2009 Culinarium Week 14

Last weeks share included a variety of heirloom Tomatoes, kabocha squash, Potatoes, Eggplant, Purple Peppers, Watermelon, Corn, Turnip with leaves, Beets with leaves, Little Orange peppers, and #2 carrots.

It’s the long weekend right before school.  Not sure how share pick up will work out, since I’ll be losing extra hours to school.

I also picked up some chanterelle mushrooms later in the week.  I sauteed them with the peppers, carrots, onions, corn, and diced turnips.  It was a quick cook up and reminded me of an old sucatash recipe I had tried years ago.  The watermelon was very sweet, and the squash roasted up like sweet potatoes.  With butter, salt, and pepper, the squash was quite tasty.

2009 Culinarium Week 13

Share items-  red and yellow tomatoes, yellow and red pepper, green tomato, spanish onions, Romanesco Cauliflower, Carrots, Celery, Corn, Mini Watermelon, radishes.  We’ve cut the peppers and tomatoes into some burrito wraps.  The watermelon is also very sweet.  The weather has cooled recently, making for good running weather.  There’s a peach festival this weekend coming up, as well as Taiwanese and Japanese cultural ( at JCCC) fairs.

2009 Culinarium Week 12

Again, another late post.  I’m hoping this doesn’t become chronic, but it might not be much of a choice once school starts up this fall.  But alas the excuse that I’m too busy having fun and relaxing seems like an odd excuse.  So here we are at week 12 with 12 corn, butternut squash, eggplant, purple cabbage, radishes, 4 tomatoes, 4 yellow gherkins, 2 purple peppers, bunch of carrots, box of potatoes, onions, green beans, and orange peppers.

The orange peppers were mixed in with a potato, sweet potato, onion hash/bake.  The tomatoes were put into a vodka sauce, and the gherkins were eaten raw.  I found that slicing them open first increased the flavour intensity of the insides significantly.  The corn were roasted in the husk, and the carrots were roasted for a veggie side.  Haven’t figured out what to do with the rest of the produce yet, but since A took half, less to worry about.

Garlic is Great 2009

Yesterday, F and I went to the Garlic is Great festival up in newmarket.  It was a beautiful day, driving up in air conditioning, because lord knows it was friggen hot.  I felt bad for the vendors, as the parking lot area was like a giant hot stone.  I went to this event two years ago and had been introduced to the wonders of garlic braids.  The garlic had held up till spring, before I ran out.  So this year, I decided to stock up.  I’ve always disliked supermarket garlic that always go bad before I finished using them.

The garlic area was sectioned off, with only a few vendors.  It seemed a lot smaller than before, as the garlic vendors had been integrated into the main market prior.  There was a little stage and Ted Maczka was espousing his love for garlic.  I went into the farmer’s market and couldn’t resist picking up some corn, carrots and tomatos.  Then on my way out I bought a couple of braids from Big Ass Garlic as well as Arran Hill.  It’s nice to see that they’re still around.  some old timers were giving the vendors at Big Ass a difficult time, complaining about the high price of the garlic.  It was funny, because not just a few minutes prior, they had been saying how great garlic was and saying how important it was to eat garlic.  The garlic holds for 10 months in the braid, and sells for ~$8/ lb.  Not sure if that is so expensive.  but everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.  I can’t remember buying anything that could last that long for such a low price.  Anyway.  I had fun remembering the days before school when I had time to go to these local events.  I even stopped at the Clean Food store for some chai spice ice cream.

2009 Culinarium Week 10 and 11

How about two postings for the price of one?  In these recession times, we need all the bargains we can get.  Just saw a commercial for slap chop, a manual food processing product.  What an odd product, where you get variant sized chopped products, mashed together like baby food.  I don’t think it was that appealing.

I can’t believe it’s corn season, always a signal for me that fall is around the corner.  Corn and potatoes went into a chowder, and the beans went into a quiche M made.  I’ve been eating the tomatoes raw with salt and pepper and a bit of chili oil from Spain.  It’s been quite good.  We’re at the half way point in our CSA share, and it’s been a good journey thus far.  As Loblaws recently announced potential price reductions, due to the recession impact, and people being more price sensitive, it will become even more challenging to justify higher priced locally grown food.

Week 10 we got tomatoes, cauliflower, cream corn, green and purple beans, radishes, carrots, potatoes, brocolli, field cucumber and lettuce.

Week 11 Corn, canteloupe, red leaf lettuce, carrots, celery, onions, tomatoes, green beans, green pepper, potatoes, garlic.

2009 Culinarium Week 9

It’s been a super busy week with a paper due end of last week.  And of course exams this week.  But I have hopes to make a triple berry pie with the gooseberries from last week’s share.  Not much time to blog last week’s share.  The field cucumbers were quite refreshing peeled and de-seeded.  Two of the tomatoes were bruised beyond edibility and one of the field cucumbers were moulded.  The brocolli stems, peas, and carrots went into a chicken fried rice.  The beans were sauteed with beet greens as a side for curry fish.

4 Tomatoes – regular and heirloom, Black Kale, Green Cabbage, 3 Field cucumbers, green and purple Beans, Yellow and red potatoes, 3 green Onion bulbs, Carrots, 2 zuchinnis, small unit of peas, and 1 broccolli.

2009 Culinarium Week 8

So last week I was really pressed for time, and so didn’t get much of a chance to comment on the veggies.  The zuchinni flowers were fun to eat.  I just shredded them by hand and topped various pasta dishes and salads.  The zuchinni went into two cakes, sending one home to the parents.  The beans were sauteed with some shrimp, and the potatoes went into a trial stew.  The radishes were sharp and had a good bite.  I like some fresh veggies raw, so I used it in a romaine lettuce salad.  The tomatoes were quite flavourful, though most of it went into a skillet lasagna.  The beet greens and kale were cooked in beef stock, though M thought it was rather bland.

In this week’s box, we received 4 cucumbers, 4 mini zuchinni, green and purple long beans, small carrots, 1 yellow tomato, 2 red tomatoes, 1 broccoli, a small box of peas in shell, green pepper, little gooseberries, potatoes, green onion, romaine lettuce, and purple cabbage.

2009 Culinarium Week 7

So this week’s share included, 3 Zucchini, Romaine lettuce, black Kale, Cabbage, Summer Radish (1 pink and 1 white), 2 Tomatoes, (purple, beige, green) Beans, Peas, yellow Potatoes, bunch of Beets, and handful of Zucchini Flowers

2009 Culinarium Week 6

So from last week’s veggies, we ate most items in a salad.  We did chop some spinach into a pasta sauce which was a really good way to each spinach, without the bitter teeth etching feel.  It helped that we had a tri-carne meat (turkey, pork, and beef) with milk too.  We also small diced root vegetables; kolrahbi, beets, carrots, and potatoes from this week’s share.  That was pretty good and it didn’t take long to cook up with the small dice.  Served it up with crunchy battered tilapia from Bluewater frozen seafoods.

This week’s share included.

2 Zucchinis, Peas, multi coloured flat Beans, 2 Tomato, 2 heads Lettuce, New potatoes, handful of fingerling Carrots, 1 bunch Kale, green onions

The zuchinni had a prickly surface, and the ends were especially thorny.  Decided to make a zuchinni bread since M doesn’t eat zuchinni in any sauteed or grilled format.  It’s like carrot cake, though less oily, spongy textured, and quite yummy.  Another success from America’s test kitchen recipes.

2009 Culinarium Week 5

From last week’s share, I made a shrimp and pea risotto, with radish garnish and grated parm.  Ever since watching an episode of Michael Smith’s Chef at Home, I haven’t found risotto to be as intimidating to make.  I even had a chance to read some emails while I waited for the rice to cook.  He was also the one who inspired me to prepare sauteed beet greens with bacon and onion.  I threw the radish on top since I didn’t know what else to do with them.  I liked the crunch and texture difference but M preferred the dish without.

I also made a diced chicken curry, kohlrabi, and carrots.  I threw in some garlic scapes since I didn’t have any garlic left, as well as some green onions for the finish. It was simplified since I used store bought curry paste, thinned out with a bit of water.  I was going to throw in some coconut milk, but it seemed crazy.  In any case, I didn’t want to overpower the vegetables so I left it out.

When I went in to pick up my food share, K was whipping up some heavy cream and serving up a strawberry rhubarb oatmeal crisp.  It was pretty tasty, and looked fun served in a small cup and soup spoon.

2 Zucchini, Garlic Scapes, Spinach, Peas, green Beans, Strawberries, 3 heads of various Lettuce, 1Tomato, 3 Kohlrabi, 2 Green Onions, 1 Cucumber, 1 small bunch of finger carrots, and an herbs (looked like mint and spearmint)