Thursday, July 29, 2010

CSA Basket 9


This week's basket contained Kale, Chard, Radishes, Green Beans, Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Winter Squash, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Ambrosia Melon, Valencia Oranges, Carrots, Grapefruit, Avocado, Apricots, Peaches, Pluots and Grapes.

From Martha Rose Shulman's roundup of dishes using summer squash, I made a vat o' Sauteed Summer Squash With Red Pepper and Onion. My independent taste tester gave it high marks. I plan to use the leftovers to make Summer Squash Gratin.

I again used my KitchenAid FVSFGA Fruit/Vegetable Strainer and Food Grinder for Stand Mixers to strain roasted winter squash for baby food. All of this week's peaches, carrots, green beans, and some summer squash are meeting the same fate. I've got to come up with something else to do with the winter squash because I have about a month's worth of it frozen for baby food and if she eats any more she might turn orange due to excess vitamin A.

I made my last pie from the last basket's nectarines, peaches, and pluots. I tried grinding the tapioca with a mortar and pestle to no avail. Other than the spheres of unground tapioca it was fine. Certainly better than the cherry pie. But I'm totally over pie. Instead, I'm going to make a variation of Tomato, Zucchini, and Leek Galette with Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese, which is arguably a rustic vegetable pie, but I'm not arguing.

For those of you who have not already heard me gush about it to no end, I did indeed milk a cow a week ago Tuesday night.
This is Guinevere. She lives at Amy's Farm. My friend Bridget owns 1/14th of her, which means she gets to milk her on Tuesday nights. This sort of system is called a cow share, which can either be a very convoluted way to evade the laws against selling raw milk or a way for someone to have a pet cow without the 24/7 commitment and a farm. I did take my turn milking Guinevere briefly, for which Bridget rewarded me with a half gallon of milk. Having just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver, I am now thoroughly inspired to move on to cheeses that require rennet and possibly canning tomatoes. If you've run out of ideas for what to do with all of your summer squash, they've collected all the recipes from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in one convenient website. I am contemplating their Eggs in a Nest and Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies.

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2 comments:

Rebecca said...

Is the kitchenaid attachment worth it? Can I just use a food processor to puree stuff? I just cooked a ton of beets and was thinking of making some into baby food.

I am reading that book too and just got to the part about cheese. Sounds like it's really easy to make soft cheese. I'll have to look into that now that I have conquered yogurt making. The yogurt is awesome. I've been making vanilla yogurt and it's great to be able to control the amount of sugar that goes into it.

Sarah said...

I find the Kitchenaid attachment totally worth it for baby food because instead of pureeing and then pushing the mush through a sieve, I can just throw big chunks of steamed veg into the attachment and it does the pureeing and the straining in quick one step. Also you can process unlimited quantities as opposed to whatever fits in your food processor (I only have a Cuisinart Jr.). I've also used it to make salsa and spaghetti sauce. Come fall I plan to use it to make applesauce. Also, the attachment I got includes the parts for grinding meat, so if that's something you're into . . .

Just FYI, according to Super Baby Food, babies have to be at least 9 months old before eating cooked beets and 10 months old before eating raw beets. Something about nitrates.

Super Baby Food is also way into making your own yogurt. Somehow I skipped yogurt and went straight to cheese. I definitely have to double back and start making yogurt. The weirdo stuff that commercial yogurt contains is just too much for me when I know it could be so much more simple.