Week 3 Box 3

This week's box contained no major surprises. It was actually a nice sigh of relief after the funeral followed by a wedding weekend The Husband and I had just gone through. The Box Yielded the following:

Kohlrabi!

This is the post you have all been waiting for... Kohlrabi!

When The Husband first brought this monstrosity home with his manic laughter at my general fear, I went straight to The Google Machine and got myself an education. The Google Machine brought me to the ultimate provider of knowledge on the internet, Wikipedia, which informed me of the following:

Kohlrabi (German turnip) (Brassica oleracea Gongylodes group) (Ulkobi in Assamese and Bengali) is a perennial vegetable, and is a low, stout cultivar of cabbage. Kohlrabi can be eaten raw as well as cooked. 

Informative, but not extraordinarily helpful. I didn't really need to know that it came about from genetic selection on the part of farmers who liked the way the fat ugly thing looked. I needed to know what the heck to do with it. Fortunately two items down on The Google list was a New York Times article usefully titled Discovering Kohlrabi (It's a Vegetable). 

In this perfectly helpful  and mildly entertaining article were 5 recipes of varying difficulty: Kohlrabi Home Fries, Kohlrabi Spring Rolls, Kohlrabi Risotto, Kohlrabi Puree and this: A Greek Style Kohlrabi Pie. 

• Me: It's too hot to make and eat risotto
• The Husband: What about home fries?
• Me: It looks way too easy, how about the pie? Kinda looks like Spanakopita, I can handle that. (famous last words, I know) 

So we set to work.

Veggie Burgers?

The Husband and I had a very long week but I knew that if we didn't use the greens TODAY they were going to go bad, and quickly (not to mention that in all likelihood we will be getting MORE greens on Monday). The thing is we had Turnip Greens and Spinach and no real idea of what to do with them. The Google Machine seemed to suggest that the only way to treat greens was to saute them with garlic or bacon or both. Now, don't get me wrong, bacon makes the world go 'round but the idea of eating sauteed greens ALL summer was making me bored already. So I hit the books, literally. I pulled EVERY SINGLE cookbook on my shelf and began to pore through them. I looked up turnip greens, and spinach, and just general greens...the options were barren to say the least.  Joy of Cooking: "saute with garlic," Martha Stewart: "saute with bacon," Mark Bittman.... "veggie burgers."

• The Husband: Veggie Burgers? Ick.
• Me: It's the first recipe that didn't just say "saute"
• The Husband: Still...Ick.
• Me: We're doing it

and I set to work. 

The Recipe called for 2 cups cooked and chopped greens. So I piled all the greens on the board and got to chopping. 

Week 2 Box 2

***Before this post went live, The Husband and I received the sad news that his aunt had passed away. We will be attending the funeral on Thursday but it requires some travel. Unfortunately that means that this week's cooking adventures will have to be put on hold.  Thank you for your support.***

I was at work when I got the call from The Husband that he was picking up The Box.

• Me: Really? What did we get?
• The Husband: Do you really want me to tell you or do you want to be surprised when you get home?
• Me: Tell me.
• The Husband: Are you sure?
• Me: No.... don't tell me. I'll end up frantically researching the remainder of the day and will never get any work done.
• The Husband: See you when you get home.

That last comment sounded way more sinister on the phone then it looks in writing. I spent the remainder of the day worried. VERY worried. And as it turned out, I was right to be concerned. 

This week The Box provided the following recognizable items:

• 1 Tomato (not nearly as beautiful as last weeks but still delicious I am sure)
• 1 bunch of spinach 
• Oregano
• More Garlic Scapes

The Following less-recognizable items:

• Turnip Greens (The Google Machine told me to just add Bacon)
• Tokyo Bekana (which I learned was "great for salads and stir fry)

and THIS:

Adventures in Jam

The second item in this week's box to cause me a mild heart attack was the Rhubarb. The only things I knew about Rhubarb was that it was red, it looked like celery, was technically a veggie, but tasted like a fruit. I also knew that Strawberries were its natural mate. The Husband and I stared at the bunch for a bit when the box first came in and tossed around ideas:

• The Husband: Pie?
• Me: I don't want to make a pie this week. That takes too long.
• The Husband: What did Becky say?
• Me: She said she doesn't really like rhubarb.
• The Husband: That's not very helpful, is it?
• Me: Nope. To The Google Machine?
• The Husband: To The Google Machine.

So I did a Search:

Having never in my entire life made JAM before I decided that this was CLEARLY the best idea. The Husband and I were going to make the jam, jar the Jam and can the Jam. How hard could it be (famous last words, I know)?

After a little more research we found a recipe we felt we could handle, and that didn't require that weird food science product called "pectin." The Husband brought home 6 beautiful Jamming Jars the next day and we set to work.  (Recipe credit goes to Marisa McClellan from Food in Jars  and can be found HERE on Food52.com)

Garlic Scapes!

I had heard of Garlic Scapes before. Mostly on NPR or in the New York Times as this random food item that shows up on fancy NYC restaurant menus and over which the Foodies go all Gaga. The thing is I had never seen them before. So when they showed up in The Box they elicited a lot of confusion. This is the item I had to bite into in order to determine what it was and, as a result, the cause of my indigestion in the morning.

After that not-so-pleasant experience and the formal determination of its genus, species and culinary classification, the next step was to determine how I was going to use them. Once again I took to The Google Machine which informed me they were good in salads and in other culinary applications where a less garlicky flavor might be required. After a half hour of research and some deep probing of my internal culinary desires, which included my desire NOT to slave over the stove in this god - forsaken heat,  I went with BFF Becky's suggestion: Pesto.

To start this task I broke out Tyler (the name for our Food Processor) and, being new to this whole "take pictures as you cook" part of blogging, I promptly forgot to take a picture of the Scapes before I chopped them into little pieces. So here are the Scapes after Tyler did his thing :

Now I think you should know in advance of the remainder of the blog that I am Italian, and, as an Italian, I do not measure when I make pesto. Pesto literally means paste. So when I make pesto I kinda just grind everything up until it looks/tastes right and then serve. However, since The Husband voiced concerns that blog readers may not like a food blog without recipes, I've tried my best to estimate amounts for you after the fact.

Introduction

The Husband and I, being happy go lucky newlyweds who love to cook, decided that we were going to invest in a CSA Farm Box. OK, maybe it was more like I decided I wanted a Farm Box.  I had had the privilege of consuming some of the amazing foods my BFF Becky created from her box the year before, and it looked like fun and simple enough. So when I heard that my MIL's temple had a Farm Share with Catalapa Ridge Farm I made a deal to split a weekly box with my MIL and convinced The Husband that this was a great idea.  In fairness to Former-Me, it seemed like a really good idea at the time.

Anyway, we received our first box last night and as The Husband laid out the contents before me:

• 1 Cucumber recognizable in shape and form, thank heaven
• 1 heirloom tomato, big and fat and glorious
• 1 bunch of red lettuce
• Onions with the greens still attached
• Rosemary
• Rhubarb
• Green Garlic
• Elephant Garlic Scapes

 I had a minor freak out. 

Now, in fairness to this first box, it wasn't much and the first five items I recognized easily enough but the last three items were totally new to me. What the HECK was I going to do???  The Husband MAY have laughed at me as I frantically began searching the net to figure out proper storage of the above items, and chomping into a random items to try and determine what manner of green they were. After exhausting The Google Machine and experiencing the worst garlic breath I've ever had,  I resorted to picking up the phone and calling the one person whose fault this really was: Becky's. 

That conversation went like this:

• Becky: Hello lovely
• Me: This is all your fault
• Becky: What?
• Me: I did something because I was inspired by you and now I have no idea what to do.
• Becky: What?
• Me: I bought a Farm Box and now I have Rhubarb sitting on my kitchen table and some other veg I don't recognize and YOU ... YOU MADE IT LOOK SO EASY.
• Becky: ::Laughter::

It took a bit to calm me down but with promises to provide me with recipes and resources Becky got my panic under control and, to her relief, got me off the phone.

I created this blog to document my adventures with the Farm Box. I'm sure this will be filled with lots of recipes that will most certainly go wrong and some that will go right. Inevitably some items will be deemed inedible by The Husband and others spoil in the fridge forgotten. But hopefully by the end of this year I will no longer panic when the box walks in the door. That is my goal and I'm sticking to it.

Now please excuse me, I have to go do more research on Rhubarb and Garlic Scapes.