If there's a bottom, I haven't hit it.

Yes, I will snack on generic sliced pickles. Actually, this has been a tradition of mine since childhood, when my friends in the neighborhood and I used to sneak into the church basement (my dad was the pastor there) to snitch hamburger slices out of the (not-very-well-stocked) refrigerator in the fellowship hall.

The first one out of the jar still tastes like rebellion.

Pickle Party!

A few weeks ago I babysat my best baby friend for a day. She and I visited a pickle party as part of our frolic. Dan and our friends made a whole slew of fresh produce into pickled produce while I chased the tot around the apartment. The final jars weren't sealed for long-term storage, so we were told we should eat them after a week but before a month went by.

Saturday, Dan and I broke open our jars of pickled cucumbers (including gherkins) and radishes [pickled with garlic and red peppers].

The verdict?

"The pickles are delicious. I say." -- Dan.

"The gherkins [made with dill and shallots] are my favorite." -- Me.




Pardon my baby talk.

In Print | In Process | Snacking with Dan Funderburgh

A week ago, I was able to attend Dan's first public talk and demonstration, In Print | In Process: Dan Funderburgh. The event was held at the Museum of Arts & Design here in NYC, in conjunction with American Craft magazine (there's an article on Dan in the latest issue). I'm biased, but I'm also insightful, and I say he presented with integrity and wit to the overflowing house.





The talk and demonstration were fun (and informative!), but I especially enjoyed our overpriced dinner and drinks at Ace Hotel NY afterward. Friends gathered in the hotel bar and lobby both to congratulate Dan and to celebrate tall-and-talented-drink-of-water Brock's birthday.





The hotel's atmosphere was jovial -- and not, as I'd feared, snooty -- but my grilled cheese and ham sandwich was the shining star. It was splendiferous (of course, at $16, it should have been) -- hot and crunchy and melted cheesy, served with a few incredible cornichons and a fab spicy mustard for dipping. Cheese, pickles, and mustard are three of my favorite things, individually or together.



The only dark spots on the evening?

• Dan's (chicken?) sandwich was a little less exciting than mine (but I liked mine too much to go halvsies).
• The waitress said she couldn't make me a white Russian. (You're a trendy hotel with a kitchen and full bar. You don't have milk or cream back there somewhere?)
• Our sandwiches and drinks came to $80-something. (We were only there an hour or two.)

I wouldn't call those spots too dark, though. They were more like flickers of wrong in the midst of a whole lot of right.

Congratulations again, Dan! I can't wait for my next opportunity to celebrate your accomplishments with terrific food.

Accidental Video of a Disappointing Pickle

Oops. Thought I was taking a still photo at local BBQ joint, Fette Sau.

WHY do they insist on serving these bland garlic pickles? Even the baby dipped hers in BBQ sauce to try to make it more appealing. And WHY won't they serve BBQ chicken and/or better sides (though, to be honest, the potato salad was better than usual this time)? I remain an unhappy camper at the Sau.

Except for those rolls.

Eat No Evil.

While in Pennsylvania, we had the pleasure of an afternoon at Zerns.



Zerns is an auction-house-meets-farmers'-market-meets-food-court-meets-junk-shop-meets-craft-fair-meets-strip-mall-meets-99-cent-store-meets-army-navy-surplus-store-meets-profitable-lost-and-found-meets-arcade.

There is a lot of stuff there of varying quality. But I don't want to say anything bad about my Zerns experience. Those monkeys have the right idea. I just want to mention what I ate there.



Mustard eggs (50 cents each) taste sweet, like mustardy potato salad melted into hard boiled eggs. I would definitely eat more of these. Find them at the Weidner's Deli stand.




(photo by Dan)

Mmmmmmustard egg!



Pepper Turkey Jerky had a honey-sweetness and was neither too hard to chew nor too soft to be considered true jerky. This was also sold by the Weidner's Deli people.



Funnel Cake is a family favorite, and we all shared a plateful. There was so much powdered sugar on this that I had to knock some of it off into the trash. If you've never aspirated powdered sugar, you probably haven't had funnel cake.



At Dietz & Watson, I chose a big, spicy dill pickle. Though each bite was only moderately spicy, the sensation built throughout my eating the pickle into a surprisingly strong, heated finish. I do enjoy a good dill pickle. Nothing evil in my mouth today! Thank you, Zerns.




p.s. We had dinner at Funky Lil' Kitchen in Pottstown. The name? Not my favorite. The food? Quite good! I especially liked the buttery, nutty orzo that came with my crab cakes and the dessert of pot de creme.

A mildly extreme, quietly screamin' dill pickle pre-breakfast snack:

Here's what you call an impulse buy. We were in a bodega getting cash from an ATM when my well-trained eye spotted these Pringles EXTREME Screamin' Dill Pickle Potato Crips. I didn't just want them. I needed them.

I thought it would make for a good weblog entry to eat these with ice cream, as a tribute to all the pregnant ladies out there (even though I don't know anyone who actually ate pickles and ice cream together while pregnant - or who will admit to it, I suppose).

But I ate too much on Friday, so I'm staying away from the ice cream for at least a few more hours.

Twist my arm, why don't you, and ask me what I ate, already! I think "food diaries" are indulgences too often used for obsessive dieting, but I am proud of the champion eating day I had yesterday.

Brunch at 10:30 am (this meal must be begun before noon. Friends, contrary to what people in New York City seem to think, if you are eating a meal between noon and 9 am it cannot be called "brunch." It's all about the timing. A mimosa and home fries does not a brunch make) marked my first meal at Five Leaves. I devoured all but one piece of toast (it came with four!) in the Big Brekkie -- 2 eggs any style (I chose "over easy"), a whopping portion of home fries (perfect crunch and creaminess, as well as nice rosemary flavor, but could have used more "crunchy bits," or fond), rough-hewn toasted bread, and two sides of my choice (avocado and sautéed mushrooms for me). I also had a bite of Dan's Blat sandwich (Bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato) and a fry. Wowie zowie.

I couldn't eat again for hours (except for a few pickle Pringles I just had to try), but managed to stuff myself with a "small" (not that small) popcorn-and-Milk-Duds at the movie theater around 5:30pm (By the way, people, please throw away your trash at the end of the movie. There's no reason to leave bags and cups and napkins and trash all over the seats and floor. It's just rude). I also ate some peanut M&Ms there.

My movie-going compatriots then insisted on BBQ at Georgia's, where I had tasty and inexpensive BBQ wings and a superlative lemonade, a few bites of perfect, tangy potato salad, and several modest spoonfuls of 'Nilla Wafer and banana pudding (which is a dessert I adore).

Then I went home and felt sick. And now I am eating more pickle-y Pringles before breakfast on a rainy Saturday. I have a potluck to look forward to this evening, where I plan to overeat. I have learned nothing.

Oh! You want to know how the Pringles taste? They are sour, yes, and a bit salty, but there is something missing (coincidentally, that's also how I feel about the photo heading this post). The scent does make my mouth water a bit (I think that's the citric acid), and the flavor leaves my tongue tingling. They're not extremely "extreme," but that smell and afterburn do scream dill pickle. The last few crunches of each chip are almost bland, though. What's that about?

UPDATE: it turns out yesterday was National Pickle Day. Talk about serendipitous snacking!

Reach for the stars

Wowza. Spacey Tracy makes a nice pickle.

This jar of Spacey Tracy's Garlicky Dill Pickles (made in Rhinebeck, NY) was part of a thanks-for-cat-sitting gift from Ian and Christa. I am enjoying their bright, sharp flavor; peppercorn and apple (from apple cide vinegar) tang; and ultimate strong, garlicky finish. The spears are crisp and crunchy, too.

I have never been able get my ponytail as high and sassy as it is pictured on Ms. Spacey, but I think I'm spirited enough to deserve this perky pickle. Dare I dream of trying one fried?

Pickle Puss

I've hinted at my affection for cornichons, but I didn't go into it then. I have a deep, abiding love for these little pickles. Just thinking about them makes my mouth water.



A dill, a sweet, a bread-and-butter, or a watermelon rind pickle won't always do it. Some days I need a handful of these tiny, sour, crisp gherkins -- brilliant, intense, and brightly acidic.

No pâté necessary.


p.s. There's also something about food in miniature that appeals to me. Can't you see Hunca Munca in the doll house nibbling on one of these?