It's CSA Time!!!

Can you believe the Harmony Valley Farm CSA season has already been underway long enough to be on Box #3? This City Girl can't! Life is crazy around here these days so I haven't had much time for posting. Suffice it to say using up the box has been MUCH easier than last year now that I have some experience under my belt!

So here's a quick summary of my faves so far this year:

• Frittata - you can use up just about anything in these and they are such a breeze to make! Best of all? The 5 year old even likes 'em! I started out with a Harmony Valley Farm recipe for Nettle Frittata (Yes, nettles! And they were GOOD!) and have expanded my horizons from there. Seriously, almost anything goes good in a Frittata - I have tried seasoned ground chicken sausage, potatoes, greens, and even sauteed radishes! And of course throw in some onions and garlicky stuff to your liking.
  
• Sunchoke Dip - By far one of my fave standby's from last year! Tastes like hummus, and oh so good with some sliced radish chips. This coming from a gal who swore she didn't like radishes, nuh-uh, never, no-how, no-way! Mmmmm.... radish chips indeed....so great for dipping!
  
• Kale Pie - Though it calls for kale, I made this to use up my Yukina Savoy. And boy was it delish! A little bland for my taste at first, but top with some spreadable cheese and you're good to go! I think next time I'll actually make it as a savory breakfast dish for the week. Wait, next time? What am I talking about? We just got more Yukina Savoy in our box this week! I think I know what I'm doing with it already...!
  
• Minty Pea-Vine Pops - Even though someone accused me of trying to be the mom who "hides" vegetables in food to get her kids to eat them, I still love these things. I made them last year, and just had to do it again when we got such a nice large bunch of pea vines again this year. Instead of using peas like the recipe calls for, I steamed the pea vines until tender, then pureed with the cream cheese. And hey, I'm not hiding them! I was perfectly clear when I told my son there were pea vines in there! And he still loves 'em! As did the rest of us!
  
• Ryan's Anything Green Curry - Shared by a fellow Harmony Valley Farm CSA-er this recipe rocks my world! It's going to be one of my tried & true standby's this season, I can tell already! We used up some spinach and other greens this way and once again it was one of those dishes the WHOLE family loved. Can't beat that!

Enjoy!

Radish Parmesan Pizza

Wow. I can't believe it's almost time to pick up a new installment of our veggie share from Harmony Valley Farm (this Thursday!) and we've used up our entire share! Well, except for a tiny bit of spinach that went bad. That really is a tragedy because I've discovered how easy it is to throw spinach into nearly anything! Ah well. More for the compost I guess!

One of my most exciting discoveries since joining a CSA has been that I LIKE RADISHES! Well, cooked radishes that is! I still don't care for them much raw, though I have a suspicion I might like them just fine if they were grated into a salad. I have tried them roasted on the grill, sauteed with butter, onions, and a bit of salt and now for my most recent experiment: Radish Pizza! Sound a little weird? It's not! It was really shockingly good.

Here's what I did.

Radish Parmesan Pizza
Prepare Pizza Dough (see my previous post)

Topping:
a bit of grapeseed oil
2 garlic scapes, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
4-5 small radishes, thinly sliced, for a SMALL pizza (cut up more for a large one!)
1/4 c Thoten or parmesan cheese

Throw the oil & garlic scapes into the skillet. Saute the scapes until they are just beginning to soften. Then add onions, rosemary and radishes. Saute until radishes are just beginning to brown slightly. Spread the mixture on the pizza dough. Top with cheese. You may use more if you like, but I liked using a scant amount of cheese for this one. Cook at 450 degrees 10-15 minutes or until crust is beginning to brown.

I took this pizza to a Fourth of July lunch with some relatives, along with a pesto spinach pizza, basic cheese pizza, and Mango Avocado Lime Salad and I'm happy to say they were all devoured!

Roasted Radish, Kohlrabi, and Potato

Box #3 is here!!! And there are again a few new things for this city girl to try. And I'm lookin' forward to it! This time we got: Red Leaf Lettuce, Kohlrabi, Spinach, French Breakfast Radishes (They're actually CUTE!), Purple Scallions, Garlic Scapes (See the little curly things in the picture?), Yukina Savoy, Asparagus, Rhubarb, Saute Mix, and Basil.
Wow. For the first time I found a way to enjoy radishes! Roasted! It completely removes that bite that I don't care for. And I LOVED the kohlrabi roasted too! We cooked on the grill tonight and I threw together a foil packet with radishes, kohlrabi, a coupla potatoes, purple scallions, and rosemary. Yum! And to top it off, when our son got chastised for not waiting for everyone to sit down before he started eating, he said, "I just can't help it these are so good!" AMAZING!!! And I have to admit they even looked beautiful with all of the colors.

Before:
After:

Pea Shoot Bubble and Squeak

It's official! Tonight I made my favorite recipe by far from these CSA goodies! It came from the biggest recipe collection I have ever seen for pea shoots (or pea vines) at www.peashoots.com where you will even find a recipe for a Peatini! Despite the crazy beverage recipes, this city girl decided to use up her pea shoots by making Pea Shoot Bubble and Squeak. I would happily make this every time we get pea shoots in the future, and will probably be making more traditional versions of Bubble and Squeak (without the pea shoots) as well.

Before making the recipe, I thought I had heard of Bubble and Squeak but was curious what the regular non-pea shoot version was like. Turns out Wikipedia has a great entry on it!

"Bubble and squeak (sometimes just called bubble) is a traditional English dish made with the shallow-fried leftover vegetables from a roast dinner. The chief ingredients are potato and cabbage, but carrots, peas, brussels sprouts, and other vegetables can be added. It is traditionally served with cold meat from the Sunday roast, and pickles. Traditionally, the meat was added to the bubble and squeak itself, although nowadays the vegetarian version is more common. The cold chopped vegetables (and cold chopped meat if used) are fried in a pan together with mashed potato until the mixture is well-cooked and brown on the sides."

And there are similar dishes from many other places, such as Colcannon (Ireland) and Pyttipanna (Sweden) to name just a couple. See the Wikipedia entry for more info!

As of now, the only things I have left from my most recent box are my asparagus, radishes, and three green onions. Everything else from my box is used up! I'm planning on grilling later this week and will make grilled asparagus and roasted radishes along with our burgers and that should do it! In case you wanna try the roasted radishes thing here's a few recipes to give you some ideas...

R is for Roasted Radishes
Roasted Radishes with Soy Glaze and Scallions
Roasted Radishes with Radish Greens

I haven't decided which version I'm gonna make, and since I'd really rather roast 'em on the grill in a foil packet anyway, I'll probably read all three and try my own version. I'll let ya know how it goes! I have high hopes that this might be one way this city girl will actually like those buggers!